Saturday, October 17, 2009

a poem from Sherif Baba

Sherif Baba has sent a poem to post on this site.  I'm posting now in Turkish, but if anyone can please help to translate it, that would be very much appreciated, inshallah. 
_____
Kibirli  olma-tevazzulu   ol
         İnatcı   olma-iteatkar   ol
         Kindar olma-  affedici   ol
         hırslı   olma- azimli  ol
         Tutucu olma- verici ol
         Öfkeli  olma- uysal  ol
         Laf taşıyıcı olma-itibarlı ol
         Geveze  olma- sukut  ol
         Aceleci olma- sakin ol
         Şaşkın olma--akil  ol
         Taklidci olma-asil ol
         Tenkidci olma-tasdikci ol
         Tahrikci olma-sabırlı ol
         Asi olma -razi ol
         Kaba  olma--nazik ol
         Yıkıcı oLma-yapıcı ol
         Zalim olma- adil ol
         İtici  olma- ilgili  ol
        Bilgiç olma-dinleyici ol
        Karamsar  olma- hoş görülü ol
        Dik başlı  olma-halim selim ol
        Ok gibi olma-  yay gibi ol
        Zanlı  olma-  İZANLI OL.........
  


       Aziz dostlarıma, maddi ve manevi evladlarıma ayine hükmündeki  bu levhamız vasiyetim  olsun.Merkezden asla ayrılmayınız,alemi olduğu üzre kabullenip,hakkınıza
      rıza gösteriniz.. Halkın  içinde Hakkı  yaşayarak birbirinize  ayine olunuz.Vesselam..Mehmed şerif çatalkaya(hilkati) 15 ekim 2009 ıst.maltepe
        
        
 

Friday, October 16, 2009

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

some pictures


With Shaykh Rasheed (Naqshbandi-Mujediddi) and Selma on the Eid a few weeks ago.



With Shaykh Nooruddeen Durkee (Shadhili)  at the I.S.R.A. conference in High Point, NC




One of my favorite pictures of Sherif Baba
 A few new pictures.  I'll try to add a number of new ones over the next week or so, inshallah. 

By the way, I'm finally on Oovoo. I  really have no idea how it works and I'm not on Cem's mailing list, so if you're more "in the know" than I am as to how to catch one of Baba's sohbets on Oovoo please, please, please give me some hints! ;)




Monday, October 12, 2009

Hu....

I'm finally posting again after quite a long while. Inshallah, everyone had a nice Ramadan and Eid (Bayram). Selma and I have had some very nice travels lately, elhamdulillah. We were up at Shaykh Ahmed abdur Rasheed's zawiya in Virginia for the last days of Ramadan, then off to a dhikr with Abdel Haqq and Abdel Hadi in Athens, GA and most recently to West Virginia for a Mevlevi retreat and sema workshops with Jelaleddin Loras.

It was our first time meeting Jelaleddin Effendi, though I've known about him for a good 15 years or so. Mashallah! We loved him and the whole community who gathered for the event. And we were very happy to meet lots of people who know Sherif Baba, too. Many very happy memories of the past were shared and many new ones were created. Eyvallah.

I had a very nice conversation with Jelaleddin Effendi about Baba. I knew that they were friends, but I hadn't realized that he knew Burhan Effendi well. When I asked if they had met, he said "I knew him before Sherif knew him!" with a big smile. He said that he had gone to his house many times, even as a child, because his father (Suleyman Dede)and Burhan Effendi had been good friends and would visit each other a couple of times a year.

Shaykh Ahmed's Naqshbandi-Mujeddidi community was also wonderful as always. Very warm and open-hearted, mashallah. And Abdel-Haqq's dhikr was really refreshing too... I hadn't seen him in about 10 years since I lived in Athens. And finally I seem to have found some decent contacts with the Jerrahi community in Atlanta, elhamdullillah. Inshallah, we may be able to go their dhikrs from time to time.

It's felt like roaming around in a desert for a while, but elhamdullillah, we've had a nice rest in a very pleasant oasis. Inshallah, we will continue to find such places.

I'll try to upload some new pictures in the next day or two, inshallah, so stay tuned. But for now, check out this link to a short film on Soul TV about the Ramadan retreat at Shaykh Rasheed's in Virgina. Selma and I both pop up in it a few times. See if you can figure out which ones we are ;)



It's not letting me post a link, but paste into the browser:

http://soultv.net/index.php

Lots of good things on that site. Click the "Spirituality" tab and then "Ramadan Retreat" under the screen.