#17 The Path to Unity with Ibrahim Jaffe MD and Samah Ross - Part 2
Details of the workshop in Oxford, UK Fri, 10 Nov 2023 17:00 - Sun, 12 Nov 2023 16:00 GMT can be found here
Links:
University of Sufism - Home - University of Sufism (sufiuniversity.org)
Institute of Spiritual Healing | Bringing Spiritual Healing to people worldwide
marifafoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/FINAL-Expo-2023-Booklet.pdf
BIO
Ibrahim Jaffe, M.D., is a physician, Sufi Master, and spiritual guide (Murshid Murabi Ruhi). As Founder and head of the Institute of Spiritual Healing, University of Sufism and the Ma'rifa Foundation, he is committed to people walking the path of spiritual unity and love. He is the author of God's Way: Sufi Spiritual Healing and the creator of the APIIR-TB divine healing method using the 99 Names of God. Through walking with Dr. Jaffe, people experience deep physical and spiritual healing. Dr. Jaffe's vision is to bring together the Light of all paths and help the world move to Oneness and Peace. His heart holds the tremendous power of unconditional love and gnostic understanding.
Samah Ross, M.A., M. Div, has been a student of Sufism for more than 20 years, and holds a Master's degree in Divinity from the University of Spiritual Healing and Sufism and a Master's in French Literature. Before retiring she worked for 30+ years in government and industry as a global leadership consultant, trainer and executive coach. She is proud to sit on the board of the UK Trust, and to have supported the UK Sufi community through workshops for several years.
Summary: Path to Unity – Interview 2
In the first podcast of the Path of Unity we took a deep dive into the journey of Islāmic spirituality and Ṣūfī Healing (الروحانيات والشفاء الصوفي) by speaking to Murshid Murrabbī Rūḥī (المرشد المربي الروحي) Dr Ibrahim Jaffe and Master Healer Samah Ross, spiritual healers and teachers initiated onto the Shādhūlī ṭarīqa (الطريقة الشاذلية) by the gnostic and intimate friend of God shaykh Sīdī Muḥammad ar-Rifāʿī ash-Shādhulī (سيدي محمد الرفاعي الشاذلي). They will be leading the upcoming spiritual healing workshop in the UK this November.
After our initial plunge into understanding the realities of the holy ocean of unity, we continue our conversation with Dr Ibrahim Jaffe and Samah Ross to...
.. explore in greater depth some of the concepts, conceptions and concerns that have been coming up for travelers on the path. We navigate challenges that seem to be arising across growing communities in effort to return to what unites each traveler: the sincere turning toward Allāh (الله). The Path of Unity ultimately calls us to empty our vessels, purify and beautify our hearts, and through Divine grace, witness the adornment of our souls with His Beautiful Names.
Through this dialogue we pay our respect to the late shādhulī shaykh Sīdī Muḥammad al-Jamal, realigning our hearts to the message he brought from the holy city of Jerusalem to the United States and England, the message of Peace, Love, Mercy, Justice, Unity, and Freedom. In its detailed presentation, we bring the practices and teachings of the Shādhulī path to the forefront.
The discussion also draws our attention to what it means to be a ṣūfī (صوفي) in today’s fast-paced modern world and technology-driven era. We are left with wonders to ponder, words to raise our himma (همة), and an invitation of return.
Dr Ibrahim Jaffe and Samah Ross continue to generously give their time and effort to sharing the holy message in service to others. Their contribution to the healing arts continues to inspire. We close with a prayer for the strength and courage to walk the ṣūfī path with sincerity and do the inner work required for us to actualize our potential as khalīfas (خليفة) on this earth. That door to Divine intimacy awaits us.
Path of Unity – Interview 2
Host: Saqib Safdar
Guests: Dr Ibrahim Jaffe and Samah Ross
Question 1 time: 2:26
So, did Sīdī take you beyond the stations of enlightenment in the Western term of the word and what was the teaching? What was the tarbīyyah (تربية), the spiritual education, you received from Sīdī and what did that look like?
Question 2 time: 21:12
Could you tell us about the daily practices of the Shādhulī path? Also, many modern Ṣūfī ṭarīqas however no longer uphold the vigilant practices of seclusion known as khalwas. Could you expand on this and say something about the sort of practices given by Sīdī and how he worked with you?
Question 3 time: 32:22
Could you tell us a little more about how Sīdī would work with people to purify the places within that are reacting to negative emotions such as jealousy or anger? Was the process of purification done through the recitation of prayers? There are stories on Sīdī using the hookah in healing as a catalyst for purification along with the breath. Could you talk more about this?
Question 4: time: 34:10
Opening the floor to Samah Ross to speak.
Question 5 time: 38:38
Sīdī prescribed certain invocations after offering the ṣalāt (الصلاة) including the recitation of āyat al-kursī and other prayers for protection. Disciples also mention that Sīdī recommended the waẓīfa practice of Ibn al-Mashīsh and the recitation of Ḥizbul Baḥr. Could you say more about this?
Question 6 time: 41:34
Sīdī played an active role in the formation of the Ṣūfī University; presumably its structure, syllabus, and the various levels of the curriculum (highlighting level one, level two, the ṣūfī walking etc.).
Could we look at Sīdī’s role in setting up the Ṣūfī University—addressing structure, syllabus, curriculum, and continuum? And address, whether this assumption is correct or not, the adaptation of the shādhulī path for the needs of the modern seeker.
Did Sīdī run workshops? What sort of structure did he establish for this to carry on?
Question 7 time: 48:32
Could you shed some light on the tuition fees and the cost of services associated with the Sufi University and how that differs, in context, from directly going to a shaykh where there are no fees for spiritual guidance and development? How do you clarify any misunderstanding there?
Question 8 time: 53:47
For our listeners here who may be relatively new or haven't heard of Sufi University before, could you please provide information on where the money goes – how is money derived from tuition fees and charged services being used?
Question 9 time: 55:17
You've mentioned the seven stations of the soul, the heart, and the nafs. Now that Sīdī has passed and is no longer physically present, who is there to oversee the teachings and the transmission in and of themselves, the spiritual guidance that would have normally been given by a living shaykh? How does this apply for people who have never met Sīdī in person and haven't had that sort of connection? Did Sīdī leave a successor when he died? What's the situation around a community that needs to organize itself when if there hasn't been a designated a shaykh?
Question 10 time: 58:34
Could you please tell us about the role of the four murshids in the US, touching on what Sīdī might have had in mind when he assigned these roles and how they work? Also, did he ever give a written ījāza? I believe in your book at the beginning you mentioned how he had given you ījāza to transmit the teachings. Could you say something about that?
Question 11 time: 1:05:35
For full conformational clarity, did anyone get a written ījāza?
Question 12 time: 1:06:43
Just read this quote by Imam Al Ghazali, an introduction by Shaykh Ḥamza Yūsuf to The Book on Knowledge and I just find it fascinating, so I'll read it out: “Unlike Ṣūfī scholars who came before him and had argued that taṣawwuf (التصوف) was a third of Islām, as it was the science of iḥsān, Imām al-Ghazālī (الإمام الغزالي), his unique contribution was to show that taṣawwuf is in reality the animating spirit of the entire corpus of Islām. He believed that without this animating force, religion was a dead thing. He critically refers to those scholars who had failed to incorporate the practice of taṣawwuf in their Islām as formalists, mutaṣawwifūn (المتصوفون), people shackled by the trappings of Islām, which thus prevented them from undertaking the necessary journey to the core of faith and from realizing for themselves, its truths.”
And so we know the Qurʾān affirms this in verses such as: فويل للمصلين الذين هم عن صلاتهم ساهون (fa-waylun li-‘l-muṣalīna ‘l-ladhīna hum ʿan ṣalātihim sāhūna, Qurʾān 107:4-5). We get that it's beyond an attachment to the form and making an idol in an in that of itself. And so they've essentially not gone to the kernel and have stopped at the form. The question here is can that not also happen at the level of ṭarīqa when people get stuck at the level of ṭarīqa turning that into an idol? It's interesting that Ibn al-Mashīsh says of the Prophet ﷺ, peace and blessing be upon him, that he is the ḥijāba ‘l-aʿẓam (الحجاب الاعظم), the greatest veil. So could you say something about how the ṭarīqa can turn into an idol can become a trap for people on the path?
Question 13 time: 1:13:14
There are people who begin to identify with the path without realizing that the path is only a means to the ḥaqīqa (الحقيقة). Could you say more about this and what advice did you receive from Sīdī regarding this matter?
Question 14 time: 1:15:09
Paraphrasing a quote from al-Shaykh al-Akbar (الشيخ الأكبر) who says jāhilun muṭlaq (الجاهلون مطلق): “The greatest ignorant is the one who believes only his opinion or view is correct.”
Common Sufi Terminology
ʻAbd al-Salām ibn Mashīsh al-ʻAlamī: Ibn al-Mashīsh was a Moroccan Ṣūfī saint who lived during the reign of the Almohad Caliphate.
ʿAbdul Qādir Jīlānī: a Ḥanbalī scholar, preacher, and ṣūfī leader who was the eponym of the Qadiriyya, one of the oldest Sufi orders.
Abū al-Ḥassan al-Shādhulī: also known as Shaykh al-Shādhūli was an influential Moroccan Islamic scholar and Sufi, founder of the Shadhili Sufi order.
Abū Madyan Shuʿayb ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Anṣāri al-Andalusī: commonly known as Abū Madyan or Abū Madyan al-Ghawth, was an influential Andalusian mystic and a great ṣūfī master.
Bayʿa: taking the promise or hand with a shaykh initiates a person into a ṭarīqa whereby they can receive spiritual assistance (madād) from the inheritors and lineage of Prophet Muḥammad (ﷺ); it is the renewing of one’s covenant with God, a vow to servitude and uprightness.
Dhikr: dhikr is the practice of remembrance of God.
Ījāza: An ījāza is a license authorizing its holder to transmit a certain text or subject, which is issued by someone already possessing such authority. It is particularly associated with transmission of Islamic religious knowledge.
Farm of Peace: The Farm of Peace is working farm, retreat and healing center, and spiritual community situated on a 150-acre farm in the gently rolling hills of south-central Pennsylvania, only two hours’ drive from Washington, D.C. and Baltimore. Wellness weekend, Ṣūfī school, and various programs are offered year-round. The center welcomes visitors from around the world to experience the healing power found in the peaceful ambiance of nature, organic produce, and a community setting that caters to the remembrance of the Divine and cultivation of inner peace.
God: There is no difference between God and Allāh. The real God, as articulated in the statement lā illāha illa ‘llāh, there is no god but God. Allāh is God, the One who has the essential reality as attributes that play out as manifestations in form.
Ḥaqīqa: the truth, reality, stemming from the Divine Name of the Absolute Reality al-Ḥaqq.
Ibn al-ʿArabi: an Andalusian Muslim scholar, mystic, poet, and philosopher, extremely influential within Islamic thought.
Maʿrifa: means gnosis and it represents the mystical understanding of the Divine Reality. A true sign of maʿrifa is stability and perpetuity of the contemplative vision where the heart is enraptured with the constant witnessing of Allāh and His Divine Lights.
Mulk: the material physical world of bodies.
Nūr-i-Muḥammadī or the Muḥammadan substance: the Light of Muḥammad (ﷺ), the original essence of Muḥammad known as the ḥaqīqatu-l-Muḥammadīyyah. It is believed to have been created before all things, interpenetrating all created existence.
Muḥammadan Reality: the “reality” of the human being is the external and immutable archetype of all individual “perfect” human beings. Its embodiment is the prophets and the Friends of God.
Malakūt: this is a spiritual world also known as the angelic world or the world of sovereignty. It is the world of the heart and the soul which contains the spiritual presence of the Prophet (ﷺ), peace and blessings be upon him.
Nafs: is an Arabic word occurring in the Quran, literally meaning "self"; in Sīdī’s teachings it corresponds to the receptive pole of being, the self, the nafs, alongside the spirit (ar-rūh) representing the active pole of being in man; also called intellect (al-ʿaql).
Jabārūt: a formless world of infinite eternal power and possibilities
Lāhūt: the world of Divinity, the life penetrating all things and the last station of the journey identified with extinction or absorption.
Kashf: unveiling.
Khalwa: a spiritual retreat that is practiced in Ṣūfīsm to empty the self and return to the One Absolute Reality. It is total seclusion for a determined period of time in a spiritual retreat with various special conditions observed including self discipline prior to entering the retreat; hunger, night vigils, isolation, constant remembrance; devotional worship; a detachment from the dunya and focusing only on God in a state of lowliness, surrender, emptiness, and neediness. Traditionally, in Islamic spirituality, retreating into deep contemplative prayer can range from 1 to 40 days as a deliberate practice of spiritual cultivation. At the Farm of Peace, khalwa retreats also hold the intention to facilitate healing at the level of the collective and the khalwa practice is based on the traditional practices of the Shādhulī ṭarīqa.
Ṣalāt: the obligatory prayer practiced by Muslims five times a day.
Shariʿa: corresponds to the Law of Islam as revealed in the Qurʾān and sunna, also known as the Divine Law. It can also be defined as your witness of Him and includes the purification of the limbs, making the outward free from fault.
Ṣūfī: a traveler on the path to God who adheres to the practices and teachings of Ṣūfīsm, the embodiment of both the esoteric and exoteric teachings of Islam. A ṣūfī
Ṣūfīsm: the science of journeying to God, passing from creation through consciousness of the Creator and then returning. Inwardly, it’s purifying ourselves of vices and beautifying ourselves with virtue through the qualities and attributes of the Divine.
Tawba: tawba is the oft-returning act of repentance. It is the returning from every deed that is distasteful and ugly to the one that is beautiful, noble, and virtuous. Tawba is repentance of the separate self, from a mind engrossed in the world to the one immersed in consciousness of the Divine.
Taḥajjud: night vigil.
Ṭarīqa: the Muslim spiritual path toward direct knowledge (maʿrifa) of God or Reality (ḥaqq).
Tajjallī: revelation, a coming forth into the light and unveiling of Divine secrets; a form of revealed illumination that enlightens the heart. It refers to the manifestation of Being.
Quṭb: the central pole, axis, pivot; the one who has attained a high degree of reflection of the heart of the Prophet (ﷺ), peace and blessings be upon him.