Salih’s Says: “Bring your Deep Questions”
Blog post brought to you by Laila Katie Helms
When speaking in a recent interview about the upcoming International Sufi Gathering, Salih Kent opened with a simple greeting to all the beloveds, and a question he’d been asked directly: what is the value of community?
Safety to Consider the Deep Questions
Sidi taught that community is a single hand and heart — a sacred mirror for individuals to cultivate love, mercy, and unity while walking the spiritual path.
“Community has so many benefits,” Salih explained. “It provides seekers with shared wisdom along with emotional safety. It also accelerates personal growth by exposing each individual to diverse perspectives. When we’re alone, and we enter into areas of really deep questioning — such as when we go into retreat — we tend to really isolate ourselves. But when we’re in community and seeking deeply, we can balance our time in ways which help prevent this isolation, while still deeply questioning within ourselves. That’s one of the truly great values of community.”
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO PART OF SALIH’S INTERVIEW
Trust your heart, follow the truth
Salih spoke honestly about something many in the community may feel right now — some division over how to proceed, and who to follow. His answer was simple: follow Allah and the teachings. As Sidi wrote in Music of the Soul, “There is only one thing that’s truly beautiful in life, and that is the truth.” Trust your heart, Salih said, and follow that truth. If you want for your brothers and sisters what you most desire for yourself, there’s no reason left to want any kind of lordship over another.
Loving across difference
One of community’s real gifts, Salih said, is meeting brothers and sisters whose thoughts and feelings differ from our own — and practicing looking into their hearts to feel the depth and sincerity of their seeking. They wouldn’t have come unless they were genuinely seeking too. That recognition makes room to love someone even when they express things very differently than we do.
He offered a simple comparison: anyone with children knows you can give a child all your love without giving them all your thoughts. Even when they think differently, the love doesn’t shrink. Sidi taught this same thing about community — learning to love someone deeply even amid different opinions, especially now. Our brothers and sisters reflect back to us both the beauty of this path and, just as usefully, a reminder of our own nafs still in need of cleaning.
Beginners and elders, learning together
Community lets beginners connect with more experienced beloveds who can guide them — and gives those further along the path a chance to put Sidi’s teachings into action by helping someone else. Sidi never wanted the teachings simply read, written, and shelved. He wanted them lived, through service in a community of beloveds.
Salih pointed to real examples already underway: Amany’s chaplaincy training program, and conversations happening now about expanding service further — supporting elders and healers in the community, and wounded veterans unable to work. There are teenage Muslim children in foster care who could be adopted to help support disabled elders. Funds could be raised for exactly this kind of work.
This October
Salih didn’t hold back his enthusiasm for gathering in person: “Allah can change your life in a moment.” Inshallah you will feel called to travel to Florida this fall to feel the support of many hearts coming together to share their deep questions, learn from each others’ walking, and carry Sidi’s legacy forward.
Come, let’s gather and together, take a drink of the Deep Love.
