Quote of the Month
"The failure of religious people to be compassionate doesn't tell us something about religion, but about human nature. Religion is a method: you have to put it into practice to discover its truth. But, unfortunately, not many people do."

- by Karen Armstrong, from an interview in Islamica Magazine, (now on haitus), Issue 20, 2007, titled "Divisions in Our World are Not the Result of Religion" (article link to new location on-line due to Islamica Magazine's site being down.

I recommend this interview as she responds intelligently to comments about Islam, such as Islam being a violent religion, "imposed by the sword", and about fundamentalism representing a "revolt against secular modern society, which separates religion and politics."

What is Sufism?
"Sufism is a knowledge through which one knows the states of the human soul, praiseworthy or blameworthy, how to purify it from the blameworthy and ennoble it by acquiring the praiseworthy, and to journey and proceed to Allah Most High, fleeing unto Him. Its fruits are the heart's development, knowledge of God through direct experience and ecstasy, salvation in the next world, triumph through gaining Allah's pleasure, the attainment of eternal happiness, and illuminating and purifying the heart so that noble matters disclose themselves, extraordinary states are revealed, and one perceives what the insight of others is blind to."
- quoted from the Reliance of the Traveller. The Classic Manual of Islamic Sacred Law. by Umdat Al-Salik.

About my guide Sidi Muhammad al-Jamal
Sidi Shaykh Muhammad Sa‘id al-Jamal ar-Rifa‘i ash-Shadhuli, the Guide of the peace, the mercy, and the love to the way of Allah through the Sufi path a guide of the Shadhdhuliyyah Tariqah, founded by as-Shaykh Ali Abu-l-Hasan as-Shadhili in Egypt in the thirteenth century. The Shaykh is a descendent of the Prophet Muhammad, may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him, through his ancestor, Shaykh Ahmad ar-Rifa'i. He was born in Tulkum in the Holy Land in 1935. He is the spiritual inheritor ... continue ...

Teaching by Sidi on "Who is the Guide"
The guide, who shows you the way, is your brother. You cannot see the way if you do not know what you feel or what you are when you follow. You are the way of the truth. To walk in the way if very difficult because you meet with darkness and many troubles. You need to have the guide to help you and to take your hand. If you do not follow the guide who know the way well, you will not know. How can you reach God if you do not follow the person who has reached God? continue ...

Yunus on Sufism
Sufism on the most basic level is about avoiding the prohibitions of God, and obeying the commands of your Lord. On the inside, it is about abandoning the lowly character traits and adopting the way of your Lord. Deeper still is passing away completely from your witnessing of worldly affairs and witnessing only your Lord in everything - so that your ears, eyes, and hands act in complete compliance with the will of your Lord. continue ...