In this episode of the Sufi Heart Podcast, Omid shares the celebrated literary masterpiece “The Conference of the Birds” from Sufi poet Farid ud-Din Attar.




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Ep. 12 – The Conference of the Birds

The Sufi Heart podcast with Omid Safi features teachings and stories about a sacred tradition of love, one that manifests outwardly as justice and inwardly as tenderness.&nbsp;&nbsp;Drawing primarily on the wisdom of the Islamic tradition as well as the legacies of the Civil Rights movements and other wisdom teachings, Omid invites you to a meditation on the transformative power of love and recalling the necessity of linking healing our own hearts with healing the world.&nbsp; Omid Safi is director of Duke University’s Islamic Studies Center. He specializes in the study of Islamic mysticism and contemporary Islam and frequently writes on liberationist traditions of Dr. King, Malcolm X, and is committed to traditions that link together love and justice. Omid is the past chair for the Study of Islam at the American Academy of Religion. He has written many books, including&nbsp;Progressive Muslims: On Justice, Gender, and Pluralism;&nbsp;Cambridge Companion to American Islam;&nbsp;Politics of Knowledge in Premodern Islam; and&nbsp;Memories of Muhammad. His forthcoming books include&nbsp;Radical Love: Teachings from the Islamic Mystical Traditions&nbsp;and a book on the famed mystic Rumi. Omid is among the most frequently sought out speakers on Islam in popular media, appearing in&nbsp;The New York Times,&nbsp;Newsweek,&nbsp;Washington Post, PBS, NPR, NBC, CNN, and other international media. He leads spiritual tours every year to Turkey, Morocco, or other countries, to study the rich multiple religious traditions there. The trips are open to everyone, from every country. More information is available at&nbsp;Illuminated Tours.

Religion & Spirituality

Other

Spirituality

Christianity

Buddhism

Hinduism

Judaism

Islam

Examining how mysticism hides in plain sight, Omid Safi describes God as love, the lover, and the beloved with guest host Kelly Deutsch.

This episode was originally recorded for the Spiritual Wanderlust Podcast, with Kelly Deutsch. Learn more about this series that explores the wild, untamed frontiers of our interior life at spiritualwanderlust.org/podcast 

 This time on Sufi Heart, Omid Safi speaks with Kelly about:Discovering Islamic MysticsSufism and having a pure heartOmid’s life in Iran and exposure to masculine displays of emotionThe mystery of being human, the mystery of GodHeartbreak and experiencing the heart breaking openSacred Eroticism and using our senses to experience lovelinessWhat we can learn from the type of love a mother providesRadical love and going into the rootsLinking together love and justice“The Sufis explicitly say something that of course we find also in the Christian mystical contemplative tradition. Mischievously, they almost say there is a holy trinity, a language which most orthodox Muslims would avoid and all Jews would have avoided. But they say the trinity is love, lover, and beloved. God is love, God is the lover, and God is the beloved.” – Omid Safi

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Ep. 30 – The Lover and The Beloved with Kelly Deutsch

Pushing beyond the bare minimum of religiosity, Omid Safi inspires listeners to deepen their faith into an ecstatic adoration of God.

Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/beherenow

In this episode of Sufi Heart, Omid Safi elucidates :Islam and the unity of AllahIman as faith and Ihsan as virtueSpirituality and AestheticsDoing what is required of us through religionHow Habib (the chosen one) inspired a deeper level of faithHow we can aspire to be in a state of love and adorationThe eyes of the heart versus the eyes of the headWorshiping God for more than just salvationIslamic Saints and their stories of experiencing Allah through beautyRecognizing the unwavering divine presence of GodThe eternal now and present moment awarenessUndivided attention as an act of loveCourtesy and recognizing our individual journeysBeing a beautiful witness“God is to be found here and now…the divine simply is not to be experienced in the afterlife, in the heavenly realms, in the celestial realm. Here and now where you are, where we are, we can come to experience Allah.” - Omid Safi

You can join Omid on one of his heart-centered and spiritually-focused educational tours of:Mecca and Medina Umrah program: December 14-21st, 2023. [For Muslim participants]Morocco: April 13-22nd, 2024.Turkey: somewhere in late May to early June, 2024.Further information is available at Illuminated Courses & Tours where you can also find information on virtual courses, spiritual talks, and more.




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Ep. 29 – "Islam, Iman, Ihsan", Love's Journey in Islamic Spirituality

In this interview from the 2023 Mystics Summit, Omid Safi joins Taya Ma for a conversation about Rumi, his main teachings, and how he’s situated on the wider Path of Radical Love.

This interview is part of the 2023 Mystics Summit a free online event. For more information, please visit mysticssummit.com. This recording is a copyright of The Shift Network. All rights reserved.

In this episode, Omid Safi and Taya Mâ talk about:Rumi’s background and why his real legacy is more than just his poetry, it’s his beingHow the Path of Radical Love keeps us rooted and grounded, and how we can cultivate those rootsPractices that can guide us towards onenessHow we can interpret Rumi’s work both on its own accord and through the context of the time in which it was writtenAbout Taya Mâ

Taya Mâ Shere plays passionately in realms of transformative ritual, embodied vocalization, and ancestral healing. She is a professor of organic multireligious ritual at Starr King School for the Ministry, founder of the emergent online mystery school From the Deep, and co-founder of the Kohenet Hebrew Priestess Institute. Learn more about her at taya.ma

You can join Omid on one of his heart-centered and spiritually-focused educational tours of:Mecca and Medina Umrah program: December 14-21st, 2023. [For Muslim participants]Morocco: April 13-22nd, 2024.Turkey: somewhere in late May to early June, 2024.More information is available at Illuminated Courses & Tours.

“Approach the teachings of the Path of Love, or of Islam, or of Sufism, or whatever tradition it is that draws you closer to God, in an interactive model. Don’t look at it purely and simply as receiving the teaching, but also keep a journal of your responses to the teachings, to the stories. And when something touches your heart, write that down. And write down what it was and what it made you think because sometimes those momentary realizations are like a lightning bolt in a dark sky, and for one minute everything is clear. You see your own self clearly, and then it may be gone.” – Omid Safi

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Ep. 28 – Rumi and the Path of Radical Love with Taya Mâ

Omid dives into the ocean of love, contemplating how the nature of the waves washing ashore and receding back mirrors the human experience.

This special episode is from Sharon Salzberg's Living an Authentic Life Summit and is hosted by Andres Gonzalez from the Holistic Life Foundation.

Lifetime access to the full summit, featuring all 30 speakers and five days of content, is available here: Living an Authentic Life Summit: A Journey to Inner Peace, Freedom and Joy

In this episode of Sufi Heart, Omid is interviewed by Andres Gonzalez exploring:

- The journey of living a spiritually luminous life

- Anger as a path to higher consciousness

- Expansion and contraction as the rhythm of life

- Breaking the callousness of the heart

- Being true to the inner child within

- An expansive and contractive breathing exercise

- To explore more on the topic of expansion and contraction, listen to episode 186 of Heart Wisdom.

“Every heart has to break and not every heart that’s broken breaks open. We want a heart that opens up. Opens up towards God, opens up towards all, opens up towards our fellow human beings, and opens up to that ultimate mystery of what we are. And what an awesome encounter that is, and how terrifying that is.” – Omid Safi

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Ep. 27  – The Rhythm of Expansion and Contraction

Omid returns with a timely and flowing discussion on the connection between spirituality and conflict transformation.

Join Omid on a heart-centered and spiritually-focused educational tour of Turkey coming up in June 2023: Illuminated Tours - Turkey




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Ep. 12 – The Conference of the Birds

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