The Lovers

Love is to see good and beautiful in everything, to learn from and to be thankful for all God's bounties.
~ Sheikh Muzaffer Ozak

If the Divine is up on a pedestal or a cross, you've got to climb up there too.
~ Perhaps a game hint for The Legend of Zelda? ;)

Who you are speaks So loudly,
I can't hear What you are saying.

“Philosophy is finished. Now is the time for love. ~ Sheikh Muzaffer Ozak

“I dreamed one night of the Prophet, on him be peace. He was riding his camel, led by Imam Ali, may God be pleased with him, who was holding in his other hand his famous sword, the two-edged Zulfikar. Addressing me, the Prophet asked if I had faith and if I was a Muslim. When I said yes, he asked me if I would give my head for Islam. Again I said yes. Then the Prophet told Imam Ali to cut my head off in the name of Islam. Imam Ali asked me to stretch my neck out, then struck me with all his might, severing my head from my body. I awoke in terror. When I saw my Koran teacher next morning, I told him my dream and then told him who my father was. I knew he was a close friend of my late father, but I had never mentioned it before. He shook his head and said: “Ah, so you are the son of my fellow exile, are you?” My father and my teacher were among the seven hundred Sheikhs and theologians who were banished to the port of Sinop on the Black Sea by the revolutionaries of the Committee of Union and Progress, for having supported the Sultan. The exile of these religious dignitaries had continued until the First World War in 1914.

My teacher then interpreted my dream and said that I was going to join the Sufi path of Ali and that I would become the Sheikh of a particular order.

Many years after that incident, when I had opened my store of rare books near the Beyazit Mosque and become a well-known Imam and preacher, I had another dream. I was in the middle of the Bosphorus between the Topkapi Palace and Uskudar, in a small sailing boat whose sails were torn and whose mast was broken. A terrible storm was raging. Someone handed me a sheet of paper and told me to read it so that I would be saved from the calamity. When I came back to my shop next morning, I saw the very person who had given me the paper in my dream, passing in front of my shop. I could not gather the courage to call him. A couple of days later I dreamed about the same person. He was walking on the other side of the street and beckoned to me with his walking stick. The next morning, in amazement, I again saw him passing in front of my shop. I felt that there was a spiritual meaning to these dreams, but I did nothing about it. A short while later I saw the same man again in a dream in which he hugged me so hard that I felt my bones about to break. Then he let me go, held up the crown of the Halveti Order, and put the turban on my head. I felt crushed under the weight of the turban. It was as if the seven heavens were sitting on my head.

As soon as I came to open my shop in the morning, I saw the man walking by, stick in hand. I told myself: “There is a mystery and a spiritual message in this situation. I am not going to call this man. Let him come to me.” He walked by, my eyes following him, then he stopped and came and stood in front of my shop, stuck his head through the door, and said: “You bigot, three times you have seen me. When are you going to start having faith?”

“Right now,” said I, grabbing and kissing his hand. This holy person was Seyyid Sheikh Ahmed Tahir ul-Marashi, the Sheikh of the Halveti-Shabani. I became his dervish, and he would come to my shop every day. Some days he would speak, on others remain silent, but in either case he would be teaching me. This continued for seven years…”

~ Sheikh Muzaffer Ozak (1916 - 1985). was the 19th Grand Sheikh of the Halveti-Jerrahi Order of Dervishes, a traditional Muslim Sufi order (tarika) from Istanbul (Turkey).
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Love, intimacy, and constant remembrance are the glorious way.Essentially, love, love, and more love.~ - Shaykha Fariha al Jerrahi

“It happened first through the Whirling Dervishes who came to New York City and performed at Circle in the Square. My parents saw them there. My father, the good Parisian Catholic, fell in love with them and always had the intention of bringing them back to this country. When my father passed away my mother made a vow to bring the Whirling Dervishes back to the United States. I was a part of that process and went with her to Istanbul. During that time she was referred to Tosun Bayrak as a person who could direct her in how to receive an entire group of Whirling Dervishes in Houston, Texas. I was there that day in New York when Tosun Baba came. After he and my mother finished conversing I took him downstairs to the door, and he, very much in passing, mentioned his Sheikh, but in such a way… “Oh my Sheikh…” Something about the way he said it…immediately Sheikh Muzaffer’s fragrance was present and I started having a very strong feeling for him. He was the one I was waiting for.

And then came Sheikh Nur… I am really a disciple. I have the title Sheikh, which is more of a practical thing, and in America it’s good for people to learn a certain degree of respect, but [takes a sip of her tea] the reality is that I am just their disciple. After Sheikh Muzaffer’s passing I became Sheikh Nur’s disciple. Even though I had received the taj, the crown of the Order, from Effendi in 1980 alongside Nur, it was clear to me that I would serve Nur. Effendi was like a gigantic magnet and drew so many people from so many different backgrounds and paths together. It was amazing. He drew people who were within Islam, people who had never heard of Islam, people who were just traveling through. He attracted longing hearts.

I never took it on (the title of Sheikha) until Sheikh Nur passed in 1994, when others thought it was a good idea, and I assumed a part of Sheikh Nur’s role, in tending the tariqat as it were. It was…unusual. You know, I had never expected Sheikh Nur to die. Even though he was becoming frail before my eyes I couldn’t believe he was going to pass. I so much believed in his mission. I saw Effendi bringing this great mystical tradition to the West, and Nur seemed to be the perfect vessel thru which this tradition could continue flowering. And he was, but it happened more quickly than any of us anticipated. Nur acted as the diamond thru which the light of the Jerrahi Sufi tradition radiated. His writings and his spiritual transmissions given to his disciples are the foundation for the next great wave in the West. It shows you that we do not know how things will come about even if we have an intuition that they will.

When Nur passed into the realm of beauty I took on the role of guiding the community. This was indicated by dervish dreams, which point to the next guide. There was a lot of pressure coming from the side of Istanbul to draw everything back and put it under the wing of Turkey. But, as Sheikh Muzaffer had said, “I did not come to the West to meet my own national group.” He was way beyond that. He came for the human heart, and he came to offer the path of love to the American people whom he loved. After Effendi, Nur took his “sword of Alexander” [laughter] and cut out any remaining cultural aspects of tariqat. He continued offering the transmission of wisdom and love that Effendi had brought, gathering the souls to journey back to the Source in the caravan of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. Sheikh Nur was always clear that the tariqat stands on love of Holy Qur’an and love for the Prophet and the tradition of the Prophets.

The name of the Order during Effendi’s lifetime was Halveti Jerrahi. After Effendi’s passing into the realm of beauty, Nur put Ashki, love, in the title, as this was one of Effendi’s names. He called it the Ashki Jerrahi Sufi Order. Then when Nur passed we included his name “Nur” in the title, because his presence has marked this tariqat tremendously. So now in the Americas it carries the names of both Sheikh Nur and Sheikh Muzaffer. Their meeting in the West was like the meeting of Shems and Mevlana Rumi, giving rise to something radically new in the field of Sufism.

You can only do that (define where the culture ends and the tradition begins) through inspiration and guidance. If you start doing it mentally it’s already off. What one can do is deepen. Once firmly rooted in the tradition you are guided to do what is true. And we have the depth of the sacred tradition as revealed to the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, that we can endlessly deepen into.

But of course we have our own cultural blinders. Who knows? Perhaps in two hundred years people will have to shake the American culture off from this tradition.…”

~ Shaykha Fariha is the spiritual guide of the Nur Ashki Jerrahi Sufi Order in New York City. She was born in 1947 into a socially committed, eclectic Catholic family in Houston, Texas. At the age of 29, she met her teacher, Shaykh Muzaffer Ozak of Istanbul, and received direct transmission from him in 1980. Shaykh Muzaffer also gave direct transmission to Lex Hixon (Shaykh Nur al-Jerrahi), who envisioned a radical and illumined path of the heart which he called Universal Islam. After Shaykh Nur's death, Fariha took on the guidance of the Nur Ashki Jerrahi Sufi Order, with circles around the world. This lineage offers the nectar of teachings of the Prophet Muhammed, peace be upon him, which guide the seeker to self-knowledge and immersion in God. The sacred practices of zikr, prayer, charitable living, fasting and retreat are all embraced. Every Thursday, Fariha with her husband Ali and the dervishes invite all seekers into the circle of zikr at the Dergah al-Farah in NYC.