Images from History
Threshold Family Album, published by Threshold Society.
Images of Mevlâna Jalâluddîn Rumi
Threshold Family Album, published by Threshold Society.
Sayings of the Prophet Muhammad
Islam began as something strange, and it will become thus again, as it was at the beginning. Blessed, therefore, are the strangers. (He was asked who the strangers are:) The strangers are those who restore what the people have corrupted of my law, as well as those who revive what has been destroyed of it.
Sema, The Universal Movement
It is scientifically recognized that the fundamental condition of our existence is to revolve. There is no being or object which does not revolve, because all beings are comprised of revolving electrons, protons, and neutrons in atoms. Everything revolves, and the human being lives by means of the revolution of these particles, by the revolution of the blood in his body, and by the revolution of the stages of his life, by his coming from the earth and his returning to it.
The Gate of Secrets
The practice of whirling may have its origins in the timeless shadows of Central Asian spirituality where shamans used it to induce altered states of consciousness. We know that in the time of Mevlâna it was already an ancient practice in use among Sufis. Shams of Tabriz, beloved friend and initiator of Mevlâna, tells us:
Participants’ Responses
Participants share their experiences of Threshold Society's Ninety-Nine Day Program, an introduction to Sufism and spiritual psychology.
Sema, the Turning of the Soul
Come, come O Darling, You who are the Soul of the soul of the soul of Sema. Come, O Darling! A swaying cypress, You stroll in the garden of Sema. Come, O Darling! The fountain of the sun is under Your shadow. Thousands of Venuses You possess in the sky of Sema.
The Legacy of Muhammad Asad
The Message of the Qur'an, The Road to Mecca, Sahih al-Bukhari (distributed by Threshold Books)
Adab: The Courtesy of the Path
Adab is courtesy, respect, appropriateness. Adab is not formality; it helps to create the context in which we develop our humanness. Every situation and relationship has its proper adab: between students on the path, in relation to family members and elders, in relation to one's shaikh. Every level of being also has its adab, including coming into the presence of Truth (Al-Haqq).
The Completed Human Being: The Drop that Contains the Ocean
It has become an accepted spiritual idea that each part of the universe in some way reflects the whole. Contemporary spirituality has borrowed the holographic model from contemporary science. This notion has always existed within Sufism and is expressed, for instance, in the idea that the human being is not merely a drop that can merge with the Ocean, but a drop thatcontains the Ocean. Every divine attribute is latent within the human heart, and by the cooperation of human will with divine grace these attributes can be awakened and manifested. We human beings contain within ourselves the potential to experience completion, to know our intimate relationship to the whole of Being in such a way that we reflect this completion through ourselves. The highest spiritual attainment has been expressed by the phrase insân-i kâmil , the Completed Human Being.