One of the characteristics of modernism is that the soul is turned completely outward and cannot live with itself. You always need something to occupy you. People put things, wires in their ears even when they go for a walk, because they cannot do without music from the outside. There‘s no music inside their soul. So, they have to listen to music, to artificial music through wires as they walk. We have lost our sense of love of the quiet, of contemplation, of being alone. Because ultimately, when you‘re alone, you‘re always with God.
ʿ[14th century Kubravi Sufi master] Ali Hamadani’s hagiographer states that in the very beginning of his journey he was unable to derive any benefit from zikr until he was able to prepare himself internally for the journey. Once zikr started to take effect, he got to the point where he would lose himself completely upon hearing vocal zikr, and his master forbade other disciples from performing it in his hearing lest his spirit completely leave the body. His overall reaction to the outside world then changed so drastically that he lost all consciousness of his surroundings and was kept in chains for three months and force-fed in order to keep him alive. Once out of this condition, he began to practice sama’ or audition and would dance in the courtyard of the lodge twice a week. He later told his hagiographer that anyone who does not love audition in the beginning of the path is not going to produce great work later in life.
Shahzad Bashir, “Sufi Bodies: Religion and Society in Medieval Islam,” pg 74.
“In Arabic to say, for example, ‘Wisdom is precious,’ you could repeat the feminine pronoun: al-hikmah hiya thamînah, literally ‘Wisdom, she is precious.’ It is stated by some Sûfî Sheikhs (Masters) that Sûfîsm originally was named Sophia, which connects Sûfîsm with the Christian Gnostic tradition, in which Wisdom is personified as a woman, the divine Sophia. The physical mother of Jesus was an external image of manifestation of the Virgin Sophia, the word ‘Sophia’ stemming from Sophos (wisdom). The Gnostics, whose language was Greek, identified the Holy Spirit with Sophia, Wisdom; and Wisdom was considered female.”
Posing in front of a teqe/ tekke/ zawiya in Tetovo, Macedonia. I believe this is the open-air structure of the Arabati Baba Teḱe of the Bektashi order, built in c. 1538,
“There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that is your own self. So you have to begin there, not outside, not on other people. That comes afterwards, when you have worked on your own corner.”
- Aldous Huxley
"The only revolution worthwhile was the one-man revolution within the heart. Each one could make this by himself and not need to wait on a majority.”
