Shaykh Ibrahim's Podcast

Send us a text Primer on starting to seek spiritual understanding. A helpful guide for those who want to enter into a deeper knowledge and want to learn how to listen to their heart. Some practical advice on what to look for and what to avoid. Salaam Alaykum, murids, seekers, curious and interested listeners, We appreciate you, and are happy to share our Sufi Message. Your donation will help support our Sufi Centre in Sydney where we offer Zikr, Sohbet, spiritual counselling and healing...

Send us a text Spiritual abuse tends to prompt us to throw everything out that connects with spirituality or religion. The seeker has rights. To avoid future abuse and to recognize the signs we talk about what those rights are. Salaam Alaykum, murids, seekers, curious and interested listeners, We appreciate you, and are happy to share our Sufi Message. Your donation will help support our Sufi Centre in Sydney where we offer Zikr, Sohbet, spiritual counselling and healing services....

Send us a text What is a Spiritual Path? How do you know if its the right one? How can you tell if it is working properly? Salaam Alaykum, murids, seekers, curious and interested listeners, We appreciate you, and are happy to share our Sufi Message. Your donation will help support our Sufi Centre in Sydney where we offer Zikr, Sohbet, spiritual counselling and healing services. We believe the message should be free, but it costs equipment, rental, services, software and hardware to get ...

Send us a text A brief overlook of a spiritual path. Sufism - has it always been around? Salaam Alaykum, murids, seekers, curious and interested listeners, We appreciate you, and are happy to share our Sufi Message. Your donation will help support our Sufi Centre in Sydney where we offer Zikr, Sohbet, spiritual counselling and healing services. We believe the message should be free, but it costs equipment, rental, services, software and hardware to get this to you. Thank you for c...

Send us a text What is Mysticism and what is Sufism? Are they related? Salaam Alaykum, murids, seekers, curious and interested listeners, We appreciate you, and are happy to share our Sufi Message. Your donation will help support our Sufi Centre in Sydney where we offer Zikr, Sohbet, spiritual counselling and healing services. We believe the message should be free, but it costs equipment, rental, services, software and hardware to get this to you. Thank you for choosing our podcas...

Send us a text After you are initiated into a Sufi order, your job is to learn how to best fight your nafs. It is important to understand that the Shaykh's job is to help you do that. Sometimes people get confused about the Shaykh and his/her job. This is to remind you of your job as well as what is expected of the Shaykh/a. Salaam Alaykum, murids, seekers, curious and interested listeners, We appreciate you, and are happy to share our Sufi Message. Your donation will help support our S...

Send us a text In Sufism, fighting the Nafs (the ego-matrix) is the primary battle. The Tariqa and the Shaykh work to support, advise and focus the student (murid) in the sacred struggle. It is important to know why there are nafs and how to manage them appropriately. Salaam Alaykum, murids, seekers, curious and interested listeners, We appreciate you, and are happy to share our Sufi Message. Your donation will help support our Sufi Centre in Sydney where we offer Zikr, Sohbet, spiritua...

Send us a text Why a Shaykh? By Ibrahim Ansari The shaykh is your soul’s gardener. S/he takes you from where you are right now, and uses your inner materials as fertilizer to grow your heart. Parts of you (the garden) need weeding; some need hoeing, planting, and landscaping. The shaykh represents your highest potential. By learning to trust in the shaykh as a guide, you begin the process of unifying yourself. On a personal basis, the shaykh goes within you, sees the distinction between yours...

Send us a text Listening to The Divine I bet you think only crazy people hear God’s voice. Maybe it is the other way around: only crazy people do not hear the voice of the divine (Allah). Let’s take another angle and look at this question differently. When did you stop listening to Allah? All Creation intersects Allah. Everything is related- whether you look at it atomically, molecularly, the Big Bang or as God’s creation, everything is connected at the source. When did you have the ar...

Send us a text Expansion/Contraction Shaykh Ibrahim On this sufi path, there are times of expansion and contraction. Expansion is when, for example, you feel Allah’s blessings, an opening of awareness, your heart warming and growing. You may understand concepts more clearly, or realize the unity of Allah. Contraction is feeling separation, fear, unworthiness, inability to cope, and a desire to run away from problems. Contraction and expansion are connected. They are as breathing...

Send us a text Feeling Stuck? By shaykh ibrahim Ansari It’s only natural to feel stuck at certain times in our life. Why? Well, if you’re like me, we like to keep learning and growing. To keep growing means to enter unknown areas, and learn about them, and map and explore them. Most people fear the unknown. But artists and sufis enjoy the frisson of fear, the thrill of coming across an unexplored realm within. The other part of growing means to let go of the old ideas and ...

Send us a text What brings us closer to God? And: Why do we sometimes feel so distant from God? Imagine in the core of your self lies a bright light. This is the Life-light (fitrah), the light you were before your heart began to beat. That true essence of self; a drop of God’s mercy in a potential state. Then that spark is injected in the world to be realized- absorbing experiences, trying to find its way through truth and falsehood; happiness and despair; loss and gain; success and failure; ...

Send us a text Parallels of Music and Sufism Sometimes to get a better understanding of what one thing is, it helps to go at it through a parallel medium. In this case, what I am going to say about music, I have found to be a direct correlation with Sufism. The one thing that every musician always needs to do is practice. Without practice, there is no growth or ability to play the instrument. Muscles weaken without practice, as well as pattern recognition, sight-reading, listening, rhythm, me...

Send us a text Surrender by Ibrahim In sufism, surrender is the prime force that accelerates spiritual growth. Without true and complete surrender, the next phase of learning cannot take place. The teachings of not just sufism but also Zen, Tibetan Buddhism and other true paths are to help prepare the murid (student) to let go of their attachments to the things of this world. Surrender is often misinterpreted to mean giving up responsibility for one’s actions. “My teacher made me do it. My bo...

Send us a text How do we know Allah’s will? By being quiet and listening. Learn to look for and see Allah’s answers. When a possible message or answer is perceived or received, we then need to ascertain that it is true and correct. We look for confirmation within and without. If the message comes from within, as in a dream, we look for outer confirmation from a friend, colleague or book. If it comes from a friend, or book, then we wait for confirmation from within as a dream, or hearing the h...

Send us a text Bismillah rRahman nirRahim, Conditioning One piece of the puzzle on the path of Sufism is learning how to separate yourself from your conditioning. In other words, what is the authentic, real you, as opposed to your culture, the ideas your family embedded in you, the biases you learned from your schools, friends, and relationships? There is you, and then there is all the other stuff. Where do your opinions come from? What are your values and are they real or just the echo of ot...

Send us a text My students of Sufism have asked me how to deal with magic, black magic and possession by Jinn. I will answer these questions according to what I know. I understand magic – both white, black, and any color – to be a focusing of the human will, coupled with intention. By the use of ritual and props, the mind can be focused to such an intensity as to manifest a shift or change in the elements of nature. The mind is an extremely powerful tool when focused, but not eve...

Send us a text Imagine a dimension that has a higher vibrational rate than ours. In this dimension are worlds and people who have families and communities and nations, just like us. There are religions, good people, bad people, and different cultures. Everything is faster than the Earth dimension, and, to the people of the faster dimension, earth time seems slow and static. Now for some in the faster dimension, it’s a big adventure to take one of the earth life forms, as an animal for example...

Send us a text The Trouble with Religion Ibrahim ansari These are strange times for those of us who are drawn to the spiritual element. Probably somewhere along the line we tasted the divine; and since that moment its splendor and radiance always outshines all the other distractions. We decided to do everything in our power for just another sip. That is when we discover that things get complicated when people get involved. Power- whether it is knowledge, money, fame or position-...

Send us a text The Trouble with Religion (part 2) Ibrahim ansariBismillah rRahman nir Rahim The story of this world has often seen religion employed as a weapon. Much of the history of civilization exploited religion as an engine for barreling forward. The driver is usually the clerics, royalty, military or warlords. Religion became a tool for advancing those with power to gain more power. For example, looking back towards ancient Egypt the clerics, with their knowledge of reading and writing...