Sufi Healing
All the strength (of healing) is in the Spirit, everyone has the strength to the extent that one is close to the spirit. But everyone can trace a spark of that spirit in oneself, and everyone must know that there is a responsibility that one has for one’s own health as a healer for oneself, that one has a part to play in one’s own life that is not a physician’s responsibility or a healer’s.
Source
Hazrat Inayat Khan ‑ Volume IV ‑ Mental Purification and Healing,
Part I: Health. IX, (Centennial Edition, p.48)
The meaning of Healing in Sufi understanding is deeply embedded in the idea of faith, conviction and belief. According to the belief of the Sufis, all of life is an inter‑related, undeniably singular web of wholeness. Holism is knitted into the Sufi concept of healing. To be healed is to become whole. When an individual embraces his/her harmonious reintegration within the scope of accessing the wholeness of his/her being, he/she stands healed!
Spiritual healing involves the transmutation of all inner dimensions of suffering. By healing our hidden, subconscious, erroneous beliefs, emotional suffering, traumas, fears and repressions, we can heal the root cause of disease. Spiritual healing is not treating the symptoms but rather eliminating the cause that is creating a symptomatic malaise. The removal of the cause of disease is not to be considered as a surgical intervention that cuts and discards that which has become rotten; in fact, it is to shine the light where darkness had begun the propagation of bacterial proliferation. Sufi healing is therefore a self‑generative process of purification, clarification, and realignment that benefits the organism’s restorative course.
The fulfillment of being rests in enabling every dimension of the human individual’s being its adequate and healthy expression. The repression of parts of our being and a deliberate neglect of them leads to a growing angst in our energetic framework which starts manifesting as dis‑ease in the physical body. Sufis believe that disease appears last as a physical symptom; its inception is much earlier in areas of our own consciousness.
Traditionally a Sufi Healer is called a Hakim, a title derived from the Divine Name al‑Hakim itself, meaning the Wise One Who is Wise due to His All‑Knowing, All‑Comprehensive and All‑Prevailing Nature. The Name Hakim comes from the root H‑K‑M meaning judgement, judging through sound knowledge, governance. The wisdom of al‑Hakim is intricately tied to His ability to produce sound judgement and to govern ably. Spiritual beings have regarded the body to be a kingdom put in the charge of the spirit’s governance. If the body is ruled by a spiritual consciousness that competently renders the due of each organ and faculty, in turn demanding a collaborative and effective response of each inhabitant of the kingdom to ensure its smooth running, then health and harmony of being are ensured. It is within ourselves alone that lies hidden the secret of health. When all parts of the Self are in a balanced inter‑flow of energetic exchange, the healing and life‑giving waters within our spiritual reality begin flowing copiously to wash away the sickness‑producing bacteria.
Healing in spiritual terms is activating the alchemy in our souls to release the inner remedial force in overcoming chemical and biological aberrations.
While there are many features that belong to the science of Sufi Healing, here I would suffice with mentioning the three basic elements that are indispensable to the practice of spiritual cure. These are namely: Knowledge of the One Reality that alone exists; our unshakeable faith in that Reality; and lastly, our realization of being the channels through which That Reality acts.
Sufi Masters have often spoken of the principle of overcoming death by death itself: Mutu Qabla Anta Mutu ‑ Die before you die. In natural medicine we know of the practice of using poison to counter the effect of poison itself. The psychology of this principle is, in order to render something that inspires fear in us harmless, to make the latter conscious in us. To die before dying is to embrace our mortality as a natural occurrence which is happening every moment and despite which we are still living. The cellular regeneration of the body is a testament to the continual cycle of birth, death and rebirth. We are dying and being reborn every instant through the constant breakdown and renewal of cells in our bodily organism. Within death there is life hidden, and in life there is the shadow of death. The conflict between life and death, which is our rejection of one in acceptance of the other, results in a persistent distress within our subconscious. To fight this distress the body is put in an over‑drive that pursues the survival impulse without allowing the much needed relaxation into eternal presence within the threshold of awareness of being and non‑being.
The Sufi is trained to constantly seek guidance from the ubiquitous signs that the Universal Intelligence presents. In our very breathing we can find the secret of this healing medium; the inhale and exhale would not support life were it not for the brief hiatus between the two breaths. The interval between the breaths is the point of origin and return of the breath. Similarly in order to revive ourselves we need to allow a release from the tight hold of our conscious drives to let go in a flow of surrender to the supraconscious ground of being. To be liberated from the conflict of life and death we invoke the power of the One Who is Everliving, Undying, Unchanging, and Self‑Subsisting. This is our sole true Recourse to Healing. The Divine Reality which is the Source of all Life and the Creator of every being may be invoked inside our own spiritual consciousness in which lies the key of all our healing power.
Spiritually speaking, healing is about getting plugged into the Universal Powerhouse of Revivification. This getting connected to the Powerhouse is predicated on the level of our faith, belief and conviction in the reality of That which we consider to be the Source of Healing and Life. If we do not carry faith in recovery, we cannot recover no matter what we do. Healing is less an outer force that acts upon us from an external channel as we imagine, and more an internal measure of spiritual release that affects a change in our chemical construction.
It is Divine Will which is the force holding all atomic particles together to ensure a certain life expression. When this Will is withdrawn, the body disintegrates. Within the creation and destruction of the body there is a constant play of activity and receptivity enabling the perpetuation of life‑endurance. Divine Will is intricately tied to human motivation and intent. In the Quran God says, “We do not change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves” (Q, 13:11).
The human intention to heal is the fundament of spiritual healing. The healer must be in the right quality and intensity of intention and so should the one seeking the healing. Will is the force that acts upon the soul making it responsive to the intention released. In other words it would not be an exaggeration to say that we will ourselves back to health, and in the same way we will ourselves to sickness. It is only a matter of where our will and intention go. If the will to live weakens in us by our despair, pessimism or lack of faith and trust, the life‑force will dissipate resulting in the eventual occurrence of death. This is not to say that by keeping a robust will to live we can go on living forever; but it is also true that such an attitude and mindset can ensure longevity as long as it is possible in a given life organism.
The third feature of Sufi healing which I want to discuss at last is that of channeling the healing power in and through our beings. The Will and Compassion of God as the Power and Love of God are the two divine forces that take on angelic forms to communicate to the Healer the ability to conduct healing. Wood is a good conductor of heat. Similarly angelic forces which originate and have their being in the supernal divine light are efficient transmitters of light frequencies to the human souls open and conducive to their reception. Our soul reality is light and if we can make it conscious in us, it becomes a powerful attractor of the transmission of higher light frequencies that are operating within the positive field of Divine Love, Harmony and Beauty.
Gabriel becomes present in the Healer’s consciousness as Divine Will and Power. Michael emerges as Divine Love and Compassion. The two open up the spiritual circuitry between our conscious and supraconscious degrees of being, making us the locus for the appearance of Raphael, the third angelic force charged with integrating divine compassion and power to produce a benevolent cure. The Breath of the All‑Merciful, al‑Nafas ar Rahman, is the channel of all healing grace. The Divine Breath of Compassion brings to the Sufi Healer the inspiration which is the in‑blowing of Divine Magnetism that subsequently travels on the breathing current of the healer to reach the one seeking a cure.
In conclusion we may say that Sufi Healing is based on the firm premise of faith in a Supreme Healing Power ie the Divine Being, which rides as an active current on the magnetised breath of the Healer and manifests as tongues of angelic flames of higher consciousness, leaping out of the healer’s glance, breath and touch to spiritually alter the subatomic disruption in the patient’s harmony of soul‑being.
Amat‑un‑Nur Hayat
All the strength (of healing) is in the Spirit, everyone has the strength to the extent that one is close to the spirit. But everyone can trace a spark of that spirit in oneself, and everyone must know that there is a responsibility that one has for one’s own health as a healer for oneself, that one has a part to play in one’s own life that is not a physician’s responsibility or a healer’s.
Source
Hazrat Inayat Khan ‑ Volume IV ‑ Mental Purification and Healing,
Part I: Health. IX, (Centennial Edition, p.48)
The meaning of Healing in Sufi understanding is deeply embedded in the idea of faith, conviction and belief. According to the belief of the Sufis, all of life is an inter‑related, undeniably singular web of wholeness. Holism is knitted into the Sufi concept of healing. To be healed is to become whole. When an individual embraces his/her harmonious reintegration within the scope of accessing the wholeness of his/her being, he/she stands healed!
Spiritual healing involves the transmutation of all inner dimensions of suffering. By healing our hidden, subconscious, erroneous beliefs, emotional suffering, traumas, fears and repressions, we can heal the root cause of disease. Spiritual healing is not treating the symptoms but rather eliminating the cause that is creating a symptomatic malaise. The removal of the cause of disease is not to be considered as a surgical intervention that cuts and discards that which has become rotten; in fact, it is to shine the light where darkness had begun the propagation of bacterial proliferation. Sufi healing is therefore a self‑generative process of purification, clarification, and realignment that benefits the organism’s restorative course.
The fulfillment of being rests in enabling every dimension of the human individual’s being its adequate and healthy expression. The repression of parts of our being and a deliberate neglect of them leads to a growing angst in our energetic framework which starts manifesting as dis‑ease in the physical body. Sufis believe that disease appears last as a physical symptom; its inception is much earlier in areas of our own consciousness.
Traditionally a Sufi Healer is called a Hakim, a title derived from the Divine Name al‑Hakim itself, meaning the Wise One Who is Wise due to His All‑Knowing, All‑Comprehensive and All‑Prevailing Nature. The Name Hakim comes from the root H‑K‑M meaning judgement, judging through sound knowledge, governance. The wisdom of al‑Hakim is intricately tied to His ability to produce sound judgement and to govern ably. Spiritual beings have regarded the body to be a kingdom put in the charge of the spirit’s governance. If the body is ruled by a spiritual consciousness that competently renders the due of each organ and faculty, in turn demanding a collaborative and effective response of each inhabitant of the kingdom to ensure its smooth running, then health and harmony of being are ensured. It is within ourselves alone that lies hidden the secret of health. When all parts of the Self are in a balanced inter‑flow of energetic exchange, the healing and life‑giving waters within our spiritual reality begin flowing copiously to wash away the sickness‑producing bacteria.
Healing in spiritual terms is activating the alchemy in our souls to release the inner remedial force in overcoming chemical and biological aberrations.
While there are many features that belong to the science of Sufi Healing, here I would suffice with mentioning the three basic elements that are indispensable to the practice of spiritual cure. These are namely: Knowledge of the One Reality that alone exists; our unshakeable faith in that Reality; and lastly, our realization of being the channels through which That Reality acts.
Sufi Masters have often spoken of the principle of overcoming death by death itself: Mutu Qabla Anta Mutu ‑ Die before you die. In natural medicine we know of the practice of using poison to counter the effect of poison itself. The psychology of this principle is, in order to render something that inspires fear in us harmless, to make the latter conscious in us. To die before dying is to embrace our mortality as a natural occurrence which is happening every moment and despite which we are still living. The cellular regeneration of the body is a testament to the continual cycle of birth, death and rebirth. We are dying and being reborn every instant through the constant breakdown and renewal of cells in our bodily organism. Within death there is life hidden, and in life there is the shadow of death. The conflict between life and death, which is our rejection of one in acceptance of the other, results in a persistent distress within our subconscious. To fight this distress the body is put in an over‑drive that pursues the survival impulse without allowing the much needed relaxation into eternal presence within the threshold of awareness of being and non‑being.
The Sufi is trained to constantly seek guidance from the ubiquitous signs that the Universal Intelligence presents. In our very breathing we can find the secret of this healing medium; the inhale and exhale would not support life were it not for the brief hiatus between the two breaths. The interval between the breaths is the point of origin and return of the breath. Similarly in order to revive ourselves we need to allow a release from the tight hold of our conscious drives to let go in a flow of surrender to the supraconscious ground of being. To be liberated from the conflict of life and death we invoke the power of the One Who is Everliving, Undying, Unchanging, and Self‑Subsisting. This is our sole true Recourse to Healing. The Divine Reality which is the Source of all Life and the Creator of every being may be invoked inside our own spiritual consciousness in which lies the key of all our healing power.
Spiritually speaking, healing is about getting plugged into the Universal Powerhouse of Revivification. This getting connected to the Powerhouse is predicated on the level of our faith, belief and conviction in the reality of That which we consider to be the Source of Healing and Life. If we do not carry faith in recovery, we cannot recover no matter what we do. Healing is less an outer force that acts upon us from an external channel as we imagine, and more an internal measure of spiritual release that affects a change in our chemical construction.
It is Divine Will which is the force holding all atomic particles together to ensure a certain life expression. When this Will is withdrawn, the body disintegrates. Within the creation and destruction of the body there is a constant play of activity and receptivity enabling the perpetuation of life‑endurance. Divine Will is intricately tied to human motivation and intent. In the Quran God says, “We do not change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves” (Q, 13:11).
The human intention to heal is the fundament of spiritual healing. The healer must be in the right quality and intensity of intention and so should the one seeking the healing. Will is the force that acts upon the soul making it responsive to the intention released. In other words it would not be an exaggeration to say that we will ourselves back to health, and in the same way we will ourselves to sickness. It is only a matter of where our will and intention go. If the will to live weakens in us by our despair, pessimism or lack of faith and trust, the life‑force will dissipate resulting in the eventual occurrence of death. This is not to say that by keeping a robust will to live we can go on living forever; but it is also true that such an attitude and mindset can ensure longevity as long as it is possible in a given life organism.
The third feature of Sufi healing which I want to discuss at last is that of channeling the healing power in and through our beings. The Will and Compassion of God as the Power and Love of God are the two divine forces that take on angelic forms to communicate to the Healer the ability to conduct healing. Wood is a good conductor of heat. Similarly angelic forces which originate and have their being in the supernal divine light are efficient transmitters of light frequencies to the human souls open and conducive to their reception. Our soul reality is light and if we can make it conscious in us, it becomes a powerful attractor of the transmission of higher light frequencies that are operating within the positive field of Divine Love, Harmony and Beauty.
Gabriel becomes present in the Healer’s consciousness as Divine Will and Power. Michael emerges as Divine Love and Compassion. The two open up the spiritual circuitry between our conscious and supraconscious degrees of being, making us the locus for the appearance of Raphael, the third angelic force charged with integrating divine compassion and power to produce a benevolent cure. The Breath of the All‑Merciful, al‑Nafas ar Rahman, is the channel of all healing grace. The Divine Breath of Compassion brings to the Sufi Healer the inspiration which is the in‑blowing of Divine Magnetism that subsequently travels on the breathing current of the healer to reach the one seeking a cure.
In conclusion we may say that Sufi Healing is based on the firm premise of faith in a Supreme Healing Power ie the Divine Being, which rides as an active current on the magnetised breath of the Healer and manifests as tongues of angelic flames of higher consciousness, leaping out of the healer’s glance, breath and touch to spiritually alter the subatomic disruption in the patient’s harmony of soul‑being.
Amat‑un‑Nur Hayat
