Abdal Hakim Murad - The Wise Man and the Serpent

Abdal Hakim MuradFebruary 9, 20190 comments

Share:

Classical Islamic Literature Death & Afterlife Nafs & Self-Purification Knowledge & Scholarship Aqeedah Akhlaq & Character Tasawwuf Quran

About this lecture

In this lecture delivered in Tribus, Germany, Abdal Hakim Murad offers a rich commentary on a story from the second volume of Rumi's Masnavi — the tale of a wise rider who forces a sleeping man to vomit up a snake he unknowingly swallowed — unpacking its profound symbolism of the ego, the lower self, and the spiritual guide. Drawing on Rumi's animal imagery of the snake, donkey, fish, and honeybee, he explores the human struggle between our highest and lowest possibilities, the dangers of outward religiosity without inward transformation, and why true happiness lies in service to others and the purification of the self. The lecture is a compelling call to seek sincere guidance, love one's teachers, and develop the "eye of the heart" that sees the divine light behind all things.

Abdal Hakim Murad

Timothy John "Tim" Winter (born 1960), also known as Abdal Hakim Murad, is a British Sufi Muslim researcher, writer and teacher. His profile and work have attracted media coverage both in the Muslim World and the West. Conversant in both traditional Islamic scholarship and Western thought and civilization, Winter has made contributions on many Islamic topics. Education Born in 1960, Winter was educated at Westminster School, and graduated with a double-first in Arabic from Pembroke College at the University of Cambridge in 1983. He then studied and taught traditional Islamic sciences at the Al-Azhar University in Egypt for several years, and spent several more in Jeddah, where he administered a commercial translation office and maintained close contact with Shaykh Habib Ahmad Mashhur al-Haddad. In 1989, he returned to England and spent two years at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London where he concentrated on Turkish and Persian. Career Winter is currently the Shaykh Zayed Lecturer of Islamic Studies in the Faculty of Divinity at Cambridge University, Director of Studies in Theology at Wolfson College, and a doctoral student at Oxford University, where he is studying the relationship between the government and Sufi brotherhoods in the Ottoman Empire. Winter is also the secretary of the Muslim Academic Trust (London), Director of The Anglo-Muslim Fellowship for Eastern Europe, President of the UK Friends of Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Director of the Sunna Project, which has published scholarly Arabic editions of the major Sunni Hadith collections.

All lectures by Abdal Hakim Murad →

Enjoyed this lecture?

It's free because of sponsors. Join 5 sponsors — every contribution is sadaqa jariya.

Comments

Log in to share a reflection or question.

No comments yet. Be the first to share a reflection.