The one you call the lover is actually the Beloved - Rumi

The Sufis imagine Allah (God) as an intimate Friend, not a distant Lord of the Universe. He is their Beloved with whom they share a passionate, sacred love affair.

By imagining Allah in this way the devotee is able to enjoy a personal relationship with the ineffable One.

Sufi poets are aware that, in reality, the Beloved with whom they are enjoying a divine romance is their own deeper Self. The love affair between the devotee and the Beloved is the One become two in order to love itself.

Rumi sings to Allah:

You - the soul free from “me” and “you.”
You - the essence in every man and woman.
When the sexes become one You are that union.
You created this business of “me” and “you.”
so that You could play the game of wooing Yourself

Source: The Heart of Islam p. 82-83 by Timothy Freke

Three faiths, three friends

August 26, 2008

Three faiths, three friends
Seattle's interfaith amigos
by Amy Frykholm, The Christian Century

The third annual interfaith Passover Seder meal at University Congregational Church in Seattle was a "bring your own wine" event. Tables for 300 guests were impeccably set with goblets and fresh flowers; two kinds of charoset (a pasty blend of fruit and nuts prepared according to both the Ashkenazi and Sephardic styles); two kinds of horseradish (raw and sauced); and baskets of matzo. The tables buzzed with lively conversation.

Rabbi Ted Falcon stood at the front with a guitar player and two singers. He is a trim, white-bearded man who is constantly making jokes, but he also has an air of underlying seriousness, intensity, even melancholy.

"OK," he said. "We'll begin on page 22 of your handout." After two days of watching Falcon lead services, I had learned that he never begins on page one. He is likely to start on page 22, continue on page 11 and move on to page two.

"The Haggadah takes us on a spiritual journey," he says. "We learn to be freed from our inner pharaohs, travel in our wilderness and form our own dreams of the Promised Land."

The participants at this event—which sold out three weeks before—were Jews, Christians and Muslims. Many came from Bet Alef, Falcon's "meditative synagogue" that meets in one of Seattle's suburbs. Some belonged to University Congregational Church, which was led by Pastor Don Mackenzie until his retirement in June. Others belonged to an experimental congregation led by Sufi Muslim teacher Jamal Rahman and known as the Interfaith Community Church. (Rahman calls it a church, he says, for "lack of a better term"; it's for people who meet on Sundays to explore their "spiritual paths" together, he explains.)

Falcon not only invited members of these three congregations to the Seder but asked Mackenzie and Rahman to speak. And Falcon didn't want generic spirituality talk from them; he wanted Mackenzie to mention Jesus or Paul and Rahman to refer to Muhammad and the Qur'an.

This kind of interfaith gathering is an increasingly common phenomenon across the U.S. Interaction between people of different faiths is hardly new, but a qualitative shift occurred after September 11, 2001, says Kathryn Lohre, assistant director of Harvard University's Pluralism Project. "There was a strong interfaith resurgence, driven by the desire of many people, perhaps Christians especially, to get to know their religious neighbors."

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Friday's Food for Thought

"I believe that love, kindness, compassion, tolerance, and peace can be implanted in the psyche of man only when fear, paranormal illusion and ignorance are removed. We can then shift our attention more to matters of peace, rather than to matters of war."
Peter Retzinger

"Once started, religious strife has a tendency to go on and on, to become permanent feuds. Today we see such intractable inter-religious wars in Northern Ireland, between Jews and Muslims and Christians in Palestine, Hindus and Muslims in South Asia and in many other places. Attempts to bring about peace have failed again and again. Always the extremist elements invoking past injustices, imagined or real, will succeed in torpedoing the peace efforts and bringing about another bout of hostility."
Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Prime Minister of Malaysia, addressing the World Evangelical Fellowship on 2001-MAY-04.

Interfaith Dialogue a Moral Duty to Finding Common Ground

February 15, 2008
by Louay Safi, The American Muslim

Extreme voices in the three religions that claim the monotheist heritage of Prophet Abraham--Judaism, Christianity, and Islam--are busy sowing the seeds of confrontation and hate. They have recently taken the advantage of the politically rooted tensions between western and Middle Eastern countries to develop misunderstanding and mistrust among the followers of these religions.

Quoting selectively from Islamic sources, they have painted Islam as an intolerant religion that urges its followers to hate people of other faiths. This depiction belies both the historical record of Muslims dealing with the followers of other faiths, and, most importantly, the Qur’anic message itself. Although historical Muslim societies were imperfect, there are plenty of examples to show that Islamic values inspired Muslims to develop multi-religious societies in which people of diverse religious backgrounds lived in considerable harmony. The tolerance of Medieval Muslim Spain and the invitation extended to Jews expelled from Jerusalem to return to the city upon the defeat of the Crusaders are two shining examples.

The Qur’an reiterates a fundamental truth taught by all the prophets who were sent by God to guide human endeavors. It asserts that true and honest living is the assured way for spiritual and social harmony, and for protecting the long term self interests of every human being.

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Interfaith seminar draws 1,100 at FAU

12:46 AM EST, February 12, 2008
by JAMES D. DAVIS, Sun-Sentinel.com

Angels and demons, saints and murderers: Both are spawned by religion.

"There is no true religion, only true faith," religion scholar Thomas Idinopulos told 1,100 listeners at Florida Atlantic University on Monday night. "Religion can produce goodness and peace, but also madness, murderers, terrorists.

"Beliefs may be right or wrong; they may be idealistic or tyrannical. But faith doesn't deceive, because it leads to good works, and to social and moral justice."

Idinopulos, a comparative religion professor at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, was one of several speakers -- Muslim, Jewish, Christian -- the interfaith Shemin Trialogue Seminar.

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