Reflection by Umm e Maham We all have a natural desire to feel joy and experience life in a positive way. We are aware that the true expression of life is love, delight and joy. Life is not about darkness, depression, disapproval and sour, stern faces. All of us, who have gone through depression, know...

Reflection by Dawood Vally Man imagines himself to be an existence alongside Allah, albeit by Allah’s permission. This means man has autonomous existence for a moment, with a moment having the duration of a lifetime. Herein lies the source of all angst, for this is an existential plane mired in lack. Since man is a...

Reflection by Umm e Maham Allah has created a state of separation for humans, so that they strive to find meaning and purpose, and hence serve to find true connection – love! We see the world as we are. As Shaykh Ebrahim discusses, Allah says in a hadith qudsi, “I am My slave’s opinion of...

Reflection by Nick Hobbs What we are engaged in, is the gardening of the soul. We endeavour to create the perfect climate and environment in our psychological functioning, from which beautiful actions may grow. If we tend to the soil through philosophical understanding, but also supply the life giving nutrients of regular prayer and remembrance,...

  Reflection by Umm e Maham  Our way of seeing life determines our experience with life. The perception that we have of the world around us could either be contending, rooted in the ideology of “survival of the fittest”, or we could feel fullness within ourselves, rooted in “gratitude”. The first condition will create feelings...

  Many times every day we utter the names of Allah, glorified be He, ‘ar-Rahman, ar-Raheem’, yet how easy is it to quickly say the words without pausing and fully reflecting on what it means to call on the Compassionate, the Merciful One.  Imam al-Ghazali wrote: ‘Mercy requires an object of mercy, and no-one is an...

  A piece by Yusuf Abdulrahman Just in case you forgot or didn’t know… His Mercy is not hidden from those who do not know how to use big words or speak foreign tongues. His Mercy is not limited to those with respectable middle-class lifestyles who attend expensive international retreats to demonstrate their piety. You...

  A piece by Sidi Yusuf Abdulrahman Comfort breeds contempt for the blessings that constitute one’s existence, and is therefore extremely dangerous for the one who seeks proximity to The One. She who is not frequently reminded of how unconditionally dependent she is upon the Divine Mercy permits the seed of self-reliance to germinate, which,...

  by Sidi Yusuf Abdulrahman, originally posted on his blog Your life is tailor-made by the All Merciful Creator entirely in your interests. Everything that has happened in your life, both the beautiful moments and the bitter, have been created to reveal to you something about yourself or your relationship with The One. Nothing has...

A visitor’s account of their stay at Zawia Ebrahim It seemed unlikely that I would make the trip to South Africa from Europe. In the end, God had to show me strong, undeniable signs that it was time to go. The rich meanings I learnt there, as it turns out, were just what I needed...