Looking back I’ll call it the Night of the Dervishes. The word Dervish is often pre-empted by whirling as in Whirling Dervishes of the dance fame. These mystics use dance as a means to gain trance like states of awareness and so commune with the divine.
As I’ve mentioned afore. It is my conviction that accessing divinity (whatever that means to you) is a process of removing ourselves from this world thus the other is attained by default.
In my up-bringing I have come to know the term to mean wise gentleman which is how I would describe the august company that I was sat with on this Night of Power (Laylat al Qadr).
We had just finished a warm-up session of Zikr and I was ready for another session. During that first time I was feeling the fringes of consciousness change and was eager to explore the sensation more. One of the Dervishes spoke some more on the topic of Laylat al Qadr…
..We must journey forth as seekers, so set your intention thus…If this be the night of power for me then let me open the grand doors for it to enter my heart and grant me the desire therein. He added that for Dervishes, the desire therein is to be in the presence of the divine
Thus we began our intensive chanting again and I slowly faded from this world into another as the passion of the words, movement, energy and emotion took hold.
Head banging is a practice carried out by virtually every rocker when they are at university (and often beyond) Imagine then such a rock swinging his/her head side to side (rather than back and forth) to the rhythm of power words. Such was the physical movement of our heads, as we united in opening our hearts to the potential of power.
Centre Point
In the midst of this trance-formation my mind was filled with a vision, even though my body and voice where occupied in Zikr. In my vision I saw a circle with a glowing white centre. The circle expanded and shifted to become a maze that had many paths through it. I was lost amongst the paths and yet I could clearly see the heart. It was as if I was being shown that I needed to forget the surrounding paths, interesting though they were and to seek out the heart, the centre point.
This vision wasn’t that new to me (since I had encountered a similar one very recently at the Druids Circle). However in this instance I got a clear direction. Stop focusing on the peripheral and seek the heart.
This vision repeated itself a couple of times before I was completely lost to the otherworld of consciousness the door of which is Zikr.
A couple of hours later and the time of Sun rise was approaching. Small food stuffs where brought forth and shared between the guests and Dervishes alike. It was time for the next days Ramadan Fast to begin.
Gift
I thanked all present for an amazing experience and shook hands with each of the Dervishes. As I did so they each pulled me close to whisper in my ear…You have a good heart. I wondered if they had colluded amongst themselves to come to this conclusion or that they said it to all on parting or that they each indeed saw a good heart. It is a mystery.
Had I claimed the Night of Power? I don’t know. I certainly gained a night of knowledge and I’m truly grateful for that.
Kal Malik
