A Muslim Convert Once Before

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ   As Shaykh Kabir Edmund Helminski said, “A dervish is an apprentice, one who is learning the profession that will provide eternal livelihood.   This profession is still taught in certain schools of higher learning.   While there are many skills that can be self-taught or learned alone, the skills of dervishhood are learned by being in relationship to a shaykh, or a guide, and within a spiritual family, a Sufi circle.   There will always be much to learn on one's own, through one's own efforts, and within one's own understanding.   The final responsibility, of course, lies with ourselves, and, in reality, there is no intermediary between us and our Rabb.   And yet one can no more become a dervish alone that one can become a lover alone.   People will dedicate the whole of their lives to becoming an accomplished musician or a professional athlete.   In doing so they will have to organise the whole of their ...

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ The following is taken from “The Knowing Heart: A Sufi Path of Transformation”, by Shaykh Kabir Edmund Helminski.   A dervish is an apprentice, one who is learning the profession that will provide eternal livelihood.   This profession is still taught in certain schools of higher learning.   While there are many skills that can be self-taught or learned alone, the skills of dervishhood are learned by being in relationship to a shaykh , or a guide, and within a spiritual family, a Sufi circle.   There will always be much to learn on one ’ s own, through one ’ s own efforts, and within one ’ s own understanding.   The final responsibility, of course, lies with ourselves, and in reality, there is no intermediary between us and our Rabb.   And yet, one can no more become a dervish alone than one can become a lover alone.   People will dedicate the whole of their lives to becoming an accomplished musician or a prof...

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ   The following is extracted from the “Rumi Collection”, edited by Shaykh Kabir Edmund Helminsk.   Mawlana Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi ( q.s. ) wrote, in his Matsnawi :   “Should Love’s heart rejoice unless I burn? For my heart is Love’s dwelling. If You Will Burn Your House, Burn it, Love! Who will say, ‘It is not allowed’? Burn this house thoroughly! The lover’s house improves with fire. From now on I will make Burning my aim, From now on I will make Burning my aim, For I am like the candle: burning only makes me brighter. Abandon sleep tonight; traverse for one night The region of the sleepless. Look upon these lovers who have become distraught And like moths have died in Union with the One Beloved. Look upon this ship of God’s Creatures And see how it is sunk in Love.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ The following is from Mawlana Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi’s ( q.s. ), Matsnawi I, 866-867, and was translated by Shaykh Kabir Edmund Helminski and Shaykha Camille Adams Helminski:   “Water and clay, when fed on the breath of Jesus, Spread wings, became a bird and flew. Your praise of God is a Breath From Your body of water and clay. Make it a Bird of Paradise By breathing into it your Heart ’ s sincerity.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ   The following was translated by Shaykh Kabir Edmund Helminski, and Shaykha Camille Adams Helminski.   Mawlana Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi ( q.s. ) wrote, in his Matsnawi :   “When your heart becomes the grave of your secret, That desire of yours will be gained more quickly.   The Prophet ( s.a.w. ) said that anyone, Who keeps secret his inmost thought, Will soon attain the object of his desire.   When seeds are buried in the earth, Their inward secrets become the flourishing garden.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ   Shaykh Kabir Edmund Helminski said, “We have all failed in love.  This is our starting point.  We have all been broken and disappointed in love because our love has been identified with our egoism, when it was meant to dissolve it.  We can love when we expect to get something.  We can love when we have the perfect person to love.  But there is no such perfect person, and even if there was we would not know it unless we too were perfect, because we would inevitable project our own imperfection on them, as the masses have always done to the great prophets.  God’s Messengers were not loved, they were more often hated.  Hatred is frustrated love; the shadow of love.  It implies the presence of love corrupted by egotism.  Egotism can turn beauty into ugliness, generosity into selfishness, love into hatred.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ The following is from Mawlana Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi’s ( q.s. ) Matsnawi , as translated by Shaykh Kabir Helminski and Shaykha Camille Helminski.   “Whatever it is you wish to marry, Go; absorb yourself in that Beloved, Assume its shape and qualities. If you wish for the Light, prepare yourself to receive it, If you wish to be far from God, nourish your egoism and drive yourself away. If you wish to find a way out of this ruined prison, don't turn your head away from the Beloved, But bow in worship and draw near.”   Whatever we love in this world, we reflect it.   But only to eyes that discern.   The truth is, what do we see?   When we see the rose bud, and it has not bloomed, do we see the Hand of the Creator?   Do we understand that it blooms in its own time, and to force it would tear it?   For surely, He is the Best of Planners, and He is al-Lathif, the Subtle One.   We look around...

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ   The following was translated by Shaykh Kabir Edmund Helminski, and Shaykha Camille Adams Helminski.   Mawlana Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi ( q.s. ) wrote, in his Matsnawi I, 217-219, 221:   “Love of the dead does not last Because the dead will not return, But love of the living, Is in every moment fresher than a bud, Both to the inward and the outward eye. Choose the love of that Living One, Who is Everlasting, Who Offers you, The wine that increases life. Do not say, ‘We have no entrance to that King.’ Dealings with the generous are not difficult.”