The measure of a human being is what they cherish, serve, and surrender to.
~ The Knowing Heart

We welcome your reflections on this theme.

Beloved Mary by Cara Helminski Chadwick

May 1: Mary as Queen of the May, of spring flowering and gardens: The first historical reference to a garden dedicated to Mary is that of the Irish patron saint of gardening, St. Fiacre, who planted a garden he carefully tended around the oratory to Our Lady he built beside his hermitage in France, in the 7th century CE. He created a hospice for the poor there which became renowned for miracles of healing.

May 3rd: Remembrance day of Our Lady of Czestochowa, Poland (14th century)

May 13th: Remembrance day of Our Lady of Fatima, Portugal (1917 CE)

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Extracts from The Way of Mary, Chapter XII. Tranquility of Spirit

It is interesting to note that one of the most renowned of the ten appearances officially recognized by the Catholic Church as truly miraculous “Marian Apparitions” is the appearance of Beloved Mary as “Our Lady of Fátima.” When Beloved Mary appeared to the three children in Portugal in 1917, near the small village of Fátima, named after the Prophet Muhammad’s daughter, the appearance was subsequently witnessed again by tens of thousands of people. Since that event, numerous Christians worldwide address the Virgin Mary in prayer as “Our Lady of Fátima,” further interweaving hearts of the Abrahamic faiths.

It is related that Prophet Muhammad before his own death had told his daughter Fatimah, “You shall be the most blessed of women in Paradise, after Mary.” And now, Beloved Mary is well-known around the world as “Our Lady of Fátima.” Surely Beloved Mary’s appearance at Fátima, Portugal, is a renewed sign for the unity of spirit among Muslims and Christians, a gift from this Mother of Spirit who continues to bring together people of varied cultures, times, and place.

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Hear more about Beloved Mary from Camille Ana and others sharing at the book launch for The Way of Mary. Click the image below to watch (use the Brave browser to avoid intrusive ads):

Every moment, a Mevlevî is contemplating unity (vahdet murakabesi). Hûş der dem (“aware of every breath”) he watches the manifestation of the moment he is in, his whole mind intent upon it, as it is evoked in the āyāt: . . . those whom neither business nor striving after gain can turn from the remembrance of God (24:37). He is not unaware of the Divine context of all his actions. From this point of view, eating is also a kind of worship, because it requires thankfulness.

A university professor, the late Ahmed Naim Bey (died 1353 H. 1934 A.D.) recounted how a shaikh invited him to dinner. Naim Bey said some thing like, “They have said that to be thankful for the nîmet (“blessing” or “food”) is to see the One who has bestowed within that nîmet.” After the shaikh had thought silently for a while, he said, “We cannot say such words yet.” A Mevlevî thinks about the power of the One who gives the nîmet and the wisdom of the one who eats it, and so sees the grace within it.

Among the Mevlevîs, the kitchen is a holy place; the raw get cooked there, the unripe mature.

~Excerpt from Mevlevi Adab and Customs forthcoming June 2025, Inshallah.

Offering of this Mevlevi grace
courtesy of Shakira Debra Shatoff (design) with Arzu Evans and Sara Winter (translation)

Download as PDF

~ Mary Khalila Platt [Portland, USA]

Dear Suleyman Dede,

Greetings. We received the following quote from you:

In order to become human, we need to always be within the Divine Presence – to be aware of God, to hold Him in our hearts.

Thank you – and please excuse my impertinence, the part about “to become human” stopped me cold.

Wait. What? I thought that part was settled.

Many walk in the form of a human being while manifesting the qualities of animals, dominated by the desires of an animal.
[The Knowing Heart, Kabir Helminski]

Since there is many a devil who hath the face of Adam…
[Mathnawi I, trans. Nicholson]

Well! I certainly wasn’t one of THOSE! Whew! Animals and devils…Huh. It explained a lot about the world. At any rate, with a dose of self-satisfaction and relief, I was confident I could check THAT box. I’m a “real” human. Job done.

However, you seem to suggest there is more to being human than not being a beast. So now I’m wondering – what do you mean? Do I have to requalify?

As a dedicated student of this Sufi path, I’m “here” to clean up my act as a person, to treat others (and myself) with greater kindness, to be of service and to draw ever closer to the Divine Presence. I didn’t think “become human” was part of my remit.

How do I see myself?

I used to see myself as a car. The goal was control. My hands gripped the wheel of my life. My attention jumped between the instrument panel (my emotions and thoughts) and current road conditions. I had one foot on the gas, always ready to apply the brakes. My heart? That was in the back seat – allowed to ride along, but never steer the car/self.

As a student of Love, a different sense of self has developed into “me” as a bicycle. My emotions and thoughts are like the handlebars helping me steer. There is always some wobble, but over time and practice my capacity for presence has helped me move through the world with greater emotional and mental ease. For the most part I’ve learned to balance the forces of momentum (spirit) and gravity (base impulses/small self). When I get a flat tire or my chain slips off the gears (problems), I know where to turn for help (Divine Presence).  

A charming step in the right direction, perhaps, but I must have missed something.

I combed my bookshelf searching for references to “human” in each book’s index. The Knowing Heart (Helminski), Living Presence (Helminski) and The Vision of Islam (Murata and Chittick) were the most helpful. Portions of each of these books found their way into my journal. One favorite from Living Presence: “…as we develop our latent human faculties, we more and more come under the protective grace of Love.”

Dear Suleyman Dede, your suggestion to “always be within the Divine Presence” transported the whole of my being. I began to move through my day, digesting what I read, with the overhead “Light” on. I’ve called, turned, prayed and recited the Names of God, but I’m a little embarrassed to say, had not taken up residence “within the Divine.”

The human being has the possibility of being the energetic place of revelation of the glorious display of the Divine attributes. Inspired by all the prophets and messengers of God, peace and blessings be upon them all, may we be strengthened in our attunement to the Beloved and share of that Infinite Generosity.”
[The Qur’an, Volume V, Introduction, Camille Helminski]

I have left the “bicycle” notion of myself behind. It seems I’m fertile soil – rich with the seeds of Love, tended by a Master Gardener, with the potential to become a human.

Thank you.

Warmly,

Mary Khalila


~ Khalila and her husband Rob are members of the Portland, Oregon Threshold community that spans the globe.

~ Jeremy Henzell-Thomas [Wells, UK]

I felt a very close affinity with the April theme because of a profoundly meaningful and heartfelt dream-vision I had several years ago. In this experience I was with the Prophet Muhammad who was reclining in the space where we used to perform the prayer in our house in Malvern. It was also the space where I asked Camille Helminski on one occasion to lead our prayer when she and Kabir came to stay with us before a Threshold Society gathering at Gaunt’s House in Dorset. The Prophet bared his chest and invited me to listen to his heart. I did so, placing my left ear on his chest. At that moment he arose, and his face, which until then had been hidden, came into view. It was the face of a friend of mine whose name is Adam.

I take Adam here to represent the prototypical, primordial human being who embodies the Divine Attributes, or, as Ibn ‘Arabi states in the opening words of ‘The Word of Adam’ in his Fusus Al-Hikam (The Wisdom of the Prophets):

God (al-haqq) wanted to see the essences (al-a’yan) of His most perfect Names (al-asma al-husna) whose number is infinite—and if you like you can equally well say: God wanted to see His own Essence (‘ayn) in one global object (kawn) which summarised the Divine Order (al-amr) so that there He could manifest His mystery (sirr) to Himself.

Or, in simpler terms, I take my encounter with the Prophet to be showing me that to become aware of the Divine Presence in the heart of the Prophet is to become fully human, or, as Suleyman Dede said: ‘In order to become human, we need to always be within the Divine Presence—to be aware of God, to hold Him in our hearts.’

You may well ask, what did I hear when I listened to the Prophet’s heart. Well, I heard nothing, and was aware of only a profound silence. I am reminded of the book, Silence, by the Zen Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh, who stated that...

To fully experience this life as a human being, we all need to connect with our desire to realize something larger than our individual selves. This can be motivation enough to change our ways so we can find relief from the noise that fills our heads.

Rather than engage in any rational speculation or intellectual analysis of what it means to be human, I prefer to elucidate this by revealing another dream-vision that came to me shortly after my imaginal encounter with the Heart and Face of the Prophet.

In this experience I saw a man sitting in profound silence, stillness and presence on the edge of a garden as if in deep meditation. In the centre of the garden was a heart-shaped mirror which was badly cracked in several places. All of a sudden a bolt of lightning descended with a brilliant flash from the heavens, striking the face of the broken mirror and restoring its original perfection so that not a crack remained. These words came to me: ‘I was present when the miracle occurred’ and I knew that the ‘miracle’ was the restoration of the original state of the mirror.

I understood the original state of the mirror to represent Adam, the primordial human being embodying the essence of the Divine Attributes, the 99 most beautiful Names. To be fully present in the ‘garden’ gives access to the miracles emanating from the Divine Presence.

It seemed clear to me that the Face of Adam in my encounter with the Prophet was the same as the intact mirror in my subsequent dream. Both are pointing to the state of being fully human.

My dream did not end with the repair of the broken mirror, for it went on to show me the restored mirror being displayed on the stage of the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden. I was standing at the back of the auditorium, and I raised my hand to declare that I had been ‘present when the miracle occurred.’ Why the Royal Opera House? As a young man attending University College London in the late 1960s I had spent many a day not attending lectures but queuing up all day to buy one of the 43 tickets costing £1 each for a standing position at the rear of the house. I had on more than one occasion been able to attend Wagner’s Ring Cycle of four operas for just £4. Reflecting on the meaning of this in the dream, I realised that the standing space represented humility (the rear of the house) and Oneness (£1), although I was very conscious in the dream that it was important to try hard not to invest my declaration that I had been present when the miracle occurred with any inflated sense of ego.

The miracle of the restoration of the intact mirror is one that is open to all of us if we open ourselves to the Divine Presence in what Rumi describes as ‘the black core of the heart’ in which ‘God created the eternal light of love.’ To do so we need to stand at the rear of the hall in the place of self-effacement and Oneness for, as Rumi also says, ‘The Beloved is all; the lover just a veil.’

~ Jeremy Henzell-Thomas is an independent researcher, writer, speaker, educational consultant, Associate Editor of the quarterly journal Critical Muslim, and former Visiting Fellow and Research Associate at the Centre of Islamic Studies at the University of Cambridge. He was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in 2021 for services to the Civil Society and the Muslim Community.

Spiritual conversation (sohbet) with Shaikh Kabir Helminski on the theme ‘The beauty of the human being is as much and as great as their love.’

“If we could remember, we are created by Love, a spark of Love. An infinite spark of Love created us as conscious individuals, as witnesses to the incredible generosity and beauty that is Being itself. One way we can conceive of this is that we’ve been brought into existence as conscious beings to experience and know the true dimensions and beauty of this Love that created us. All the most precious experiences of our lives are experiences of Love."

May 4th

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.

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.

Each month we intend to highlight an article about our lineage and its principles. 

This month we offer: Basics of Practice in the Threshold Society

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Basics of Practice in the Threshold Society

This is a simple summary of guidelines for spiritual practice within the Threshold Society.

Basic Mevlevi Zhikr

When someone has been initiated into the Mevlevi Tariqah through the Threshold Society, it is recommended that they commit to performing this basic zhikr daily: Fatiha, 100 estaughfrullah (May God forgive me), 100 la illaha il Allah, 300 Allah, 11 Hu.

Silent and Audible Zhikr

Jahri. The audible zhikr has more power to focus us when we are extremely distracted. It is also physically energizing.

Khafi. Silent zhikr has even more power and at a deeper level. A simple and fundamental silent zhikr is: breathe out “la illaha,” breathe in “il Allah.”

Working with Names

Appropriate and Inappropriate Names. It is not generally encouraged to experiment on one’s own with the Divine Names. Some of the Names are too powerful or destructive to be used without specific direction and protection. Yet, after several years of exposure to group practice under a teacher’s direction, one gradually becomes familiar with a repertoire of Divine Names that are appropriate.

Pronunciation. Pronunciation of the Names of God requires some exposure to proper Arabic pronunciation. The “h” on the end of Allah is very important, as is the fact that there are two “l’s.” In Arabic there are consonants that we do not have in English, including certain t’s and d’s that are unlike our usual t and d. There are also three different h’s. Likewise there are vowels that are slightly different from our habitual English vowels. `Ali, for instance is pronounced like the word “alley,” not ah-lee.

[Read more]

Rumi and His Friends relates anecdotes of the life of Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi from those who were with him during his lifetime, and includes stories about Rumi’s father, his sons, wife and daughter, and his relationship with Shams of Tabriz and with other close companions and disciples.

It was in the month of May that Mevlana Rumi, with his father and family, first arrived in Konya to settle there, after their long journey (1218 CE-1228 CE) from Balkh.

The original text was written in Persian by Ahmad Aflaki, a devoted student of the grandson of Rumi and is based on the oral traditions of the early days of the founding of the Mevlevi Order. The selections included in this volume are also teaching stories that illuminate the way of the dervish.

Spiritual seekers can benefit from this glimpse into the spiritual community surrounding Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi and the wisdom that is conveyed through those interactions. Many selections also include beautiful illuminative passages from his poetry, and, in this volume, each selection is titled to assist in orienting the reader and enhancing comprehension of meaning. Rumi and His Friends welcomes us into the world of Rumi— through this volume we come to understand what life was like for Rumi and gain inspiration for the illumination of our own.

WATCH a fascinating interview about Rumi and His Friends with translator Camille Adams Helminski:

Sep 26-29: UK Annual Retreat at The Vedanta, Lincolnshire

We’d love to hear from you: eyeoftheheart@sufism.org
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