Bismillahirahmanirahim

Peace to your hearts beloved Guides and Lovers,

This great day dawns, the birth day of the Nur Muhammad in human form as the Messenger of Mercy and the Prophet of Love to all the worlds, Muhammad, may he be showered in peace and embraced in sublime love.

O Muhammadan Light.
Light of our being infusing us and moving us
Our hearing and our seeing,
Our breathing and our feeling,
Our knowing and our not knowing,
Light of inspiration and the light of our heart
The light of salvation that responds to us when we call and picks us up when we fall,
that envelops us and consoles us, that inspires us and guides us,
The light that reaches thru us when we extend our hand with food and drink
and that holds the friend when we embrace
The light that inspires small acts of kindness, that is the kindness itself
The light that speaks on the tongues
The light that is neither male nor female and which is both male and female
Gentle light, strong light, loving light, the light of love.

Light most subtle
Yet indomitable
Light of the Throne
Light of the innermost sanctuary of Love
Light of the heart
Light of humanity

O Allah most Exalted please illumine our hearts with Light
Our tongues with Light
Our hearing and seeing with Light
Our nerves, our flesh, our skin, our hair, our veins, our bones, our cells, our brains with Light!
O Light upon Light, Light within Light,
Increase us always in Light and make us entirely Light!

May we all shine with the Light of Muhammad!

O Source of Love please send all of Your blessings upon Muhammad and his blessed Mother Amina, upon the Family and the Companions, the faithful Followers and the Community and upon all Humanity and Creation.

Blessings on the Pirs, the Mothers and the Prophets
Ya Nureddin! Ya Amina Taslima! Ya Ashki Effendi! Ya Nur al Anwar! Ya Ummat!
Ya HU

Sharing the LoveLight of Muhammad with each other and with all

Fariha Fatima

Bismillahirahmanirahim

Beloveds on the Path of Love

Peace to your hearts on this day of Karbala and this day of Ashura when the Prophets, the Mothers and their Communities received the abounding Grace of Allah.

There is no salvation without Allah
There is no peace and no joy without Allah
There is no reality without Allah
And humanity is the great secret of Allah revealed through our earthly life, both suffering and joyful.

On this day we turn to the beloved Imam Husayn, may he be showered in Allah’s peace. We send blessings to his soul and to the souls of the community of lovers who lived and died by his side.
They lived and died in the earth for love to Allah, and for this they are called martyrs, the witnesses, the ones who see the Truth before the great unveiling of the next world. And for this they are now spiritually rejoicing in eternal Presence.

There is both sadness and joy in this day. There is both the bearing of terrible suffering and the great release from suffering, the arrival of Grace and the transformation of tears into joy.

“O Muhammad, give joyful news to the faithful ones that Allah’s saving Grace has come and the victory of Love is here.”

If we are able to hold in our heart both of the qualities of this day we take a step toward spiritual maturity.

Earth is hardship, a place of tests and trials, and also the locus for fulfilling our destiny as lovers of Allah. All the elements needed to attain spiritual maturity are here if we live consciously turning to Allah, gazing at the Countenance of Allah, and devoting our waking moments to praising and thanking Allah. Living for Allah and dying for Allah, like the martyrs of Karbala. Engaging in good actions for the sake of Allah, cognizant that Allah is the true Doer. Giving our lives over to Allah recognizing that Allah is the only Existing.

“Who will loan to Allah a beautiful loan…”

On this day of immense spiritual worth we also send our loving greetings and peace to all the Prophets and their communities, for each one suffered affliction and was relieved on this day.
Muzaffer Effendi, rahmetullah aleyhi, writes about some of them in Irshad.

Issa, aleyhi salam, was raised to the fourth heaven and so freed from persecution.
Moses, Miriam and Harun, may they be showered in peace, crossed safely through the Red Sea with the community of the faithful on this day.
Abraham, aleyhi salam, was thrown into the fire on this day and the fire did not burn him.
Noah and the faithful in the Ark landed on the firm ground of Mt Judi after forty days on the water
Jonah, aleyhi salam, was delivered from the belly of the whale

These events teach us that our suffering finds solution. They remind us that our prayers are answered. They demonstrate that the faithful heart will prevail. This is a day for refreshing our faith and deepening our trust in Allah.
This is a day for seeing past the shadow play of the world and gazing at the only Real which is Allah’s Face.

May we sing with beloved Nur al Jerrahi:

Allah Hu Allah Hu Allah Hu Allah
Allah Hu Allah Hu Allah Hu Allah (2x)
All conscious beings
Are the conscious being of You

You present me
With all these passing states of consciousness
You only are all seeing and hearing that I am
All that I am
You are all that I am

This great secret allows me ceaselessly to see Your Face
As destined weeping and rejoicing flow
So gracefully
You are simply all that I am

Allah Hu Allah Hu Allah Hu Allah
Allah Hu Allah Hu Allah Hu Allah (2x)
All conscious beings
Are the conscious being of you

Allah Hu Allah Hu Allah Hu Allah
Allah Hu Allah Hu Allah Hu Allah (2x)
Sultan Allah
Your Light is the Essence of my soul.

Ya Allah Hu!

Fariha al Jerrahi

Today we are also remembering our beloved Zhati and sending prayers for her soul and for her family.
She passed on the day of Karbala one year ago.
Her extreme suffering was caused by the early death of her son.
Her salvation was that she was taken from her earthly body and transported into the next realm where she could be with him. She still roams in this world helping people and giving them counsel in dreams. She is like the Little Flower of God, Saint Therese of Lisieux, “Let my Heaven be spent in helping those on earth.”
Blessed Day of Ashura!

Muzaffer Effendi, rahmetullah aleyhi, relates the story of Imam Huseyn and the event of Karbala in a very concise way in Irshad pp. 637-642. I suggest that we read this account today. And that we spend the day in contemplation and prayer.

Bismillahirahmanirahim

Peace to your hearts and blessed New Year to each of You

We are now in the first ten days of Muharram, the first month of the new year in the Koranic calendar.

These days are guided by the blessed light of Imam Huseyn, radiallahu anhhu, may Allah be pleased with him and with his companions and community and descendants and with all those who love him

These days are filled with his love, his spiritual power and his forbearance. They are also colored with the dye of his suffering and his blood.

As spiritual descendants of this glorious human being, this Imam to the worlds, the son of Fatima the Radiant and Ali the Inheritor, we are tasting a drop of the ocean of tears in his heart for humanity. We are experiencing an atom of the tests and trials that he and his companions endured. We feel such sadness for any harm that could come to him, for the prick of a thorn or the slight of another human being. He was the beloved of Allah and the heart joy of his grandfather Muhammad, sallallahu aleyhi wa sellim. How could we endure witnessing the affliction of Karbala? Through the bond of our heart, we grieve for his body, we grieve for his soul. We grieve for his family, for his wife Umm Rubab who survived, for his sons who were killed, Ali al Akbar and Ali al Asghar, and for his son Zayn al Abidin who survived to become the fourth Imam. We grieve for his saintly sister Lady Zaynab who survived him and later confronted Yazid in his court. We grieve for all the holy companions who were with him, those who chose his companionship over their own life. We grieve for those who survived and for those who died. We grieve for the state of the human beings who afflicted him. In the martyrdom of Imam Huseyn and the Seventy we feel the grief of humanity on earth.

Where can we turn? Where can we take shelter? We turn to Allah and we take shelter in Allah and in Allah’s Mercy and great Love and in Allah’s all-healing Forgiveness. We let go of our grudges. We pray for Allah to forgive us and to forgive those who afflict us. We forgive. We pray for human beings and for the beings who are in their care. We learn to bear our own trials which are small. We remember not to fall into despair as our Lord and Lover is the most Generous and Responsive, swift to help. We feel tenderness and compassion for all beings. We strive to help without needing recognition in return. We recount Allah’s Generosity to ourself every day. We consciously praise Allah as much as we can remember to praise Allah. We rely on Allah in all conditions. We maintain a place of peace in our heart despite outer circumstances.

We remember to live in gratitude. We walk humbly on the earth.

We aspire to be the servants of Rahman.

Ya Imam Huseyn! You are our beloved! You are the mirror of Muhammad, sallallahu aleyhi wa sellim.

I remember the tears of Effendi when he would sing the ilahi to Imam Huseyn.

Fariha Fatima

O Hajj.
What will explain the Hajj?
In truth our life is the Hajj.
Our striving, our struggles and our pain are the roads to the Kaaba.
Our calling out to the Merciful One is our prayer and our Labayk.
Our tears are our ablutions.
Then comes an easing and relief.
Then comes the messenger of Grace. “Give the good news to the faithful ones O Muhammad that the victory of Love is here!”
The Sakina. A victory. An opening. A Fath.
Ya Fattah! Ya Wahhab!
Arrival at the Source.
Ente–l-Hadi Ente-l-Haqq!
The quenching of thirst with ZemZem.
Ente-l-Razzaq! Ente-l-Shafi, Ente-l-Mu’afi!
Immersion in the One.
Ya Ahad! Ya Hu!
Ya Hajj! O Hajji!

May Allah keep us faithful in our pre-eternal promise.
May we travel with the most beautiful intentions together with our faithful companions.
May we be welcomed in the Abode of love and peace by the All Loving One, the One Who is peace.
Ya Wadud! Ya Salam!
May the sacrifice of our lives be accepted by the Most Gracious and Grateful Lord of Generosity and Grace.
Ya Raab! Ya Shakur! Ya Dhul Jalal wal Ikram!

Blessings upon you dear Shaykha Amina al Jerrahi, honored Murshids and Circle Guides, and beloved cherished Dervishes in this amazing month of Hajj and in these first ten days, culminating in the day of Arafat on the 9th (Monday). The day of Arafat is also the passing day of Hazreti Pir Nureddin Jerrahi, may his secret be sanctified and exalted in the most beautiful station of nearness. The day of Arafat is followed by the day of Eid which is the victory of Prophet Abraham and Prophet Ishmael when the Ram was brought by Archangel Gabriel to represent the sacrifice of the human soul and its victory in the struggle toward the One.

Yesterday morning, the first day of Hajj, we began our prayer and meditation on Water, Ma’a in Arabic.
Interesting because Matr means Mother in Sanskrit.
Ramakrishna called upon Ma, Shaykh Nur called upon Ma, the Mother of the Universe. Many souls call upon Ma.
And Ma’a as Water can be seen as the Matrix, the mother of our bodies. Allah declares “We created every living being from Water.”

Yesterday morning I set out to write to you a Hajj greeting letter. Then my computer went blank, completely dark and non-functioning. So I wrote on the iphone, Koran verses on Water and some aspects of the origin of Hajj and the appearance of the spring of Zem Zem. I arrived at the very end of the letter and then my finger slipped and the letter erased. That for me was a true taste of Hajj, more than my letter. The journey of struggle had begun. It was perfect.

It is recommended not to travel in the first ten days of Hajj.
Possibly because the epitome of the inner journey is being displayed in these days and one should not obscure it with outer travel.

On the pilgrimage together!
Fariha al Jerrahi

In the All Embracing and Sustaining Holy Womb of Love

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY BELOVED COMMUNITY

Bless your mother hearts!
Bless your loving care and acts of loving kindness
Bless your joy Bless your sadness
Bless your breaths of praise
Bless your steps on Mother Earth
Bless your sacred dance that preserves life
Bless your voice singing with the birds and the mountains and the breezes and the rain and the flowers
Bless your words of consolation and words of guidance
Bless your visions
Bless your warnings and good counsel
Bless your waking in the night to be the guardians of true humanity
Bless your coming into the earth and bless your going out of it
May the One Who mothers all the mothers accept our prayers and our lives of joyful sacrifice.

Beloved Amina Taslima al Jerrahi, Noble Murshids, Blessed Circle Guides and Sweet Dervishes of Love, for your courageous lives of devotion and praise may you be rewarded with the best! – eternal nearness to Allah and the overflowing pleasure of Allah upon you, your families and all those you love and pray for.

Thank you for your beautiful greetings! I might not be able to answer all of them individually, but I have them in my heart.

May we all help to give birth to the new humanity.

Fariha al Jerrahi abd

Kiss the feet of mothers, prostrate on this earth
Welcome those who come to you in the Name of Allah!
(29B in new Ilahi Book)

Please recite Salawats today and read the pink Salawat book called Threading Pearls by Haqiqa Alima

From Atom from the Sun of Knowledge p.167-168)

“The Messenger of Allah saws, discloses the tenderness of his own mother-heart: When I stand for prayer, I intend to prolong it, but on hearing cries of children, I cut it short, as I dislike to trouble the mothers.”

Peace be upon Hawa Mother of Humanity
Peace be upon Sarah and Hagar Mothers of Two Prophetic Lineages
Peace be upon Bilqis Queen of Knowledge
Peace be upon Maryam, Queen of Heaven, Mother of Jesus Yeshua pbuh
Peace be upon Magdalene, first disciple of beloved Jesus Yeshua saws
Peace be upon exalted Mother Amina, Mother of our Prophet, pbuh
Peace be upon tender Halimah, foster mother of Muhammad, pbuh
Peace be upon Khadija al Kubra, first Mother of the Faithful of Islam
Peace be upon Fatima the Enlightened
Peace be upon Aisha Humayra, transmitter of one third of the hadiths
Peace be upon the Wives of our Prophet saws
Peace be upon the Daughters of our Prophet saws
Peace be upon Rabia Adawia
Peace be upon Catherine of Sienna
Peace be upon Therese of Avila
Peace be upon Therese of Lisieux
Peace be upon all the Holy Mothers who have walked upon Mother Earth. May their intercession for humanity be accepted.
Peace be upon all the Mothers and Daughters and Sisters and Aunts and Grandmothers who have ever come from the Source of Love!

Account of the blessed Halima, wet nurse of our beloved Prophet, may he receive the peace of Allah flowing through the Mothers.

I went to Makkah with other women from the tribe of Bani Sa^d Ibn Bakr. We were looking for infants whose parents wanted them wet-nursed. During the journey to Makkah, I was riding a female donkey off-white in color. It was a year of drought and we had nothing, only an old camel that hardly gave any milk. My own son’s hungry crying kept my husband and I awake at night because I did not have a drop of milk in my breasts to feed him.

When we arrived in Makkah, each one of us was offered the Prophet as a nursing son. We all refused at first because he was an orphan, and we depended on the generosity of the child’s father for our services. We used to say, “He is an orphan. How generous can his mother be?” Every woman in our group except for me managed to get a baby to nurse. I hated to return the only one empty handed. I told my husband I would go back and take that orphan, and I did. When I came back to where my animal was, my husband asked me, “Did you take him?” I told him I had because I could not find any other. He said, “May Allah endow His blessings on us.”

By Allah, as soon as I put him in my lap my breasts filled with milk. Both he and his brother (her own son) drank their fill. When my husband went out that night to check our old camel, he found her udder full of milk. We got all the milk we wanted from her. My husband and I drank our fill and slept soundly that night, as did our boys. My husband said, “O Halimah, I think you have put your hands on a blessed creation. Look how our sons sleep.”

Bismillahirahmanirahim

Beloved Community Peace to your hearts, bodies, minds and souls.

Beginning with sunset last night we have entered the last ten days of the glorious Ramadan. May we feel gratitude flowing in every cell for finding ourselves participating in this enormous event of Ramadan, the last ten Days and the Night of Power enshrined within them. May we turn even more ardently in this culmination of the Month of Mercy to the Source of love asking forgiveness and mercy for ourselves and for all peoples.

When our beloved Prophet Muhammad, saws, was asked where to look for the Night of Power, he answered that the special night can fall anywhere in the year’s cycle but to look for it especially in the last ten nights of the Ramadan, and particularly in the odd nights. Last night, the twenty first, was an odd night. It was also the night commemorating the death of Imam Ali, who was struck during salat by his former servant with a poisoned sword and died three days later. Mustafa has sent out one of the prayers revealed through Imam Ali called Mashlul. It is one of three prayers translated by William Chittick and now reprinted by Pir Press.

The Ramadan is a time of manifest miracles. And the last ten Days, overflowing with the Mercy of the Beloved, are even more abundant in miracles, these visible Signs, Ayats, of Divine Mercy.

I would like to point out three Signs which came in this Ramadan that touch my heart. One is the recent legal ban on the class of pesticides called chloropyrifos that have inflicted damage to childrens’ nervous system and brains for years. They are part of organophosphates developed by the Nazis for chemical warfare and then repurposed as pesticides used pervasively on non-organic apples, strawberries, citrus, corn, broccoli and other fruits and vegetables(!) This breakthrough is the result of years of work, with many years of defeat, by a group called Earthjustice which defends the rights of the earth and its peoples. What a great relief to know that people will not be consuming this particular poison any longer.

The decision by the courts to force the hand of the Environmental Protection Agency is a Sign, an Ayat, to this faqir that the shrouds of destructive energies surrounding our human family are beginning to shred, to let in the light of truth and love.

The other two Signs are from a different direction.

One is the court decision on April 20 that the death of George Floyd constituted murder. It is not something to gloat over, rather it is for weeping. But at last there is a decision of justice in the courts given to the black community. May it be a part of overturning the desperate system of endemic racism and the abiding intention of undermining an entire noble people for hundreds of years using violence and shame. This court decision is also a Sign from the Ramadan.

The third Sign is the surfacing of the identity of the 14 year old girl kneeling at the side of the Kent State student who was one of four students shot to death by National Guard troops called in to stop the demonstration which formed in protest of Richard Nixon’s decision to invade Cambodia. The young girl, Mary Ann Vecchio, with her arms in the air in horror at what had just happened, was photographed by another student. The photo went viral and her life was changed. She had to go into hiding as much as possible. In a Washington Post article sent out by Zem Zem, who uses the famous photo for teaching her courses on racism and injustice, there is a brief account by the woman herself who was that girl. It is so touching. She emerges as one of Allah’s saints, hidden and even reviled for a large part of her life. And now Allah has sent out the news that she is a beloved - a beautiful Sign that Allah sees and loves those who persevere in good deeds and humbleness even when others do not recognize them. Her decision to come more into the open and allow a rare interview on her life story came when she witnessed the suffocation of George Floyd. She cried to herself, why does no one come to help?

I send these three Signs out because in our retreat we are not disconnected from the life of humanity. We are even more intimately connected. Through our desire for Allah and our longing to merge into Allah our heart opens out even more to others, weeping and rejoicing.

So let us use these last ten days to retreat even more deeply into the heart. Let us contemplate from there the magnificent Signs of Allah. Let us enter the field of Unity where there is unity of all peoples and unity of all beings with Allah, where there is only Allah. Let us enter the Dar as Salam, the heart of the Beloved.

This great secret
Allows me ceaselessly to see Your Face
As destined weeping and rejoicing flow
So gracefully
You are simply all that I am. (Nur al Jerrahi Ilahi 18)

Blessed Ramadan

Love HU