Reflection on January’s theme: Awakened Being is attention guided by the Heart in everyday life. Surely we are immersed in everyday life for a reason? But reason often appears when we stop searching for it. Rumi says, ‘If you are too careful, Love will not find you.’ Looking aside from the bright star we see [...]
Reflection on December’s theme: Freewill is the effort to thank God for His gifts. ~ Mevlana I imagined an ant… She lives amongst a colony of a million ants. One day she drifts away from the colony and becomes lost in the forest. Alone, she wanders. The wind pushes and pulls her; every path she [...]
Reflection on November’s theme: Wash your hands of the cheap metals of existence like the mature, so that you may find the philosopher’s Stone of love and become gold yourself. Reflecting on this month’s theme is quite a painful experience for this one. Though it is my deep longing and aspiration to be in this [...]
Reflection on October’s theme: The interpretation of a sacred text is true if it stirs you to hope, activity, and awe. ~ Mevlana On a recent trip to Urfa in Turkey, we visited the cave where Job, Hazrati Ayyub, prayed while he was undergoing his trials. The cave was tiny, barely able to contain the [...]
Reflection on September's theme: Put this vain thinking to sleep, lift up your head into spiritual wakefulness. ~Mevlana Reflecting on this month's theme, the crucial question that arises for this one is "What is vain thinking?" It must firstly be habitual thinking that forms a barrier between us and Reality, Al-Haqq: fears and desires linked [...]
Letter from Shaikha Camille In the Name of God, the Infinitely Compassionate and Infinitely Merciful Beloved, Beloved friends, Thank you, Thank you so much for all your love and support and healing prayers and good wishes, nourishing food and flowers, and so many offers of assistance. “In the hands of this Love,” as Yunus says, [...]
Prayers for Shaikha Camille Camille Ana has recently had some surgery to help with mobility issues and is currently recovering in hospital. We ask you to remember her in your prayers. May the love of our community carry our beloved Ana through this challenging time, and may the Divine hold her in healing light. Ya [...]
Reflection on June’s theme: Beyond desiring attention, become attention. As I sit with these words, receiving them as though they are a personal decree for me from my Lord, I notice His/Her usage of the word ‘beyond’; it seems to me that I have to journey somewhere, from me to the other, from this small [...]
"Sufism: A Hidden Treasure" -- a talk by Shaikh Kabir Helminski at City Circle, London on Friday 14th March, 2014. Many British Muslims today suffer a double alienation: on one side from a dogmatic expression of Islam lacking in love, and on the other side from a materialistic culture that leaves little room for the [...]