Intimacy and Nearness

In Allah’s Great Compassion and Love

Beloved Companions of the Way of Intimacy and Nearness,

Peace to your hearts in this coming year and all years to come.

We might all agree that these special times need more spiritual intensity and focus on what is most essential. And what could be greater than to dedicate our selves to even greater intimacy and nearness with Allah. What greater event in life than to feel that Allah is ‘with you wherever you are,’ as Allah affirms in the generous Quran. This blessed year let us focus on the supreme secret, the ultimate reality of our life as divine life.

‘We are never separate from Allah!’ is Shaykh Nur’s ecstatic cry.

We can intentionally say, ‘Allah is here, where I am, in the most intimate embrace. And this is Allah. And this and this and this is Allah.’ Let us breathe Allah’s breath and soften and illumine our gaze with divine compassion and see our Beloved wherever we look, or see everything as part of our Beloved, and listen with divine subtlety, and walk on the earth softly, consciously.  This is not aggrandizement. This is utter servanthood, our disappearance into the Beloved. And walking softly on the earth does not just mean the physical act. It also includes thinking gentle thoughts and looking with compassionate eyes.

Become a vessel of blessing. Let criticism go. The critiquing mind is a barrier to union. Allah is the Caretaker of the universe, not our small minds. Then the light of Presence and loving awareness will shine through you and you will bring blessing wherever you go. As you move through your day carry a spontaneous intention of “bless you.”

Make intimate time with Allah a priority in your life. Take time, even outwardly little but inwardly vast, to be consciously and completely in the presence of your Lord and Lover. Sit on the prayer carpet of Allah in nearness and intimacy. Open your heart, either in deep silence or in speaking, ‘munajat’. Feel the Presence of Allah. Address Allah with praise and ask from Allah. Ask for forgiveness and guidance, nearness and knowledge, and for all the beautiful qualities you want to shine with. Ask for everything your heart desires. Thank Allah, take counsel from Allah, seek guidance from Allah and complain to Allah when you need to relieve your heart.

To be consciously with Allah at all times is the royal Way, the glorious Way, the Way lived and practiced by the great Sufis. In Heart and Countenance of the Sheik, Nur points to this.

His/Her very existence is to ponder and profess primordial Reality in the present moment, a promising spiritual procedure that has given birth to mystic saints in all the epochs of human history. “

“To ponder and profess” means to dwell in, to be absorbed in, and to emanate the One Reality. By following this exalted spiritual practice we will become happy. And naturally we will become much, much more careful with our thoughts and our actions. Our faults will dissolve insha’allah in the radiance of Allah.

Prostration during Salat is a wonderful occasion for intimacy and communion with Allah. One can slightly prolong the prostration in one’s personal Salat to speak with Allah or simply drink deeply of the nearness. In prostration ego has disappeared.

Whichever mode of intimacy one chooses, and ultimately its one’s entire life, let it flow from your heart.

The intimacy with Allah also translates as intimacy with each other, with more loving relationship with our family, our community, people and beings of the earth and the heavens. Intimacy with our life and our moments. Intimacy with our self.

In nearness and loving intimacy with each other,

Fariha