March 2022 Message

Beloved Family,

Welcome to Spring (or Fall for the Southern Hemisphere)!

YA FATTAH YA FATTAH YA FATTAH!

Naturally, our hearts are heavy with the senseless killing of civilians and wanton destruction of property and living things on this small blue-green spinning globe that we call home.

YA RAHMAN YA RAHEEM! YA SHAFEE YA KAFEE!

All our worldwide problems, environmental, political, racial, gender, prosperity inequality, and all wars and conflicts are the result of human ignorance, greed, pride, jealousy, and lack of self-worth. It is natural therefore that the solutions at their core rely on human beings practicing Loving Kindness and Compassion, to which we dedicate ourselves. Don’t misunderstand, this doesn’t mean we don’t take appropriate actions, but it does speak to the manner in which we act.

On a hopeful note, the fruit trees are blooming, vegetables on their way to providing sustenance, the birds are mating and nesting, all providing an atmosphere of new beginnings.

And on a playful note, Michele and Barack, the mallard ducks who mated in our pool last year returned a year later to mate again.

Tuesday, I travel across the Atlantic Ocean to share the Message in Germany and Czech Republic, March 29 - April 11. In the same rhythm, many of our colleagues are beginning to travel, the world is slowly emerging from two years of a type of isolation due to the pandemic.

By now you have likely seen the Lama Sufi Sesshin June 29 - July 3 details. I am also traveling to the Southwest Sufi Community land to guide a retreat along with Bryn Morgan August 16 - 21, 2022, details to follow soon.

For our next wazifa I would invite us to stay with the theme of “Protection” and recite YA HAFIZ.

Much love,

Shabda

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Wazifa Practice

Recite 101x

YA HAFIZ

38. Ya Hafiz (yaa ḥa-FEEḌḤ)

Al-Hafiz means that everything in the heavens and earth, down to the smallest particle, is within the protection of Allah. For human beings, it involves becoming mindful, considerate, respectful, and cherishing deeply in your heart. This makes it exactly parallel with dhikr (zikr), which means “to remember.” It is in this sense that God says in the Qur'an, “Remember me, and I will remember you.”

Al-Hafiz is protecting and remembering everyone. To realize al-Hafiz is to be conscious of the greatest of secrets, to know the secret, and to keep it. The order, sequence, and timing of the universe are preserved through this quality.

Invocation of Ya Hafiz is useful for all who need protection from fear, despair, and hopelessness. Al-Hafiz is a matrix for the whole family of the divine Names of protection because it contains within itself all the specific qualities they each evoke.

To hear the pronunciation: Ya Hafiz

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Text and Commentary to Study

This month we finish reading Akibayayat - Life After Death, an unfinished commentary by Murshid Samuel Lewis

Read pages 11-20

Click here

to download the document Akibayayat - Life After Death

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Upcoming Events and Teachings

Jamiat Am March 30 -April 3

Retreat in Czech Republic April 4 - 10

Lama Foundation Sufi Sesshin June 29 – July 3