Being in His Presence is the best gift all

After almost 4 years of intense study of Islamic Mysticism and Philosophy, I honestly didn't know what I was going to do. What in the world was I thinking? At the pinnacle of my career, I graciously made my exit, before I expired. Inspired by one who turned my life around. He was both a teacher and  abrother, and I never looked back after that.


With no formal training in this field, I endeavored and worked harder than most at what felt like constantly swimming upstream. I had to learn technical terms, and studied Arabic (I still am, by the way), studying texts and manuscripts guiding people to rid themselves of themselves.
Most people move towards the world and away from God, where would I fit in? How could I come back to the working world with everything that I knew. The whole idea of Sufism is the death of the false self (nafs) and yet the world I was returning to, seemed to be lived in order to fulfill desires. The very desires I was trained to extinguish.
There were some really grim moments when I didn't want to talk to people and experienced such despair, such misery. But I was surrounded by many who had tread the path before me, I began, little by little, to understand and to live in this world, but not of it. (to borrow the words of Isa, (as).

And as it turns out, I really didn't have to do anything. The way just made itself apparent. No longer driven by the superficial desires of the world, I pursued God. Al-hamdu li'Llah :)

To every question that arises in the heart of the mystic, the answers unfold in the life before him.

Hazrat Inayat Khan

I should've had more faith in Him. Astaghfirullah.
Today, I continue to counsel and motivate my fellow man, education is still a passion, but less of myself is present.
Being in His Presence is the best gift all...everything else just "falls into place."