In the Name of Allahs Boundless Compassion and Infinite Love

Shaykh Muzaffer al Jerrahi was a master of Essence, chosen by Allah the Exalted to bear the light of La ilaha Ilallah Muhammad Rasulallah to the West in the late 20th century. He was the one who smelled the fragrance from the rose garden of Allahs lovers, still unknown to themselves, and he traveled to this country to meet them and make them blossom. He tended them and watered them with his tears and prayed for their forgiveness. He illumined for them the path of truth, and caused them to fall in love with the truth and with the prophets of truth and with the beloved of the truth, Muhammad Mustafa, may his crown of truth send peace into the world. Muzaffer Efendi then offered the lovers the delicate scale in which to weigh their actions and inmost intentions. He offered himself as the bright mirror into which they could gaze upon their own perfection. He found Nur, his inheritor. He named him, and brought him to the lovers as the servant of love. Efendi broke the conventions and rules for the sake of love. He gave all for love. And we are these roses of love, knowing only love, whose hearts are lit by the fire of love, not by some earthly flame, because we were found by the true servant of love. May he be blessed with the highest blessings and may every breath of every dervish in our order bless him and Shaykh Nur as long as our creation lasts. May Allah most High bless his family and protect them from all unhappiness or harm. May the tariqat of Muhammad which he brought to this time and land flourish abundantly, abundantly, abundantly. Ya Nur, dearest beloved who is love, light of Allah, light of the lights of the heart, flowering sword of La ilaha ilallah, jewel of Bismillah, smile of the Prophet Muhammmads heart, may Allah immerse him always in complete Peace, heart treasure and companion of the Prophet of Allah, repository of his secret, friend of humanity, heart awakener, Ya Saki pourer of the wine of mystic love which Muzaffer Ashki poured into you, revealer of the secret Ashki revealed in you, lover of Allah in all Allahs beautiful manifestations, servant of the Prophets, friend and reviver of the holy traditions, ecstatic dancing tzadiq, mystic child of the divine Mother, Great Swan parting the water of Reality, leading the way into the infinitely opening space of Divine Essence, Living Buddha Jikai. You give usyour living Buddha successors, your Sufi family, your mystic bodythe koan of realization, the mother of Wisdom, perfection of the Wisdom of What Is. Youholy heart of compassion, churner of the butter of goodness, tender human being, envisioner of the New Humanity, Pir and guide of the New Humanity, New Humanity itself, Medet! Help us who are your spiritual kin, your very self, guide us further as you have guided us here, onto the evermore bewildering journey of mystic love, inspire us with the wine of your love which is the Ashk Muhammadi, take us away from our selves and give us to the Prophet of Love who is Allahs infinite abyss of love, may Allah rejoice him eternally with the oceanic gnosis of love. Please pray intensely for us that our hearts be kind and generous, our actions selfless, our breaths only for Allah, our awakening where self and other disappear, our place the placeless, our time the timeless, our face all creation as you saw your face. Pray that we be true servants of the Truth and servants of humanity, dying and living, dying and living, dying and living. And bless Muzaffer Ashki whose essence is in your essence, and bless all of your teachers and guides. And bless your family, your wife Sheila and all your children and grandchildren, your mother Adelaide Aisha and your father Alec, and all your spiritual children and companions. May they eternally flourish. May your way, following the blessed universal Muhammad, who is embraced in Allah's infinite radiance, remain until the last day, bringing goodness and joy to humanity. May the seeds of your heart, your spiritual community, bloom in the gardens of Paradise and the sublime garden of Essence. May your community never cease increasing. May you be rewarded with the joyful news of divine forgiveness for all humanity and the return of humanity into its beloved Source. We love you! Take us completely! Reveal each one of us as Divine Reality and New Humanity!

In the Name of Allahs Boundless Compassion and Infinite Love

Bismillah ir-Rahman ir-Rahim resounds throughout the 18,000 universes, filling every pore of creation, causing all beings to tremble and vibrate with love. All in creation proclaim the infinite love and compassion of Allah. All come into existence through Allahs love, are sustained through this love, and guided to higher and higher levels of being through love. May we never allow limited conceptions to cause us to despair of Allahs unlimited love. It is Allahs love for us rises like a wave inside our being and becomes our love to Allah. Whatever is not this love will pass away. Whatever relations that are not bonded with this love will untie. Allahs love alone remains when everything else disappears. May in every conscious moment we rely on Allahs Love alone. May we never depend on ourselves, for the only limit to mercy is ourselves. Every burden disappears as we cry out to Allah. We increase our capacity for His great love through gratitude and contentment with our life experience and through offering selfless love to others. The more we turn and return to Allah's mercy the more the infinity of divine love can pour through us. We are the baby at the breast of divine love. The more we draw the milk the more it flows. Both names Rahman and Rahim derive from the root word meaning womb. The power of love contained in the Rahman is likened to the boundless love of a mother for her children. Here we have the divine feminine opening within the heart of Islam. In the mirror of creation, Allah has pointed to the mother to let us taste the nature of divine loveParadise is at the feet of the mother. Then Allah tells us that Rahim is ninety-nine times more powerful than the Rahman. Ya Rahim O Love of Allah for Allah O secret of Allah shared with the intimate lovers O lightning flash that breaks all the mirrors O longing in the dervish heart that is never quenched O power that draws us to return without hesitation O Love that lifts the curtain on Itself and shows us our own face. O Love that leaves no trace other than Itself

TheBanquetofFriends,theFeastofLove

2700yearsagotheProphetIsaiahrevealedabeautifulpromisefromGodOnthis holymountaintheLordofHostswillprepareabanquetofrichsustenanceforallthe peoples,abanquetofholyfoodandmaturewinestrainedclearofallimpurity,a banquetofdeepwisdomandintoxicatingdivinelove.Onthissacredmountainthe Lordwilldestroytheveilshroudinghumanity,theobscuringveilofblindnessand selfinterestthrownoverallthenations.Hewilldestroydeathandnegativity forever.ThentheLordGodwillwipeawaythetearsfromeveryface,and throughouttheworldremovetheindignitiesfromHispeople.Thisbanquetisthe greatgatheringofhumanity,thehomecomingintotheOneReality.Thesufisand mysticsofalltraditions,aretheonesextendingtheDivineinvitationtothebanquet. Theyhavetouchedthegroundoftheirbeingandrealizethatthegroundisthesame forall.TheyareGodsmessengersandpeacemakers.Theyknowthatallthehearts areraysofoneheart.Theyseethatallthetraditionsarestreamsinoneoceanof revelation.Eachbringsinnumerablegiftstothehumanfamilytobeshared,not disputed. 700yearsafterIsaiahcameJesus,thelivingspiritofGod,toinvitethepoorinspirit, theexcluded,thetransgressortothebanquet.TheLastSupper,whichwasa Passoverfeast,representstheAgape,thebanquetoflovetowhichallwereinvited. Divinedoorsopened,barrierscamedown.Therewerenocriterianecessaryto attendthefeastbesideslove.GodwasrevealedaslovelongingforItself.Tofeellove wastobecalled.ToloveJesus,thesonofMan,wastoloveGodandtobelovedby God.BymergingintotheessenceofJesusonemergedintoGod.Maytheyallbe one.AsYouFatherareinmeandIinYousomaytheybeinUs.ImadeYourName knowntothem,andwillmakeitknown,sothattheloveYouhaveformemaybein them,andIinthem.(FromtheholydiscipleJohn)Thewaywasmadeeasy.The latterdayswerehere,theafternoonofcreation,andthedivineurgencyoflove openedthewaytoItself. 600yearsaftertheSpiritofGodblewthroughthehumanhearts,callingthemhome, cametheMajesticProphetcompletingthemessageandunitingallthepathsof return.Withhisembodiment,andwithallthemaintraditionsnowonearth,theaxis ofunityrevealsitselfatthecenterofallreligionsandpathsofbeliefasLove.Once thisaxisisseen,thedivineunityisrevealed.Religionsarenolongerirreconcilable realities,butratherstreamsfromthesameSourceofLove,facetsofonediamond. Thelastandgreatestobstacletothebanquetisnowdissolved.Allhumanitycan gathertogetherastheyare,withtheirvaryingbeliefs,withtheirindividual fragranceandcolor.Thesearetobesharedanddelightedin,ratherthanconverted andeliminated. ShaykhNurcallstheProphetMuhammadtheDistributorofthelightofprophecy intoallhumanheartsbecausethroughhimthedivinepermissionandmercyhas reacheditsculmination.Allheartsareinvitedtobethevesselsofdivinerevelation. Theyaretheendlessflowingfountainsofparadisepouringthewaterofloveand wisdomtoeachother.Alltheheartsaretrulyoneheart.Thepropheticmessageis

nowcompleteinthesensethatitisgiventoall.Itisendlessinthesensethataslong asthereisaheart,divinerevelationwillneverceaseflowing. ThebanquetrepresentsthereturnofusallintoGodthroughthemysticalbodyof theblessedMuhammad,enlightenedFatima,holyJesus,exaltedMariam,sublime Moses,truthfulAbraham,andallthesourcesoftruth,Buddha,Avatar,Sage,women andmenfromtheEastandWestmergedinGod,peacebeuponthemall.The banquetistheOneBeinglivingtheexaltedlifeofLove.Simplybyacceptingthe invitation,sayingyes,andlinkingourselveshearttoheartweareabsorbedinto themysticalbodyandreturnedtoouroriginalstateinGod.Thebanquetisinitiation intouniversaltariqat,asthelightoflovekindledatthetableofprophecyleapsfrom hearttoheart.Thebanquetisholyfriendship,lovingeachotherinGod,asGod.With everyofferingofloveweextendthebanquet.Godislove,humanityislove. Finallywehavecometoknowourself,andhaveletgooflimitedidentities.Wecan saywithRumi,IamneitherMuslim,norChristiannorJew...Wearedivineand wehavenoidentityfromtheworld.Emptyofallform,wecannowsaywithIbn ArabiMyheartiscapableofallforms...Wearetheemptyvesselofdivine manifestation.WhateverGodmanifestsinourheartmomentbymomentiswhowe are.
The Way of Love print close

Hu- The Divine Pronoun; the Essence of Allah, beyond Name, gender, form, and all human definition; Often translated as He

Shaykh al-Akbar Muhyiddin Ibn al-Arabi, may his secret be sanctified

My heart has become capable of all forms: For gazelles, a meadow, for monks, a monastery, A temple for idols, the pilgrims Kaba, The Tablets of Torah, the Book of the Quran I profess the religion of Love, and whatever the direction Taken by its mount, Love is my religion and my faith Tarjuman al-Ashwaq

Shaykh Muzaffer Ozak Ashki al-Jerrahi, may his secret be sanctified The Real Beloved is the very self of love and of the lover. There is nothing prior to love. Love is the first of the first. Love is the last of the last After everything has come to nought and perished, love still endures and will endure forever. It is eternal, and will be so for all eternity. Love is without end. Love is an ocean. Such an ocean it is, that this sea has no bottom, no shore, no beginning, no end, and no limits O Lord! Letting Your guidance escort us, offer us with Your mighty hand the drinking-glass of love, so that our hearts may never for even one moment be parted from Your love Through divine love, Hell becomes Paradise for the lover. Love turns the fire into light. When the lover enters Paradise, he burns with your love till Paradise is like Hell for him O dervish calling yourself a lover! With His love do you not whirl around? With His love do you not travel the eighteen thousand worlds? Then take to the floor and whirl with His love, address Him with love, call on Him with love! The eyes of the dervish who is a true lover see nothing but God; his heart knows nothing but Him. God is the eye by which he sees, the hand with which he holds, and the tongue with which he speaks. The dervish does not stop at the names, but discovers the Named and surrenders to his Beloved. His sole concern is God, his pain is God, his remedy is God, his cure is God, his cause is God. Were he not in love, he would pass away. If his heart should be devoid of love for as much as a single moment, the dervish could not stay alive. Love is the dervishs life, his health, his comfort. Love ruins the dervish, makes him weep; union makes him flourish, brings him to life. The dervish finds separation in union, union in separation. In heavenlove; on earthlove; to the rightlove; to the leftlove; everywhere and everything is love. Love is He; the Lover He; the Beloved is He; the Loved One is He; the Dear One is He; the Friend is He. The knight of love will reach his beloved early or late. He who gives his life for love will sooner or later find his dearest. Love Him, that He may love you too. Unless He loves, you cannot love Him; unless He is seeking you, you cannot seek Him. Love your beloved, for the beloved is He; love your own true self, for your own true self is also He. Unveiling of Love

Mevlana Jelaluddin Rumi, may his secret be sanctified

No Matter what I say to explain or describe Love, when I arrive at Love itself, Im ashamed of my words... Only Love itself can explain Love, Only Love can explain the destiny of lovers. The proof of the sun is the sun itself: If you want proof, dont turn your face away. Selected from Mathnawi 1.112

Shaykh Nur al-Jerrahi, may his secret be sanctified

You alone, my Beloved, are protection, support, inner force, and true being. Always courting my soul, always in sympathy, you are my rapture, well-being and joy, the thrill of my existence, the consecration of my life. I kneel in your presence, heart in prostration, enraptured and exalted by your essence. The straps of your sandals I kiss with delight. I cannot find words to describe my mystical spouse, the favorite of the universe, the hidden pearl. O thief of God-filled hearts, I submit to your overwhelming embrace, annihilated by this magnificent Love. Without home or asylum, without path or trace, without any escape, any remedy, I am lost in the desert, mountainous and remote, the flowering desert of your Love. You are closer than my central artery. For you I have been mortally wounded by sweet arrows in the mystical assembly of the heroic lovers of Love. It is the radiant death of mortality. I am amazed by this depth of Love, which removes reason from the enamored ones. I am an ant on a small leaf of the immense tree of Love, a mote of pollen in the endless abyss of Love. My naked heart is a brilliant ember before the royal blue throne of the ardent saints of my lineage. Always ascending, this infinite aspiration that no flood can extinguish confirms the mystery of Assumption. I am the virgin bride of Divine Wisdom. An excerpt from Countenance and Heart of the Shaykh, an epic poem in Atom From the Sun of Knowledge

Shaykha Fariha Love, intimacy, and constant remembrance are the glorious way. Essentially love, love, and more love. Tariqat, the path of ease, unfolds in the Bismillahirrahmanirrahimin the all-encompassing womb of Love. Allah is all-embracing, all-forgiving, all-providing Mother. Allah is glorious Truth and Supreme Reality. Allah is intimate lover and watchful guide. Allah is hidden Mystery. The path of ease opens the heart to adore our Beloved in all beautiful forms, and to cry out with all the beautiful names. We are with our Beloved in the open space, in the great freedom of only Hu, where Love alone is real. How many thousand thousand times have You told me I am Yours O Love tell me one more time How many pens and how many oceans of ink have flowed in Loves name O Love send me oceans more How many universes of hearts have been broken in Loves cause O Love I offer You one more How many tears for eons of years have filled Loves beakers O Love I cant stop crying How many swans in the heavens of Love have cried Your name and passed away from life and form O Love take me too Lineage print close

The Prophet and Beloved of Allah, The Principle of Perfect Humanity, Muhammad Mustafa, may divine peace and

blessings be upon him and his family

The initiatory power received as one enters the Nur Ashki Jerrahi Order streams from the Divine Heart and from the heart of the beloved Prophet Muhammad, may Allah embrace him in the peace of perfect union. This light of transmission flows through the incomparable Hazreti Fatima and Hazreti Ali, daughter and son-in-law of the Prophet, and heart to heart through eleven centuries of mystic shaykhs, to the founding pir of our order, Hazreti Pir Muhammad Nureddin Jerrahi, born in Istanbul in 1678 CE. The unbroken chain of transmission continues until it reaches these shores with Nureddin Jerrahis nineteenth successor, Shaykh Muzaffer Ozak al-Jerrahi. In 1980 in the Masjid al-Farah, Shaykh Muzaffer placed the crown of the order, the taj, upon the head of Lex Hixon, Nur al-Anwar al-Jerrahi, and then upon the head of Fariha al-Jerrahi, who were kneeling side by side. For the remaining fifteen years of his life Shaykh Nur spread the lineage through the Americas. His vision of Universal Islam opens a new era of spiritual flowering. When personally linked with the hand of the shaykh, the dervish becomes an illumined vessel for the light of the lineage, and an outpouring of the Divine Heart. Islam is like clear water poured into different vessels. It takes the color and shape of each vessel. - Shaykh Muzaffer al-Jerrahi

The Pir print

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The calligraphic signature of the founding saint of our Order, Hazreti Pir Muhammad Nureddin al-Jerrahi al-Halveti, may his spiritual secret be sanctified

The Sufi Order of Nur Ashki Jerrahi originated with an embodiment of Divine Love, Pir Nureddin alJerrahi. When Shaykh Nur asked Shaykh Muzaffer why Pir Nureddin had been born, he replied, For love, for love, for love! The coming of the qutuba true human being whose love spiritually supports

the whole worldby the name of Muhammad Nureddin al-Jerrahi, was precisely predicted through the inspiration of a great Shaykh 300 years before his birth. Nureddin means the Light of the Way of Truth. AlJerrahi means the Surgeon. For Shaykh Nur this meant the surgeon of the heart who performs the delicate operations necessary for clearing the heart of obstruction. Nur would also refer to him as the whirling diamond. The secret of Pir Nureddin relates to the nature of Universal Mercy, which is the royal seal of Allah Most High. The Sultan of all hearts declares I have inscribed Mercy for Myself and My Mercy embraces all existence. This great declaration that love is the core of creation and all creation is Allahs Mercy, is the secret of Pir Nureddin. He receives it directly from the Prophet Muhammad, may the sweet peace of knowing this secret flow always into his blessed heart. The Prophet is the inheritor of all the revelatory traditions, while the Pir is the inheritor of the tariqats, which are distillations of revelatory light. Pir Nurredin, following the way of the Prophet Muhammad, is an axis joining all the spokes of the wheel and a vessel of the totality of the divine names. Among the saints this degree of universality is only given to a master of the Essence. To be in the Essence is to have the totality of the Names and Attributes, and to carry these means to be the bearer of Universal Mercy. At nineteen years of age, having completed his religious studies with highest honors, Nureddin was appointed to the position of chief Islamic Judge of Egypt. He was prepared to leave his native Istanbul for the long journey, but the winds were unfavorable. In the interim, his uncle took the opportunity to bring him to the meeting place of the Halveti Sufi Order (Halvetialways on retreat with Allah), and to introduce him intimately to Tariqat, the path of Love. The Halveti guide, Shaykh Ali Alauddin al-Halveti al-Kostendili, immediately recognized the spiritual beauty of Nureddin and welcomed him by name. The passionate dhikrullah that night affected him so profoundly that he abandoned his place among the guests and plunged into the circle of inebriated dervishes. He entered total ecstasy, releasing his mind forever from all worldly conventions, as Allah had willed. Empty of himself and overflowing with the realization of Love, he threw himself at the feet of the shaykh and begged to become his dervish. The clothing and life of a scholar and judge were exchanged for those of a humble lover. He returned all his possessions to his parents house and declared that he had died. After seven years of devotion to his shaykh and a life of great simplicity, Nureddin was honored with the crown-turban of the order and invested with the responsibilities of a mystic shaykh. Shaykh Ali Alauddin sent him to Istanbul, accompanied by two older khalifas of the Order, to find the site for his new tekke. At that time the muezzin of the Janfeda Mosque in Istanbul, next to which Nureddins future tekke swould be built, was instructed in dream by the Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace, to prepare for the arrival of Nureddin by building a retreat room for him within the mosque. This was Nureddins first center within the city of Istanbul. Somewhat later Sultan Ahmet III, then presiding over the Ottoman Empire, received a dream in which the Prophet, peace be upon him, requested that he pay for the construction of Nureddins tekke. The Sultan sent his emissary to Nureddin with the funds. When the emissary came into Nureddins presence, he was struck with love. Then Nureddin lifted the corner of the sheepskin where he was sitting and gold coins miraculously manifested, showing that he had no need of material help. The emissary quickly returned the Sultans funds, resigned from his official function in the court, and became a dervish of Nureddin Jerrahi. Soon after, Nureddin was recognized as a pir, a Divinely ordained leader of a new branch of the Tariqat. He received many sacramental gifts for his new order from the shaykhs of other noble tariqas, which became part of the Jerrahi inheritance. These gifts include the colored sheepskins, certain illahis, articles of ritual clothing, and various ways of making dhikr, as well as the elevated stations of consciousness that each of these represent. Thus the Jerrahi Order became a rich, universal synergy of spiritual knowledge and practice, bearing multiple initiatory lineages within itself. One of Hazreti Pirs many miraculous manifestations took place in the last three years of his physical life. The Day of Arafat is the holy day on which the throng of pilgrims who have traveled to Mecca gather on the open plain of Mount Arafat, calling out Here I am O Lord, here I am before You, in an enactment

of the Day of Ultimate Awakening. On this day, Nureddin Jerrahi and his dervishes would gather outside the walls of the city of Istanbul and offer the afternoon prayer together. Through the spiritual power of the Pir they were mystically transported to the plain of Arafat, where they praised Allah in the company of the pilgrims. Then they returned again to their own city within the same cycle of prayer. The Paradise consciousness awakened on earth through Pir Nureddin Jerrahi extends through his community of spiritual heirs. His representatives, Shaykh Muzaffer Ashki and Shaykh Nur al-Anwar are of the stature of pirs themselves, as has been confirmed in dreams. They radiate the Pirs particular spiritual configuration of mercy, universality, and essence. As dervish lovers of these three noble beings, may we call their names, sense their presence within us, and inherit their ashk illahi, their whirling, world-healing, God-conscious love.

The Shaykh print

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Al-Aziz- The Mighty One, All-Powerful Love, a revealed Name of Allah and a spiritual name of Shaykh Muzaffer al-Jerrahi

The original Shaykh of Islam is, of course, the noble Prophet Muhammad, may peace be upon him. Communities of true lovers ever since have gathered around the shaykhs, or mature mystic guides, who are rightly called inheritors of the wealth of the Prophet. The shaykh is not a personality but a spiritual principle, one in essence, dazzlingly diverse in manifestation. - Nur al-Jerrahi, Atom; from the introduction to Countenance and Heart of the Shaykh The shaykh, representing all of her or his enlightened predecessors, often guides subtly and through dreams, without necessarily using common speech or social contact. The relation of shaykh and dervish is

solely spiritual. It is not a personal relationship in the ordinary sense. Nor is the shaykh in control of the psyche or the personal life of the dervish, or vice-versa. The relation of shaykh and dervish is a sacred relationship guiding the dervish to their own illumined heart by advancing through the seven levels of the self. The dervish develops profound spiritual trust toward the shaykh, and the shaykh prays for the dervish to become a mature and responsible human being. The dervish advances on the spiritual path through service to the shaykh, whether this service be visible or invisible. Outwardly we are serving the shaykh, inwardly we are serving Allah Most High. Love and respect to the shaykh, dhikr and prayer, are essential forms of service. Each offering dedicated to the dervish community is also service to the shaykh. Every action and intention for the sake of Truth is service.

Taking Hand: The Transmission of Light print

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Al-Shakur- The Source of Gratitude, Allah, Most Thankful

Our mystic path begins with the initiation of hand-taking. In this sacred moment, the dervish is united with the lineage of saints and receives a seed of light in the heart that subtly contains the entire spiritual path and the highest levels of realization. Shaykh Nur has conveyed the experience of hand-taking with these words: The initiation is called taking hand. It sacramentally replicates the historical event in the life of the Prophet when certain companions, already loyal to the holy way of life, ceremonially clasped his right hand, marking a vast intensification of their commitment. This act of taking hand creates a unique bond with the beloved Muhammad, beyond the respect and loyalty devout Muslims feel for their noble Prophet, upon him be peace. The right hand that is offered and received in this reenactment, therefore, is ultimately the right hand of the Prophet. The right hand of the shaykh is simply a conduit.... When the lovers of Love linked the right-hand side of their being with the Prophet of Love, upon him be peace, the mystic right hand of Divine Presence descended upon that linking. In this way Allah confirms the original promise made to the noble Adam. This promise has been passed in an unbroken stream of light through 124,000 Prophets to the beloved Muhammad of Arabia and transmitted from him through fourteen centuries of mystic shaykhs. This is the promise of the souls union with its Lord in the bridal chamber of Divine Love, the promise that even the veils of soul and Lord will vanish in the supreme realization of identity.... Now this Divine Promise, which is good until the End of Time, is again being confirmed.... The ceremony is a mystic crowning in which the Crown of Light, usually given to the soul in Paradise, is

actually conferred here on earth.... Receiving this crown enables one to experience Paradise consciousness here and now, during ones prayers and even during the struggles of daily life. The initiated dervishes can now transmit at least a glimpse of Paradise to their loved ones and colleagues, not verbally but directly, thereby elevating all humankind. The dervishes are not seeking their own spiritual bliss but are clearly motivated by the longing to be of service to humanity and to their own society in particular. - Shaykh Nur al-Jerrahi, Atom Please refer to the introduction of this book for an in-depth description of taking hand. The dervish who is embraced within the mystic family of Nureddin Jerrahi, Muzaffer Ashki al-Jerrahi and Nur al-Anwar al-Jerrahi, may Allah Most High sanctify their secret, receives their continuous spiritual protection and is guided by their light to the Prophet of Allah, Muhammad Mustafa, the root of all spiritual paths of return, may Allah Most High bless him with sublime peace. The Light of Muhammad, the Nur Muhammad, which is the one light shared by all of the Prophets and fountainheads of the great spiritual paths, will then open the dervish heart to the infinite Mercy of Allah, for the Prophetic Light is the key to the treasury of boundless Love. With the infinite power of Love expressed within La ilaha Ilallah Muhammad Rasulallah, illusion is dispelled, clearing all negativity and obstructions on the path of return to the Source of Love. The heart of the dervish ignited by Love soars into the Infinite Heart, and is filled with the perfect peace of submission. The dervish disappears into Allah and reappears as the Divine Attributes of Allah.

Dome of Prophets and Saints print

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We revere and love inherently all the 124,000 Prophets of Allah sent to all communities, and we love the countless intimate friends of Allah. We welcome them into our mystic circle of remembrance. The following are those most often invoked before dhikr. The Beloved Prophet Muhammad, Allahs Mercy to all Creation and the Distributor of the Light of Prophecy into all hearts; may Allahs sublime peace shower upon him, the shining members of his household, his blessed community, and all humanity. Adam the Pure, the vessel of all Divine Names Eve the Pure, Mother of Humanity Noah, Savior of Humanity in the Ark of Prophecy Blessed Abraham, the Great Friend, Father of True Religion Ishmael and Isaac, the Holy Sacrifices to Allah Hazreti Hagar and Hazreti Sarah, Mothers of the faithful Noble Moses, who speaks with Allah and receives the Life-Giving Law Hazreti Maryam, the one who brings forth the Living Word of Love The Beloved Jesus, Spirit of Allah and Ressurector of Dead Hearts Blessed Amina and Abdullah, parents of the Illumined Prophet Hazreti Fatima the Radiant, daughter of the Prophet, and first khalifa; her sisters Zayneb, Rukaya and Umm Khulthum The twelve noble wives of the Prophet: Hazreti Khadija, First Witness Hazreti Aisha the Beloved, transmitter of his religion

Hazreti Hafsa, Hazreti Zaynab, Hazreti Umm Salama, Hazreti Sawda, Hazreti Juwayriyah, Hazreti Zaynab bint Jahsh, Hazreti Umm Habiba, Hazreti Safiyyah, Hazreti Maryam Qibtiyah, and Hazreti Maymunah Seyyida Zaynab, the daughter of Hazreti Fatima and Hazreti Ali The four Rightly Guided Khalifs: Hazreti Abu Bakr, as-Siddiq, who testifies to the Truth Hazreti Omar, the Just, discerner of the Truth Hazreti Osman, Guardian of the Two Lights Hazreti Ali The lineage of the Twelve Imams which followed Hazreti Alithis is the direct genetic line of the Prophet through his daughter Fatima: Hazreti Hasan and Hazreti Huseyn, beloved grandsons of the Prophet, the mystic martyrs of Islam Hazreti Ali Zayn al-Abidin Hazreti Muhammad al-Baqir Hazreti Jafar al-Sadiq Hazreti Musa al-Kazim Hazreti Ali al-Rida Hazreti Muhammad al-Jawad, al-Taqi Hazreti Ali al-Naqi, al-Hadi Hazreti Hasan al-Askari Hazreti Muhammad al-Mahdi, Master of the Age The great friends of Allah, and founders of mystic lineages, may Allah be pleased with them all: Hazreti Uways al-Qarani Hazreti Hasan al-Basri Hazreti Rabia al-Adawiya Hazreti Beyazit Bestami (Abu Yazid) Hazreti Ibrahim Adham Hazreti Mansur al-Hallaj Hazreti Junayd Bagdadi Hazreti Ahmed Rufai Hazreti Abdul Qadir Geylani Hazreti Muinuddin Chisti Shaykh al-Akbar Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi Hazreti Shems Tabrizi Mevlana Jelaluddin Rumi Hazreti Ahmed Bedawi Ibrahim Dusuqi Hazreti Yunus Emre Hazreti Aziz Mahmud Hudai Hazreti Hajji Bektash Hazreti Abul Hasan Hazreti Muhammad Shah Naqshiband Hazreti Omar al-Halveti Hazreti Sunbul Yusuf Sinan Hazreti Ahmed Tijani Hazreti Ahmadou Bamba Hazreti Merkez Efendi Hazreti Ali Alauddin al-Kostendili al-Halveti, shaykh of our founding Pir Mother of our founding Pir, Amina Teslima al-Jerrahi Pir Muhammad Nureddin al-Latif al-Jerrahi Muzaffer Ashki al-Aziz al-Jerrahi, Pir to the West

Nur al-Anwar al-Malik al-Jerrahi, Pir of the New Humanity

Ya Hazreti Maryam!

Ya Hazreti Fatima!

All stations, all degrees, all attributes may belong to whomever God wills equally among women as among men. They share all degrees, including that of the Qutbiyya. - The Shaykh al-Akbar, Muhyiddin Ibn al-Arabi The following are women saints whom we introduce with a brief description because so little is written and known about them. Many of these lives were recorded in a book on women saints by Abu Abdu-r-Rahman as-Sulami which had been lost until a few years ago. Hazreti Sayyida Nafisa was the great grand-daughter of the Holy Prophets grandson, Hasan, upon them be peace. She was given special gifts of intercession so that her prayers for others, particularly the poor, were always fulfilled. The people of Egypt invited her to live amongst them and she remained there until her death. Her tomb near Cairo is a place of pilgrimage, and is one of the portals to the Essence. She said before passing away, I will break my fast on the nectar of the Eternal and Blessed Abode, inshallah. Hazreti Rabia al-Adawiya of Basra is known for her consummate love and wisdom. She was the teacher of the leading saints of the time. A glimpse of her station is within one of her recorded prayers: O Lord! Whatever worldly good You desire to bestow on me, please give it to my enemies. Whatever pleasures of Paradise you desire to bestow on me, please give it to the faithful ones. As for me, I desire from You only You. Let Heaven be denied to me, but do not deny me Yourself. She passed away in 801 CE. Hazreti Maryam of Basra was a companion of Rabia al-Adawiya. She would remain standing in ecstatic worship throughout the entire night, reciting Allah's own heart-melting exclamation, How profoundly loving and kind is Allah toward His servants (Holy Quran 42.19)!

Hazreti Rayhana the Enraptured had inscribed upon her blessed breast: You are my Intimate Companion, my only Aspiration, and my limitless Happiness. O Allah, my heart refuses to love anything but You.... Hazreti Afiyya the Infatuated used to cry out, The lover is never weary from confiding in her Beloved, and nothing is of interest to her other than the Beloved. O my Supreme Desire! O my Uncontainable Desire! O my Only Desire! Hazreti Fatima of Nishapur taught in Mecca. She declared, The conventionally religious believer is one who lives in the hope that Allah will witness her. I however am a gnosticone who lives only for Allah and who desires only to witness Him ceaselessly. The saints Abu Yazid al-Bistami and Dhul Nun alMisri praised her exalted station, and the latter also said, She is my teacher. Fatima passed away in 838 CE. Hazreti Fatima al-Juwayriyya taught, My station of gnosis is concealed from humanity. Through desire and longing for my own Supreme Source, I have ceased all inner turmoil and am consciously inseparable from Truth. She passed in the beginning of the 10th Century, CE. Hazreti Dhakkara (the Invoker) was called a majnuna, a woman mad with love for God. She expressed, The core of my awareness has become lost in Divine Light. Although the coarser outer heart may still offer mild complaints, the inner heart is utterly at peace, absorbed in absolute silence! Hazreti al-Wahatiyya Umm al-Fadl taught the great spiritual masters of her time. She said, If you desire knowledge of Allah, do not pursue your own individual desire for peace. You must live your knowledge of Allah, and this means dying to your false sense of individuality. Hazreti Unayza of Baghdad transmits her own spiritual practice: Be fully present with Allah in every moment, until the undeniable recognition dawns that it is Allah alone who is perpetually and infinitely present with you. Hazreti Aisha al-Hiri of Nishapur transmits to us this powerful understanding: When one feels lonely in solitude, it is because of lack of intimacy with ones Lord. When one turns to the Omnipresent Source of Love, all feeling of isolation or alienation vanishes completely. She passed away in 957 or 958 CE. Hazreti Fatima Umm al-Yumn enlightens us with these practical words, No action benefits the slave as much as seeking sustenance from lawful sources. Nothing is as fulfilling to the lover as the certainty that all nourishment and fulfillment come directly from Allah. Hazreti Amra of Farghana was the unique one of her time in ethical conduct, spiritual states, and clairvoyance. She taught, Remain always in touch with the imperturbable silence of your spiritual heart; do not be distressed by the events of the world. Then the Divine wisdom and purpose for each event will be unveiled to you, and you will effortlessly contemplate Allah as All in All. Hazreti Zubda (Essence) al-Harith taught, The heaviest burden for the slave of Allah is in turning away from her Source, while the lightest, most relieving choice is always to turn to Allah in loving surrender. So why not relinquish, with finality, that which is heavy, in exchange for that which is light? Hazreti Lubaba the Devotee of Syria reveals her state of intimacy with God: Since Allah has bestowed upon me knowledge of Him, I am ceaselessly preoccupied with Him. I would be completely ashamed if He ever saw me preoccupied with other than Him. Hazreti Nuna Fatima al-Muthanna was one of the first mystic guides of Ibn al-Arabi, who praised her, She was indeed a mercy to the world. She told him, Allah has given me a special gift of al-FatihaI can wield its power in any way I wish. Ibn al-Arabi also recorded that although Allah had offered his entire Kingdom to her, she refused it saying, You Allah are Alleverything else is inauspicious for

me. Hazreti Babajan (Holy Master) was born into a Muslim family in Baluchistan, where she studied as a hafiza, one who knows the Quran by heart. She left home at age eighteen to escape marriage and wandered for many years. In this time she became the disciple of a Hindu master and then later a Sufi master. After years of living as a holy beggar, she travelled to Mecca to offer the Pilgrimage. She returned to India and settled in Poona, eventually establishing herself under a large tree from where she did not move. A small protective shelter was built around her, and disciples came from around the world to receive the light of her guidance. She initiated the well-known sage, Meher Baba. Hazreti Babajan once proclaimed from her station of baqa bi-Llah, subsistence in Allah, It is I who have created all! I am the Source of everything in creation. I am the Truth.

Our most profound and humble greetings, salams, and kisses to the earth where the feet of these holy mothers have walked.... - Shaykh Nur, Atom from the Sun of Knowledge

Communal Dhikr: Divine Remembrance print

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Ya Hayy- O Life, O Allah the Living One

The Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace, reports in his oral tradition, What is Paradise? It is the circles of divine remembrance.

Humble Lovers of Divine Love enter the sacred circle with upright mind and spirit purified. This circle of encounter, whirling eternally, is a prodigious, storm-tossed sea, a profusion of blessings in present time from the mystic saints of all traditions powerful and living blessings

that emanate from the single Source, the only One. The practitioners of this global dance, disciples trained in the liberty of love, are forerunners of true humanity. The green branches of their mystic Orders bear precious golden fruit, the vast inheritance of humankind. The community of universal dance contains the essential code of Truth. This circle of encounter is the rootedness of humanity, this harmonious resonance the Divine Conquest of humanity. Now the dervish dancer, who belongs only to Divine Love, encounters the uncreated essence of the soul, tasting the ease of Paradise. Casting overboard the ballast of all worlds, all self-love, the circle becomes open space without any horizons, the goal of the spiritual journey establishment in Allah. This life-giving circle is no game but the dimension of sheer aliveness, the consciousness that responds to Allah, obeys Allah, salutes Allah the vocation of loving the Beloved. These souls awake in Allah drinking deeply from the cry Allah Allah Allah that comes forth from the amazement surging in the circle, this illumined heart of the body of resurrection. - Nur al-Jerrahi, from Circle of Encounter in Atom For further study on the meanings of dhikrullah, please refer to this chapter.

May this circle of love be an unveiling. May this circle of love be an ascension. May this circle of love be the cup of wine pouring, The four rivers of paradise flowing. May this circle of love be healing for all humanity. May this circle of love be gnosis, the station of marifat. May this circle of love be the gathering of all the letters of Quran, all the mystic meanings of Quran. May this circle of love be pure mercy, Pure light, returning into the Essence. Amin, Ya Allah.

Tafakkur, Contemplation print

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Al-Shahid - Allah, the Supreme Witness as in Shahada, the bearing Witness, of the human being.

Know yourself and you will know your Lord.

Spoken on the tongue of the Holy Prophet Muhammad, this splendid sentence represents the goal of the Sufi path. All of the radiant forms of worship, all of the teachings, all of the experiences lead to this knowledge. Without knowing ourselves we cannot know our Lord, and without knowing our Lord we will miss the essence of our life. One of the greatest support in our quest is contemplation, tafakur. Contemplation is actually the underlying state and the marrow of all of the practices, for without some degree of contemplation they are empty. Tafakur occurs when we turn the eye of our awareness inward toward the heart, knowing that this is where Allah Most High dwells. Look to see what is there. At first, the process is more akin to feeling or sensing the being in our heart, and then dropping deeper and deeper into this existence. We feel our heart being enveloping, embracing and dissolving the limited sense of I. We begin to see that the I is a formation of energy and conceptions drawn from the deeper ocean of Self, which is not our self but pure existence beyond name. In this state, let go of all identity and self imagery, even religious identities, which are the soggy rafts on this endless ocean. Let go of all resistance, which is the sense of I, and allow your own attributes to melt into the attributes of Allah, allow your limited self to pass away into the reality of Allah. Lets take a practical example of tafakur. We are angry. We make tafakur by looking inside and seeing who the angry person is. We begin to discern that this person is really a figment, an illusory knot of certain disappointed expectations and energies. It is not who we truly are. If we can see this we are already healing. We then drop deeper into the heart level and see how the angry self is drawing its energy from the ocean of our heart. The next step is to allow the limited self to dissolve, as our consciousness is drawn deeper and deeper into the true Self. Tafakur is like the bee who at first hovers around the flower and then finally buries himself completely in the heart of the flower, drinking blissfully the sweet nectar. If we continue this practice we will reach the state of continous tafakur, whether we are alone or with others, whether we are standing, sitting, or lying down. We remain centered in the heart and become the arena of open consciousness. Maintain this awareness throughout your day, whatever else you may be doing. Know that Allah is making tafakur upon you and that your tafakur is really Allahs. Tafakur of the highest level is the state in which the dervish is completely and consciously absorbed in

Truth. The gnostic eye of the dervish is open, gazing upon Divine Reality. At this level, Allah is the One who sees, as only Allah can see Allah. Regarding this state the Prophet has said, One hour of contemplation is better than a lifetime of worship. Once you come to this place, the Koran will sing to you, and you will see its teachings and wisdom with your own eyes. Everything in creation will speak to you of Allah. You will see Allahs face wherever you turn. Shaykh Muzaffer states, Indeed contemplation is the highest form of worship. The most venerable Abu Bakr, may Allah be pleased with him, said, Before perceiving anything I see in it the Power of Allah. He is informing us that he sees Allah prior to seeing the created world. His constant meditation is on Allah and He sees Allah manifesting each event. Hazreti Abu Bakr sees without the support of creation. The renowned Rabia Adawiyya had also reached the level of a pure witness, which is the true meaning of shahid. It is reported that her companion, Mariam, once invited her out of her simple dwelling on a beautiful day to witness the splendor of Allahs creation, and she replied, Why do I need to look upon creation when I am witnessing the Creator directly? Shaykh Muzaffer once told Shaykh Nur You have filled yourself with divine sweetness from your constant contemplation of the Names. Now go from the Names to the One named.

Tasbih Dhikr Meditations In Islam the main practice of tafakkur is through recitation of the divine Names, dhikrullah, because the Names are the qualities and energies of Allah. It is a proof of Allahs love to us that they are revealed and known, for one only shares oneself with ones beloved. Each Name is a light and a power streaming from the Source of Reality. By lovingly repeating them we merge with their light and are returned and dissolved into our Source. We should learn all of the Names and feel them flowing through our hearts. The recitations of Holy Quran and the Litanies are in themselves forms of contemplation for they consist entirely of the Beautiful Names. Among the Names most recommended to recite are La ilaha ilallah Muhammad rasulallah, Allah, Hu, Bismillah ir-Rahman ir-Rahim, Subhanallah, Alhamdulillah, and Allahu Akbar, the Names given in ones personal tasbih, and the names and phrases in the litanies. La ilaha ilallah is the sword of light which cuts through illusion, clearing the courtyard of the heart from all obstruction so that the light of the heart shines forth. This clearing restores the heart to its original station of Truth, and love is released from its bondage to the world and finds its true home in Allah. Our eye is healed so that we see with the divine eye and we are naturally and spontaneously in constant divine presence. Allah is the Name of power (Ismi Jalal). Through reciting this name we increase our longing and burning for Allah, and it is to the degree that we long that we are answered. In reality, our longing is Allahs longing and our calling is Allahs calling. This mutual longing is the fire that becomes the light that reveals the face of Allah as our own essential face. We call on Allah knowing that Allah is nearer to us than our own life breath. Allah is the source and matrix of our existence, the unity of our being, the embrace of all that we are, the fulfillment of all desire. In calling Allahs name we reach our true self. Hu is the name of Essence beyond all the Names. It exists before the Names and after them, it exists as the essence of all, and beyond all. Hu is the divine merciful breath which contains in Itself all forms and all beings of the entire creation, while Itself remains uncontainable and ungraspable. Hu also has the meaning He, and for the Sufis this is a very intimate name. This He is not a gender indication but calls on the One Who is adored. Therefore Hu combines both intimacy and inconceivability, what cannot be reached by the intellect. Only the heart can know Hu. In reciting this name one is very quickly brought to a state of blessed bewilderment in which mind and body dissolve and one merges into the divine breath. This state is a beautiful taste of tafakur.

Following are two different forms of meditative tasbih: Shaykh Nur recommended beginning with the recitation of La ilaha ilallah, Allah, or Hu in an audible voice, then lowering the invocation to a whisper, then bringing it into the heart so that it is outwardly inaudible but inwardly heard. In the final step, leave the name and go into the open space beyond the name. Remain there for the time you desire, or until thoughts begin stirring. It could be a moment or a prolonged time. Then return to the name, at first silent in the heart, and then audible on the tongue. Continue this cycle, going into silence and open space and then out again for a set number of repetitions. As long as you recite the name, use the tasbih to count so that you offer one of the recommended nubers: 11, 33, 100, 165, or 500. Repeat the name at a very rapid pace, then gradually reduce the tempo until the repetition entirely ceases and one remains suspended in a state of radiance.

Breath Meditations An immediate way to awaken your heart is to focus on the breath. Allah Who creates what He wills has joined the heart and lungs together in the breast. The path of breath leads to the heart. With each in-breath and out-breath gratitude arises naturally in the heart, and the breath reveals itself as pure praise of Allah. In the realm of the body the breath has the place of Spirit, the Ruh which brings holy inspiration to the heart. When we offer breath meditation we can do so simply by following the breath in and out, or we can join it with a divine name. Remember that the out-breath is always approximately twice as long as the in-breath. A special way of meditatiing on La ilaha ilallah is to inhale on La ilaha and exhale on ilallah, or inversely inhale on ilallah and exhale on La ilaha. Another tasbih of breath is practiced with the name Allah. Inhale on the A and and exhale on the -llah. Both are silent. You may visualize a luminous Arabic letter Alif* entering your heart as you inhale. With the inbreath you draw in Allahs love. With the outbreath you extend this love to all beings. Another meditation is to sit in tranquility, relax the mind and drop into the depth of your heart. Allow the Names to flow into this open space. Follow the Name which enters and repeat it in the heart, or let it repeat itself, until another comes in, so that there is a flow and succession of Names each calling out itself.

Quranic Meditations The entire Quran is praise and tafakur on Allah. The following verses are among the special jewels for contemplation. To benefit from the nectar of their teachings bring them into your self and contemplate them as your self. Meditation on Allahs Face: Wherever you turn, there is the radiantly beautiful Countenance of Allah (Holy Quran, 2:115). Meditation on Mercy and Gratitude: Be grateful to Me, fill your life with pure gratitude, and do not even for an instant turn away from Me (Holy Quran, 2:152). With a grateful heart, see everything around you as Allahs Mercy. Extend this Mercy to all lives. Meditation on Praise: See and hear the entire creation praising Allah. The seven ascending heavens and the abundant earth, and all countless beings therein, declare His Glory, and there is not a thing that exists that does not celebrate His Praises (Holy Quran 17:44). Meditation on Allahs Gaze: Feel the loving gaze of Allah upon you and within your heart at all times. Surely Allah is pure Awareness and sees His servants as they truly are (Holy Quran 35:31).

Meditation on Action: And when you threw (the dust) it was not you that threw, but Allah threw it (Holy Quran, 8:17). Be aware that you are not the doer of your action. Allah alone is the origin and doer of all action, so that we attribute all good which flows from ourselves to its true source. Know that we cannot take even one breath without Allah willing this breath. However, we are instructed by adab to take responsibility for all negative acts which might come from us. This is a simple form of vigilance which brings amazing fruits. Meditation on the Perfection of the Human Being: Meditate on the human being as the crown of creation, the vessel of Allahs attributes, and the agent of Allahs actions. Behold, thy Lord declared to the angels: I will create perfect humanity to be My mirror on earth (Holy Quran, 2:30). Meditation on the Ayat of Light Allah is the Light of the heavens and the earth (Holy Quran, 24:35). Contemplate Shaykh Nurs magnificent interpretation of this ayat in his book, Sufi Meditation. Meditation on the Power of Allah: Contemplate Allahs Power in creation. See how the vast realms of being are simultaneously flowing from Allah, Source of Creation, subsisting in Allah, the Source of All Nourishment, and flowing back into the Allah, Source of Lovefrom the ant who walks in the night, and the microbe seeking its nourishment, to the greatest expanse of billions of whirling galaxies. This meditation opens the heart in love and adoration to the One in Whom we and all life forms exist, moment by moment.

Self Investigation The Truthful one reports that the worth of our actions in the sight of Allah is according to the intention within them. Therefore we inquire into the state of our intentions. We look first at the fundamental intention toward our life. What do we desire from this life, how do we wish to dedicate this life that is so generously given? Will our life bear the fruit of a heart of light, which is the only gift we bring to Allah? We then look at the intentions behind our actions, and even at the intentions within the intentions. This fruitful procedure helps to free us from unconscious action. It helps us to discern the true from the imagined and the noble

Tasbih: Personal Dhikr print

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In the words of Hazreti Ali, may Allah be pleased with him, Praise is the heaviest of that which is weighed, and the most valuable of all that is treasured. The beat of our heart, the flow of the breath, our entire existence is praise. Our path is to become conscious of this praise, to know ourselves as pure praise of Allah. The Self-revealing nature of Allah manifests in the Most Beautiful Names given to humanity. The Divine Names, Attributes of the Real, are infinite and ceaselessly flowing from the hidden Essence, like rays from a vast cosmic sun. They take form within the precious human heart and as the entire creation of manifest Being. The people of knowledge have identified three thousand distinct ones. One thousand are known only to the Angels. Another thousand only the Prophets know. There are three hundred in the Torah, three hundred in the Psalms, three hundred in the Gospel, and ninety-nine in the Holy Quran. One name is kept secret by the Almighty Lord. This is called the Supreme Name to signify that one Name is unique to Him, and remains hidden within His Essence.

- Shaykh Muzzafer Efendi, Irshad In reality, each of us contains all the Beautiful Names, yet we have fallen unconscious and no longer know ourselves. Our path of awakening is furthered by sincere recitation of Allahs Names, each a unique resonance in which the heart unveils itself and knows its Lord. The power of the Name clears the body, mind and heart of the dervish and reveals mystic knowledge to this devoted one, opening the way to the Divine Essence beyond all Names, the Heart of Reality. Our mystic guide, Pir Nureddin Jerrahi, has received twenty-eight Beautiful Divine Names for his followers to recite on their path of perfection. The number twenty-eight is of great mystical significance. There are twenty-eight days in the lunar cycle, there are twenty-eight letters in the Arabic alphabet, there are twenty-eight letters in the Divine Name La ilaha ilallah Muhammad Rasulallah. The number twentyeight is said to represent perfection and completion and Therefore the path of return through the twentyeight Names is a path of human perfection. In the transmission of handtaking, the dervish receives the entire twenty-eight Names given to the Pir in the pure form of light. The initial three that the dervish is invited to recite on tasbih beads are the most powerful and contain all Ninety-nine Names. The remaining ones are given according to the guidance received in dreams. Tasbih is a life-line to ones heart. It is a primary responsibility of the dervish and should be adhered to daily. It is much better to offer a small amount consistently than to offer large numbers one day and then none the next. Continuity in practice bears fruit. Choose a quiet moment to recite your tasbih on the beads you have received. It is recommended to make an ablution before you begin. Face the Qiblahoutwardly the direction of the Kaba in Mecca, inwardly the heart. You may hold the beads in the vicinity of your heart as you recite. Close your eyes, enter a contemplative state and feel the presence of the shaykh or one of the Pirs kneeling knee to knee with you. Dedicate your tasbih with the following prayer: Illahi anta maksudi wa ridaka maglubi O Allah You are my goal and Your pleasure is my only desire! Feel your heart calling the Name. Know that the heart has a mouth with which to call on Allah, so offer your dhikr from here. Feel its sound as Allahs resonance, and trust that the power of the Name will bestow its bounty upon you. If you are troubled by distracting thoughts, which Sheykh Muzaffer has called the thieves of dhikr, give them all to Allah, Who is the guardian of our affairs and the Caretaker of the universe, al-Wakil. Every thought that comes, simply give it to Allah. If we remain in a state of dhikr, our affairs are cared for. As we entrust everything to Allah peace comes to our heart. After the tasbih recitation, remain in a state of absorption in Allah. Each Name evokes a different quality of Allah within the heart. Each Name is a medicine for a particular weakness of the limited self and also a balm for the lover. The medicine is most effective when administered by the doctor, who is the shaykh. When a lover of Allah desires to recite certain Names independent of the traditional tasbih it should be done only as praise and not with the intention to acquire powers. The recitations mentioned by Shaykh Muzaffer in the beginning of his book Irshad and his small book of Ninety-nine Names can be safely followed. The dervish daily tasbih transmitted upon taking hand is outlined, translated and explained in the following pages. The number of recitations mentioned with the names is the initial practice given to the dervish at hand-taking. The shaykh will increase the amount periodically. Indeed the hearts find complete satisfaction and all-embracing peace in the remembrance of Allah - Holy Quran

The initial daily dervish tasbih, in brief: 165 repetitions of La ilaha Ilallah Muhammadun Rasulullah 165 repetitions of Ya Allah 165 repetitions of Hu 33 repetitions of the Quranic chapter al-Ikhlas 33 repetitions of the Salawat prayer 33 repetitions of Estaghfirullah

La ilaha Ilallah - Muhammadun Rasulallah There is no reality apart from Allah, the Supreme Reality. Allah alone is worthy of worship, for Allah alone is. Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, the principle of Perfect Humanity, the expression of Allahs complete Love. -Nur al-Jerrahi Recite the Name, turning the head from the right shoulder to the left, dropping it slightly toward the heart as you say Ilallah. After each audible repetition of La ilaha Ilallah, say or sense inwardly, in the heart, Muhammadun Rasulallah. You may feel it wordlessly as a burst of light. La ilaha Ilallah reveals pure unity of Being, and Muhammadun Rasulallah opens ever deeper levels of the heart. They will interpenetrate so that they are almost simultaneous. The two affirmations are never separatetranscendent Reality and shining humanity at its core. We disappear, are extinguished, in the glorious transcendence of La ilaha Ilallah, and we reappear in the love of Muhammadun Rasulallah. Recited together, they ignite each other and illumine creation. In the mystic accounts spoken from the lips of the Prophet of Allah, it is related that in the realm of preeternity, Divine Reality is a hidden treasure. There is no form, no light, no heavens, no earth, nothing of creation is there. Sublime Reality speaks of this, I was a hidden treasure, unknown and unknowable. Desiring to be known, I brought forth from my essence the light of humanity. The name of this light in mystical Islam is Nur Muhammad. It is called by distinct names in all traditions, each indicating the same primal essence. As the Light bursts forth from the Hiddenness, it proclaims La ilaha Ilallah ceaselessly. Divine Sublimity responds, Muhammadun RasulullahHumanity is My hidden treasure, My representative in creation, the mirror in which I gaze. By humanity am I known and praised and loved. Humanity manifests La ilaha Ilallah, expressing My own secret. This mystery of original manifestation is not located in a historical pastit is an ever-unfolding splendor in the eternal Now. La ilaha Ilallah is the resonance of Allahs Existence. La ilaha Ilallah is the sheer beauty of Allah, beyond conception and literal meaning.

La ilaha Ilallah is Allahs delight, Allahs own praise and dhikr. La ilaha Ilallah is the song of Allahs Love, Muhammad Rasulullah is the form beloved. La ilaha Ilallah Muhammad Rasulullah is the One Face gazing in many mirrors. La ilaha Ilallah is the mustard seed of faith, the sword of light, the key of the heart. La ilaha Ilallah is the great news brought by all prophets, the essence of all holy books, the medicine for all ills, the balm for all hearts. La ilaha Ilallah is the cry of New Humanity. Humanity will know itself when it gazes at its essence and origin. La ilaha Ilallah is the eye of this gaze. La ilaha ilallah signifies I am That. By joining La ilaha Ilallah Muhammadun Rasulallah in recitation, distracting thoughts are prevented. When thoughts persist, focus your concentration even more on Muhammadun Rasulallah. Eventually you will feel the infinite petalled rose of Muhammadan Light blossom in the heart, each petal a Divine Attribute. In an intimate state of dialogue with the Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, Hazreti Ali inquires:

O Messenger of God! What is the shortest way by which to reach God, exalted is He?
The Prince of Prophets replies, O Ali! The shortest way by which to reach God, Exalted is He, is Divine Remembrance, dhikrullah. The most excellent dhikr, which opens the gates of Paradise, closes the doors of Hell, and transforms fire into light, is the confession and affirmation of that saving declaration of the Oneness of God: LA ILAHA ILLA-LLAH - Hadith Qudsi, from Unveiling of Love

Ya Allah O Allah! Recite using one breath for many repetitions. This name, the Name of Power, ismi jalal, is said to contain all of the Divine Names and Attributes of God ever revealed to humanity. Begin recitings Ya Allah, and then after thirty-three repetitions, you may drop the Ya and plunge directly into Allah. You may feel the Name filling the heart with Allah, or you may feel it as a knocking or pounding upon the heart. Eventually the heart itself will answer and speak the Name of Allah with its own life-rhythm. Many there be, very many indeed, who attain the Beloved by saying Allah just once with love and longing. - Shaykh Muzaffer

Know that the desire that burns with the Name is Allah The tongue that speaks the Name is Allah The breath that carries the Name is Allah The hearing that receives the Name is Allah Know your non-existence that you may know Allah

Hu Divine Essence! This name refers to the indescribable Essence of Allah beyond created attributes, the Essence from which all qualities arise. Hu is also the Breath and Spirit of Allah blown into Adam, giving him life and making the human being the Crown of Creation. As we recite Hu, it is Allahs Breath which blows through our breath. It is Allahs Hu. As we recite Hu, we disappear from name and form and our spirit is merged into the Soul of souls. Hu is the breath that Jesus blew.

Sura Ikhlas The Verse of Sincerity, Transparency and Unity

Bismillahi-r-Rahmani-r-Rahim Qul Hu Allah Hu Ahad Allah Hu Samad Lam yalid wa lam yulad Wa lam yakun lahu kufuwan Ahad Holy Quran, chapter 112 In the name of Allah, the Tenderly Compassionate, the Infinitely Merciful Say: He is Allah, the One Reality Allah, the All-Encompassing. There is no reality apart from Him, nor does He originate from any other reality, And there is nothing comparable to Him, for apart from Him nothing exists.

Recite preferably before sunrise. The Prophet Muhammad declared to his beloved wife Aisha that the value of reciting three Sura Ikhlas was equivalent to the power of reciting the entire Quran.

Salawat Blessings upon the Prophet of Allah

Allahumma salli ala sayyidina Muhammad wa ala ali Muhammad wa sahbihi wa sallim

O Allah bless our master Muhammad the Praiseworthy, the family of Muhammad, and all his companions throughout time, showering them ceaselessly with peace.

Recite preferably in the afternoon.

Estaghfirullah O Allah, forgive us! Recite preferably in the evening. This cry cleanses and heals the heart of the negation of love. ...O children of Adam, were you to come before Me with negative thoughts and actions as vast as the entire earthfacing My Unity alone, without ascribing any duality to Supreme RealityI would present you an equally vast forgiveness. - Hadith Qudsi

The dhikr after salat is: 33 Times: Subhanallah Our hearts are awed by Your Sublime Glory O Allah. 33 Times: Alhamdulillah Our hearts flow in spontaneous praise and gratitude to You O Allah. 34 Times: Allahu Akbar O Allah our hearts are bewildered as You transcend every form and conception, and yet every moment You mysteriously manifest anew.

Dream print

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Thus will your Lord choose you and teach you the interpretation of dreams and events -Holy Quran 12.6

Muhammad the Truthful, may Allah embrace him in the perfect peace of union, reported that spiritual dreams convey one fortieth of the power of Revelation. Dreams are sent by the Truth to the hearts of the dervishes to reveal Divine guidance and knowledge. They require interpretation by the shaykh or khalifa and are not to be taken literally, for dream imagery is divine metaphor. Significant dreams should always be told first to the shaykh or representatives, and then they may be shared with dervishes and friends. Dreams are gifts to the mystic body of the communitythey are not solely for the dreamer. It is recommended that dervishes keep a dream journal. The most intimate teaching in our Dervish Order comes through spiritual dreams and their inspired interpretation. The shaykh does not deal with psychological or merely stress-releasing dreams, nor is there any fixed system of dream symbolism. Two dervishes came to our previous Grand Shaykh and reported the same dream: climbing a minaret and giving the Call to Prayer. To the first, the inspired interpreter commented, You are going on pilgrimage. Make preparations. To the second, he remarked, You have taken something that does not belong to you. Discover what that is and give it back. Before taking hand, the aspirant often receives a significant dream of Divine Permission or, in some cases, Divine Insistence. After taking hand, one usually experiences a dream confirming that the ceremony was accepted by Allah. In the context of Islamic spirituality, no sacred rite is considered to be automatically effective. Rather, one must seek and await signs of the Good Pleasure of Allah Most High.

Universal Islam: The Five Pillars, Sharia print

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Al-Malik- The King, a revealed Name of Allah

Universal Islam is the name inspired to Shaykh Nur al-Jerrahi to describe the generosity, vast openness and universality of the path of Islam. Islam is submission to the Source of Love, conscious merging into the Source, and re-emerging as pure love moved by the Divine Will alone, anointed with the beautiful attributes of the Beloved. Holy Quran identifies five pillars, or fundamental supports, of this universal way. In observing these five pillars, and in abstaining from what is not pleasing to Allah, one is honoring the divine law or sharia of the Prophet Muhammad, may Allah shower him in radiant Peace. First pillar: The heart of this great path is awakening into Pure Unity of Being, wahdat al-wujud. Allah Most High reveals La ilaha Ilallah as the essential affirmation of Unity and completes it with Muhammad Rasulullah, humanity is its perfect manifestation. The dervish affirms this truth through dhikr and tasbih, and through aligning the heart with the heart of the shaykh. The second pillar: Overflowing with the infinite love of La ilaha Ilallah, we prostrate in continuous prayer to our Creator and Cherisher. This adoration finds expression in salat, the cycle of five daily prayers enjoined upon the lovers of Love by Allah Most High as a way of meeting with Him. Third pillar: Filled with the gratitude of La ilaha Ilallah, we long to share with all beings the bounties bestowed on us by the Generous One. This is manifested by sharing a portion of lawfully earned income with those in need, zakat.* Beyond this is the continuous flow of generous actions, thoughts and gestures. The Prophet of Allah has enjoined that we offer charity constantly through every limb of our body. A loving smile is counted as charitable offering. Fourth pillar: Called to Divine Nearness through La ilaha Ilallah, the dervish fasts from the limited self and feasts on Divine Love alone. Our celebration of the first revelation of the Divine signs to the heart of Muhammad, peace be upon him, occurs in the noble month of Ramadan, when we restrain from food, drink, and sexual embrace during the day, and at night plunge into the extended Tarawih prayers. Ramadan is a beautiful embodiment of our burning love for Allah. Fifth pillar: Intimately guided by the wisdom of La ilaha Ilallah, the dervish embarks on lifes pilgrimage through Divine Radiance back into to the Source of Love. Once in our lifetime, we are called to the holy city of Mecca to circumambulate the Kaaba, the physical temple representing Divine Essence, Transcendence, and Mystery. Here we offer our gratitude for Allahs guidance to humanity revealed through the stream of prophetic souls, beginning with Adam and culminating with the Seal of Prophecy, Muhammad the Glorious, may peace be upon him and upon all the community of messengers. When asked What is Islam? Shaykh Muzaffer replied, Islam is everything beautiful. O Kaaba O mystery

O majesty O sublimity O radiance O peace O black light of Essence O trusted guardian O adored O refuge of the lovers O primal form O beginning O last station before annihilation O sun in the heart of Muhammad may Allah shower upon him Divine peace O blessed giver of blessing O friend O intimate one O seal of secrets O generous O essence of Allah in the Cube O face of Allah in the pilgrims O door to Essence O mirror of the formless face gazing in adoration at itself in humanity O perpetual Ramadan of the most Merciful of the Merciful O gathering of all nations of praise O great chant from the Mother of the Book O divine presence assuming all forms loving all forms O greatest freedom with Allah O empty space beyond all religions O turbulent ocean of all praise O Mystery perpetually revealing itself and concealing itself O one wrapped in the black cloak O most noble O Sherif of all holy grounds Sublime threshold of the far lote tree O station of nearer than two bow lengths O Kaaba

Salat print

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In salat I find the refreshment for my eyes. - Hadith Salat is the ascension of the believer. - Hadith

Al-Kabir - Allah, the Supremely Great

The Prophet Muhammad, may Allah bless him with the peace of perfect union, calls salat the dhikrullah alakbar, the greatest divine remembrance. On the night of his Ascension, the Prophet witnessed the angels in each of the seven heavens perpetually worshipping Allah in unique ways: standing, bowing, prostrating, kneeling, and chanting the Holy Names. In the boundless love of Allah Most High for Muhammad and humanity, all those modes were gathered together into one glorious form of praise called salat, and granted to the community of the Prophet to be offered five times daily for Allahs pleasure alone. Salat is the crown of prayer, containing in itself all forms of praise flowing within the creation, from the angelic plane to beings on all planes of existence. It is the ascension of the believer, following the Ascension of the Prophet, and the witnessing of the Beloved. The lover comes to prayer knowing that Allah is longing and waiting. The lover is also longing to meet with the Beloved in the intimate bridal chamber of union, which is salat. Enter salat with complete faith that you meet Allah. As you call out Allahu Akbar feel that you have left everything behind youyour dominion, your possessions, your relationships, your physical sustenance, your pleasures and your obsessions. Leave also your self on this threshold. You are a faqir, a poor and empty one, who has come to be filled with the radiance of Allah. You are flooded with the praise of Subhanaka allahuma wa bi hamdika wa tabaraka asmuka wa taala jadika wa la ilaha ila ghayruk. Audhu bilahi minash shaytan ir-rajim bismillah irrahman ir-rahim. Glorious are you O my beloved Allah, and all hearts are constantly praising You, Your Name is pure blessing, Your might is exalted and beyond reach and there is no reality apart from You alone. I take refuge from all negativity in Your boundless Love. Filled with the radiance of this praise we now offer the Fatiha, the magnificent prayer which is shared between Allah and the servant: In the name of Allah Most High Who is Tenderly Compassionate, Infinitely Merciful Perfect praise flows to Allah alone, Lover and Sustainer of all Worlds, Most intimately called Rahman and Rahim, Presiding magnificently over the Day of Divine Awakening. O Lord, we worship only You and rely upon You alone. Reveal Your Direct Path, the mystic way of those who, through Your Mercy, have received and truly assimilated Your sublime Guidance, Those who never wander from the spiritual path and therefore never experience Your awesome Correction. The first part of the Fatiha is pure glorification and praise. The second part beginning with O Lord, we worship only You initiates the supplication of the servant, and here opens the flood of what has been hidden in ones own heart. So salat is both praise and petition. Salat is sometimes painful because we will be facing what we have hidden, and shedding what we have gathered from prayer time to prayer time. We

offer these to the only One Who can truly help us. This is why the Prophet, may divine peace be upon him, has likened the practice of the five daily prayers to bathing in a beautiful river flowing in front of our house. All dust and stain are removed through immersing ourself in pure Mercy. In fact they will never have existed. The graceful movements of salat are the lovers ecstacy. While standing as the primal Alif and the sacred pen, the lover praises the Beloved with His own words in rhythmic verses of Holy Koran. Then she beseeches the Beloved in bowing low and glorifying Him. Then rising up for a moment with the affirmation that Allah hears the one who praises Him, the lover falls into deep prostration, in the bliss of submission. Twice the lover travels through the cycle of praise, and then comes to her knees. This position represents the station of intimate communion with Love experienced by the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, on the night of his ascension when he came nearer than two bow lengths to the Essence of Reality. Hazreti Ali, the mystic guide of all tariqats described an exalted degree of prayer when he proclaimed, I do not pray to a God I cannot see. This is the state of Ihsan, spiritual perfection. The Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, tells us that if we do not see Allah directly, then we should pray knowing that Allah is seeing us. In salat, feel Allahs gaze within your heart, filling the entire heart, so that the heart itself becomes the divine gaze. Then, the body and all the space around becomes Allahs gaze. We enter true salat and allow Allah alone to be present in the station of prayer. It is Allah Who calls to prayer, it is Allah Who comes to prayer, it is Allah Who performs the prayer and speaks the prayer. Salat is pure presence of Allah. Distraction in prayer is experienced by most practitioners. Shaykh Muzaffer said that one moment of presence in salat is sufficient to validate the prayer. Bring your awareness into the heart, and feel Allahs gaze there. Remain longer in the postures of bowing (ruku) and prostration (sajda). This will increase your concentration, and salat will become profound meditation. The noble Prophet, may Allah shower endless Peace upon him, has shared with us that communal salat is twenty-seven times more powerful than salat offered individually. If you are alone, then offer the intention of leading the prayer, for a community of angelic beings is praying with you.

Ablutionprint

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Ablutionispreparationandpartofprayer.Itistheclearingawayfromoursubtle bodyofanysenseofseparation,whichformslikeafilmonourpureawareness. Ablutionisbeyondtheactofwashingthephysicalbody,forifyouperformthe washingwithoututteringAllahsName,theablutionisvoid Howcanweobtainarobeofstainless,selflessawarenessinwhichtoperformtrue salat?Allahalonecanprovidethis,asHeprovideseverymiraculousgiftbywhichwe existandpraise.Theablutionbeforeprayeristheroyalweddinggarmentwithwhich wecanauthenticallyenterDivinePresenceanddelightinthecommuniondesiredby themysticalKing. ShaykhNuralJerrahi,Atom

 Physicalcleanlinessisapreparationforwudu.Thisincludesinstinjah,cleansingthe privatepartswithwaterafterelimination. Thebasicmethodofperformingwudu,theminorablutionisthefollowing: Withtheintentionofmakingwudu,repeatsoftlythedivinephrase,Bismillahir RahmanirRahim,orsimplyAllahthroughouttheablution.Asyoutouchthe differentpartsofyourbodywithwaterfeelthelightofAllahilluminatingthem.You mayalsoofferaspecificprayerforeachpartofthebodybathedbywater.OAllah, maymyhandsbevesselsofYourmercy,maymymouthsingYourpraisesandcallto thetruth,mayIalwaysbreatheYourfragrance,maymyfacemergeintoYourface, maymyearshearYourvoice,maymyneckbebowedbeforeYou,mayYou strengthenmyarmsinYourservice,maymyheaddisappearintheflamesofYour love,maymyfeettakemetotheplacesofYourpleasure. Hands:Passthelefthandholdingalittlewater,overtherightthreetimes,thenpass therighthandthreetimesoverthelefthand. Mouth:Rinsethreetimeswithwaterfromtherighthand. Nostrils:Gentlyinhalethewaterfromyourcuppedrighthand,thenexpelitwitha rapidbreath,threetimes. Face:Withalittlewaterinyourhands,drawthemthreetimesoveryourfacegoing fromcrowntochin. Forearms:Passleftpalm,withalittlewater,threetimesovertherightarmupto elbow,thenrepeatthreetimesfortheleftarm. Head:Passwetpalmsoverhair,fronttoback,oncebriefly. Earsandneck:Wipeeachearoncebrieflyinsideandoutsidewithwetfingers,then passwethandsacrossbackofneckoncebriefly. Feet:Wiperightfootuptotheanklethreetimeswithlefthand,holdingalittle water,thenleftfootthreetimeswithrighthand.Onecanrinsethehandsoncemore afterwashingthefeet. ShaykhMuzafferrecommendssippingalittleablutionwater,andsprinklingafew dropsononesundergarment. Therearesimplerformsofablutiononecanoffer.Thefirstiswithwaterbut reducesthewashingtothehandsandforearmsinonegestureandthenbrushing thewateroverthehead,andcompletingbydrawingthelefthandoverthefeet.We evenhavethepermissionwhenitisnotconvenienttoremoveourshoestopassthe

waterovertheshoesthemselves.Thisisahelpfulpracticewhenwehavelittletime butdesiretobeinthestateofablution.Rememberthatwemustaccompanyitwith AllahsName.Thesecondiscalledtayyamumandistheablutionwithcleanearth inthecasethereisnowateravailable.Bothhandsareusedtotaptheearththree times,makingtheintentionofperformingtheablutionoftayyamum.Then,withthe finedustthatadherestothepalmofthehandsonedrawsthepalmsovertheface. Againonetapstheground,anddrawsthelefthandovertherighthandandforearm uptotheelbow,andthentherighthandovertheleftforearm.Tayyamumisa validablution,andremainssountilonecomestoaplacewithwater. Onecanalsodotheablutionoftayyamumbytappingoneshandsonthetrunkofa tree.IevenmaketayyamumontheseatofthecarasIamtraveling.These permissionsareintendedtomakeablutioneasy. Beyondthepracticeofablutionforsalat,itisrecommendedthatonebeinastateof ablutionforreadingQuranandalsoforsleeping.TheProphethasstatedthat enteringsleepwithablutionensuresthatoursoulistakentotheThroneofAllah andthatoursleepiscountedasprayer. Itisrecommendedfordervishestokeeptheirablutionasmuchaspossible. Thestateofablutionneedstoberenewed: Aftersleeporlossofconsciousness,unlessseatedfirmlyinanuprightposition Afterbathroom Afterpassingwind Afteranyflowofblood,evenfromasmallcut Aftervomiting Afterbecomingangry Afterlovemakingthisrequiresafullablution,whichconsistsofashoweror bathaccompaniedbywudu,thesmallerablutiondescribedabove. Forguidanceregardingablutionandprayer,youmayconsultaseniordervishor leaderoftheorder.Thedervisheswhostoodtoyourleftandrightinthefoursteps oftheinitiationceremonymaybeconsideredspecialfriendsonthepath.

Al-Fatiha print

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Audhu bi-llahi mina-sh-shaytan-r-rajim Bismillahi-r-Rahmani-r-Rahim Al-hamdu-li-llahi-r-Rabbi-l-alamin Ar-Rahmani-r-Rahim Maliki yaumi-d-din Iyyaka nabudu wa iyyaka nastain Ihdina-s-sirata-l-mustaqim As-sirata-l-ladhina an amta alayhim Ghayri-l-maghdubi alayhim wa la-d-daalin I take refuge with Allah the All-Merciful from the principle of rebellion and negativity In the name of Allah Most High Who is Tenderly Compassionate, Infinitely Merciful Perfect praise flows to Allah alone, Lover and Sustainer of all Worlds, Most intimately called Rahman and Rahim, Presiding magnificently over the Day of Divine Awakening. O Lord, we worship only You and rely upon You alone. Reveal Your Direct Path, the mystic way of those who, through Your Mercy, have received and truly assimilated Your sublime Guidance, Those who never wander from the spiritual path and therefore never experience Your awesome Correction.

Sura Fatiha, the opening sura of Holy Quran, is called the Mother of the Book for it is said to contain the spiritual power and blessing of the entire Quran.

Through this recitation, we mystically ascend through the boundless realms of revelation with seven steps of lightthe seven verses of Sura Fatiha, which are the seven heavens and the seven levels of the self. Reaching the seventh mystical plane and sealing the confirmation of all revelation with the ecstatic cry amin, we can no longer be aware of our individual existence, for this would be idolatry, the elevation of created multiplicity to the level of uncreated Unity. Crushed in the all-powerful embrace of Sura Fatiha, permeated with its mystery, sparkling with its secrets, flowing like a healing spring with its Living Water, we enter the original Night of Power experienced by the holy Prophet, the Implanter of the Glorious Quran in the Heart of Humanity, may the infinite blessing of Sura Fatiha always be his. - Shaykh Nur al-Jerrahi, Atom Following is an interpretation of Sura Fatiha given by Nur al-Jerrahi on his In the Spirit radio show, soon after his first visit to Shaykh Muzaffer in Istanbul. May we live simply by reliance on the power of the Holy Name of Allah, Who is complete Love, overflowing with Compassion and Grace. May our spontaneous praise and gratitude be directed to Allah alone, the Ultimate Source of the unfolding of all worldsAllah, who is complete Love, overflowing with Compassion and Graceand who is master of the spiritual discipline of all beings, bringing them all to their time of Truth. Only to You O Allah do we offer the full commitment of our lives, and from your infinite power alone do we seek the strength that we need. Lead us not along the circuitous paths of those who are wandering away from their Source, but lead us along the direct path to the highest illumination, the path of return traveled by those saints and sages who have been blessed by awakening fully to your Holy Presence. Ya Allah, Ya Allah, Ya Allah.

Salawat print

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O noble believers, humbly and constantly request Divine Benediction for him,saluting him repeatedly with utmost love and respect. - Holy Quran 33.56 Salawat are the prayers of angels and humanity praising and invoking blessing upon the Prophet Muhammad, the Crown of Creation and the Axis of Manifest Being, may Allah the Exalted bestow His grace ceaselessly upon him. Know that Allah desires the salawat prayer from our heart and greatly rewards it. For in actuality it is Allah who is praising the Prophet with the tongue of humanity. In the love between Allah, the Prophet and his ummat, humanity, resides the great secret of Creation. Allah is praised, the Prophet is praised and humanity is praised on the breath of Love coursing though the salawat, bringing all back to the Source of Love. In the practice of Sufism everything is witnessed as part of oneself. Allah Most High and His noble prophets are within ones being, as is the entire creation, from the angelic heavens to the lowest realms. Therefore when we pray for blessings upon the Prophet Muhammad, we may envision him before us or inside our self, either in his human form or as brilliant light. His being is our own inner heart, he is the

precious pearl of our self. All humanity is his body. We beseech Allah to offer him the peace and blessings so that they originate from the Source of All Blessedness. Whenever the name of the holy Prophet is mentioned we invoke blessings upon him: salallahu alayhi wa salam, Blessings and peace be upon him. When offering the Fatiha outside of the salat prayer, we begin with the salawat: Allahumma salli ala sayyidina Muhammad O Allah bless our master Muhammad, wa ala ali Muhammad the family of Muhammad, wa sahbihi wa sallim and all of his companions througout time, and shower them with great peace.

O Allah, You Who are the only Reality and the loving foundation of our existence, please send Your blessings which are inestimable and beyond our understanding, to the Prophet Muhammad who is the soul of our being, and upon his family, and upon his intimate lovers, and upon the entire human family which is his blessed community. This shorter version is also used: Allahumma salli ala sayyidina Muhammad salallahu alayhi wa salam Our love for the Prophet expands our Fatiha to inconceivable dimensions: Disappear with ecstatic love into the Prophet of Allah, and you will disappear into Allah in mystic union (Nur al-Jerrahi, Atom). When Holy Quran revealed that the believers should send praises upon the Prophet, the companions came to him asking how they should praise him. After a long silence, the Prophet responded with the following salawat. Since that time, it has been recited in the seated portion of salat. It may also be recited outside of salat. Allahumma salli ala sayyidina Muhammadin O Allah, shower your Grace upon our Master Muhammad wa ala ali Muhammadin and upon his family kama sallayta ala Ibrahim wa ala ali Ibrahim as you have showered Your Grace upon Abraham and the family of Abraham, innaka Hamidun Majid indeed You are Most Praiseworthy and Glorious. Wa barik ala sayyidina Muhammadin And bless our Master Muhammad wa ala ali Muhammadin and his family kama barakta ala Ibrahim wa ala ali Ibrahim as You have blessed Abraham and the family of Abraham, innaka Hamidun Majid truly You are Most Praiseworthy and Glorious.

Allah Most High has revealed that when we pray for blessings upon Muhammad, Allah sends ten blessings upon us.

Holy Quran print

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Allah- The Ultimate Source, Supreme Reality, The One God

The Holy Quran and the Noble Sunna are our only base and support. Shaykh Nur al-Jerrahi

Holy Quran, consisting of 6,666 verses, was revealed by Allah Most High to the heart of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, over a period of twenty three years. Six months after the final revelation, the Prophets earthly life completed, making his life synonomous with the Generous Book. The physical text of symbols that we hold in our hand is actually a mirror for the true Quran which is the continuous revelation of Allah unfolding as the ocean of manifest Being and the life of each being. The true Quran is the form of the perfect human being. Therefore when Hazreti Aysha the beloved wife of the Prophet was asked about her noble husband, she answered simply that he was the living Quran. For the dervish, the shaykh is also the living Quran. Sitting in the presence of the shaykh is like reading Quran. The true Quran is the great ocean of knowledge which sustains the way of Islam, disappearance into the Source of Love. The physical text of symbols contains the nucleus of every event occuring from the beginning of this creation to its completion. The mystic shaykhs declare that there are twenty eight levels of interpretation in Holy Quran and there are as many meanings as there are words and letters. The Quran is always protected by living guardians who are the friends of Allah. These are the ones who have merged back into divine Essence, and whose lives have become the interpretation of the Book. Their generosity and nobility, luminous wisdom and love for humanity, are the signs of their station. They are the ones who offer the Good News, as Quran is also called, to the believers and lovers of Truth. Without their

divine vision, interpretation of the Quran contracts into a simple, literal meaning. As the inner eye within the heart opens through the grace of the Pirs, the dervish is able to understand some of the deeper meanings of the Book. Rumi has compared the Quran to a bride who lifts her veil only to the one who approaches her with a pure heart. Holy Quran speaking of itself: This is a miraculous manifestation through Arabic letters of the mysterious Universal Quran, which remains timelessly inscribed upon a boundless transcendental tablet. Holy Quran 85.21-22 Proclaim that your Lord is Most Bountiful, for He wrote upon your heart with the Mystic Pen, revealing to humanity what it never could have known. Holy Quran 96.3-5 We first divinely revealed luminous verses from this Glorious Quran during the most sanctified night, for We long eternally to offer Our compassionate Divine Warning. On that mystic Night outside time, every facet of infinite Divine Wisdom is made clear. Holy Quran 44.3-4 We have made this Arabic Quran easy to understand and remember. Are there any true human beings who long to receive its perfect guidance? Holy Quran 54.32 Whenever this Holy Quran is being prayerfully recited, listen to it with the complete attention of your entire being, keeping profound inward silence, that you may consciously receive the inconceivable Divine Mystery. Holy Quran 7.204 Every being in existence is revealed and contained in the Cosmic Quran. Holy Quran 6.38 Quranic interpretations by Shaykh Nur in Atom from the Sun of Knowledge

Sunna and Hadith print

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Al-Wadud- The Loving, Allah, the Source of Love

Sunna is the way of life of the blessed Prophet Muhammad, may Allah exalt him and bless him and shower him with light. The sunna of the Prophet is the living manifestation of La ilaha Ilallah. It is the expression of his pure and perfect nature, in complete submission to the Source of Love and in compassionate caretaking of the human family. He is perfect in intention, in thought and in action, and he is the shining model for humanity. His life is the interpretation of Holy Quran. By coming close to him we come close to Allah Most High. The sunna of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, is preserved in the great body of Hadiththe recorded accounts of his life and teachings. Hadith Qudsi are the direct words of Allah Most High spoken into the Prophets heartthis places them on the level of Holy Quran. Nine hadith Qudsi recorded in Atom from the Sun of Knowledge: The noble Caretaker who guards the ocean of Quranic meaning, Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace, proclaims: When Allah Most High decreed the existence of creation, He firmly committed Himself by inscribing in His Original Book, My Divine Mercy extends infinitely beyond My Divine Judgement. The Beloved Muhammad, upon him be peace, reports these words directly from the Most High: My love belongs to those who love each other in Me, who experience intimacy in Me, who shower each other with goodness for My Sake, and who visit each other joyfully for My Sake. While pointing at his noble heart three times, the glorious Seal of Messengers proclaims: True religion is right here! Pronounces the President of the Parliament of Prophets: No one has become truly faithful to universal religion until they wish for their sisters and brothers exactly what they desire for themself. Reveals the Mercy to all Worlds, upon him be peace: Every single repetition of praiseevery Subhanallah, every Al-hamdulillah, every Allahu Akbar, and every La ilaha Ilallahis a supreme form of charitable giving. The noble Bearer of Glorious Quran recites these words directly from the Revealer of the Quran: O My servants, I do not permit Myself a single act of compulsion, so neither is compulsion of any kind permissible among you. Advises the Friend of all souls, upon him be peace: Abandon instantly whatever makes you feel doubtful, and embrace wholeheartedly whatever genuinely frees you from doubt. The intimate Beloved of Allah reveals these astonishing words directly from his most precious Lord: When I intensely love one of My servants, I alone become the hearing with which they hear, the seeing with which

they see, the hands with which they grasp, and the feet with which they walk. Were such a servant to request absolutely anything of Me, I would instantly grant it. The First Light and Universal Intellect, upon him be peace, relates these words directly from the Source of the Universe: I manifest in the manner in which each conscious being expects Me to manifest.

Tariqat print

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Ya Hazreti Ali!

Tariqat is the path of return to our Source through returning to our own heart. Tariqat invites us into our heart, and there we meet our Lord, Allah, the Beloved, Love. This is the Hidden Treasure, the goal and essence of life, the priceless pearl. The journey there requires us to be holy warriors of Love as we encounter the lands of the limited selfthe biological, survival and psychological selfwhich has projected illusory forms of seeing and responding to the life experience. These knots of negativity are to be unmasked, confronted and dispelled by the sword of light given to the dervish at hand-takingLa ilaha Ilallah Muhammad Rasulullah, wielded with the compassion and love of Bismillah ir-Rahman ir-Rahim. Sometimes we become bewildered at the degree of negativity and distortion projected by the limited self, and we may tend to read this as real. The antidote is La ilaha Ilallah Muhammad Rasulullahknowing and affirming the radiance and beauty of our own soul as none other that the radiance of the One Realityblazing, blissful, unity of pure Being.

I am the Secret of Humanity and humanity is My Secret. Humankind is My Wealth and I am its wealth. I am humanity and humanity is I. Shaykh Bawa Muhaiyaddeen

Tariqat is the blessed way of the Prophet Muhammad, may Allah shower him with sublime peace. Tariqat is the sacred community of humanity centered around living teachers of truth. Tariqat is the bond to a living shaykh who connects us to the great friends of Allah. Tariqat is the life of the heart, always consulting the heart and following the heart.

Tariqat is polishing the mirror of the heart, cleansing the lens of perception. Tariqat is to take complete responsibility for ones life and actions. Tariqat is speaking the truth from a sincere heart. Tariqat is knowing that Allah dwells within the heart. Tariqat is true knowledge. Tariqat is dying before dying and resurrecting before the resurrection. Tariqat is returning to innocence and becoming Paradise. Tariqat is universal sisterhood and brotherhood. Tariqat is the great wedding of all souls with the Beloved. Tariqat is the way of the beloved Jesus, the Living Gospel. Tariqat is feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, clothing the naked, and rejoicing the downhearted. Tariqat is the banquet table to which all humanity is invited. Tariqat is to offer good in return for wrong, transforming darkness into light. Tariqat is universal forgiveness. Tariqat is the life of ceaseless prayer and praise of the One. Tariqat is abandoning oneself to Love, lovingly submitting to Allah alone without the slightest coercion. Tariqat is disappearing into Allah, reappearing with the beautiful attributes of Allah, and becoming the servant of humanity.

The Litanies of Nureddin Jerrahi print

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Al-Latif- The Divinely Subtle, a revealed name of Allah, and a spiritual name of Hazreti Pir!

The Wird Sharifs, the noble litanies of the Order, are among the great spiritual treasures divinely unveiled to the heart of Pir Nureddin Jerrahi. In the form of small books, the Wirds are special configurations of Quranic passages and the Prophet Muhammads own praises and supplications. The Wirds are the Diamonds of the Order, condensed forms of light which clear and illuminate the hearts of those chanting and receiving them. The Jerrahi dervishes have chanted these sacred texts every day since the time of the Pir, maintaining their power of protecting us and the world from negativity, and keeping us conscious of the Pirs light. The Evening Wird can be recited by every dervish after taking hand. The Morning Wird is given later.

The Prophet Muhammad and Servanthood print

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Surely Allah is sufficient for His servant. Holy Quran

When our beloved Prophet was asked by Allah Most High in the secret shrine of his heart whether he

would prefer to be a king prophet or a servant prophet, he answered with the fullness of divine wisdom, A servant prophet. Therefore we call him Muhammad Abduhu wa Rasuluhu, Muhammad the Servant and Messenger of the All-Merciful Source, may Allahs peace be upon him forever. He declared of his own life, fakhri fahripoverty is my pride. The mystic masters interpret this to mean poverty on all levels. Outwardly, he distributed everything to the needy of his community, so that he owned nothing. He declared that if he received a mountain of wealth in the morning it would be given away by nightfall. On the inner level his poverty was also complete, and here is the true meaning of faqir. He was empty of all but Allah. He did not exist except in Allah. His hearing, seeing, and knowing were only through Allah. He refrained from all personal initiative, following simply the command of Allah. He preferred not to act rather than act without the divine command. He is the magnificent empty vessel of life which resounds only with Allah. His only desire was for the Pleasure of Allah and the salvation of humanity. On the night of his Ascension into mystic intimacy with Allah, he was asked by his Lord to request his most ardent wish and everything his heart desired. His passionate answer was, My ummat, my people, my humanity. O Merciful Allah forgive human beings all their errors. He is the supreme intercessor. He is the servant of humanity. His way is our light. Through his example we know that servanthood is the highest station of the human being, and selfless service a sure way to realization. Dervish Service There is only one Master and therefore true service is to Allah alone. This we do with our heart through dhikrullah. As the dervish heart remains in conscious dhikr (and gratitude, love and awe are part of dhikr, as is singing the ilahis), the heart is serving Allah. From this state will flow all the other divinely pleasing forms of service to human beings and creation. Yet these kinds of services will be empty shells unless they are offered with a heart immersed in Allah and free of any desire for esteem or reward. The heart of the dervish is the dwelling of Allah and a lamp for all the hearts, and the responsibility of the dervish is to keep the heart free, even while working and helping in the world. The dervish is watchful that obsession, doubt and complaint do not cloud their heart. If these come, melt them away with La ilaha ilallah Muhammad rasulallah. A mature dervish has the responsibility of visionof sustaining the vision of the Loving Truth even when circumstances challenge it. It is thru this level of seeing that the shaykh reveals the purity of the dervish heart. And it is through this level of seeing that the dervish opens in turn the hearts of others. Dervish heart and dervish path are sustained by true vision. The mystic community is the perfect context in which to practice loving service, for here we will find ourself naturally in a state of dhikrullah, and we are able to freely express our love to Allah, the shaykh and to our fellow dervishes. The service can be as simple as sitting quietly in a state of peaceful absorbtion, attending to the needs of guests, or refreshing the community by offering water or tea....

Community Life and Adab print

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Al-Ahad- The One, Allah, All-Embracing One

Proclaims the tender Intercessor who wept all night for the forgiveness of his spiritual community: Never turn away from one another or undercut one another, even to the slightest degree. Hadith

Spiritual community is one of the greatest of divine gifts. Hazreti Pir Nureddin Jerrahi said that his dervishes were like wine grapes crushed together, mingling all their qualities and becoming one mystic body. The union of such souls transcends space and time. Beyond our conscious awareness we are communing, harmonizing, counseling and helping each other. We are unveiling, ascending, praying and praising Allah together. As one mystical body, we are whirling within the heart of Allah, pouring, pouring Allahs love. We are companions of Truth. Adab, commonly translated as moral character and refined behavior, is the state of perfect awareness, love, and gracious sensitivity which is innate to our soul. The highest level of adab is the knowledge that we have no independent existence apart from the One Reality. Perfect adab is constant awareness of Allah. From this awareness flows all beautiful behavior. On our path as dervishes we learn to govern the other aspects of our humanity with the light of adab so that we become complete human beings, pleasing to Allah the Beloved. The principles of adab are rooted in the divine humanity of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. He is the owner of perfect spiritual states and beautiful manners. His outward behavior and inner character is our model and goal. He has revealed that the essence of religion is the perfection of moral character, and that he was sent to complete it. In tariqat, we learn adab in the presence of the shaykh, through our full attentiveness to the teaching and our joyful service. We practice adab in the community of lovers, offering to each other the natural radiance of the human soul unobstructed by limited psychological and emotional prisms. We learn to still our mind and empty our hearts of all but Allah in the holy battle with the limited self. The adab we bear toward others is our adab toward Allah. The dervish must be very careful not to break a heart because this heart is Allahs heart. By allowing each other to be, we allow living Truth to reveal Itself. Mature adab never hardens into fixed rules or the correction of others. Ibn al-Arabi, Shaykh al-Akbar, may Allah sanctify his secret, says the following on adab: A good rule to remember is that if a thing is done to bring salvation, truth, comfort and peace to others, to oneself, and to as many people as possible, protecting them, eliminating pain and hardship, it is good behavioron condition that it is not done for personal benefit, but for Allahs sake.

Spiritual Protection print

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Every dervish of the Nur Ashki Jerrahi tariqat receives the powerful spiritual protection of the shaykhs and pirs of our lineage who form a shield of light against negativity. However, personal initiative is also very important. As the dervish progresses on the path, their light can attract negative beings whom they would encounter either in waking or dream states. Therefore it is recommended that they increase their protection and well-being through recitation of the Wird, daily, weekly, and in times of particular need. Inside the Wird are salawat and special verses which are particularly helpful for protection. Among these are the Fatiha, Surat al-Falaq and Surat an-Nas, and the Ayat al-Kursi. The Fatiha is on page 40 of this book.

Surat al-Falaq [Sura 113]

Bismi-Llahi-r-Rahmani-r-Rahim In the name of Allah, the Tenderly Compassionate, the Infinitely Merciful Qul audhu bi-Rabbi-l-falaq Affirm with your whole being, I seek true refuge with the Lord of perpetually dawning Wisdom Min sharri ma khalaq Perfect refuge from all the negativity generated by limited conscious beings, Wa min sharri ghasiqin idha waqab With which they darken their consciousness, Wa min sharri-n-naffathati fi-l-uqad Total refuge from the confusion, magic Wa min sharri hasidin idha hasad And obsession they project.

Surat an-Nas [Sura 114]

Bismi-Llahi-r-Rahmani-r-Rahim In the name of Allah, the Tenderly Compassionate, the Infinitely Merciful Qul audhu bi-Rabbi-n-nas Affirm with your whole being, I seek true refuge with the Lord and Lover of humankind, Maliki-n-nas Ilahi-n-nas The Sovereign of humankind, the Divine Guide of humankind Min sharri-l-waswasi-l-khannas Sure refuge from all the negativity that whispers divisively Alladhi yuwaswisu fi suduri-n-nas, mina-l-jinnati wa-n-nas Into the pure heart of humanity and into the hearts of conscious beings on the subtle planes of being.

Al-Hafiz- The Sole Preservation, Allah, the Preserver of all beings Recite Ya Hafiz 16 times for special protection over yourself or over another.

Ayat l-Kursi

Allahu La ilaha illa Hu Allah alone. There is no reality or divinity apart from Him, Al-Hayyu-l-Qayyum The Living One, absolutely Self-Manifesting and All-Encompassing. La takhudhuhu sinatu-w-wa la nawm His Divine Awareness never lapses nor sleeps. Lahu ma fi-s-samawati wa ma fi-l-ard All heavenly and earthly planes of being belong solely to Him. Man dhalladhi yashfau indahu illa bi-idhnih Who is there who could intercede in His presence, except through His own permission? Yalamu ma bayna aydihim wa ma khalfahum He alone knows what causes precede and what results follow from each event. Wa la yuhituna bi shayin min ilmihi illa bima shaa And human beings can grasp nothing of His Encompassing Divine Knowledge except As He wills. Wasia kursiyuhu-s-samawati wa-l-ard The mysterious Throne of His Presence permeates every heavenly and earthly dimension, Wa la yauduhu hifzuhuma As He effortlessly creates, protects and preserves all manifestation, Wa Huwa-l-Aliyu-l-Azim For He is the Most High, the Supremely Glorious.

A very effective way of protecting yourself with the Ayat al-Kursi is to recite it seven times, and each time, after the recitation, to blow it in one of the directions around your person. After the first recitation you breathe out in front of yourself. After the second recitation you breathe over the right shoulder. After the third recitation you blow it over the left shoulder. After the fourth recitation you blow into your hands and pass them over your head toward your back. After the fifth you blow above yourself, and after the sixth you blow toward the earth. After the seventh recitation, you inhale, so that the power of the Quranic words permeates your interior.

Al-Muhaymin- The Sole Protection, Allah, the Protector of all beings For the purposes of healing, Shaykh Turgul Efendi recommends reciting this verse a single time preceded by a salawat and one Fatiha and then auzu billahi mina-sh-shaytani-r-rajim...

Bismi-Llahi-r-Rahmani-r-Rahim In the name of Allah, the Tenderly Compassionate, the Infinitely Merciful Wa nunazilu mina-l-Quran ma huwa shifaun We send down in the Quran that which is a healing wa rahmatu-lil-muminina and a mercy to the faithful. wa la yazidu-z-zalimina illa khasara To the unjust it causes nothing but loss after loss. Holy Quran 17.82

Knowledge and Love print

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Al-Alim- The Knower, Allah the All-Knowing One Allah Most High has revealed for humanity this prayer through the heart of the Prophet Muhammad, the one unlettered in human instruction, and taught by Allah alone: O precious Lord, increase and advance me in spiritual states and mystic knowledge.

Our dervish life is childlike spontaneous affirmation of Allahs love and ceaseless searching to increase our knowledge of Allahs Being. Love and knowledge are the two wings of the dervish. Love fuels our desire to know Allah and knowledge increases the depth of our love. Love and knowledge are actually one. Love is the essential core of existence, and knowledge is the prism of realization of this existence. Love grows eternally deeper and vaster, while knowledge is continuously overturned, shifted and formed anew. True knowing comes directly into the heart from Allah. The dervish heart is an open book whose pages are inscribed by the Divine Pen. Seek knowledge there, through opening your heart to the shaykh. Seek knowledge there through your tasbih and salat, through your meditation and practice of selfless generosity. Then the deeper meanings of Quran, Hadith and mystic books will come to you. Then you will be able to read the book of creation and the books of all human hearts. You will come to realize the truth of the Prophets words: Know yourself and you will know your Lord.

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Al-Alim- The Knower, Allah the All-Knowing One Both Shaykh Nur and Shaykh Muzaffers knowledge of the body of Islamic mysticism was very thorough. They both encouraged intellectual inquiry. Shaykh Muzaffer said that the most important gift that a human being has is the intellect because it is the light of guidance within the heart. The intellect leads us to the Truth. According to Shaykh Nur the illumined intellect is manna from Heaven. The study of Shaykh Nurs and Shaykh Muzaffers writings is highly recommended, as well as those of Muhyiddin Ibn al-Arabi, Mevlana Jelaludin Rumi, Rabia al-Adawiya and the other great friends of Allah, may Allah Most High exalt their souls.

Books by Shaykh Nur al-Jerrahi (Lex Hixon): Atom from the Sun of Knowledge Heart of the Koran Sufi Meditation 101 Diamonds

Books by Shaykh Muzaffer Ashki al-Jerrahi: Love is the Wine The Unveiling of Love The Blessed Virgin Mary Irshad The Ninety Nine Names of Allah Adornment of Hearts Garden of Dervishes Lights of the Hearts (forthcoming)

Pathways of Light, Stages of Illumination print close

In the following page we present two texts of succinct teachings on the path by our two great guides, Shaykh Nur Hixon and Shaykh Muzaffer Ozak. You will observe differences of style and approach, for

every shaykh has a unique interpretation within the fundamental unity of the Muhammadan way. Levels of Mystic Embrace Notes on the Path by Shaykh Nur al-Jerrahi The Four Gates and the Forty Stages on the Way of Truth Shaykh Muzaffer Ozak al-Jerrahi

Ya Hazreti Pir Muhammad Nureddin al-Jerrahi ................................................................................................................................................................ Levels of Mystic Embrace Notes on the Path by Shaykh Nur al-Jerrahi The following text is based on the teachings which Shaykh Nur gave at a seminar at Naropa Institute in 1989. He edited the notes to create a compact outline of our dervish path. We have decided to keep it in the informal, shorthand style of the notes, therefore the wording does not always reflect the diamond-like precision that Shaykh Nur brings to his formally published texts. Nevertheless, this is a precious jewel-box of some of his inspired interpretations of the path. Several of these ideas are further discussed and elaborated in the introduction of his book, Atom from the Sun of Knowledge. Bismillah ir-Rahman ir-Rahim -- In the Name of Allah The Tenderly Compassionate, The Infinitely Merciful I. Structures of Consciousness: The seven levels shared by all human beings without exception 1. Survival instinct: Domineering or aggressive selfself perpetuatinguncivilizedin its extreme form, destructive, criminal behaviorbiological selfnatural, not evil in itself, although it easily becomes a channel for evil or negativitynot to be destroyed, but made transparent to the higher levels.

2. The Seeker: Seeking genuine structures of value (love, harmony, beauty)shariat begins (whether it is the shariat of Islam, shariat of Christianity, etc.) 3. True Human Being: Fullness of shariatgenuine fulfillment for self and others 4. Divine Attributes manifesting: Divine Splendor manifesting through human contextthe steep part of the mystic path begins 5. Mystic union: Blending with the Essence: Luminous darknessbeyond Divine Attributeshidden treasureHu, Hu, Hu 6. Humanity as the Crown of Creation: The Divine Attributes consciously expressed in the world by the practitioner coming forth as these Attributeszikr gives a glimpse of this levelhighest region of Paradise 7. Infinite Fecundity: Radiantluminousgreenno sense of separate self can exist on this levelDivine Consciousness alone exists as the eyes by which we see and the hands with which we serve (from an oral tradition of the Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace) II. The Mystic Path: A movement from inner to outer, transcendental to earthly A. Four Steps/Taking Hand; Traversing the Seven Levels Hand-taking correlates to Mary being crowned Queen of Heaven; represents a vision of complete spiritual evolution. Step 1. The spirit of Shariat (or five pillars of Islam): Serving Godmaking honeytwo or three levels of the seven levels of consciousness are traversedjourney to God Step 2. Tariqat: The steep pathintimacy with Godall mystic orders of Islamtasting honeyjourney in God as the Divine Namesfour of the seven levels of consciousness have now been traversed Step 3. Haqiqat: TruthHaqqonly Essence of Divinity existsbeing honeymaturitypeak of the mountain of Lightocean of Love with no shoresonly Godfifth level of consciousness is reached Step 4. Marifat: Gods journey in humanityfeeding honey to the universeentering the marketplace with bliss-bestowing handsbeing Divine Compassionservant, abdallah (servanthood is higher than prophethood)with recognition of all facets of reality and all responsibilities, yet transparent to the Divine Lightservants hands are Rahman and Rahimbreath is Ya Hayymature of the maturethe sixth and seventh levels of consciousness are now traversed

Shariat: Making honey Tariqat: Tasting honey Haqiqat: Becoming honey Marifat: Feeding honey to the universe Shariat: Humanitys journey to God Tariqat: Humanitys journey in God Haqiqat: Gods journey to God Marifat: Gods journey in humanity

Shariat: Service Tariqat: Intimacy Haqiqat: Maturity Marifat: The mature of the mature Shariat: Believer Tariqat: Dervish Haqiqat: Sufi Marifat: Shaykh Shariat: Levels 2-3 Tariqat: Level 4 Haqiqat: Level 5 Marifat: Level 6-7

B. Embracing Universal Islam: Shahada 1. Witnessing to the unity of Existence; the unity of Reality; the unity of God 2. Witnessing to the prophethood of all prophets sent by this Reality, by which It sends Itself to Itself (Ibn al-Arabi) 3. Witnessing to the veracity of all holy books and of all revealed scriptures that come forth from this Reality 4. Witnessing to the existence of angelic beings emanating from the One Reality, healing and guiding humanity, although the human being is higher in spiritual stature than angelic beings 5. Witnessing that everything which happens, whether it appears good or bad, comes forth from the perfectly merciful will of this Reality 6. Witnessing that the entire universe is waiting for the call to return into its Original Source 7. Witnessing that after the return to the Source, after physical death, God will recreate every structure of value on a non-physical plane of being called Paradise

C. Practicing Universal Islam: The Five Pillars Process of outwardly manifesting the shahada: 1. La ilaha Ilallah, Muhammadan RasulallahCentral pillar that subtly contains and supports the other four 2. PrayersFive times a day, as an ideal, even if we dont fully actualize it 3. Charitable givingminimum of one-fortieth of liquid assets per year to anyone in need (in practice, more is usually given) 4. Pilgrimage (Hajj)At least once in a lifetime if permitted by Allah; a longing, not a

requirement 5. RamadanThirty day fast between sunrise and sunset celebrating the holy descent of the glorious Quran into the heart of the Prophet and re-manifesting once a year

D. Practicing the Way of the Prophet Muhammad: Sunna Interpretable guidelines from the holy Sunna, the way of life of the Prophet: Make Islam easy. Rasulallah, upon him be peace My yoke is easy, my burden is light. Jesus, upon him be peace There is no compulsion in Islam. Holy Quran These are matters between the soul and its Lord. Spiritual authority remains essentially decentralized in its human expression.

All dimensions of human life are sanctified and harmonized by abiding by various properly interpreted Quranic injunctions and Hadith (oral tradition of the Prophet). Here is a partial list: Ablutions before formal prayer and certain other times Special clothing for men and women during prayer, such as removing shoes, covering head Abstaining from various kinds of food and drink, such as pork and intoxicants of various kinds Sacrament and responsibilities of marriage (including the right of either partner to initiate divorce) Responsibility to study all fields of knowledge, but particularly Quran Ceremonies for newborn children and physical death transition Proper regard for true religious scholars of Islam as well as for authentic shaykhs and shaykhas who inherit on various levels the spiritual wealth of the Prophet Praying for the peace of the Prophet whenever mentioning his name and thus participating with angelic beings who do this Being a merciful caretaker of all creatures and the courageous advocate of justice founded on the equality before Allah of all human beings and especially the equality of men and women Always saying and really meaning, Inshallah (God-willing), Alhamdulillah (God alone deserves praise and gratitude), and Allahu Akbar, (God is always greater than any possible conception or description) Not making any distinction in essence between the prophets or any distinction in essence

between their teachings Honoring parents Revering the Holy Quran (not keeping it in a low place), and greeting it with a holy kiss Assuming that the Quran always contains more levels of meaning than we can understand Various structures of governance must acknowledge the One God and are accountable to the One God. Respect for the integrity of personal property and personal space Respect for all the noble religious traditions and complete freedom and protection for their practice Universal brotherhood and sisterhood; greeting each other at all times with As-salam alaykum, and meaning it Regarding women as a special embodiment of spirituality, and understanding in this light various customs and practices such as the veil, the configuration of public prayer, the protection of women, and customs concerning monthly periods Permission to engage in essentially defensive warfare for the protection of spiritual values Regarding wealth and property as essentially God-given, to be used selflessly for the greater good of the community Mutual acceptance and cooperation in Truth between different dimensions of a society, such as different economic and social levels Natural resources belong to the Creator, the human being is simply the sensitive caretaker; this is not merely a material universe but a spiritual creation. The only legitimate income is from honorable physical or mental labor, which benefits the community in some real way. Inheritance and various abstract investments are legitimate if kept in harmony with all Islamic principles, mainly generosity; various levels of gambling are not authentically Islamic. Not risking ones own or others lives gratuitouslythis would include observing the most refined standards of healthy living Respect for civil law Longing for world peace and harmonious world civilization III. Commentary

Al-Nur- The One Light

In the Ashki-Jerrahi Order of Islamic Sufism, the aspirant can begin with Taking Hand and remain there, because Taking Hand contains the entire mystic path. He or she can also consciously affirm Universal Islam as part of the Hand Taking. Or the aspirant can move into tradition by accepting the Five Pillars and the Sunna, which go together, but which do not have a special ceremony connected with them as Taking Hand and Shahada do. Some persons who are already involved in Islam will ascend to the Mystic Path through joining the Order, and through this the atmosphere of Shahada, the Five Pillars, and Sunna will distinctly change for them. Other persons will come to the Mystic Path from another noble tradition such as Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, or an indigenous tradition. They need not embrace the Shariat of Islam. The aspirant who remains simply with the initiation of Hand Taking is a full dervish of the Order. Members of other Islamic or non-Islamic mystic orders may Take Hand as a blessing, confirmation, and spiritual acceleration. ................................................................................................................................................................ The Four Gates and the Forty Stages on the Way of Truth Shaykh Muzaffer Ozak al-Jerrahi First Gate: The Gate of the Sharia To enter, one must satisfy ten conditions. The first five are the familiar Pillars of Islam, namely: The Testimony of Faith Ritual Prayer Almsgiving Fasting Pilgrimage To these, the Masters of the Mystical Path have added the following five: Lawful earning and lawful spending Abstaining from unlawful things, both material and spiritual

Marriage Occasional battle with the external foe, but constant battle with the lower self Promoting the complete fulfillment of Allahs commandments, and preventing their violation The Second Gate: The Gate of Tariqa Here again we meet with ten conditions, namely: Sincere repentance and seeking forgiveness Transformation of character Devoted service to a perfect guide Fear of Allah without despair of His mercy Renunciation of worldly pleasures for love of the Truth alone Self-sacrifice in Allahs cause, striving to keep the approval of Allah Ensuring that one is always pleasing to the Founding Saint of the Order of the Tariqa to which one belongs (or to the Shaykh) Exact performance of the litanies (awrad) and remembrances set for one by the Shaykh Following the Shaykhs advice, and avoiding contradictory behavior Emptying ones heart of all obsession with wealth or possessions, filling it instead with the love of Allah and His Messenger

Al-Haqq-The True, Allah, the Supreme Truth

Third Gate: The Gate of Haqiqa

Again there are ten conditions, namely: Utter humility Religious tolerance Few expectations Causing no harm to any creature Hurting no persons feelings Kind and generous treatment of the poor Traveling the prescribed way of Allah Learning from all one sees Constant and heart-felt supplication to Allah Approaching as close as one is able to the knowledge of Allah and His mystery Fourth Gate: The Gate of Marifa This final gate also presents ten conditions: Propriety in controlling ones hands, tongue and sexuality Struggling with the self to the point where it becomes compliant Observing solitude Complete and confident acceptance of the teachings of Allahs saints Modesty. As the blessed Prophet said, Modesty is part of true faith. Generosity and hospitality Distinguishing Truth from falsehood Forbearance, with anger and wrath toward no one Self-knowledge Attaining closeness to the Truth

Excerpted from The Garden of Dervishes

The Heart print

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I Who do not fit inside the 18,000 universes dwell inside the heart of my believing servant. Hadith Qudsi

The Prophet Muhammad, may Allahs infinite peace always embrace him, pointed to his heart and said that true religion is right here. The heart is the Kaba of Allah and the home of humanity. Religion is the act of returning home. Allah speaks tenderly into our spiritual ear I am closer to you than your own life vein, for I am the One within your heart. Realize Me, witness Me, return entirely into Me. Sufism is the path of the heart. When we speak of the heart we normally mean the emotional/physical one, inhabited by feelings of elation, sadness, or distress. Shaykh Nur referred to this as the courtyard of the heart, the zone of psychological and emotional vibrations which circulate around the true heart, the qalb, like thunderclouds surrounding a core of light. The qalb itself is pure love. When we consciously inhabit the qalb we see everything through the eyes of love. We see all life forms simply as the play of Love, and the desire of Love for Itself, the pouring forth in infinite creativity and the drawing back of all into Its own Essence. We know that we are in the heart when we act for the sake of love, and not with the desire to gain something from our action. We know that we are in the heart when we speak the truth, and if we cover our words it is only to protect someone else. In the realm of qalb, limited consciousness dissolves like the dew drops on a blade of grass when the sun rises. And the deeper we fall into the ocean of qalb the stronger is the power of love over us. The root of qalb means to turn and fluctuate. Ibn al Arabi, may he be blessed with Allahs mercy, says that fluctuation is the true nature of the heart as it moves in the waves of Allahs revelations, receiving moment by moment the fresh news from its Lord. Allah Most High has informed us that the heart of each of us is held between His two fingers and turned ceaselessly. The Prophet Muhammad would take oath through the power of the One Who Holds my heart between his two fingers. We are free to take this image literally or understand it as a figurative way to express a relationship of intimacy. Both are true. The heart is clearly not something we control. We give up all control and submit to the loving embrace of Allah when we say yes and plunge into the heart. This is teslimyet, the submission which alone brings peace. And as our awareness begins to inhabit the deeper realms, we open to the divine realities which are named the secret and the secret of the secret. The latter is also called the gnostic heart, the infinite kingdom where Allah Alone exists. Muhyiddin Ibn al-Arabi, may Allah sanctify his secret, said of this heart, Were limitless existence, if its limits could be imagined, together with the essence that brought it into existence, to be put into one of the corners of the Heart of the gnostic, he would have no consciousness of it. It is established that the Heart encompasses the Reality, but though it be filled, it thirsts on, as Abu Yazid has said. The path however begins where we are. If our conscience is in the outer courtyard, love reaches us there and calls us to return into the heart. Love is the guide because it is the very essence of the heart, and it always brings us home. In the heart we meet Allah and we disappear into Allah, which has been our great longing from the time we came into human form. In reality, we were never separated, we only imagined we were. Our path is the melting of the prison wall of imagined separation, which we have mistaken for our home, and the return into the true self of the heart, into Allah. Keep vigilance with your heart and you will be with Allah. Be aware of the waves which rise and fall within it, but do not be carried away by them. Do everything from the heart. What we bring to Allah ultimately is our heart.

The heart is the open space of divine manifestation. The heart is continuously pregnant with revelation. The heart is the greatness of humanity. On one level the heart is seeing Allah, and on another level, the heart is Allahs seeing. It is the eye of Reality, and the life of Reality. The heart is the tiniest, most hidden of creation and it is the vastness beyond all horizons, embracing all creation. To awaken, to love, is to live within the heart of Allah, for our heart is none other than the heart of Allah. When we commit any act against love, we deny our heart and leave a trace on the pure mirror around the heart. When we offer an act of love, when we immerse ourselves in the state of dhikrullah, we clarify all obscuration.

Dhikrullahprint close

"TheMaturingprocessinadervishorderiscommunal.Themysticalascensioninto ParadiseconsciousnessandbeyondintotheGardenofEssenceoccurshandinhand, heartsintertwinedeternally.MeetingonThursdaynightsfordhikr,thedynamic circleofDivineRemembrance,weencountereachotherprimarilyasaspiringsouls andonlysecondarilyaspersonalitieswithpsychologicalandsociologicalprofiles." ShaykhNuralJerrahi,AtomfromtheSunofKnowledgePirPublications

"Lastingbetweenoneandthreehours,theceremonyofremembranceformulatesa microscopicmirroroftherealityofexistence.Themotionofthedhikrullahreflects therevolvingofthespheres.Inthespiritualdimensiontheprocessofcenteringin AllahandfindingUnionwithHimisdescribed.Theceremonyreiteratesthestages ofAscenttowardsbeinglostinAllah(Arabic:fanafillah)andthestagesofDescentto theplaneofmanifestation,whereoneremainssubsistentinAllah(Arabic: baqabillah).ThusthePathtoperfectionthatthesufishavevowedtofollowisshown inconcentratedformintheceremonyofdhikrullah. "AllahMostHighpromisesspiritualseekershisclosenessthroughremembrance. "RememberMeandIwillrememberyou,"AllahrevealsinHisHolyQur?an. "ThemysticalfruitscanbetastedintheDhikrullah,theleastofitsfruitsbeing ecstasy(Arabic:wajd).ThepracticeofDhikrullahmakesthedervishconsciousofhis orherinherentremembrance,andeventuallyoftheremembranceofeverycreated beingintheuniverse... "Remembranceprovidesameansforthedervishestoexpresstheirlongingfor Allah,theBeloved.Truedervishesneitherlookforspiritualrewards,nordesire Paradise,butyearntobeholdtheCountenanceofAllah(Arabic:wajhullah)."The SaintsarethelightofAllah?sCountenance"writesSheikhMuzaffer.Thedervishes thatreachperfectionandthereforearesaints,(?FriendsofAllah?inMuslim terminology)becomethelightofAllah?sCountenance,whichtheylongedto behold." ?SixteenaGulAshkiFriedrichfromtheforwardtoGardenofDervishesbySheikh MuzafferOzakalJerrahi1991PirPublicationsAllRightsReserved
Preface print close

In the Name of Allahs Boundless Compassion and Infinite Love

In salat I find the refreshment for my eyes. Salat is the ascension of the believer. Oral traditions of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him

We wish to offer here a simple transcription of the salat prayer according to the traditional form used by the Nur Ashki Jerrahi Sufi Order and lightly elucidated with teachings from Atom from the Sun of Knowledge

by Shaykh Nur al-Jerrahi. Salatthe bezel for the jewel of Quranic chanttakes a cyclically patterned form. As phrases and verses of Quran are melodiously recited, the lover of Allah passes through various contemplative movements and postures. A cycle of prayer or rakat begins with the standing posture, hands gently clasped; then the body moves into bowing at the hips until the back is parallel to the earth; rising briefly to standing again; plunging gracefully into prostration, forehead on the ground; raising the head and torso and shifting back into a briefly held seated position; then finally melting into a second prostration, completing the rakat. During the daily cycle of prayer-times, there are different lengths of prayer: some two rakats, some three, and some four. Therefore in this transcription we have indicated the option of completing the prayer at the conclusion of two, three, and four rakats. The daily pattern of differing prayer lengths are provided at the end of the workbook. Salat is most effortlessly learned by participating in group prayers, in which one can follow and become one with the greater communal body, as it peacefully praises and prostrates, dissolves into Divine light and reemerges as Divine light. M. Brown, Editor December, 2003

Ablutionprecedingprayer:Wuduprint close Ablutionisreimmersingourselvesinthelightofdivineawareness,preparingus forsalat.Thebasicmethodofperformingwudu,theminorablutionisthefollowing: Withtheintentionofmakingwudu,repeatthedivinephrase,BismillahirRahman irRahim,orsimplyAllahthroughouttheablution.Asyoutouchthedifferentpartsof yourbodywithwaterfeelthelightofAllahilluminatingthem. Hands:Passthelefthandholdingalittlewater,overtherightthreetimes,thenpass therighthandthreetimesoverthelefthand. Mouth:Rinsethreetimeswithwaterfromtherighthand. Nostrils:Gentlyinhalethewaterfromyourcuppedrighthand,thenexpelitwitha rapidbreath,threetimes. Face:Withalittlewaterinyourhands,drawthemthreetimesoveryourfacegoing fromcrowntochin. Forearms:Passleftpalm,withalittlewater,threetimesovertherightarmupto elbow,thenrepeatthreetimesfortheleftarm. Head:Passwetpalmsoverhair,fronttoback,oncebriefly.

 Earsandneck:Wipeeachearoncebrieflyinsideandoutsidewithwetfingers,then passwethandsacrossbackofneckoncebriefly. Feet:Wiperightfootuptotheanklethreetimeswithlefthand,holdingalittle water,thenleftfootthreetimeswithrighthand.Onecanrinsethehandsoncemore afterwashingthefeet. Thecalltoprayer:Adhanprint close SupremeRealityiscallingusthroughthebeautifulhumanvoice.Themuadhan, thehumaninstrumentofthisdivinecall,facesthedirectionofprayer,handsheldat earlevelinagestureofcompleteopennessofmindandheart,andchants melodiouslytheserevealedphrases: AllahuAkbar(fourtimes,recitedinpairs) SupremeRealityisalwaysgreaterthananyconception AshhaduanLailahaillaLlah(twice) IwitnessthatthereisnorealityapartfromSupremeReality AshhaduannaMuhammadarRasuluLlah(twice) IwitnessthatMuhammadisanauthenticMessengerofSupremeReality Hayyaalassalat(twice) Cometosalat Hayyaalalfalah(twice) Cometothehighestspiritualrealization AllahuAkbar(twice) Allahisalwaysgreater LailahaillaLlah NothingexistsapartfromAllah Salat,cyclebycycleprint close

 a.InitiatingSalat,andbeginningthefirstcycle(rakat) b.Completingatworakatprayer c.Continuingathreerakatorfourrakat d.Completingathreerakatprayer e.Continuingafourrakatprayer f.Completingafourrakatprayer ................................................................................................................................................................ InitiatingSalat,andbeginningthefirstcycle(rakat) StateIntention:Quietlystatetheintentiontopray(forexample,OAllah,Iintendto offerthefardmaghribprayerseekingyourgoodpleasure.BismiLlahirRahmanir Rahim) InitiatingthestateofSalat:FaceqiblahoutwardlythisisthedirectionoftheHoly KaabainMecca,inwardlyitistheawarenessthatoneisfacingonlyAllah.Raisethe hands,palmsopenandfacingforward(traditionallyhandsbesidetheheadformen, orbesidetheshouldersforwomen).Thisgesture,signifyingtheopennessofthe entirebeingtotheDivineRadianceandMagnificence,isaccompaniedbythewords oftranscendence: AllahuAkbar Unitethehands(justbelowthenavelformen,andabovetheheartforwomen), righthandplacedgentlyovertheleft.Allowthesepraisestoarise,pronouncingthe wordsunderyourbreath: SubhanakaAllahummawabiHamdik GloriousOAllah,andallheartspraiseYou waTaBarakaSmuk YourNameispureblessing waTaAlaJadduk YourMightisexalted waLailahaghayruk andthereisnorealityapartfromYou

 AudhuBillahiminashaytanirrajim ItakerefugeinAllahfromallnegativity ChantSuraFatiha,theopeningchapterofQuran: BismiLlahirRahmanirRahim IntheNameofAllah,theTenderlyCompassionate,theInfinitelyMerciful AlhamduliLlahiRabbilalamin PraisebetoAllah,theCherisherandLoveroftheWorlds ArRahmanirRahim MostCompassionate,MostMerciful, Malikiyawmiddin MagnificentlypresidingoverthereturnintotheRadianceofAllah Iyyakanabudu,waiyyakanastain OLord,weworshiponlyYouandrelyuponYoualone. Ihdinassiratalmustaqima RevealYourDirectPath, Siratalladhinaanamtaalayhim themysticwayofthosewhohavereceivedandtrulyassimilatedYoursublime Guidance, Ghayrilmaghdubialayhimwaladdaallin thosewhoneverwanderfromthespiritualpathandthereforeneverexperience YourawesomeCorrection. Amin ContinuewithanothershortselectionofQuran,suchasalIkhlas: BismiLlahirRahmanirRahim InthenameofAllah,theTenderlyCompassionate,theInfinitelyMerciful Qul:huwaLlahuAhadAllahusSamad Affirmwithyourwholebeing,HeisAllah,theOneandOnlyReality,theAll Encompassing

Lamyalidwalamyulad Whodoesnotoriginatefromsomeotherreality.Nordomultiplerealitiescome forthseparatefromHim, walamyakullahukufuwanahad forapartfromHim,thereisabsolutelynothing. AllahuAkbar Rukubowingthewholetorsofromthehipsrepeatthreetimes: SubhanaRabbilAzim GlorytotheLordandSupremeTeacherWhoissheermagnificence Whilerisingupagaintostanding: SamiaLlahulimanhamida AllahhearstheonewhopraisesHim Reachingtheuprightposition,followwiththecryofgratitude: Rabbanalakalhamd OMyLord,allpraiseflowstoyou! Withthewordsoftranscendence,thekneesbend,initiatingmovementdown towardfullprostration: AllahuAkbar Asfeet,kneesandhandstouchtheearth,thebodytiltsforward,andtheforehead restsinthespacebetweenhands.Anotherdivinelyrevealedformofpraiseis whisperedthreetimesslowly: SubhanaRabbilAla GloriousisSupremeReality Onehasnowreleasedanytraceofseparateindividualityasthesoulmeltsintoits OriginalSource. Withthecry:

 AllahuAkbar raisetheheadandtorsointoaseatedpositionmomentarily.Thenreturnto prostrationintoning: AllahuAkbar Inprostrationwhisperagainthreetimes: SubhanaRabbilAla GloriousisSupremeReality Withthecry: AllahuAkbar onerisesfromprostrationtothestandingposition. Initiatingthesecondrakat Inallprayers,thecycleisperformedasecondtime,includingrecitationofSura Fatiha,theAmin,andtheotherayat(s)ofQuran: BismiLlahirRahmanirRahim IntheNameofAllah,theTenderlyCompassionate,theInfinitelyMerciful AlhamduliLlahiRabbilalamin PraisebetoAllah,theCherisherandLoveroftheWorlds ArRahmanirRahim MostCompassionate,MostMerciful, Malikiyawmiddin MagnificentlypresidingoverthereturnintotheRadianceofAllah Iyyakanabudu,waiyyakanastain OLord,weworshiponlyYouandrelyuponYoualone. Ihdinassiratalmustaqima RevealYourDirectPath,

Siratalladhinaanamtaalayhim themysticwayofthosewhohavereceivedandtrulyassimilatedYoursublime Guidance, Ghayrilmaghdubialayhimwaladdaallin thosewhoneverwanderfromthespiritualpathandthereforeneverexperience YourawesomeCorrection. Amin BismiLlahirRahmanirRahim InthenameofAllah,theTenderlyCompassionate,theInfinitelyMerciful Qul:huwaLlahuAhadAllahusSamad Affirmwithyourwholebeing,HeisAllah,theOneandOnlyReality,theAll Encompassing Lamyalidwalamyulad Whodoesnotoriginatefromsomeotherreality.Nordomultiplerealitiescome forthseparatefromHim, walamyakullahukufuwanahad forapartfromHim,thereisabsolutelynothing. AllahuAkbar Rukubowingthewholetorsofromthehips: SubhanaRabbilAzim(threetimes) GlorytotheLordandSupremeTeacherWhoissheermagnificence Whilerisingupagaintostanding: SamiaLlahulimanhamida AllahhearstheonewhopraisesHim Intheuprightposition: Rabbanalakalhamd OMyLord,allpraiseflowstoyou!

 Withthewordsoftranscendence,initiatemovementdowntowardfullprostration: AllahuAkbar Inprostration,whisper: SubhanaRabbilAla(threetimes) GloriousisSupremeReality Theweightofthebodynowshiftsbacktokneelonthelegs: AllahuAkbar Pauseintheseatedposition.Moveagaintowardfullprostrationintoning: AllahuAkbar Inprostrationwhisper: SubhanaRabbilAla(threetimes) GloriousisSupremeReality Intoning: AllahuAkbar riseoutofprostrationintoseatedposition. Intheseatedposition,quietlyrecitethisdivineconversationwhichoccurredinthe ProphetsAscension,andwhichrecursbetweenthesoulandLordduringevery salat: AttahiyyatuliLlahiwasalawatuwattayyibatu (TheProphetcries:)OAllah,toYoubelongallmygreetings,prayers,andpure deeds. assalamualaykaayyuhanNabiyyu (AllahMostHighresponds:)Peacebeuponyou,ObelovedProphet,

waRahmatuLlahiwaBarakatuHu andmayMydivinemercyandblessingsflowalwaysuponyou. AssalamualaynawaalaibadiLlahisalihin (TheProphetprays:)PeacebeuponusanduponalltherighteousservantsofAllah ashaduanLailahailaLlah (Theangelsexclaim:)WebearwitnessthatthereisnorealityapartfromAllah, waashaduannaMuhammadinAbduHuwaRasuluHu andwebearwitnessthatMuhammadisHispureservantandMessenger! Uponrecitingthismysticdialogue,youhavejustcompletedtworakatsorcyclesof salat. Completingatworakatprayer Whenyouareofferingatworakatsalat,atthispointcontinuetokneel,quietly recitingthesesalawatandsupplications: Rabbanaatinafidunyahasanatan OLord,grantuspuregoodnessandbeautyinthislife wafilakhiratihasanatan andinthelifebeyonddeath. waqinaadhabannar andprotectusallfromthefireofpurification RabbanaghfirliwaliwalidayawalMuminuna OLord,healandforgiveme,myparents,andallthosefaithfultoLove Yawmilyakumilhisab OntheDayofUltimateJustice BiRahmatikaYaArhamaRahimin ByyoursupremelytenderCompassion,OmostCompassionateofthe Compassionate. TheWordofPeaceisrepeatedtwice,firsttotherightalongthelinesofprayerand thentotheleft: AsSalamualaykumwaRahmatuLlah,

AsSalamualaykumwaRahmatuLlah MaytheSublimePeaceandCompassionateblessingsofAllahbewithyou. Nowthemainbodyofthetworakatprayeriscomplete.Theheartnaturally overflowswithfurthersupplications,praisesandformsofremembrance.The patternsofourdervishtraditionappearinalatersection. Continuingathreerakatorfourrakat Ifyouareofferingathreeorfourrakatprayer,immediatelyafterthemystic dialogue(attahiyyatu)intone: AllahuAkbar andriseupintothestandingposition.Thisisthebeginningofthethirdrakat.The shortsurathatfollowsalFatihainthefirsttwocyclesisleftoutinthethirdand fourthcycles?nlytheFatihaisrecited: BismiLlahirRahmanirRahim IntheNameofAllah,theTenderlyCompassionate,theInfinitelyMerciful AlhamduliLlahiRabbilalamin PraisebetoAllah,theCherisherandLoveroftheWorlds ArRahmanirRahim MostCompassionate,MostMerciful, Malikiyawmiddin MagnificentlypresidingoverthereturnintotheRadianceofAllah Iyyakanabudu,waiyyakanastain OLord,weworshiponlyYouandrelyuponYoualone. Ihdinassiratalmustaqima RevealYourDirectPath, Siratalladhinaanamtaalayhim themysticwayofthosewhohavereceivedandtrulyassimilatedYoursublime Guidance, Ghayrilmaghdubialayhimwaladdaallin thosewhoneverwanderfromthespiritualpathandthereforeneverexperience YourawesomeCorrection.

Amin AllahuAkbar Movingtoruku,andinthedeepbowwhispering: SubhanaRabbilAzim(threetimes) GlorytotheLordandSupremeTeacherWhoissheermagnificence Risinguptostanding: SamiaLlahulimanhamida AllahhearstheonewhopraisesHim Arrivingintheuprightposition: Rabbanalakalhamd OMyLord,allpraiseflowstoyou! Movingtowardfullprostration: AllahuAkbar Inprostration,whisperthreetimes: SubhanaRabbilAla GloriousisSupremeReality Shiftingbacktositting: AllahuAkbar Pauseintheseatedposition. AllahuAkbar Returntofullprostration.Whisperthreetimes:

 SubhanaRabbilAla GloriousisSupremeReality Raisingtheheadandtorso: AllahuAkbar Ifyouareperformingathreerakatprayer,remainintheseatedposition,and continuebelow.Ifyouareperformingafourrakatprayer,risetostandingwiththe lastAllahuAkbarabove. Completingathreerakatprayer Tocompleteathreerakatprayernowquietlyrepeatthedivineconversation: AttahiyyatuliLlahiwasalawatuwattayyibatu (TheProphetcries:)OAllah,toYoubelongallmygreetings,prayers,andpure deeds. assalamualaykaayyuhanNabiyyu (AllahMostHighresponds:)Peacebeuponyou,ObelovedProphet, waRahmatuLlahiwaBarakatuHu andmayMydivinemercyandblessingsflowalwaysuponyou. AssalamualaynawaalaibadiLlahisalihin (TheProphetprays:)PeacebeuponusanduponalltherighteousservantsofAllah ashaduanLailahailaLlah (Theangelsexclaim:)WebearwitnessthatthereisnorealityapartfromAllah, waashaduannaMuhammadinAbduHuwaRasuluHu andwebearwitnessthatMuhammadisHispureservantandMessenger! Salatapproachescompletionwiththesalawat,supplications,andsalaams: AllahummasallialasayyidinaMuhammadin OAllah,showerblessingsuponourMasterMuhammad waalaaliMuhammadin anduponhisfamily

 kamasallaytaalaIbrahimwaalaaliIbrahim asyouhaveblessedAbrahamandthefamilyofAbraham, innakaHamidunMajid indeedYouareMostPraiseworthyandGlorious. WabarikalasayyidinaMuhammadin AndshowerYourgraceuponourMasterMuhammad waalaaliMuhammadin andhisfamily kamabaraktaalaIbrahimwaalaaliIbrahim asYouhavegracedAbrahamandthefamilyofAbraham, innakaHamidunMajid trulyYouareMostPraiseworthyandGlorious. Rabbanaatinafidunyahasanatan OLord,grantuspuregoodnessandbeautyinthislife wafilakhiratihasanatan andinthelifebeyonddeath. waqinaadhabannar andprotectusallfromthefireofpurification RabbanaghfirliwaliwalidayawalMuminuna OLord,healandforgiveme,myparents,andallthosefaithfultoLove Yawmilyakumilhisab OntheDayofUltimateJustice BiRahmatikaYaArhamaRahimin ByyoursupremelytenderCompassion,OmostCompassionateofthe Compassionate. TheWordsofPeaceareofferedfirsttotherightalongthelinesofprayerandthento theleft: AsSalamualaykumwaRahmatuLlah, AsSalamualaykumwaRahmatuLlah MaytheSublimePeaceandCompassionateblessingsofAllahbewithyou.

 Nowthemainbodyofthethreerakatsalatiscomplete.Theheartnaturally overflowswithfurthersupplications,praisesandformsofremembrance. Continuingafourrakatprayer Ifyouareofferingafourrakatprayer,immediatelyafterthesecondprostrationof thethirdrakat,youwillhaverisenintothestandingpositionwiththelastAllahu AkbarNowbeginthefourthrakatwithalFatiha.Theadditionalsuraisagain omitted.BismiLlahirRahmanirRahim IntheNameofAllah,theTenderlyCompassionate,theInfinitelyMerciful AlhamduliLlahiRabbilalamin PraisebetoAllah,theCherisherandLoveroftheWorlds ArRahmanirRahim MostCompassionate,MostMerciful, Malikiyawmiddin MagnificentlypresidingoverthereturnintotheRadianceofAllah Iyyakanabudu,waiyyakanastain OLord,weworshiponlyYouandrelyuponYoualone. Ihdinassiratalmustaqima RevealYourDirectPath, Siratalladhinaanamtaalayhim themysticwayofthosewhohavereceivedandtrulyassimilatedYoursublime Guidance, Ghayrilmaghdubialayhimwaladdaallin thosewhoneverwanderfromthespiritualpathandthereforeneverexperience YourawesomeCorrection. Amin AllahuAkbar Movetoruku,bowing: SubhanaRabbilAzim(threetimes)

GlorytotheLordandSupremeTeacherWhoissheermagnificence Risinguptostanding: SamiaLlahulimanhamida AllahhearstheonewhopraisesHim Arrivingintheuprightposition: Rabbanalakalhamd OMyLord,allpraiseflowstoyou! Movingtowardfullprostration: AllahuAkbar Inprostration,whisper: SubhanaRabbilAla(threetimes) GloriousisSupremeReality Shiftingbacktositting: AllahuAkbar Pauseintheseatedposition. AllahuAkbar Returntofullprostration.Whisper: SubhanaRabbilAla(threetimes) GloriousisSupremeReality Raisingtheheadandtorso: AllahuAkbar

 Remainintheseatedposition,andcontinuebelow. Completingafourrakatprayer Tocompleteafourrakatprayer,quietlyrepeatthedivineconversation: AttahiyyatuliLlahiwasalawatuwattayyibatu (TheProphetcries:)OAllah,toYoubelongallmygreetings,prayers,andpure deeds. assalamualaykaayyuhanNabiyyu (AllahMostHighresponds:)Peacebeuponyou,ObelovedProphet, waRahmatuLlahiwaBarakatuHu andmayMydivinemercyandblessingsflowalwaysuponyou. AssalamualaynawaalaibadiLlahisalihin (TheProphetprays:)PeacebeuponusanduponalltherighteousservantsofAllah ashaduanLailahailaLlah (Theangelsexclaim:)WebearwitnessthatthereisnorealityapartfromAllah, waashaduannaMuhammadinAbduHuwaRasuluHu andwebearwitnessthatMuhammadisHispureservantandMessenger! Continuewiththeclosingsalawatandsupplications: AllahummasallialasayyidinaMuhammadin OAllah,showerblessingsuponourMasterMuhammad waalaaliMuhammadin anduponhisfamily kamasallaytaalaIbrahimwaalaaliIbrahim asyouhaveblessedAbrahamandthefamilyofAbraham, innakaHamidunMajid indeedYouareMostPraiseworthyandGlorious. WabarikalasayyidinaMuhammadin AndshowerYourgraceuponourMasterMuhammad waalaaliMuhammadin

andhisfamily kamabaraktaalaIbrahimwaalaaliIbrahim asYouhavegracedAbrahamandthefamilyofAbraham, innakaHamidunMajid trulyYouareMostPraiseworthyandGlorious. Rabbanaatinafidunyahasanatan OLord,grantuspuregoodnessandbeautyinthislife wafilakhiratihasanatan andinthelifebeyonddeath. waqinaadhabannar andprotectusallfromthefireofpurification RabbanaghfirliwaliwalidayawalMuminuna OLord,healandforgiveme,myparents,andallthosefaithfultoLove Yawmilyakumilhisab OntheDayofUltimateJustice BiRahmatikaYaArhamaRahimin ByyoursupremelytenderCompassion,OmostCompassionateofthe Compassionate. TheWordsofPeaceareofferedtwice,firsttotherightalongthelinesofprayerand thentotheleft: AsSalamualaykumwaRahmatuLlah, AsSalamualaykumwaRahmatuLlah MaytheSublimePeaceandCompassionateblessingsofAllahbewithyou. Nowsalatiscomplete.Theheartnaturallyoverflowswithfurthersupplications, praisesandformsofremembrance.Followingarethetraditionalforms. Praisesandversesrecitedfollowingsalatprint close

Immediatelyaftergivingthesalamstotherightandleft,remainseatedandintone thewordofforgiveness: EstaghfiruLlahEstaghfiruLlahEstaghfiruLlah ForgiveusOAllah,ClearusofourmistakesOAllah, Cleanseourspiritualbodiesofanysubtledistortionoflove,OAllah AllahummaantaSalamwaminkasalam OAllahYouarePeaceandtheSourceofBoundlessPeace watabaraktayaDhulJalaliwalIkram BlessedareYou,fullofMajesty,Bounty,andInfiniteGenerosity Ifyouareperformingadditionalsetsofsalat,whetherfardorsunna,youmaystand nowandbeginagainattheinitiationofsalat,andcomebacktothissectionlater. Whencompletedalloftheintendedrakatsofthecurrentprayertime,youmayoffer thedevotionsbelow. Leader(oftensomeoneotherthanthedervishwholeadthesalatprayer): AlaMuhammadinRasulullahilSalawat UpontheBlessedsoulofMuhammad,theMessengerofAllah,weinvokeblessings: All,quietly: AllahummasallialasayyidinaMuhammad OAllahblessourmasterMuhammad, waalaaliMuhammad thefamilyofMuhammad, wasahbihiwaSallim andhiscompanions,andshowerthemwithpeace. Leader: SubhanaLlahwalHamduliLlah AllahsGloryislimitless!AllpraiseflowstoAllah! waLailahaIllaLlahuwaLlahuAkbar AndthereisnothingapartfromAllah!Allahtranscendsalllimits! WalahawlawalaquwwataillaBillahilAliyyilAzim

AndnopowerorstrengthexistsexceptinAllah,theMostHigh,theMost Tremendous. LeaderchantsAyatalKursi,2.255 AllahuLailahaillaHu AllahAlone.ThereisnorealityordivinityapartfromHim, alHayyulQayyum theLivingOne,absolutelySelfManifestingandAllEncompassing. Latakhudhuhusinatuwwalanawm HisDivineAwarenessneverlapsesnorsleeps. Lahumafissamawatiwamafilard AllheavenlyandearthlyplanesofbeingbelongsolelytoHim. MandhalladhiyashfauindaHuillabiidhnih WhoistherewhocouldintercedeinHispresence,exceptthroughHisown permission? Yalamumabaynaaydihimwamakhalfahum Healoneknowswhatcausesprecedeandwhatresultsfollowfromeachevent. walayuhitunabishayinminIlmihi andhumanbeingscangraspnothingofHisEncompassingDivineKnowledge illabimashaa exceptasHewills. WasiakursiyuHussamawatiwalard ThemysteriousThroneofHisPresencepermeateseveryheavenlyandearthly dimension, walayauduHuhifzuhuma asHeeffortlesslycreates,protectsandpreservesallmanifestation, waHuwalAliyulAzim forHeistheMostHigh,theSupremelyGlorious. SadaqaLlahulAzim SpokenbyAllahtheSupremelyTremendous Leader:

 vDhulJalaliwalkamaliSubhanaLlah OLordofPowerandPerfection,GlorytoAllah: All: SubhanaLlah(33times) GlorytoYouAllah! Leader: SubhanalKarimdaimanalHamduliLlah GlorytotheMostGenerousOne,perpetually,PraisebetoAllah: All: alHamduliLlah(33times) AllPraiseflowstoYouAllah! Leader: alHamduliLlahiRabbilalaminAllahuAkbar AllPraisetotheLoverandCherisheroftheworlds.GlorytoAllahsTranscendence! All: AllahuAkbar(34times) AllahYouarebeyondallconception! Leader: AllahuAkbarunKabiranwalhamduliLlahikathiran GreatandGloriousisAllah,andpraiseflowstoAllahmostabundantly HaqqanLailahaillaLlahu OTruth!ThereisnorealityapartfromAllah. WahdahulasharikaLlah HeisAlone;thereisnothingbesideAllah LahulMulkwalahulhamd ToAllahbelongstheKingdomandtoHimbelongsallpraise

YuhyiwaYumit TheOnewhobreathesHisownLifeintobeingsandtheOnewhodrawslivingbeings toHimselfthroughthedoorofdeath WaHuwalAliyyulAzim AndHeistheMostExalted TheSupplication: Leader: BismillahirRahmanirRahim IntheNameofAllah,theAllcompassionateandLoving AlainnaawliyaAllah SurelyupontheintimatefriendsofAllah, Lakhawfunalayhimwalahumyahzunun Neithershalltherebeanyfear,norshalltheygrieve! RaisethehandsinduasupplicatefreelyfromthehearttoAllahMostGenerous, usingEnglishoronesmostnaturallanguage.Inacommunityprayeroneperson maysupplicatealoud,andtheothersrespondAminaftereachrequestorpraise. Onemayalsousethemodeofthesalawatinonessupplication: AsalatuwasalamualaykayaRasulullah MayDivineBlessingsandPeacebeuponyouOMessengerofAllah AsalatuwasalamualaykayaHabibullah MayDivineBlessingsandPeacebeuponyouOBelovedofAllah AsalatuwasalamualaykayaSayyidalawalinawalakhirin MayDivineBlessingsandPeacebeuponyouOMasteroftheFirstandtheLast Wasalamunalalmursalin AndPeacebeuponalltheholymessengers WalHamdulillahirRabbilAlamin AndpraisebetoAllah,LordandCherisherofalluniverses. OneshouldsealthesupplicationbyofferingaFatiha.Allahanswersprayersforthe sakeoftheProphetalayhisalam.

 Leader: AlFatiha All:AllahummasallialasayyidinaMuhammad OAllahblessourmasterMuhammad.... All: BismiLlahirRahmanirRahim IntheNameofAllah,theTenderlyCompassionate,theInfinitelyMerciful AlhamduliLlahiRabbilalamin PraisebetoAllah,theCherisherandLoveroftheWorlds ArRahmanirRahim MostCompassionate,MostMerciful, Malikiyawmiddin MagnificentlypresidingoverthereturnintotheRadianceofAllah Iyyakanabudu,waiyyakanastain OLord,weworshiponlyYouandrelyuponYoualone. Ihdinassiratalmustaqima RevealYourDirectPath, Siratalladhinaanamtaalayhim themysticwayofthosewhohavereceivedandtrulyassimilatedYoursublime Guidance, Ghayrilmaghdubialayhimwaladdaallin thosewhoneverwanderfromthespiritualpathandthereforeneverexperience YourawesomeCorrection. Amin Leader: BismiZatikaYaAllahHu IntheNameofYourMostGloriousEssence,YaAllahHu All:

Huuu makingaprostrationofgratitudeforsalat. Givethekissofpeaceorextendthehandofpeacetoallthosewhohavesharedthis communionwithDivinePeace: AsSalamualaykum MayAllahsgreatPeacebeuponyou. TimesofPrayerprint close

AllcreationisimmersedinecstaticpraiseofitsCreator.Thefivedailyprayersof Islamestablishconsciousconnectionwiththiscosmicdimension.Thequalityof lightateachdivinelyordainedsalatinvokesaparticularstateofconsciousnessand hintsatcertainspiritualgiftsthatthisperiodofprayercontains.Thetimesmovea minuteortwoeachdayasthesunsubtlychangesitsorientationtotheearth.Salatis aspiritualastrolabe,awayforthetimelesssoultonavigatesuccessfullythroughthe temporalcosmos.Thosewhoparticipateinsalatexperiencethepersonaland cosmicharmonythatflowsmercifullyfromtheSourceofBeing. Thefard(required)prayersareasfollows: Dawn(fajr) Rakats:2 Recitation:TheQuranicrecitationsinthefardrakatsoffajrareprayedaloud. Time:Thisperiodforsalatarriveswhenthefirstwhitelightextendsacrossthe horizon,andextendsuntiljustbeforethesunbreaksthehorizon. Spiritualquality:Thequalityoffajrispurityofintention,asoneisnewlyborninto theDivineLightwecallcreation. Noon(zuhr) Rakats:4 Recitation:TheQuranicsurasarerecitedunderthebreathtointensifyinwardness.

 Time:Whenthesunpassesitszenith,extendinguntilthetimeoftheafternoon prayer. Spiritualquality:ThisprayertransmitsthesenseofAllahsSovereignPowerand DivineClarity,aswellasunveilinghumandignity,rectitude,andplenitude. Afternoonprayer(asr) Rakats:4 Recitation:TheQuranicsurasarerecitedunderthebreathtointensifyinwardness. Time:Thiscentralprayerperiodofthedayopenswhentheshadowprojectedbya verticalpoleistwicethelengthofthepole. Spiritualquality:Thequalityofthissalatistherefreshingenergyoftranscendence. Sunsetprayer(maghrib) Rakats:3 Recitation:TheQuranicsurasinthefirsttworakatsarerecitedaloud. Time:TheperiodforsunsetprayerbeginsimmediatelyaftertheSunhasdropped belowthehorizon,untilthetwilightdisappearsintothefullblacknessofnight. Spiritualquality:Theserenityandcompletionradiatedbythesunsetprayerheals theentireheartandmind,justastwilightcoolnessrefreshesthebodyaftertheheat oftheday.OnesentirebeingisfilledwiththeyouthfulnessofParadise consciousness. NightPrayer(isha) Rakats:4 Recitation:TheQuranicsurasinthefirsttworakatsarerecitedaloud. Time:Theperiodfornightprayerbeginsapproximatelyanhourtoanhouranda halfaftersunset,extendingtofajr,leavingthedoortoSupremeIdentitywideopen allnight.Postponingandwaitingforthisprayerisconsideredablessing. Spiritualquality:ThisisthesalatofDivineMystery,whichleadsbeyondthefar

boundaryofParadiseintotheGardenofEssence,thesublimeannihilationoflimited existence.ThisenteringintoEssencewasdemonstratedandactivatedforall humankindbytheSealofProphesyduringhismysticalnightjourney.Intothe mysticdarknessoftheishaprayer,theoriginalDivineMystery,therayofour separatehumanawarenessdisappears. SunnaPrayersprint close

WhentheProphetMuhammad,uponhimbepeace,wouldcometosalat,hewould ecstaticallyoverflowwithextrarakats,sometimesbefore,sometimesaftertheset patternoffardrakats.Onceloversestablishthebasicfivetimesdailysalat,they naturallyoverflowintothisstateofgratitude,offeringadditionalrakats. Fajr:2sunnarakatsprecedingthe2fardrakats Zuhr:4sunnaprecedingthe4fard,and2sunnafollowingthefard Asr:4sunnaprecedingthe4fard.Afterthisfard,noprostrationsaremadeuntiljust aftersundown. Maghrib:2sunnaafterthefard Isha:4sunnabeforethe4fard,2sunnaafterthefard.Afterthe2sunna,manycrown theprayersofthedaywith3morerakats.These3rakatsarecalledthewitrprayer. Thewitrprayerhasauniquedesign:aftertheFatihaischantedinthethirdrakat, raisethehandsintoningAllahuAkbar.Remainstandingandquietlyofferapersonal supplicationoranotherFatiha.Then,withanotherAllahuAkbar,movetothe bowingposture,andcontinuetofollowthepatternofathreerakatprayer.
The Way of Love print close

Hu- The Divine Pronoun; the Essence of Allah, beyond Name, gender, form, and all human definition; Often translated as He

Shaykh al-Akbar Muhyiddin Ibn al-Arabi, may his secret be sanctified

My heart has become capable of all forms: For gazelles, a meadow, for monks, a monastery, A temple for idols, the pilgrims Kaba, The Tablets of Torah, the Book of the Quran I profess the religion of Love, and whatever the direction Taken by its mount, Love is my religion and my faith Tarjuman al-Ashwaq

Shaykh Muzaffer Ozak Ashki al-Jerrahi, may his secret be sanctified The Real Beloved is the very self of love and of the lover. There is nothing prior to love. Love is the first of the first. Love is the last of the last After everything has come to nought and perished, love still endures and will endure forever. It is eternal, and will be so for all eternity. Love is without end. Love is an ocean. Such an ocean it is, that this sea has no bottom, no shore, no beginning, no end, and no limits O Lord! Letting Your guidance escort us, offer us with Your mighty hand the drinking-glass of love, so that our hearts may never for even one moment be parted from Your love Through divine love, Hell becomes Paradise for the lover. Love turns the fire into light. When the lover enters Paradise, he burns with your love till Paradise is like Hell for him

O dervish calling yourself a lover!

With His love do you not whirl around? With His love do you not travel the eighteen thousand worlds? Then take to the floor and whirl with His love, address Him with love, call on Him with love! The eyes of the dervish who is a true lover see nothing but God; his heart knows nothing but Him. God is the eye by which he sees, the hand with which he holds, and the tongue with which he speaks. The dervish does not stop at the names, but discovers the Named and surrenders to his Beloved. His sole concern is God, his pain is God, his remedy is God, his cure is God, his cause is God. Were he not in love, he would pass away. If his heart should be devoid of love for as much as a single moment, the dervish could not stay alive. Love is the dervishs life, his health, his comfort. Love ruins the dervish, makes him weep; union makes him flourish, brings him to life. The dervish finds separation in union, union in separation. In heavenlove; on earthlove; to the rightlove; to the leftlove; everywhere and everything is love. Love is He; the Lover He; the Beloved is He; the Loved One is He; the Dear One is He; the Friend is He. The knight of love will reach his beloved early or late. He who gives his life for love will sooner or later find his dearest. Love Him, that He may love you too. Unless He loves, you cannot love Him; unless He is seeking you, you cannot seek Him. Love your beloved, for the beloved is He; love your own true self, for your own true self is also He. Unveiling of Love

Mevlana Jelaluddin Rumi, may his secret be sanctified

No Matter what I say to explain or describe Love, when I arrive at Love itself, Im ashamed of my words... Only Love itself can explain Love, Only Love can explain the destiny of lovers. The proof of the sun is the sun itself: If you want proof, dont turn your face away. Selected from Mathnawi 1.112

Shaykh Nur al-Jerrahi, may his secret be sanctified

You alone, my Beloved, are protection, support, inner force, and true being. Always courting my soul, always in sympathy, you are my rapture, well-being and joy, the thrill of my existence, the consecration of my life. I kneel in your presence, heart in prostration, enraptured and exalted by your essence. The straps of your sandals I kiss with delight. I cannot find words to describe my mystical spouse,

the favorite of the universe, the hidden pearl. O thief of God-filled hearts, I submit to your overwhelming embrace, annihilated by this magnificent Love. Without home or asylum, without path or trace, without any escape, any remedy, I am lost in the desert, mountainous and remote, the flowering desert of your Love. You are closer than my central artery. For you I have been mortally wounded by sweet arrows in the mystical assembly of the heroic lovers of Love. It is the radiant death of mortality. I am amazed by this depth of Love, which removes reason from the enamored ones. I am an ant on a small leaf of the immense tree of Love, a mote of pollen in the endless abyss of Love. My naked heart is a brilliant ember before the royal blue throne of the ardent saints of my lineage. Always ascending, this infinite aspiration that no flood can extinguish confirms the mystery of Assumption. I am the virgin bride of Divine Wisdom. An excerpt from Countenance and Heart of the Shaykh, an epic poem in Atom From the Sun of Knowledge

Shaykha Fariha Love, intimacy, and constant remembrance are the glorious way. Essentially love, love, and more love. Tariqat, the path of ease, unfolds in the Bismillahirrahmanirrahimin the all-encompassing womb of Love. Allah is all-embracing, all-forgiving, all-providing Mother. Allah is glorious Truth and Supreme Reality. Allah is intimate lover and watchful guide. Allah is hidden Mystery. The path of ease opens the heart to adore our Beloved in all beautiful forms, and to cry out with all the beautiful names. We are with our Beloved in the open space, in the great freedom of only Hu, where Love alone is real. How many thousand thousand times have You told me I am Yours O Love tell me one more time How many pens and how many oceans of ink have flowed in Loves name O Love send me oceans more How many universes of hearts have been broken in Loves cause O Love I offer You one more How many tears for eons of years have filled Loves beakers O Love I cant stop crying How many swans in the heavens of Love have cried Your name

and passed away from life and form O Love take me too

Four Steps and Seven Levels print close

From Atom from the Sun of Knowledge by Lex Hixon Shaykh Nur al-Jerrahi My central responsibility in our Dervish Order is to offer initiation and to interpret dreams, which indicate Divine Permission to receive initiation and to advance along the mystic path, characterized by Nureddin Jerrahi by means of twenty-eight Divine Names. Among the four hundred major branches of the Dervish Orders, the path is most often characterized by eight Divine Names, sometimes by twelve, rarely by eighteen. That Pir Nureddin selected twenty-eight indicates that he placed the Divine Seal upon the fullness of the mystic way of Islam. In the Jerrahi Order, one central initiation offers all the blessings of the path, rather than a series of successive initiations that certain other Orders prescribe. This initiation ceremony is not secret. It is often performed in the presence of visitors to the tekke, the dervish meeting hall. I have conducted this rite of entrance and sacrament of spiritual completeness for more than five hundred sincere aspirants, so it has become natural to me, almost like breathing. This ceremony always remains a moving experience for the community as a whole, for myself, for the initiate, and for the mature brothers or sisters who stand on each side of the new dervish, linking arms and helping the aspirant take these four ultimate steps. The initiation is called taking hand. It sacramentally replicates the historical event in the life of the Prophet when certain companions, already loyal to the holy way of life, ceremonially clasped his right hand, marking a vast intensification of their commitment. This act of taking hand creates a unique bond with the beloved Muhammad, beyond the respect and loyalty devout Muslims feel for their noble Prophet, upon him be peace. The right hand that is offered and received in this reenactment, therefore, is ultimately the right hand of the Prophet. The right hand of the shaykh is simply a conduit. Out of traditional Islamic courtesy, women initiates do not usually clasp the hand of the shaykh but both hold the same set of prayer beads. The ceremony is a mystic crowning in which the Crown of Light, usually given to the soul in Paradise, is actually conferred here on earth. Those gifted by Allah with spiritual sight can perceive light, or even a crown of light, descending over the head of the new dervish at the appropriate moment. The Crown of Paradise can be transmitted only in Paradise; therefore Paradise consciousness must become fully present during the initiation. The invisible crown is usually symbolized by the gift of a white cap to the men and a white or colored veil to the women, although many modem women prefer the cap. Receiving this crown enables one to experience Paradise consciousness here and now, during one's prayers and even during the struggles of daily life. The initiated dervishes can now transmit at least a glimpse of Paradise to their loved ones and colleagues, not verbally but directly, thereby elevating all humankind. The dervishes are not seeking their own spiritual bliss but are clearly motivated by the longing to be of service to humanity and to their own society in particular.

The Shaykh gestures to the experienced dervishes to help the initiate make the first step, beginning with the right foot. The Islamic greetings of peace--as-salam alaykum, alaykum assalam--are exchanged, and the Shaykh welcomes the initiate to the dimension of sharia, the depth of the Sacred Law. I welcome aspirants to this exalted level by reminding them that sharia is essentially the repetition of the affirmation of Unity, la ilaha illallah, externally or internally, verbally or nonverbally, with every breath, every step, every intention, every perception. From this primary pillar of Islam, the other four pillars extend. I remind the aspirant that sharia is the way of constant prayerfulness and delight in the prayers, the way of ceaseless acts of generosity and kindness to all beings as one family of consciousness, and the way of fasting--not just abstaining from food and drink from dawn to sunset during Ramadan, but fasting at all times, waking and sleeping, from limited conceptuality and limited emotionality. Finally, sharia is the way of holy pilgrimage, but not just to the earthly Kaaba in the noble city of Mecca. Sharia is to remain constantly in the open and submitted state of a pilgrim while approaching the true Kaaba, the secret heart of humanity, where the diamond of Divine Essence is concealed from the conventional gaze of the world. This first step, the noble sharia, is obviously not just for beginners, nor is it left behind by the next three steps. The Shaykh beckons the dervish to take another step, and the process is repeated as the aspirant is welcomed to the tariqa. This is the steeply ascending path the Holy Quran speaks about, the upward spiraling path that traverses the seven levels of consciousness. This is the path of profound purification, the path of mystic dreams and their inspired interpretation, the path of the joyful uproar and sweet companionship of the dervish lovers of Truth. The tariqa is a mystic tree--its spreading roots the beloved Prophet Muhammad, its noble trunk the sublime Ali. The great branches of this tree of Tariqa are the Pirs who have founded initiatory lineages, and the smaller limbs are all the noble shaykhs and shaykhas. The flowers of all colors and fragrances that grow from these branches are the countless dervishes. The fruits are love and wisdom. The sap of this tree is the ecstasy of conscious union with Reality. The Shaykh gestures again and welcomes the aspirant to the third step, the haqiqa, the peak of the mountain of light. Here the path disappears into the boundless green meadow of Truth. Here in Truth alone, the aspirant and the entire community are asked to gaze with the eyes of the heart. Now one can perceive only a shoreless ocean of light--indescribable and inconceivable, without any division or partition, without surface or depth. This ocean of Divine Light is not placid but always filled with giant waves of love. The aspirant is now asked to focus on the eyes of the heart themselves, perceiving that they, too, are composed purely of Divine Light. This is the mystery of nurun ala nur, the Light of Allah within the Light of Allah. The Shaykh beckons a fourth time, and the new dervish take the final step onto the white sheepskin, laid out in front of the kneeling guide to symbolize the sacrifice of the ego. This is the marifa, the courageous descent of the dervish soul from the peak of light into the valley of suffering, struggle, sacrifice, and responsibility, while retaining the conscious union with Truth characteristic of the third step. The culmination of wisdom is to become dust beneath the feet of humanity. Marifa is the selfless service of humankind and of creation as a whole, demonstrated by the beloved Jesus, upon him be peace, when he washed the feet of his disciples at the Last Supper, thereby opening their hearts and illumining their minds. The hands of the new dervish now become the Divine Energies, rahman and rahim, Compassion and Mercy. The heart of the dervish becomes Divine justice and Divine Love. The breath of the dervish becomes Divine Life. The eyes of the dervish perceive only Divine Beauty. The mind of the dervish operates only with Divine Clarity and by the principle of Divine Unity. The special protector and guide for sharia is the beloved Moses, for tariqa the beloved Jesus, for haqiqa the beloved Abraham, and for marifa the Seal of Messengers, the Distributor of the Light of Prophecy to all Hearts, the beloved Muhammad Mustafa, upon him be peace. A distinct spiritual energy is experienced at each of the four steps. The harmony of all four is ineffably beautiful. Now the initiate kneels knee-to-knee with the Shaykh, firmly clasping his right hand or prayer beads. The Shaykh prays that the inconceivable Divine Mercy, which is always descending as an invisible rain upon the planetary plane and upon the human heart, should now become visible to the eyes of the heart, cleansing the entire' being of the initiate from all misunderstandings or partial understandings imposed since childhood by the limited society or arising from the narrow structures of the limited self. The Shaykh

prays that even the slightest shadow of the negation of love should be swept away from this aspiring heart and that it should be filled entirely with Divine Light. Together, the new dervish and the attending senior dervishes, along with the Shaykh and the entire community, repeat eleven times the Arabic phrase estaghfirullah, which opens the mind entirely to the power of Divine Forgiveness. Whenever the Shaykh welcomes a new dervish to the four steps or prays for the aspirant, his words become Divine Energy and bring directly into being, before the eyes of the heart, precisely what is described or prayed, not as an abstraction or as a pious wish but as living Reality. This is the mystery of Divine Creativity described by the Holy Quran. Allah Most High simply calls out the Word of Power, Be! and whatever He wills directly and effortlessly comes into being. At this point in the ancient ceremony of taking hand, the Quranic passage describing the original event in the desert of Arabia is melodiously chanted. I interpret the Divine Words to the new dervish in this way. When the lovers of Love linked the righthand side of their being with the Prophet of Love, upon him be peace, the mystic right hand of Divine Presence descended upon that linking. In this way Allah confirms the original promise made to the noble Adam. This promise has been passed in an unbroken stream of light through 124,000 Prophets to the beloved Muhammad of Arabia and transmitted from him through fourteen centuries of mystic shaykhs. This is the promise of the soul's union with its Lord in the bridal chamber of Divine Love, the promise that even the veils of soul and Lord will vanish in the supreme realization of identity. Naming the place and year before the eyes of these honorable witnesses, I add that here and now this Divine Promise, which is good until the End of Time, is again being confirmed. Now the affirmation of Unity, la ilaha illallah, is repeated together by Shaykh and aspirant seven times, once for each level of consciousness, the seventh repetition occurring at the level where only Divine Consciousness exists. The Shaykh concludes the seventh affirmation by intoning muhammad rasulallah, Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, and the dervish community begins to sing, in a beautiful traditional melody, the call of Divine Transcendence, allahu akbar, the affirmation of Unity and praises of the Prophet. The Shaykh now confers the cap or veil, greeting it thrice with a noble kiss, touching it to eyes and forehead, then offering it to the new dervish to greet in the same manner. The Shaykh places the traditional prayer beads of Islam into the right hand of the fully initiated brother or sister, symbolizing that every breath has now become equivalent to repeating one of the Divine Names. The astonishing fact of initiation is that the dervish has been transformed, before our eyes, into a person of perpetual prayer. His or her individual existence has now become ceaseless Divine Remembrance. The Shaykh opens his palms and allows words of prayer to stream spontaneously through his heart to his lips. Whatever is appropriate for the initiate is now prayed in a graceful and uplifting manner, precisely as Allah has foreordained. I often conclude this long prayer by supplicating Allah Most High that our Pir Nureddin Jerrahi fix his spiritual gaze upon the heart of the new dervish, night and day, filling it with the Light of Universal Islam, that his saintly mother Amina Taslima transmit her purity and sanctity to this dervish, and that the representative of Pir Nureddin to modern humanity, Muzaffer Ashqi, fill the heart of this dervish with the exquisite wine of Love. The newly invested dervish kisses the hand of the Shaykh, exactly as if kissing the hand of Pir and of Prophet, stands, and makes the same four steps backward, beginning with the left foot, which symbolizes the mystic way as the right foot symbolizes the sacred law. The atmosphere has now become light, joyous, playful. I reassure the new brother or sister that these four steps backward are not retreat or regression, that none of the spiritual riches of the four steps can be lost, but that one is simply returning to the existential situation, to realize and actualize these sublime gifts that now remain radiant at the core of his or her being. We do not enter the path to engage in religious fantasy but to become more realistic, more free from selfdeception, more uncompromising about Truth. I now request the entire community to embrace the new dervish or dervishes, for often friends or family members take the four steps together, arms linked in mutual, loving support, hearts merged in the beautiful state of eternal companionship. In traditional Muslim circles, the sisters embrace the sisters and the brothers embrace the brothers, but among North American and Mexican dervishes, these culturally ingrained restrictions often cannot be imposed. After all, the dervishes are one family. There are tears and laughter.

The Divine Light shining from the countenance of the newly unveiled dervish is an undeniable, empirical fact. The most intimate teaching in our Dervish Order comes through spiritual dreams and their inspired interpretation. The shaykh does not deal with psychological or merely stress-releasing dreams, nor is there any fixed system of dream symbolism. Two dervishes came to our previous Grand Shaykh and reported the same dream: climbing a minaret and giving the Call to Prayer. To the first, the inspired interpreter commented, "You are going on pilgrimage. Make preparations." To the second, he remarked, "You have taken something that does not belong to you. Discover what that is and give it back.' Before taking hand the aspirant often receives a significant dream of Divine Permission or, in some cases, Divine Insistence. After taking hand one usually experiences a dream confirming that the ceremony was accepted by Allah. In the context of Islamic spirituality, no sacred rite is considered to be automatically effective. Rather, one must seek and await signs of the Good Pleasure of Allah Most High. One of the fundamental teachings, shared by the various intertwining lineages of initiation that form the tree of Tariqa, concerns the seven levels of consciousness. Upon this crystal clear analysis of evolutionary levels, the esoteric teachings of Sufism are firmly based. One does not have to consult ancient textbooks to discover the perennial teaching of Sufism. This esoteric map of consciousness was transmitted with accuracy and clarity in a spiritual dream granted by Allah through the blessings of Pir Nureddin Jerrahi to a Mexican girl of twelve. Along with her mother, father, and younger brother, Rahima had participated in the ceremony of taking hand about a year before her extraordinary dream. While visiting Mesquita Maria de la Luz, the Mosque of the Mother of the Prophet in Mexico City, where our Order is led by a gifted and dedicated woman, Amina Taslima al-Jerrahi, I was honored to hear and interpret this dream. In my role as guide, I have listened to thousands of profound dreams during the last eleven years. This one is among the most astonishing. A young girl, with the simple, natural imagery appropriate to her own psyche, accurately pictured the most sophisticated esoteric teaching of Islamic mysticism. As I listened to her father, Abdul Qadir, translate his daughter's dream from Spanish to English, I began to realize what an immense gift this was to our Order, for we hold in common the spiritual wealth of our dreams and their interpretations. The powerful blessing of a mystic dream does not belong exclusively to the individual dreamer. Its healing, integration, and illumination belong to the entire community. I believe that Rahima's blessed dream of the seven levels of consciousness belongs as well to the lovers of Truth across the whole planet into the distant future. Rahima dreamed that she was guided by someone she did not recognize through a large house with seven floors. The ground floor was dirt. There were absolutely no signs of human habitation or refinement. The place was not even kept clean. The second floor was an extremely simple dwelling--bare wooden floor, bed, chair, table. It was kept clean and was attractive in its modest way. The third floor was a very comfortable home, according to modern standards. There were carpets, radio, television, refrigerator, and so forth. When Rahima was taken to the fourth floor, the fourth level of consciousness, she was amazed to find a brilliant palace--marble floors, high ceilings, large gilded mirrors, beautiful antique furniture, precious ancient vases, and other works of art. At this point in the recounting of the dream, I began to realize that certain mysteries of the spiritual path, which remained vague to me, were about to be displayed in simple, dramatic imagery. All who were present entered a mild state of ecstasy, a gift of the fourth level. Rahima continued speaking, calmly and confidently, without any self-consciousness. When the dreamer was guided to the fifth floor, she encountered total darkness, filled with a deep, rumbling music that she, as a twelve-year-old, found rather unsettling. When taken to the sixth floor, she found an empty, candle-lit space where a circle of dervishes, wearing white and kneeling on sheepskins, were engaged in the ancient ceremony of Divine Remembrance. Arriving at the seventh floor, Rahima entered a brilliant, sunlit room, illuminated through large skylights

and filled with lush green plants. No person was present, nor were there indications of human habitation. The golden light and the dark green of the leaves created a joyful, expansive feeling. Suddenly, one of the plants reached toward her with a long creeper, wrapped around her waist, and gently threw her out an open window. She fell with equal gentleness to the earth below, landing on her feet. Almost as an afterthought, Rahima mentioned that her guide took her back through the same sevenfold structure several times, so that she was perfectly clear about the various levels. Each time, she was thrown out the window again. I asked her how many times she ascended these floors. She thought carefully for a moment, then replied, definitively, "Four times." The interpretation of this dream can be extensive. I offered a seminar in Mexico City on the seven levels of consciousness, during which I spoke about this dream for several hours. The first level is the domineering self, basis for the aggressiveness, territoriality, and violent urge for survival that seriously threaten the coherence of our personhood, our society, and our planet. There is nothing intrinsically human here. There is no possibility for hospitality. There is not even the cleanliness that is essential for human dignity. Although most human beings experience disconcerting flashes of this domineering ego, very few persons remain focused on this level. Only war criminals and other enemies of humanity could be said to live primarily on the first level of consciousness. Nevertheless, there is nothing intrinsically evil about this first level. it provides a biological ground floor for human reality. Through this consciousness, the lungs breathe and the heart beats. The second floor in the dream represents the critical or inquiring self. Most of humanity is focused on this level, where basic human refinements are beginning to appear. This dream imagery has nothing to do with social standing or affluence. There are persons living in presidential palaces who are occupying the dirt floor of the first level of consciousness, as well as persons who live in thatched huts who are enjoying the glorious palace of the fourth level of consciousness. The evolutionary efforts carried on by this second level of the self constitute the critique of the domineering ego, the critique of selfish impulses. The search is carried on here for truly human and humane values, for disciplined and fruitful ways of life. There are many dimensions within this second level of consciousness. They are all essentially positive, honorable, and evolutionary, unless they remain dominated by the first level, obviously or subtly. The third floor of this structure of consciousness is the fulfillment of our humanity. Human potential is here unfolded harmoniously. Perhaps the majority of human beings reach upper regions of the second level, but only excellent persons of good will become established on the third level. Here, ethical and religious ideals are in full flower. This level of development, or awakening to our true nature, is the real basis for civilization, religion, education, art, science. Sincere seekers on the second level receive certain glimpses of the third level, but where one's awareness remains primarily focused is what counts for evolutionary development. In traditional Sufi parlance, the third level is the fulfilled or satisfied self. One could reasonably inquire, how can there be levels higher than this fulfillment of human aspiration to an excellent, civilized existence? The four higher levels are the fruition of the mystic path of return. They are not, strictly speaking, part of human potential and human effort. They are the manifestation of Divine Reality through our human reality. One usually must reach the third level of consciousness to receive authentic initiation into a mystical Order, or one may be lifted by Divine Grace, through this initiation, into the third level. When one reaches the fourth level, Divine Attributes begin to manifest directly and adorn the human being. This is symbolized in Rahima's dream as rare works of craftsmanship and art. These manifestations are not, however, works of human hands, nor are they brought about by human efforts. The transition to the fourth level usually occurs after physical death in the realm of Paradise consciousness. Only genuine mystics can generate enough spiritual intensity to enter this and higher levels during earthly experience. Once again, we recognize that gifted persons on the third level, or even on the second level, may receive glorious intimations of the fourth level of consciousness, but to be established there is an entirely different order of experience. Not even all

the members of a mystical Order become established on the fourth level, which in traditional Sufi parlance is the tranquil self. The fifth level is that of mystic union, where no finite modes of thought or perception operate, hence the symbol of total darkness. The thunderous music in the dream represents the Divine Resonance, from which universes are taking shape and into which finite existence disappears again. This was the only floor in the dream structure that caused Rahima nervousness and concern, since this radiant blackness is so far from our ordinary level of experience. In Sufi parlance, the fifth level is the peaceful self. If we were to correlate the seven levels with the four steps, sharia would be the third level, tariqa the fourth, and haqiqa the fifth. The final two levels of consciousness are an expression of marifa, the astonishing dimension of spiritual manifestation that lies beyond mystic union. On the fifth level, there is only Truth and its Resonance. On the sixth level, creation appears once more, not through beautiful Divine Manifestations, as on the fourth level, but as the mystic crown, the sublime human form, symbolized by the circle of dervishes. One surprising piece of good news brought by Rahima's dream is the confirmation that the ancient ceremony of dhikr, traditionally conducted by candlelight, kneeling on sheepskins, actually affords the blessed dervishes in the circle a glimpse of the sixth level, although most of them may not even have become established on the fourth level. In the precious sacrament of dhikr, essential Divine Energies descend through the hearts and even through the physical bodies of the dervishes. Divine Reality becomes visible and experienceable as human reality. In Sufi terminology, the sixth level is the complete self. The enigmatic seventh level of consciousness is a realm of brightness, clarity, subtle humor. The human form has been transcended, even as a mode of pure Divine Expression. Thus the seventh level resembles the fifth level in its absence of human reference. Yet here the imagery of light and luxurious growth replaces the imagery of mystic darkness. The human person of Rahima was not permitted to remain but was removed instantly in a playful and humorous manner. My Shaykh, Muzaffer Ashqi, used to comment simply, "On the seventh level of consciousness, if you imagine that you exist, it is idolatry." By the dynamic golden greenness of Supreme Reality, all possibility of the idolatrous perception of duality is tossed out the window. The colors on this seventh level indicate why Nureddin Jerrahi designated a golden cap wrapped in green cloth as the turban of his Order. Green is also the chosen color of the beloved Messenger of Allah. In Sufi parlance, the seventh level is the pure self Rahima was taken through this symbolic dream structure four times, indicating that she, although only twelve years old, was already in communion with the fourth level of consciousness. As she grows older, she will have to practice spiritual discipline and experience intense yearning to become fully established on this fourth level and to progress further. This dream is itself one of those rare works of Divine Art that manifested in the palatial fourth floor of her dream. Her unknown guide was probably Nureddin Jerrahi, may his spirit be sanctified, whose intercessory power, by the Permission and Foreknowledge of Allah, tenderly opened the way for this amazing dream, which has now become a channel of spiritual energy and illumination for us all, her grateful brothers and sisters. Excerpted from Atom from the Sun of Knowledge by Lex Hixon Nur al-Jerrahi Copyright by Pir Publications, Inc. All rights reserved.

O Lord Increase me in Knowledge print

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A Khutba of Shaykh Nur al-Jerrahi delivered in 1994 (Transcribed and lightly edited for literal clarity after his passing. To be included in a larger book of his discourses by the same title.)

Al-Hamdu-li-Llah, wa-l-Hamdu-li-Llah, wa-l-Hamdu-li-Llahi-r-Rabbi-l-alamin. As-salatu wa-s-Salamu alayk Ya Rasulu-Llah, as-salatu wa-s-Salamu alayk Ya Habibu-Llah. As-salatu wa-s-Salamu alayk Ya Nuru-l-Arshi-Llah. As-salatu wa-s-Salamu alayk Ya Nurun ala Nur, Ya Nuru-l-Anwar. As-salatu wa-s-Salamu alayk Ya Nur Muhammad, sala-Llahu alayhi wa Sallim. May we be swept away in the flood of praise which is arising from all minds and hearts in creation, directed only to the Source and Goal of Being, the vast Ocean of Light without shores, the Reality that calls Itself Allah Most High and by all of the beautiful Divine Names. Once we see the spontaneous praise that is arising from our own heart, from all beings, even from the atoms as they whirl, even from stars and galaxies as they whirl and revolve, then we will understand why such perfect Mercy and Justice flows constantly from Allah Most High to all the dimensions and beings in His creation. It is because we are all totally receptive and open to Allah. Reveals the Holy Quran: "All beings bow before the Ultimate Reality," no matter what their thoughts or motivations. There is no other possibility for us as creations, as created beings, except to bow before the Creator. Bowing is something intrinsic and natural to our being. It would be impossible for the atom not to whirl. (A small child in the room begins to cry loudly.) Similarly it would be impossible for the heart not to cry out to Allah. Gradually, like our little brother here who is crying, we learn more and more what we are really crying for, and to Whom we are really crying. Inshallah, we grow and the child in us grows into a mature human being. Our cry becomes a conscious cry for the Infinite. Our cry also even goes beyond that: it becomes a cry for all humanity, for our sisters and brothers who are not yet consciously receiving the great Mercy of Allah. Our cry becomes a cry for them. Think of the Night Journey of Rasulallah, salallahu alayhi wa sallim, when he entered the Garden of Essence. Did he stay there in rapt contemplation and just enter the state of total union and communion with his Lord? No. He prays, "O Lord, my sisters and brothers, my community, all of humanity, are wandering without a clear goal, without a conscious relation to the Supreme Reality. I intercede for them. Show them the straight way." This should be our true cry. What comes to my mind from Quran are the various prayers that Allah Most High taught to the Prophet, upon him be peace. Once in Spring Valley with Muzaffer Efendi, someone had a book entitled, The Prayers of Muhammad, representing those passages in Quran which were prayers. I objected to the title. I said to Efendi, "These arent the prayers of Muhammad, salallahu alayhi wa sallim. These are the prayers that Allah showed to him and asked him to pray." The Efendi was very pleased with my insight. He placed the insight in me in the first place. He trained me in the subtle discernment of Islam. I dont know how he did thatI didnt go to any seminars with him, I didnt study Arabic with him. I dont know how he made this training of the heart, but our order specializes in it. Our hearts are being trained directly. Our minds are not even always engaged in it. Of course we encourage study in Islam itself. We ask the lovers to study and to recite and to praise, but the fact is that ones heart matures in Islam and then one has an instant sensibility like a tuning forka sense of perfect pitch. So when we see a book that says The Prayers of Muhammad, we know immediately there is something slightly off pitch. One of the prayers that Allah asks his Messenger to pray is, "O Lord, increase me in knowledge." If we could pray for this with a genuine cry like our little brother was making, if we could really cry out to Allah, "O Lord, increase me in knowledge," that would be a tremendous turning point in our lives. What better time than the Juma to make that cry. (We are to make this cry) no matter how much we knowimagine, it was Rasulallah, salallahu alayhi wa sallim, himself that Allah was asking to pray in this way. Allah wasnt saying, "O Messenger, pray: O Lord, may my community be increased in knowledge," but "may I be increased in knowledge." It doesnt make any difference how much knowledge we have. In fact, the more genuine knowledge we have, the more we really will cry, "O Lord, increase me in knowledge." The more genuine knowledge we have the more we realize how little we know, and how profound our responsibilities are, and how we have to have this knowledge to function as instruments for the uplift of our culture and of this time. Islam is always for this time. Of course we contemplate the past and we revere the

great moments in Islams past, but Islam is for the present. Islam is for now and for the future generation, the coming generation. We are very, very oriented towards the present and the future of Islam. When we see the vastness of what needs to be done we certainly will cry with a greater and greater cry, "O Lord increase me in knowledge," because without knowledge, sincerity and good intention can be counterproductive and even harmful. It is possible that those Muslims whose knowledge is confined to a superficial understanding of the five pillars of Islamas noble and valuable as those pillars aretheir limited, confined knowledge may be doing more harm for the Islamic cause than helping it. Today on this Juma let us cry together, "Ya Rabb, O Lord, increase me in knowledge." The Hebrew word Rabbi comes from the same root as Rabb. It means the Guide and Educator. It doesnt mean the Lord in the sense of your landlord: "O landlord, here I am living in your creation. As rent I will give you the five times a day prayer." That is not the relationship with the Lord. It is an intimate relationship, as with the Rabbi, with the Supreme Educator. Allah alone is the Teacher. Allah alone is the Rabbi, the Shaykh. Allah alone is the Prophetic Voice, the Voice of Truth. It is the Voice of Truth that speaks through the Prophets, upon them be peace. It was the Voice of Truth that spoke to Pharaoh (through Moses when he confronted Pharaoh). "O Lord, increase me in knowledge." We are asking the Supreme Educator, the Supreme Teacher. What joyful response one receives when one has a very fine teacher. The problem with schools today is that kids, all the way up to college, dont really want to learn. They are there for various other reasons. Maybe when certain people reach college they are there for a career, going to the minimal amount of classes, and reading the minimal amount of things. How many people ever go to their teacher and say, "I really want knowledge. I am thirsty for it. Lets read outside of class. Give me some other books to read." What joy awakens in the Divine Heart when one of us cries, "O Lord, increase me in knowledge," because the Lord is Ya Alimthe Lord is that infinite Knowledge and the Lord longs to transmit That. He sent His noble Prophets and His awliya, His intimate friends, to humanity simply for that transmission of Knowledge. It is a knowledge of the heart. To know, for instance, how far the Sun is from the Earth, down to the exact number of miles, is not the knowledge we are talking about when we say, "O Lord increase me in knowledge." But we do ask for the knowledge of how to take away the armor that we have placed around ourselves in protection against our supposed enemies, how to take that armor off when we are meeting with a beloved friend, and how to actually expose our naked heart and our naked being to the other person. That is knowledge. That is an example of Knowledge. When we pray, why do you think we take off our shoes and make ablutions? We are taking off the world; we are taking off the armor of the world. You cant walk around barefoot in the world. There is broken glassthere is everything there. But in the masjid we take off the coverings, the hard coverings we place over our bodies and our minds to protect us from the negativity of the world. We take all of that off. We take the ablutions so we will be protected. The ablution is like an armor of light. It is a total protection but without covering us over with any veils. At this time lets exercise this knowledge to be able to cry to Allah with a real cry (the child calls out long and loud, "Mom!") just like a child calls to his mother and feels that she is available at all times, even if she is in the middle of a Juma and there is a khutba going on. Allah Most High is available at all times. There is an infinite Motherliness. Lets cry, "O Lord increase me in knowledge," and lets cry it with knowledge. Lets divest ourselves of all the hard thoughts and hard doctrines and hard resentments with which we surround ourselves. Lets divest ourselves. What good does it do to take off the shoes to come in to pray and to make the ablutions, if we keep all these things around us? But divesting ourselves of them takes knowledge; this takes knowledge of the heart. It is not something simple. Salat is not something simple. It is, Al-hamdulillah, also something simple. What I mean by not something simple is that everyday one sees new implications, new vastness about what this act means, this act of opening ones heart. Allahu Akbar. Some commentators say that when you say Allahu Akbar in salat, the motion of the hands here (raising his

open hands) means that you are putting the world behind you. Al-hamdulillah, that is a beautiful interpretation, because just as one takes off ones shoes, one has to put the world behind. There is another meaning of the Allahu Akbar: Arent you opening yourself completely, opening your heart and your being completely? You are not covering anything. You are completely open. Then one can link ones hands here (at the solar plexus) or here (at the heart) and enter into the innermost regions of ones being. But not until one has divested oneself of everything. Then the head falls down slightly, subtly turned to the left, and one is in touch with the heart, with the eyes of the heart. Then one prays. May the very movements of our salat this morning be, "O Lord increase me in knowledge." May this be our breath. May it be our heartbeat on this day of Juma when great graces are descending from Allah. The very angels that ascend and descend on the Night of Power, bringing messages and bringing answers and responses to prayer, those very angels are active on the day of Juma as well. Because the day of Juma is also a kind of Day of Power. Allahs generosity is such that He has manifested His Night of Power once a year, hidden in the last ten nights of the Ramadan. By revealing that night to us He is revealing the nature of the way Reality is. On that night it is revealed to one and all. For those of us who have the courage to see it, that Night of Power is manifesting at other times too. I would say that there is a very, very real possibility that it is manifesting in the Juma. In our order we make the dhikr on Thursday night. The day of Juma begins at sunset on Thursday. Already in the Juma, we meet and make the dervish circleas a preparation for this moment that we are just about to enter. The mystics like to prepare themselves more deeply. But we feel that every Muslim on this planet who is going to Juma now, including any of our sisters who may be making Juma in their houses, and all Muslims who are absent from Juma for an acceptable reason, and even all Muslims who are absent from Juma without an acceptable reasonwe feel that everyone on the planet, including people who have not consciously accepted the invitation to Islam, are receiving the blessing of this day. This is the high-point. This is the great moment of communication, confirmed by the fact that Rasulallah, salallahu alayhi wa sallim, addressed his community on this day. The day of Juma was really the only time he addressed his community. He was a man of extremely few words. He would say a few things to answer a few questions. He would work out practical problems, but as far as giving an extended teaching, or a khutba of any kind, that was not his way; it was not his style. Even his personal style was suspended on the Juma because of the depth and importance of that day, and he actually spoke. Imagine the increase in knowledge to hear the words of Rasulallah, salallahu alayhi wa sallim. Imagine how it would increase one in knowledge, to actually hear him speak. Sometimes reading things does not increase one in knowledge. Maybe a person has read all of Bukhari. I am sure there are lots of people who have, but they may not have been increased in knowledge. They may have a knowledge of the Hadith, like as I said earlier, a knowledge of exactly how many miles it is to the sun. All knowledge is valuable. In Islam there is no knowledge which is denigrated. Scientific knowledge is considered worthy. Knowledge of Hadith is considered worthy. Knowledge of Quran is worthy. But that might not be the knowledge with the capital "K," the Knowledge that we are crying for now: "O Lord increase us in Knowledge." Someone may have more Knowledge from knowing a few hadith than other people from knowing all of the hadith of Bukhari. I am reminded of someone who told me that she received her Islamic education from her mother. This person was a very, very profound Muslim. I asked her, "What did your mother teach youQuran? Hadith?" She said, "No." I said, "Then what did her teaching consist of?" She said, "Well, when we were kids she used to tell us about her Hajj." One Hajj in her life! "She would tell us about her Hajj." Over the years this had such a profound affect on all the children that theywere increased in knowledge.

O Lord, increase us in knowledge, in an unexpected manner, in a direction that we dont necessarily choose for ourselves, O Lord, but one that You choose for us. O Allah, increase us in knowledge precisely through those events in our lifewhich You have permitted to occurthat we might think are the most unacceptable. O Allah, dont allow us to be proud and have proud hearts, because then how can we be

open to the Divine Knowledge?

When we say Allahu Akbar, that is a gesture of complete humility; it is the opposite of a gesture of something like this (raises hands with fists tightly closed) which is a gesture of a secular warrior, a warrior of the dunya. But this (opens his hands in the gesture of prayer) is the gesture of total humility. May we become that kind of non-violent warrior of humility; warriors of love bearing the bright sword of love. Amin, amin, Ya Rabbi-l-alamin.

Tariqat, the West, and the Path of Ease print A talk by Shaykha Fariha al-Jerrahi, 1999

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Dear sisters and brothers on the path of love, greetings to you, your families, and all those close to your heart. We received a feast of light in Hawaii, and I want to thank my khalifa, Reyhan, and all the dervishes of the circle for their love and their inspiration in this gathering. Each one of us was opened and strengthened with a special gift. A new ray of divine knowledge is now streaming into our community through this gathering. In particular, it clarified in my heart certain thoughts about our path which have been forming over the years of living in community with the dervish lovers of the Nur Ashki Jerrahi Tariqat, the path streaming through the heart of the blessed Prophet Muhammad, may eternal peace be upon him. Upon returning from the retreat, I had a dream in which I was sitting at a long table next to Reyhan and was remarking to her that the further west one goes the less the dervishes are making salat. At the end of the table sat a man who was an astrologer. When he heard me say this he replied that it is because a new astronomical time is coming. However, in another scene, I was told that I was not allowed to let my own salat lapse. In the last part of the dream I was shown a huge fish that the dervishes of Hawaii were going to consume. I asked if it were a tuna but the dervish who was overseeing it said noit was not a fish from the east. It was something completely new and indigenous to this land. On waking I felt that the dream was significant for our tariqat, and the divine direction in which it is flowing. The first mentioning of salat in the dream, which the dervishes in the West are less and less performing, refers not to the salat of light received by the Holy Prophet in the angelic heavens, but to a coercive attitude transmitted by the limited religion. The limitation, which produces the limited religion, is essentially a lack of faith in the human soul and a narrow view of Allahs mercy. From this comes the desire to shape and manipulate the human being rather than allow the person to blossom and grow according to their own potential. The true path, the open way, is pure beauty and divine attractionthe soul is drawn through its own desire to return to its Lord. "Let there be no coercion in My religion" proclaims Allah Most High in holy Quran. Love is sufficient to guide the lovers. Let love empty us. Let love make us nothing. Then we will see clearly that Truth stands out openly from untruth. Then there will be no preaching about prayer; we will have become prayerthe prayer which is an ascension, the prayer which is a light to the eyes of the heart, the prayer in which we meet Allah and speak with Allah from the depths of our heart, from the pain and the joy. The dervishes of the Nur Ashki Jerrahi Tariqat, moving toward the new time indicated by the astrologer, who could be Sheyk Muazffer or Sheyk Nur, are rapidly letting go of limited understandings and subtle coercion within themselves. They do not want to impose ideas or forms

on othersthey only desire to open hearts, and the hearts will fly to the truth. "Sun that rises from the East awakens now within the West Eagle soaring in the West, True Kaaba whirling in the West," sings Nur al Jerrahi. Many traditions speak of such a time, represented by the West, when the prayers and labors of the prophets and saints are fulfilled in a humanity about whom Quran speaks"He loves them and they love Him." The veils of separation are removed. In this state we are able to see ourselves in a paradise of unity with Allah. We realize our life as Allahs life, and accept every event coming to us as a divine gift. We move and breathe in Alhamdulillah. We embrace every human being as Allahs Being. We drink the honey of revelation from the great prophets and we make no division among them and we do not separate ourselves from the practitioners of other true paths. We constantly let go of our limited selves in great and small acts of sacrifice, breathing a wonderful sigh of relief as our heart expands beyond the boundaries of fear. We submit ourselves willingly, and even joyfully, to the pressure of the Beloved which turns us into diamond. We shed the limited self through weeping tears and turning only to Allah to complain of our hurt. We feel the joy of our companions joy and we cry the tears that they cry. Our love to humanity is our love to Allah. Our love to Allah is our love to humanity. In this time there is no question of imposing religious practices or doctrine. Worship is spontaneous and effortless. We will be seeking all the beautiful ways of worship, for our hearts will be overflowing with love. Following the call of "Remember Me and I will remember you," we will gather with the lovers in the galaxies of dhikrullah, merging into the Beloved through chanting the Beautiful Names, transforming into light. The prayer of salat will stand out like the Mount Sinai or Mount Arafat, and lovers will be gathering in graceful crowds to ascend to the Beloved. As the guide of all lovers has proclaimed, "Offering the salat in community is 27 times more precious than solitary salat." Community is Paradise. Opening our hearts and our arms to other human beings is the way of Truth, is living with God in this world. This is true tariqat. Tariqat joins our heart with the Prophetic heart and through this to the Divine Heart, and through the Divine Heart to all the heartsin the great tree of life where each being has a holy place and where all are bonded in the matrix of love. Tariqat is the way of divine ease. "And we have made the way easy for you." Alhamdulillah! The Beloved has made the way easy for us because Love desires us as we desire Love. Love runs toward us and embraces us when we reach out and step toward Love. We choose ease because Love has chosen ease for us. And tariqat is this path of ease. Let us look at the path of divine ease and see what constitutes its nature. What are the signs and qualities of tariqat? At the center of tariqat is the human heart. "While pointing at his noble heart three times, the glorious Seal O Messengers proclaims: True religion is right here. "Allah most High Who does not fit into all the universes dwells inside the heart of the human being. All guidance comes from here. All actions are divinely evaluated by the hearts intention motivating them. All knowledge, all goodness, all joy are revealed within the heart. As dervishes we hope never to break a heart, for Allah is there. We seek always to consult our heart and follow our heart, for we are consulting with and following Allah. What great ease Allah has granted us by placing the lamp of guidance and revelation within our own breast. However, through the divine plan of love, we do not come to this lamp on our own, nor do we light it on our own. We are guided by Allahs grace to a living guide who opens the way to further, exalted guidance. Our leap of faith is to say Yes. When we take the hand of a trusted sheyk, the lamp of our heart is ignited with the light of the glorious Seal of the Messengers, the same light which streams through all of Allahs holy Messengers. What great ease! We are now a living lamp. Our task is to illuminate all aspects of our lives with this light, to let it completely flood our being until we are transformed entirely into light. The key to this transformation is La ilahe ilallah Muhammadun Rasulallah. This is the resonance, the utterance, and the message of the light. It is the ultimate gnosis and the essential path of return. It is the great praise of creation toward the Essence. It is the first pillar of Islam, and it is reported by the truthful Messenger to be the single most pleasing act to the Divine Essence. What great ease! In a noble hadith, the trusted companion Abu Hurayra told of the night when the Beloved Prophet, may Allah embrace him with complete peace, absented himself from his companions for such a long time that they became fearful for his well-being. Abu Hurayra left first to seek him, and found him in a garden in deep contemplation. When he approached, the Prophet, sensing his presence, asked him gently what he desired. Abu Hurayra answered that he was concerned due to his long absence. The truthful said that while he was immersed in prayer, Gabriel, upon him be peace, had brought a message from Allah the Exaltedif

a person uttered once La ilahe ilallah sincerely, paradise would be theirs. Abu Hurayra then asked if he could transmit this to the people. The Prophet, peace be upon him, said yes. He gave him his sandal to attest to the truth of the report. As Abu Hurayra was leaving the garden he met with the other companions coming rapidly down the path, headed by Hazreti Omar, may Allah be pleased with him. Upon being asked what the beloved Prophet had said, Abu Hurayra answered with the report from Gabriel. Hazreti Omar, the holy warrior, struck him down. They both returned to the Prophet, and when Omar had heard the astounding revelation directly from the lips of the Beloved of Allah, he begged him not to tell the people because he feared that it would weaken their religion. Hazreti Omar prevailed at that moment, yet clearly, Abu Hurayra did eventually transmit to the companions and inheritors the amazing news given on that special night. The inheritors of this radical transmission are the dervishes of the tariqats. We have received the marrow of the way, the inner essence of revelation. What great ease! To chant La ilahe ilallah with our whole heart, mind, and soul is to praise the Essence of Being with what is most pleasing. It is reported in hadith that when a lover utters La ilahe ilallah the throne of Allah begins to tremble and does not cease until the lover stops. Rather than spending years in fasting and afflicting the self to realize the truth we have only to plunge into the sea of light within La ilahe ilallah Muhammadun Rasulallah. We seek our delight through Allahs delight, and we gather together weekly like bees in the hive to make the honey of Allahs delight for the whole world with La ilahe ilallah. "Wherever you turn there is the Glorious Face of Allah". "Wherever I look I see only saints." The community of tariqat, composed of the saints and friends of Allah, is the Divine Face. We experience friendship with Allah through friendship to each other. We practice the gracious behavior, adab, that we desire toward Allah by directing it toward the sheyk and our fellow sisters and brothers. We are with Allah when we are together. We experience the passion of divine love through loving each other. What great ease! We flow with acts of loving kindness, and we seek to forgive and to ask for forgiveness. With every breath and act of goodness we exchange our clothes of worldliness for robes of light. Subtly, without being aware, we transform into human beings of light. What great ease! Nearness, intimacy with Allah and companionship with the friends, lovers, and prophets of Allah, and particularly with the beloved Muhammad, may the peace of intimate union be his eternally, is the desire of the dervish. This is the way of the ahli bayt, the people of the household of the Prophet of Allah, may divine peace flood him and them together. This is the mystical state of the Five under the Cloak, which refers to the Prophet wrapping in his cloak the blessed Fatima, the glorious Ali, and their two noble sons, Hazreti Hasan and Hazreti Husayn, may Allah the Exalted elevate them to the highest levels of realization. The transmission of mystic knowledge, which flows into tariqat and is the basis of tariqat, comes from these beloved near ones, the family and the intimate companions of the Prophet. We cherish them and we follow their exalted way of intimacy and nobility. We offer abundant salawat upon the Beloved of Allah, and his family and companions, feeling its rainfall of blessing in ourselves and in creation. "Those who invoke blessings on the Prophet, Allah will invoke blessings on them tenfold." We take refuge with the Mercy of Allah, represented in the beloved near ones, from the wrath of Allah, represented in what is distant and what considers itself independent. Love, intimacy, and constant remembrance are the glorious way. Essentially, love, love, and more love. Tariqat, the path of ease, unfolds in the Bismillahirrahmanirrahimin the all-encompassing womb of love of the Being Who is Love and ever more love. Allah is all-embracing, all-penetrating, all-providing Mother. Allah is glorious Truth and Supreme Reality. Allah is intimate lover and watchful guide. Allah is hidden Mystery. The path of ease opens the heart to adore our Beloved in all beautiful forms, and to cry out with all the beautiful names. We are with our Beloved in the open space, in the great freedom of only Hu, where Love alone is real. The experience of entering tariqat is the indescribable joy of meeting Allahs love face to face. It is the blissful joy of being able to freely melt in this love and witness others melting in it too. It is the deep joy of gaining strength from this love and being able to reach out to others. It is the ultimate joy of seeing our sisters and brothers grow and transform into light, knowing that this is the inheritance of all humanity. Nothing can compare, nothing can compare.

"And their similitude in the Gospel is like a seed which sends forth its blade, and then becomes strong; it grows thick and stands on its own stem, filling the sowers with wonder and delight."

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"TheMaturingprocessinadervishorderiscommunal.Themysticalascensioninto ParadiseconsciousnessandbeyondintotheGardenofEssenceoccurshandinhand, heartsintertwinedeternally.MeetingonThursdaynightsfordhikr,thedynamic circleofDivineRemembrance,weencountereachotherprimarilyasaspiringsouls andonlysecondarilyaspersonalitieswithpsychologicalandsociologicalprofiles." ShaykhNuralJerrahi,AtomfromtheSunofKnowledgePirPublications "Lastingbetweenoneandthreehours,theceremonyofremembranceformulatesa microscopicmirroroftherealityofexistence.Themotionofthedhikrullahreflects therevolvingofthespheres.Inthespiritualdimensiontheprocessofcenteringin AllahandfindingUnionwithHimisdescribed.Theceremonyreiteratesthestages ofAscenttowardsbeinglostinAllah(Arabic:fanafillah)andthestagesofDescentto theplaneofmanifestation,whereoneremainssubsistentinAllah(Arabic: baqabillah).ThusthePathtoperfectionthatthesufishavevowedtofollowisshown inconcentratedformintheceremonyofdhikrullah. "AllahMostHighpromisesspiritualseekershisclosenessthroughremembrance. "RememberMeandIwillrememberyou,"AllahrevealsinHisHolyQur?an. "ThemysticalfruitscanbetastedintheDhikrullah,theleastofitsfruitsbeing ecstasy(Arabic:wajd).ThepracticeofDhikrullahmakesthedervishconsciousofhis orherinherentremembrance,andeventuallyoftheremembranceofeverycreated beingintheuniverse... "Remembranceprovidesameansforthedervishestoexpresstheirlongingfor Allah,theBeloved.Truedervishesneitherlookforspiritualrewards,nordesire Paradise,butyearntobeholdtheCountenanceofAllah(Arabic:wajhullah)."The SaintsarethelightofAllah?sCountenance"writesSheikhMuzaffer.Thedervishes thatreachperfectionandthereforearesaints,(?FriendsofAllah?inMuslim terminology)becomethelightofAllah?sCountenance,whichtheylongedto behold."

?SixteenaGulAshkiFriedrichfromtheforwardtoGardenofDervishesbySheikh MuzafferOzakalJerrahi1991PirPublicationsAllRightsReserved
The Nur Ashki Jerrahi Dervishes print A Talk by Shaykha Fariha al-Jerrahi close

The Nur Ashki Jerrahis. Who are we? Do they have an identity? Only Allah knows who the Nur Ashki Jerrahis are. Part of our identity is being without identity, is being faceless and selfless and timeless and spaceless, beyond all borders and beyond all limits of an identity. We might travel from identity to identity but we never identify with an identity. We always go beyond and we are always embracing, serving. We love to serve. We love to bow down and we love to prostrate. Allah has spread the earth for us as a beautiful carpet on which to prostrate. In prostration we come nearer than near and we go nearer than that. When we rise up, ready to serve, we carry the experience of prostration within us. Then we see the face of the Beloved everywhere. The Nur Ashki Jerrahis are those who love to burst out into song, spontaneously. They love to create and they do create. By giving away our limited self we receive the Divine creativity. The Nur Ashki Jerrahis are also those who are vigilant and careful and humble and awake to the needs of each other and to every human being. This is what it is to be awake and consciousto know where Allah is calling us, to know what to do, to know how to respond. This can only come when we are free of ourselves. If we are filled with ourselves, if we are filled with our own reflections and concerns and problems, then we cant even see another person. So we become emptyempty cup, empty vessel. The empty vessel is the vessel that is always filled with fresh-flowing water, with fresh-flowing nectar and with fruit and flesh that is tender and delicious to eat. There was a shaykh who would answer his disciples when they would quote something from Sufi texts, I dont want that. That is old. That is something you have just taken out of a book. Bring me the flesh that is fresh and tender from the ocean of your hearts. The Nur Ashki Jerrahis are the ones who trust and open their hearts, who know that everything is within the human heart and all knowledge has come forth from the human heart through Divine inspiration, through the Divine Pen writing on the mystic tablet of the heart. We seek knowledge here in the breast. We seek it through tasbih, we seek it through concentration, meditation, through prayer, and salat. The Nur Ashki Jerrahis are those who love the salat, because the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, loved the salat. He loved the salat because Allah loves the salat. Allah loves the salat for humanity because it is an ascension to Him. It is a great blessing for us. It is offered in complete freedom and as an act of love, not as a duty, because as soon as we start seeing it as a duty, as a necessity, as a you have to, then it loses its reality. The Nur Ashki Jerrahis are those who do everything for love and in love, knowing that all is love and that all is created for love by Love itself. Allah is Love. Love is an infinite rainbow of expressions and we desire to see them all.

The Nur Ashki Jerrahis are those who wait, who are patient, the patient ones. For, we know that Allah knows what is in our hearts and that Allah is with us. We do not feel that we are missing something. Wherever we are we are with Allah, so what could we miss? We are always with the Beloved. And we are also waiting for the Beloved to manifest anew. We are those who wait. The Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, says he is waiting. We wait with the Prophet. The Nur Ashki Jerrahi is the other. One of Shaykh Nurs definitions of a dervish is, the other. We find our joy as others find joy. We do not seek our own happiness because that leads to unhappiness. When we seek the happiness of others then we receive true happiness. The Nur Ashki Jerrahis are those who pray for all humanity and for all beings. They bring blessing to the earth, stepping lightly and joyfully on it. Wherever a dervish steps, wherever a lover of Allah steps, the earth responds and the earth is joyful and brings forth more fruit and more beauty. Wherever a dervish reaches out a hand, Allah is joyful, for Allah is there waiting in the person we are reaching towards. Allah says, I am with the one who is sick and when you visit those who are sick you visit Me. I am with the one who is thirsty and when you offer drink to the thirsty you offer it to Me. Alhamdulillah. Allah Who is above all the worlds, Who is the Transcendent beyond all need is also the One Who is in those who are thirsty and hungry. The Nur Ashki Jerrahi is pure beauty, radiant beauty. The Nur Ashki Jerrahi is pure light, light within light. The Nur Ashki Jerrahi is the servant of the Servant, is the beloved of the Beloved, is the one who is under the cloak of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, who is in that mystic darkness, the beautiful blackness, the radiant blackness... The Nur Ashki Jerrahi is the one who is eating the fruits from the Garden of Paradise, before Paradise... the one who is dying before dying and resurrecting before the resurrection. The Nur Ashki Jerrahi dervish is the one who waits to enter through the gates of Paradise, until all human beings have entered. The Nur Ashki Jerrahi is the one who makes a feast out of whatever is on hand, a feast of bread, a glass of water, and who makes a palace out of a simple hut and who makes Paradise within every human heart. That is the Nur Ashki Jerrahi dervish. Alhamdulillah. We join with all beautiful lineages, we join with all beautiful paths of return, we recognize the Beloved wherever we turn and we recognize the truth whenever we hear the truth. We are everything and nothing. A dervish of Shaykh Nur, Shaykh Muzaffer Efendi, Hazreti Pirand on all the way through the great silsila, the great river going to the heart of the Prophet Muhammad, salallahu alayhi wa salam, going into the infinite heart of Bismillahi-r-rahmani-r-rahim and from there going into the Mystic Essence. This is our silsila. We are always rooted in the unknown. We never assume we know. We know that Allah knows. By our very unknowing, we know, and Allah allows us to know something. Allah has said, Something you know. Alhamdulillah. We always begin again. We always feel that we are at the beginning of the path. As long as we have been a dervish, as hard as we have struggled, as many mystic dreams and revelations we have receivedyet we always feel at the beginning of the path. The path is infinite, and it becomes a pathless path. The path of tariqa is a delimited path, it has certain steps, certain forms. Then when the tariqa reaches the ocean of haqiqa, the infinite light of Haqq, from then on the path becomes the pathless path and from then on it is purely companionship with Allah. It is an endless journey. We are travelers from eternity to eternity. We travel with companions and that is a great blessing. No one wants to be alone. We were not created to be alone. We were created to be together in beautiful mystic couples, in dervish companionship with sisters and brothers, and in companionship with the entire human family. Inshaallah, we will witness that. A dhikr is that, a gathering is that, going on Umra is that. For those of us who have experienced Hajj, we have the taste of the great rising up of all humanity, of all souls rising up together and praising the Source as one. It is an amazing, amazing experience. Each being is both complete and part of the whole. When we feel apart, we can feel separation and longing, and then through longing Allah brings us to union. Longing

is really the path to union. Longing and loving is how we come to union. Then in union we disappear again and lose any sense of separation and become whole. Then we go back into a state of an individual. It is a constant merging and separation. Allah has promised that in Paradise there is no fear and no grief. These are the two burdens in the human heart. Fear and grieffear of separation, grief over separation or parting or something we have missed. What do we grieve about? We grieve when we feel separation from the Beloved. And fearfear from being parted, fear from being alone, fear of failing. Paradise is pure union at all moments. There is not the slightest taste or touch of separation. Whatever we experience we experience in union. As dervishes here in this world, which is called the realm of work, we strive. As long as we are alive in this body we are striving. That is the greatest thing hereto be striving and working. We dont even long to be lost in bliss. The masters say that would be losing the precious time that we have to go further into Reality, through the body and soul being together in this realm. This is the realm of work and striving and serving and bearing and submitting. Submissionthe most beautiful, to open oneself entirely and submit everything to Allah, to become completely transparent to Allah. Although we carry Paradise in the heart, we are never fully in that state until Allah transports us into the next world. And we dont even hold on to that. When Hazreti Rabia al-Adawiyya, was asked if she was destined for Paradise, she answered honestly, I dont know. She was with her Lord in every moment, she did not project. May we be those. May we be those who go beyond Paradise, who taste Paradise in this world and go beyond it. She brought the water to put out the fires of hell and she brought the fire to burn Paradise. She wanted to live only as a lover. That is the Paradise that we come to as lovers. That Paradise is simply being together with the Beloved. Wherever the Beloved takes us, wherever the Beloved desires us to be, that is our Paradise, simply that consciousness, and the consciousness of servanthood. There is a beautiful story of a dervish who was a very good dervish, but his shaykh received a message from Allah which said, Tell this servant of mine that he is destined for the fire. This was a dervish who would pray and offer everything he could to the poor, and be always open to the traveler. The shaykh was very disturbed but he went and told this dervish, Allah gave me the message to tell you, his servant, that you are destined for the fire. As soon as the dervish heard that, he leapt up and said, Did He call me His servant? And he bowed down in joy and made prostrations of gratitude to have been called Allahs servant. Of course he wasnt touched at all by the fire. That was a just a holy test to reveal his high station and the nature of his passionate love. Most of what we fear is only a test. The best way to get through a test is to say Alhamdulillah. As soon as we are tested, and we can recognize it when it comes, Alhamdulillah. Thank You, Allah. Alhamdulillah. You will see how swiftly the difficulty will pass, if you turn immediately and thank Allah. Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillah.

The Beard of Light from a Body of Purest Light print Shaykha Fariha al-Jerrahi

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The Prophet, from whom no shadow falls on the earth, is the shade for humanity from the burning nature of the limited world and from the transcendent glory of Reality. In his lightand the light shining within all prophetsour earthly natures are transformed into light, our limited conscience is opened to unlimited awareness. In his light we are able to ascend through the 70,000 veils of light which radiate from the Glorious Countenance of Realityfor they are all his light. Every aspect of the Beloved of Allah is sacred and brings blessings to creation. Sheyk Muzaffer, may Allah exalt his soul, reports from oral tradition that the blessed head of the Prophet is created from Divine Guidance (Ya Hadi), his blessed neck from the humility of the Most Compassionate, his blessed eyes from Divine Modesty, his blessed face from the certitude of the Eternal, his blessed mouth from Divine Patience, his blessed tongue from Divine Veracity, his blessed brow from Holy Love, his blessed breast from the Lordly counsel of Allah Most High to creation, his blessed heart from piety and and love solely for the sake of Allah, his blessed belly from asceticism, his blessed knees from awe of Allah, and his blessed feet from unswerving integrity, avoiding the paths of error. When the soul of Muhammad, may Allah embrace him in His own peace, entered this world many miracles were manifested through his holy person. When he was asked to prove through a miracle that he was truly a Prophet, he inwardly received the Divine Command to simply raise finger and point at the moon. The full moon split into two. Once, when there was no food available, milk poured forth from his fingers for his companions to drink. His entire body was fragrant like musk and he imparted a sweet smell to those whom he touchedthe heads of children whom he caressed remained fragrant for days. His hands of power could plant a date seed which would grow within the hour. Allah Most High said in Holy Quran that His Hand is over the Prophets hand, in the original pledge of the companions under the tree at Hudaybia. Once beofore a holy battle, when Hazreti Ali was suffering from an illness in the eye, the Prophet simiply placed his saliva onto the eye and it healed. In the world of dreams to receive his saliva is to receive his transmission. The sight of his face would fill the hearts of the believers with joy, as though they had seen the face of God. His body was the best of bodies, life bearing, healing, and powerful to bear his mission. His luminous body is still transmitting Allahs blessing and pleasure in the exact place where his soul departed from it, once the humble dwelling of his precious wife Aisha, now the vast Mosque of Medina where millions of lovers of Allah gather on pilgrimage. Outside of his holy tomb, the only relics that remain of his miraculous body are pieces of his blessed beard. These were gathered by members of his family and his companions whenever he would trim it. A number of these relics have been preserved until today in the keeping of religious institutions, tariqats, and special families. They are considered to be great treasures of Islam. At the time of Sheyk Muzaffer, may Allah sanctify his secret, the Jerrahi Order in Istanbul held 3 relics of the holy beard. Effendi brought 2 of these to the U.S. at the opening of the Masjid al Farah in 1980. One he gave to the Spring Valley Tekke in the keeping of Sheyk Tosun, and one he gave to the Masjid in the keeping of Sheyk Nur. After Sheyk Nur passed, the relic mysteriously disappeared. Last year, through the grace of our brother Mujtaba Ali, the head of the Atlanta Circle, we received another holy relic of the beard. It had been held in his family, through his mothers line, and at some point it split into two. Mujtaba was given the new beard. After holding it for a precious few monthshe reports that it was like the sun shining in his househe was moved to give it to the Nur Ashki Tariqat in replacement of the earlier relic, so that it could be shared and held by all of us. May our gratitude be multiplied by the Divine gratitude, and fill his life, and that of his family with constant blessing. We are amazed that we hold part of the Prophets body of light. This trust represents a responsibility for our Tariqat in manifesting the way of the Prophets, and in particular his way which reveals the essence of the La ilaha ilallah. His way is all-embracing unity, luminous gnosis and pure love. His way as the Nur Muhammad includes all paths of return. His way encompasses every level of realization available to humanity. May we deepen our knowledge of his way and increase our capacity to be this knowledge. May passionate love of Allah Most Exalted, ignite our hearts and may these hearts be servants for humanity. The night before our travel with Ali through the Western circles and Mexico City, I was given the inspiration to take the relic of the holy beard onto the journey. After the original beard had come from

Istanbul to NY, it only traveled once when Sheyk Nur took it with him to Mexico City on the 7th anniversary of the circle. His inspiration was to bring the beard to the holy shrine of Mariam Guadalupana, thus mystically bringing together the traditions of Islam and Christianity. In our visit to Mexico City this time with the beard we followed his footsteps back to the shrine of Hazreti Mariam. She is a great bridge between these two revelations, as she is revered in both as the Virgin Mother who brought forth the living Word, the Spirit of God. There is also a mystical tradition stating that in the realm of Paradise the Blessed Mariam will be the bride of the Beloved Muhammad, may Allahs peace shine upon them eternally for all to see. As we began our travel the power of the beard was immediately manifest. Going to the airport and boarding the plane to Kansas City was no longer just ordinary steps to come to our destination. It was a sacred journey in extraordinary companionship. We were in a caravan of light moving with the companions and lovers of Allah. Taxi drivers, travelers on the airplanes, people in airports, hotel receptionists and residents all participated in this sacred companionship and bearing of the prophetic trust embodied in the relic of the blessed beard. This is the radiant nature of our life together on earth. We are sharing the journey as travelers in one caravan returning to the Source. The Circles of Nur are the places of special awareness within this journey, sites of accelerated transmutation. It is here, in these vortexes of light, that we leave the horizontal journeying of limited consciousness, with its leaps and falls, to ascend directly and immediately into our Source.

The Inner Jihad: a Sufi Point of View print Shaykha Fariha al-Jerrahi

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Our spiritual path is to touch and illuminate hearts. When hearts are open, people are naturally guided to goodness and to helping others. Human nature always has two sides: there is the fundamentalist, extremist, rigid, narrow, oppressive, tyrannical side; and then there's the open heart, the love, the tolerance, the breadth of vision, the mystical side. The real meaning of jihad is this all-important struggle within, between forces of light and dark, a battle that every Sufi undertakes. Wisdom and love carry the sword, and ultimately the victory is the victory of the heart. True tradition is like clear pure water, wholesome to drink. In every generation, there are living beings who transmit the original message. Over time, inevitably, misconceptions and aberrations creep up and choke the original message, but periodically it is completely refreshed through the hearts of very great beings. These great beings have come to be known as Sufis: people who have connected into the deepest essence of the heart. One can use the word Sufi to refer to the mystical soul. There are Christian Sufis, Jewish Sufis; in fact it is stated that there are 124,000 messengers of God! The whole global family is included. Our Sufi lineage goes to the heart of the Prophet Muhammad, may divine peace always embrace him and his noble wives and companions throughout time. The rose fragrance of his love ignites our hearts and reveals in us the truth that we are not separate, that we are God's own essence, His treasure. The nature of Islam is love and unity. We see all of humanity as one. The training of a dervish is called 'polishing the heart,' like a mirror that reflects divine reality. There is no reality apart from the One Reality, but we forget that, and we become disconnected. The path is to reconnect, clarify and polish the heart, to remove any obstacles that cloud our oneness with God.

Of course you dont find this teaching in the teaching of the fundamentalists, but all traditions seem to have more a mystical nature, which is their heart, and an outer, more armored side. The present fundamentalism that we see in the Islamic world may be a result of colonialism which stripped away the religion in many countries. When the main tradition is cut off and real guides are no longer accessible, people can become attracted to anyone with a strong and simplistic statement to make. These people are the fundamentalists, often political fanatics who totally distort the true message of Islam. Fundamentalists are basically just enforcing rules. Rules are not the Truth. The sharia is not as much a code of rules as a state of the heart. It is called the life-giving law, and part of its teaching is to treat others as oneself. The sharia is always pointed to the heart. In the Koran, it is stated that the truth is radiant and clear, and cannot be imposed. Any small part of the Koran taken out of context is as ridiculous as taking a sea urchin out of the ocean, pricking people with it and saying this is the ocean. The greatest teachers are the most merciful, the most forgiving, and not rule-bound at all. They reflect His light, forgiveness and tolerance. There are more and more people with open hearts manifesting in the world. This whole process started with the heart, and only survives through heart. The heart is always victorious.

Notes on Fasting print Shaykha Amina al-Jerrahi

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"Whoever makes any effort in Our direction, surely we will guide them." Quran 29:69 "In truth God does not alter the state of a soul until this soul does it for itself." Holy Quran 13:12 "Everything has its entrance and the entrance of adoration is fasting." Hadith Sherif (noble oral tradition of the Prophet Muhammad, s.a.w.s.) "The sleep of he who is fasting is adoration before the eyes of Allah." Hadith Sherif "Two joys have been prepared for those who realize the prescribed fast: the joy of breaking it and the joy of meeting your Lord." Hadith Sherif

Dear ones, may Divine Peace be with you, It is told that the blessed Prophet said to Hadrat-i Aysha, daughter of Abu Bakr Siddiq: "Persist in knocking at the doors of Paradise." To which Aysha responded "And with what should I knock?" "With hunger" he responded. Hunger is emptiness. A heart hungry for God is sufficiently empty of itself to have room for God. Emptiness is transparency. To be empty of oneself is to be transparent to Divine Reality. To be transparent before Divine Reality is to be free of all false reality.

This is the attitude towards fasting, towards the obligatory month of Ramadan, just as also it is the attitude towards the voluntary fast at any other time of the year. This is the attitude of the one who feels attracted to the words of the Beloved of Allah, peace and blessings upon him when he says: "spiritual poverty is my glory." Perhaps for this reason the Prophet enjoyed fasting so much. The one who feels attracted to the reality that pulses in these words is a dervish, a faqir, although he may never have heard these terms in his entire life. Or perhaps one should say: he liked so much to be in the state of fasting because abstinence from eating and drinking is not an isolated act when it is offered to God; it is an entire universe of being, of seeing, and of perceiving existence with the eyes of emptiness, with the eyes free of the great weight that goes by unperceived-the weight of habitual conditioning. The entire weight of a pattern that one has established in order to move and to see, that takes for granted absolutely all of the ingredients of this permanent and incessant unfolding of Divine attributes that is existence. Hadrat-i Isa (Jesus), Divine Peace be with him, said that there are demons in our interior that can only be overcome by fasting. On the other hand, we have heard that one single tear shed for the love of God is capable of completely extinguishing the flames of hell. And it occurs to me that perhaps the fast, in effect, kills "the demons" that prevent us from crying in the face of so much love. And that they provoke in us the forgetting of a love that is of such a magnitude that in an instant it could blind all the demons of our heart. Fasting does not take place only in the literal sense. That is to say, the intention is presented and one consumes nothing during a series of hours, but this is not the only level of the fast that the sacred Quran unveils. In the journey brought by the experience of the fast there are multiple levels of the emptying of self and one of them for example, is to resist negative waves of emotion, emptying ourselves of negativity, of harmful thoughts, of obsessive tendencies, of compulsions, of recurrences in our conditioning or of our patterns of habitual conduct. Fasting is a practice that has been realized now for many centuries, throughout many eras of humanity. It is not something that occurred to someone, nor did it emerge as any one person's brilliant idea. The fast that is offered to God in response to Him, is an adornment of the heart that has been revealed by God in order to draw the souls that love Him near to Himself, because He cant get any closer, but how 'close' do we really are? The sacred Quran reveals that the fast draws the souls close to God and to the prophet Muhammad, may peace be with him. He said that there is no fragrance more favored by God than the breath of the one who fasts. Emptying oneself of oneself is an entire, very subtle project; it is not about a set of rules. It is simply to say YES to God, to the divine dynamic. Without doubt, there is a dimension within us that truly longs to practice an impeccable dedication in relation to the longing for God; this is a part of us that also coexists with another, in reality, much stronger, authentic, innate, and intrinsic part. The other part of us, the temporal and finite part, the one that is identified with the four terrestrial elements: water, fire, air, and earth, is only our transitory I, our vehicle, or what is usually called the ego. The ego has not been created to guide us, but rather to be guided by the divine I-what is only Real. We have to witness in ourselves and in everyone else this divine I; that is what Ramadan is about. In truth the moment of breaking the fast is one of great blessing and great joy. I believe that in the above hadith, with "the joy of breaking it" the Prophet refers to all situations of joy, of expansion, of fraternity between the spiritual companions of all times in sharing together this moment, this grace, and not the specific act of eating or of drinking. It is an experience that cannot be narrated. I do not pretend to express the inexpressible. For example, Muzaffer Efendi said: There is a Mount Sinai for the one who fasts at the time of breaking his fast-Mount Sinai, where Hazreti Musa (Moses) spoke with Allah-the burning bush. It is like saying: there is a burning bush awaiting us at the moment of ending the fast. It is also true that every day of the fast is a universe unto itself. Something peculiar about the fast is that it is an act of adoration that does not give itself away. In truth I clearly see that only the fast that is directed exclusively towards God, that is offered exclusively to Him,

has merit, because there is no room for anything, or anyone else within such intimacy. No one sees it, no one knows except for Him. However, I remember that one time while in Morocco during the month of Ramadan, while traveling through the country-side of Marrakech in a fasting state, a happy Muslim, native to those lands, asked me to open my mouth and to show him my tongue so that he could see if it was sufficiently white enough for the fast. The man could not believe what my traveling companion had said to him. He could not believe that this young foreigner, in jeans and without a veil to cover her head, was indeed fasting in Ramadan. (Perhaps he found out because my traveling companion did not believe it either). And there they had me, an ingenuous pilgrim, without the spiritual maturity or range to dare to let him know with a single look that the fast is a private affair between the human soul and Allah Most High, who is also the Most Near. Only God knows if my fast is valid before His eyes. The fast is a matter that one must settle exclusively with Him. Of course we can have and should have this kind of exchange and can listen to the experiences of our companions on the path, but we do not need to loose sight of the intimacy that the fast offers to usthe intimacy with God that opens before us. I believe that it is a good moment to clarify this. We are entering upon an especially sacred time. If we present to Allah our intention to fast this day or another, may we always know that it is by His will and with His permission that we have been able to fulfill the fast, and may we not fall into the error of attributing it to our own selves or to anything akin to personal power. A resistance to breaking with these habitual patterns of our conditioning, of our habitual behavior, is easily detected in us. A sacred tradition always brings one to a place of breaking with these patterns. Maybe it is more notorious within a sacred tradition, or of the practices of a sacred tradition which are not identified as culturally one's own, as is the specific case of this sacred tradition. (Then again, the sacred tradition too can become part of cultural conditioning and of family and social conditioning). But in this case we have the possibility of this virginity, of this freshness before all that the revelation brings, as was also the situation of the original community of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. One of the issues that one can take note of is this resistance that is rooted in the sense of not transgressing the pattern of our habits. For example, if I always bathe with hot water, then to bathe with cold water is to transgress this; if I am accustomed to getting up at 7 a.m. and to having a good breakfast, then to fast is to transgress this conditioning. If I am accustomed to going to bed every day at 9:30 at night, then coming to Zikr on Thursdays is to transgress this conditioning; if I am accustomed to interact sitting in a seat, then coming to sit in this way, on the floor, is to violate this comfort. We all can recognize, and it does help us to both recognize our conditioning and to violate it and to transgress it, especially in the light of Divine Guidance. What we already know, we do not truly know. One has to return again to knowing it in the light of this part of us that is free and that longs to realize this freedom of spirit in this world and in this body. Blessed be the voice of divine light in our heart: the true sheik, the true sheikha in the throne of the heart. Dear sisters and brothers, may God open your treasures in this blessed month of Ramadan. In Love, Amina Teslima

The Day of 'Arafah and the Eid ul-Adha print

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Saturday, January 31st & Sunday, February 1st, 2004

"My intimate friend, exhort those who become pilgrims to leave behind from that moment all carelessness." - Heart of the Koran

What is 'Arafah?

The Islamic pilgrimage, Hajj, to the holy shrines of Mecca, Medina, and Mount 'Arafah takes place in the first ten days of the month of Dhul Hijja. The pilgrimage culminates with the great gathering on the plain or "Mount" of 'Arafah north of Mecca on the ninth day. This event embodies the essential spirit of Hajj, as the Prophet stated "'Arafah is the Hajj." Islamic tradition reports that Hazreti Adam and Hazreti Eve were separated and lost when they decended from Paradise into earthly space and time. They found each other again at 'Arafah and prayed together, asking for forgiveness from Allah. Their prayer was accepted. Another noble tradition states that their earthly wedding was performed here by the archangel Gabriel. The Prophet Muhammad gave his last khutba here, standing upon the Mt. of Mercy (Jabal Rahma), the hill rising from high plain which we call Mt. 'Arafah. In the midst of this sermon, he received the last Qur'anic revelation from his Lord: "This day I (Allah) have perfected your religion and fulfilled My favor unto you (Qur'an 5.3)." 'Arafah is indicated to be the place where humanity will reawaken on the Last Day in the Divine Mercy which will reveal and evaluate the goodness in their lives. 'Arafah represents the placeless place where, when Allah asked "Am I not your Lord?" and all souls without exception cried "Yes!" In his khutba on the Day of 'Arafah, 1994, Shaykh Nur al-Jerrahi, was inspired to say: "'Arafah represents the highest time of contemplation and the highest point of examination of conscience. We will actually enter into the state of 'Arafah, tasting it directly. It is a state in which all limits disappear. It is a state of complete immersing in Allah. Only after this, is one able truly to make tawaaf, to circumambulate the Kaaba as the angels whirl around the Divine Throne. Only then are we completely empty. Everything has gone. There is not even any separate sense of being a vessel. The brightness of Mount 'Arafah burns everything away and reveals the true human being, which is the mirror of the Divine Attributes. This is the Insan Kamil, the formless form that mercifully and miraculously manifests through a form of biological evolution, a form that Allah has made from the dust and clay of the earth. This biological form can become transparent to the formless form of perfect humanity. This occurs on Mount 'Arafah during the Hajj, as it does in the Juma prayer."

What is the Day of 'Arafah?

After the sun has passed noon, on Saturday, Jan. 31st, the pilgrims on this year's Hajj will have gathered upon and around Jabal Rahma. This is precisely the day of the month and the time of day that the Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace, gave his last khutba. The pilgrims stand, ritually waiting (waqafa) all afternoon for sunset. The millions gathered here from all nations is a vivid representation all of humanity gathering at the End of Time. All are repenting, supplicating with hands held high, and chanting a special revealed litany received by the Prophet Muhammad from the Archangel Gabriel: After the sun has passed noon, on Saturday, Jan. 31st, the pilgrims on this year's Hajj will have gathered upon and around Jabal Rahma. This is precisely the day of the month and the time of day that the Prophet Muhammad, upon him

be peace, gave his last khutba. The pilgrims stand, ritually waiting (waqafa) all afternoon for sunset. The millions gathered here from all nations is a vivid representation all of humanity gathering at the End of Time. All are repenting, supplicating with hands held high, and chanting a special revealed litany received by the Prophet Muhammad from the Archangel Gabriel: Labayk Allahumma labayk Here I am, O Allah; here I am! Labayka la sharika laka, labayk Here I am ready to serve you, there is nothing besides You; here I am Inna-l-Hamda Truly all praise is Yours alone, Wa-n-Ni'mata And all Blessing comes from You alone, Laka wa-l-Mulk, La sharika Lak And all the heavenly and earthly realms with all their inhabitants belong to You alone; There is nothing apart from You!

Commemorating the Day of 'Arafah

A traditional form of partaking of the light of 'Arafah is to fast from pre-dawn until sunset on that day Saturday, the 31st of January. The pilgrims who are physically gathering on 'Arafah don't fast-they are instructed by beloved Quran, 'It is perfectly legitimate and wonderful to partake of the abundance of the Lord while upon Mount 'Arafah.' Another way of participating directly in the spiritual event was initiated by the founder of our lineage, Hazreti Pir Nureddin Jerrahi. On the day of 'Arafah, Nureddin Jerrahi and his dervishes would gather outside the walls of the city of Istanbul and offer the afternoon prayer together. Through the spiritual power of the Pir they would all be transported to the plain of 'Arafah, where they praised Allah in the company of the pilgrims. Then they would return again to their own city within the same cycle of prayer. According to the tradition which continues today in Istanbul, we will gather our tekkes on Saturday afternoon to chant Labbayk (above) and be mystically transported to 'Arafah, inshallah. This is an opportunity to participate in the Hajj in a vivid way. Shaykh Muzaffer considers the night between the Day of 'Arafah and the Eid ul-Adha (the Feast of Sacrifice) one of the five most important nights during the year, when prayers are clearly answered. We may stay up late together and possibly offer dhikrullah on Saturday night.

The Eid ul-Adha

The Eid ul-Adha actualizes the light of the sacrifice of Ishmael, upon him be peace. In the morning we make Eid prayers in the same way as at the end of Ramadan. At this time, the pilgrims on Hajj have come down from 'Arafah to the city of Muzdalifah, where they make an animal sacrifice to Allah, saying:

In the name of Allah; Allah is beyond all conception. O Allah, this is from You and for You. Accept it from me just as You accepted it from your friend, Ibrahim! This is the qurban offering. Qurban means to bring close-we are called to sacrifice ourselves for the sake of realizing our intimacy with the Source. Hazreti Ishmael was of course called to submit his own life. Hazreti Abraham was called to sacrifice to Allah his precious Prophetic son, also implying the lineage of Prophets which would flow from Ishmael, which would include the eventual culmination of the principle of Prophesy embodied in the Beloved Muhammad, upon him be peace. "Abraham received revelation from his Lord to sacrifice his most precious-we cannot say possession-his most precious _expression, his divinely granted son. The noble Prophet had no ego, no self. There was nothing more to offer, nothing more within him to sacrifice. The noble Abraham, upon him be peace, did not look upon this boy as his son; he looked upon him as the next Prophet, as the promise of Allah to continue the Prophetic line. It was not as simple as offering his own son. He was offering to Allah what was basically the future of the Prophetic lineage. He was saying to Allah: "You can raise up Prophets out of stones if You want to. Even though You have given me this sacred child, through a holy, miraculous birth, and even though this is the only way that the Prophetic Light can enter into the next generation, I am willing to give him up, because You are the One who manifests the Prophetic Light, and You can take it away." The sacrifice asked of the noble Abraham was an offering of the limited human notion of religion itself as something that we have to do, instead of something that Allah is doing. It was a sacrifice of the religious ego of humanity. Allah inspired the noble Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace, to base the pilgrimage on the experience of the noble Abraham, this transcending of the religious ego. This is what the pilgrims do when they go to Mecca. They are reliving that intense sacrifice asked of Abraham. The Valley of Mina near Mecca is the very place where Abraham, with the firewood for the sacrifice loaded upon his pack animal, took his son by the hand and walked humbly. No one can camp in that valley without shedding tears. (With these words, Shaykh Nur weeps, but after a few seconds, he continues speaking) But these are not ordinary, emotional tears caused by thinking, "How terrible, how awful-he had to offer his son." They are gnostic tears. They are tears caused by contemplating the vastness of Allah's Mercy and Power. The Lord did not wish humanity to conceive of the universal religion as limited to any person, as needing any person." - Shaykh Nur al-Jerrahi, same as above The spiritual victory comes at the last moment-Abraham's knife is poised above Ishmael's neck. Allah's Presence, in the form of the Archangel Gabriel, comes close to let Abraham know that his call to sacrifice has already been fulfilled. A ram materializes for the sacrifice. Individual dervish circles may participate in the spirit of Abraham's sacrifice by themselves sacrificing a lamb, or if they prefer, donating money or food to the hungry on this day. "Summoning Gabriel from Paradise, Allah had created a ram as a substitute sacrifice for Ishmael, then commanded Gabriel to take it to Abraham. The angel had now appeared in the heavens, bearing that ram and proclaiming the Supreme Greatness of God. When Abraham heard the voice of Gabriel calling "Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar," he realized that his trial was over, and in grateful response, he glorified and extolled his Lord with the words, "La ilaha illa-Llahu wa-Llahu Akbar." The venerable Ishmael lay there listening to these utterances, and he also realized that the Mercy of the All-Compassionate and Beneficent had come overflowing. Crying, "Allahu Akbar wa li-Llahi-l-Hamd," he joined in the glorification and praise" Shaykh Muzaffer Efendi, Irshad This is the story of the "Hudara Takbir" which we often chant in the dhikr: Allahu Akbar Allahu Akbar La ilaha illa-Llahu Allah is Greater! Allah is Greater! There is no one but Allah!

Wa-Llahu Akbar Allahu Akbar wa li-Llahi-l-Hamd Allah is Greater, Allah is Infinitely Greater, and to Allah flows all Praise! From the dawn prayer on Saturday, Jan. 31st through the afternoon prayer on the following Wednesday, this takbir is chanted after each salat. The Eid Prayers

The Eid prayers of the morning of Sunday, Feb. 1st, are celebrated in the following way: It is a sunna of the Prophet Muhammad to make full ablution in the morning, to dress beautifully, to put on perfume, and to eat something before going to the place of prayer. On the way to the tekke, one could chant the takbir above. Also as dervishes gather before the prayers begin, this takbir may be chanted repeatedly as a group. To begin the prayer (there is no adhan), the imam says Allahu Akbar as usual, but before reciting Quran, there are three (3) extra Allahu Akbars. The same is done in the second rakat. This is the tradition of the Hanafi school, which the Jerrahi tariqat follows. Other opinions or schools of Islam may call for a greater number of recitations of Allahu Akbar before chanting Quran. All the schools are accepted as sunna. There are two rakats, both with Quran chanted out loud. It is a sunna to give a khutba after the Eid prayers are performed. After the khutba is the traditional time for making an animal sacrifice and distributing the meat to the poor. For those who are unable to do so, or who are vegetarians, it is recommended to make an offering of charity. Practitioners often use this day to make a special offering of their presence, by calling or visiting family members, the elderly or the sick. The tremendous light and uplift of this festival actually lasts three or four days. EID MUBARAK A Blessed Feast

The following is the prayer of Hazreti 'Ali, radhiyallahu anhu. It is recomended that one recite it during the first ten days of the month of Hajj. La ilaha ilallahu as many times as the number of days and nights following each other! La ilaha ilalahu adada al layali wa dhuhr La ilaha ilallahu as many as the number of waves in all the oceans! La ilaha ilalahu adada amwaj al buhur La ilaha ilallahu wa Rahmatuhu is better than all that might be gathered in this world! La ilaha ilalahu wa rahmatuhu khayrun mima yajma'un La ilaha ilallahu as many as the number of thorns and trees! La ilaha ilalahu adada shawkah wa shajar

La ilaha ilallahu as much as there is hair flowing from human heads, and as much as the fur on all the creatures! La ilaha ilalahu adada sha'rah wal wabar La ilaha ilallahu as many as the number of stones and pebbles in the universe! La ilaha ilalahu adadal hajarah wal madar La ilaha ilallahu as many as the number of times that eyes have blinked! La ilaha ilalahu adada lamha al uyun La ilaha ilallahu through the night as it dissipates and the dawn as it breathes away the darkness! La ilaha ilalahu fi layli idha asass wa subha idha tanaffass La ilaha ilallahu as many as the winds blowing through the deserts and cliffs! La ilaha ilalahu adadar riyaha fil barari wa sukhur La ilaha ilallahu from now until the Day on which the trumpet resounds! La ilaha ilalahu minal yawm illa yawmi yunfakhu fassur

The above prayer was made known to us by our sister and brother, Ehsaneh and Hamed from the Washington D.C. circle. 2008 Masjid al-Farah, Published by Pir Press