“Nothing benefits the heart more than a spiritual retreat wherein it enters the garden of meditation [maydān fikrah].” ~Shaykh Ibn...

"To be grateful is to recognize the Love of God in everything He has given us - and He has given us everything. Every breath we draw is a...

Eid (1rst of Shawwal/End of Ramadan), is the occasion for reminding us of the Joy contained in celebrating, at every moment, the...

On Love and Loving as Our True Nature: 'Mawwada' as a Qur'anic or Islamic term connoting love, is perhaps best defined or expressed by...

By way of summary, the mystery of the state of human doer-ship and fate lies in between these two Divine Signs: “For each soul is what it...

Who is the Doer?: Free Will, Destiny, and Spiritual Practice Q: How does our "Destiny" work and play out? If nothing happens without...

How can we understand the Zen saying, "First there are mountains, then there are no mountains, and then there are mountains again"? The...

So, why is true listening and true hearing so important in spiritual practice? In order to fully realize "the teaching", we must "hear"...

Listening for God?: Hearing with the Ear of the Heart "And they say, 'We hear and we obey'. Your forgiveness our Lord, and unto You is...

The "Gates" of Muraqaba (Vigilant Awareness) practice are simply different stances we take in our conscious stand as being vigilantly...

Even more subtle than this shift of identity from the person bearing witness to a witnessing presence as found in the meditative practice...

These three spiritual journeys of the human soul, "towards God", "in God", and "back to the world, with God", when understood as levels...

The Islamic Spiritual Traditions speak of three, sometimes four, spiritual journeys of the human soul, from God to God. For practical...

On Seeking and Finding: Rumi says "The One you are seeking is actually Seeking you!" So try to "find" that One who is Seeking you, in...

God's Seeing and your seeing in Muraqaba: "Great is the aspiration of the eye that wants to see You— is it not enough for an eye that You...

"They forgot God, so He made them forget their own selves." (Qur'an 59:19) What is the link between our self, and God? The short answer...

Who am I, When God is Nearer?: To practice Muraqaba is to cultivate a heart sense, a loving and a knowing sense of God's knowing and...

"He who knows his Self Knows his Lord" says a Prophetic tradition. Now, to fully know your self is to know your true cause and to devote...

From Bearing Witness, to Being the Witness, to Pure Witnessing?: The Shahada, and Cultivating the Witnessing Presence Through Meditation:...

To Fall is part and parcel of the process of the Journey of human being and becoming, originating with Adam, the Father of Humanity. This...