The Sufis are a group of people who are studying and practicing the science and knowledge of God and the process of reaching God realization. The beauty in Sufism is the love. Shaykh Muhammad Sa’id al-Jamal ar-Rifa’i as-Shadhuli, affectionately known as Sidi, writes in his book “Music of the Soul”, “When you find the love, you find yourself. The secret is in the love. You are the love, not another. Everything is in the love, and everyone needs the love. If you find this, what more could you want? When you know, what could you want? When you have the knowledge of the love, you feel peace in your heart.” The love is so much needed in our world today. When two people or two nations are in a conflict there is a sense of anger, distrust, and hate but when we are willing to open our hearts to see the similarities and the needs of the other side, we can create compassion for one another, the gap can collapse and a bridge can be built.

The term Sufism has different meanings. According to some the word is derived from safa, which means purity. Some say it comes from the root as-suf, which means wool because the Sufi is like wool between the hands of God. The wool has no will of its own. It is soft and yielding and it moves in whichever way The Fashioner is shaping it. This meaning also refers to the woolen garment worn by the early ascetics. Another meaning is from the root suffa, which was a low bench outside the Prophet Muhammad’s house, where his students would gather and listen to his teachings.

The focus of this path is the purification of the heart, and the walking of oneself from the station they are to annihilation in God, fana fi La. This process enable the spiritual traveler, murid, to wash the heart from human characteristic such as greed, anger, jealousy, fear, worry, and hate, and ornament the heart with the qualities of God-the Merciful, Compassionate, Holy, Giver of Peace and others. In this process the student relinquishes any of his or her ego/personal perceptions, feelings, thoughts and desires, and surrender to the Divine order.

Sufism is a path with an open invitation to all people and all religions. In his book, “Music of the Soul” Sidi writes, “If the Muslims, Jews, Christians, and the people of any other religion, knew their religion well, there would only be one religion, the religion of love, and peace and mercy.” This path helps people get in touch with the deeper teaching of the religion or path they are practicing. It gives the follower tools to wash away the feelings of fear, loneliness and separation, and walk from station to station all the way to the unity, where you will have a lasting experience of deep love, peace, mercy, compassion, freedom, safety and great beauty. Most of us are experiencing life from the ego/self layer, which means that we see ourselves as individuals separated from God, lonely, incapable, and fearful. We have a sense that we need to work hard to achieve all that we want in life. We fail to realize that we carry all the qualities and attributes of God, “and I have made you in my image”. The goal in the Sufi way is to liberate one from this prison and let all people live in peace, love, freedom and harmony.

In the most simple and practical way, we all have experienced pain and suffering in our lives. We all have blemishes in our self-image, such as “I’m not good enough”, “if I had money I would have been much happier”, or “as soon as I will get this position my life will take off.” For most of us when we get to the Promised Land we find that the feelings haven’t changed. The reason is that the inner landscape of our heart did not change. In order for us to experience freedom we need to have freedom in our heart, and if we want to have peace with our neighbor or other country, we first need to have peace with in our own heart. So, for those who choose to walk on this path, their benefits come from resolving the negative beliefs, washing of the pain, and letting go of old trauma and bondage. And, this is not done by avoiding or stuffing emotions or situations, but by opening the wounds and cleaning/washing them with the love and light of the Most High. There are different tools and processes that are used in Sufism to help the student in his walking and the washing of the heart.

The main tool or practice in Sufism is the Remembrance. The Remembrance is to remember the name of God. The process is done eyes closed focusing the attention in the heart. Calling on the name of God brings a white light that penetrates the heart and start to wash the darkness, pain and anything energetic that should not be there, and transforms it to Divine light. As we continue to deepen the remembrance we move from the outer layer, self/nafs, deeper to the layer of the heart and then the layer of the soul. The layer of the soul is the place in our being that carries the true essence of who we really are. Our physical body is just a vehicle that enables us to move through this physical world. But, the soul is the part that was created by the Divine, the part in us that has a purpose in this world. The more time we spend in remembrance the clearer we get to who we really are, our beauty, our qualities, our gifts to the world, what is our purpose on this planet, and how to manifest it. When we live our life from that place, layer of the soul, there is a deep sense of satisfaction and happiness. Life has its own course so we may meet with some difficulties in our life, but it will not take the eye of our heart from God and the inner happiness and state of love stays constant.

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