Beloved Family,
Just returned from 10 days in Ohio ~ Murshid Circle Retreat, Jamiat Khas Leaders Retreat and the Ruhaniat Board of Trustees once a year in face meeting.
How auspicious that as Murshid Wali Ali and I journeyed to the Retreat Center by car I saw an eagle’s nest on the right side of the road. Our driver kindly turned back so I could photograph her.
Majida Swain and Karim McIntyre were both empowered to be Sufi guides.
Sheikh Vakil Forest Shomer was awarded the annual Sammy Award for extraordinary service to our Ruhaniat family.
The world premier of the 50th Anniversary of the Dance of Universal Peace Video was at the Leaders Retreat. Here it is the link on YouTube for all to view. Please share far and wide; it is deeply moving and spectacular.
We make prayers and aspirations for all our fellow Californians who have suffered directly and indirectly in their devastating Camp and Malibu fires.
Especially want to invite you to come to Maui in two weeks for my retreat and to begin 2019 with us for the 16th Annual Sufi Sesshin.
The work on Murshid Sam’s Dargah is complete for 2018. Next year we will work on the footpaths to the entrance, remediating the construction access path and caring for the soil, trees and wildflowers.
Offering deep gratitude for this beautiful life and all of you as Thanksgiving approaches. Along with gratitude I commit to aspiring to be an Earth Steward and Heart Steward, to care for this amazing planet and all the life it supports. I invite you to make the same pledge.
Much love,
Shabda
Wazifa Practice
Recite 101x YA TAWWAB ~ YA WADUD
79. Ya Tawwab (yaa tow-WAAB)
At-Tawwab is the forgiveness that enables you to turn away from grudges, and perceived individual defects, toward the perfection of Allah. It comes with the realization that the divine beloved is always turning toward you, continually offering a gaze of deep forgiveness and endless compassion.
At-Tawwab conveys the real meaning of repentance, the turning from the limitations of the false self and toward the perfection of your immortal soul, which is not separate from the divine reality.
Realizing at-Tawwab involves giving up the attachment to being right. It means giving up self- righteousness and letting go of the grudge. It is to turn your face toward someone else with forgiveness and compassion. Like Ya Wadud (47), it consciously uses the densest elements of a situation as an inner impetus for transformation, and to turn toward God. Repetition of Ya Tawwab allows you to turn toward the divine face in every face. It is an antidote for clinging to, and identifying with, a wounded sense of self-deficiency. See Ya Ghaffar (14), Ya Ghafur (34), and Ya 'Afuw (81). See Chapter 8, Divine Forgiveness.
47. Ya Wadud (yaa wa-DOOD)
Al-Wadud is divine love’s most intimate manifestation. It is the constant embrace of the affectionate, loving universe. The way we learn to love Allah is by learning how to love, and human beings especially learn how to love by learning how to be intimate. Repetition of Ya Wadud is an antidote for all who have difficulty achieving intimacy with others. Al-Wadud includes sexual intimacy. A physical plane meaning from the same root is “tent peg.” The peg of our deepest desire holds down the tent of our existence.
Al-Wadud offers an avenue for seeing divine love in tumultuous relationships and within strong love/hate relationships. It consciously uses the densest elements of a situation as an inner impetus to turn toward God. This transformative quality is also found in Ya Tawwab (79), and these two Names may be paired in repetition to enhance such a process of turning from the lower self toward the one. See Chapter 6, Love’s Mysteries.
To hear the pronunciation: Ya Tawwab ~ Ya Wadud
TEXT and COMMENTARY to STUDY
This month we continue reading the THE MYSTICAL LIFE OF THE PROPHET MUHAMMAD by Hazrat Inayat Khan. Click here to download the document.
This year’s work on the Dargah is complete
Auspicious Eagle
At the Murshid’s Circle
Majida Swain being initiated as a Sufi guide
Karim McIntyre being initiated as a Sufi guide
Sheikh Vakil Forest Shomer receiving the Sammy Award
Starlings were all around us in Ohio
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New Documentary on Universalist Sufism
Living from the Heart: Universalist Sufism in America offers an introduction to the mystical path of Sufism as expressed in the universalist Sufi teachings of Hazrat Inayat Khan by contemporary Sufi teachers in America.
Shot at the Abode in New York, Naropa in Colorado, Lama in New Mexico, and Mentorgarten in California, the film features interviews with Pir Shabda Kahn, Taj Inayat, Pir Zia Inayat-Khan, Jennifer Alia Wittman, Pir Netanel Miles-Yépez, and others.
https://vimeo.com/ondemand/livingfromtheheart.
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For upcoming Events and Teachings, see Shabda's calendar for more information.