Please be patient.(Tastier stuff to come insha'llah.)

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

Looking at the stats for Sufistuff I notice a dramatic drop from forties and sixties hits a day to sixes and sevens.I think the reason is probably too much emphasis on what I have been discussing and trying to stimulate interest in with non-muslims and non- sufi people over at BL.
It's a question of time really ... At the moment we are full on in our summer work which has a strange and disruptive timetable and then with my wife Bilquis somewhat "under the weather" with many distressing aches and pains and problems I have to attend a bit more to the household chores to help out.
Add to this a slow and old problematic computer and you have a rough picture.
However I will try to attend to Sufistuff readers in the near future with something a bit more "tasty" insha'llah.
If not, it will just have to be after August is over, as with so many other things in my present life cycle.
Please be patient! Thanks. Uthman.

Meanwhile I was very pleased to see this;


Ach, just the same old crap. ;-) Anna, you really are inspiring for reading this stuff. You wouldn't believe how bad I want to dive in, I even started taking point-form notes from one of the other posts. Like this:I 'splain. No, ees too much, I sum up. - Anigo Montoja

Issue: Sufism as Mystical Islam (a true Islam) vs Wahabi Islam

Two facets of Islam:Outer: Rules and regulations of everyday life ("Shariat")Inner: the inner Truth/Reality (called "Haqiqat")These reflect a double Allah: The Outer (or Manifest), and Inner (Hidden)A normal start in Sufism is to begin with the Outer, the rules and regulations, and work one's way towards the inner. In this way, one can manifest the Outer facet to better ready oneself for openness to the Inner Truth, or the search for the "Divine within" Books such as "The Perrenial Philosophy" by Aldous Huxley note this similarities regarding this search in all the major religions.It is possible to find this "Divine Within" on one's own, but best to be led to this state by a Master who has been already led there by another Master.A number of practices with a Master lead the Searcher to this inner truth goal, whatever it may be.Sufism concentrates on this inner search, guided by the manifestation of the laws of Islam.In Traditional Islam it is possible to follow the rules without seeking this inner truth, but one who seeks this truth would see simply following the Rules of Islam as an empty practice.Islam is a political theocratical system as well as a religion which makes it very resistant to secular political systems.God/Allah is at the top of the political heirarchy, and it's all downhill from there.The human leader of Islam (the Khalifa) is not elected because it is simply obvious who should be in charge.________That's where I stopped, I haven't had time since then, and you can see I got a little irreverent at the end of that go. Still, I am determined to understand more, you wordy bastard! ;-)
by Nisanthrope ......

which were the notes taken by a reader from one of my pieces on BL.
I think I was a bit "off" about the non-elected Khalifa as I read a piece on Omar's advice as to how to elect the next Khalifa the other day.
Anyone interested who has good knowledge or information about the political processes of original traditional Islam with regard to the appointment of the Khalifa (especially if it could be relevant to the modern day situation where we don't have one)... I would be most interested to be educated.