It is the most inspirational book from a Sufi perspective that I have ever read.
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No, but I am very interested in doing some reading from a Sufi perspective.  I will keep that in mind!  Thanks
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A refined mysticism among certain classes of Mohammedans, particularly in Persia, who hold to a kind of pantheism and practice extreme asceticism in their livesb is called Sufism.\n    the origins of sufism \nThere is disagreement among religious scholars and Sufis themselves about the origins of Sufism. The traditional view is that Sufism is the mystical school of Islam and had its beginnings in the first centuries following the life of the Prophet Mohammed. Indeed, most Sufis in the world today are Muslim and many of them would consider a non-Islamic Sufism impossible. \nThere is another view, however, that traces the pre-Islamic roots of Sufism back through the early Christian mystics of Syria and Egypt, to the Essenes, the ancient Pythagorean orders, and the mystery schools of the Egyptians and Zoroastrians, among others. It is these roots that gathered into the trunk known as Islamic Sufism.\nThe Indian mystic, Sufi Inayat Khan (1882-1927), recognized the multi-religious roots of Sufism as well as its contemporary relevance for people of all faiths. When he was instructed by his teacher in 1910 to bring Sufism to the West he articulated a “message of spiritual liberty” which reflects the universal, inclusive nature of Sufism. \nFor a sample of texts describing the universality of Sufism, from Sufi Inayat Khan, Idries Shah, Robert Graves, Jelaludin Rumi, and Ibn al’Arabi.\n    Sufism or tasawwuf, as it is called in Arabic, is generally understood by scholars and Sufis to be the inner, mystical, or psycho-spiritual dimension of Islam. Today, however, many Muslims and non-Muslims believe that Sufism is outside the sphere of Islam. Nevertheless, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, one of the foremost scholars of Islam, in his article The Interior Life in Islam contends that Sufism is simply the name for the inner or esoteric dimension of Islam. \n  For further information you may log onto ask.com or www.1000questions.net/en/religion/sufism-en.html
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Indian Sufism has often used Indian symbolism. god and man relation were seen as relation between husband and wife or bethroed.\n\nSharda highlights these unsurprising similarities by stating that: "After the fall of Muslim orthodoxy from power at the centre of India for about a century, due to the invasion of Timur, the Sufi became free from the control of the Muslim orthodoxy and consorted with Hindu saints, who influenced them to an amazing extent. The Sufi adopted Monism and wifely devotion from the Vaishnava Vedantic school and Bhakti and Yogic practices from the Vaishnava Vedantic school. By that time, the popularity of the Vedantic pantheism among the Sufis had reached its zenith."6\n\nmalik mohammad jayasi wrote a sufi poetic epic. and he used tales given in hindu tradition (purans etc) to describe relation between god and man. his poetry is really hard to understand without full knowledge of stories well. though he mixed up them sometimes and he refered the story of shiva but called it krishna or like that. but stll his work was incredible.\n\n saint kabeer again used word rama for "brahma" or supreme and called himself bride of rama. though a muslim he was also a deciple of a hindu guru ramanand.\n\nbut most used symbol is all time favourite Krishna.\n\n Krishna of mahabharat is really not same krishna described as in rasas.  krishna had left brindawan when he was a kid. but his lively character got popularity in many forms.\n\n  during muslim rule when suffism came up they regularly made stories of young krishna and hundreds of gopika. if you study documents this form of krishna came up with rise of suffism. they actually used krishna as god and all gopikas were supposedly humans trying to reach him. sufi and bhakti both tradition came up side by side. \n\n Sufism is never characterised under "Islam" in any system of catalogue, but rather under 'Mysticism'. Vedanta, the chief Hindu philosophy, which is an example of pantheism in its metaphysical strictness, also had a great impact on Sufism following the conquest of Sindh by Muhammad b. Qasim in the second century A.H.\n\nhttp://www.ahya.org/amm/modules.php?\nname=Sections&op=viewarticle&artid=70\n\nMan tu shudam,\nTu man shudi,\nMan tan shudam tu jaan shudi\nTakas nagoyad ba azeem man deegaram tu deegari.\n\nI have become you and you have become me,\nIn my body is your soul,\nMay none say hereafter that you and I are different beings, wrote Amir Khusrau.\nThe message is that “One who dies for the love of Truth (God) dies a Sufi (Pure) - and Sufis never die.” Sufi liberalism had other important aspects. While music and dance, dear to the Indian soul, were anathema to the ulema, they were encouraged in Sufi hospices. Sufi music is full of passionate devotion to God, the unity of body-and-soul and the oneness of mankind. Realising these truths leads to haal or a state of mystic exaltation.\n\nThe Sufis incorporated aspects of Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism and Christianity freely into their teaching. They took concepts such as Moksha from Hinduism and Nirvana from Buddhism. The Sufi doctrines of Fana and Baqa (annihilation and subsistence) correspond to Nirvana.\n\nNo systematic studies of Kashmiri Islam have been carried out. But its situation is very similar to that of Indonesian Islam, and one might use the analysis of Clifford Geertz (1960) and successors (Hefner 1985, Kipp and Rodgers 1987) to understand its dynamics. We then have the classification of orthodox , traditional , and karkun (urban, State employees) to parallel the labels of santri, abangan, priyayi for Javanese Islam. The interesting aspect of this classification is the fact that the karkun (or the priyayi in Java) has an ethos outside the main religious framework. In Java  the priyayi are Muslims who hold on secretly to the Hindu-Buddhist values,  whereas in Kashmir the karkun  have generally been the Hindus of the valley. In other words, if the orthodox are t
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i'm glad you feel so strongly about your beliefs. i'malso glad to see something of the quran, thank you.
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fasinating reading material part of the universal rightiousness that is religion i thought i was the only one that read the scriptures in the state of mind that allows me to feel closer to my god and my brother jesus christ after all the only thing that scares a polition is the uproar of a people that is totally devoted to their god and their belief  (the indians and their ghost dance)
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i am really looking forward to it, sometimes affraid of it and sometimes i am happy because almighty Allah promised us great things, and he is very great and kind, but in the same times i am affraid from Hell and Grave torment :(\n\nbut i always remmember the following\n\nAllah the\nAlmighty said: \n\nI am as My servant thinks I am. I am with him when he makes mention of Me.\nIf he makes mention of Me to himself, I make mention of him to Myself; and\nif he makes mention of Me in an assembly, I make mention of him in an\nassemble better than it. And if he draws near to Me an arm's length, I draw\nnear to him a fathom's length. And if he comes to Me walking, I go to him at\nspeed. \n\nIt was related by al-Buhkari (also by Muslim, at-Tirmidhi and Ibn-Majah). \n\nImam Nawawi's 40 Hadith Qudsi\n\ntherefore we should always think good in the almighty Allah that he will be very kind and genrous with us just like he promised us
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mashaallah!! you are a lucky person!! \nTo see our beloved master, the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace) in a dream is certainly very virtuous and a blessing from Allah Most High upon the person who was fortunate to see him.\n\nWhen one dreams of the Prophet (Allah bless him & give him peace), then one has certainly seen him. It is stated in a Hadith:\n\nSayyiduna Abu Huraira (may Allah be pleased with him) reports that the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace) said: “He who saw me in a dream has certainly seen me, for Shaytan can not take my form.” [Sahih al-Bukhari & Sahih Muslim]\n\nThe Hadith commentators and scholars have given different interpretations as to the meaning of this Hadith:\n\n1. That it is similar to seeing the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace) in real life, but one will not be called a Companion (sahabi), and one will not be legally responsible to carry out the orders given in the dream, because moral responsibility is not based on dreams.\n\n2. The Hadith is regarding those that were present at the time of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), meaning whosoever saw him in a dream was given a glad tiding that he will also see him whilst awake. This meaning is also supported by another Hadith where the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give peace) said “Whosoever sees me in a dream will soon me whilst awake” (Sahih al-Bukhari & Sahih Muslim).\n\n3. That whosoever saw the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give peace) in a dream, the dream is true and genuine. It is not merely an imagination. The Shaytan cannot come in ones dream and portray to be the Prophet Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam.  (All three interpretations related by Mulla Ali al-Qari in his al-Mirqat, 9/24).\n\nThe scholars have differed as to whether the dream is true in the case where one does not see the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace) in his recognized features and qualities, that have been transmitted in the traditions.\n\nSome scholars are of the view that the dream will only be true and genuine if the person sees the Prophet of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace) in his recognised features. This opinion has been attributed to Qadi Iyad.\n\nThe majority of the scholars, however, including Imam Nawawi, are of the view that if a person dreams the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace) then his dream is true, regardless of whether he sees him on his recognized features or otherwise.\n\nIf a person was to see the blessed Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace) in his unrecognized features, for example, he saw him without a beard, or with full grey hair, etc… then this dream will need to interpreted.\n\nThe differences in appearance may be due to the good or bad habits of the dreamer. According to the variation of people’s personalities, their dreams differ. Some dream him old, whilst others dream him young. Some see him pleased, whilst others see him disturbed. Therefore, the dream will need to be interpreted by a person who is qualified in this field, and who has taqwa and piety (Mulla Ali al-Qari, Mirqat al-Masabih, 9/25).\n\nIn the light of the above, if one has a dream of the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace) then he has surely seen him. One should not doubt this, as this has been clearly mentioned in the Hadith. However, there are two points here which need to be remembered and understood properly.\n\nThe Status of Dreams\n\nFirstly , dreams are not a source of evidence in Shariah. Therefore, if one received any order or guidance in the dream from the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace), then there are two possibilities:\n\n1, If the order and command is in accordance with the laws of Shariah then it will be a source of evidence, but only for the one who saw the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace) in the dream and not other people. The one who was ord
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He was a noted Hanbali preacher, Sufi sheikh and the eponymous founder of the Qadiri Sufi order (selsela). He was born in Ramadan 470 A.H ( About 1077 AD) in the Persian province of Jilan (Iran) south of the Caspian sea. His contribution and renown in the sciences of Sufism and Sharia was so immense that he became known as the spiritual pole of his time, al-Gauth al Azam (the "Supreme Helper" or the "Mightiest Succor"). His writings were similar to those of al-Ghazali in that they dealt with both the fundamentals of Islam and the mystical experience of Sufism.
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it feels great to be a part of the latest community formed by god (ALLAH).. i love to be muslim.. every thing in it is very clear.. no confusions here like christianity..
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I have love for God in his/or her infinite forms. I try'n follow the priciples of Ahimsa. I adore the presence and teachings of my Guru. I throw myself at the mercy of the infinite light.
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it is very inspiring and very beautifully worded
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Thank you for your question. \n\nI could write so much on how Islam has changed my life and how I feel inside my heart about Islam. But I will keep it short and sweet.\n\nIslam has made me a better person and brought me out of major sin. I am not going to go into what I was like before Islam, but I can say I was not going down a good path.\n\nEverything we do day in and day out is for Allah(God). From worship to our daily routine. I now have a reason to live a reason to be happy even when life is hard. \n\nIt has giving my life purpose and a feeling of peace. \n\nIslam is my salvation, and my reward, inshaAllah(God willing) will be paradise.
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Footprints in the sand is inspirational to anyone and everyone.....regardless of who wrote it or sang it.... the point of the message in the poem is clear as crystal.......... and Yes I believe it is true.!!!!!!!!!!!!
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it is a great verse, very inspiring.*
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..... thats tooo good... u know i never ever felt this reality...2day u made it dawn on me... thanx pal..... i was just amazed at reading it ... how could all the gist of life b summed up just 7 words!! .... thats simply THE TRUTH.... many might deny it ... but deep inside they kno its true ... thanx lot once again ... i never knew u to this level !! thanx once again .
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Have the seen the book 'Amazing grace' it is superb!
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Absolutelty awe inspiring.  To know that our souls are such precious things that even the "Gods" would fight for them.  That is why I love my soul, myself soooooo much, because both God AND satan want it.  Wow!!!!