October 2022 Message

Beloved Family,

Greetings of the Heart! After three very busy weeks at home after the journey to Turkey I Leave Saturday for a 8 days to the Heartland - Kansas City area for the first in face Murshid Circle gathering since the beginning of the pandemic followed by an in-face Jamiat Khas Leaders Retreat.

If you missed it I wrote a long article on my Journey to Turkey in the RUH NEWS and you can find it here

<https://conta.cc/3T9XmXn>

Having led two years of the Ruhaniat Family ZOOM Gatherings I would like to venture in to having a Mureeds ZOOM Gathering focusing more on practices and approaches to the Path. Please join us on Thursday, November 10th at 11 AM PST. Naturally, everyone in our Sufi family is welcome. We will gradually figure out a regular rhythm. (https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85926951198?pwd=RnlrTk1zbDBNbzV4dUpJc24yVGdndz09)

Had some very tender visits with Murshid Wali Ali. He is living with advancing dementia at Elder Ashram, an exceptional assisted living Memory Care Center. I will do my best to visit him regularly as long as possible. Even though his memory of current events is nearly all gone, some older memories are still accessible, and as his friend of some 53 years, we have much to reach back to. So much gratitude to Sabura for being the main anchor of love and care during this period and to Murshida Fatima for her generosity in paying for his first year of care at Elder Ashram.

We start a new text today, Murshid Sam’s Commentary on the Githa Series 2 on Sadhana. My sense is that maybe 10% or 20% of you actually read the texts I send out. Certainly, that is understandable, especially since transmission of Love and the Message does not rely on the written word. At the same time, Murshid Sam’s writing is an excellent way to breath in the Breath of the Murshid, so I encourage you all to see if you can make it a habit to read the texts.

Continuing on the rhythm of Muhasiba, getting to know oneself, or self-examination, let’s recite two wazifas that together help us heal wounds that are deeply covered over and hidden from view - YA RA'UF ~ YA RAHIM

Much love,

Shabda

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Wazifa Practice

Recite 101x

YA RA'UF ~ YA RAHIM

YA RA'UF ~ YA RAHIM (yaa ra-ʻOOF) (yaa ra-ḤEEM)

Ya Ra'uf is a quiet, gentle in-dwelling love that nevertheless actively penetrates to the deepest and most profound place. It goes right to the essence of being human, and it helps to heal the crucial problem of our narcissistic self-identification with our perceived deficiencies and shortcomings.

Ya Rahim is the inner element of divine love, which penetrates into the depth of all beings and all things.

Ya Raʼuf is an invocation of quiet, gentle, profound love. One of the ways to understand ar-Raʼuf is to compare it to ar-Rahim, with which it is close in meaning. Nine of the 11 times that ar-Raʼuf occurs in the Qurʼan, it is paired with ar-Rahim to describe Allah. These divine names are close in meaning, but the sound-code embedded in the Arabic language helps to distinguish them. The sound-code makes ar-Rahim omnipresent; it spreads into every particular thing without exception. It has a very immanent quality. The sound-code for ar- Raʼuf reveals it to be a kind of love that emphasizes a deep, deep penetration into the core of being, into essence.

So Ya Ra'uf touches the deepest wounds there are. It goes to the place within you where there are sensitive hurts and wounds that you have lived your whole life defending from being touched. But this simple love can reach it. It is so quiet that it can penetrate the armor. It is even subtler than what we generally understand by compassion. It is a gentle perfume.

Ya Rahim is an antidote for beings who feel abandoned by God and who badly need to feel the healing activity of divine love reaching them deeply within.

To hear the pronunciation: Ya Ra'uf ~ Ya Rahim

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Text and Commentary to Study

This month we begin reading Murshid Sam’s Commentary on the Githas, Series II, on Sadhana.

Read and contemplate pages 1-12 on the path of attainment

Click here

to download the document Murshid Sam’s Commentary on the Githas, Series II

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Upcoming Events and Teachings

Sufi Retreat in Costa Rica January 25 - 29, 2023

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Photos