Yoga & Islam

[Husseinisdoingfine]

This is an amazing video:

I'm posting this to remove a binary concept that a lot of New Agers seems to fall victim to, which is that the Abrahamic religions are nonsense that involve prayer and worship with no actual spiritual practice, and the Asians traditions are the only traditions which actually raise your consciousness. 

But this brings me to an interesting question, what happened to Islam? Why is it that Yoga is not talked about at all in Muslims circles that I'm familiar with within my community, friends, and family? How did Islam go from the Sufi mystic Mansur Al-Hallaj proclaiming, "I am truth", to what I see in the video below?

 

[Someone here]

@Husseinisdoingfine All so called middle Eastern religions have both esoteric and exoteric sects and teachings.  Mainstream Islam is very very strict and take the quran and the sharia literally. 

All hallaj was a sufi. Sufisim is the only Islamic sect that understands the roots of Islam .

It's a fascinating religion btw and I don't get at all the hatred it gets from western people if not for 11/9 and such. 

[Atb210201]

All Religions are great I Love every bit of all of their wisdoms

Islam and specially sufism has a special place in my heart also not because I Live in a Muslim country (Iran) but because of my own researchs and becoming interested in it, in fact I Have been against it and hated it and all Religions and religious people in general specially Islam and muslims for the most of 25 years of my life because it was the religion of our government, regime and the whole country

But now my views are different about Islam and religion in general

Edited August 30 by Atb210201

[Atb210201]

@Husseinisdoingfine I Love your signature BTW its fucking hilarious Leo Rasul Allah 😂 

Edited August 30 by Atb210201

[Applegarden8]

I will be a hindu radical and say that yoga comes from Hinduism and is an integral part of Hinduism and works best (by orders of magnitude) if done according to the ancient rishi's and sages texts. I am sorry. But I think it's really true. They already explored so much of what a human being can do and what a human being is. Yoga being diluted is dangerous and unproductive.

[Ajay0]

The Islamic prayer stances and movements of bowing and prostration are similar to yogic exercises. The sitting pose is similar to that of vajrasana. 

https://mvslim.com/5-ways-yoga-is-a-basic-practice-for-muslims/

I think the movements get added potency when it is done in the remembrance of God and not mechanically.It can also get better during fasting as fasting is an aid to prayer or meditation.

It is possible that Muhammad had intuitive insights into the flow of life-enery or prana/chi in the body, and devised such a system accordingly.

[Husseinisdoingfine]

 

[Ayham]

Okay so, this is kind of my current obsession as I usually have an obsession with a topic every few months, so I am researching this topic.

 

This is related to a lot of history, and particularly the Salafi/Wahabi movement (I will be referring to them as Salafi as Wahabi is used as an insult sometimes, but they are almost the same).

When Islam first divided, there was shia and sunni (and at first it was a political stance not a religious one), sunni has 4 schools: hanafi, maliki, shafii, and hanbali.

Now the Hanbalis were most extreme but are still not like the Salafis of today, Hanbalis believed in Allah having a physical body for example too, which is the Athari theology, they believe in literal intereptation, avoiding philosophy

The rest of the sunni schools were Ashari/Maturidi in theology, which are largely the same we won't delve into them, but basically, they believed in Kalam, or using philosophy to understand things, they also had other methodologies other than literal and complete adherence to Hadith and Quran, they also believed Allah doesn't have a body.

Won't delve into Shia's as it is not my expertise much.

Fast forward to the Islamic golden age, the mainstream of Islam is literally Sunni Sufi Ashari Theology,

Sufism, it doesn't have a clear origin but there are theories, in the Islamic golden age, a sufi is someone who practices purifying the heart, by a lot of rememberence of god, inducing and drowning in divine love, strict adherence to Islam, and following a Tariqa, or Sufi order.

A Sufi order, has a number of disciples centred around a Sufi master, whose lineage goes back to prophet Muhammed through Imam Ali usually (Naqshbandis are the only order who go back to the prophet through Abu Bakr), each person who joins the order gets blessings and initiation of the Sheikh or master, and also gives a pledge, it is an initiation, and this Sheikh or master guides you to reach the end point of Sufism, and he also appoints his best student as the next master afterwards.

Now Ibn Taymiyya, A hanbali scholar, the first Salafi, emerged in the 12th century I believed, he spread the Salafi Ideology but he wasn't taken seriously by scholars of the time, he was thrown in prison a lot, but he also had a lot of students.

Salafi Ideology is characterized by:

1. Literal intereptation of the Quran and Hadith, causing extremism and also believing Allah has a literal body
2. Believing that vising tombs or shrines or praying there is forbidden 
3. Consider the Sufi practices as innovation 
4. Consider themselves the only true Muslims

Meanwhile Sufi mystics believed that the Quran is ever changing, that its meaning changes depending on how spiritually advanced you are.

Now the first belief is the same as early Hanbalis, but, the Salafis claim to follow the "Salaf" which are the first 3 generations after the prophet, who he declared are the most rightous according to a Hadith, but here is the thing, the early hanbalis aren't even in the first three generations.

The whole Salafi ideology is based on going back to the Salaf, the first 3 generations after the prophet (even though their beliefs such as believing in god having a body or considering vising graves as Haram are not from the Salaf).

And despite Ibn Taymiyya's attempts to spread his thought, they didn't work until the 18th Century (excuse me if I am wrong with the dates), where Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab came in, a very famous scholar and Jihadist who used Ibn Taymiyya's books as a resource, he declared all muslims who don't follow him as Kuffar and disbelievers, he killed thousands as "jihad", and he allied with the Saudi royal family, and also some people say he got financial support from the UK.

Due to the big financial backing, the ideology spread, and even though, majority of scholars today are not Salafi, if you google anything related to Islamic rulings, you will only find Salafi scholars, that's how big their online presence is.

and look at this short article, in which the Saudi prince says that the west asked them to spread Wahabi ideology after the cold war to counter the Soviet influence: https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2018/03/243388/spread-wahhabism-done-request-west-cold-war-saudi-crown-prince

In my opinon, the real reason was to kill Islam from the inside.

Also Sufism in the islamic golden age was much different from Neo-Sufism in the west today, it is much more rooted in Islam.

(I could have wrong facts here so i don't mind correcting)

Edited September 8 by Ayham

[Salvijus]

11 minutes ago, Ayham said:

Okay so, this is kind of my current obsession as I usually have an obsession with a topic every few months.

 

This is related to a lot of history, and particularly the Salafi/Wahabi movement (I will be referring to them as Salafi as Wahabi is used as an insult sometimes, but they almost the same).

When Islam first divided, there was shia and sunni (and at first it was a political stance not a religious one), sunni has 4 schools: hanafi, maliki, shafii, and hanbali.

Now the Hanbalis were most extreme but are still not like the Salafis of today, Hanbalis believed in Allah having a physical body for example too, which is the Athari theology, they believe in literal intereptation, avoiding philosophy

The rest of the sunni schools were Ashari/Maturidi in theology, which are largely the same we won't delve into them, but basically, they believed in Kalam, or using philosophy to understand things, they also had other methodoliges than literal and complete adherence to Hadith and Quran, they also believed Allah doesn't have a body.

Won't delve into Shia's as it is not my expertise much.

Fast forward to the Islamic golden age, the mainstream of Islam is literally Sunni Sufi Ashari Theology,

Sufism, it doesn't have a clear origin but there are theories, in the Islamic golden age, a sufi is someone who practices purifying the heart, by a lot of rememberence of god, inducing and drowning in divine love, strict adherence to Islam, and following a Tariqa, or Sufi order.

A Sufi order, has a number of disciples centred around a Sufi master, whose lineage goes back to prophet Muhammed through Imam Ali usually (Naqshbandis are the only order who go back to the prophet through Abu Bakr), each person who joins the order gets blessings and initiation of the Sheikh or master, and also gives a pledge, it is an initiation, and this Sheikh or master guides you to reach the end point of Sufism, and he also appoints his best student as the next master afterwards.

Now Ibn Taymiyya, A hanbali scholar, the first Salafi, emerged in the 12th century I believed, he spread the Salafi Ideology but he wasn't taken seriously by scholars of the time, he was thrown in prison a lot, but he also had a lot of students.

Salafi Ideology is characterized by:

1. Literal intereptation of the Quran and Hadith, causing extremism and also believing Allah has a literal body
2. Believing that vising tombs or shrines or praying there is forbidden 
3. Consider the Sufi practices as innovation 
4. Consider themselves the only true Muslims

Meanwhile Sufi mystics believed that the Quran is ever changing, that its meaning changes depending on how spiritually advanced you are.

Now the first belief is the same as early Hanbalis, but, the Salafis claim to follow the "Salaf" which are the first 3 generations after the prophet, who he declared are the most righteous according to a Hadith, but here is the thing, the early hanbalis aren't even in the first generation.

The whole Salafi ideology is based on going back to the Salaf, the first 3 generations after the prophet.

And despite Ibn Taymiyya's attempts to spread his thought, they didn't work until the 18th Century (excuse me if I am wrong with the dates), where Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab came in, a very famous scholar who used Ibn Taymiyya's books as a resource, he declared all muslims who don't follow him as Kuffar and disbelievers, he killed thousands as in "jihad", and he allied with the Saudi royal family, and also some people say he got financial support from the UK.

Due to the big financial backing, the ideology spread, and even though, majority of scholars today are not Salafi, if you google anything related to Islamic rulings, you will only find Salafi scholars, that's how big their online presence is.

and look at this short article, in which the Saudi prince says that the west asked them to spread Wahabi ideology after the cold war to counter the Soviet influence: https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2018/03/243388/spread-wahhabism-done-request-west-cold-war-saudi-crown-prince

In my opinon, the real reason was to kill Islam from the inside.

 

(I could have wrong facts here so i don't mind correcting)

Damn. Interesting 

[Sabth]

2 hours ago, Ayham said:

Okay so, this is kind of my current obsession as I usually have an obsession with a topic every few months, so I am researching this topic.

 

This is related to a lot of history, and particularly the Salafi/Wahabi movement (I will be referring to them as Salafi as Wahabi is used as an insult sometimes, but they are almost the same).

When Islam first divided, there was shia and sunni (and at first it was a political stance not a religious one), sunni has 4 schools: hanafi, maliki, shafii, and hanbali.

Now the Hanbalis were most extreme but are still not like the Salafis of today, Hanbalis believed in Allah having a physical body for example too, which is the Athari theology, they believe in literal intereptation, avoiding philosophy

The rest of the sunni schools were Ashari/Maturidi in theology, which are largely the same we won't delve into them, but basically, they believed in Kalam, or using philosophy to understand things, they also had other methodologies other than literal and complete adherence to Hadith and Quran, they also believed Allah doesn't have a body.

Won't delve into Shia's as it is not my expertise much.

Fast forward to the Islamic golden age, the mainstream of Islam is literally Sunni Sufi Ashari Theology,

Sufism, it doesn't have a clear origin but there are theories, in the Islamic golden age, a sufi is someone who practices purifying the heart, by a lot of rememberence of god, inducing and drowning in divine love, strict adherence to Islam, and following a Tariqa, or Sufi order.

A Sufi order, has a number of disciples centred around a Sufi master, whose lineage goes back to prophet Muhammed through Imam Ali usually (Naqshbandis are the only order who go back to the prophet through Abu Bakr), each person who joins the order gets blessings and initiation of the Sheikh or master, and also gives a pledge, it is an initiation, and this Sheikh or master guides you to reach the end point of Sufism, and he also appoints his best student as the next master afterwards.

Now Ibn Taymiyya, A hanbali scholar, the first Salafi, emerged in the 12th century I believed, he spread the Salafi Ideology but he wasn't taken seriously by scholars of the time, he was thrown in prison a lot, but he also had a lot of students.

Salafi Ideology is characterized by:

1. Literal intereptation of the Quran and Hadith, causing extremism and also believing Allah has a literal body
2. Believing that vising tombs or shrines or praying there is forbidden 
3. Consider the Sufi practices as innovation 
4. Consider themselves the only true Muslims

Meanwhile Sufi mystics believed that the Quran is ever changing, that its meaning changes depending on how spiritually advanced you are.

Now the first belief is the same as early Hanbalis, but, the Salafis claim to follow the "Salaf" which are the first 3 generations after the prophet, who he declared are the most rightous according to a Hadith, but here is the thing, the early hanbalis aren't even in the first three generations.

The whole Salafi ideology is based on going back to the Salaf, the first 3 generations after the prophet (even though their beliefs such as believing in god having a body or considering vising graves as Haram are not from the Salaf).

And despite Ibn Taymiyya's attempts to spread his thought, they didn't work until the 18th Century (excuse me if I am wrong with the dates), where Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab came in, a very famous scholar and Jihadist who used Ibn Taymiyya's books as a resource, he declared all muslims who don't follow him as Kuffar and disbelievers, he killed thousands as "jihad", and he allied with the Saudi royal family, and also some people say he got financial support from the UK.

Due to the big financial backing, the ideology spread, and even though, majority of scholars today are not Salafi, if you google anything related to Islamic rulings, you will only find Salafi scholars, that's how big their online presence is.

and look at this short article, in which the Saudi prince says that the west asked them to spread Wahabi ideology after the cold war to counter the Soviet influence: https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2018/03/243388/spread-wahhabism-done-request-west-cold-war-saudi-crown-prince

In my opinon, the real reason was to kill Islam from the inside.

Also Sufism in the islamic golden age was much different from Neo-Sufism in the west today, it is much more rooted in Islam.

(I could have wrong facts here so i don't mind correcting)

I love what you've wrote.  this too. When I was younger, I was into these too. I have his book. And many others , that I've read. 

 

You know, when I say that my parents are no longer practicing , in her room , she had a big picture of someone on her wall. And the angels wouldn't come into your house. With that. So you know, what should I do? Torn it to pieces? I never keep pictures displayed in my room or house but my mom did. I remembered when we are younger, she would tell others to take down all their family pictures and frames. In their houses. But now she kept two pictures of a man who was not her husband or fam in her room. Idk. 😑 I wish the angel would still visited my room.  

 

There was someone who sees light from space , coming from the houses of someone who's practicing. 

 

When we first came here, he would told everyone to take down their animal/human like sculptures , or pictures. As that would not invited the angels to your house . But now, they keep it. 

 

Edited September 8 by Sabth

[Ramanujan]

@Ayham you are so smart

How do u know all these within age 18

[PurpleTree]

On 2024-08-30 at 10:24 PM, Someone here said:

 

It's a fascinating religion btw and I don't get at all the hatred it gets from western people if not for 11/9 and such. 

in western europe because it produces so many ancient backwards, ideological people who live in their own world and there have been many many more terror attacks than 9/11 just a few days ago a confused muslim stabbed people in germany

[Ayham]

@Sabth you mean your mom used to have pictures of people in her room, even as a practicing Muslim?

Yes there's a Hadith about not hanging drawings of living beings, I wonder why to be honest, there doesn't seem to be wisdom in this, I am a "Muslim" whose main focus is using it as a path for self purification and perfecting of character, which is the Sufi concern, being mindful 24/7.

Sufism is basically Ihsan, worshipping god as if you see him, and worship doesn't mean just prayer, but your whole life.

Just like if you were in a car driving and you saw a cop, you will act more mindfully and carefully and be better, the same is with Sufism, the concern is to develop a feeling of love to god and mindfulness of god, and yes that's still duality, until you basically annihilate into Allah.

But I consider it disrespectful to the tradition to rip it off it's islamic background, so I do that too without falling into the Dogma.

And the thing about paintings, many modern scholars argued against that, as with anything Islamic, legal rulings are always fought against, which is why I think following intuition is the best, and the obvious things, but not the intuition of your corrupted self, the intuition of yourself when you purify more and more, it will become clearer, and of course if you want to remain Islamic, follow the legal rulings of your chosen school of Fiqh, I choose Ashari Maliki just because why not, I don't consider it absolute truth but I choose to believe in it.

 

@Ramanujan

Thank youu! 

Well, I get complete obsession about a topic every few months, and sometimes I remain obsessed over a topic for years.

When I was 11 I got obsessed with topics like relativity and pyramids.

At 12 I got obsessed with new age spirituality and chakras and Eckhart Tolle, for like 2 years, it becomes my main thing I think about all time and look up/read on, at 12 I was also obsessed with the learning how to learn and maximizing productivity stage orange stuff.

At 14/15 I discovered actualized which was a game changer, I started implementing some habits, and basically watched all video's on the "start here" section, and watched the new ones based on intuition, stalked probably hundreds of topics on this forum from many years ago, it's useful for research.

Then I got obsessed with Buddhism and meditation for a year, then Kriya yoga and Hinduism for a year, got obsessed with writing and commonplace books for a while too, for the previous months my obsession has been Islam and Middle Eastern history.

I probably have ADHD actually lol, I can't focus unless I'm interested in something, I fought myself every day for years to study as I am in an extremely competitive school, I get good grades but studying is extremely hard, and good grades are bad compared to the standards in this school.

About time to get into business and career stuff.

Each person has a thing that's unique to them, mine is a thirst for knowledge, even when I'm obsessed about a topic, I still think about and research many other topics, it usually shows from young, like someone might be fascinated with tech since they were young, or art, or sports, or something very unique and weird

 

 

@PurpleTree

Yes exactly, stage blue structure, Islam is the religion that reinforces stage blue the most, it outgrew stage blue until Salafism returned it.

Here in my country, fighting against disbelievers is taught in school lol, it's installed onto kids but most kid's don't act on it, but of course there's always people who grow into radicals.

With online culture nowadays, kids  here are seeing the west too, so they aren't completely shelled and brainwashed.

And still there are big radicals, most of my friends are Salafi muslims, we used to debate a lot.

Edited September 8 by Ayham

[Ayham]

Bruh I always end up with walls of text

[integration journey]

@Ayham I like your explanation of Sufism. I grew up Muslim too. I’m fascinated by Sufism but I just don’t know how to apply it practically into daily life. 

[Salvijus]

4 hours ago, Ramanujan said:

@Ayham you are so smart

How do u know all these within age 18

Big gifts come with big responsibilities. I intuit the guy is born with a great mission on this planet. Very exciting to watch. 

[Ayham]

@integration journey

Thank you brother.

Sufism is hard to understand, because it is a secret thing, like most of the Sufi knowledge is to be taken from a lineage, and also Salafism takes all the online presence.

I don't have a lineage, I am not into orders because from what I observed, it becomes very Cultish, though I plan to take initiation, and continue on my own.

Going into Sufism is not easy at all, you will have to learn a lot, read a lot, practice a lot, but I can tell you it works very well once you get it, it is a form of Bhakti yoga in Hinduism, the four yogas in Hinduism are: Bhakti Yoga (devotion and love type shit), Jnana Yoga (self inquiry type shit), Raja yoga (meditation type shit), Karma yoga (being a good person), these are the 4 pathways to union with god according to Hinduism.

Now, Sufism is easily Bhakti yoga (divine love and devotion to Allah), and Karma yoga (Perfection of character and purifiying the self)
Add in some sort of meditative practices (Buddhism maybe) for Raja yoga, and Self inquiry for (Jnana yoga).
Sufism actually has meditative practices in itself, which is Dhikr, or rememberence, similiar to mantra chanting, you just repeat a phrase like "Allah" or "La Ilaha Ila Allah", for long, which quitens the mind, you probably know this, and it is stronger than any mantra chanting because it is accompanied by feelings of love and devotion, and a focus on the meaning of the words.
As for Jnana yoga, the prophet himself used to do something like self inquiry before getting "the message", which is asking about what is god, rather than what is self in traditional self inquiry.

So you can quite literally use Islam to fulfill all of those, couple it with Fasting, Khalwa (Islamic version of retreats), daily prayers, and other stuff, and you are good to go.

My approach is to use Kriya yoga + Self inquiry in the calm state after Kriya, while doing my daily Islamic prayers and rememberence of god whenever able, and sticking to Islamic rulings.

I chose Islam just because I am from an Islamic culture so it probably suits my subconscious conditionings.

Now if you want to practice Sufism, Sufism is concerned with Ihsan, the perfection of worship, and there is steps to religion according to a funny Hadith

1. Islam: Practing the 5 pillars of Islam, which are daily prayer, giving charity, fasting, beliving in god and prophet, and primiliage to mecca if able
2. Iman: the practices above induce faith or Iman, so they are no longer just practices, you grow in belief in god.
3. Ihsan (what Sufism is concenred with): The perfection of worship, worshipping allah as if you see him.

The end goal of Sufism would be Fana', which is like, ego death.

So basically you can't have Sufism without Islam as it is built on it, though many in the west do that, so you can try that too.
I know believing in Islam is hard, because a lot of it seems like dogma, but I just *choose* to believe in it, for now at least, Ibn Arabi held the belief that the Quran's meaning changes depending on how spiritually developed you are, and the more spiritually developed you are, the more you see wisdom in it, some Sufis have taken a lot of stuff in Quran is metaphor, and are considered heretics lol, other Sufis were very strict, so find your ground.

Ibn Arabi also believed in Wahdat Al Wujud (nothing exists but Allah sort of stuff, and we are all a reflection of his existence, sort of like god standing in front of a mirror, and the whole world is a reflection and embodiment of god's existence, but not exactly god)

To actually practice, do your 5 pillars, do all of them with a feeling of love and devotion, do Dhikr, extremely slowly, focus on every word and letter, read Sufi poetry, stick to Islamic rulings, maybe join a Sufi order, also I will share some good resources.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Sufism/comments/1cn1kah/tassawuf_without_a_sheikh/

https://www.reddit.com/r/Sufism/comments/gmcljv/general_resources_for_learning_more_about_the/

https://youtu.be/a-fzYJcpuyI?si=iFmWjUXt3-_0s_0l

https://youtu.be/Yc9k9nvIHOU?si=MXxqZtoIKmjH7rd8

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTgDm4XwxaRIJCWyAO-isyCku250Q4mTd

https://youtu.be/0Y6N2e4ED10?si=uRbXN4O-QjJfa4T6

 

As for books:

1. Anything by Rumi
2. Secret of Secrets by Abdul Qadir Gilani
3. Beginning of Guidance by Imam Ghazali
4. Revival of religious sciences by Imam Ghazali (huge book, actually books)
5. Bezzels of Wisdom by Ibn Arabi (way too advanced, I couldn't understand this to be honest)
6. Or read watered down western books on Sufism, you know Arabic from what I remember of your posts, so it would be better to read in Arabic, not translations, a lot is lost in translation.

Yes it is too much, these will take years to tackle lol, so go slowly if you choose this path, just focus on the basics and feeling divine love, stay away from "sins", but don't repress anything, let the divine love melt your bad desires away, slowly tackle material and you will be well.

For me, the main difference between meditation practices and Sufism, is that Sufism makes me feel extreme feelings of love, to the point of wanting to cry, meanwhile the eastern practices just make me very calm and concentrated, so they work well with each other, and actually there are certain sufi methods to do Dhikr in a pranayama like way, in certain orders.

I don't consider normal Muslims Muslims even if I go by their definition, because they are simply brainwashed into it (the ones born into at least), they don't actually use it to better themselves in anyway.

 

 

[integration journey]

1 hour ago, Ayham said:

@integration journey

Thank you brother.

Sufism is hard to understand, because it is a secret thing, like most of the Sufi knowledge is to be taken from a lineage, and also Salafism takes all the online presence.

I don't have a lineage, I am not into orders because from what I observed, it becomes very Cultish, though I plan to take initiation, and continue on my own.

Going into Sufism is not easy at all, you will have to learn a lot, read a lot, practice a lot, but I can tell you it works very well once you get it, it is a form of Bhakti yoga in Hinduism, the four yogas in Hinduism are: Bhakti Yoga (devotion and love type shit), Jnana Yoga (self inquiry type shit), Raja yoga (meditation type shit), Karma yoga (being a good person), these are the 4 pathways to union with god according to Hinduism.

Now, Sufism is easily Bhakti yoga (divine love and devotion to Allah), and Karma yoga (Perfection of character and purifiying the self)
Add in some sort of meditative practices (Buddhism maybe) for Raja yoga, and Self inquiry for (Jnana yoga).
Sufism actually has meditative practices in itself, which is Dhikr, or rememberence, similiar to mantra chanting, you just repeat a phrase like "Allah" or "La Ilaha Ila Allah", for long, which quitens the mind, you probably know this, and it is stronger than any mantra chanting because it is accompanied by feelings of love and devotion, and a focus on the meaning of the words.
As for Jnana yoga, the prophet himself used to do something like self inquiry before getting "the message", which is asking about what is god, rather than what is self in traditional self inquiry.

So you can quite literally use Islam to fulfill all of those, couple it with Fasting, Khalwa (Islamic version of retreats), daily prayers, and other stuff, and you are good to go.

My approach is to use Kriya yoga + Self inquiry in the calm state after Kriya, while doing my daily Islamic prayers and rememberence of god whenever able, and sticking to Islamic rulings.

I chose Islam just because I am from an Islamic culture so it probably suits my subconscious conditionings.

Now if you want to practice Sufism, Sufism is concerned with Ihsan, the perfection of worship, and there is steps to religion according to a funny Hadith

1. Islam: Practing the 5 pillars of Islam, which are daily prayer, giving charity, fasting, beliving in god and prophet, and primiliage to mecca if able
2. Iman: the practices above induce faith or Iman, so they are no longer just practices, you grow in belief in god.
3. Ihsan (what Sufism is concenred with): The perfection of worship, worshipping allah as if you see him.

The end goal of Sufism would be Fana', which is like, ego death.

So basically you can't have Sufism without Islam as it is built on it, though many in the west do that, so you can try that too.
I know believing in Islam is hard, because a lot of it seems like dogma, but I just *choose* to believe in it, for now at least, Ibn Arabi held the belief that the Quran's meaning changes depending on how spiritually developed you are, and the more spiritually developed you are, the more you see wisdom in it, some Sufis have taken a lot of stuff in Quran is metaphor, and are considered heretics lol, other Sufis were very strict, so find your ground.

Ibn Arabi also believed in Wahdat Al Wujud (nothing exists but Allah sort of stuff, and we are all a reflection of his existence, sort of like god standing in front of a mirror, and the whole world is a reflection and embodiment of god's existence, but not exactly god)

To actually practice, do your 5 pillars, do all of them with a feeling of love and devotion, do Dhikr, extremely slowly, focus on every word and letter, read Sufi poetry, stick to Islamic rulings, maybe join a Sufi order, also I will share some good resources.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Sufism/comments/1cn1kah/tassawuf_without_a_sheikh/

https://www.reddit.com/r/Sufism/comments/gmcljv/general_resources_for_learning_more_about_the/

https://youtu.be/a-fzYJcpuyI?si=iFmWjUXt3-_0s_0l

https://youtu.be/Yc9k9nvIHOU?si=MXxqZtoIKmjH7rd8

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTgDm4XwxaRIJCWyAO-isyCku250Q4mTd

https://youtu.be/0Y6N2e4ED10?si=uRbXN4O-QjJfa4T6

 

As for books:

1. Anything by Rumi
2. Secret of Secrets by Abdul Qadir Gilani
3. Beginning of Guidance by Imam Ghazali
4. Revival of religious sciences by Imam Ghazali (huge book, actually books)
5. Bezzels of Wisdom by Ibn Arabi (way too advanced, I couldn't understand this to be honest)
6. Or read watered down western books on Sufism, you know Arabic from what I remember of your posts, so it would be better to read in Arabic, not translations, a lot is lost in translation.

Yes it is too much, these will take years to tackle lol, so go slowly if you choose this path, just focus on the basics and feeling divine love, stay away from "sins", but don't repress anything, let the divine love melt your bad desires away, slowly tackle material and you will be well.

For me, the main difference between meditation practices and Sufism, is that Sufism makes me feel extreme feelings of love, to the point of wanting to cry, meanwhile the eastern practices just make me very calm and concentrated, so they work well with each other, and actually there are certain sufi methods to do Dhikr in a pranayama like way, in certain orders.

I don't consider normal Muslims Muslims even if I go by their definition, because they are simply brainwashed into it (the ones born into at least), they don't actually use it to better themselves in anyway.

 

 

Thank you so much brother. I bookmarked your response so I can keep coming back to it. Best wishes❤️

[Someone here]

13 hours ago, PurpleTree said:

in western europe because it produces so many ancient backwards, ideological people who live in their own world and there have been many many more terror attacks than 9/11 just a few days ago a confused muslim stabbed people in germany

Why do you think terrorism is linked to Islam?  Why there aren't Buddhist terrorism?  

[PurpleTree]

4 hours ago, Someone here said:

Why do you think terrorism is linked to Islam?  Why there aren't Buddhist terrorism?  

I don’t know and also don’t really care tbh there are extremists from all religions and i do like mosques (in iran) and such

But i guess their main prophet was more vilolent than let’s say jesus or buddha

at some point christianity went through the age of enlightenment which islam didn’t

many muslims come from more violent places much more tribal etc less evolved (less womens rights etc) and they bring their ideas to europe

islam has been at odds with manybother religions, christianity for thousands of years (jerusalem, spain, ottoman empire etc), hinduism also very long although there have also often been times of coexistence etc

also more backwards muslims come to europe than are going to the u.s. maybe

recently heard only 11% of turks in the u.s. voted erdogan for example while over 50% in europe did, don’t know if the numbers are accurate 

people in the muslim countries suffer the most of these bigots and backwards ideas imo the ideology is holding entire regions hostage