January 2023 Message

Dearest Family,

It has been raining for the last two weeks but today is a clear sunny day! We and our home are fine, but we make prayers for the many people who are suffering, both here and naturally throughout the world. Our “drought” is over, our reservoirs are full and our gardens are ready for spring!

For the first time in three years we had joyful in-face meetings both for our monthly Zikr Circle and for Murshid Sam's URS. There were torrents of rain on the URS evening with a few of us braving the storm. We were regaled with personal stories of Murshid Sam by Murshid Shahabuddin, Sheikh’s Fazl Peay and Farid Watson, along with me. Hopefully, we will send out a link to a video of the stories in the future.

I begin travels this Saturday to lovely and warm Costa Rica, where we'll have a retreat in the mountains with rich bird life all around. If you intend to join the Sufi Sesshin in Healdsbug this year it would be wise to register soon as there are a limited number of beds.

For those of you who want to make travel plans in advance, we will have a Memorial Celebration for Murshid Wali Ali here in the San Francisco Bay Area Sunday, March 12 afternoon, at Guzman Hall on the Dominican University Campus.

Murshid Wali Ali’s “49 days in the Bardo” have passed and I would like us to concentrate on a wazifa practice I remember him reciting daily in a loud enough voice that wherever we were I could hear him. YA MALIK ~ YA MALIKAL MULK.

Much love and gratitude,

Shabda

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Wazifa Practice

Recite 101x

YA MALIK ~ YA MALIKAL MULK

3. Ya Malik (yaa MA-lik)

The quality of al-Malik is to hold everything in the universe in the hands of the one and only being. It is an all-inclusive and majestic embrace. The word for angel, malak, is closely related to this name. Angels are made of light and are held in the hands of Allah. The light of al-Malik holds the inner essence of each and every thing. Each thing's essence never leaves this majestic embrace and never returns to it because it is permanently rooted in it. Ya Malik, thus experienced as holding everything's essence in the inner world, is naturally paired in repetition with Ya Malikal-Mulk (83), the majestic force that holds all outer forms.

By combining the two Names in repetition, you are brought to a balanced confidence in heaven and earth. Invocation of Ya Malik, Ya Malikal-Mulk is an antidote for all who feel abandoned and don't believe they belong anywhere. A person in this condition is constantly negating the reality of inner majesty or denying the reality of outer majesty. The recitation of these two related Names as a pair is also useful for those who do not feel entitled to possess things and who are afraid of the grossness of the material realm.

83. Ya Malikal-Mulk (yaa MAA-li-kal-MULK)

Malikul-Mulk expresses that each and every manifestation in the universe completely depends on being held by God. Malikul-Mulk describes permanence in the midst of change. Things (mulk) are always in flux-coming and going, strong and weak. They are transient. Even though the world has this appearance, invocation of Ya Malikal-Mulk brings the realization that all manifestation never leaves the hands of Allah. In accord with Arabic grammar, when using "Ya" we say Ya Malikal-Mulk; without the "Ya" the name is slightly different: we say Malikul-Mulk.

Both elements of the Name, malik and mulk, derive from the same root-malaka-which means to hold in the hands. Calling on this divine quality is like reaching down into the stream of time and grasping eternal essence in its majesty. It is king and controller. Invocation of Ya Malikal-Mulk helps you overcome the dichotomy that arises from how you may be perceived by others because, from the perspective of this divine Name, whether you are viewed as high or low is irrelevant.

Repetition of Ya Malikal-Mulk is especially recommended for all who, because of lack of intimacy in their family experience, are hesitant to trust relationships with people. It is also a remedy for all who are afraid to fully engage in this world because of its coarseness. See Ya Malik (3), with which we recommend it be paired in recitation.

To hear the pronunciation: Ya Malik ~ Ya Malikal-Mulk

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Text and Commentary to Study

This month we finish reading Murshid Sam’s Commentary

on the Githas, Series II, Sadhana.

Read and contemplate pages 37 - 52, Numbers 6 & 7, 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

Sufi Sesshin in Healdsburg, CA March 5 - 10