A True Muslim

Starting Iron Rule 2 today…

Speak not against others in their absence.

Commentaries on the “Iron Rules” of Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan

by Pir Zia Inayat-Khan

Iron Rule 2

The second rule is: Speak not against others in their absence. This is a saying that, like all wise words, has several levels of meaning. On the most literal level it means: do not speak unkindly about people who are not present in the conversation. At a deeper level, one could say that to speak against someone in his or her absence means to speak judgmentally of someone to whom you are not present. In this case, being present means being conscious of the soul of the person. To lightly discuss the characteristics of a person without truly being present to that person—without experiencing the person’s soul—is an error.

A Garden Among the Flames….

O Marvel,
a garden among the flames!

My heart can take on
any form:
a meadow for gazelles,
a cloister for monks,

For the idols, sacred ground,
Ka’ba for the circling pilgrim,
the tables of the Torah,
the scrolls of the Qur’án.

I profess the religion of love;
wherever its caravan turns along the way,
that is the belief,
the faith I keep.

From Poem 11 of the Tarjuman al-Ashwaq, translation by Michael A. Sells.

Not Christian or Jew or Muslim, not Hindu, Buddhist, Sufi, or Zen …

Not Christian or Jew or
Muslim, not Hindu,
Buddhist, Sufi, or Zen.
Not any religion

or cultural system. I am
not from the east
or the west, not
out of the ocean or up

from the ground, not
natural or ethereal, not
composed of elements at all.
I do not exist,

am not an entity in this
world or the next,
did not descend from
Adam and Eve or any

origin story. My place is
the placeless, a trace
of the traceless.
Neither body or soul.

I belong to the beloved,
have seen the two
worlds as one and
that one
call to and know,

first, last, outer, inner,
only that breath breathing

human being.

sufi mystic – jelaluddin rumi – 13th century

via Not Christian or Jew or Muslim, not Hindu, Buddhist, Sufi, or Zen ….

Zikr of Allah….

The fourth hat….

“I was in a state which was a very intense combination of spiritual intoxication and sobriety as, one evening; I entered the mosque which contains the tomb of Husayni Sharif. It was just the hour of sunset and the muezzin was calling to prayer form the roof of the sanctuary. I was wearing an old cloak made of pieces of cloth patched together and on my head was three caps, equally old; one on top of the other, for such was my inclination at the time.

“Now into the depths of my consciousness there came the idea that I needed a forth cap and at that very moment the muezzin came down with from the roof, running and laughing. A stork, carrying this cap off to her nest, had let it fall on him. As he came towards me laughing with the cap in his hand, I said to him, ‘Give it to me, for God’s sake, it is meant for me!’ And seeing that I was already wearing three caps just like it, he gave it to me.

“For men in a state of spiritual sincerity it is always like that; everything which is manifested in their hearts immediately makes its appearance in the sensory world. God’s curse be on those who lie!”

Letters of a Sufi Master: The Shaykh ad-Darqawi

Sufism: An Open Discussion – Shaikh Kabir Helminski

Ibn ‘Arabi – ‘The Breath of the All- Merciful’: William C. Chittick

The soul brings light….

The soul brings its light from Heaven; the mind acquires its knowledge from earth.

Therefore, when the soul believes readily, the mind may still doubt.

Bowl of Saki, March 3, by Hazrat Inayat Khan