The most beloved of people to Allah are those who are most beneficial to His servants. And I see no better benefit for His servants in our times than the goodly word that reminds the human being of his humanness and reminds everyone of their brotherhood in the abode of Adam. This is the message from the East, from the summertime in the winter of Damascus, so what do you have for us?
Kabir has been invited to write for Speaking Tree, The Times of India (over 4 million downloads/month). What is it to be truly human? Just to hold this question is the beginning of transformation. When I first began to ask this question, I assembled a list of attributes that seemed essential: a certain capacity for [...]
Some reflections on relationships within a community of seekers by Kabir Helminski Sufis live contrary to “the world” in many ways. Their calculations are different from the calculations based exclusively on the ego’s self-interest. They return hostility with kindness; they meet immaturity with patience; in a world of role-playing, they are guileless. The Dergah is a refuge from the world of hypocrisy, manipulation, and conflict. The relationships that are built in the Dergah of Love endure in a way the relationships of the Dunya (“The World”) never can.
The Urs of Sultan Veled is 11/11 (1312 CE). The era of Casa Paloma as our main center has come to completion and 11/11 is the day Kabir and Camille depart from California and inshallah arrive in Louisville, Kentucky to dwell in the new tekkye there. Here is the talk Camille gave at the Sultan Veled Symposium in Konya last year for Mevlana's Urs. Thanks be to God for this beautiful tradition.
Having been invited to speak about “World Peace and Harmony,” I ask myself: What is the cause and nature of conflict in today's world? Does religion contribute to conflict as so many people assert? And can the idealistic calls for world peace by religious leaders produce any real effect? How can I speak anything more than truisms, sentimental clichés, and ideas we’ve all heard before? Can the teachings of the world’s great mystics effect any real change on the societal level or are these teachings meant only for personal transformation?
Robert Abdul Hayy Darr speaks on how appearances and the nurturing of appearances often carry the day. He opens with a Mullah Nasreddin story and explores deeply why it is that we are constantly feeding the various and differing personas that we have learned to take on not only as vestments, but also to inhabit so completely that we may not remember who we really are. His hope is that we may inhabit that sacred level of body and heart that makes us fly on the Buraq of love into the Heaven of Divine Love, that it take us on high to the heavens and guide us to our original self.
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A talk by Shaikh Kabir at this year's Baraka Retreat, "Living with the Truth," July 14, 2012, Santa Barbara.
Other talks by Amina Wadud, Camille, Imam Feisal Rauf, and Abdul Hayy Darr will be posted soon.
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Having just returned from a remarkable trip to Turkey, Sara said, “The effects of this trip are still with me. Something has really changed. I witnessed the beautiful adab of some of these people—how they move so gracefully through events without reacting negatively, always having a beautiful, gentle response to things.” Yes. This is not [...]
© Latifa Spiker There are times in life when we are moving forward fulfilling our vision, and then there are other times when we take an account of where we are. We reach a certain point when we must assess what we have accomplished, what we have learned, and what are the results of [...]
تاریخ کے اس نازک موڑ پر ازحد ضروری ہے کہ ہم ایک حقیقی گفت وشنید نہ صرف بحثیت ایک مسلم امریکن بلکہ بحثیت ایک امریکن دیگر امریکنوں سے کریں۔ ہم سمجھتے ہیں کہ اسلام کی حقیقی تعلیمات کو صحیح طور پر سمجھانہیں گیا اور اکثر اوقات اُن کو توڑ مڑور کر پیش کیا گیا ہے۔ آ اگر لفظ اسلام خوفزدگی اور بداعتمادی پیدا کرنے کی علامت سمجھا جاتا ہے تو امریکن مسلمانوں پر نہایت اہم فریضہ عائدہوتا ہے کہ ہم اِن خد شات کو دُور کرنے کی کوشش کریں اوراُجاگر کریں کہ اسلام کیسی اقدار کی تعلیم دیتا ہےتاکہ اُس خیال کو کہ مغربی تہذیب کی بہتریں اوراسلام کی اہم اقدار میں ایک بنیادی تضاد ہےزائل کیا جاسکے۔ ہم یہ ثابت کرنے کی اُمید رکھتے ہیں کہ “تہذیبوں کے ٹکراؤ” کے نظریہ کی تائید اسلام سے کسی بنیادی کشیدگی یا تصادم کی بنیاد پر نہیں کی جاسکتی۔ اسلامی تہذیب جو ساتویں صدی عیسوی میں وحی الٰہی کے ذریعے قرآن کے نزول کے نتیجہ میں پروان چڑھی اپنے سے قبل کی تمام وحی الٰہی کی مُکمل تصدیق کرتی ہے اور کثرتِ وجود ادیان، معاشرتی تضادات اور بنیادی انسانی حقوق اور عقل اور فرد کی آزادئ ضمیر کو تسلیم کرتی ہے