Dearest Family,

Still adjusting to jet lag after a very heartfelt two weeks in Tunisia and Türkiye. And before that we had a deep weeklong Northern California Sufi Sesshin.

Right at the tail end of the Sufi Sesshin covid appeared. A day after the retreat was over I tested positive and luckily four days later I tested negative, the day before my international flight to teach in Tunisia. It meant that I was more fragile than usual as I traveled and taught, with a lingering cough, etc. Happily, I was not a spreader!

In Tunisia I shared the teaching responsibilities with Munira Reed and Dakini Warrior. We had the privilege of teaching 80 folks, 60 from Tunisia, mostly under 30, and another twenty from Türkiye, Germany, France, UK, and Czech Republic. It is heartwarming to feel such beautiful people from so many different cultures and share the precious message of the universal nature of Awakening to the Purpose of Life!

After 9 days in Tunisia, I spent three days in Istanbul, hosted by a wonderful team of our Turkish family. We led a full day retreat with just under 60 folks, teaching the Dance and mysticism, along with an afternoon of Sufi Sesshin practice.

I know many of us can feel the world going crazy, especially here in my own backyard, the United States. For me it only makes our efforts to teach and spread loving kindness and compassion and the Path to God all the more important. I know I feel very insulated from being affected by all the insanity, living in California, owning my own home for the past 40 years and having enough abundance to live on. At the same time, I listen to whatever way the Universe is guiding me to help support the ship of humanity and our planet, and not lose sight of the present dangers.

I feel that keeping our attitude free from hatred, resentment and anger will serve best. So I invite us to recite this pair of wazifas YA HALIM ~ YA WADUD, to bring out our kindness and loving nature.

Much love, 

Shabda

Wazifa Practice  

Recite 101x

YA HALIM ~ YA WADUD

32. Ya Halim (yaa ḥa-LEEM)

Al-Halim is tender love, gentle and kind love. The tenderness of al-Halim is physical, emotional, and nurturing. God manifests this quality anywhere and everywhere, without exception. One physical root meaning is the shyness and gentleness that is found in an early pubescent girl. There is a kind of retiring or monastic quality to al-Halim. It offers a softness and kindness that makes for perseverance. Al-Halim is the place where the dreams can arise, which are really visions. Forms of the word, hulm and 'ahlam, are categories in dream interpretation.

Al-Halim offers an avenue for creative imagination, even as God is said to lovingly dream the universe. Repetition of Ya Halim brings a mildness of manner that is an antidote for anger and impatience. It expands with immense openness. Al-Halim’s harmonious qualities allow it to be beneficially paired with many other divine Names to enhance their effects. See Ya Rahman (1),Ya Rahim (2), Ya Latif (30), Ya Wadud (47), and Ya Ra'uf (82), with all of which al-Halim is grouped in Chapter 6, Love’s Mysteries.

47. Ya Wadud (yaa wa-DOOD)

Al-Wadud is divine love’s most intimate manifestation. It is the constant embrace of the affectionate, loving universe. The way we learn to love Allah is by learning how to love, and human beings especially learn how to love by learning how to be intimate. Repetition of Ya Wadud is an antidote for all who have difficulty achieving intimacy with others. Al-Wadud includes sexual intimacy. A physical plane meaning from the same root is “tent peg.” The peg of our deepest desire holds down the tent of our existence.

Al-Wadud offers an avenue for seeing divine love in tumultuous relationships and within strong love/hate relationships. It consciously uses the densest elements of a situation as an inner impetus to turn toward God. This transformative quality is also found in Ya Tawwab (79), and these two Names may be paired in repetition to enhance such a process of turning from the lower self toward the one.

To hear the pronunciation: Ya Halim ~ Ya Wadud

Text and Commentary to Study

This month we continue studying Perfection of the Heart, by Murshid Samuel Lewis. Read pages 12-22.

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Perfection of the Heart

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