School of Sufi Teaching, London

I remember

matthew — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 12:13:54 +0000

I remember the trees of my childhood,
Elm trees that are no longer there -
I remember how they made me feel good
When now I fall into despair.

I remember my school and its teachers
As a place that was happy and kind -
I remember the summer sun breezes
In a world that now seems to go blind.

I remember the fields and the hillsides,
The butterflies bright patterned wings -
I remember the wind on the bike rides
And how I would play on the swings.

I remember the climb to the hill top
Where the foxes sometimes could be seen -
I remember the old fish and chip shop,
And how we would play on the green.

I remember how I used to feel strong
As the arrows fled fast from my bow -
And how little ever did feel wrong
As my spirit continued to grow.

I remember the world as a good place,
And as more full of laughter than fear -
I remember a life I could embrace
Where both thought and feeling were clear.

I remember the power and the glory
In summer and winter and spring -
But now I know that a good story
Can make someone weep as they sing.

I can’t say that all joy was broken
Or that childhood had not any pain -
But somehow, my feelings unspoken
Got buried, again and again.

And I grew up both harder and colder
As the child in me turned into man -
And my anger and upset grew bolder
As I lost any sense of a plan.

Of a plan that was made by a good God -
And instead worlds demonic I knew,
And the alleys and back roads I now trod
Were far off from the trusted and true.

I now had to play by my own rules,
I could no longer play on the green -
I felt a great hatred for all schools
And thought my whole self was unclean.

Though every once in a while I saw beauty
Which kept me alive in the mire -
I mostly thought it my new-driven duty
To stoke up a radical fire.

A fire that would burn the world’s hatred
All poison and misery and fear -
A fire that would consume the undead
Who’d destroyed al those things I held dear.

I knew not where this path was leading,
And I got lost full many a time -
I only knew that I was bleeding,
But I couldn’t remember the crime.

Now I’m older, look backwards and wonder -
And I try to look forward with hope,
But I hear coming lightning and thunder
As we slide down a slippery slope

That results from a lack of true speaking
And a lack of true feeling as well -
The bones of the planet are creaking,
Poor beauty seems drowned in a well.

It’s a well of confusion and sadness
From which murky water is drawn -
As the spirit to counteract badness
Is standing both cold and forlorn.

She needs an injection of passion
To shout out her message so clear
Which is that we all are in danger -
But that it’s ourselves we must fear.

She needs to bring hope to the hopeless
And a clear inspiration to all -
She needs celebration and lightness,
For the rise that comes after a fall.

I’ll go back to the world of my childhood -
And those old trees so fine and so tall,
And we’ll make a new world full of kindness,
Where there’ll be love, and justice, for all.

And we’ll make a new world full of kindness
Where there’ll be love and justice for all.

Clive Perrett

Workings of the Naqshbandi-Mujaddidi tariqah outside India.

admin — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 00:17:25 +0000

Shaykh Hamid Hasan discusses how the Sufi teachings of the Naqshbandi-Mujaddidi tariqah in New Delhi reach students in other contries.

Watch this video on YouTube.

Sufism And Modern Man

admin — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 00:02:08 +0000

Shaykh Hamid Hasan of the Naqshbandi-Mujaddidi tariqah talks about Sufism and the Modern Man.

Watch this video on YouTube.

The Experience of the New Student on the Sufi Path

admin — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 23:22:50 +0000

Shaykh Hamid Hasan answers the question “What does the new student experience if they come onto this path?”

Watch this video on YouTube.

Sufi Practices

admin — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 23:18:00 +0000

Shaykh Hamid Hasan answers the following question: “Could you say something about the practices of this tradition”.

Watch this video on YouTube.

The Tradition of Sufism

admin — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 18:17:13 +0000

Shaykh Hamid Hasan answers the question, “What tradition do you teach?”

Watch this video on YouTube.

What is Sufism?

admin — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 18:01:37 +0000

Shaykh Hamid Hasan, the shaykh of the Naqshbandi-Mujaddidi order of New Delhi, India, was interviewed in London in 2010.

Here, he answers the question “What is Sufism?”

Watch this video on YouTube.

Hope / going within / a warning

matthew — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 16:15:51 +0000

The flames of destruction are disguised
As calm and rational good intentions.
It is all very well wanting to shout a warning,
But if you can’t find your voice, no-one will hear you.
You can whisper it to the wind,
Go deep into the well of your own soul,
And hope another will draw up clear water
To wash the world clean.
You can go back, back as far as you can go,
Back to your little child,
Back to the womb,
Back to the germ of your life,
Back beyond that to the vastness from which you came.
If you can whisper from there,
The whole universe, if it picks up your vibration,
Will hear you.

Clive Perrett

As the flute…

matthew — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 16:13:56 +0000

We are as the flute, and the music in us is from thee;
we are as the mountain and the echo in us is from thee.
We are as pieces of chess engaged in victory and defeat:
our victory and defeat is from thee, O thou whose qualities are comely!
Who are we, O Thou soul of our souls,
that we should remain in being beside thee?
We and our existences are really non-existence;
thou art the absolute Being which manifests the perishable.
We all are lions, but lions on a banner:
because of the wind they are rushing onward from moment to moment.
Their onward rush is visible, and the wind is unseen:
may that which is unseen not fail from us!
Our wind whereby we are moved and our being are of thy gift;
our whole existence is from thy bringing into being.

Rumi, Masnavi Book I, 599-607

Shortening the Path

matthew — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 16:12:24 +0000

If you wish your path to be shortened in order to attain realisation swiftly, hold fast to what is ordained (in the Qur’an) and to what is particularly recommended concerning voluntary observances [that is, rites and other observances which are not legally obligatory but which the Prophet (s.a.w.s.) strongly recommended]; learn outer knowledge as is indispensable for worshipping God, but do not linger on it, since you are not required to study this deeply; a deepening of inner knowledge is what you need; and fight against covetousness; then you will see marvels. “Noble character” is nothing else but the tasawwuf of the Sufis, just as it is the religion of religious men. […]

Likewise, always flee from sensuality [Al-hiss: sensuality in the broader sense of the word, i.e. attachment to sensory experience], for it is the opposite of spirituality and opposites do not meet. Inasmuch as you strengthen the senses you weaken the Spirit, and vice versa. […]

Know (and may God be merciful to you) that the faqir [the poor, implying the poor towards God, as in the verse in the Qur’an: O men, you are poor towards God and he is the Rich, the Glorious (35:15)], when he exchanges the remembrance of all things for the remembrance (dhikr) of God, purifies his servitude, and whosoever serves God in a pure and unmixed way is holy […]. So remember only God; be God’s alone; for if you are God’s, God will be yours and blessed is he who belongs to God so that God is his. Let the mention of God’s word – Remember Me and I will remember you (Qur’an 2: 147) – suffice to prove the excellence of the remembrance (dhikr) of God. And the word which the Prophet (s.a.w.s.) spoke on behalf of his Lord: “I am the Companion of him who calls upon Me”.

From Letters of a Sufi Master: The Shaykh Al‘Arabi ad-Darqawi, translated by Titus Burckhardt (Fons Vitae, 1998), p. 15 – 17