”Oh my God, the best of your gifts within my heart is the hope of you. And the sweetest words
upon my tongue is your praise. And the hours which I love best are those in which I meet you. Oh my God, I cannot endure without the remembrance of you in this world. How shall I be able to endure without the vision of you? Oh my Lord, my complaint to you is that I am but a stranger in your country, and lonely among your worshipers.”
Oh, welcome. This is our last and final day of the Power of Prayer Peace Challenge. I hope you’ve
enjoyed and appreciate the different times and the energies of the different phases of our day and night. And you’ve had time to practice with each of these prayers, and imbibe them and let them enter into your heart in the deepest way.
I want to give you this story today and this prayer to help calm, to cultivate compassion, and to embody more divine love in your life. So my story today has to do with a man who had four sons, and he wanted his sons to learn how not to judge, and not to judge things way too quickly. So he sent them each on a quest in turn to go and look at this particular pear tree that was a great distance away.
So the first son, he went in winter, and the second son went in the spring, the third in the summer, and the youngest went in the fall. When they had all gone and come back, the father called them all together to describe what they had seen. And the first son said that, ”The tree was ugly. It was bent and it was twisted.” And the second son said, ”Oh no, it was covered with green bloods. And it was full of promise.” And the third son disagreed with all of them. And he said, ”No, it was ripe. And it was dripping with fruit, full of life and fulfillment.”
And the man explained, he said, ”All of his sons were right because they each saw only one season in the tree’s life.” And he told his sons that, ”You can’t judge a tree or a person by only one season. And that the essence of who they are, the pleasures, the joy, the love that comes from life can only be measured when all the seasons are in.”
So when you give up, when it’s winter, you’ll miss the promise of your spring, the beauty of your
summer, the fulfillment of your fall.
So I pray that you don’t let the pain of just one season destroy the joy of all the rest. And as this story says, ”Don’t judge life by just one difficult season.” Keep persevering through all the difficult patches and better times are sure to come.
There’s a famous Sufi saying which goes with another story that maybe at another time I’ll tell you. That, ”This too shall pass.”
So let’s set our intentions for today. And remember that God wants your happiness. A famous Sufi mystic named Gozali wrote a famous work called The Pursuit of Happiness. And there’s a beautiful, mystical, and prophetic prayer that he has. And I’ll share it with you now.
It says, ”Oh my God, the best of your gifts within my heart is the hope of you. And the sweetest words upon my tongue is your praise. And the hours which I love best are those in which I meet you. Oh my God, I cannot endure without the remembrance of you in this world. How shall I be able to endure without the vision of you? Oh my Lord, my complaint to you is that I am but a stranger in your country, and lonely among your worshipers.”
The prophet used to pray, ”Oh God, grant me the love of you. And to love those who love you. And to love whatever brings me nearer to you.”
And our guide gave us a special prayer that helps us in our human journey to dissolve what are called the nafs, or the ego and the personality, to be absorbed in the infinite unity of God. And I’d like to end today with that particular prayer that he gave us. And it helps you take on the attributes so that when you can say that, ”I am the hearing by which he hears. The seeing by which God see. In the hands by which he heals.”
This helps you move in the Sufi way from what we call the stations of the nafs, to the stations of the heart, to the stations of the soul and your spirit. It starts with the bestower, Al-Wahhab. The one who gives without being asked. So, and then it continues to the opener. Al-Fath, the one who opens the treasures of his mercy. And then to the one Al-Wahid. And he whose essence there is no multiplicity.
And then the unique Al-Ahad. The one who can either be divided or qualified. And then the selfsustaining Al-Simat. The one whom everyone turns for the fulfillment of all of their wishes.
So we say it like this. ”Yah, means to call.”
(singing).
And then we end with (singing). Hi is life. So we live our life and the gift of infinite joy. So let’s try it again.
(singing)
And we do that seven times each day, five times a day. So I leave you with that to try and see what you experience with it. And like to end with a prayer that’s called the Fatiha. It means the opener. And even though this is the end of our talent, may it be the opening of new explorations for you, and new horizons.
(singing).
Thank you so much for joining me in this seven day challenge. Peace to you. Continue to pray with a sincere heart and open mind, and enjoy the blessings that God bestows upon you every hour, every minute, in every second of every day. Many blessings to you, peace be with you. Salaam.
Maxine Salima Adelstein M.Ed., D.D.
Salima helps people to discover and embody the deep truth of their beauty and essence through her work as a healer and teacher. She is a Murshid Murabbi Ruhi, (Sufi Spiritual Guide) in the Shadhilyya Sufi tradition, a rank given to her by her guide, Sidi Muhammad al-Jamal. Her heart is filled with the joy and compassion that result from living in the heart of God.
