Uncle Hassan’s Last Minutes Uncle Hassan is about to die. He has spent the last two months in the hospital, dragging himself from bed to armchair, from armchair to bed. Now he is bedridden. It all started with an infection of the urinary tract, which couldn’t be treated. The tract became infected, and the infection […]

Shams-e-Tabrīzī (or Shams al-Din Mohammad, literally: Sun of Islam; 1185–1248) was an Iranian Sufi mystic born in the city of Tabriz in Iranian Azerbaijan. He introduced Mawlānā Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Balkhi, usually known as Rumi in the West, to Islamic mysticism, for which he was immortalized in Rumi’s poetry collection Diwan-e Shams-e Tabriz-i (“The Works […]

Ritual Activities. The Ṣūfī saint’s shrine is one of the focal points of rituals carried out not only by the members of the Ṣūfī order that has a special spiritual relationship with the saint but also by common Muslims who simply admire the mystical power of the saint and venerate him. There are three important […]

O thou who art my soul’s comfort in the season of sorrow, O thou who art my spirit’s treasure in the bitterness of dearth! That which the imagination has not conceivedthatwhich the understanding has not seen. ,Visiteth my soul from thee, hence in worship I turn toward theeBy thy grace I keep fixed on eternity […]