The following account of Mawlana Jalaluddin Rumi’s first night of dhikr-e samâ’ has been adapted from the novel "The Forty Rules of Love", by Turkish author Elif Shafak. There are those who say that dancing is sacrilege. They think Allah gave us music—not only the music we make with our…
From the Islam Image Quotes series: Islamic Wisdom, Sayings and Quotes Rest assured that abstract knowledge cannot be held with the hand. For example, a man is in the wilderness. He has ten lethal swords together with other weapons and he is brave and bellicose. A huge and ferocious lion…
From the Islam Image Quotes series: Islamic Wisdom, Sayings and Quotes "And We will surely test you with something of fear and hunger and a loss of wealth and lives and fruits, but give good tidings to the patient." (Al-Qur'an 2:155) "Or do you think that you will enter Paradise…
If I had to choose the one phrase out of all of Shaikh Husain's "oft-repeated phrases" that I hear the most, it could be this one. Such a simple statement – in theory - but in practice… Whatever you do, do it sincerely. ~Shaikh Husain Ash-Shadhili Doing sincerely is never…
Words in the Arabic-speaking world are powerful and effective weapons. While the Qur’an is the ultimate and unique masterpiece of the Arabic Language, Arabic poetry has been a highly influential force in Arab society and has been regarded as the Diwan ul-Arab: a literary heritage of Arab life collected by…
Not long ago, it came up in conversation: “Saying that we have the 'Qur'an and sunnah’ is very vague. It is a cliché with no real-ity.” Because saying is saying. The quest of every soul who has been guided to the path of Islam, whether real-ized or not, is real-izing.…
Al hamdulillāh [i], when Allah led me to the wellspring of Islam, I recognized the sweetness of its cool, refreshing water. Al hamdulillāh after much time spent wandering the desert of my inner life, I didn’t think: “Well, maybe there is a deeper, clearer pool over there somewhere.” A dear,…
He’s lost some weight, our boy. Earlier, I had been trying for some time to get him to drink – he doesn’t drink easily. I approached, as usual, head-on from the front – and then I remembered: “This is how I do it,” he said. “Watch.” Wisdom is like that:…
After recognizing the benefit of the companionship of a shaykh [i] who is connected to the Prophet (pbuh) by the transmission of his Light; a noble guide who lives by both sharī’ah [ii] and Truth – for the sincere murīd [iii] who hopes to arrive at the Divine Presence; the…
In The Diwan of Shaikh Husain Ash-Shadhili Ad-Darqawi, a diwan of three languages: Arabic, Indonesian and English, the pantun Al-Qur’an stands alone in one language only: Indonesian. This eloquent pantun [i] is a poem based on the Noble Qur’an, the sunnah (prophetic tradition) and ilham (inspiration). Direct quotations from the…