July 2022 Message

Beloved Family,

Let us all make prayers of protection and healing for the many people still contracting covid ~ YA SHAFEE YA KAFEE!

With the extreme heat wave sweeping our country and Europe, it urges us to become participants and contributors to reversing climate change and be part of living sustainably on our beautiful blessed shining planet that we all share. As the Essence enters the form we call our bodies, it borrows what is needed to make a physical body from the elements, earth, water, fire, and air, all from the body of Mother Earth. Our bodies are in resonance with the natural world as we are all made out of the same material.

This understanding should move us to feel an intimate relationship with everything which is alive since we share the same body. Further, just as we are motivated to take care of our “own” bodies, now we feel the responsibility and privilege to take care of our larger body, Mother Earth, in all Her manifestations. Once we feel and experience this great connection it will guide us and inspire us to wholesome actions to take care of “the GreaterOurSelf”.

This principle should lead us to care for our fellow human beings in the same way we care for ‘ourselves’. We aspire to manifest YA RAHMAN ~ YA RAHEEM, extending Loving Kindness and Compassion in all directions for all beings for all purposes.

This month let’s recite YA WAHID, YA AHAD, YA SAMAD with the aspiration to experience and practice Oneness/Unity in every way imaginable.

At the beginning of the month, we had a deep, successful, and covid free Sufi Sesshin at Murshid Sam’s Dargah at Lama Foundation.

There are about 10 spots left for the upcoming Sufi Camp at the Southwest Sufi Community land, which is on 1500 acres in the Gila Wilderness, an hour out of Silver City, New Mexico.

The Caravan in Turkey is now on a waitlist basis but the “Conference of the Birds Celebration" also in Turkey still has space.

Sending all love,

Shabda

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Wazifa Practice

Recite 101x

YA WAHID ~ YA AHAD ~ YA SAMAD

65. Ya Wahid (yaa WAA-ḥid)

Al-Wahid is the unique one present in the many, the one that is in everything. Al-Wahid is also the one underlying the many, the uniqueness of God that is reflected in each and every aspect of manifestation. As an abstract noun, it is identified with the state of oneness itself, but it also has the meaning, “the one who is in all.” Everything is a mirror for God’s face.

Al-Wahid brings the vision of infinity in a grain of sand. Every speck reflects the infinite. The result is that we can see a thing as finite and as infinite at the same time. That is called waahidiyyah. The totality—the infinite—can be perceived within each and every finite element. Anything you hear, you hear the one; anything you see, you see the one.

66. Ya Ahad (yaa A-ḥad)

Al-Ahad means total and absolute oneness. It is the one of the one. It should not be confused with the conception of the totality of all things. Oneness is an essential characteristic of Allah. God is absolutely singular and unique. Al-Ahad is the one without a second. It is a unicity. You can’t add the one of al-Ahad to itself and get two. In its concreteness, only one is. It has no opposite. Nothing is like this one. From the view of al-Ahad, of unity, no distinctions are made between the different prophets of God.

Each one of them is a complete entity of the whole. Al-Ahad is the center of a circle without a circumference.

67. Ya Samad (yaa ṢA-mad)

As-Samad is the continuity of eternity. It is the circumference of the circle that expands eternally, whose center is everywhere. It is infinite expansive space. The root form samad(an) means continuously. As-Samad is the relationship between al-Ahad, the one of the one, and al-Wahid, the one of the many. Although it may be impossible to conceptualize the coexistence of these two kinds of oneness, in as-Samad they are reconciled.

In recitation, you invoke Ya Ahad, the infinite dot or singularity, and pair it with Ya Samad, the infinite circle that expands eternally. Invoking them as a pair will assist in bringing you true balance in life. As-Samad is connected with the word samdah, which means castle or citadel. It conveys the sense that the ground on which you stand is infinite.

To hear the pronunciation: Ya Wahid~ Ya Ahad ~ Ya Samad

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Text and Commentary to Study

This month we continue reading Githas, Series III, by Pir-o-Murshid Hazrat Inayat Khan. Even though you may have studied this before you can read with fresh eyes.

Read and contemplate pages 18-30 on Mysticism and Esotericism.

Click here

to download the document Githas, Series III

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Upcoming Events and Teachings

Annual Southwest Sufi Community Camp August 16 - 21

2022 DUP Turkish Caravan September 12 – 24

Conference of Birds-Turkey September 26 – October 2

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PHOTOS

Lama Sufi Sesshin at Murshid Sam’s Dargah