Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

The Living Tradition

Home
Muslim

Islam

Select a Category activism Community Divine Names Fear Feminine Islam Listening Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi Mevlevi Music Prophet Muhammad Psychology Quran Ramadan Remembrance Rumi Sacred Space Shadow Work Shams of Tabriz Spiritual Imagination spirituality Sufism Suleyman Dede Uncategorized Universal Intelligence Zikr Zikr Allah

Select a Month October 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 November 2020 August 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016

August 2021

August 30, 2021

Freedom from Food: The Gifts of a Three-Month Fast

Daliah Merzaban describes the taste of Love concealed beneath pangs of hunger “Keep your body...

July 2021

July 23, 2021

The Hajj and Forgiveness

On Monday, the pilgrims marched out in their great multitudes from the plain of Mina...

May 2020

May 13, 2020

All Food is Sacrifice

"You are cutting this apple with such presence,” a dear friend once observed as I...

January 2020

January 07, 2020

Considering Time: New Year Reflections

The movement into a new year naturally makes us reflect on the passage of time....

November 2019

November 24, 2019

Befriending our donkey and our Jesus

On a recent trip to Berlin, I visited the Bode Museum with a friend. We...

September 2019

September 27, 2019

Prophet Muhammad and the Man Who Ate Too Much

Early in my time on the Sufi path, I went to visit some friends I...

August 2019

August 27, 2019

Step Back and See: Quran, Hadith, and Rumi

A human being is essentially an eye; the rest is merely flesh and skin...[1] Recently...

July 2019

July 03, 2019

What if Allah is Beautiful and Loves Beauty?

What if Muslims who are in positions of religious authority acted as if Allah...

March 2019

March 10, 2019

The Grace of Love: Leonard Cohen and the Sufis (Part 3)

Note: This article is the third in a series of articles exploring the influence of...

October 2018

October 12, 2018

Islam: Containing Beauty and Joy

I have often wondered why the Beautiful and the Joyful do not usually appear in...

September 2018

September 26, 2018

Muhammad’s Intimacy with His Rabb

In a previous article we mentioned how the Prophet (PUH) had a deep capacity...

August 2018

August 12, 2018

Countering Islamic Extremism With Radical Love: Book Review

While reading Omid Safi’s new book, Radical Love: Teachings from the Islamic Mystical Tradition, I...

June 2018

June 18, 2018

Truth Is From Your Lord

“O My God, show us Truth as truth and bless us with following it and...

May 2018

May 23, 2018

5 Ways to Experience Ramadan Without Fasting

A chronic illness has prevented me from fasting for a number of years now. Initially...

March 2018

March 24, 2018

My Journey From ‘Moderate’ Muslim to Seeker of Love

For many years starting at around the time of the 9-11 terror attacks, I referred...

January 2018

January 17, 2018

If the Quran Were a Film

The opening scenes of the film show men made of mud, their backs bowed under...

December 2017

December 08, 2017

Awakening the Sacred Feminine In All of Us

Huddled at the back, left-hand corner of a large hall, me and a handful of...

October 2017

October 25, 2017

Bob Dylan and the Beloved

When I ask myself who or what the Beloved is in Sufi terminology, I have...

July 2017

July 04, 2017

Ramadan with Shams: The Ambush of Love

This Ramadan, I drank from the wisdom of Shams of Tabriz contained in the...

June 2017

June 06, 2017

Preventing Spiritual Flabbiness: The Benefits of Regular Fasting

Several years ago, one of the most-thoughtful readers of my blog commented on a piece...

May 2017

May 29, 2017

The Timelessness of Hunger

“O you who have faith, fasting is ordained for you as it has been ordained...

May 22, 2017

The Feminine Power Supporting the Prophets

I was struck by Jim Garrison and Banafsheh Sayyad’s article last year for the Huffington...

April 2017

April 04, 2017

What the Heart Knows

My wife and I were recently invited to lead another service at our local Unitarian...

February 2017

February 20, 2017

Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) and the Women in His Life

Dearest M, Where do we go from here? For the last...

January 2017

January 27, 2017

Mother Nature and the 99 Names

One of the aims of our new book The 99 Names of God is to...

January 13, 2017

The Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) and His Battles, Then and Now

Dearest M, My heart is heavy as I write this. Not because of anything between...

December 2016

December 12, 2016

Before the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) Became the Messenger

Dearest M, I’ve been thinking about something you said: “Islam began as something strange and...

November 2016

November 24, 2016

Guests of Love: Leonard Cohen and the Sufis (Part 2)

One of the greatest musical performances I have ever witnessed was one wet summer evening...

November 10, 2016

On Animal Companions

Dearest M, Before I came to Islam, the only story I’d ever heard about...

November 03, 2016

Lessons on living from my late uncle

Turning on a tune by Egyptian legend Abdel Halim Hafez, my sister Mandy handed her...