I was fully aware that within seconds my body would be drawn into a mass of humanity unlike any other in the world. “Surrender to the experience,” I thought, while stepping into the overflowing main courtyard surrounding the Kaaba. I still hadn’t overcome how surreal it was to be at the heart of Islam’s holiest site just 18 hours after stepping from my office situated in the centre of London’s financial district, where worldly pursuits of wealth and status become... Read more
Lately a number of people have asked me when I became Muslim, but I’ve found it a difficult question to answer. When did I first say the shehada? When did someone spontaneously address me as ‘sister’ for the first time? When did I first participate in the communal prayer? When did hearing the Quran first bring goosebumps to my skin and tears to my eyes? Because all of those things happened at different points over a period of years as... Read more
We are just beginning this new collaborative blog, The Living Tradition, and it seems appropriate to begin with the following talk given recently in Delhi, India, at an historic international event which invited several hundred Sufi leaders and scholars from 20 countries and ended with a public gathering of approximately 200,000 people. We hope that The Living Tradition will make it clear that Islamic Sufism is a spirituality adequate to the unprecedented times we live in. We hope to... Read more
The Living Tradition
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In