Thoght plus emotion=belief Sufism and ideology Being based on direct experience Sufi thought resists being converted into an ideology. In ideologies, right and wrong, tolerable and intolerable, etc., become absolute categories, already known or written down. What, one wonders, would Bayazid Bistami, as an example, say ? He might possibly direct us to seek the answer in China ( cf. ” seek knowledge even if in China “). In Lao Tsu’s terms, they, these categories or thoughts/beliefs, become the “named” way, hence not the WAY, anymore.Al Ghazali, perhaps out of caution or fears, , advised against ..read more

Was Nasruddin wise or an idiot, or both or neither ..read more

” There is no place like home, not even home.” Adam Phillips,psychoanalyst. ” No matter where you go, there you are. “ It seems that Putin,the Russian president had a tumutuous,traumatic early life, having been raised by a “surrogate” family. His parents “gave” him to his grandparents, who then passed him on to another family. He seems to be extremely introverted ( schizoid ), has always liked to project the image of a “tough”, macho man. He seldom talks re his wife and children ; love, even sex, seem to be foreign to his nature. It is not difficult to suppose that, he seems to lack a core sen ..read more

The Detour A Japanese proverb : “If you are in a hurry, take a detour, ,” isogaba maware.” An obscure tappa goes: you have done a great deal of Musulmani, now become a kafir ( non believer or skeptic, or ,in more mystical parlance: disconnected, ungrateful ). Musulmani is a colloquial term, indicating the day to day ,practical, aspects of Islam, that a lot of us have to confine ourselves to, if mundane life has to go on. In other words, to achieve a deeper faith, take a detour through kufr or non belief or, great doubt,skepticism.. This does not, I think mean, that folks who practice day to da ..read more

by Modaser Shah Once, while traveling during his younger years, the Mullah found himself empty-handed, penniless, and unable to return home. He managed to obtain part-time employment at an inn. His job was to keep track of the number of beds and rooms available and to welcome guests at the entrance. He was instructed  on various aspects of the work, including how to adapt his welcome and greetings to the social and financial station of the guests, so that it could not be said of him that he was not conscious of class and not aware of the expectations of his employer. One late night, exha ..read more

by Ali Hammad There was once a man within whom resided dreams, such that it was hard to tell where dreams ended and real life began, or vice versa. Life, it seemed, was a set of questions, and dreams were where one found answers. In the early 8th century, Ben Adhem was born in a life of dream: the prince of Balkh, in Central Asia. He grew up a pensive young man, given more to contemplation befitting a sage than conviviality expected of a youthful prince. “How does one get to God?” he thought and spent many a night awake in his sleeping chambers considering this question. One night, in a state ..read more

  by Modaser Shah There have always been, whether in religious or secular domains, two ways of thought: the scholastic,  where thinking is limited to what has already been “decided” or determined by eminent texts or thinkers, who came before. Here thinking is “permissible”only within set boundaries but not beyond, because then faith might be questioned or become shaky and chaos might ensue, choices have to be made. This can be felt as an unbearable burden of freedom, one might say, a la Sartre or Erich Fromm (Escape from Freedom). The other approach is to let thought roam free, beyon ..read more

by Modaser Shah This is a story related about the Buddha, considered by some Muslim scholars in the Middle Ages as one of the myriad prophets sent by God to various nations. A farmer came to the Buddha, having heard many stories about his amazing ability to assist people to free themselves from  suffering, looking for help with his never-ending problems. He liked farming but hated that it depended on the whims of nature: rain or no rain or too much rain, each producing different results. He was fed up with his nagging wife and ungrateful, tiresome children.  And there were also unfri ..read more

by Navid Zaidi St. Catherine’s Monastery, officially Sacred Monastery of the God-Trodden Mount Sinai, is the oldest monastery in the world (est. 565 AD). It is located at the foot of Mount Sinai near the town of Saint Catherine, Egypt.  It is a world heritage site with its library possessing a huge collection of Christian historical icons, second only to Vatican. It is a treasure house of Christian history that has remained safe for 1400 years under Muslim protection. In the year 628 AD, a delegation of monks from St Catherine’s Monastery came to Prophet Muhammad in Arabia and r ..read more

by Tabassum Saba Many years ago a colleague helped me open my first email account. Those were the days when internet technology had just arrived to the mainstream and opening an email account was considered a great technological skill. The person made me promise that I will teach five more people to open an email account because he himself was fulfilling his own promise to the person who had taught him this skill. If you are fortunate or content enough to achieve your career or family goals by the middle age then a question pops up:  ‘Is this all there is?’ This is perhaps the best time ..read more