The Purpose of Life

Because Allah (God) is permanent, and this is without question, so is the manifestation of His creation that is beyond the time and space of worldly existence. And we are that manifestation.
But by that I do not mean us as the temporary and transitory manifestation of this life, which is only a moment in which we may discover ourselves and choose to abide in the truth or ignore it and pursue the illusion. It is not that this temporary and transitory life is meaningless but that it is only a tool, a moment in eternity, by which we may gain knowledge of our transcendent nature. It is by means of this life that we gain our true recognition of God. It is by the very means of this life that we may learn to transcend it and know of and abide in our life forever in a garden not of our own making. That is why I say often that the purpose of life, death, and everything in between is Self- and God realization.

- Ali Ansari

Sacrifice and Self-Denial

If you devote yourself to God in this world, He will admit you among His chosen servants in the hereafter. Such devotion, however, demands sacrifice and self-denial, the two instruments that make union with God possible.

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

Practice Encouragement

Practice Encouragement

"Speak good words to all men." (Qur'an, 2:83)

"To God do ascend the goodly words, and He exalts the goodly deed." (Qur'an, 35:10)

Dr. Alfred Adler, the great psychologist, had an experience when he was a young boy. He got off to a bad start learning arithmetic, so his teacher became convinced that Adler was stupid when it came to mathematics. The teacher told Adler’s parents that the boy was dumb, and also told them not to expect much from him. His parents were convinced that the teacher's evaluation was correct. Therefore, Adler passively accepted the assessment that they had made of his abilities. And his grades in mathematics proved that they were correct.

However, one day he had a sudden flash of insight and thought he saw how to work a problem the teacher had put on the board that none of the other pupils could solve. He raised his hand and announced that he would like to do the problem. The students, and even the teacher, laughed at this. He became indignant. He strode to the blackboard and solved the problem perfectly, much to everyone's amazement. And at that moment he realised that he could understand mathematics. He had been handed an unreal, negative self-evaluation, and he had believed it and performed on the basis of that assessment.

Many of us have done the very same thing. Someone has told us that our abilities are limited, or that our dreams are unreachable. We have accepted that without question, and we go through life unhappy and unfulfilled. We become estranged from ourselves simply because we believe what others people have told us about ourselves.

Every one of us - young and old alike - needs to be encouraged. To encourage someone is to put courage into them. To discourage is to take courage out of them. It costs nothing to put courage into another ... to speak a kind word ... to let them know you appreciate them ... to tell them you believe in them ... that you admire them ...to thank them and so on.

So, today, make a point of putting courage into your spouse ... your children ... your boss ... your employees ... and the clerk at the local store. Go out of your way to do it. And in blessing others you will be blessed yourself.

Dick Innes

Purifying the Heart...

When you purify your hearts just as you purify your raiment, union with God will follow. You cannot become a Sufi by merely wearing coarse woolen shirts and following strict ritual, pretending to be pious while inside your hearts you bear malice and avarice. A real Sufi has attained a state of perfection on the inside. If you sincerely seek union with God, then seek Him inside your hearts and leave the world alone.

-Sheikh Abdul Qadir Jillani, “Fayuz E Yazdani”

A Response to Fear

A RESPONSE TO FEAR

Ali Ansari

My beloved brothers and sisters in Islam,

Determined to get to the garden?

"Methinks that Mecca thou shall not reach my friend, for the road thou takest leadeth unto Turkestan." (Sufi Poet)

In spite of the fact that you are frightened (and pretending not to be), frightening yourselves, others and sometimes me, I will continue to reach out to you with love, understanding and knowledge which you did not have before.

It is imperative that you listen to me in the right spirit, for what I say will be in contradiction to the dictates of your lower self and quite possibly the community around you, and we all know that the power of the lower self is very strong and compelling. The choices you make in every moment may govern the direction of your life forever.

If you choose the path of destruction then know that it is your destiny. It matters not what justification you put on it. You may say that it is the will of God and that He commands it. Whether this is true or not is of little consequence compared to the fact that it is still up to you to choose it. And God does not command the destruction of that which he has blessed and determined to be built. So if you choose the path of destruction, then know that it is your destiny.

But if you are a true Muslim and choose the way of the peace in your heart (the True Islam) then stop war now! Stop aiding it, stop abetting it, stop encouraging it, stop supporting it and most of all, stop believing in it as a means of accomplishment.

Believing in war as a means to peace is belief in slaughter, tyranny, oppression and destruction, and will only bring to you what you believe in.

Allah gives us the choice to believe as we will, and lets us know plainly that as we believe, so shall it be.

So if destruction is the destiny you seek then join with the others who are marching headlong into it in the name of the religion of their desires for the future, believing that therein lies their eternal pleasure in another world. Since we know not truly in which state we shall die, we do not know and cannot assume that we are the heirs of paradise or that we exclusively know or have discovered the way to get there. Only Allah Alone can grant that, and living truthfully to Allah in our own hearts in every moment is the only way to know the Reality of true Surrender. In the very assumption that a religious crusade is the right way to get there, there is enough inherent crime to keep you busy and out of the garden forever. Feel the peace that peaceful people are feeling in both worlds.

If you aid and abet in the destruction of a single human being, you have murdered, and who murders one being has murdered all of humanity, and oneself in the process. Hell is full to brimming with such people already. Why should you wish to join with them? So repent to Allah. Rethink your strategy. Is war and destruction really the best way to peace and eternity, or is it really simply suicide that you are after? It's really the death of your nagging lower self that you seek, and that will set you free to enjoy the life that God has given you in praise and gratitude.
Who are you following, anyway? Peace exists here and now. Be grateful. Enjoy it and grow strong in your faith and trust in Allah. The goal of war is to end war, and there is only one war that does that, and that war is the war of peace. So convert you warlike brethren to the way of dedication to peace and inner knowledge. Learn how to really live and teach your belief in Allah to the world around you. We need, now more than ever, that the true Muslims who are surrendered to God directly and committed to the peace that is found in their hearts manifest themselves and recommit to the peace of the garden of life that Allah has given us. Now, not later, after having committed a lifetime of sin.

Islam is a process of spiritual maturation. It is not to be used as a tool for children who are still demanding that the world owes them something or that it ought to be in any way different from what it is, and in such illusion make it easier for them and their tyranny-oriented cohorts at the expense of anyone else. Deal with Reality now, not some idealistic perfection later, after having killed all your enemies.

Get it straight! There are no religious enemies. No religion preaches hatred, much less Islam. ALL religions and spiritual paths preach the brotherhood of man. The enemy is your personal wounded self who makes enemies out of others and the world, and seeks healing and safety through domination. Believing in such a duality and calling it the reality is the proven way to eternal failure. Surrender and be healed! No one has ever achieved lasting success with such an unhealed attitude. Such an attitude will get you success neither in this world nor the next. It is only a sign that you understand neither the point of your religion nor the nature of your true self, and no success can come for you in either world if you continue to abuse God's Holy Truth for your own personal goals.

This is why you forbid yourselves the dhikr of Allah, the oft and sincerely repeated saying of His name with a heart full of longing for His truth and the real peace. You won't do it because you know that He in His immediate Reality will break your heart of hatred with His love, and then your peer pressure will be too much for you to resist, and your loyalties to gangs and turf wars will be shattered and you will be ostracized and excommunicated and punished. And all of this has happened to you in your youth and you have promised to never let it happen again, but it will if you break away from your collision bound groups and societies and political organizations and join with the truly Surrendered ones in the Struggle for peace not war, which is the real jihad of Islam, the jihad of healing wounds, and winning hearts and souls, not turf.

But you are forced by your love of society and your need for justification of your personal anger and validation of your false self to create and believe in an artificial and illusory duality, and thereby deprive yourself voluntarily of, and separate yourselves voluntarily from, the love of Allah that you will receive from the true Surrender to Him as He bids you to do, so that He can heal your wounds and make you a true Muslim and bring you into your true unity and show you the true Islam so that you can live it and teach it to others without the hidden guilt of hypocrisy from knowing in your hearts that you are doing nothing more for Allah than competing with the US Marines and recruiting young policemen for a Muslim militia and law enforcement agency, and then wondering why you are not successful, and why no one wants to do it like you do, and so condemning the world as being unfaithful and touting yourself as being true, when it is you who are being untrue to yourselves and to Allah, all the while believing and claiming that you are the chosen faithful, earning your right to paradise and to punish, scold, chastise, police and even murder others.

Allah will take this religion from you, stripping you of the honor which was once yours, and give it to a people who will do right by it, and send you into the fires of the wars that you are so sure will gain you paradise.

"Divorced from reality" you say I am? If you only knew how hard I've worked and how much of my life I've devoted to knowing the Truth and the Real Reality of Allah as it is said that you can by the real masters of Islam that you blaspheme with your petty judgments as if they, or we, really cared. You only deprive yourselves. "And willingly and thanking God", you say, but "soon shall ye come to know". "If only you knew what the Reality is" "Beautiful to some, and horrendous to some". This is what Allah says to those of you who do not know the Reality but prefer the feeling of thinking that you do, while in reality you are only preaching gangs and turf-wars. You choose to not even try. You close the doors of your hearts to your true brothers and sisters in this life and the next who have come to the realizations of the Truth and Reality of Allah in every breath and deed of creation, who offer you the love of Allah but you are too afraid to accept it, except for just a moment so that you can go back to your associates and fellow deniers of love and re-affirm your vows to the hypocrisy of your selves to your very hearts and souls.

War is not the way! You are storming children and it matters not how much altruism and benevolence you claim. I know you feel that if only you could only rule you would manifest the benevolence, fairness and justice according to the book and tradition. So basically you want to be a policeman or a judge and dispense mercy and justice from a position of power, and feel that if the world gave you a chance, you would do a good job, and earn the pleasure of Allah and your reward in the garden. You think that the goal of Islam is a theocratic dictatorship. How little you know and how ill you judge. What do the dead and gone care about what you do with this illusory world of yours.

The Garden is not earned. It is Gifted here and now from the Mercy, Kindness and Benevolence of Allah. It can only be accepted by the believers and rejected by those still in denial. We've all been policed and judged to the death of our souls, and naturally we want to correct the injustices that we've experienced and know exist. But if you are not free of the hidden idol within you, the hidden childhood ego-demands from parents, others, and the world, then you are not free of your attachments, not a mature soul, not realized in the true way of God, the way of our innate nature (din al-fitrah) and can by no means understand or rule fairly, even with the best of tools at your disposal. Your primary responsibility is to know and to see God in every reality, not to respond to the promptings of your lower self to acquire your personal pleasure through violence, and justify it with your favorite interpretations of Scriptures.

Innocent children have heaven already inside of them. Discovery and protection of innocence, your own and that of the ones you love and care for, is of paramount importance, and we do not do that by shoving, however so gently, our guilt ridden fears, religious doctrines and dogmas, and patterns of fearful behavior down their throats. When we "educate" our children in that manner we are simply enforcing the message that they are bad until we say they are good, not that they are good until they are bad, as it should be. Such is the beginning of religious oppression and peer pressure in the family that suppresses the "lovingly rebellious" soul and causes the need for the "acting out" of extremes in the search for love.

Innocence is innate within everyone of us. Children are born in a state of Surrender (Muslims), and there is no way into the kingdom of heaven except by means of Surrender, to be as innocent and pure as little children - innocent of your selves and Surrendered to your reality, in a word, truly surrendered to Allah and real Muslims. There is clearly no such thing as original sin. Why then are we living our lives in a false fear, willing to make war and self-destruct to "earn" the place of our egos (which we think of as our souls) in paradise when we are in our truth already full of faith and confidence in ourselves, unless it is only the illusion of an oppressive life with false responsibility and obligation that we wish to destroy and be free of?

It's because our spirits have been repressed and we want to create an environment in which they can be free. That's the natural desire for paradise. But life, as short as it is, cannot be ruled, that is the dream of a wounded and vengeful child. "If we can marshal together enough of us of like mind, we can take over and have it our way." That's the very thesis of politics and gang philosophy. So you want a politically powerfully organization so that you can be heard and have your grievances addressed. But Allah can address your grievances immediately. But you do not want that because without your grievances you will not belong to the group any longer, you will not be sharing in the responsibility for the grief and suffering. Oh, horrors. You'll be part of the healing and not part of the suffering. You will be deemed by yourself and others as not doing your share.

So you deny yourself permanent happiness in this life (and the next), feeling that it is your responsibility to Allah, and that you are fulfilling it. But it is not and you are not. Your responsibility to Allah is your commitment to Him directly, in yourself and your heart, and then to find the peaceful way out of your own personal trap, and then to share it with others. That is the real way and the real religion and the real Islam. Surrender to Allah, Alone. Heal yourself first and then heal others. Bring them with you to be healed. When the power of your true reality dawns on you, and you feel the force and power of Allah in this movement, you will see that it is the true Islam and you will seek the forgiveness of your Lord morning and evening (for the misunderstandings you received and perpetuated), and offer the praise and gratitude of your Lord for the guidance of this direct way and dedicate your life to spreading it. This is the real way to world peace and the real teaching of the real truth of the real Islam. Period!

Life cannot be ruled, for, who then would be the ruler? You! Not God! Or are you God's partner? You and God? Is that your idea? I don't think so. I don't think you'll find that a very popular idea. So Surrender your false ideas to Allah Now, feel the real love and let go the idols of self-worship in your heart. This is the true way, so discover it and walk it in trust and confidence. Look to your hidden idol, the one of the ideal world in which everything goes your way because you are the Muslim, the one in which all others will bow down to you and your wishes or suffer the just and religiously required consequences. Look to your hidden idol, the one that keeps you from knowing God now.

Life is from Allah, it is Al-Hayy, His Sacred Quality, and it cannot nor should be controlled, It can only be surrendered to. It is the tyranny of the nafs (your lower self) that drives you to thinking that you can, or need to, rule in order to be happy. You cannot rule, because Allah rules. But you can be happy, so surrender to that part of you that is, deeply inside, content and happy with Allah Alone. Or don't. Your choice.

So surrender your horrible beast and enter into the garden now, not later. Do not allow yourself to go to war or to commit crimes of passion and aggression against individuals or humanity no matter how justified the cause or how strong the peer pressure. Stop wrong doing in yourselves and in your friends, family and community. Promise Allah, yourself and me sincerely and forever on the hand of the Prophet that you will be dedicated only to truth, peace, love, mercy, compassion, forgiveness. If you will not do this then be warned of the fires of the very war you are aiding and abetting which will consume you and your loved ones and many millions of innocents and which will not end with your death as you hope. The only way to inherit the garden is to be in it now and not leave. "Khaleelu min al Akhireen". Few among the people of latter times.

Nobody wins by war, or rules by domination. Your parents couldn't rule you. What makes you think you can rule the world. This not the Divine rule of God that you are preaching, but the tyranny of the Self. And it's Your Self, I might add. The assertion that you are on the right path is only an attempt at self-validation in like-minded company. It cannot be real just because you say it is. It must be validated by your actions in the spiritual presence of the prophet through the empowered `ahli bait themselves or in the presence of one of their duly authorized and truly rightly guided representatives. That is the true way preserved by the Sufis. Autonomy (self-governance) is your God-given right. You may exercise it to enter and stay in the coolness of the heaven in your heart through being dedicated to peace, healing wounds and love of thy neighbor, or to jump into a mindset of fear and hatred, creating and entering into the fires of your own desire for the war of self-destruction. But war is suicide and genocide, and for that very reason forbidden by God in all religions. War IS hell. And life is, or can be, heaven.

This is the way to world peace, the making of heaven on earth, not by means of domination and submission, but by the superior means of true understanding and reasoning. This is what Allah wants from us, not the violent outbursts of our wounded and vengeful selves. Restraining ourselves from outbursts of violence and anger is the hardest struggle of all and that's why it is referred to as the Jihad al Akbar, the Greater Struggle. It is abuse of the word Jihad to use it in reference to war over turf.

Historically, the masters of the heart have been the greatest propagators of this religion of truth through their knowing and explaining the reality of unity (tawheed). And it is only in times of peace that religion and civilization can truly flourish. So religion will flourish and reveal its purpose to you only if you keep a peaceful heart.

Giving Salams - Wishing you peace and stating the fact that the Peace of Allah is always present.
As-Salam `Alaikum means that the Peace of Allah is upon and within you. It's up to you to keep it there. It is as much a statement of truth as it is a wish, and for everyone in whom there is a beating heart it is true. It is not only possible but to be hoped for that the true Muslims who have the true peace in their true hearts are able to state the fact that the Peace of Allah is not only present but will never leave if the people chose to follow it. And the straight way to the Peace is from the Peace and not through the gates of war.

Nobody in the world wants to become a Muslim because of the example being set showing that Muslims are a people of peace outwardly, but of war inwardly. They claim to be wanting to make peace but secretly in their hearts want to make war and for that cannot be trusted. Their way is not the straight way but a way of deception, using the talk of peace and salvation to recruit more innocent believers into their theory of Jihad which is nothing more that a political power struggle.

So Peace. May the Peace and Mercy and the Prosperity of Allah be upon you.

Who is the Greatest Scholar?

The Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) was asked:
“Who is the greatest scholar?”
He replied:
“He who is constantly trying to learn from others, for a scholar is ever hungry for more knowledge.”

The Only Means to Achieve Lasting Peace

Allah is as-Salam. As-salam means, roughly, the same as the English word peace, but with overtones of soundness, well being, unimpairedness, security and safety. Allah says of Himself, "He is Allah, other than Whom there is no god. He is the sovereign, the Holy, the Peace," (Q 59:23) and greets us with the words, "Peace – such is the greeting from the All-Compassionate Sustainer."(Q 36:58)

Our basic working premise concerning the subject of peace: Allah is by nature of His Being – Peace – there is no other place to get it from.

Our basic insight concerning world peace: any power, any system, any ideology, any organized or centrally controlled religion is by nature oppressive and usurping of the Divine Prerogative, regardless of either the doctrine upon which it is founded or the sincerity of its devotees. Any attempt, political, economic, military, scientific, philosophical or religious, to re-establish a world of knowledge ('ilm), justice ('adl) and mercy (rahmah) in the period stretching between the time of the death of Muhammad, the last prophet, upon whom be blessings and peace, and the appearance of al-Mahdi is ineluctably doomed to fail.

Our basic insight concerning individual, familial and communal peace: the Prophet said, "You will not have secure faith ('iman) until you love one another and have mercy on those who live upon the earth." He also said, "He who has no mercy will receive none."

Our recommendation is to seek peace where — and only where — it can be found. We believe, based on direct experience, that anything else is a waste of time.

- Sheikh Nooruddeen Durkee

What are we Teaching our Children?

If a child lives with criticism, he learns to condemn.
If a child lives with hostility, he learns to fight.
If a child lives with ridicule, he learns to be shy.

If a child lives with tolerance, he learns to be patient.
If a child lives with fairness, he learns justice.
If a child lives with security, he learns to have faith.

- Anonymous

Revealing the Hidden Treasure

... Man is the goal of creation. He has come into this world to display those Attributes of God that are reflected within himself, or in other words, to play his own part in revealing the Hidden Treasure. At the same time he is being tested: Does he remember the Covenant of Alast? Does he understand and acknowledge that he is displaying God's Treasure, not his own? The idea of the Covenant thus combines the purely metaphysical perspective of the manifestation and theophany of God's Attributes with the more religious and moral perspective of man's awareness and responsibility of his duties toward his Creator.

(Commentary by William C. Chittick, p. 69)

Inclusion not Exclusion

There is story about a Shaykh who was invited to give a talk at a Christian Church about Islam and Christianity. So he went, and they all had a grand time. The good Shaykh spoke eloquently about Jesus, accentuating his positive attributes instead of dwelling on the Trinity.
When the Christian Minister offered to come and give a talk at the Mosque, the good Shaykh thought about it for a moment and then said, "no, that would not be a good idea."
"Why not?" asked the Minister.
"Can you say that you love Muhammad?"
The Minister said, "no, we love Jesus."
The Shaykh said, "it is because you don't love our Master that you cannnot come and speak to us."

As the Shaykh said, "Inclusion, not exclusion."

- From "Kirk" (Abdul-Kareem)

Practices

The quest for power or escape is the mind's response to not wanting to feel pain or emotions. And Dhikrullah is God's answer to that quest. Starting with astaghfirullah 100 times, we then bless the prophet and his family 100 times and then chant lailaha illallah endlessly until the joy of life returns. "Fa Dhikrullah, huwa shifa`u" - for Dhikrullah is the healing.

Astaghfirullah is for you, so that you will know in the root of your being exactly what you are doing. You are seeking the forgiveness of the divine and holy because of all that you have done that has caused you to feel the pain of separation. This is so you will know this and feel the changing effect of doing it from not having done it. "I am seeking the forgiveness of Allah", is the message we are telling ourselves with this repetition. And it should be repeated until received, but at least 100 times to be sure.

Then we send blessings on the Holy Prophet and his family. "Allahumma, salli `ala Sayyidina Muhammadin wa aalihi wa sallim" and this is to heal the wounds of separation from humanity; the relationship of our souls with other souls. We can all come together and learn how to relate to one another around this. Then lailaha illallah 100 times. Repeat the entire process until joyous and blissful. Don't stop until you have reached your goal. Then don't stop.

- Ali Ansari

The Inner and Outer Aspects of Al-Qur'an

The words of the Qur'an have both an outer and an inner meaning, the latter overpowering. Do not regard the surface alone, for the devil never regarded Adam as mere clay. The surface meaning of the Qur'an is like a human torso, features visible, but the spirit hidden.

- Rumi, "Mathnawi"

The Importance of Intellect in Islam

A group of people once commended a certain man in the presence of the Prophet Muhammad, praising him excessively. Thereupon the Prophet said, “What king of intellect does he have?” But they replied, saying, “We tell thee about his diligence in prayer and about the various good works he does, and you ask us about his intellect?” The Prophet answered and said, “The fool does more harm through his ignorance than do the wicked through their wickedness.”

- Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him)

When God’s Decree Becomes Your Pleasure

When God’s decree becomes your pleasure,
you become a willing slave,
not because of burdening yourself,
not on account of recompense,
but by virtue of the nature now so pure
that wherever divine edict may take you,
living and dying will appear the same.
You live for God, not for riches;
you die for God, not from fear or pain.

-Rumi, “Mathnawi”

Sidi, how can I find Allah?

If you want to come to Allah, you will find Him beside you. If you want Allah, you must be polite because Allah is not outside of you. First look inside. Many people read about the truth (al-haqq) because they want to know, but Allah is not with a person if he does not want to know Allah from his heart. Allah will not give you this truth unless you are sincere. If you are not sincere with everything, you will not reach. This is your message.

- Sidi Shaykh Muhammad Sa‘id al-Jamal ar-Rifa‘i

The Balance of Truth and Law

The truth (al-haqiqa) and the law (ash-shari’a) are the two balances of a scale, and you are its heart. If you leave to go to the side of the shari’a, you become of the shari’a and you lose the inner truth of al-islam. If you go to the truth and abandon the law, you may break the law and this law is from God. Know that you are the driver of the ship and God asks you about the ship – how it moves through the sea. For this reason, hold both of the reins in your hands. Do not look to the right or to the left. Be the Noah of your time.

- Sidi Sheikh Muhammad al-Jamal ar-Rafa'i

True Prostration

Whomever Allah wishes to lift out of the turbulent water of this dark world, He picks up with His own hands and puts in the ship of surrender. This is the inner meaning of the religion, of the Qur’an, and of the judgment. If anyone is not truly prostrated before the presence of the One who gives the law, no matter how many prostrations he makes with his body, no matter how many injunctions he follows with his mind, he is not, in truth, a believer (al-mu`minin).

- Sidi Sheikh Muhammad al-Jamal ar-Rafa'i

Allah

How transcendent and immaculate is God! He has neither place, nor time, nor beginning, nor temporal continuity, nor posterior eternity, nor temporal priority, nor terminal end, and yet all the while, He is neither occupied with, nor seeks succor from, that which He has brought into being. Nonetheless, He is just in all affairs wherein His commandments are issued to people.

- Shibli in Sarraj Tusi: "Kitab al-luma"

Understanding the Value of Women in Nation Building

Despite their under-representation in the literatures of traditional Muslim societies, the prominent public roles of women in those societies cannot be overlooked. Perhaps the most prominent role that women have traditionally played as partners in societal advancement, however, has been as the spiritual center and functional head of the Muslim family. In Islam, women are considered the bedrock of the family, not in terms of worldly tasks, but as the spiritual well-spring. In the ‘Islamic’ society, one based on the teachings of Islam, such a role is in no way inferior than that of the full-time worker. On the contrary, the role of homemaker is all the more important for society cannot exist peacefully and advance successfully without them. Arguably, it is in this role that women everywhere have and continue to make their greatest contribution to societies' advancement and progress. Women as homemakers are not mere task-masters, but are educators, nurturers, counselors, doctors, nurses, cooks, cleaners, mechanics, who, through their love and hard work make their families oases of tranquility, love, harmony and peace. It is from this foundation and platform that the other family members in the home can thrive. Many a life and society have been ruined on account of the proverbial ‘broken home’. Why, then, do critics continue to de- and undervalue the role of homemakers as the spiritual foundation of family and home life? Arguably, the root cause of inequality between men and women has never been due to what has been written in the annals of law and policy or even societal norms, but rather in the disregard of the absolute value and necessity of women for the healthy and robust functioning of families and societies.

Women in Islamic teachings, therefore, are considered critical for nation building in a number of ways, both from their work in the home and outside of it. The role of women in the establishment and maintenance of peace, therefore, begins with their role as the spiritual foundation of the family, followed by the variety of additional roles that they may take on outside of the home. The all-important role that they play as homemakers cannot be disregarded in any discussion on nation building, and unfortunately, it often is. Stable, peaceful and loving families are a primary, major and integral element for the advancement and progress of any society, and in this role, women as homemakers are key partners in nation building.

- From "Muslim Women and Peace: Toward Understanding the Role of Islamic Religiosity as a Contributor to Nation Building," Steven Eric Krauss (Abdul-Lateef Abdullah) and Azimi Hamzah

The Highest Stage of Worship

The truest and highest stage of worship is to see God face to face, and to receive his guidance from his own mouth. Those who attain this highest stage, choose for themselves whatever God chooses for them. Their entire characters are transformed by God. They are God's friends; so they no longer discriminate between people, but regard all people as friends. Wherever they go, they go from God; wherever they arrive, they arrive at God. Whatever they do, they do for God; whatever service they perform, they perform it in God. The self has been truly annihilated. - Junayd, "Tawhid"