Light Upon Light Sufi Center
Everyone Welcome!
Our zikrs and online Arabic classes are ongoing, including a new beginning Arabic class.
We are currently online only, however this may change in the coming weeks.
Please see below for how to attend zikrs or other events online.
To see other things we’ve done, check out Events and Workshops.
WHAT WE STAND FOR
We follow the principle that “there are as many ways to God as there are human souls.” We move in two directions: horizontally outward to embrace wider and wider visions of community among all beings, and vertically toward the heights of Divine Awareness and the depths of Inner Reality (which are one and the same). Friends within our community walk many paths: traditional and modern Sufism, Islam, Hinduism, Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism, the Red Road of the Native Americans, and more. Our common thread is participation in Divine Reality, the living landscape of the soul and spirit, which includes this beautiful Earth and all authentic sacred paths. Everyone welcome – any culture, color, gender, orientation, nation, religion! We will embrace you.
REPRESENTING TWO ORDERS
CHISTI and NUR ASHKI JERRAHI
Sufism is both the mystical inner tradition of Islam and the aquifer of spiritual depth that exists beneath the surface of life, taking different forms in different times, places and cultures.The dervish, or Sufi student, is a door between the worlds – the inner and the outer, the seen and the Unseen, the self and the Self. Inshallah (God willing), our Center is also such a doorway.
Zikr (also spelled dhikr). The Sufi Ceremony of Divine Remembrance: Sitting, standing, and moving circles of music and prayer invite ecstasy as souls meet beyond personality. Our zikrs flow from the traditional practice of the mystics of Turkey, India, and the Middle East. People of all religions and traditions are welcome.
Would you like to see a table of the 
Names? For condensed explanations of each, boiled down from descriptions in Physicians of the Heart, as well as short translations and pronunciations, click here or on the image to the right.
Sources are given in a sidebar, as well as some information about pronunciation.
One of the greatest treasures in Islam/Sufism is the presence of the Asma al-Husna, the 99 Beautiful Names of God, which are found in the Qur’an. Actually there are more than 99, but where 100 would symbolize and telegraph completeness, the use of 99 implies that there is always more, that Divine Names are infinite. These are far more than just names: they are the qualities and attributes of Allah, which also make up the universe and our own interior and exterior worlds. Various Sufi teachers and lineages have made slightly different collections of the Names over the centuries, some of which have been translated. Physicians of the Heart is surely the most complete, in-depth and detailed collection available in English.
The aspects of God found in other world religions are here also – and more. God can be encountered in any of these aspects: as the Guide, the Evolver, the Protecting Friend, the Beautiful, the Subduer, the Forgiver, the Light, the Subtle, the Responsive, the Alive, the Gatherer and many more. Like the Tree of Life in the Kabbalah, like the Buddhist picture of compassionate and wrathful deities — like other schematics of the multiverse seen from different points of view — the Names of Allah include the balancing of opposite Names. So, we find the First and the Last, the Manifest and the Hidden, the Constrictor and the Expander, the Delayer and the Expediter. Each Name can be encountered within the teaching and testing that is our life, our path, as we meet and melt into Divine Being, the Consciousness within every consciousness.
SCHEDULE
Full Calendar – Click HERE
All Times in Central Daylight Time
Mondays: 6:30pm-8:00pm
NEW! Level 1 Arabic Class
See below for details.
Tuesdays: 7:00pm–8:30pm
Nur Ashki Jerrahi Zikr, on Zoom.
Wednesdays: 7:00pm–8:30pm
Nomad Campfire on Zoom.
Fridays: 11:00am-1:00pm
Level 2 Beginning Arabic
Fridays: 5:30pm – 7:30 pm
Level 1 beginning Arabic (in progress)
Events & Announcements
Currently all events are online only.
Online Attendance: the Process
We use Zoom, and there’s nothing to download. To attend one or more Tuesday Jerrahi and/or Wednesday Ruhaniat zikrs, let us know by EMAILING US HERE. Because zikr is a profound experience, we do a light one-time screening to protect the space, so tell us a few words about your spiritual journey and why you’re interested and we’ll send you either or both links.
To join our Arabic classes, or any other classes held in future, REGISTER HERE. (There is no screening for non-zikr classes and events.) To keep up with changes and new events, please ask to receive the newsletter.
Arabic & Calligraphy Study with Ustadh (Teacher) Ali (Bio Below)
NEW! Beginning Arabic class starts Monday April 4th, 6:30 – 8:30 p.m. First session is free.
Requires no previous experience. Two other beginning classes are in progress: 1st Level, Fridays 5:30pm – 7:30pm and 2nd level, inquire for day and time. Those with some prior knowledge may be able to join one of these
Arabic classes, with extra help available, cost $100 per month, possibly less in a hardship situation. Contact Ustadh Ali for questions at ittimadi@gmail.com or (505) 500-2308. To register contact Karima.
Calligraphy for Arabic Speakers and also Arabic language – Private lessons can be arranged.
Comments on Arabic & Calligraphy Classes:
“The quality of professional teaching and easy pace allows me to enjoy this Arabic class. The fact that it’s not only about the language but about learning Arabic culture makes this course even more appealing.”
“I always considered Arabic as a difficult language. Teacher Ali’s classes made learning this difficult language easy for me. He uses a nice methodology which was very easy to follow and learn this interesting language.”
“Teacher Ali and all the people from the class really help me to feel so much better. At the beginning I couldn’t pull myself together and focus on the class, but this beautiful atmosphere worked really magic on me.”
“Over the past several years, I have tried multiple different methods to learn Arabic with out much success. But the classes of Ustad Ali have been extremely effective and productive. With in a couple of months I learned more from Ustad Ali than I had learned in a couple of years from other sources. I highly recommend Arabic classes of Ustad Ali.”
New Free Introductory Arabic Class
*Brief History of Arabic Language
*Arabic Language as the Inner Voice in Human Nature
*The Art of Calligraphy from the Sufi Perspective
Monday April 4th, 6:30 Central Time
Contact: Ali Omar Almutamid
Cell phone: 505 500-2308
Email: ittimadi@gmail.com
Ali Raul Omar Pacheco, a Sufi-friendly and highly gifted instructor from Cordoba, Argentina, has taught Arabic Language and Calligraphy for over 30 years. After 4.5 years’ study in Medina, he began his teaching career at the Centre Culturel de la Courneuve in Paris and before returning to the Americas, organized a calligraphy workshop in Cordoba, Spain, the fabled city for which his birthplace is named. Ali taught at the Islamic Cultural Center of New York in Manhattan for five years and now teaches Arabic for the Lighthouse Muslim Community Center in Albuquerque and Arabic Language, Calligraphy, and Tafsir online for the Light Upon Light Sufi Center in Minneapolis.
Two hour classes, with extra help available, are $100 per month, possibly less in a hardship situation. Contact Ustadh Ali for questions at ittimadi@gmail.com or (505) 500-2308. To register contact Karima.
Our Message to You
Bismillah! We’re still here, and if you’re reading this, you are too, so that’s a bit of good news, anyway. These are hard times in so may ways! Like Herman Hesse’s Magic Theatre, we’re “not for everybody,” but for some of you we offer a window into new places of knowledge and beauty which you might be seeking or into familiar places of strength and comfort. Ya Fattah, ya Barr, ya Wakil! Oh Opener, Oh Doer of Good, Oh Guardian and Protecting Friend! May you be blessed and protected.
John Hakim and Karima Nur
From the Blog…
