Category Archives: Sufism

Metaphysics, Modern Living, Psychology, Sufism, Uncategorized

“Respect” A much overused and abused term!

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In our “Progressive, Woke” world there are a number of tired ideas that keep getting used and abused. Terms like “Be reasonable”(which usually means “agree with me” lol) ; ‘Take your time”( which usually means I’m not really into it .Let’s procrastinate together” lol) and for our purposes today” Be respectful”(which usually means “do it my way”).Of course there is a lot of hypocrisy involved but most people talking that way don’t realize it. They are unaware, unconscious.

One of the places   like to start these discussions is with scriptural sources. So the Buddhists talk about “compassion”. The Christians say “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”.And the Muslims say” honour man because he is a creation of God”.None of these are even remotely related to the modernist notions of respect.

Let us look at them one by one. “Compassion” is definitely part of all religious traditions. But it is not at all the same as “respect’ for others- regardless of their behaviour or ideas. In fact, for Buddhists the cardinal sin is “ignorance”. So putting up with the foolishness of people would be promoting sinfulness! For Christians “Doing unto others” is not equivalent to modernist “respect”. Would you like others to tell you you are right when you are not?! Would like others to tell you that you are right  when you are doing the wrong thing? I don’t think so. I certainly wouldn’t? No. In fact, it is Christian and Buddhist and Islamic to push back and call out each other when we are on the wrong path. For Muslims honoring mankind does not mean not confronting them with their false ideas and bad b behaviour. In Islam we have the principle of “Amr Bil Maruf wa Nehi al Munkar”( Enjoin the good and discourage evil) No political correctness there!

One of the great saints of Islam, founder of the Shafii madhdhab Imam Ash Shafii was once asked how he had attained such good character. He replied : “Every time I was criticized , by friend or foe alike, I looked within to see if the criticism had any validity, and if it was so, I did my best to correct it”  Now, none of this could have occurred if he was only surrounded by adabist students lol

So lets look at how this plays out in various scenarios

  1. The parental role.

Parents are now reluctant to challenge and train their children. Out of “respect”. So the children become disrespectful! No surprises there. You can see it any time you go out in public! I even saw a 3-4 year-old probably Bangladeshi child chewing out his parents in an Indian restaurant! Horror of horrors. And the parents said nothing! One of my clients, in my last years as a psychiatrist, was a school teacher. She was complaining about how disrespectful her high-school students were, In their school the children were allowed to swear at the teachers! Only when it became physically violent were there consequences! I then asked her: “How many times in their 11 years of public school education, have they been told to respect their elders. Crickets The answer is zilch! Respecting the elders is old school. Not the new school of transgender and equality and self(i.e. ego) expression!

2) The respect for authority! If there was any of that left before ,the Covid Pandemic has wiped it out. We were lied to over and over again-about early treatment with Ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine, about the safety of the vaccines, about the origins of the virus etc.,etc. And every day on the news Trump and his coterie are telling us how good the economy is when people know it aint. The American Academy of Pediatrics are telling us that the vaccine mandate is harmless where there are many credible studies to show us they are harmful. 5G installations are being protected while many people are being made sick and there is evidence that the RFs emitted are carcinogenic. And no one ,but no one, wants to study electrical cars health effects because of the potential economic impacts. So to be respectful of contemporary authorities is simply self-injurious!

3) The Sociology of Respect.

I was raised in an Ashkenazi Jewish family. We were taught to be forthright and honest. Americans and Italians I believe are similar .But during my life’s journey I cam in touch with what I call the “adabist” ( “adab” is the Arabic word for polite behaviour) cultures-the British and ,the Arabs ! (I believe the Japanese are similar).They believe in courtesy, politeness and good behaviour -at least outwardly. I was married to a British woman for a long time and have covorted with the Arabs throughout my long history as a Muslim. Through that experience, I have come to appreciate some of the wisdom in that approach. We shouldn’t go around speaking the Truth to people when it is hurtful and unlikely to change anything meaningful in the other.

On the other hand I have seen the hypocrisy and mischief that lies beneath the surface. Even some of the Sufis have fallen for this distortion of the Truth- making “adab” the center of the path. No,no and no! Truth-seeking is the centre of the path-not courteous behaviour! One of the worst cases of this phenomenon was a muqaddam of our sheikh who would go visit him him and say things like; “I am not even worthy of the dust at my teachers feet” and 5 mins. later I would find him doing exactly the opposite of what his sheikh told him. That is how bad it can get  when you are an adherent to “adabist” culture!

The irony to be noted here is  that the most “adabist” cultures( The British ,the Arabs and the Japanese) have been guilty of some of the most violence to others. A recent posting indicated that the British Empire killed more people than either Hitler or Stalin or Mao. I was surprised myself. Then again it lasted a lot longer than the others! The Arabs have been unfortunately involved in much of the terrorism of modern times and the Japanese were abysmally cruel during the Second World War. So if anyone thinks that politeness is the cure-all think again!

A British example. I had a long-time friend with whom we crossed paths on the Sufi way many times. One time I was in England where he lived .I had written to him a couple of times before coming so he could free up his schedule for a meeting. When he eventually found time in his all-too-busy schedule to meet with me ,at my mother-in-laws house in north London ,he stayed for all of 10 mins. My mother-in-law, surely one of the “adabists” extolled his politeness and courtesy. But I was furious  at his lack of consideration.. I came from 5,000 miles and all he could afford was 10 mins, And especially since we had so much in common, so much to learn actually from each other .But that is the culture of politeness! Rigid, ritualistic, unaware of appropriateness to context.

4) The psychoananlytic angle. The psychoanalysts and Gestalt psychologists were very aware of this issue! They know clearly about the tricks of the nafs ( ego).And one of the tricks is the “yes, but” responses. “Yes, I agree with you but…” The psychoanalysts refer to this as “On the Other Hand”  responses. So Fritz Perls, founder of Gestalt Therapy and one of the most astute clinicians used to say; “When there is ‘but’ in a response, it erases everything that comes before it.” The response sounds “respectful” ,but actually it is undermining the Truth in the original statement. The Freudians warned us that if we made an interpretation and the client responded with “On the Other Hand” this represented a form of resistance. They were actually trying to disempower the interpretation!

Conclusions: So how do we go forward? People who are aware of my thinking know that I am against “all or none” responses! We can’t throw “respect” overboard completely, nor can we deny truth in the name of not hurting peoples’ feelings. So we need to find a middle way! At  the same time we have to be conscious of priorities! The ultimate respect needs to be not for peoples sensitivities but rather respect for the Truth(which is another name for God. “Haqq” in Arabic. Anything less will lead us down the wrong path-to more misery and suffering. So learn the art of the gentle but firm pushback. That is what I am practicing and likewise teaching my students to do the same .God be with you! Sufi Ibrahim

Metaphysics, Politics, Sufism

The Nexus of Causation

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The Nexus of Causation

I first came upon this question in a second year University Philosophy course. David Hume one of the Triumvirate of Empiricist philosophers in the U.K. which included John Locke and George Berkeley began questioning “the necessary link” between cause and effect. This is not the place to go into the intricacy of his argument on this subject but his logic did seem compelling at the time(before I discovered how pathetic logic itself was lol). What he basically claimed was that the connections we observed between cause and effect were observed habitual connections ,what we might call “association” in modern terminology rather than necessary causation. Got me thinking…

Then there was the physics of Stephen Hawking about the Big Bang Theory. There was an original explosion of some gaseous material that caused the creation of the universe. I questioned that hypothesis well before becoming a believer. ”So who caused the Big Bang in the first place?!” I thought. The scientific answer is usually: ” That question is not in the domain of science”. Really?! So science is not concerned with the deeper causes, I see!

Now some ma y see this question of causation as pure speculation. But it is much more than that! Because the causal analysis will often determine our behaviour-our approach to the solution of the problem. Let’s take a medical example for now. Headaches-the second most common presenting symptom in medicine-after fatigue which presents an even more complex series of possible causation!  So for headaches, if the cause is one virus or another we treat it like the flu. If it is meningitis that is a whole other approach often involving hospitalization and I.V. antibiotics.A  migraine is something else again ( now we have the tryptans to deal with them). And of course a brain tumour is a whole other approach. So knowing the cause is vitally important-possibly a matter of life and death.

Now, this article was probably triggered by the war going on with Iran. For the “progressives” in the U.S., this is an unprovoked, unnecessary war. For the Muslims this is obviously due to the Zionists lobbying-of course. Isn’t everything lol?! For the Quebecois separatists all their problems are “la faute du federale” (i.e. the English) And for the Jews its all because of anti-Semitism. This is where our ethnic echo-chambers take over and the villain is always the same- depending on our allegiances. Very poor causal analysis, no doubt!

Now before we go any further, let us look at the various forms of causation.There is “the proximate cause” as in the fraudulent article about Covid in the Lancet that tried to call out the lab leak theorists as conspiracy theorists .The evidence is suggesting more and more that these conspiracists were right! Dr, Luc Montaignier, the famous French virologist who discovered HIV said it in  Jan.2020 right after the gene sequence of the Covid was released. But who needs to hear from geniuses when we can listen to the mediocrities of bureaucratized scientists. So scientists look for “proximate causes”.

In Islam, on the other hand, we are taught the difference between intermediary (read worldly) causes (“asbab”) and original causers (The Divine will). And that is probably the most relevant distinction for our purposes here.

Before we go further in this exposition, let me go to another form of causation-again a moral one. I have noticed over the years a certain group of people attached to corrupt spiritual teachers. I will not name them for now, but suffice it to say they can be from any tradition! I have seen this amongst Buddhists and Hindus and Sufi Muslims. These people are following a leader who is known to be corrupt and/or have bad character with people. Yet, these disciples refuse to acknowledge it. Even after the teacher dies, they maintain their heart connection. They tell me he is deceased but that makes no difference. Until they cut the attachment they can still suffer the consequences.

During the time I was treating Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, most of my patients were getting slowly better(a tough disease to doubt to treat, no doubt. One of them seemed to be completely stagnant in his clinical process. When I confronted him with the possible link,he completely denied it:” That was just crazy wisdom” he said. ”No, that was vice” I retorted. To no avail. And his sad, personal saga continued. May Allah protect us from these forms of ignorance!

Let us take some other examples

1-The Tsunami of 2004 in South-East Asia. It caused 227.000 deaths according to the most reliable of statistics! Now the scientists explained that this was due to the movement of tectonic plates in the area (the proximate cause!). A Muslim scholar, may his scholarly head hang in shame, proclaimed on public television that “this was a geological event, not a theological one’?! Where did he study his Islam?! Confronted with a great tragedy, he forgot all the Islamic teachings about God being in charge of the Universe! The tectonic plates trumped the Divine will! Estagfirullah.

Since a couple of decades now, I have made a practice of researching these tragedies to see if there are any other possible explanations. In the case of the tsunami, the two places it hit the worst were in Aceh province of Indonesia and the Tamil part of Sri Lanka. They both had one thing in common! A Civil War between two different ethnic populations was going on! Looks like Allah doesn’t like that! Tectonic plates are His intermediary causes.

2- The Pakistani Earthquake in Belokot 2005. 70,000 people killed and immense destruction1 Anything going on there?! Well research indicates that al Qaida was organizing in the area! You can draw your own conclusions.

A couple of clarifying Sufi quotes:

1-Ali Jemal of Fes “Everything to you is from you and everything from you comes back to you. This is the sunnat of Allah” The second part many people know as “the law of karma’ but the first part is even more subtle. It says that whatever is happening to you is already from you. It t comes from the Divine will. It could be a punishment( more common actually) or a test for you. In either case it is a teaching.

2-Sheikh Hashimi of Damascus “Fi kuli shay hayran”( in everything is goodness) Surprising for most analytic minds lol  There is always a positive side and that positive is not secondary. It is preponderant!

3- Mulay Ad-Darqawi author of the Darqawi Letters said that he never saw a problem that his murids brought to him without there being a defect in their nafs(ego) which accounted for it. H-m-m. Intriguing. So whenever we experience a problem we should look within rather than looking to blame others!

This applies as much to collectivities as to individuals. So when Iran gets attacked, it is easy to say it is the fault of the unbelievers- of America or Israel! Couldn’t possibly be those sweet, pious, loving leaders of Iran, right?! Instead, we need to be accountable-both as individuals and as nations. Otherwise, we are not truly God-fearing. Instead we are defensive, calculating and manipulating! And that is not healthy.

So what am I saying here “Bottom Line”?!

The real causation is not logical /scientific! The real causation is Moral.

That’s why I advise myself and others: ”Do the right thing and the right consequences will follow’!”” Do the calculated, self-interested thing and bad consequences will follow-no matter how precise the calculation”. If you don’t believe me, observe. In both your life and the life of your nation or religious group. May Allah be my witness! Sufi Ibrahim

 

Modern Living, Spiritual Practice, Sufism

The One Body metaphor

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The Metaphor of the Umat as one body!

Narrator: An-Nu’man bin Bashir (RA).

  • Sources: Found in Sahih al-Bukhari (6011) and Sahih Muslim (2586).
  • Arabic Text: مَثَلُ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ فِي تَوَادِّهِمْ وَتَرَاحُمِهِمْ وَتَعَاطُفِهِمْ مَثَلُ الْجَسَدِ إِذَا اشْتَكَى مِنْهُ عُضْوٌ تَدَاعَى لَهُ سَائِرُ الْجَسَدِ بِالسَّهَرِ وَالْحُمَّى
  • Translation: “The likeness of the believers in their mutual love, mercy, and compassion is that of a single body; when one limb suffers, the whole body responds to it with wakefulness and fever”.

 

Since the recent events in Gaza this metaphor has come up over and over again. When I would criticize the policies and actions of the Palestinian leadership, as often did my Sheikh-Sheikh Nazim-I would be reproached on numerous occasions: ”Don’t you have any empathy for their pain?” Of course I do- like any normal human being would have. But that was not satisfactory. I would have to display my loyalty by blaming Israel and America and never putting into question what the so-called Muslims in Palestine were doing!

My own Sheikh-Sheikh Nazim- would regularly criticize their behaviour. I recently saw a video of him being asked about it shortly before his death- in a weakened state” What they are doing I am not understanding” he would say. ”This is not the way of our Prophet saws nor is it Islamic war. I don’t know what to call it” Then he hesitated.. ”It must be …..corruption” he said. And he spoke the Truth.

Mohammed, our Prophet saws went, once he got to Madina, from victory to victory. And yet the Arabs in the Middle East have gone from defeat to defeat. Something must be wrong! But they are not reading the signs as we are instructed to do, over and over again in the Quran. The Muslims are acting from pride and vengeance not from wisdom-the true inheritance of the sunnat. Our Prophet saws never took on the Persian or Byzantine Empire in his time. He knew they were too strong. The Quran itself says explicitly not to take on enemies that were more than twice their size (8:66). So the Palestinians and Iranians take on Israel and the U.S.A -How much stronger are the latter-100 times or 1000 times. These wars are pure folly!

Now to expand the analogy from the hadith about feeling the injured limb. What do you do then?! Let’s, for arguments sake, say that you had a broken leg from a car accident. Now you have to use your intelligence to deal with it . Does it serve any purpose to blame the car, or the brake manufacturer or the other driver?! Useless . Get to an E.R. quickly and get the fracture set and a cast put over the injury. Instead, the Muslims are content to blame others and go even further. ”To avenge your broken leg, go kick the other driver’s car. That way you will get your vengeance” That is what is being recommended .Reinjure your leg in the name of Justice! What foolishness?!

2- Simultaneous in timing with the hadith about empathy are the exhortations in the Quran and hadith to unity. I see all kinds of well-meaning Muslims saying: ’We have to be united to gain strength.” United with whom and with what? In this body of the umat I see a cancer of Wahhabbism (see my previous article about Ihsan)  and an autoimmune disease(call it Systemic Lupus if you wish lol) -the Shiism of the Ayatollahs. Are you asking me to unite with my cancer and my autoimmune disease?! No way! I want to detoxify them quickly and extirpate them from my body. Asking me to love them because they claim they are Muslim is anathema to me. My loyalty is to Truth not to tribe.

Let me add in one final but crucial note. Muslims including our scholars have a lot of difficulty with contextualization. Because we believe the Quran is for all time and all places, we forget to take into account what was actually happening at the time of the Revelation(“asbab al nuzul” it is called in Arabic).So when the Quran appeals for Unity, the Muslim nation was weak ,vulnerable, under what we now call “an existential threat”. At this time however, Islam is very strong and robust-no matter how the Muslims feel about it. There is NO actual threat to our religion! The real threat is from within! We are 2 billion strong! So what is needed is not unity-but cleansing! What use is unifying with disease and corruption?!

May Allah make us people of awareness and practicality-not purveyors of tribalism and bigotry. That is NOT what our religion is about!

Salaams , Sufi Ibrahim

 

Psychology, Spiritual Practice, Sufism

The Four Klesas

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The Four Klesas and the Four Responses

The Buddhists have a lot of interesting classifications for states of mind. Most of them are completely consistent with Sufi Islamic principles and in some sense provide a unique and clear formulation that is “actionable” on the spiritual path. One of these formulations is  the 5 klesas.

The 5 klesas (obstacles to Enlightenment) are Attachment/desire, Aversion, laziness,agitation and doubt.For the sake of clarity I have reduced the list to four.I consider both laziness and agitation to be a derivatives of the others-laziness being a product of doubt and desire and agitation being a derivative of fear and anger.I  have also divided Aversion into its two distinct components of Anger and Fear.

So we are left with 4 klesas that we need to struggle against-Desire; Anger/upsetness; Fear/worry and Doubt. So here are the responses we can use as we come up against these four states on a daily basis. This is a formula for serious and effective spiritual struggle that can be done by anyone serious about their path.

1-Desire:

Response: This thought is a lie, a trick of my mind .Even if I managed to obtain the object I am wishing for,I would still not get the ultimate satisfaction it is promising!

2- Anger (upsetness):

This too is from God and has a purpose. How could this have been worse?Allah will bring this matter to its proper conclusion!

3-Fear/worry:

Allah is aware of everything that is happening including this. Do your “due diligence”, follow your inspirations in managing it and trust in God.Tawakultu aleyhi wa hua rabbal Arsh al Atheem.(Trust in god and He is the Best of Managers)

4-Doubt:

There is no Doubt. God Exists, He is aware of everything ,He is Just and He will bring it all to the right conclusion.

So try it out and see how much you can shift your consciousness with this simple formula!

Salaams, Sufi Ibrahim

 

 

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Psychology, Spiritual Practice, Sufism

The “work” trap

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Notes on the Spiritual Process

Asalamu aleykum,brothers and sisters. . It is so easy to slip in this way! Once we are solidly set in our goals, we may well be free from major sins like zina and alcohol and drug addiction. However the four klesas of desire, anger, fear and doubt are never far away and we have to be vigilant! That is arguably the biggest part of our work!

However, there is another danger that may be greater than either of the two aforementioned ones! And that is “ghafflat” ((negligence, unawareness) and ironically that “ghafflat” may be about what is perfectly halal or even obligatory! Like doing our work or our studies or taking care of our family . Good works, no?! Yes, but only within proper limits.

When I reflect on North American society ,and this is probably true in all “developed “ countries, there is only one virtue left! All the classic ones of piety and modesty and humility and obedience have been put aside. And all that is left is hard work. An excess of that is called “workaholism” in modern psychology. But it is much more common than many people think. For now, my definition is “any productive activity that sucks up all your energy(which may include getting to work and recuperating from work and preparing for work) and leaves your energy tank empty for your relationship with your Creator. More than 100 years ago the sociologist Max Weber wrote about this subject in a famous book called “The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism”. However this problem now applies to all religions- not just Protestantism. In fact, because of the hegemony of the Anglophone culture first via Great Britain and now via the U.S.A. we could say we are all Protestants lol

So what do I propose here? We must certainly be vigilant. But I will go further and suggest a potential structural solution to this-in two parts. The first being basic Islam and the second being Sufi practices.

1) We have the salat five times daily. However, I would like to reframe this practice -less about obligation and more about opportunity-the opportunity to take a break from work and refocus on our relationship with our Creator (the spiritual project!). Forget about everything else-your worries, your deadlines, your finances) and at five points during the day commune with your Creator. And watch the effects!

2) Dhikr (Sufi practice).Set aside two time periods  in  24 hours  to do your dhikr practices. One of them  should be tahhajjud time and the other a time of your choosing. Some of the Sufis have suggested the time between Asr and Maghrib but that might not work for your schedule. So it could be in the evening-if you have the energy(remember we need to be honest with ourselves as well!).Or after your siesta in the early afternoon. Whatever works for you. The time interval could be anything from one-half hour(least amount to get benefit) to one and a half-half  hours(a total of 3 hours as recommended by the Tijani people and Kundalini Yoga alike).See what you can manage .Build this two-faceted structure into your daily schedule and commit to it -as you commit to your work deadlinesJust don’t slip into ghafflat because your ‘hal’ will definitely suffer for it.

Salaams, keepimg you AND me on our toes lol. Sufi Ibrahim

Comparative Religion, Metaphysics, Spiritual Practice, Sufism

The Greeks, Oy!

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Someone else*(first ever!) has understood the limitations and potential harm of the adoption of Greek Philosophy by the Muslims! Mashallah. There is hope in the Universe lol!
Aanand Krishnan posts:
·
Vedānta, and the Advaita kind in particular, is a fountain of wisdom and looks at reality from within and offers an alternative to the Greek way of philosophy, which focuses on the study of the external universe primarily.
Islamic metaphysics developed under the light of Greek Philosophy primarily due to historical factors. If Islam had conquered the lands to the east before turning westward, things might have been different.
There is no particular reason why an Islamic metaphysics guided by Vedānta could not be developed more fully. And I think it could provide an even more comprehensive system of metaphysics that is consistent with the Qur’ān and the Sunnah of the holy prophet.
He is after all not just al-Zāhir but also al-Bātin. The Greek system enabled Muslims to develop a metaphysics of external manifestation but layers about what lies inside of us perhaps haven’t been fully developed.

P.S. The author goes on to say that the Vedanata makes a distinction between pramata(what I call Epistemology!) and prameya(logical proof).Finally someone else is getting it!

Metaphysics, Modern Living, Psychology, Sufism, Uncategorized

Lamentations of an Aspiring Spiritual Teacher

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Towards the end of his life, Freud made the following statement concerning his discovery of psychoanalysis; “I believe I have discovered the third type of human activity that is both necessary and doomed to failure.The other two being raising children and governing nations” Lol. Well I may have uncovered the fourth- Being a spiritual teacher!

Now, classically, the métier of spiritual teacher was considerably simpler.The teacher spoke and instructed and the murid(student) listened and obeyed.” Listen and obey” That is the instruction both in the Quran and in most Sufi tariqats.But somehow things have changed.That model seems to be outdated.It is still being attempted in many spiritual circles but I myself and many others in modern times have found it unworkable.For example,when we discover the teacher has made a mistake,sometimes a serious one,do we just keep quiet?! Or, even worse, do we deny that it occurred as many murids do? What do we do about it? Unfortunately denial is a very commonplace reaction.

I had a very good friend whose teacher was doing wrong things( many actually haram) on many levels.The evidence was growing by the year and the documentation became overwhelming.But he wouldn’t leave! It got so bad,I eventually had to terminate the friendship as the level of “falsehood” had become unsustainable.This is not uncommon btw!The loyalty to corrupt spiritual teachers is unbelievable at times.and the justifications are as clever as they are disingenuous.

I would like to backtrack a moment to my personal experience here.I say often and I believe it that I would have almost no understanding of life and spirituality if it were not for some extraordinary beings I have met along the route.These extraordinary beings include my first Sufi teacher-Pir Vilayat Khan-my first Tibetan Buddhist teacher,Geshe Lama Gajan, my fist Muslim teacher Sheikh Muhammad Jumal, Sheikh Bawa Muhayideen, Sheikh Nazim al Qubrusi,S heikh Nuh and my current teacher Sheikh Abu Qassim of Erdeyf,Tunisia and many others along the way.I learnt so much more from these people than from my miserable 12 years of University education lol! I would be nowhere without them.

And yet….they were all imperfect.And it usually didn’t take me long to detect their faults and their limitations.However,we were absolutely forbidden, by context,to raise these issues.”Our teachers are perfect.We need to idealize them and obey them” That was the Gestalt of it. No ‘ifs’,’ and’s and ‘buts’ lol.

Eventually,I had to break away from this Absolutist approach to spiritual development.It was not an easy decision.Most of my Sufi colleagues would consider my position as heretical.But my entire path seemed to be leading me in that direction-developing a more comprehensive,all-inclusive model.My heart led me there and my Istikharas confirmed it over and over again.Little did I expect what happened next?!

Once I took on this new role ,I was confronted quickly with a dilemma that I had not expected.The opposition forces grew and grew.Like our blessed Prophet saws I confronted the opposition-as he sal  confronted the ways of the Qurayshi ancestprs!I began to regret the loss of the “Listen and obey plus idealization” approach! So much easier.Excludes all opposition by diktat.But it was not to be.  These were new types of ancestors however- the ancestors of the modern world! And two of these “modern ancestral opponents” stood out from the crowd.One was “transference” (courtesy the psychoanalysts) and one was social-conditioning( social brain-washing if you wish). Let us explore these two in a little more detail.

1-Tranference: Transference was a deep secret in the human unconscious that Freud and his fellow analysts discovered by doing therapy with psychologically troubled people.What they found ,to their surprise initially, was that no matter how neutral and relatively silent they were,the patient eventually reproduced their parental relationships in the consulting room.Then it became the analysts job to “interpret the transference” and that would ultimately be the most important tool for healing.Until they came across the borderlines but that is another story Lol.

As a spiritual teacher,one comes across the very same phenomenon,in a different context.The teacher is trying to transmit knowledge and understanding and practices and even love only to come across reactiveness and obstinacy and stonewalling! “What is he is thinking?! I am trying my best to transmit goodness and life  and I am getting “flack” instead?!” What is happening?” he asks And the answer is usually transference!

The transference can take several forms.If we are talking about a male teacher it will often involve a father transference.”My father is critical,so you are critical.My father is explosive so you are explosive.My father puts me down so you,the spiritual teachers are putting me down” The themes are endless.Occasionally a gender shift may be operative.For example if the mother was domineering and harsh or the micro-managing type, the transference can be a maternal one.

The other possibility, in the domain of the unconscious, comes from the school of “object relations” in psychoanalysis.They clearly identified the process of identification or parental internalization(the inner parental imago). So, in that case, the murid,instead of reacting to the parent becomes the parent.This often happens in marriage,unfortunately.But it can also happen within a teacher/student relationship!

In a classical Sheikh/Murid relationship this phenomenon is either hidden or short-circuited but in the newer model I am presenting it needs to be addressed.This makes the work a lot more difficult but on the other hand more complete and more satisfying.In other words, with this approach we are doing psychotherapy at the same time as spiritual work.Very satisfying for someone who has been advocating the bio-psycho-socio-spiritual approach(i.e a complete approach to human development) for decades!

2_ Social Conditioning: I realized quite quickly that there was another adversary in this process that was at least as formidable ,if not more so,than the transference.And that is social conditioning- the way we have been trained by our parents ,the society around us, and most notably our schools, to think.And that thinking involves at least three elements- Rationnality/Logic; Democratic values(what I call the Democratic Illusions); and Secularism. I am convinced there is much more to this story but let us start with those three;

a) Rationnality/Logic: From an early age, and certainly as soon as we start our formal education, we are trained to be Reasonable and Logical. I only really became aware of this bias when I did an EST training in San Francisco in the 70’s and the trainer at the front began unpacking “the stages of spiritual development“Reasonableness is the lowest level of spiritual development” he stated  i.e. just one notch above animality lol.And yet all around us we can see this emphasis-not only in our schools but in our businesses which are constantly calculating their self-interest and in our governments that are always looking at “the data”. You see gathering of the data and then analyzing it or “crunching it” as they say is one of the most basic aspects of our social processes and our decision -making .

So the Greek Philosophers and particularly Aristotle have found their way into our thinking-actually into our unconscious! And this internalization raises its hoary head as soon as you begin trying to teach people.One of the first manifestations of this is “the contradiction detectors”.They are on all the time in hyperactive,hypersensitive mode!Remember Aristotle taught us that A could not be not-A. Unfortunately it often is lol. “But teacher, you said this yesterday and now you are saying that.How could that be?! It’s a contradiction!” Yes,we are all playing  “gotcha”CNN games with each other and with our teachers.

For the Muslims amongst you and even the sincere Christians ,try to find those kind of interactions amongst the disciples of Mohammad saws or Jesus a.s. or Moses.I have been unable.Take note that we are not talking abort Muslim scholars or Talmudic traditions or Christian theologians.They are all infected with the Aristotelian virus and its variants lol.We are talking about original sources.I have not been able ,in our Islamic tradition, to find one interaction and there were many ,many of those reported,of one of the Sahhabbis saying to the Prophet saws”You said this,but the Quran said that.How could that be.?” Thank God,they had no contradiction detectors as far as I can see.That would come much later! (PS some obsessive scholarly type is sure to contradict me here lol)

2- Democratic Illusions: Make no mistake about it .Our schools are centers of indoctrination! And one of the forms of indoctrination is transmitting “Democratic values“..Some of these include ” We are all created equal”; the best way to arrive at Truth or make dicisions is through discussions”.”All opinions are equally valid”: Each of these is demonstrably false.But that in no way prevents the promoters of democracy from believing them.After all it’s an article of faith,no.

So,for example,all men are created equal” Really?! Have you not noticed?! Want to come to the Children’s section of  the Douglas hospital where I worked and taught  for several years and see the multiply -handicapped(May Allah have Mercy upon them) from birth?Have you not noticed that some people are tall and others short,some are strong and others weak,some are smart and others stupid.How can you possibly believe in this equality.And the same holds for opinions,Many are outrightly wrong and some are really primitive and foolish! So give me a break. And btw an old aphorism of mine “any system or person that denies reality is unlikely to succeed”! Any wonder that we are in such a state in the world?!

And how does this play out in a context of spiritual teaching?! Well,the Westerner believes firmly that his ideas are as good as anyone else s-including,of course the teachers. If they happen to be talented at robotic schoolwork and thus get excellent grades at school,they are even more arrogant.I had  a 19-year old niece who had just taken her first Comparative Religion 101 course vociferously arguing with me about Buddhism! The “chutzpah ” of it is astounding.But, democratically, her opinion is as valid as someone on the path of seeking truth for the last 50 years?! Her democratic right,no?!

c) Secularism; This is another huge subject, all around us, that merits more attention at another time..Fortunately most of the students that enter a spiritual path have graduated from that low level of understanding.But vestiges do remain! And those vestiges often take the form of “doubting”. It is a short step from doubting the existence of God to doubting that the teacher in front of you basically knows what he is talking about-even if he errs on the details at times. PS Obsessionalism, which is another derivative  of doubt is one more obstacle.”How could my teacher be authentic if his Arabic pronunciation is not perfect?” could be an example in the Islamic context.Or ” his pants go beyond his ankles” or “her hair is appearing beneath her hijab” .Yes,I have heard it all, lol

Given all these obstacles,this is ceratinly not a path for the frail-hearted or the weak and weary.This is a path for the “rijal”(the men and women of courage and integrity). Join us if you have the desire and the sincerity to do so.We will welcome you with open arms and  stern admonishments lol

 

 

Metaphysics, Spiritual Practice, Sufism

The Efficient Cause

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The Efficient Cause!

N.B. This reflection was triggered by three separate ‘khalewah” experiences-one three day retreat in the countryside of the Gatineau region at a Wellness centre, one three-day retreat and one six-day end of Ramadan retreat at my apartment with Hadi. All three had a notable effect on the participants “hal” (inner state).The project manager/  MBA types  would call that “proof of concept” lol

Aristotle is one of those personalities I love to hate lol. I consider his contributions to modern “civilisation’ (specifically at the level of syllogisms and logical analysis) to be amongst the most corrupting and disruptive influences around! Surpassing that of many other “geniuses” like Marx, Freud and Darwin! Nevertheless, he, like those just mentioned, also has articulated valuable concepts that can help us make sense of the world around us.

In the case of Aristotle, I am referring here to his classification of the Four types of Causes: 1) Material causes(the body);Formal causes(paradigms or blueprints like the species homo sapiens);Final causes(which are really purposes) .In this light, Islam would say that the purpose of man is worshipping and serving his Lord and finally “Efficient Causes” those that lead regularly to specific consequences. It is the efficient causes that we are addressing in this article.

I realized, in my recent reflections, that I have spent the last 45 years searching for the “efficient cause” of spiritual development. In this search I have tried everything I could find! From meditation, a very popular contemporary answer to this quest, seminars and conferences of all sorts, to sitting with the guru/sheikh to individual retreats of varying lengths. All of them have had some effects-some more spectacular than others- some leading to various “hals ‘(spiritual states) but none of them reliably and stably leading to the desired effect-a long-term persistent internal state of connectedness with the Divine!

So… in the spirit of scientific enquiry, not the science of peer-reviewed journals and obsessive statistical analysis but the science of observation and experimentation of Francis Bacon, I stumbled across another methodology! I call this approach the Modified Collective Khalewah! (MCKh if you need an acronym to remember it) That might sound like a mouthful but let me go over it word by word- in reverse order..

Khalewah is an Arabic word meaning retreat or isolation. Classically, the Sufis retreated into the mountains or the caves or in their individual retreat cells in the zawwiya and did their dhikr(meditation) practices for various lengths of time. In the case of Grandsheikh Abdullah Daghestani(the sheikh of Sheikh Nazin) he spent seven years in the mountains of Daghestan doing “laillaha illala’ 99.000 times per day ,fasting, doing “ghusl”-the major ablutions- with melted ice from the mountains! And breaking his fast with seven olives and a cup of tea and restarting the process the next day! Sheikh Abu-Hassan Ash-Shadhili did something similar in the hills around Tunis. And Abdul-Qader Jilani is reported to have done a total of 25 years of khalewah before he finally settled down into his role of teacher and father of a family of 49 children! Personally, I don’t think we are up to those standards nowadays lol!

I have tried these kind of individual retreats but nowhere close to those extremes. The longest retreat I have done is 40 days. But inevitably they all ended up at the same place-tired , burnt-out and discouraged. Didn’t work for me and I imagine the same is true for many other people if they reflect on their own experience

Collective:  I have struggled with the Islamic injunction about the jamaat (collectivity) for years. As many other people have said to me as well: ”I am not really a groupie”. I get it. On top of it, we were raised in the West in a very individualistic mindset and although that can be problematic in some ways, it is salutary in others. When I travel to other countries and see the uniformity of the mindset of “traditional ‘ cultures ,it often shocks and dismays me. These countries mostly have the same thinking and the same opinions-about almost everything . I like to say: ”The Quraysh (the original opponents of our Prophet saws) are alive and well in the midst of the Islamic community! i.e. objecting to anything new!

But that is not the whole story about community.! There is an energy in the “jamaat” that you cannot find on your own! Through the support, encouragement and supervision of the group, we can find the motivation to keep going-something difficult to do by ourselves. So, when Islam and its Prophet saws encourage people to pray together, it is not just about group cohesion and community-building as I had previously thought. It is also about the group energy and transmission. That force needs to be harnessed for maximum “efficiency” of cause.

Modified: Why modified? Because we need to go on living our lives and interacting with the community around us! That is what the Prophet saws did. And that is what some of the cultish groups like Jim Jones in Guyana and Rajnessh in Oregon did not do! We must interact with the individual neighbours and the surrounding community- but with the spirit of “khalewah’(isolation in the crowd) and taqwa(God-consciousnes) animating our every effort. If we do that right, we should feel the effect inwardly and that is our most cherished goal-to improve our inward state!That is what we are aiming at ultimately.

Actionable Intelligence:(more American wisdom lol) At this point the specter of Empiricism raises its hoary head lol and asks:”So what do we do now?” Not wanting to disappoint the activists who need to concretize things quickly, here is the plan… We start with short sessions of modified khalewah- in peoples’ homes, in retreat centres that are willing to accommodate us-for short periods of time-from 2-10 days- and we observe the effects. Eventually, my hope is that we can form a community of like-minded people so that we can live this approach on a 24/7 basis .It is the closest thing I can imagine to the community around our Prophet saws in Medina!

Important Caveats:

1.Obviously a lot of glitches and problems will come up in the process of realizing this project. We must be prepared for that and not get too easily discouraged. If you need a model for how that occurs ,study the events that occurred in the life of our Prophet saws when he moved to Madina. Life is never easy or without its challenges. Courage and wisdom and even diplomacy will no doubt be necessary!

2.Attitude : The fundamental attitude needs to be “taqwa” God-consciousness, surrender to the Divine Will. Nothing else will work. Many communal projects have failed because they were based on individual or group ambitions(“good ideas but not perfect ones as Sheilh Nazim said about the project of Dar al Islam in New Mexico that eventually failed.)Other reasons for failure are addressed in the next section-on leadership.

  1. Leadership! This is the most difficult of all -as competent, skilled leadership is one of the rarest commodities on the planet! Many spiritual communities fail because the leader is corrupt in one way or another-the three most popular forms of corruption are around money, sexuality and power! But there are other forms of corruption around various forms of psychopathology-like obsessionalism(micromanaging and overcontrolling peoples lives);Aspergers(the leader being out of touch with the lived reality around him) and even ethnocentricity-the community only works for a particular nationality with a particular mind-set..

So.. there are many ways this can go wrong and only a very few options that can work .I am betting on that rarety in this project!

Ahlan. please feel free to comment and contribute to this process.

Salaams, Sufi Ibrahim

Addendum.I had a dream in which I saw a world-class clinic that was installing artificial limbs.But these limbs were not the usual ones of plastic and steel .Instead they were made of comfortable materials like organic cotton and flannel!

What I understood, from this dream, was that the limbs referred to the Modified Collective Khalewah I have been talking about.I have done many khalewahs in the past but there was always some obstacle that prevented me from arriving at the goal.

I realized that the major obstacle was that the process was too uncomfortable!For example,in the khalewah I did in Jordan the sheikh locked the door to the cell so that I not be disturbed. I told him I was afraid I couldn’t escape if there was a fire.But he made light of it saying that the materials of the building were not flammable! So much for empathy lol Needless to say,the result was less than satisfactory!

In other khalewahs, as well, the rules were so strict that the nafs revolted.Even the ones I designed myself contained rules that were too harsh -like doing dhikr at every moment that I was awake! May have worked for Grandsheikh but not for me or I assume most of us “normal folk”!

So,we need to design a ‘comfortable ” khalewah-not a slacker one but not an overly super-egoic one either.It should,despite the necessary effort of course,be enjoyable.Then people will want to do more! Rest assured that we are working on it. And long live psychology lol! Salaams,Ibrahim

Metaphysics, Modern Living, Politics, Sufism

Europeanism-The Great Scourge

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Disclaimer: This article will fly in the face of everything you have been taught to think AND all your subliminal conditionning!You may already be reacting-just by the title! But hold on. It could also change your life in a positive way!It has done so for me- for the last 30 years!

Samuel Huntington(“The Clash of Civilizations”) was right! There is a clash of civilizations.But it is not the one he was pointing out-between Islam and the West.It is actually the clash between the secular point of view and that of the believers-regardless of which religion one adheres to.It is a clash between logic and faith.A clash between the mind and the heart.And ultimately the clash between good and evil- even if that evil hides itself behind a veil of “reasonableness” and “political correctness” lol

This “Clash’ was brought to my attention in stark relief by the profound teachings of my most long-standing spiritual teacher-Sheikh Nazim of the Naqshbandi Sufi Order.For the first time in my life ,I was confronted with someone with an alternative view of history-alternative to what we had all been taught in public school.According to Sheikh Nazim, the French revolution(Égalité, Liberté and Fraternité) was NOT the beginning of a great chapter in human freedom but rather the beginning of the end! The beginning of the descent into decadence and corruption and capriciousness which emerged from the denial of all forms of conventional authority-both religious and monarchic.According to him,we were now on a slippery slope to the Apocalypse of the end of times.Everything I have observed since then,has been a confirmation of that vision-even if it is taking some time to unfold!

Now all of this was the opposite of what I was taught to think !Our particular form of social conditioning(brain-washing if you wish) began in grade 6 of elementary school.We were taught that the Golden Ages of Athens and Rome were what we needed to emulate.The Europeans of the 17th and18th century heralded the Age of Rationalism or the Age of Enlightenment as a return to the Golden Ages of Classical Cultures! After sitting with Sheikh Nazim on multiple occasions, ironically mostly in London-one of the giant centers of Europeanization, I began to rethink my positions.

Greece and Rome,really?! Greece which was a pseudo-democracy where only its own citizens had power and where having relations with young boys was considered more honorable than relations with adult women?! Where a slew of dubious philosophical schools like hedonism and cynicism and stoicism(probably the best of the lot) fluorished .Greece where Socrates was poisoned to death for speaking the Truth.And Rome?! One of the cruellest civilizations known to man- where criminals- were crucified and Christians were fed to the lions! Yes,they developed roads(so the engineers can feel uplifted lol).And set up a Code of Law so our legal scholars can feel vindicated.For the Christians amongst you, reread the New Testament if you need any proof of the inhumanity of the Romans!

Now ,we can fast forward to the 20th century.The most deadly and devastating wars of all times!According to the historians, 100 million people killed! And endless destruction and misery.Almost all initiated by Europeans(yes,the Japanese climbed on board but they are well-known imitators lol,)No other civilization-neither the Chinese nor the Persians nor even the Mongols ever created so much death and havoc for humanity! And this is what we are supposed to honour.In the words of the current leading destructive empire,America lol,”Give me a Break”!

Another thing working in favour of the European delusion is “branding”. There is a whole series of catchwords that hide its nefarious influences- in all areas of life. Amongst them we have “Democracy”, “Rationnality”,  “Due Process of the Law”, “Science”(yes even the hallowed science is a misnomer), “Freedom”,Evidence-Based”, “Progressive”-the list goes on and on.Behind each of these ideological slogans is a harsh and contradictory reality.The “democracy” is another pseudo-democracy like that of Athens,where the political agendas are manipulated an  perverted by monied interests.”Rationality” which should have been  discredited a long time ago by even a superficial reading of Freud and the psychoanalysts and which we can now see unveiled by the pro-Trump Republicans just to mention one clear-cut example.The examples are legion! “Due Process of the Law’ is systematically undone by an onerous bureaucracy in the courts of law,by obscene fees for legal services and by clever lawyers who are able to turn black into pale grey and turn white into dirty beige.Go figure!”Science” Another huge distortion.The original science of Francis Bacon et al. involved careful observation and controlled experimentation.Current “science” is about obsessive statistical analysis and ,research funded by biased corporations and government bodies with vested interests in the economy and often carried out by ambitious academics looking to increase their publication profiles!”Progressive has come to mean what is politically correct in liberal,left-wing circles.And “freedom” is the freedom to buy what you want -if you have the money. “Freedom” of speech” itself has been eroded by cancel culture.And “freedom” of action is limited by what the economy will allow you to do- unless you are hyper-courageous which is not the case for most people! So all of these slogans, when analyzed and investigated, turn out to be bogus!

It should be noted here,that those people who should naturally be on the side of the believers as opposed to the secularists are not necessarily so.That is because the school of Rationnalism has penetrated into the very fabric of all the major Western religions! We’ll set aside the religions of India(Buddhism and Hinduism ) for now.For example the traces of Greek philosophy can be clearly seen in the work of the Talmudic scholars of Judaism.In fact “traces’ is a serious understatement.The Talmudic approach to scholarship is more Greek than Judaic.If you need any proof compare the thinking of Moses and Aaron to that of Rashi and Hillel to name a couple. Christian theology,itself, is largely Greek thinking applied to the Judaic tradition that Jesus was trying to promote and elevate.And Islam itself began this process of degradation when the Greek texts were translated into Arabic during the Andalusian period.Islam has never been the same since.Again you can compare the Quran and hadith to the writings of scholars like Ibn Taymiyyah and al-Ghazzali to see the difference.Muslims believe that the only sect guilty of this deviation were the Mutazilis(The Rationnalists) but that just indicates the extent to which this was a covert if not unconscious operation.

So…once we see this- and “seeing” is key,what can we do?! The Hindu/Buddhist answer here would be “meditation” or “mindfulnesss practice’. That is not a bad place to start! Especially if you don’t get lost in their philosophical and theological distortions -like Advaita Vedanta or the non-existence” of the self” in Buddhism or the Dalai Lama’s proclamations of “We don’t need a personal God”. Yes,we do! However meditation can give us some distance from our thoughts so we can see them for what they are and not reify or deify them.

Another form of practice that can be very helpful is “tazkiya”– the purification of the heart.Once we can see and hear and feel again,we are much less subject to the vagaries of the mind.This is hard  work however-involving a lot of “jihad-a-nafs” struggling with the ego.

Then again we can do any of the endless “mindless” activities like going into nature,planting a garden,praying,”falling in love”,having children,taking care of old people.Anything to avoid the plague of overthinking.

While I was conceiving of this article,I watched a recent n.d.e of an American lady who met her Guide on the other side She asked about the Covid epidemic and the Guide said the following”Don’t worry so much about the details of what is occuring.The real cause of this pandemic is the hardening of human hearts“! Ajib! Exactly what I was intuiting.The outer is a reflection of the inner! The Sufis tell us this It is the opposite of the current European Empiricism-that the outer is determinant.And the Virgin Mary in her apparition at Medugorge said more or less the same”If mankind continues on its way of materialism and nationalism,there will be more and more natural disasters”,she said.Not because of tectonic plates or global warming or El Nino wind patterns. .Because of mankind’s internal states.

So…. Time for a turn-around.It can only be helpful-if not in this world then the next! Will you join me?!

 

 

 

 

Islam, Metaphysics, Spiritual Practice, Sufism

Ramadan-A Newer and Deeper Perspective

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I have been struggling to get my head around our Ramadan practice for as long as I can remember.Yes,I know the Quranic injunctions and I am aware of most of the hadith and the scholarly analysis around this month. But I have never felt quite satisfied.For most people, it is simple,I understand.Allah says to fast,it is a religious injunction and we follow and thus get the rewards.And the reward is with Allah.I get it!

But there must be more! Allah does not prescribe things without reason and purpose.So what is the deeper reason and mystery here?!

And this morning while on my dhikr walk that is part of my daily routine,it came to me ! The “aha” experience.In essence Ramadan is a khalewah-a retreat- a time to go within ,to disengage from our social activities and to connect with our soul and with its Divine source!

Remember the first Ramadan!? It was our Prophet saws doing a retreat in the cave of hira in the mountains around Mecca.That is when the Quran came down and that was the start of our religion.So that is the quintessential Ramadan-the essence of Ramadan. After that the Prophet saws had a mission! He had to teach and build a community! So he could no longer do a monthly retreat like he had done in the past..But that doesn’t change the spirit of the practice-to renounce worldliness,to go within and contact the sacred.

Now,for most of us, we have obligations-whether work or family or study.We can’t stop doing those.But we can reduce the workload,we can certainly reduce socializing and we can change our focus.Some of us, like us retired folks, can even spend most of the time alone lol.And that is the spirit of the month-“azhod”-giving up.

I can already hear the naysayers lol.”What about Tarawih prayer? What about joining family members for iftar?What about doing good deeds-like feeding people during Ramadan?Yes,all of that is true.But the spirit is still that of khalewah.If you are able to go to tarawih and feel it incumbent on you ,then do so.But I would suggest using the Naqshbandi adage”alone with your Lord in the crowd”.Turn your focus away from the people and towards your Creator and the ruh that he has breathed into you.

Sometimes,in understanding matters,we need a “foil” i.e. the opposite of the truth that reflects back to us what we shouldn’t be doing! For me,all due respect to its depth of history and pious people,in this matter the foil was Cairo during Ramadan.All day the city was dead and after the call to prayer of Maghrib it converted into a Mardi-Gras like atmosphere! It is surely not the only Muslim community to do so! For me that is not the right attitude just like the Bacchanalian Mardi Gras of Rio de Jameiro is not fitting for the Christian tradition.So take this month to be quiet and contemplative and tune in with your Lord,as much as possible .You will not regret it.

This understanding has brought a certain comfort to my heart.I hope it does so for you as well.Salaams and Ramadan Kareem and Saleem, Sufi Ibrahim