“Submission” is a healthy ego dynamically receptive to Divine intelligence and love.

We welcome your reflections on this theme.

Recently, we were graced with the presence of Esin Çelebi Hanim Efendi, the 22nd-generation descendant of Mevlana Rumi, as she visited the Threshold London group. Her visit felt like the arrival of a messenger bearing a truth of profound urgency. Her words, though fragments in my memory, resonated deeply: "Do not be guilty of a grave injustice, especially against yourself"; "We carry a sacred duty to our souls, a responsibility to nurture and fulfill"; "True justice is to tend the garden within, to water the roots of our deepest need."

In her presence, there was so much to learn—lessons not spoken but lived. She, who has been steeped in love and beauty, exuded a softness of voice, an unfailing courtesy, a generous camaraderie, and a devotion to service that seemed effortless.

When she left, I felt her absence keenly, the impression she made lingering in my heart. I recall her gentle utterance, “Hamd olsun”—"May it become praise"—wishing that it transforms into enduring gratitude. Ameen.

Thank you, dear Çelebi Hanim Efendi, for the light you shared.

~ Adila Ahmed, London

~ Lizzie Gulick [Louisville USA]

Let this be my Love Letter to you, my beloved Teachers and fellow dervishes. Reflecting on this theme, my encounters with each of you over the years flash through the mirror of my heart like a galaxy of stars.

The heart is your student
for love is the only way we learn.

Recalling myriad moments—prayers, zhikrs and ilahis we have shared, the meals, the laughter and tears—the unveilings. The Salaams of Hello and the Salaams of Goodbye. The beauty and the grief of this Love—Her pulsings of expansion and contraction. The holding and the letting go, the reciprocity of witnessing one another’s cooking. The ever widening of awareness with each new friend—those we meet in form, and those we know only in the Unseen. This blessed shared language of Being-together in Divine Presence.

Shukrulillah! (Thanks be to God!)

Night has no choice but to grab the feet of daylight.

I seek refuge in the blind Loving silence that we are guided to inhabit to the best of our capacities. Sensing your presence calms the unsettling sway of my human emotion. My feet tread in the world and yet, my heart rises with each of you in the Light of this dervishhood. This sacred vessel to which we lend our wills holds me in her embrace. The inevitable, necessary moments of forgetfulness become opportunities to witness the Beloved’s mercy. And with every breath, I sense you—on my right and on my left, in front of me and behind me.

Mashallah! (May it be as God wills!)

It’s as if I see Your face everywhere I turn.

For many years, I have practiced the craft of felt-making in tandem with being on this path. That most Generous One has given a glimpse— through this craft—of our Love. At the microscopic level, wool is covered in scales. When water is introduced, the scales swell and open. When agitated, they lock together. These individual fibers, which in singularity are delicate and fragile, rubbed together create a strong, beautiful, seamless whole. We, like the wool, by our very structure are created for connection. Through our tears and striving we also become unified. Near and far, the fabric of this Love cloaks all the worlds in Beauty.

Subhanallah! (God is subtle beyond all knowing!)

It’s as if Love’s radiant oil
never stops searching
for a lamp in which to burn.

And this, Our shared Love, creates the blueprint for a life. It beautifies the shape of mother, child, spouse, friend. It teaches reciprocity with the plants who lend their colors to the dye pot.  Through the lens of this Love, my shadow becomes an opportunity for your light to shine. Your wounding teaches me forgiveness.  My jealousy transforms into a real witnessing of your gifts, and shame becomes the vehicle for surrender. Your need becomes my lesson in generosity and all that comes is made bearable—even the suffering is made beautiful. Each interaction becomes Sacred—crackling with life—and every exchange is with That One.

Dear dervishes, thank you for your presence. This hall inhabited by the mirrors of your hearts is our sanctuary—the infinite, merciful reflection of this Love.

Alhamdulillah! (All praise is due to God!)

Selections from the Divan-e Shams-e Tabrizi, Quatrains 353, The Rumi Daybook, trans. Kabir and Camille Helminski

~ Lizzie Gulick lives in Louisville KY on the traditional lands of the Osage, Cherokee, Chickasaw and Shawnee people. She is a dervish, seeker, mother, daughter, wife and teaching artist.

Sep 1st

Join us for a monthly online meditation and sohbet with Shaikh Kabir and special guests from the Threshold community. Held on the 1st Sunday of every month at 12pm Eastern Time (5pm UK).

Zoom meeting: https://zoom.us/j/435138208
Zoom passcode: threshold

Watch last month's meeting below and see all our videos here.

Shaikh Kabir shares reflections from the UK retreat on the theme of 'Come to the Circle of Presence, Creativity & Love' with ney music from Selcuk Gurez.

~ Stuart Kemp [Scotland]

Though beyond gender, the Divine Reality is referred to below in the masculine simply for ease of reading and may be substituted as one prefers while reading.

At the retreat Dede gave a talk on the subject of Knowledge, Being and Love in the first session on Friday evening.

It is Being that has been drawing this one’s attention this past 12-18 months and there was a subtle shift during the retreat, not so much in understanding but more in experience.

One understands that Being is infinite in depth and mysterious from the perspective of the nafs but the gateway to it is very familiar. In fact, it’s the most familiar and intimate experience that we know—that sense of self, of knowing that we exist; we can all legitimately claim “I Am”, we all know that experience.

In every moment there is a knowing experience and for many it is often such an “ordinary” and normal occurrence that it goes unnoticed as we seamlessly surf a wave of thoughts and emotions moving mindlessly through the day, day after day.

However, it is Being that knows experience, and focussing one’s attention on one’s current experience can take one directly to the experience of Being, deepening both the understanding of the object of one’s attention and the experience of Being.

We are encouraged at the beginning of our daily practice to “bring our finest attention to the breath”.

The subtle shift that came over the retreat weekend was to really experience the breath through the eyes of the Heart rather than to simply give attention to it and this had the effect of deepening and bringing one even closer into Being.

The same approach was then applied during dhikr—holding the intention to experience each invocation of the name rather than simply giving attention to it resulting in a similar deepening of the experience.

What then came to mind was a sense that a possible further step would be to shift from being aware of the experience to being aware of the one who is having the experience.

During a sohbet on our recent Turkey retreat, Metin Bobaroğlu talked about this in terms of reaching the “door of the secret” through silence, using the management of attention to arrive at that threshold. When the object of attention fades along with the background then one has arrived at what he refers to as “the temple of Mary” in which the Christ manifests.

It may sound like a simple step but it can seem like a step that’s attempting to cross a chasm and it’s a journey that can take a lifetime (and perhaps more than one!), but the possibility of seeing from that perspective of oneness was made known in conscious awareness.

Dede quoted Mevlana during the Sunday Meditation saying, “The Lover is always alone even surrounded with people” (Ghazel, The Pocket Rumi).

What has become evident is that the entire journey is between one’s self and one’s Rabb, until one ultimately arrives at the destination, inshallah, where there is no self, no sense of separation, and one identifies completely as one’s Rabb, experiencing and expressing in this world as that, in service to the moment, whatever that may bring.

One is reminded here of the title of a Henri Corbin book on Ibn al Arabi’s “Creative Imagination” entitled Alone with the Alone. We are fortunate indeed to be able to walk our individual roads together within the Threshold community.

What Threshold offers, irrespective of any religious affiliation of those who are drawn to it, is a rich tradition of authentic methods, practices and wisdom inherited through a lineage of the Prophet (pbuh), our Pir Hazreti Mevlana Jalaluddin and many other Saints and Masters, and through a rich repository of material including the writings of Shaikh Kabir Dede and Camille Ana. The Prophet (pbuh), Saints and Masters can be petitioned directly through prayer and worship that they may arrange in perfect measure and proportion, in the realm of the unseen, that which is most appropriate in this moment for where one is on one’s own particular path, that one may arrive at the destination. One understands that this is what makes Sufism a living tradition—though they may indeed be historical figures of the lineage they are very much alive and active in our tradition, and one cannot be anything other than eternally grateful for that.

How often we may wish to know now, to be completed, enlightened! But where would the fun be for our Rabb if He were to reveal Himself to Himself fully on the first step on the path?

We don’t need to wait until we arrive at the destination, at completion—the joy is to be found at those way stations on the journey where He decides, by His Grace, to lift a veil to reveal a Truth that bursts into one’s conscious awareness as a knowing experience, a knowing that comes complete leaving no room for doubt, a knowing that is His revelation of Himself to Himself, a knowing experienced within the One and only Being in existence.

Knowledge, experienced in Being, held in Love.

In agreeing to this contract of ultimate revelation our individual responsibility is the preparation of the place of the Heart through prayer and remembrance of the One Reality, that the Heart may become capable of receiving that Knowledge as we negotiate this path of return.

What has been expressed above is one’s best understanding, a perception of the Truth as made known through His veils and one’s nafs and conditioning and therefore, mercifully, subject to clarification as He wills; that Truth may already be much clearer from the bridge of the one who is reading.

~ Stuart was introduced to Sufism in 1983 by a student of Suleyman Dede, and committed to the Mevlevi Way through the Threshold Society in 2018. Stuart plays in his local Brass Band and is happily adjusting to life in retirement.

September is a blessed month of holy birthdays. We remember these beloveds and ask to be brought in nearness to them in every state and every moment.

The Threshold Society, rooted within the traditions of Sufism and inspired by the life and work of Mevlâna Jalâluddîn Rumi, is a non-profit educational foundation with the purpose of facilitating the experience of Divine Unity, Love, and Truth in the world. Sufism is a living tradition of human transformation through love and higher consciousness. Our fundamental framework is classical Sufism and the Qur’an as it has been understood over the centuries by the great Sufis. The Society is affiliated with the Mevlevi Order, and offers training programs, seminars and retreats around the world.

Each month we intend to highlight an article about our lineage and its principles. You can find our core articles here. We encourage our community to read and reread these regularly.

This month we offer: Adab; The Courtesy of the Path

The Sufis created a system of human development grounded in love and using the power of love to awaken and transform human beings. Rumi taught that it is everyone’s potential to master the art of loving. Love is the answer to the problem of human existence.

The way to God passes through servanthood. The point is to love and be connected with others in that love. The form of Sufi work is typically a group, or spiritual family. The Sufis created a milieu in which human love was so strong that it naturally elevated itself to the level of cosmic love. All forms of love eventually lead to spiritual love. “Ashq olsun,” they say. “May it become love.” They cultivated a kindness and refinement in which love fermented into a fine wine. They encouraged service to humanity as an expression of the love they felt. They accepted a rigorous discipline in order to keep the fire of love burning strongly.

The porter runs to the heavy load and takes it from others,
knowing burdens are the foundation of ease
and bitter things the forerunners of pleasure.
See the porters struggle over the load!
It’s the way of those who see the truth of things.
Paradise is surrounded by what we dislike;
the fires of hell are surrounded by what we desire.

[Rumi, Mathnawi II, 1834-7]

We are not merely Love’s passive instruments; we are also it’s servants. In order to know how to serve, Love needs to be grounded in knowledge. Love without knowledge is dangerous. With love alone we could burn ourselves and others. With love alone we could be foolish. Love is such an extraordinary and complex power, and the human being has such a great capacity for love. An important part of Sufi education is to acquire a knowledge of love and apply it appropriately.

[Read more...]

Sep 27-30:  St Francis, California retreat, more details   (KC)

We’d love to hear from you — get in touch at eyeoftheheart@sufism.org

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