This Sufi's Ashram: 9/25/11

Noor-un-nisa Inayat Khan

BBC - History - Historic Figures: Noor Inayat Khan (1914 - 1944)
Noor Inayat Khan was born on New Year's Day 1914 in Moscow to an Indian father and an American mother. She was a direct descendant of Tipu Sultan, the 18th ...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/inayat_khan_noor.shtml

Noor Inayat Khan was a wartime British secret agent of Indian descent who was the first female radio operator sent into Nazi-occupied France by the Special Operations Executive (SOE). She was arrested and eventually executed by the Gestapo.

Noor-un-nisa Inayat Khan: Exotic British spy who defied Gestapo brutality to the end - her last word was liberté (Liberty)

Etymological Abbreviations

Eng. English, West Germanic language spoken in England after c.450,
heavily influenced by French and somewhat by Scandinavian.
O.E. Old English, the English language as written and spoken c.450-c.1100.
Gk. Greek, Indo-European language spoken in Greece in the classical period, c. 8c. B.C.E.-4c. C.E. Among its dialects were Ionian-Attic (the language of Homer and the Athenian dramatists), Aeolic (used in Thessaly, Boeotia and Lesbos), and Dorian (the language of Sparta).
Heb. Classical Hebrew, ancient Semitic language of the Israelites.
L. Classical Latin, the Italic language of ancient Rome until about 4c.
L.L. Late Latin, the literary Latin language as spoken and written c.300-c.700.

I.E. Indo-European, the family of languages that includes most of the languages of modern Europe (English among them) and some current and extinct ones in western and southern Asia. All are presumed to share a common ancestor, PIE.

PIE Proto-Indo-European, the hypothetical reconstructed ancestral language of the Indo-European family. The time scale is much debated, but the most recent date proposed for it is about 5,500 years ago.

Online Etymological Dictionary

Sufism is not a religion nor a philosophy, it is neither deism nor atheism, nor is it a moral, nor a special kind of mysticism, being free from the usual religious sectarianism. If ever it could be called a religion, it would only be as a religion of love, harmony, and beauty. If it be called a philosophy it is beyond that because a Sufi, through the study of metaphysics, escapes the selfishness produced by philosophy and kindles the fire of devotion with one's eyes open to reason and logic. The Sufi prays to God every moment in one's life, invoking God's Name and realizing at the same time that the self is no other than God. For to a Sufi God is not a personal being but a mighty healer to awaken the soul from its delusion of earthly individuality, and a guide to lead it to self-realization, the only aim in life.
-Hazrat Inayat Khan, a Sufi

ONE

In the Semitic language of Aramaic which Jesus most likely spoke, the Aramaic word which is translated as God in the European bible was actually Alaha. According to some linguists, the word Alaha which Jesus spoke would have had the ending "a" softened or not pronounced at all, leading to the pronunciation "alah". Since the Arabic language was largely derived from the earlier Aramaic (much the same as Aramaic was derived from the earlier Hebrew), the modern Arabic word Allah is likely derived from the earlier Aramaic pronunciation "alah". Indeed, Allah of the Qur'an and Alaha of Jesus refer to the same One. In contrast, the word "God" is a relatively new, and perhaps unfortunate, European invention which has been the source of much misunderstanding and conflict.
http://wahiduddin.net/mv2/mv_glossary.htm

Friday, September 30, 2011