SUFI STORIES (also posted in FACEBOOK/amirfarid.isahak)

Apart from receiving spiritual guidance and instructions from Beyond, I had on several occasions also received guidance/assistance in my home, medical work and in my business affairs. In the previous instalment, I shared that God forced a burglar to return my wife’s jewellery. Today I will share 3 more stories. The first is the story of a remarkable lady who did not give up hope of giving birth to her own child. It began with her first miscarriage in 1983. It was an early miscarriage, and since at least 10% of pregnancies are lost in the early stage, it was considered usual. However, in her second pregnancy (1985), she developed severe oedema, proteinuria (protein leakage into the urine) and severe hypertension which were resistant to treatment. At seven months she went into coma for 7 days. Fortunately she did not have seizures (which often happen in such cases). She bled copiously from her gums. She lost the baby, after which her condition improved rapidly and she was back to her sv...

In the previous articles, I mentioned my spiritual encounters with the departed Prophets (though in passing only, to avoid controversy) and shared stories of my communication with the Saints. They come into our lives to give instructions and guidance from God. During our lives, we get advice from many people. However, even the experts in certain fields may give the wrong advice. When we get Divine guidance, the advice is never wrong. Muslims can formally ask for Divine guidance through the Istikharah prayers, although the clarity of the answers depends on the proximity of the servant to the Creator. Those who are close to God get the answers directly, and often the guidance comes without asking. God says that those who have pleased Him will be given knowledge and visions of the Unknown and Unseen (meaning of a Hadith Qudsi or Sacred Hadith). Thus the living Sufi Saints receive Divine guidance frequently, either through direct inspiration, or through encounters with the departed P...

I was introduced to the world of Hafez (May Allah sanctify his soul) by a Christian lady professor from USA. We met in Jordan in 2010 during one of my many travels overseas for interfaith programs, starting in 2006. My interfaith travels only stopped with the COVID-19 pandemic. Khwaja Shamsuddin Muhammad Hafez Shirazi (1315-1390) was a Persian, like many of the famous Sufi poets before him. He is best known by his pen name Hafez (or Hafiz, meaning “memorizer”) because not only did he memorize the Qur’an from a young age, later he also memorized the poems of the eminent Sufi poets who preceded him – Nizami Ganjavi (1141-1209), Fariduddin Attar (1145-1220), Rumi (1207-1273) and Saadi Shirazi (1210-1291), may Allah sanctify their souls. “Khwaja” is the honorific in Persian for Master, Mawlana or Shaykh. Although Rumi is more famous in the West, Hafez has a much greater influence on Persian culture and literature. His works are regarded by many Iranians as the pinnacle of Persian liter...

  The grand stature Rumi holds in our contemporary world can be adduced from the fact that UNESCO declared 2007 as the Year of Rumi. It was celebrated in a grand scale in Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey, the three countries that he had lived in. Why did he deserve this? He was a poet extraordinaire,  scholar of Islamic jurisprudence ( fiqh ) , theologian, and  Sufi   mystic. His influence transcends national borders and ethnic divisions. His poems have been translated into many languages and recorded into many formats. He is the most popular and the best selling poet in USA for many years and is among the most popular in the entire world. His brilliance, wisdom and immense love for the Divine have endeared him to the world, and not just to Sufis and Muslims. His  Masnavi  ( Mathnawi ) is considered as one of the greatest collection of poems of the Persian language. It weaves fables, scenes from everyday life, Qur'anic revelations and exegesis, and me...