================Our Recommendation================

A contemporary mystical Islamic philosopher offers clarification about common misconceptions of the Islamic concept of God.

Hulusi is an Islamic scholar whose writings mirror the mystical dimension of Islam known as Sufism, made well known in the U.S. through translations of the Sufi poet-theologian Rumi. But many who read the English translations of Rumi fail to realize the complexity of the system of spiritual thinking that Sufism represents. Hulusi explicates one of the most difficult concepts in mystical Islam--the notion that "Allah," commonly misunderstood in the West and even in parts of the Muslim world as "God," encompasses more than the word "God" can illuminate. Drawing upon his interpretations of the Quran, Islam's most sacred scripture, Hulusi claims that nowhere in Muhammad's transmission of the Quran is there the assertion that Allah is a god. Instead, Hulusi writes that Allah is "an infinite, unlimited, whole One, in which case...there is nothing in existence other than Him." The consequences of this assertion are that individual lives are fated by Allah, predestined to heaven or hell after physical death. The point of religion, writes the author, is to gain nondualistic awareness of Allah, which is realized through essential self-knowledge and the rejection of illusionary dualities in daily life. The author relies on short paragraphs to frame his beliefs and uses abstract language to describe consciousness, but the gist of these abstruse ideas is helpfully noted in bold throughout the book. One can only imagine the difficulty translator Atalay faced in converting the author's esoteric Turkish style into readable English. Yet it does read clearly as a kind of Sufi manifesto of faith. Get the Book NOW

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Thursday, November 14, 2013

Necessity of Putting the Fundamentals in Order

We want to correct the people’s ‘aqidah and make them aware of all different kinds of outward and inward shirk and avoid the forbidden, and we want to encourage them to stick to the sunan and the mustahabbaat (recommended deeds), to incite them to avoid the makruhat (disliked deeds). It is not wise to persist in teaching people one of the sunan regardless of how much effort it will take, if the result will be rejecting this sunnah because of their ignorance, then rejecting those who invite them to it by accepting neither his effort nor his justice. The steps of the legislative fundamentals start with teaching the fundamentals of ‘aqidah, then doing the obligatory things and avoiding the forbidden ones, then performing the sunan and avoiding the makruhat. Therefore it is like necessities, then commodities, then refinements.


We need to abolish the contradiction between the major concern and the minor concern, and to erase the false concept which claims that giving concern to the major issues leads to ignoring the minor, or vice-versa, or that we need to put together the concerns of the du’at in one order, which gives each concern the priority it deserves.Continue reading “” »











Necessity of Putting the Fundamentals in Order
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