/September Message 2025
Beloved Family, Heart greetings as we approach the Equinox and Jewish New Year! Deep gratitude for all your prayers for my wellbeing. My right knee is healing well, according to schedule and the left knee is also supporting me. I am about a month out from the last surgery and walking about a mile a day and starting to use the stationary bike for reconditioning and strength building. Tamam is also healing slowly. Having missed last month’s Zikr Circle because of surgery, I look forward to seeing our local family this Thursday at our monthly Zikr Circle in Novato. As we approach the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, this year starting Monday evening September 22, to Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement ~ October 1 evening, we have what is known as the 10 Days of Tshuva. The 10 Days of Tshuva could be called the 10 days of Muhasibah. It is a period where one takes an account of one's life - YA HASIB, opening one's heart and eyes to everything, even what may be uncomfortable to see. With the support of YA TAWWAB, light is shed on what we previously kept in darkness or shadow. Tshuva, is the same root as tauba/Tawwab, which we translated in Arabic as turning toward Divine Light, and Allah continually turning toward us. This calls for overcoming the attachment to our self-grasping, in other words, not being attached to any particular view of ourselves, whether grandiose, exaggerated or demeaning, self-loathing, low self-worth or esteem. We turn toward the light which removes shadows, always feeling the love flowing toward us, no matter what our mistakes and accomplishments are. Loosely quoting Mevlana Jelaluddin Rumi, “For sixty years I have been forgetful, but not for one single second has this Flowing toward me ever stopped or slowed”. We can reflect further that the mystics of old set up this ritual as a rehearsal for what in the Bible is called the "Day of Judgement,” or in the language of Near Death Experience, as a Life Review. The Tibetans give teachings around the stages in the Bardos, the stage one goes through after death which talks about reckoning with ones causes and conditions. As Murshid Sam would often point out, it is called the DAY of judgement, not the NIGHT of judgement. In other words, it happens in the LIGHT. That is, in one of the stages after leaving behind this body, one gets a life's review in the LIGHT. I believe the phrase, "Day of Accounting," or "Day of Reconciling,” “Day of Muhasibah”, rather than judging, would be appropriate. If one is able to turn to the light then there is no self-loathing, just learning from one's mistakes. One does not feel cast out or separate from the Beloved. Again quoting Murshid Sam, "Allah is your Lover, not your jailer.” So let us take this month to use these two wazifas, YA HASIB - YA TAWWAB, as the catalyst to take account of our year and balance our accounting for the coming time. Much love, Shabda |
Wazifa Practice Recite 101x YA HASIB ~ YA TAWWAB 40. Ya Hasib (yaa ḥa-SEEB) Al-Hasib is the action of accounting for the full meaning of everything. Nothing goes unrecorded and nothing is ever lost. It means taking full responsibility for one's actions, words, and even one's thoughts. To become completely accountable allows for a new beginning of what is possible. It brings realization. A root meaning of al-Hasib is to record a business transaction in an account book with exactitude and honesty. An advanced Sufi technique called muhasibah is an honest taking account of oneself while never forgetting that you are within the ocean of divine mercy. 79. Ya Tawwab (yaa tow-WAAB) At-Tawwab is the forgiveness that enables you to turn away from grudges, and perceived individual defects, toward the perfection of Allah. It comes with the realization that the divine beloved is always turning toward you, continually offering a gaze of deep forgiveness and endless compassion. At-Tawwab conveys the real meaning of repentance, the turning from the limitations of the false self and toward the perfection of your immortal soul, which is not separate from the divine reality. Realizing at-Tawwab involves giving up the attachment to being right. It means giving up self-righteousness and letting go of the grudge. It is to turn your face toward someone else with forgiveness and compassion. Like Ya Wadud, it consciously uses the densest elements of a situation as an inner impetus for transformation, and to turn toward God. Repetition of Ya Tawwab allows you to turn toward the divine face in every face. It is an antidote for clinging to, and identifying with, a wounded sense of self-deficiency. Commonly translated as the Acceptor of Repentance, it has the root in the Arabic, tauba, turning. It can be understood as the Divine Forgiveness that allows us to turn from individual defect toward the Beloved, who is always facing us, continually (because of the double consonant WW) turning toward us. Many of you will recognize it as the third wazifa in the four wazifas of healing we have done before, YA GHAFFAR, YA GHAFFUR, YA TAWWAB, and YA AFUW |
Text and Commentary to Study This month we continue studying the Sangatha Cosmic Language of Pir-o-Murshid Hazrat Inayat Khan with commentary by Murshid Samuel Lewis. Read pages 21-40 Click below to download |
