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must know that He loves them. It is not always easy to love people, even good people, so what about the Korahs of this world?
Love pertaining to the ego is not love, as all the ego knows is to love itself, and what is commonly called love is but a mutual understanding to support each other’s egoism. Don’t trust your ego, nor anyone else’s, for the ego is disloyal by nature. When the spirit gains ascendancy the ego may be harnessed and put to good use, as the Holy Prophet said, “Your ego is your mount”, but left to its whims it will take you many miles from your path in search of herbage.
This discourse is an ocean, its summary is: what is of the world beware of, and pay attention to the dose. When crossing that ocean embark on a sturdy ship with well maintained lifeboats and life preservers, and if you swim in it keep your head above water! As for the Ocean of Divine Love, dive in and drown—that is eternal life in the Ocean of Unity.

Seek to Make Things Easy for People, Not Hard

Allah Almighty knows and understands His creatures, and descendants of Adam, best. He Almighty knows their capacities and debilities, their excellences and their shortcomings, and He only expects from them in accordance with what He knows about them. As our Lord has decreed, throughout the ages it should become increasingly difficult for human beings to live in accordance with what is good for them, and thus Allah their Lord has lessened His expectations of them.
Allah Almighty knows full well that the people of the last time will not be capable of much obedience of devotion to Him, and therefore He has made the successive divine laws revealed through His prophets progressively easier and less demanding, culminating in the law revealed to the last and seal of Prophets, Muhammad, peace be upon him, the tolerant law of Islam.
Even during the lifetime of the Holy Prophet, Allah Almighty lightened the burdens that He Himself had imposed on believers, knowing that these practices would be too difficult for them to bear.
For example, fasting used to commence after the evening meal, or from when a person went to sleep at night, and continue to the next sunset. Then Allah eased fasting for the believers by permitting that they partake of a pre dawn meal and fast only from the first crack of dawn until sunset.
Although the revealed law of Islam need never change throughout history, as it is the law revealed for the people of the last time—still, from the time of the

revelation of the Holy Qur’an until the end of the world, the level of observance expected of us by our Lord, and the strictness or lenience with which He will judge our actions, is not the same now as it was in the time of the Prophet.
Yes, the complete divine law as revealed to our Prophet stands unaltered as the model of perfection to be striven for by believers of high aspiration and degree. But according to the following tradition of our Prophet it is clear that the actions of the people of such a degenerate time as our own will only be judged relative to the conditions they had to endure.
According to tradition, the Holy Prophet once addressed his companions, saying, “Oh my companions, if one of you abandons one divine command from among one hundred, he will be in danger of losing his faith, but there will come a time when anyone of my nation who holds firmly to even one command from among one hundred, may hope to save himself and his faith.”
We must understand the full implications of this prophecy, but generally our Islamic scholars read such a tradition and never pause to reflect on it. Therefore, it is their habit to be too rigid and intolerant in their dealing with new Muslims from Western countries. As soon as a person agrees to become Muslim, those scholars proceed to load them down with instructions on the full level of worship, fasting, etc. required of a fully responsible Muslim, and the complete list of forbidden actions as well—all in all five hundred orders and eight hundred prohibitions!
What should be the reaction of such new people who, in our times, are not even converting from another religion with practices and prohibitions of a roughly corresponding nature, but often from a completely

unregulated way of life? If we are to present Islam in such a way they will certainly think twice before committing themselves to Islam, as they are not prepared to instantly observe the whole of the law. This is why so many Western people come to me and ask if it is possible to follow a Sufi way without embracing Islam, as they view Islam as a gigantic mountain which they would be ordered to scale to the peak, immediately, without training, without equipment—so, naturally they are hesitant.
We must be wise and aware of our responsibilities towards people whose hearts incline towards Islam. We must remember that our Lord is the One who Himself stresses His Mercy Oceans above all other attributes in His holy book, and we must learn from our Lord’s tolerance towards us to be tolerant with those with whom we want to forge bonds of the heart, with those whom we want to guide toward our Lord’s Love and take as our own brothers and sisters.
No one from among the Muslims can dispute the fact that the full command of the divine law was revealed to our Prophet gradually over a period of ten years in Medina, and this only after an initial thirteen year preparation period in Mecca, when nothing specific was demanded of the believers except to believe in Allah, the Last Day, His prophets, and to do good deeds. The holy Prophet summarizes the wisdom of this approach in a famous tradition, “Seek to make things easy for people, not hard. Bring them good tidings, don’t drive them away.”
Look, we all know that, for example, the schooling of a child from kindergarten to university involves much studying and effort on the part of the student. But don’t say to that little child, “Education is a long process involving the learning and even memorization of so

many big books, the solving of difficult problems in math and science, and doing lots of homework instead of playing.” If you paint such a picture for that small child of what he is entering into, he will try to escape in sheer terror.
But we, as adults, know that in education the student will be prepared by his teachers for solving every problem he is asked to solve, that he will be given challenges that accord to his level and draw him to the next. First graders are never expected to read the books or solve the math problems in the fifth grade curriculum. To a first grader you must say, “Come here and I will teach you A, B, C . . . yes, this is your lesson nothing else.” Step by step that pupil will learn to read everything. And so, in Islam, we lead people step by step. There is a beginning and an end, but first we must help people take the first steps; if they don’t take the first steps they will never take the last ones.
Unfortunately, Islam having been both revealed and propagated in this gradual manner—without difficulty for the learner—is understood by neither Muslims nor non Muslims. Therefore, in this time we are in need of new guidance, and we are not anticipating that it will come from our scholars. It is understanding and guidance that comes through the heart, from heart to heart; not merely instruction as to what we should or should not do with our bodies.
Muslims and non Muslims alike must understand this point, as a real understanding of Islam is capable of saving the whole world. But if we persist in our misunderstanding it will be impossible to reverse the movement toward the brink of disaster.
The Holy Qur’an addresses the whole of mankind, and we are in need of people who are capable of helping

people to their shares of the Holy Book. The Holy Qur’an is a fountain, a gushing source that may quench the thirst of billions, but very few people are following the river to its source, everyone is drawing from it far downstream. We must seek the source for it is the life spring for all mankind.

Wa min Allah at Taufiq.

Digest Your Anger

For those of us whose physical bodies are “over the hill”, by this I mean over the age of fifty or so, we must face the fact that no matter how well we look after ourselves, our physical powers are gradually deteriorating and step by step we are approaching death.
But as for our spiritual condition, there is no such limit, no age when powers are at their maximum then recede. Spiritual power may continue to grow strongly throughout our lives, but we must seek out conditions conducive to that continuing growth, and weed out those qualities which threaten to choke the precious plant.
One of the most harmful weeds the most inimical to our spiritual growth is the anger generated by the vanity of our egos. When anger rages it engulfs the light of faith, transforming it into fire. The light of faith is the pure light of God, but when it is transformed into fire it no longer illumines, it burns.
When you find yourself overcome with anger you must quickly run to a mirror and behold your own face. That ugly spectacle will be enough to calm your anger, for who wants to look like the devil himself? When a person is angry his actions are satanic–destructive and self destructive. Our grandshaykh stressed the necessity of abandoning anger, for when the ego’s anger dominates a person he may readily deny even the sovereignty of God, and put himself in rebellion against the Overwhelming One–and that is very dangerous.
Anger also wreaks havoc on our physical bodies, causing illness and premature aging, especially when a high level of anger is maintained over a long period of time.

Very few people can turn back anger when it assaults them. This is why so few people advance spiritually. The reason that anger is so difficult to defeat is simply because it is an intrinsic part of our physical and spiritual constitution. Anger corresponds to the element of fire in our makeup, which is a balance of fire, water, earth and air. Only those who are trained from a very early age by enlightened parents or teachers will have learned to keep these elements in balance. As for most people, each of these elements may predominate on different occasions according to exterior circumstances and intrinsic propensities, setting the equilibrium off center. Fire flares up in the face of provocation and teasing, aggression or attempts to subdue the will (of the child). Since these occasions are usually frequent in our early lives, we are all adept at getting angry, and from a very early age.
Our grandshaykh also suggested that we perform a special dhikr (prayer meditation) at night in order to gain the upper hand in our struggle against anger. When you arise in the last third of the night to perform supererogatory prayers, after performing your ablutions, start by turning your face to the House of God and implore Him to aid you in your attempt to subdue anger. Then repeat one hundred times, “Ya Halim” which means “Oh (God, who is) Forbearing and Slow to Anger.” This name, al Halim, is a divine attribute of God which He wishes to bestow generously upon us, should we seek to receive it.
The first step is in this manner to ask God to help us become forbearing; then we must meditate on the divine attribute al Halim, that it may be absorbed into our being. We are literally calling the state of “Halim” upon ourselves. Next we must adopt a practice in our everyday lives that will further our purposes. This practice is

simply not to show anger, even when you feel it welling up inside. Don’t spit that anger out at those around you and poison the atmosphere, like a fire breathing dragon. Hold it in, but not like a lump of undigested food; no, you must digest it.
A certain amount of anger is part and parcel of every personality. Without some of that fire in our constitution we would die; therefore, it is possible for us to digest a certain amount of anger without suffering adverse side effects. Of course, if we were to remain unchanged over a long period of time and swallow the same amount of anger, we would overdose; but that is not the case, for in time our intake of anger decreases as we learn, and are granted the ability not to react angrily to provocation in the first place. So, just as a baby initially drinks great quantities of milk, then graduates to solid food, decreasing its milk consumption drastically, we can swallow and digest anger, in the full knowledge that other forms of nourishment are soon forthcoming.
If you can manage to refrain from showing anger for forty days, you will have passed a great milestone. When it assails you, you must evade it, and when it is going to issue from you, you must swallow it. If you can successfully avoid it for forty days, anger will begin to assault you less frequently, to perhaps once every forty days. If you can manage to keep yourself in this manner the initial forty days, and thereafter, in the face of forty more assaults (forty periods of forty days, a little more than four years), Satan will announce to his helpers, “Don’t bother attacking that person; you are just wasting your time and energy. His defenses are impenetrable; one thousand attacks are just as futile as one. Leave him alone, he has escaped from our hands.”
Satan, along with his helpers the selfish ego (nafs), vain desires (hawa) and worldliness (dunya) are our four

great enemies, and whoso learns to control his anger will be victorious against these negative influences.
Whenever you feel anger arising in you, you must be aware that you are being tested. Such tests are sent your way from the spiritual world in order to ascertain your trustworthiness. Disliked events are sent from that realm so that you may have the chance to forbear, and thereby advance toward your goal. If there were not some benefit to be found in anger, it would not exist. The benefit is found in being patient in the face of it. Without passing this test there can be no improvement.
Forbearance is a key to divine stations, and that key is forged by facing odious events with patience and controlling our anger. So, anger is a two edged sword, and if you can grasp its handle firmly you may rent the veils that blind your heart’s eyes, but if it is in the hands of your enemies your faith will be severed.

Everything is Known by its Opposite

Every single member of the human race has been honored by the Creator. How has Allah Almighty manifested His esteem for man? The Almighty had made us His deputies on earth; that is why mankind has gained such ascendancy over the rest of the Lord’s creatures. Whether we, as a race, live up to that responsibility is another matter.
An important aspect of this deputization is His taking us into the intimacy of His confidence, His taking it upon Himself to instruct us. His having addressed us through the revelation of holy books is evidence of the care He has for mankind and the importance He Almighty assigns to our fulfilling our potential–the potential of earning for ourselves the rank of trustworthy deputy.
Now, let us say, we are all candidates for that position. Our allegiance to our Lord is much deeper than what would be implied by the lengths of our lives here. Do you think that your life began with your conception in your mother’s womb? Were you nothing before this life? Our souls were created, but that beginning is lost to our comprehension in the depth of eternity past. Only the Creator can encompass the origin of our souls, so old are they.
Before coming to this life we existed in the Divine Presence in loving servitude to our Lord. Our relationship with Him was flawless–sincere and perfect– but the Lord in His fathomless wisdom wanted to bestow more honor upon His servants. Originally He bestowed divine light upon us (nur), but He wanted to confer on us even more generously of that light, so as to make it “light upon light” (nurun ala nur).

The nature of this light which shines upon light is also a bestowal in the sense that everything originates in Him, the Creator and Bestower, but simultaneously there is another aspect of its nature, which is earned through the exercise of our free will. Among all of God’s creatures, this “limited autonomy”; this ability to choose our priorities has been granted exclusively to humankind. All other creatures are bound by a single nature that allows them neither deviation nor the possibility of gaining divine honor by choosing a difficult but noble course.
Man has been given not only a physical body and an ego that represents the desires of that body in the realm of the mind, but also the latent consciousness of something much greater and sublime. Such is Allah’s Wisdom that these forces are caused to exist within us all, but according to our choice or will one side or the other may establish its supremacy.
The dominance of the physical over the spiritual (and in many cases the complete stifling of the spiritual by the physical) is the condition in which many people remain throughout the course of their lives. The physical nature is more immediate and accessible, just as water always flows down. But for those who can discover the inner world and pursue the uphill path, that “light upon light” is granted, and they have fulfilled the real purpose of their lives.
Physically we are of no account in this boundless universe, but spiritually we have been given the opportunity to attain divine knowledge and wisdom in a realm yet beyond. When the Prophet Muhammad, upon whom be peace, was taken to the Divine Presence by the Angel Gabriel during his Night Journey, the Prophet was shown a procession of mankind passing by and greeting him; but it was a procession with no beginning and no

end. The Prophet’s mind staggered at the idea of infinite creatures, and subsequent to this vision the following holy verse was revealed:
And no one can encompass the quantity of your Lord’s ‘armies’ but He.
Who was the first Adam and who will be the last? Don’t ask! Our father Adam represents 124,000 Adams throughout time and the endless territories of the Lord. He is the Creator, and creation is always His attribute, from eternity past to everlasting. Since creation is His attribute, were He not creating He would cease to be, and that is impossible. Now modern science refers to a “big bang” that occurred in a trillionth part of a second or thereabouts. Even that description is inadequate, for Allah’s awesome creative power may appear in a unit of time so minute as to be immeasurable. Yes, such is His power that in that most minute moment He created not only this immense universe, but filled it with His servants.
Each of us is but one member of a huge caravan on one small planet, but our Lord has honored us by summoning us to unity in His Divine Presence. Prepare yourself for existence as light upon light. This is the main theme of the messages of all prophets.
Our real beings have never left the Divine Presence. Where else could they go? Only from Him to Him! Our real being is blissfully immersed in His Divine Light Oceans. So what is it that is here in this world? Only one ray from that resplendent spirit is clothed in a physical body and sent to this world, in order to attain even a greater effulgence by means of the existence here of its opposite, darkness. Through the presence of that contrasting condition we are able to absorb more light and wisdom.

Don’t imagine from this discourse that only those who exercise their willpower in a positive way are destined for the Divine Presence. Everyone is appointed to an important position in this life, and just as more aspects of light are absorbed into the consciousness by means of the awareness of darkness, so is the wisdom of the believer sharpened by the existence of wretched individuals. Everyone is on an orbit leading to his destination, and that destination is in the Divine Presence.
When Allah states that He has honored the Children of Adam, He states this without distinguishing between believer and unbeliever. He didn’t say, “We have honored the believers of the Children of Adam.” No, that honor has been granted to the whole human race already in eternity past, whether its potential is realized here or not. Man’s highest potential, however, is reached when he lifts the veils of physicality from the eyes of the heart while yet in this life in order to clearly see the truth of our eternal covenant with God.
The mission of all the prophets has been to help us lift those veils from our hearts. If you sincerely and diligently follow their way, a vision of a wonderful universe beyond the realm of imagination may appear before your very eyes. Otherwise, that universe should appear to you when you leave this world and embark upon your journey to eternity. Yes, all souls are bound for their Lord–for where else is there? But the greatest honor possible for a created being is to attain eternity in the midst of temporality–during this short life.
Today they have granted us an understanding of our position among creatures. You must know how much you have been honored, and must keep a humble attitude towards the One who granted you that honor. We could

elaborate further, but no one could receive it, no one is prepared. Beyond this limit there is unlimited wisdom.

A Person’s Value

Time is the “hand of God”: it moves everything along its course towards its ordained destination. Some are able to comprehend the purport of the passage of time, and observe it with the eye of wisdom. Such people deal with time by grasping the reins of each passing day, utilizing their God given vision to move their lives in the right direction.
Others perceive time in a distorted manner, like a person looking at a convex or a concave mirror. This malady of perception occurs because they are not reconciled to the “hand of God’, haven’t understood the reason why God has confined us to the realm of time and space. He intends thereby only to give us a chance to perfect ourselves, to acquire divine attributes through our own efforts in a difficult situation, and thus prepare ourselves for the day of our reunion with our Lord.
In a holy tradition the Lord said, “The Children of Adam curse time, and I am Time. In My hand is the passage of day and night.”
For those who have not yet understood this truth, time seems to behave in an erratic and disturbing way. The effect of this is to draw our attention to the need to change ourselves to feel in harmony with the passage of time, since time itself, obviously, will neither speed up nor slow down to accommodate our wishes. Our perceiving our own problem with time is a mercy from God, for as a stomachache indicates the need for a change in eating habits, so does this malady awaken us to the need for adjustment of our lifestyle.
For some people time seems to fly, carrying them along like helpless riders on the backs of stampeding

horses, in a herd headed over a cliff. For others time seems to stand still as if it were bogged down in the mire.
First of all we must understand the value of time; how once spent it is irretrievable. If all the nations were to pool their resources to try and redeem even one second of the past (in order to change a catastrophic decision, for example) would they succeed? No, a mountain of treasure cannot bring back even a second of your life. So, time is precious beyond reckoning, but yet do people idly fritter away the hours and seek means for gaining even more leisure time.
So many people (not only those who would be considered clinically manic depressive) suffer from an inability to adapt to the passage of time in a way that accords them peace of mind.
The egos of very young people want to devour the whole world immediately. The feverish heat of the fulfillment of passions and the pursuit of pleasure makes time ap
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