Exploring what it means to practice Islam in a world filled with evil, Omid Safi explains how strangeness can bring us back home to God.

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In this episode, Omid Safi holds a talk on:

• Sacred sounds and the movement of the heavenly spheres
• Heavy hearts from global suffering and genocide
• The counterculture of Islam when it began
• Looking into our own communities to consider what seems strange
• Not being afraid to veer from tradition
• Ways that we can become strangers to our own religion
• Standing with those who are vulnerable
• Returning home to the loving presence of God
• Remembering what it means to be a Sufi
• Taking care of the poor, the needy, the strangers, the lonely

“We want to become re-acquainted and return to our original home which is the very loving presence of God. That’s where and when we’re going to be at home.” – Omid Safi

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Omid Safi discusses how modern myths like Star Wars can connect us to Sufism and the mystery of the universe.

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This time on Sufi Heart, Omid Safi has a discussion on:

• The story of Moses in the Qur’an
• Moses’ teacher, ‘the green one’, and Yoda from Star Wars
• How myth-makers revive spiritual traditions
• The mythic language found in music and movies
• How Taoists, Muslims, Christians, and more see themselves in ‘the force’
• Everything as animated and the energy that flows through all things
• Recognizing that we are made of the elements and of God
• How George Lucas asks beautiful questions in subtle ways
• Considering the mystery rather than having all of the answers
• The many forms that Allah may appear in and finding saints in ordinary people
• How movies fill a gap when we mistrust formal religion

“Luke and Obi-Wan, apprentice and master, this is the very stuff of the Sufi tradition, This is part of that re-enchanting that Star Wars is trying to accomplish. It’s trying to remind us that there are these mysterious ways of the heart, of the soul, of the universe, that we can still learn.” – Omid Safi

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Sharing insights from the path of love, Omid Safi discusses the teachings of Sufi philosopher, Hazrat Inayat Khan.

Today’s episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/beherenow and get on your way to being your best self.

In this episode of Sufi Heart, Omid Safi explores:

• The universality of love
• Coming back to the center
• Experiencing God directly
• Signs of God in scripture, nature, and our own souls
• Having an open heart for all of humanity
• Practicing love as a religion
• Going into our breath for full presence and communion with God
• How vast God is, yet how close we are to God
• The singular focus of God as the beloved
• The necessity of our ancestors’ wisdom
• The path of the mystic vs. ordinary religion

“The center is where we come to have that direct, immediate, unmediated experience of God, which is to say, the heart.” – Omid Safi

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