Sheikh Muzaffer Efendi in his bookstore.
Sheikh Muzaffer Efendi giving the friday khutba (sermon) in the Masjid al-Farah in New York City.
Sheikh Muzaffer Efendi while leading a zikir ceremony in Istanbul.
It is the middle of an Asian winter in the early seventies when Tosun Baba, Safer Baba and I drive with Sheikh Muzaffer to Uludag, a mountain above Bursa. Safer Baba is doing his tesbih. At ninety-nine repetitions he turns and gives me his beads, "For you" he says. We leave our car on the first level of the ferryboat and climb the metal stairs to the passenger level to enjoy the sea trip. Muzaffer Efendi grabs two empty wooden boxes, stacks them to make a table and orders four Turkish coffees. He lights a cigar and begins a sohbet, It was at this moment that my camera recorded what was to become a famous photograph of the sheikh. The three of us are sitting on the edge of wooden boxes listening to the words of sheikh,.. - Caption text from Winter Harvest book, p.81 2014 © by Shems Friedlander
Shems Friedlander
Forgetten Message of Rumi
Book
The cure for our spiritual amnesia is the integration of Rumi’s lessons into daily life. There is a need to understand Islam in contemporary times. Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi is deeply rooted in the prophetic tradition. Rumi is the most populer poet of our age yet is almost completely misunderstood and misinterpreted in the popular culture. Within his Mesnevi, The Signs of the Unseen, and his other work, is the ‘Forgotten Message’ that can awaken one to the purpose of life. Today, when so many would like to read Rumi and remove any reference to Sufism and Islam, Shems Friedlander places him unequivocally within Sufism and the Heart of Islam, clearly and emphatically stating the necessity of studying Rumi in his essence, as a Sufi saint, the founder of the Mevlevi Order of Dervishes, as well as one of the greatest metaphysical poets and literary figures the world has known.
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