Muraqaba
Muraqaba has been defined as watching, supervising, controlling, and living in the consciousness of being controlled (by God).…
Spiritual
127 articles
Translation of Sufi Poetry
The misunderstanding and the misconception by some Western readers that Sufi poetry is strongly tinged with sensuality and…
Taqwa (Piety)
Taqwa is derived from wiqaya, which means self-defense and avoidance. Sufis define it as protecting oneself from God’s…
Victory of the Spirit
Q: What is the meaning of “victory” for a believer, and how is it realized? Human life in…
Days of Depression and Our Atlas of Hope
Today, almost everybody speaks about “material welfare and comfort,” without seeing any values other than these, or rather without…
Women and the Qur’anic Prescriptions
One of the most sensitive and oft-debated issues with regard to Islam concerns the status and role of…
Fasting in Ramadan and Developing Self-Control
Ramadan is the 9th month of the Islamic lunar calendar. It is a special month of the year…
The Fundamental Spiritual Benefit of Fasting
The prime goal of Islamic spirituality is to establish an intimate and personal closeness to God. While the…
Qalb (Heart) – 1
In the words of Ibrahim Haqqi of Erzurum: The heart is the home of God; purify it from…
Free Will
Having free will-which we can briefly describe as the power or inclination to make a decision whether to…
Firar and I’tisam (Fleeing and Taking Shelter)
Firar, which literally means to run away from something, is used in Sufism to denote the journey from…
The World in the Womb
In the recent past, the Islamic world as a whole has lived through its most depressed periods, whether…
Muhasaba (Self-Criticism or Self-Interrogation)
The word muhasaba literally means reckoning, settling accounts, and self-interrogation. In a spiritual context, however, it takes on…
What is the Islamic view on the Messiah and the anticipation the Mahdi near the end of time?
Messiah is a name or attribute of Jesus, peace be upon him. Messiah means “blessed” in Hebrew, thus…
15 Minutes
Most of us don’t worry about 15 minutes, which perhaps is no time at all. In 15 minutes,…