Are We Really Independent?

Freedom: The First Step is Dependence
Summer 2004


In this discourse, Sheikh Din illuminates one of the great paradoxes of the spiritual path. He provides a twist to our tradition of celebrating Independence Day July 4th, by explaining that the first step to freedom is dependence! In our endless longing for freedom and peace, we learn that human beings are intimately connected to everything around them and, ultimately, dependent upon God/Allah.

Bismillah hir Rahman nir Rahim.
In the Name of Allah, most Merciful, most Compassionate.

I would like to discuss the concept of "freedom." After all, no matter what approach one takes to the spiritual path, inevitably all desire "freedom" as the outcome of the journey. The Sufi Tariqat (Arabic: Sufi Way) is intended to be the road, one's life path, which leads to liberation. The Sufi Community is meant to be the alliance of supportive company for the "travelers" along the way, so that they might make a smooth journey.
For a moment, let us contemplate what life would be like if we were looking at it through the eyes of total freedom. There would no longer be the necessity to adhere to a formalized spiritual path. Why? Because, we would be free! The structuralized approach to the spiritual process only arises to meet the need and address the growing desire of those longing to be free. The longing for freedom intensifies to the degree that one consciously realizes that one is in bondage. Bondage is suffering. The freedom that I am referring to here is also known as "enlightenment, liberation, peace, paradise, heaven, unconditional love or divine servitude" among the various religious texts.
All grapple with attempting to reconcile the boundaries of body and mind as well as desire and attachment. Each person is struck with the internal conflict in which there is a never-ending, endless desire for more and more and more. No matter how many creative techniques or methods one applies to materially accumulate, achieve or control, the endless desire is never satisfied. The longing for freedom continues.
The subject of freedom is not nearly as abstract as it might appear. As a matter of fact, everybody intrinsically understands the meaning of "freedom." It's not necessary for me to define it for you, because we are perfectly adequate to do that together. We all know inherently what we long for. You hear the word "freedom" chimed about; now let's find out what it means to us.
Community Response: It means to:
" not be stuck
" live without fear
" surrender my personal will to the Divine Will
" have no artificial controls
" have an open heart
" be totally conscious
" be real, to be true
" be fully expressed in individuality and creativity
" be completely responsible
" exist without boundaries have neither self-imposed nor socially imposed nor internally imposed nor externally imposed boundaries
" to live without the consequences of one's actions

Listen to all that was said here. Look at the list. It is extraordinary, isn't it? Yet, this list barely begins to describe how our innermost feelings pine for "total freedom." Freedom in its essence. Even further, this list proves that we all understand the subject of which we speak. Ultimately, we all do know what we desire, and we can intuit the idea of living freely. We experience the idea of it in our longing. What would it mean for one to live as an absolutely and completely free person?
The Sufi Path that we follow describes total freedom by the word salaam, from as-Salaam, the name of God that appears in the Holy Qur`an meaning "Peace." The word Islam is derived from the same root. Obviously, it should go without saying that if one possessed all of the attributes of freedom that were mentioned above in the list, he or she would be in a state of complete and total peace. Why are the "salaam" of the Sufis and the concepts of total freedom synonymous? Because the Sufis teach that the true state of salaam (peace) is one in which there is no more resistance to anything. This is the way of Islam (peace), total surrender or submission.
A realized Muslim, therefore, is one whose state of salaam or peace is unfettered, undisturbed and remains constant no matter the time, place, circumstance or condition. The true Muslims are complete in peace, because they are surrendered to the makings, workings and the direction of the Divine Will - Reality As It Is. Here I am drawing a distinction between Reality As It Is and an individual's personal projections. The true Muslim is not stuck being misidentified with his or her individual personality. The liberated ones have transcended the limits even of their own individualities. They are free. Sufism teaches that this freedom or peace is the natural and original state of the human being. The process of coming to, attaining and/or returning to this state of freedom and peace is what we call the practice of "Divine Remembrance."
Among the great Sufis and their literature there is much emphasis on remembrance as both the culmination of life as well as its practice. Jelaluddin Rumi, the great mystic poet of Konya, likens human remembrance to the sound of the reed flute that has been cut from the marsh. When one blows across the reed, it makes a sound of bittersweet wailing as if it were "remembering" the marsh, its true home from which it was cut. It longs to be home.
Likewise, a human being is like a long flute standing on two legs. The breath blows across the reeds of our nose and mouth making the sounds of life. The sighing and moaning sounds of our expressions are the "music of longing" as we strain to remember our own true home. We naturally long to return to the reed bed from which each of us was cut. Freedom and peace are the original and natural state of a person. We are on the path and in the process of remembering.
In order to help understand our process of remembering or returning to freedom, it might be helpful to highlight some of the keys to becoming a "free person." We've developed the idea of remembrance. Let's examine how one becomes free.
The first key to becoming a free person is to fully realize and to fully accept that you are not independent. This might confront your previous ideas and opinions. It may challenge your beliefs and expectations. Yet, no one is unto him or herself. No one individual, no personality is self-subsisting or forever existing.

The Holy Qur`an, in the Ayat al-Kursi (Verse of the Throne) of Surah al-Baqara (Chapter of the Cow/Heifer), beautifully depicts Allah, the Supreme Divinity, as the only Existence that is Self-Subsisting and requires of nothing, nor has need of anything other than Its own Self to exist.

Allah! There is no God but Allah, the Ever-Living, the Self-Subsisting, Supporter of all. No slumber or sleep can seize Him. His are all things in the heavens and on earth. Who is it that can intercede in His Presence except as Allah permits? Allah knows what is (appears to His creatures as) before or after or behind them. Nor shall they encompass aught of Allah's knowledge except at He wills. His "throne" extends over the heavens and the earth, and He feels no fatigue in guarding and preserving them. For Allah is Most High and the Supreme in Glory and Power.- SURAH AL-BAQARA, 2:255

The created, including humanity, is not like that! Only the Creator, God is That. Although it is said that the true Self, lying quiescent within the human heart is part and parcel to the Supreme Divinity, the individuality of personhood is limited and dependent. An individual human being is not limitless. The reason why I say that individuality is not limitless is because individuality will die. I understand that it can be argued, "The true Self, the Soul never dies. It is eternal."
However, I am not talking about that! The fact is, regardless of all the grandiose "spiritual truths," created individuals will expire and come to an end. Time will go on, places will change, people will be born, live and die, and history will continue to be made long after the existence of our individuality. We are not independent. We are dependent.
The reason why this concept of dependency challenges our many notions is because of the emergence of "rugged individualism" through the Protestant work ethic that has culminated in unbridled capitalist egotism. The last four to five hundred years of industrialization have wreaked havoc on this planet, its environment and its social systems, not to speak of the health, mentality and emotional conditions of its people. Albeit we have acquired many modern conveniences, but have we really progressed? Listen to the slogans, "Move west young man. There's gold in them thar hills. Seek fame and fortune. Bigger is better. If you've got it, flaunt it. Anyone can grow up and become the President of the United States. Are you kidding? I certainly don't need anybody. Doesn't affect me, what do I care? Congratulations, we've raised your credit limit."
We have developed a driving, obsessive-compulsive, social ego behavior of personalized self-worship. These behaviors are egged-on and coached by the latest psychological and "New Age" approaches which have us chant more and more individualistic affirmations like, "I am somebody. I am woman; I am strong. I'm O.K. You're O.K. Feel good about yourself! Go on. Pat yourself on the back. I am successful. I am thin, and I am sexy."
Although it seems like these ideas encourage a person to find one's "inner strength" and that they are harmless enough, in reality these affirmations drive a person to constantly seek approval, avoid conflict and discomfort and to become increasingly more self-obsessed. Rampant self-obsession and consumerism have us addicted to wanting to have what we want, when we want, how we want and whenever we want, regardless of anything other than what we want.
Worse yet, we have carried this obsessive behavior into our spiritual teachings and spiritual lives. We talk a good game of "surrender and submission," but when the "other shoe drops" and "push comes to shove," we refuse to let go of the neurotic attachments that we have to wanting everything to be how we want it . . . except . . . now we're "spiritual." The great modern day Tantric Buddhist Master, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, called this trap "spiritual materialism" and insisted that this ego obsession had to be cut in order to perform real spiritual work, let alone have any spiritual realization.
Consider all of the wacky definitions that people have created for the "heaven or paradise" of the afterlife. They are full of wishful projections that include no loss to our materialist conceptions, even after we die! We recreate our attachments with fantasies of spiritual real estate that include all of our dead relatives, dead friends and even our dead pets. In heaven, all of your favorite foods are there endlessly, and you don't have to worry about getting fat, because you're in heaven. Do anything you want! There are no consequences. You don't have to work, and there's no need for money. It is a continuous Rainbow Gathering. You're in heaven.
Sounds like "freedom," . . . don't it?
We stake our claim on some place other than taking the responsibility for being here in order to be free. Freedom is for later, and when we get to there, we can have everything the way we want it. We don't have to depend on anybody or anything, other than being "saved" of course, and then we can go back to behaving however we want, even in heaven. We want to move there (away from here) as fast as possible. We want instant gratification, and we want what we want now, without any work and without relying on anyone else. We want peace and freedom for ourselves, so that we can own it, take it home and enjoy it as we please without any interference or threat that somebody might get some of ours.
We fool ourselves. We fool ourselves, because we have made ourselves believe that the acquisition of things, personal control, power, name, fame, prestige, money, influence and the exercise of personal choice are all taking place. In reality, I am always depending upon somebody or something else to keep up the illusion. I am not unto myself; I cannot do anything by myself.
One needs to eat, so one depends upon food in order to provide for nutrition and sustenance. Where does the food come from? Commercialism has trained you to depend on some golden corporation to make you hot food and have it available and waiting as quickly as you drive your late model, bank-financed luxury car around the building to pick it up at the delivery window. Of course, this is only after shouting the order of your desire into a microphone that looks like a clown.
Where does food come from? Somebody had to grow it, harvest it, prepare it, store it, ship it, manufacture it, prepare it again, cook it, serve it and then clean it up. Oh my God! I almost forgot about how and why food even grows to begin with. What gives it life? The Qur`an likens the growing of food to a divine miracle. Fertile fields and growing food are among the ayats, signs of God, showing Allah's existence to those who see.
Water falls from an open sky onto seemingly barren ground, and by nothing we can ascertain through the naked eye, living plants grow. On what, who and where are we depending for rain to fall? On what, who and where are we depending for the earth to be fertile? What causes a seed to sprout? I don't know how successful and powerful you are, but I have never been able to make a seed spontaneously sprout simply upon my command.
We've done a lot of gardening in this Community, and we always had to break the ground, till the soil, hoe the weeds, add nutrients, mulch, raise the beds, pick our timing and work the fields. We do all of this work hoping, praying and depending on some mysterious force that will make seeds sprout. Have you ever been able to command a seed to sprout by your personal willpower?
How did we come by our clothes? How did we develop our ideas for social acceptance? How have we tracked intelligence and passed down knowledge? Where does our education come from, and from whom have we learned? Why, among every indigenous culture, are there prayers venerating the ancestors, sages, scientists and enlightened ones that have come before? Why do human beings make such a big deal over funerals and the rites of death? Everything that we have experienced, that we are experiencing and that we will experience, is the consequence of a previous cause. We are completely dependent on everything that has come before us and that currently exists to allow us to be. Might we be thankful?
Food, clothing, shelter, health care, education and luxury all come from something that was cut out of something that existed before. What was before that? And, before that? And, before that? What is the primal cause? What, ultimately, do we depend on to keep our hearts beating and that allows us to breath? Can you depend on the fact that you will remember to take your next breath? Will you be so distracted by the world or lost in emotions that you will forget to breathe? I doubt it.
What is it that we depend on to awaken us each morning after laying down to sleep at night? Such a great dependency isn't it, when you can become completely devoid of your self-awareness for hours on end, and trust you will return to your senses. How much more vulnerable can you get? In the Jewish tradition there is a prayer upon rising in the morning that thanks God for restoring our souls. No wonder!
I don't really care what you call that thing you depend on for life, other than to get you to recognize that you are utterly dependent. If you would like to call what you rely on "God," fine. If the word God disturbs you, and you would like to call it a "scientific system," ten-four good buddy. If a system seems too impersonal, and you'd like to call it "Krishna," well then okay. If Krishna seems too anthropomorphic arid personal, and you would like to call it "Allah, the All Pervading Reality," akbar (great)! If the word Allah seems too foreign and scary, just too Islamic, because you've just watched the terrorist segment on the nightly news and would now like to call the universe your own "Divine Mother," well then Jai Ma!
The point is that no one, and I mean no one, is unto him or herself and independent. Just as we have depended upon others for the provision of our basic necessities, everyone is more so depending upon the existence of an eternal, unnamable, unseen, immeasurable and intangible force. All created things are relying upon it. That ineffable, eternal force that we have called "Spiritual Divinity" is accessible to us in the form of our lives through time, place, person and circumstances. We are comprised of body, mind and spirit. We rely upon all of these things so that we can simply do our trip, whatever our trip is, even if our trip is to deny God's existence or our dependence. The Divine Reality still allows us to be.
The favorite subject of an atheist is God, because an atheist is depending upon the concept of God in order to offer a point of view. If there isn't a God, there can't be an atheist, because there would be no more subject. Hardcore atheists build their whole life around arguing against the existence of God. Obviously they are still depending upon God in order to even have an argument.
As you realize that you're not independently standing alone, you will begin to see that all things, crossing time, place, person and circumstance as well as everything that is physical, mental/emotional or spiritual, are connected and interrelated. Not only are we not independent, we are entirely interdependent on everything that is. We comprise part of a whole of creation and exist as interlocking strands of fabric. In each part of creation, including human beings, is a "particle" of pure reflection of the whole of Reality that is the Divine Unity. Although the Divine Unity is One, it expresses Itself diversely as different pieces and parts; however, it is the sum total of all of the parts together that forms the whole of creation.
Rivers, lakes and streams depend upon the ocean for their own existence, and unto the ocean do they return, only through rain to recycle again. Although water is indeed water and is of the same essence as all water, it would be foolishly arrogant for a single raindrop to declare that it didn't need the ocean, or even worse yet, was the ocean, as it was falling from the sky. Eventually the drop will find out that the rain, rivers, lakes and streams come and go, but the ocean remains. In the end, the single raindrop is recalled back to the ocean from whence it came.
Here is my basic problem with the commonplace, New Age mentality of pop and pseudo-spirituality. People are walking around professing the belief that they are independent in a co-created universe by simply affirming: "I am light. I am love," and even "I am God." Not that they aren't imbued with the essence of light and love and God within, but the statements coming from their mouths are ones of egotism irrespective of their dependence on the One God, Allah.
It is egotistical for the raindrop to proclaim, "I am the ocean" until that drop literally falls into the ocean and discovers how vast the ocean really is. It would be better to witness, "I'm in the process of remembering my `oceaness.'" It is more humble and more sensitive to approach the ocean with respect realizing that it has provided the drop of water with the same essence as itself, time and time again.
In realizing our dependence, we let loose the grip of the illusion of our self importance. Placing yourself within the context of the whole of creation, and that you are merely one miniscule part therein, flies in the face of self-importance. What a notion it is that you are making yourself successful, self-reliant, self-subsistent and independent. No individual personality is the center of all, yet we behave in such a manner. It seems as if each person is emotionally addicted and endlessly fixated on their small self.
The Holy Qur`an beautifully illustrates this reminder:

Assuredly the creation of the heavens and the earth is a greater (matter) than the creation of men. Yet most men understand not. Not equal are the blind and those who (clearly) see: nor are (equal) those who believe and work deeds of righteousness and those who do evil. Little do you learn by admonition! - SURAH MU'MIN, 40:57-58

To realize dependence makes one vulnerable. Vulnerable to what? We are vulnerable to all and most vulnerable to the Creator of All. To travel the Sufi path means to participate in the collective process of humanity's enlightenment as much as it means to strive for one's own God realization. It is the saying of the great Bengali Saint Sri Ramakrishna's monastic order, "Realization of the Self and Selfless Service." It is also the protocol of the Sufi. "Serve Allah by serving Allah's creation." We do not exist alone. We exist in an environment that's a delicate eco-balance of people and nature.
When we forget where all of our resources came from and who they ultimately belong to, when we think that we are independent and that all of our resources are endless, when we behave as if we can do whatever we want whenever we want, we have cut ourselves off from the Reality of the Great Unity. From this perspective it would be impossible to attain any spiritual realization whatsoever. God's great principle of cause and effect will inevitable shut down all who stray from the course of nature.
So we're not alone. We are utterly dependent. We are dependent upon potable water, breathable air, arable soil and the protective ozone. We are dependent upon the five fundamental elements that are the building blocks of created life: earth, water, fire, air and ether. We are dependent upon the balance betweens all species living together in one eco-system, as well as between the individuals living and sharing in the social collective. We are dependent on the principle of homeostasis, between the centripetal and centrifugals forces of life, for equilibrium.
Otherwise, our hearts would blow up in our chests, and our eyeballs would pop out of our heads. Without being able to depend upon the physics of creation and its inherent, primordial properties, we wouldn't be able to stand up against gravity, and the earth wouldn't spin on its axis. We are utterly dependent. We are dependent on and vulnerable to each other, whether we want to be or not, whether we think we are or not, or even whether we like other people or not. Dependence is not matter of our choice.
It is only a matter of time before one's misery causes one to cry out for help. It's only a matter of time wherein one's separation from the "true home" causes such longing to return that we must actually turn to someone for help. Babies cannot stay alive without that help, without that embrace. They must be held and nurtured or they will die. Help comes to the dependent one in the form of love. The touch of love causes us to remember the reed bed and the longing to return home. Home is freedom and peace. "This is it. This is what I want. I want to be free!"
To return to the complete remembrance of our original state of spiritual peace and freedom, we have to first acknowledge and then accept our dependence. Ironically, human perfection as was demonstrated by the Prophets of God is the state of complete dependence on God. It is said when one empties one's self of one's self, Allah fills what remains. Fana wa baqa (Arabic: annihilation and fulfillment).
Quit fighting and resisting the fact that you are dependent in this world. Rather than fighting for your ego-driven individual rights, why not fight for the beneficence of cooperative dependence, so that the realization of the greatest potential is made available to all? Develop unconditional love, and become the servant of all. Discard the futility of attempting to make all others, and even the creation itself, serve you without end or consequence. Without your service through unconditional love, freedom and peace is impossible.

Charity for God's Sake...

Charity for God's sake has a hundred signs within the heart--
the good deed, a hundred tokens.
Though in charity riches are consumed,
a hundred lives come to the heart in return.
A sowing of pure seeds in God's earth, and then no income! Impossible.

-Mathnawi [IV, 1757-1759]

Over and Again God Admonishes Us...

In separation from God you have become arrogant; pay heed before His scourge strikes you down. Do not exult because of your good fortune. Over and again God admonishes you with the examples of the transgressors before you. If you really want to enjoy the limitless bounty of Allah, surrender yourselves before His will and endure all afflictions with fortitude.

-Sheikh Abdul Qadir Jillani, "Fayuz E Yazdani"

Wake Me Up Inside....

More songs from our youth....

"He who remembers his Lord and he who does not are like the living and dead."

-The Prophet Muhammad (pbuh)


Wake Me Up Inside

by Evanescence

How can you see into my eyes
Like open doors?
Lading you down into my core,
Where I've become so numb.

Without a soul,
My spirit's sleeping somewhere cold,
Until you find it there and lead it back
Home.

(Wake me up)
Wake me up inside.
(I can't wake up)
Wake me up inside.
(Save me)
Call my name and save me from the dark.
(Wake me up)
Bid my blood to run.
(I can't wake up)
Before I come undone.
(Save me)
Save me from the nothing I've become.

Now that I know what I'm without,
You can't just leave me.
Breathe into me and make me real.
Bring me to life.

(Wake me up)
Wake me up inside.
(I can't wake up)
Wake me up inside.
(Save me)
Call my name and save me from the dark.
(Wake me up)
Bid my blood to run.
(I can't wake up)
Before I come undone.
(Save me)
Save me from the nothing I've become.

Bring me to life.
(I've been living a lie.
There's nothing inside)
Bring me to life.

Frozen inside without your touch,
Without your love, darling.
Only you are the life among the dead.

(All of this sight,
I can't believe I couldn't see
Kept in the dark
but you were there in front of me)
I've been sleeping a 1000 years it seems.
I've got to open my eyes to everything.
(Without a thought
Without a voice
Without a soul
Don't let me die here.
There must be something more).
Bring me to life.

(Wake me up)
Wake me up inside.
(I can't wake up)
Wake me up inside.
(Save me)
Call my name and save me from the dark.
(Wake me up)
Bid my blood to run.
(I can't wake up)
Before I come undone.
(Save me)
Save me from the nothing I've become.

Bring me to life.
(I've been living a lie. There's nothing inside)
Bring me to life

Nobody's Home...

We can learn a lot about youth by the words they use in their music... So, adults, what can we learn about our youth from these words that they are singing? Remember, music today is the poetry of yesterday. Just as the poets were once the commentators of society, music today in many ways plays that role. Especially when it comes to our young....


"Nobody's Home"

by Avril Lavigne

I couldn't tell you why she felt that way,
She felt it everyday.
And I couldn't help her,
I just watched her make the same mistakes again.

What's wrong, what's wrong now?
Too many, too many problems.
Don't know where she belongs, where she belongs.
She wants to go home, but nobody's home.
It's where she lies, broken inside.
With no place to go, no place to go to dry her eyes.
Broken inside.

Open your eyes and look outside, find the reasons why.
You've been rejected, and now you can't find what you left behind.
Be strong, be strong now.
Too many, too many problems.
Don't know where she belongs, where she belongs.
She wants to go home, but nobody's home.
It's where she lies, broken inside.
With no place to go, no place to go to dry her eyes.
Broken inside.

Her feelings she hides.
Her dreams she can't find.
She's losing her mind.
She's fallen behind.
She can't find her place.
She's losing her faith.
She's fallen from grace.
She's all over the place.
Yeah,oh

She wants to go home, but nobody's home.
It's where she lies, broken inside.
With no place to go, no place to go to dry her eyes.
Broken inside.

She's lost inside, lost inside...oh oh yeah
She's lost inside, lost inside...oh oh yeah

Life Without Repentence...

Life without repentance is spiritual agony;
to be absent from God is immediate death.
Life and death both are sweet with God’s presence:
without God even the Water of Life is fire.


-Mathnawi [V, 770-771]

Surrender is the Source of Life....

Surrender is the Source of Life. It is not, and cannot be a concept. It must be a complete acceptance of God and Self as a manifestation of Divine Will. It is not the goal of the Work but the beginning. After spending time with God as God is, alone, we will eventually return to our "senses" so to speak, cleaned, refreshed and inspired. This 'return is the reality of self-realization. We cannot truly know ourselves without knowing God first. So how do we get to know God? By learning, accepting and being guided by His revelations. And through knowing God, we know ourselves. And we cannot know the Reality of God without including ourselves.

- Ali Ansari

A Glorious Way to Go...

One cold winter day a group of us were crossing the Mississippi River, and it was frozen solid. Someone brought up the inevitable question when crossing bridges, "What if the bridge collapsed and we all fell in?" Another person replied, "Wow, that would be an ugly way to go. That'd be real bad." I retorted, "No it wouldn't! It wouldn't make any difference. How you die has nothing to do with how 'ugly' it is or it's not. It is the 'way' you die that matters."

An ugly way to go is the following: Having regrets. Dying in fear. Having shame. Wishing that you could have done things differently, but you didn't. Wishing you had more time, but you don't. Laying on your death bed while underneath your carpet is all of the crap of your life that got swept under there that you don't want anybody to know about, you don't want anybody to see, you're embarrassed that you did, and you never came to terms with it. Dying in a state where you haven't forgiven and have not been forgiven - that's an ugly way to go. It has nothing to do with whether you fall off a bridge, or if someone picked you out of a crowd.

On the contrary, a glorious way to leave this world would be when there is nothing left of you. You lived life to its fullest. You did it. The firewood of your life has all become ash. "Here I am Lord. I used my life for what you gave it to me. There's nothing left. I made my mistakes, and I offered them to you. I had my successes, and they all came from you." In this state, every corner of all of your rooms and closets, every recess from the attic to your basement is clean and open to examination. Having lived a fully integrated spiritual life means that there no longer remains anything of you left swept under the carpet. All four corners have been turned up.

You should be able to look into the mirror of your own conscience and know without doubt, "There is nothing left for me that I could do, want to do or could have tried. I used all my sincere effort. I used every faculty, every breath, every thought, every word, and every action to fulfill myself for the purpose of why I was given this life. I took care of my life just as I would have a rare gift, a trust." That's a glorious way to go.

- Sheikh Din Muhammad Abdullah al-Dayemi

Islam as the Creation of Synergy

In Islam, salaat is the prayer-exercise of the surrendered who are aware of the effects and benefits of a synergistic alliance or commonality with the Prophet. We might see the purpose of Islam as being to create synergy toward the common goal of a heavenly life for all. And we might see the (violent) history of Islam (i.e. Wahhabism) as being all about the creation and destruction of this synergy.

- Ali Ansari

The Highest Person

The highest person is he who is of most use to humankind.

-'Ali bin Abi Talib (ra), "Masters of the Path"

What is Justice?

What is justice? Giving water to trees.
What is injustice? To give water to thorns.
Justice consists in bestowing bounty in its proper place,
not on every root that will absorb water.

-Mathnawi [V, 1089-1090]

Awe and Intimacy

The effect of awe is the disappearance of self; the self which is in a state of awe, disappears. Levels of awe may be measured by the degree to which the self has disappeared; some people are at a higer level of awe than others.

The effect of intimacy, by contrast, is alertness; those who are intimate, are alert. A person who is fully intimate, could be thrown into a fire, and the intimacy would not be disturbed.

-Qushayri, "Risalah"

British and Saudi Intelligence Recruit Terrorists In British Mosques

December 10, 2008 (LPAC)--The British think-tank Policy Exchange produced an exhaustive and fair-minded report, "The Hijacking of British Islam; How Extremist Literature Is Subverting Mosques in the UK," in 2007. An initial review shows how the whole framework of facts-on-the-ground in Britain, proves in the starkest terms that the British Muslim terrorists found in Chechnya, Bosnia, Afghanistan, India and Pakistan are no coincidence, but the result of the fact that British and Saudi intelligence are up to their elbows in cooperation in recruiting and deploying them in Britain.

First of all, the great majority of British Muslims, over two thirds of an estimated 1.8 million (half born in Britain), are of South Asian origin, mostly Pakistani, Bangladeshi or Indian. But the outside financing and control of mosques, is much more Saudi than it is South Asian. Indeed, under Saudi financing and control, the complexion of religious belief of Britons of Pakistani origin has been shifting rapidly since 1970 and later, with the rapid growth the Saudi-allied Deobandi movement, which was previously a minority of perhaps 20%. In September 2007, the London Times claimed that "almost half of Britain's mosques" were by then under Deobandi control.

Most of the South Asian Islamic terrorist movements are Deobandi-linked; the others are linked to various other Saudi-financed sects.

For this study, teams of Muslim researchers visited almost 100 representative British mosques, to see whether "extremist" literature, preaching hate or violent jihad, was available there. It was available in 26 mosques, or almost one-quarter. But what is more interesting is that a large part this hate literature had actually been shipped over from Saudi Arabia. If you include pamphlets produced with Saudi subsidies, it would be a clear majority.

Hate literature of this sort is an integral part of the recruiting of terrorists, as case studies have repeatedly shown.

The report's authors, who are scholars of Islam, place primary responsibility on Saudi Arabia for the growth of Islamic extremism and therefore terrorism in Britain, but omit to mention that all this is taking place under the nose, and therefore with the complicity, of British secret domestic intelligence MI-5, and by extension British secret foreign intelligence MI-6.

Forty-eight percent of the hate pamphlets were in English, 45% in Arabic, and 7% in Urdu, a Pakistani language. But one single institution of many such in Saudi Arabia, the Islamic University of Medina, publishes texts in no fewer than 47 languages. "This is an institution within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia," the authors report, "dedicated to Islamic propagation (da'wah). It was founded in 1961 when members of the [London-hatched] Muslim Brotherhood who had been exiled from Egypt, persuaded the Saudi king to found a Wahhabite institution that might become a rival to Cairo's famous al-Azhar Mosque and University."

Most revealing is that it is precisely those Islamic institutions which are most extremism-ridden, which official British government bodies have chosen to "partner" with, and thus to support and sponsor. These include the Islamic Foundation and its associated Markfield Institute of Higher Education. The Muslim Safety Forum, which described itself as the "key advisory body ... on issues concerning British Muslims," with which the Metropolitan Police Service and the Association of Chief Police Officers were working unreservedly, had as affiliates three of the worst offending mosques and institutions.

In their conclusions, the authors demand that the Saudis come clean on what they're doing with their money and their extremist literature, and even ask them whether all Saudi clergy sent to Britain are given diplomatic status, in view of the fact that those recently approached by British police on any matter turn out to have diplomatic status, and therefore immunity.

The Destroyer of All Other "gods"

Love is the flame which, when it blazes,
consumes everything other than the Beloved.
The lover wields the sword of Nothingness
in order to dispatch all but God:
consider what remains after Nothing.
There remains but God: all the rest is gone.
Praise to you, O mighty Love, destroyer of all other "gods."


-Mathnawi [V, 588-590]

Londonistan Becomes Talk Of The Town In Arab World

December 5, 2008 (LPAC)--The British harboring, using and controlling of so-called Islamic terrorists is once again on the agenda in many Arab countries. It is not, however, because of the Mumbai terror attacks, but another case of flagrant British dirty tricks. One of the leading Al-Qaeda spiritual leaders who has played a crucial role in recruiting new members for Al-Qaeda in Britain and Europe since 1993, Omar Mahmoud Abu Omar, aka Abu Qatada, was rearrested in London for violating his bail conditions. The British Interior Ministry stated that Abu Qatada was hiding in preparation for fleeing to Lebanon to join another British-asset, Omar Bakri, leader of the London-based terrorist group Hiz-bu-Tahrir, who left Britain for Lebanon in 2006. Needless to say that in Lebanon, both Bakri and Abu Qatada would be performing new missions in the service of Her Majesty's BAE-Prince Bandar Wahhabi destabilization operations.

The question which is being raised is not why he was rearrested, but why he was set free in Britain in the first place, when all evidence pointed to the fact that he played a key role in recruiting terrorists, including Zakaria Mousawi (the only indicted terrorist in the USA for the 9/11 attacks), and Richard "shoebomber" Reid.

The Jordanian leading daily Al-Rai provides the answer to the question. Abu Qatada is Jordanian by origin and has two life-sentences awaiting him in Jordan for planning and conducting terrorist acts there. In spite of major efforts by the Jordanian government in the past years, the British government has refused to extradite him.

Saleh Al-Qallab writes today in Al-Rai today: From the first day of his arrival in Britain escaping Jordanian justice, Abu Qatada joined terrorist activities. Despite that, the British turned a blind eye to what he was doing. The reason is that they needed his services, the same way the U.S. intelligence needed the services of Sheikh Omar Abdulrahman. When he was still performing dirty security operations in the service of British interests, Abu Qatada was a man of opinion, who was to be protected, and all the Jordanian demands for extraditing him were met with absolute refusal. Then, when he has been exhausted and no longer able to perform these dirty services, the British suddenly discovered that he was posing a grave danger to their security.

The Arabic section of the LaRouche movement have prepared a special report on the British role in the Mumbai terror attacks, putting together the different EIR press releases. It is posted on the Arabic website (http://nysol.se/arabic/media/mumbai.html) and has been sent to all relevant Arabic media and government institutions in Arab countries

Healing: The Art of Correcting False Assumptions

Most of healing is dealing with the consequences of unconscious behavior.
The art of healing is the art of correcting the underlying assumptions that are the causes of unconscious behavior.
It is complete when understanding and forgiveness set in.

- Ali Ansari

On Purity...

Since man is made of clay, he can never be completely pure.
Since clay is basically foul, how can humans escape their basic nature?
Purity does not lie in rituals, nor can human nature be changed by effort.
Those who love God and remain conscious only of their Beloved attain purity.

-Al-Hujwiri, "The Kashf al-Mahjub"

Understanding the Face of Fascism in the Midst of a Financial Meltdown

Leaving out the Keynesian Sixth 'C'

November 3, 2008 (LPAC)--While invoking the honored name of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, yesterday's Sunday Telegraph--a.k.a. the 'Torygraph,' proposes a series of decidedly non-FDR, pro-Keynesian measures a new President of the U.S. should take. The proposal focuses on "the five Cs: capital, credit, confidence, change (of the regulatory variety) and closure," while managing to leave out the all-important sixth "C". Now that the bailout is under way, the new President should create "a climate of confidence" in the financial markets, and restructure the "outdated and outmoded" regulatory system by creating "one super-regulator" attached to the Fed.

These measures are explicitly fascist, which leads us to the unspoken sixth "C", for CORPORATISM. John Maynard Keynes, later Baron Keynes, explicitly endorsed fascist economics in the preface to his 1937 German-language edition of his "General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money." Keynes wrote in his foreword that his theory were best "adapted to the conditions of a totalitarian state," an admission which was not included in the English-language versions of his book. It is this overtly fascist Keynesian view that the British are pushing under the guise of a New Bretton Woods, in direct opposition to a return to the nation-building philosophy of FDR. One could truthfully argue that the British approach is actually the three Cs, corruption, criminality, and corporatism.

For more on the 6th C, check out LPACTV: What is Corporatism?

Remedy for the Global Financial Crisis: Tell the British to Sit Down and Shut Up

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

For those totally confused by the cause of the world's financial problems but wanting a solution, John Hoefle of the LaRouche news weekly, Executive Intelligence Review (Washington), gets straight to the point in this 28 second video:

http://www.larouchepac.com/news/2008/11/01/tell-british-sit-down-and-shut.html

and forward it to to your friends, relatives and colleagues and get it onto the Blogs. It will help the population see the 'big picture'

It appears on www.larouchepac.com which gives daily updates of the financial meltdown and the LaRouche movement's long struggle to replace this bankrupt and inhuman system internationally.

Kind regards,
Mohd Peter

Cast Aside the Jug and Seek the Water

The outward form of things passes away, but the essence remains forever.
How long will you be besotted with the shape of the jug?
Cast aside the jug, and seek the water.
If you look too closely at the form, you miss the essence.
If you are wise, you will always pick out the pearl from the shell.

-Rumi, "Mathnawi"