Thursday, February 24, 2005

Broad Outlines.

Thursday. 24th Feb.2005. Orgiva.

Bismi'llah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim, In the name of Allah,Almighty All-Merciful.For the sake of Muhammad,salallahu alayhi wa salem and for the sake of Sheikh Muhammad Nazim al Qubrusi al Haqqani,may Allah preserve his secret...and all the Naqshbandi Sheikhs and all other real sufi sheikhs especially including Sheikh al Akbar,Sheikh Muhammad ibn al Arabi originally from the blessed region of Murcia here in Spain and Imam al Ghazali, that intellectual and spiritual giant, straddling the exoteric and esoteric worlds of Islam, and also Jalaludin Rumi the famous and inspiring ecstatic poet who lived and died in Konya (may Allah bless and sanctify his holy tomb) ... For all their sakes bless us and keep us in the safety of Islam.
I pray that I may write something of some use to a general and non-muslim public,and perhaps to some (especially non-sufi) muslims.

These are the last times,there is no doubt about that in my,and many people's,minds.Everywhere one looks there are signs...on a human and on a geological, climatic and planetary level.
Society has never been more upside down than at this time.It is the fulfilment of the famous hadith which indicated this when the Prophet SAWS,said "There will come a time when the sons of the barefoot shepherds will compete with each other in the construction of tall buildings." (Or words to that effect.)
We can see the manifestation of that all around us especially noticeable here in Andalucia in southern Spain.What does it mean? It means that the social order has been so turned upside down that that in one generation a family may go from being uneducated ignorant and poor to being wealthy and economically powerful.This is a result of the emphasis of political systems and especially the more left wing,socialist and democratic ones,on trying to solve man's dilemma and existencial problems and sufferings by material means and through material well-being.
It is an ignorant and short sighted view of the human being moving away from the traditional view of man as an eternal soul in a temporary body with meaning and happiness provided by good and moral actions and family values upheld from the top to the bottom of an ordered and heirarchical society where those with more power had more responsibility to those with less not only in this life but before their Lord,towards a view of him as a highly intelligent animal(descended from apes!) who should do his best to get as much enjoyment and comfort out of his short seventy to eighty year life span as possible and whose governments are only responsible for this and whose institutions permit all kinds of immorality as long as the participating parties are getting as much enjoyment and comfort as possible out of their actions with complete disregard to traditional moral values and responsibilities. For example,contraception and abortion as well as all kinds of sexual behaviours including fornication and homosexuality.
Other signs around us are the climatic changes,(right now Spain is in the grip of a terrible bout of snow and ice covering the whole country in a way rarely seen before) seen all around the globe ... especially alarming being the melting of the polar ice caps and the destruction of the ozone layer and the greenhouse effect.
Basically man seems to be destroying himself socially,morally and physically as well as environmentally but unable to stop this mad vertiginous flight towards the edge of self destruction and all in the name of progress!
It would seem that the very earth itself is complaining .. or Allah is showing signs of his displeasure ... because there are now .. added to the death and destruction caused by terrorism and the Bush administration's reaction to it .. many geological disasters as witness the terrible Tsunami and various earth tremors earth quakes landslips floods and torrential downpours destroying lives and buildings .. whole towns and economies on a vast scale.
What can be an answer?.. It also seems inevitable now that a third world war of a nuclear nature can not be too far off. Already we are seeing a cooling off of relations between The United States and Russia while China is quickly gearing up economically and either has or soon will have nuclear capabilities.
What does Sheikh Nazim (my teacher and the only one I know who has been addressing these problems for years) say about all this?
Basically two or three general things. One,that a nuclear war is inevitable,that the world splits into two parts corresponding in general to the believers and the non-believers.Two that the nuclear holocaust will affect the whole world and that there is no escape except spiritually,apart from the land of 'Shams'(the area surrounding Damascus as far as the eye can see.) and three that there is a spiritually immensely powerful figure that appears at the end of time known as al Mahdi (who the Prophet SAWS said is from his family) that Isa, alayhi salam, (Jesus) comes back to earth and together with al Mahdi fights the dajaal (anti-christ) and after defeating him ushers in a new age of spirituality and peace until eventually at a later date (often said to be eighty years) man forgets God again and so the universe is "folded up".
Some of you reading this may think it sounds crazy .. but I believe it.

Fears? Death and destruction on a global level,punishment in the after-life for misbehaviour in this one. Hopes? Forgiveness of Allah,belief worship and good behaviour ,saviours Mahdi and Jesus, shelter in the area of Sham.
More later insha'llah.

Wednesday, February 23, 2005

Back to basics.

Bismi'llah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim...for the sake of Prophet Muhammad saws and Sheikh Nazim may Allah protect his secret.

Love is the flame which, when it blazes,consumes everything other than the Beloved.The lover wields the sword of Nothingness in order to dispatch all but God:consider what remains after Nothing.There remains but God: all the rest is gone.Praise to you, O mighty Love, destroyer of all other "gods."-Mathnawi [V, 588-590]
From Jewels of Remembrance, by Rumi, selected and translated by Camille and Kabir Helminski, © 1996. By arrangement with Shambhala Publications, Inc., Boston, www.shambhala.com.

Enough said? Maybe.
I asked myself today,why write? I suppose if it is only a sick man vomiting out his unhappiness and disorientation,then maybe there is little sense ... only a cry for help ..but if help has come and the man is now well,maybe his words can help others who also may be a little lost or unwell.
There is no doubt that the world is full of unwell people and I don't just mean physically sick.The society in which we live (I think it must be acknowledged by any sane rational person) is sick.It is out of balance.There is too much emphasis on materialism,which in some way is still seen as an answer to the problems instead of the cause of them,and there is too little restriction morally,which in some way is seen as the means to freedom instead of the means to slavery which it really is.
More to come,insha'llah.These are just introductory remarks to give the thing direction and shape.

Wednesday, February 16, 2005

Bismi'llah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim...for the sake of Prophet Muhammad saws and Sheikh Nazim may Allah protect his secret.

Hmmm ... fiddling about .. changing bits and pieces,setting the date and stuff like that.Setting the header for the whole thing ( a bit 'lumpy' or verbose perhaps ..anyway ..tries to express general framework).
Yes .. yes , yes. Hmm ..
Writing,the very act of writing .. communication.Weakness?..Energy loss? Like talking too much perhaps?
Had a quick look at "lightofeminence " is it? ..anyway what used to be "Sufism and Me." .. such good quotes ..Wonder if he was alright after the Tsunami?..At least it seems that Singapore is protected by Indonesia from immediate sea damage.How strange that in one of the posts from 2004(I didn't see any from '05 .. maybe he's too busy now with his new house .. I hope he is alright ..I think I will write to him.) he says that they never get earthquakes or hurricanes or anything like that!
I like his Blog .. sincere ..he's together enough to write fairly interestingly about his day to day life and his thoughts and feelings about sufi Islam. Nice to see not only quotes from abdl Qadr Gilani and Rumi but also ...(wait for it) SheikhNazim al Haqqani. .. (Hey,he's still my Sheikh.)
I was looking at photos of him on the internet today again..A collection of 299 .. somehow came to me through "The-Heart" I think ..someone called Kemal ..must be one of the Turkish brothers living in London I suppose.
Oh my little heart! How I love him still after all these years.How long since I haven't visited him?Four years perhaps .. at least that's what Bilquis says.
Time for supper now ... chatty style for now .. may do some translations for a magazine soon ..perhaps that will help with the necessary discipline in starting to write 'properly'?

Tuesday, February 15, 2005

EFT .. Born again?

EFT. .. E.F.T. ... Emotional Freedom Technique .. seems to work ..even on a broken old inadequate like me .. maybe I haven't changed that much but my experience of life has changed a bit towards the positive .. perhaps I have a little bit more space in my emotional landscape ..sometimes it even feels as though I have escaped from my emotional prison.
A beginning ... born again?

Born again Muslim.

Bismi'llah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim,
How many more times?I hope this is the last return .. i.e. .. never leave again.
Been lucky really to get the same title .. "Sufistuff" ... and the address www.sufistuff.blogspot.com ... Just vomited out one lot of stuff .. (sufistuff) .. or the Sheikh cleaned off another layer ..look at it which way you will.Wonder wether I can do what he indicated now and travel and take photos and write about what I see and help people to a better understanding of Islam?
After all my searching and twisting and turning ..can not find anything better than Sufi Islam.
Didn't choose a template myself so I go now to see which one they have given me.
.. Yeah that's cool,I like that one..neat and clear..no need to change.
I knocked off all my other blogs..I wonder wether this one will still come up on the search engines under the same title?
Anyway Hemingway..there is no god but God..(Allah).That is clear .."We will show them Our signs on the horizons and in themselves." Can anyone really look at nature in all it's glory .. the animals the fish the trees and plants and flowers..the sea the sky and clouds..and still doubt the existence of a Creator ? Can anyone look at the universe in all its magnificence and glory and its perfect balance and still doubt the existence of a Creator? Can anyone look at the human being in all its perfection and complexity and marvellous equilibrium..or at a new-born baby..and still doubt the existence of a Creator?
(Silly Billies.)