What hidden sweetness is found in this empty stomach!
Man is like a lute, neither more nor less:
When the lute’s stomach is full, it cannot lament, whether high or low.
If your brain and stomach burn from fasting, their fire will draw constant lamentation from your breast.
Through that fire you will burn a thousand veils at every instant — you will ascend a thousand degrees on the Way and in your aspiration.
Keep your stomach empty! Lament like a flute and tell your need to God!
Keep your stomach empty and speak of the mysteries like a reed!
If you keep your stomach full, it will bring Satan to you at the Resurrection, instead of your intellect, an idol of the Kaaba.
When you fast, good character traits gather round you like servants, slaves and retinue.
Continue your fasting, for it is Solomon’s seal: Give not the seal to the devil, disrupt not your kingdom.
And if your kingdom and army should flee from you, your army will return, so raise the banner!
The Spread Table has come from heaven to those who fast, for Jesus son of Mary has called it down with his prayers.
Await the Table of Generosity in your fast — the Table of Generosity is better than cabbage stew.
- Jalal ud-Din Rumi, translated by William Chittick in “Sufi Path of Love”
*Injeel is the New Testament Gospels of the Christian Bible.
Muslims are taught to make no distinction
between any of the Beloved's Revealed Books.
You don't have (the first three words of this poem are the meaning of Ramadan Kareem). It means Ramadan is generous, it means Ramadan heals. It means Ramadan feeds. It means Ramadan clothes. You don't have to be Muslim to have a blissful Ramadan. There is room for everyone at the table where we fast, that place in the hearts, where the prayer is: "May my hunger empty my wallet
into your hands."
You don't have to be Muslim to call out to your Beloved, "What can I do? What can I do?"
You don't have to be Muslim to make sure everyone has food. May all creation know the meaning of Ramadan Karim. Amin
To contemplate on during these last few hours before the start of Ramadan:
The Prophet, may Allah immerse him in continuous peace, said,
"An hour's worth of contemplation is better than
sixty years of worship."
The soul's true happiness lies in experiencing the inner joy, and it will never be fully satisfied with outer, seeming pleasures. Its connection is with God, and nothing short of perfection will ever satisfy it.
Bowl of Saki, July 19, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
R A M A D A N
I S
G E N E R O U S
Muhammad ibn Ya`qub (al-Kulayni), from `Ali ibn Ibrahim, from his father, from al-Nawfali,
from al-Sakuni, from Abu 'Abd Allah (al-'Imam al Sadiq) (A) that he said:
"Amir al-Mu'minin (A) used to say: `Arouse your heart to contemplation;
keep your side clear off the night; and be heedful towards your Lord."
(Usul al-Kafi, II, 5)
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The most superior form of worship is perpetual contemplation on God and His Power.
(Usul al-Kafi, II, 55)
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"GOD IN EVERY HEART"
Snatam Kaur
(make it your mantra)
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“Say: 'I give you only one admonition,
That you stand before Allah either two by two, or one by one and reflect.”
1.Nafs-i-Ammara, the Commanding Nafs Behold! The commanding nafs encourages evil, except when my Lord bestows mercy. (Qur'an 12:53)
Traits: narcissistic, mechanical, conditioned, non-reflective, impulsive.
Habits: pride, enmity, cruelty, lust, stinginess.
2. Nafs-i-Lawwama: Blaming Nafs But I swear by the accusing nafs that this Scripture is true. (Qur'an 75:2)
Traits: conscience, capacity for self-observation.
Habits: backbiting, trickery, conceitedness, hypocrisy, self-consciousness, guilt, fearfulness, wishful thinking, intense desire to please others.
3. Nafs-i-Mulhama: Inspired Nafs And a nafs and Him who gave order to it and inspired it with a sesnse of what is wrong for it and what is right for it.
Traits: generosity, gratitude, modesty, empathy, ardent desire.
Habits: liberality lacking discrimination, mystical inflation, tendency toward spiritual greed.
4. Nafs-i-Mutmaina: Tranquil Nafs To the righteous soul will be said, "O you nafs in complete peace and satisfaction!" (Qur'an 89:27)
Traits: dignity, sincerity, courage, compassion, complete loyalty.
Habits: Attachment to spiritual ambition.
5. Nafs-i-Radziyya: Satisfied Nafs Return to your Lord, content (Qur'an 89:28)
Traits: knowledge of Allah, sincerity, unbounded faith and hope in existential communion.
Habits: mystical intoxication, lack of sobriety and balance.
7. Nafs-Safiyya: Purified Nafs This day have I perfected your religion for you, completed My favor to you, and chosen for you as your religion Islam. (Qur'an 5:3)
Traits: freedom from duality, acceptance of Allah's will, joy of union, freedom from expectation, contentment.
Habits: None remaining
Narrated Anas: Allah's Apostle said, "Help your brother, whether he is an oppressor or he is an oppressed one. People asked, "O Allah's Apostle! It is all right to help him if he is oppressed, but how should we help him if he is an oppressor?" The Prophet said, "By preventing him from oppressing others." (Bukhari)
Doing nothing
is like being an accomplice
to the crime.
“…if any one slew a person - unless it be for murder or for spreading mischief in the land - it would be as if he slew the whole people: and if any one saved a life, it would be as if he saved the life of the whole people.” (Quran 5:32)
And the believers, men and women, are protecting friends of one another, they enjoin the right and forbid the wrong.
(Quran 9:71)
The ummah is like a body,
when one limb is harmed,
the entire body responds.
Muhammad, peace be upon him, said, "You will see the believers in their mutual kindness, love and sympathy just like one body. When a limb complains, the whole body responds to it with wakefulness and fever."
The Prophet (PBUH) said: If you hear a hadith reported from me which your hearts recognize, at which your hair and skin become tender, and you feel that it is near to you: know that I am nearer to it than you. And if you hear a hadith being reported from me of which your hearts disapprove, from which your hair and skin recoil, and you feel that it is far from you: know that I am even farther from it than you." Narrated from Abu Humayd al-Ansari and Abu Usayd al-Sa'idi, by Ahmad (al Arnaut ed. 25: 456 #16058 isnad sahih 'ala shart Muslim), al Bazzar (Mukhtasar al-Zawa'id #187), Ibn Hibban, Sahih (1:263 #63) and others with a sound chain of Sahih narrations cf. al-Haythami (1:150) and Ibn Kathir, Tafsir (1:473, 2:264).
Towards the One The Perfection of Love, Harmony and Beauty The Only Being United with all the illuminated souls Who form the embodiment of the Mother, The Spirit of Guidance. Amin
Omar Faruk Tekbilek - One Truth
There never was a people
without a Warner having lived among them.
-Quran 35:24
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And certainly We sent Messengers before you;
there are some of them
that We have mentioned to you
and there are others whom we have not mentioned to you.
-Quran 40:78
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Hadhrat Abu Zarr Gifaari (Radi Allah Anho) narrates
that the Holy Prophet, peace be upon him, said,
'The Prophets were 124,000.'
(Mishkaat)
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There is no truth but Truth
and the Prophetic Light
is Truth's messenger.
Ya Haqq!
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Every people has a book even if it is written in the language of the stars.
"Our Bible is the wind and the rain."
-Herbalist Carol McGrath
as told to her by a Native American woman
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Before the written word, sacred stories were spoken, entire books were memorized by the people, passed on generation to generation.
Every religion is a love song, an intimate gift to the peoples of the world. Though they come to us in different languages, the words are the same for the Word is one.
May S/He Who is the Abba in Heaven of the Christians, Hashem of the Jews, Allah Most Merciful of the Muslims, Sophia of the Gnostics, Buddha of the Buddhists, Tao of the Chinese, Ahura Mazda of the Zoroastrians and Brahman of the Hindus lead us from the unreal to the Real, from darkness to light, from disease and death to immortality. May the All-Loving Being manifest Him/Herself unto us, and grant us abiding understanding and all-consuming divine love. Peace, Peace, Peace be unto all.
- by Ramakrishna, (my revisions to the prayer in italics)
