Dhikr Lesson 1: Remembrance of God

In the tradition of the “tariqa (t)” (path), Dhikr is a revered practice during the day. It is the remembrance of God with the tongue according to one of the formulas taught by the Shayk (guide). In time, through meditation, Dhikr becomes a remembrance of God, too, in the heart and in good works.

The first stage of the practice of the Dhikr reminds us of the Quranic verse that says” "The believers are those who, when they hear the names of Allah mentioned, their hearts tremble" (al-Anfal).”

The meaning of remembrance through the heart, as in the verse: "The men and women who remember God abundantly" (S. 33:35). The constant remembrance of God is the meaning of being single-hearted.

Dhikr is both inner remembrance and outward mention, as in the verse "Remember Me and I shall remember you" (S 2:152). This is read in the light of the hadith qudsi (Traditioni, "Those that remember me in their heart, I remember them in my heart; and those that remember Me in a gathering (i.e. that make mention of me), I remember them (i.e. make mention of them) in a gathering better than theirs." (Bapa Elisha “Jun” Mercado, OMI)

Beware of Idols that we worship... they come in many shapes and forms! 

Are we making idols out of our rules and ways...?

Dhikr for the 22nd week of the ordinary year (B)

Text: “He responded, "Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites, as it is written: 'This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines human precepts.' You disregard God's commandment but cling to human tradition." (Mark 7: 6-8))

Meditation: How easily do we make idols of our rules and ways…? They are NOT God’s…!

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Prophets for our time... Are we listening?

Prophets for Our Tme: Are We Listening?
by Dorothy C.Buck

When I think of Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King, Muhammad, the ancient Hebrew prophets, Abraham, Elijah, Moses then John the Baptist and Jesus, in fact the religious reformers and visionaries of all cultures and traditions in every age, one word overshadows all else. They knew how to listen, first to God, then to the voices of others in the world around them.

As Christians we talk of God “calling” us into relationship, of the prophets being “called” to speak publicly for God, to challenge and confront the ways that God's voice was not being heard.

In the Gospel according to Matthew John the Baptist is heard quoting the major Hebrew prophet Isaiah, "Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand! ...A voice cries out: In the desert prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God!” (Matthew 3:2, Isaiah 40:3)

Unless we listen to the prophets among us we are likely to wander farther and farther away from the kingdom of God's love into a maze of tempting cultural values and materialistic idols. We hear competing voices inundating our TV programs enticing us with more and more “things” we must have and that we are told will make us “happy”. Even cigarettes and an SUV are claimed to fulfill our longings for love and companionship, and more and more credit debt is the capitalistic means of achieving the successful consumer lifestyle that feeds our economy, but not our souls.

We have ample voices throughout our short history as a country who has warned us of the dangers of not heeding the call of the poor, of not feeding the hungry, offering a drink to the thirsty, clothing the naked, and welcoming the strangers in our midst. Now we are challenged, almost beyond our capacity to respond, by the fear of terrorist attacks and the distrust and hatred felt towards this country in many parts of the world. Are we listening?

Mystical Substitution - Badaliyya...

Louis Massignon's understanding of what he called mystical substitution traced back to earlier church traditions. The many saints who were often martyrs for their faith were said to unite their sufferings and death with the passion and death of Christ.

In the medieval church some extraordinary mystics felt called to pray to take onto themselves the physical and emotional afflictions of those who came to them for healing. These examples seem far from our contemporary experience of faith and appear exaggerated and foreign. Yet, Louis Massignon's vision of such immense love of God, even at the expense of one's own life or health, evolved into a profound and intense spirituality of compassion for others.

Being alive and becoming living bread for others...

Dhikr for the 20th week of the ordinary year (B)

Text: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world." (John 6: 51)

Meditation: By partaking of the bread of Christ… do we become truly ALIVE and living bread for others…?

Charles de Foucauld - a Brother to all...

Fr. de Foucauld understood his mission as the "universal brother". This marked his life and witness from his arrival and his settling in Beni-Abbes in 1901. His foundation was called the khaoua" (the fraternity), because khaouia Charles is the "universal brother".

He always prayed that I may truly be the brother of all. And all the groups that have taken their origin from him have always been firmly determined to reach every corner of the world, desiring, like their mentor, to follow Christ who commanded his disciples "to go ... and make disciples of all nations".

Thus heirs to de Foucauld's tradition desire to become universal brothers/sisters like him. Wherever he/she may be, they witness to the universality of the love of Christ's Heart, so that it may be recognized in such a way that all can accept his Word and his Gospel.

A spiritual life centered on the Eucharist...

Charles de Foucauld wrote a text called the Directory for the use of all, priests and lay people alike, gathered under the title of the Union of the Brothers and Sisters of the Sacred Heart.

A personal return to the Gospel and a spiritual life centered on the Eucharist are asked of them, as well as a commitment to proclaim the Gospel in the way Jesus of Nazareth did: to live the Gospel wherever they might be. But de Foucauld hoped that Christians would live this spirituality where the Gospel was unknown.

From the heart of the Sahara he wrote: "Here there is a need for good people, good Christians of every profession, who would come into close contact with the indigenous people through a thousand daily activities".

Taught by God...

Dhikr for the 19th week of the ordinary year (B)

Text: “It is written in the prophets: 'They shall all be taught by God.' Everyone who listens to my Father and learns from him comes to me.” (John 6: 45)

Meditation: Do we truly allow ourselves to be taught by God…? Do we listen to God and learn from the Lord in our work and life…?

Rosa Parks - A Woman of Faith! 

Take Courage...

Text: "Jesus spoke to them, ‘Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.’ Peter said to him in reply, ‘Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water'." (Mt. 14: 27-28)

Reflection: Hold on our belief that Jesus is with us...! As the song (Foot prints in the Sand) goes, when we see only one pair of foot prints in most difficult times... they are not ours... they are the Lord's... It is during those times that he carries us in his arms.

Dhikr for the 18th week of the ordinary time (B)

Dhikr for the 18th week of the ordinary year (B)

“Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him the Father, God, has set his seal.” (John 6: 27)

Do we toil for the food that endures… What is God’s seal on our work and life…?

Today, we remember the Nuclear Holocaust in Hiroshima... and on the 9th of August a second Atomic Bomb was dropped in Nagasaki. We pause in prayer not only to remember the dead and the victims... but also to manifest our resolve that NEVER again we shall allow such tragedies to visit the earth.

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DHIKR SIMPLE METHOD...
Dhikr is an Arabic word for remembrance. In the “tariqa” (the way) movement, dhikr developed into a form of prayer… It is a prayer of the heart… following three simple steps:

1. Write in one’s heart a certain passage of the Holy Writ…
2. Make the same passage ever present in one’s lips.
3. Then wait for God’s disclosure on the meaning of the passage…that interprets one’s life NOW…!

It takes a week of remembering (dhikr)…or even more days to relish the beauty of this method…

Taking offense at God...

“And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, ‘A prophet is not without honor except in his native place and in his own house.’ And he did not work many mighty deeds there because of their lack of faith.” (Matthew 13: 57-58)

Beware of taking offense at God and his/her prophets…!

Shining like the sun...

“Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears ought to hear.” (Matthew 13: 43)

Appeal for Peace in the Middle East...

"In this moment I cannot help think of the situation, ever more grave and more tragic, that the Middle East is going through: hundreds of dead, many wounded, a huge number of the homeless and refugees; houses, towns and infrastructure destroyed; meanwhile, hatred and the desire for revenge grow in the hearts of many.

These facts demonstrate clearly that you cannot re-establish justice, establish a new order and build authentic peace when you resort to instruments of violence. More than ever we see how prophetic and altogether realistic is the voice of the Church when, in the face of wars and conflicts of every kind, it points out the path of truth, justice, love and liberty (cf. encyclical "Pacem in Terris"). Humanity must also cross this path today to achieve the good desire for true peace.

In the name of God, I appeal to all those responsible for this spiral of violence, so that they immediately put down their weapons on all sides! I ask governing leaders and international organizations not to spare any effort to obtain this necessary halt to hostilities and so to be able to begin to build, through dialogue, a lasting and stable concord for all the people of the Middle East.

I appeal to all people of good to continue and to intensify the shipment of humanitarian help to those populations so tested and needy. But especially [I ask that] every heart continue to raise the hopeful prayer to the good and merciful God, so that he grants his peace to that region and to the whole world.

We entrust this sorrowful petition to the intercession of May, Mother of the Prince of Peace and Queen of Peace, so venerated in Mideast countries, where we hope to see soon reign this reconciliation for which the Lord Jesus has offered his precious Blood."

(Benedict XVI, Angelus Appeal: 30 July 2006)

What are the SIGNS people see in our life and work...?

Dhikr for the 17th week of the ordinary year (B)

“A large crowd followed Jesus, because they saw the signs he was performing on the sick.” (John 6: 2)

Do people, likewise, see the signs we are performing in the name of Jesus… on the poor, the migrants and the excluded in the way we live and minister…?

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Our search for the "numinous" in creation... lies in finding the path to the heart! 

"Listening Heart"...

The “listening heart in the writings of Shayk ‘Ibn 'Arabî as he tried to unravel the meaning of the Qur’an.

The Qur'an repeatedly emphasizes God's extraordinary closeness and proximity to the human heart (e.g., at 8:24, "He passes between the man and his heart"), as well as the uniquely all-encompassing divine knowledge of "what is in their hearts" (4:66, 33:51, etc.).

That divine awareness of what is in the heart extends in particular to people's innermost intentions (especially in contrast to their words and ostensible actions). From the Qur'anic perspective a spiritually crucial dimension of the human heart is the integral involvement - together with God - of our own "will" and intimate intentions, which are portrayed as somehow inseparable from the degree and nature of our awareness of the divine. In consequence, the Qur'an can even speak of the heart (as more commonly of the soul, al-nafs) as the enduring "self" or ongoing seat of our moral and spiritual responsibility, as at 2:225: "...He will call you to account for what your hearts have earned...."

Perhaps most obvious of all in the Qur'an is the consistent stress on the divine "responsibility", indeed the ongoing divine Activity, expressed in all the different states of our hearts, including especially our recurrent failures to "remember" God. In this respect, as those familiar with the Qur'an will recognize, the larger metaphysical "paradox" with which we began this discussion is certainly not, to begin with, Ibn 'Arabî's own invention: almost half of the Qur'anic references to the heart directly mention God's responsibility for its states, often without any explicit reference to the shared role of the human "actor."

In several famous Qur'anic passages, repeated throughout Sufi literature and in popular piety, the enlightened or divinely supported heart (whether in this world or the next) is said to be the locus of true Remembrance of God (dhikr Allâh, at 13:28) and the grace of divinely bestowed Peace and Tranquillity, as well as the receptacle for the sending down of the Spirit and Gabriel and other special acts of divine support. But the Qur'anic references to these special states of enlightened hearts are limited to what in context usually seems like a very small and elect group: Muhammad and other divine prophets, certain of their disciples or saints, or some of the blessed in the Gardens of Paradise...

With far greater frequency, the Qur'an refers instead to God's sealing, veiling, hardening, locking, binding, closing, or frightening hearts - to hearts that as a result (of their own misdeeds or the divine reaction) are "sick" or "blind" and "suffering." Typical of this disproportionate emphasis are the many references to hearts that "fail to understand" (lâ yafqahûn), far more frequently than those who do perceive the divine "Signs," whose hearts are 'âqilûn. In the Qur'an, therefore, the starkly contrasting dimensions and potentialities of the human heart with which we began are, if anything, even more predominant and vividly drawn. The Qur'anic account of the heart and its situation is repeatedly cast in an intensely dramatic and unavoidably existential form. That intrinsic inner drama is certainly presupposed in each of Ibn 'Arabî's own discussions of the heart, whatever the particular language or context of each discussion.

Against that sharply drawn dramatic backdrop, the Qu'ranic verses that indicate the actual ways or conditions for us to move from these "negative" or perverse states of the human heart to full awareness of God and the corresponding divine Peace and understanding are relatively few, but certainly all the more worth noting: these practically decisive verses include references to the "softening" and "humbling" or "purification" and "strengthening" of hearts, to the necessity of a "sound" or "repentant" or "mindful" heart (qalb salîm or munîb), and so on.

(Editor’s note: The short presentation is based on the 28 – page article by James Morris on Ibn ‘Arabi)

Compassion and Mercy...

The text is taken from Qur’an 57: 27 that states… “…we sent after them Jesus the Son of Mary and bestowed on him the Gospel; and we ordained on the hearts of those who followed him COMPASSION AND MERCY. (waja’aalnaa fi qulusbi-lladhina-ttaba’uhu raa’fatan wa –rahmatan).

The two key descriptions of Jesus’ followers are Compassion and Mercy… Is this NOT the very heart of religion and the very heart of God…? God is Rahmaan and Rahim (“loving-kindness”). This is the very heart of religion and a believer as described in Sura 50:37… A believer who remembers the need for a feeling heart, a hearing mind and a present self… to his/her neighbor… (“…inna fi dhalika la-dhikra li-man kana lahu qalb aw alqa al-sam’wa wa huwa shahid”)

Reflecting on this passage, I wander whether the call for us is, precisely, to retrieve these key description and allow it to bear upon the relationship between the worship that we bring and the behavior that we come by… or putting it in another way, allowing the “coincidence” between the heart of God and the heart of the believer. (Eliseo “Jun” Mercado, OMI)

The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus

The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus – A common Muslim-Christian Heritage

1. The Importance of the Site in Ephesus

The name Ephesus evokes the ancient Greek city in Asia Minor where the cult of Artemis (Diane), which preceded Christianity, manifested itself by a temple classed among the seven marvels of the world. But it is also inseparable from Saint Paul who preached on the agora in the year 57 of the Christian era, or from Saint John, who lived there (where the Basilica containing his tomb has been found ), and of the third Ecumenical Council when the Mother of Christ was proclaimed Theotokos (Mother of God) in 431 of the Christian era.

Placed under the protection of Saint John, the Virgin would have accompanied him to Ephesus during his apostolate. It is likely that he settled her outside the ancient city on a neighboring hill where it is believed that her house was discovered. It is known today by the name Panaya Kapulu (that is to say, the "Port of All Saints").

2. The Origins of the Devotion to the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus

The devotion dates back to the middle of the 5th century. Seven young people from Ephesus were buried alive in a cave for having refused to deny their faith in God during the persecutions ordered by the Emperor Décius; they woke up after a long sleep of several hundred years and died several hours later after having testified to their experience.

They were seen collectively by the inhabitants who decided afterwards to build a sanctuary dedicated to them. The historian, Honigmann, established that this tradition was common to Melkite, Nestorian, and Jacobite Christians, and therefore precedes their division (5th and 6th centuries). As for the liturgical names of the seven saints, they were already reported in 530 by a Latin pilgrim from North Africa, Theodosis, in a Jacobite list in Nubia. In its liturgical calendar the Eastern Church celebrates the Seven Sleepers twice: October 22nd (Common of prayers to the Martyrs), and August 4th (the traditional feast day), while the Latin Occident celebrates them on July 27th.

But, what is more remarkable, the example of these martyrs for the faith is venerated beyond the limits of Christianity. In fact, Sura XVIII of the Qur'an read every Friday in the Mosques (and thus preceding the death of Muhammed in 632) is entitled al-Kahf, that is to say, the Cave. This Sura exalts the abandonment to God of these seven young Ephesians buried alive, describing their witness to fidelity in the face of an impious demand, then their ‘dormition' which it states was 309 years. Sura XVIII could be considered as the Apocalypse of Islam; not only does it magnify the attitude of the seven martyrs for their faith by their anticipated resurrection, but it also presents the announcement of the Last Judgement.

Muslims make exception for the Seven Sleepers and tolerate the building of sanctuaries to these martyrs because their temporary resurrection made them precursory witnesses of the Last Judgement, saints of the End Time. Shustari, one of the most interesting commentators on the Qur'an, said that, "All Saints lose their normal sleep and enter into the sleep of the Seven Sleepers". (Geneviève Massignon Ph. D)