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Resilience for Sufis and Mystics when Life is Itchier than Wool!

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Aref D.
Resilience for Sufis and Mystics when Life is Itchier than Wool!

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The online link is available for those who RSVP in the affirmative.

There are many ways to be resilient. One can don oneself in a proverbial coat of armor, cast in the heaviest metal available. I personally resonate with the allegory of the willow that bends but does not break. We find that allegory in both the Jewish and Christian Holy Scriptures.

Check out the Orthodox Jewish Bible (OJB) translation of Isaiah 42 here:
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah%2042&version=OJB

I find this translation fascinating because it defines most of the Hebrew words, many of which have direct cognates in Classical Arabic. If you are hung up on the Hebrew, here is the translation from the New International Version (NIV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah%2042&version=NIV

Some interesting items of note from Isaiah 42:
1. Verse 1 in the OJB mentions both "nefesh" (nafs) and "ruach" (rooh): the two types of souls that are "bread and butter" to Sufis.
2. Verse 3 mentions the reed.
3. Verse 11 mentions the people descended from Kedar, the second son of Ishmael 'aleihi's salaam, whose name in Hebrew begins with a "Q" and has the same triliteral root as Qadr, as in Leilatul Qadr, the most sacred night in the Muslim calendar that is so sacred that a Surah/Chapter of the Qur'an is dedicated to it. Leilatul Qadr is coming up, around the time of our meetup. Ramadán Kareem to those observing it.

Why should the people of Kedar be mentioned in Isaiah, well into the Tanakh? The Children of Abraham supposedly parted ways in B'reshit/Genesis. Jews themselves self-identify as the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. From my obvious bias and baggage, I consider every mention of Kedar and Kedarites in the Jewish Holy Scriptures -- and it happens A LOT -- to be a prediction of the coming of 7th Century CE Islam, first foretold three times in B'reshit such as in 17:20 when unto the Children of Ishmael will come a "goy gadol" (great nation).

Back to the reed. In the Gospel According to Matthew, Jesus repeated the first four verses of Isaiah 42 in Matthew 12:18-21.

What allegory speaks to you to achieve resilience? Some don the coat of armor. Some become the reed. Some revert to humor. And some seek "fana" in ernest: the annihilation of the ego (nafs).

As always, there is no one correct answer, yet every answer is correct for those who speak their truth.

Please join us. Inshallah, Murshid Dave will get us set up in person so that we can move to hybrid meetings that are accessible to all.

Peace, blessings, and much love, Aref

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Sufism Greater Washington, AllisSufi
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