Yusuf's Blog

When speaking of faith, it is important to distinguish between matters that exist on the periphery and those that strike at ultimate purpose of the path. The Arabic word iman is usually translated as ‘faith’, but contains the idea of ‘security’, indicating that iman is the prism through which humans must interpret the universe in order to attain inner security, and by extension, tranquility. The goal of the path, as the Holy Prophet indicated, is to see Truth as Truth, and act accordingly. This means that the path is the journey towards bearing witness to the Majesty of the Divinely-Designed Tapestry that is our existence. This is achieved by surrendering to His Will, safe in the knowledge that if interpreted accurately, every incident, every moment, and every experience contains the capacity to facilitate recognition of Reality. The recognition of this Truth led Ibn Al Qayyim (Allah be well pleased with him) to say: Had Allah lifted the veil for his slave, and shown him how He han...

Can we ever truly understand the suffering of others? And how should we respond when people question the mercy of Allah by asking us what we would do in situations of extreme hardship? Before all else, our path is a path of mercy, empathy, and compassion. The teachings of the path are deeply transformative and resonate with the primordial nature of humankind, but are not to be wielded as a weapon, bludgeoning the unprepared into isolation or despair. Even if you have been blessed to transcend the pain caused by inaccurate perception, your awakening is incomplete if one forgets the agony that a lack of clarity can inflict upon the soul. However enlightened we believe we are, we are but a well-directed punch away from being knocked out, a reality that we must always be conscious of and grateful for. Theoretical circumstances are not the concern of the wayfarer. The path is deeply pragmatic, and rooted firmly in Reality. Hence, questions that begin with ‘what if…’ are rarely of a...

A man addressed the Holy Prophet ﷺ: “O Messenger of Allah, I intend to set out on a journey, so counsel me.” He ﷺ said, “Be conscious of Allah, and when ascending towards the raised ground, you should recite: “Allahu Akbar (Allah is Greatest). When descending towards the lower ground, you should recite SubhanAllah (Glory be to Allah).” When the man turned away, he ﷺ said, “O Allah! Shorten the distance for him and make his journey easy.” Ascent and descent (as commonly understood) are part and parcel of the human experience. Imam Ali is reported to have said: “One day is for you, one day is against you.” When one reaches a high point in one’s life, when the universe has conformed to one’s desires, the Holy Prophet ﷺ gave instructions to proclaim ‘Allah is Greatest’. Success is by means of His Mercy. Victory is a gift presented to us despite of our inherent human flaws, not as a product of our own intellectual capacity. When an Ottoman Sultan would enter the ceremonial chambers for ...

In contrast to the long summer days that have defined Ramadan in the West for the last few years, my first experience of the blessed month was ( mercifully ) during the British winter, with the sunset prayer no later than 16:30. As a second year university student, I was still familiarising myself with both Islam and living away from my parents, and so my Ramadan diet combined biriyani iftars in the local mosque with occasional late night trips to the nearest fried chicken shop to curtail midnight hunger pains. A Muslim friend, Barbar, would knock on my dormitory door thirty minutes before the dawn prayer, and insist I share the food he had readied ( usually a reheated Pakistani dish prepared by his mother, accompanied by a few slices of bread ) . Another friend, Ali, perhaps inspired by my conversion, utilised the learning process I was undertaking as a chance to gain more knowledge about his faith, and would frequently come to pick me up from my dormitory in ord...

A question was put to Sheikh Abul Hassan Ali Al Kharqani (qs): “How is that possible that, although Abu Jahl saw the Holy Prophet ﷺ in all his glory, he was still unable to reach a happy ending, and ended up in misery?” The Sheikh answered, “Abu Jahl didn’t see the Holy Prophet ﷺ, but rather saw Muhammad bin `Abdullah. If he had seen the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, he would have been taken out of misery into happiness. As Allah Almighty has said, “You see them looking at you, but without clear vision” (7:198).” Rooted in an ideological obsession with egalitarianism, modernity is inherently graceless and ill-mannered. The Muslim world, in which social interactions were traditionally ordered according to etiquette and chivalry, has also been infected by this sense of irreverence, indicated by religious scholars claiming that the Holy Prophet ﷺ himself was ‘just a man like us’, and ridiculing the generations old gestures of respect afforded to parents, rulers, and most importantly, the ...

The Holy Prophet ﷺ informed us that marriage is half of faith. Discipline, longevity, sacrifice, and loyalty are no longer deemed virtuous in an age that values choice, freedom, self-fulfilment, and indulgence above all else. The Islamic tradition considers marriage to be neither a ‘social construct’ nor an antiquated sacrament, but rather it is a Divine Order, a primordial composition that forms the bedrock upon which societies and civilisations are built. In addition to the peripheral benefit of acting as an obstacle to that which the Almighty despises (fornication and indecent behaviour), marriage is a profound vehicle on the path towards perceiving the universe as it truly is, which is the ultimate objective of Islam. Phases of one’s marriage may be deeply romantic, consoling, and satisfying. Other periods may be the equivalent of attempting to ascend a mountain on a skateboard. It is the toil, the disagreements, the amendments that must be made in order to continue cohabitation ...

I am scheduled to have surgery next week. I am approaching 34 years old. Despite the relative simplicity of the surgical procedure, I am experiencing for the first time in my life the realities of mortality. Perhaps a psychological product of the imminent operation, my body feels older, my limbs ache, and I feel tired. I did not used to feel like this. In my mid-twenties, a lack of sleep hardly impacted upon me and my energy could not be depleted. My family and I recently took an unscheduled trip to Bursa on the bus, going without a solid night’s sleep for more than 30 hours. It took me a number of days to fully recover. Compounded by the tragic diagnosis of Usama Canon with a terminal illness, and despite its shadow being perpetually cast over all human existence, death suddenly seems more real. This is neither a morbid lament nor a cry for help, but rather a healthy acknowledgement that the human who does not take death as his advisor is privy to heedlessness, and likely to underva...

Your life is tailor-made by the All Merciful Creator entirely in your interests. Everything that has happened in your life, both the beautiful moments and the bitter, have been created to reveal to you something about yourself or your relationship with The One. Nothing has ever gone wrong. Every moment contains a secret, an embedded message from Him, which, if heeded, moves one forward towards awakening. Awakening should not be considered a distant state attained only by the celebrity saints of the past. Rather, it is your primordial condition, your starting point. You were born a saint. You were born with clear vision. You saw Him in all things. You knew He was your ally, and that there was nothing to be fearful of. Existence was amazing. You were bedazzled by the rain, a toy train, the tablecloth. The universe is His Creation, and He is The Gently Loving and Kind. Hence, what can this world possibly do to you that is beyond His Mercy? “But what about the pain?” you ask. “It hurts...

Across the Ottoman influenced world, and most evidently in Turkey, the congregational prayer performed in the mosque has a distinctly ceremonial air. Prior to the prayer, the sanctity of the forthcoming event is indicated by the recitation of the Holy Qur’an, performed with majestic mellifluousness. After the prayer, the congregation is led in remembrance by the muezzin , followed by a communal supplication, further Qur’anic recitation, and the opportunity for those who have prayed to greet the imam and each other. The honour in which the prayer is held instills a sense of awe in the worshipper, and, as a spectacle, imparts a sense of the sacred that penetrates the rest of her day. Part of the ritual that follows the prayer is the celebrated tasbih Fatimi, which consists of the recitation of subhanAllah (glory be to God) 33 times, Alhamdulilah (all praise is due to God) 33 times, and Allahu Akbar (God is greatest) 34 times, followed by La ila ha il Allah, wahdahu la shareekala, lah...

For the last ten minutes of my daughter’s gymnastics class yesterday, the teacher quite unexpectedly changed the pace and character of the lesson. Having selected a hideous Euro House/Bashment tune which was made all the worse by the aggressive, deeply cerebral lyricist shouting ‘go, go, go!’ over the top, the teacher played the song through speakers located around the studio at a rather uncomfortable volume. The teacher then proceeded to dance in a manner that required me to lower my gaze, with posteriors and chests flying all over the place. The response of the children was fascinating. Three of the youngest in the class (5 years old) immediately walked out of the studio, preferring the comfort and familiarity of their mothers’ knees to the deep bass lines vibrating around the classroom. One slightly older boy stopped still and focused his eyes on the ground. Despite the cajoling of the teacher and her assistants, he refused to move and would not dance. The three older girls (my dau...

“Is not the dunya cursed, and everything in it? It is so, except for the remembrance of God and what facilitates it.” The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ In its entirety, the Universe is the creation of the Almighty. Nothing is arbitrary or random. By His Mercy, He has tailor-made every moment of our lives as a means of awakening the recognition of Reality within us. The human who witnesses the Majesty present in every experience stands in awe at the astounding beauty that defines existence. The human who is initially unable and later unwilling to bear witness to the perfection of His Creation lives a life of challenge, angst, and turmoil, believing that the universe is his enemy, which reduces his existence to an an ultimately unsuccessful battle for survival. The Almighty has said in the Holy Qur’an: We shall show them Our signs upon the horizons and within themselves till it becomes clear to them that it is the truth. (41:53). Our spiritual evolution is facilitated by our adventures...

The litany of Sheikh Ebrahim consists of a series of expressions that are extremely common, which, when reflected upon and realised, have the capacity to change the way we understand our lives, and by extension inspire us to excellent conduct and appropriate behaviour. We begin by petitioning The One to cover our ego-driven mistakes, and pledge to make a fresh start by saying ‘Astaghfirallah’. Then we say ‘MashAllah’, reminding ourselves that everything in the universe is as it should be, and occurs according to the Divine Wisdom. After that, we bear witness to the miraculous nature of our existence, acknowledging how fortunate we are even to be alive by exclaiming ‘SubhanAllah’. The next part of the litany is ‘Husbun’Allah wa niamah wakeel’, which has been translated as ‘Allah is sufficient for me, and He is the best of guardians’ or ‘Allah is my sufficiency and protector’. Stating that Allah is sufficient for us is to know that whatever He has deemed it fit to bring into existenc...

The Holy Prophet Muhammad is reported to have said: “If the seven heavens and those who dwell in them are put into one pan of the scale and ‘la ila ha il Allah’ was put into the other, ‘la ila ha il Allah’ would be heavier.’ Do not consider this in terms of reward. In the words of Imam Al Ghazali, the spiritual path is not about doing business with Allah. The spiritual path is about seeking excellence in everything we do. It is about personal growth. It is about nobility of character and treating the universe with the utmost respect and love. Your personal excellence or ‘ihsan’ is measured by the extent to which you uphold the reality of ‘la ila ha il Allah’. There can be no creator but Allah, and therefore everything in your life was created by Him, every person in your life was created by Him, every experience in your life was created by Him, every challenge in your life was created by Him, from His Eternal Love and Concern for you. That is why ‘La ila ha Il Allah’ is worth mor...

Zaid informed me with bright eyes that despite defeat in the match against Iraq, Jordan’s honour had been salvaged in the post match combat. Police protection was all that stood between a diminutive group of Iraqis and spilled blood. Gleefully, Zaid chanted songs sung by the Jordanian fans, lauding Sadaam Hussein and reminding of occupation, while reassuring me that the match was of only slight importance to Jordan, as their qualification to the next stage was already assured. His demeanour demonstrated conviction that I would understand. I am English after all. When I announced that I was to take leave of Syria in order to reside in Jordan, I was endowed with numerous pieces of advice. Jordanians are boring, unable to maintain conversation. Life is hard there, expensive, and even if the infrastructure is superficially impressive, the money is dirty, earned through surrender. (un)Fortunately, upon arrival in Amman, balance was restored. Syrians are cheats. A story of a ma...

There is a veil, the thickness of which varies depending upon the nature of the soul on which it falls. A masterpiece moves from independent colours seemingly haphazard on a canvas to a glorious expression of the Artist’s being. Stumbling into the musty workshop, witnessing unwashed brushes and the sharpness of terpse stinging the nostrils, the ignorant would be forgiven for seeing nothing but a chaotic confusion of shades adorning the easel. Yet hindsight teaches that the workshop suffers not from disorder, but rather the senses that experience are not in tune with the Creative Power that soothes, should one only tune in.

Upon one of my numerous visits to the mosque of Sheikh Muhiyidin Ibn Arabi, I made the acquaintance of a striking elder by the name of Abu Muhammad. His name, which literally translated indicates that he is the ‘father of Muhammad’, is a perfect expression of anonymity. On those rare occasions in which he enters my thoughts, I like to consider his name as some profound expression of spirituality, that his desired obscurity was the result of some yearning to renounce the trappings of the ephemeral world, and embrace the ancient existence of an unknown dervish. Yet almost certainly nearer the truth is that in modern Syria, if often pays to remain unidentified. I was blessed by his company on a number of occasions, and we often engaged in a stuttering, graceless, yet well intentioned conversation that was to repeat itself (in form) at numerous junctures during my time in Syria. His face truly was alight with faith, and he wore the genuine smile of a man whose existence was good. We s...

The path to Allah Almighty should not be reduced to an intellectual activity. A distinction is to be made between learning about the path, which often takes the form of academic-style courses documenting the historical manifestations of Sufism, and learning to traverse the path, which involves the gradual amendment of one’s interpretation of the universe by means of the assigned spiritual practices. These practices act as vehicles, which, when offered with sincerity and assiduousness, facilitate the rectification of perception, until one witnesses the Majesty of the Divine in every moment. After the Ritual Prayer, perhaps the most potent of these practices is the Spiritual Discourse (Arabic صُحْبَة ,Turkish ‘Sohbet’), which is an address delivered by a Saint or an authorised deputy. The discourse is akin neither to a lecture nor a class. Its purpose is not to merely pass on information or facts in the cognitive sense, but rather to shake the hearts of those exposed to it. It ma...