My name is Ihsan and I have created this portal to support you upon your path of personal growth and spiritual development, and to help you in rediscovering your divine purpose and inherent human potential.
As human beings, we have been created with divine capacity and endowed with nearly limitless potential. It is towards the awakening and discovery of this latent and inherent divine potential that the Spiritual Excellence site, portal and resources are dedicated.
This is and has ever been the goal of spiritual teachers, masters and prophets throughout human history, from the first to the last. It is this awakening and evolution of consciousness, intelligence and awareness that was the precise aim of the last and final Messenger of the Divine, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, who established as the goal of the believer the station of ihsan, or spiritual excellence, as the perfection of the path.
As you will come to see, spiritual excellence is the key to unlocking the divine power and potential placed and established within the heart of each human being.
This page contains comprehensive information about this site, its programs and myself. For your convenience, the following are quick links are provided to the numerous sections of this page.
Below you will find information regarding lineage and chain of transmission, as well as a vision for the future I hope will resonate with your heart and soul.
I invite you to explore the resources and content available on this site, and to join us in the courses and programs available to become part of a growing community throughout the world committed to excellence and spiritual awakening.
I look forward to connecting with you. To your divine and eternal success.
About Me
While I prefer to not speak about myself, it is important to be clear as to where one’s knowledge, education and training originate, and so I include this brief background about myself.
I developed a deep interest in faith, religion and spirituality while away at University studies. While away at school, I saw the utter lack of direction and clarity in my contemporaries and the total lack of thought to a higher, greater and divine purpose. Students were living but to consume, essentially to indulge and with little thought or concern as to the consequences either in the short or long term, let alone the eternal. At this time, I became aware of a profound lack of excellence in contemporary culture.
Also, as part of academic requirements, for the first time I read the actual source scriptures upon which are founded the three Abrahamic monotheistic faiths. Reading the Old Testament, New Testament and the Qur’an concurrently was an utterly expansive and transformative experience, and I failed to understand the seemingly irreconcilable differences between “religions” whilst the source scriptures unequivocally communicated the same fundamental truths from the first to the last.
It was then that I realized that “religion” as most know it is but the product of human interpretation and interpolation, and more often than not, is actually at odds with the very truths and teachings the very messengers and prophets themselves brought and taught.
I became increasingly fascinated and took many courses in the study of the historical Jesus (as), as well as the historical development of Christianity, and again was amazed to find that the historical Jesus (as) was entirely consistent with the great personality and prophet of God described in the Qur’an.
I thus began studying Islam sincerely and earnestly, yet I soon realized I required a teacher, specifically “someone I could trust.” Once that intention, thought and prayer was formalized in my heart and mind, it was not long after that I was led to he who would become my primary spiritual guide and leader, my teacher and my master, my shaykh.
I was introduced to Mawlana Shaykh Nazim Adil al-Haqqani (qs) in 1996 and then took initiation into the most distinguished Naqshbandi Order, a school of classical Islamic spirituality, often dubiously referred to as “Sufism,” which I explain in more detail below.
It was he (qs) who gave me my name, Ihsan. I have since been his student and disciple, and have concurrently studied with several other teachers including great scholars themselves students of Shaykh Nazim (qs).
It is my goal through my work and this site and project to help clarify the clear, pure and original teachings of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, the Seal of Messengers and the last and final prophet of God, who but confirmed and honored all that came before him, including the great prophets Abraham, Moses and Jesus, divine peace, light and blessings be upon them all.
Sufism
Although this subject is dealt with extensively in other resources and sections of this site, it is important here to briefly address the topic of Sufism in an attempt to minimize any possible misunderstanding as to what the word refers to.
“Sufism” is but a word that has been used to refer to the inner dimension of Islam, without which the religion is incomplete. Just as a body requires a spirit in order to truly be alive, so too does religion require spirituality.
When spirituality is lacking, religion becomes but a rigid set of rules and regulations that while possibly appealing to the primitive ego, will utterly fail to develop a human beings potential and capacity for consciousness.
Should this incomplete and imbalanced approach in which religion is lacking its spiritual dimension persist to its logical conclusion, it will result in becoming the very antithesis of the religion, resulting in but an ideological identity lacking compassion, light and love, the development of which are the very purpose of religion.
In short, “Sufism” is but the inner spiritual dimension of the outer form of religion, and its primary goal and purpose is the cultivation of humility, sincerity and spiritual excellence.
I prefer not to use the term “Sufism,” for it can easily be mistaken to describe what may be a separate path, school of thought or identity, all of which are false.
In the words of my Shaykh, “In the time of the Prophet ﷺ, Sufism was a reality without a name. Now, it is a name without a reality.” And so, he, God’s mercy and light be upon his soul, actually ordered that this term no longer be used, as it is misleading, and that we simply return to and remember what Islam is in its totality.
Lineage
In al-Islam, it is of utmost importance to remain connected to and trace one’s knowledge and learning to a living chain of transmission that can be traced without interruption directly back to the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, the Last and Final Messenger of God.
Allah Almighty, God, the Creator preserves both the forms and the essence of the religion and way not in books, but in the hearts of living human beings who have been called to and established as pillars upon the path, and who remain directly connected to the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, who is the means, the bridge and the portal, to the Divine Presence.
Below you will find a brief introduction to my current and past teachers from whom I have been honored to be connected to and through whom I have been blessed to have been given the way.
Shaykh Abdullah al-Fa’iz ad-Daghestani (qs)
Blessed Shaykh Abdullah (qs), originally from Daghestan in Central Asia, eventually settled in the holy and blessed lands of ash-Shams, Syria, where he re-established the centrality of sincerity and purity as the essence of the spiritual path.
Shaykh Abdullah (qs), like the noble Messenger of God ﷺ was unlettered and formally unlearned. Nevertheless, scholars of the greatest levels of learning sat humbly at his feet, for with him was a reality that cannot be acquired through formal education, but rather that is a divine grant directly from the Divine Presence of God through the heart of the Prophet ﷺ.
Shaykh Abdullah (qs) was and is an unparalleled beacon of light and sacred knowledge, his heart the recipient of of incomparable divine inspiration and of a way and path to the Divine Presence of God matchless in beauty and excellence.
He (qs) passed the secret of this way to his successor, Shaykh Muhammad Nazim Adil al-Haqqani (qs).
Shaykh Muhammad Nazim Adil al-Haqqani (qs)
Shaykh Nazim (qs) is known to virtually all, and was without doubt the Reviver of the Religion in the 20th Century. Through his selfless service, hundreds of thousands of individuals from every corner of the world have embraced al-Islam and continue to find their way back to its spiritual essence.
Shaykh Nazim (qs) spent the entirety of his life in devotion to God Almighty, and sought nothing other than to share and help cultivate the light of this divine love in the hearts of his companions and students.
He (qs) taught the essence and the key of the spiritual path, and the fastest means and method for transformation, awakening and spiritual evolution is through suhba, or companionship. Thus, he revived the original and pure way of the Prophet ﷺ, and purely through the power of love, has helped his students rediscover the connection with the Divine Presence of God and return to their fitrah, or original state of wholeness and innocence.
Upon his passing, he passed the responsibility of the way and the secret of this path to the heart of his son, Shaykh Mehmet Adil al-Rabbani (h).
Shaykh Mehmet Adil al-Rabbani (h)
Blessed Shaykh Mehmet (h) in his person and character captures the essence of the way, and he is without doubt the living inheritor of this sacred path which is based first and foremost above everything else upon humility.
Soft-spoken and reserved, Shaykh Mehmet (h) is a true leader in that he, like his father, leads by example, not in the least seeking to be served, but rather tirelessly striving to serve as did Shaykh Nazim (qs) towards the singular goal of carrying the way in humility and thus preserving the pure and perfect path of the Prophet ﷺ.
Shaykh Mehmet (qs) primarily resides in Istanbul, Turkey, yet in the footsteps and way of Shaykh Nazim (qs) travels tirelessly to share the prophetic light with they who seek it. We pray that Allah Almighty grant him long life and strength to carry forward this noble path and way of excellence, and that we continue to be honored with his company in this life and the next.
Additional Mentors
Shaykh Hisham al-Kabbani
Shaykh Hisham Kabbani spent much of his life in tirelessly seeking to purify the religion from innovation and distortion, and in bringing awareness to the reality of al-Islam as a path of peace, moderation and excellence.
Shaykh Hisham is the author of dozens of books, most notably the seven volume Encyclopedia of Islamic Doctrine in which he clarifies essential matters of faith and practice based upon the clear and historical consensus of scholars throughout the world and over the course of the last fourteen hundred years.
We pray for his health and wellbeing.
Imam Fode Drame
Imam Fode Drame (h) is a rare and hidden pillar of the path, and quite possibly the most knowledgeable human being alive with regards to the Holy Qur’an.
Originally from Sene-Gambia, Imam Fode (h) currently resides in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and from where he humbly teaches any who seek knowledge, learning and development.
Imam Fode (h) makes clear that the purpose of both the Holy Qur’an and the Sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ is the perfection of human character, and that through excellence in self-development, we can attain to and be graced with the divine love of God for which we have been created.
Imam Fode (h) is a reviver of the knowledge of the Qur’an, and a master of its exegesis par excellence. He is a reviver of the religion, and like all true and great teachers, manifests the beauty, selflessness and humility of divine prophetic character.
We pray that Allah Almighty continue to keep us in his company, and that he be graced with a long life in service to God and His Messenger ﷺ.
The Islamic Renaissance is Now
Islam once shone like a brilliant light, a beacon of human excellence, illuminating the darkness of the world and banishing the evil that lurks in the depths of the human being.
It was the beauty and brilliance of the Prophet Muhammad (SAWS) and the sincerity of his original Companions that created the greatest spiritual revolution the planet has ever seen, spreading the light of God from east to west.
The Islam they spread was not a religion of ritual and form, but a path of spirituality and enlightenment, a path of deep inner peace and presence.
And so, the Way was embraced among all nations and cultures, regardless of borders and languages.
Yet it was not long before the perfection and excellence of Islam was obscured, and the Community lost the spiritual reality of the Way, leading directly to the current Second Age of Ignorance, a time of pure materialism, and in which Islam has been largely distorted beyond recognition.
Yet now is the time. It is darkest before the dawn, and it is the will of Allah Almighty that the truth and reality of the Way be given back to humanity.
This site is dedicated to this Islamic Renaissance. A renaissance not of form, of identity, but of spirituality, of essence. We now have the greatest opportunity to reclaim the divine path, the Way, perfected and purified.
It will be through spiritual purification, through personal excellence, that Islam will re-emerge as the clear and straight path to Source that it was destined to be.
Join Us
This is our opportunity to stand together for the excellence, perfection and beauty of Islam. To heal ourselves and our own lives, and so, to be of some value and service to the rest of humanity.
I invite you to join me in this mission, and to become part of the renaissance and the revolution by re-committing to the spiritual path of enlightenment and excellence.
I look forward to sharing this journey with you. To your divine and eternal success.
[line]
[button class=”button-access” size=”x-large” shape=”pill” block=”true” href=”/members/courses/”]Spiritual Excellence Courses and Programs[/button]
[line]
[social_warfare]
Your islamicmeditation.com videos on Islam’s dimensions, stages, and meditation forms are a refreshing breeze, a cooling to the eyes, and a warming of the heart. The peaceful *maqam* of Ihsan’s presentation embodies, enacts, and expresses the *salam* & *mutma’inna* of truly lived and practiced Islam. I say this as an aspiring Sufi and an Assistant Professor of Islamic and Religious Studies at Central Michigan University. Having spent decades exolaining Islam to students, I assert that his is among the best presentations of Islam I have ever seen. In sha’ Allah I will ask my students to watch these excellent videos. Thank you and *Jazak bi’l-Khayr Allah.*
Thank you Talat for your kind endorsement and thoughtful feedback. Wishing you the best always, may you be covered by Divine shade of the Almighty in this life and the next!
Aslm, I would like to know the courses offered. I often follow your guidance, Meditate with me, on Utube. It helps a lot. I would like to have deeper experience. Shukran Kathiran. Kind regards, Jamila
I have been listening to your soul of islam radio episodes & gained immense benefit from them! Would be interested in getting details on how to further support your ventures,
Assalamu alaikom.
I found your YouTube channel few years ago. And I am forever grateful for your teachings. It is so rare to find a shaykh who would explain to us the real core of Islam in a way that makes us feel we are back home, to where we truly belong.
Awakening can be hard but it is so worth it. I pray to Allah to strengthen our Iman. The road to purification can be hard on solo seekers. May Allah help us. Ameen.