Students in submission. //
A difficult conversation, a revelation. So much (of reading this book) depends on acknowledging, wrestling, reconciling, releasing—-the impotence of outward-turning.
Inspired by the treatment of Sufism in KSR’s Red Mars series, (sci-fi and Islam: who knew?) I finally went looking. I found Allah’s servant, Ahmed Hulusi. Alhamdulillah, I believe he is much that I have needed as a guide to the Quran.
Always humbling, in a moment of seeking, to discover just the voice that connects your outer pieces and draws you deeper in.
“It’s a Farsi poem by Jalaluddin Rumi, the master of the whirling dervishes. I never learned the English version very well—
’I died from a mineral and plant became,
Died from the plant, took a sentient frame;
Died from the beast, donned a human dress—
When by my dying did I ever grow less . . .’“Ah, I can’t remember the rest. But some of those Sufis were very good engineers.”
(A Rumi reference, from Green Mars, by Kim Stanley Robinson.)
Of course they are well-prepared for Mars. Mars is ever-singing in the Sufi heart.
After eighteen days on a convalescent diet, I finally got my veggie burger tonight. Beet-lentil burger with purple sauerkraut and charcoal mayo, roasted sweet potato wedges, and a creamy durian smoothie. I am full of flavor-colors.
From a fruitful exchange. I propose “a seed” as a self-incarnating teacher of divine mystery.
(Then to follow the seed back into its sleep, as to dream.)
Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatu.