Sufi Heart with Omid Safi

Focusing on the feminine side of religion, Omid Safi and Willow Brook express how divine love and connection transcend all binaries.
This episode was originally recorded for the Wild Heart Podcast with Willow Brook - a podcast that explores divinity in daily life with themes of love, mysticism, grief as a spiritual path, and sensual embodiment. Learn more: Wild Heart Podcast | On Youtube
This time on Sufi Heart, Omid Safi chats with Willow Brook about:
Navigating this mass global suffering
Tapping into love while going through crisis
Remembering that the self and collective are wrapped up together
Connecting to the lived experience of others
What it means to make love and beauty real
Lessons from great activists like MLK Jr. and Malcolm X
How essential black women have been in the civil rights movement
Expanding our notions of love beyond the romantic
The divine mother and feminine wisdom within Islam
Deeply knowing that we are never apart from God
How we are all living in the same spiritual ecosystem, the same divine womb
The dichotomy of form and formless, body and spirit
Love as embodied service
About Willow Brook:
Willow Brook is a love coach, interspiritual companion, and earth-rooted educator dedicated to helping people awaken to deeper intimacy, presence, and love. For over a decade, she has guided individuals and groups through transformational spaces around the world, weaving somatic intimacy practices, ritual, meditation, and song to support the alchemy of heartbreak into embodied and nourishing connection. Through her signature coaching program, Open to Love, Willow supports those who long for fulfilling and soulful relationships with their bodies, partners, and the divine but feel held back by the pain of the past. As co-founder of Wild Heart with Mirabai Starr, she also facilitates community grief gatherings and ceremonies rooted in the divine feminine for people of all genders. Listen to Willow's The Wild Heart Podcast to hear more about the intersections of love, spirit, and embodiment. You can also keep up with Willow on Instagram.
About Omid Safi:
Dr. Omid Safi is the director of Duke University’s Islamic Studies Center. He specializes in the study of Islamic mysticism and contemporary Islam and frequently writes on liberationist traditions of Dr. King and Malcolm X, and is committed to traditions that link together love and justice. He leads spiritual tours every year to Turkey, Morocco, or other countries, to study the rich multiple religious traditions there. The trips are open to everyone from every country. More information is available at Illuminated Courses & Tours.
Check out Omid’s books Progressive Islam and Radical Love for more progressive perspectives on wisdom from ancient sages
“If we are both in the same divine womb, what atrocity would I commit without it also coming back to me? How would it change our idea of environmental responsibility? Not only because this is our only home in all of the infinite galaxies, but because we are living in the same spiritual ecosystem and all of that is contained in the divine womb.” –Omid Safi
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Omid Safi discusses Sufi teachings from one of the greatest muslim mystics, an Andalusian sage named Ibn ‘Arabi.
"When Ibn 'Arabi comes, he sits with all of himself. When he's listening, he listens with all of himself. When it's time to go, he gets up with all of himself. All of him is here, so I can give him all of the love. That's such a practice, and it's such a challenge for all of us who are always distracted. A lot of Sufi practice is really this art of being present." – Omid Safi
This week on Sufi Heart, Omid Safi illuminates:
The life of Ibn ‘Arabi from Andalusia, to Morocco, Turkey, and Damascus
The prayer of opening and Ibn ‘Arabi’s text, Futuhat al-Makkiyya (openings of the heart)
Removing that which veils you from direct presence with God
Experiencing Kashf—the unveiled revelations that arise from intimate communion with God
The paradoxical ‘yes and no’ response that Ibn ‘Arabi often gave to philosophical questions and finding beauty in the paradox
Remembering that we do not see God, we are seen by God
Presence and mindfulness as a core feature of Sufi spiritual practice
How Ibn ‘Arabi’s life teaches us what it means to have a teacher and blurring together seeker and master
A commentary on all in the natural realm that is made beautiful
Dissolving the illusion of separation between lover and beloved
A poem from Ibn ‘Arabi on alchemy and the Prophet
“Most people translate it as ‘I become’ then ‘I become the sight by which you see’. Ibn ‘Arabi says ‘it’s not I become, I am’. It sounds really different, it hits different. I am the eye by which you see. I am the hearing by which you hear. I am the hand by which you touch. I am the tongue by which you speak.” – Omid Safi
About Omid Safi:
Dr. Omid Safi is the director of Duke University’s Islamic Studies Center. He specializes in the study of Islamic mysticism and contemporary Islam and frequently writes on liberationist traditions of Dr. King and Malcolm X, and is committed to traditions that link together love and justice. He leads spiritual tours every year to Turkey, Morocco, or other countries, to study the rich multiple religious traditions there. The trips are open to everyone from every country. More information is available at Illuminated Courses & Tours.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Illuminating Hazrat Inayat Khan’s teachings on radical love, Omid Safi leads listeners down the Sufi path of love, harmony, and beauty.
Today’s podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/beherenow and get on your way to being your best self.
This time on Sufi Heart, Omid provides a lesson on:
The Sufi tradition of radical love, universal harmony, and experiencing beauty
Hazrat Inayat Khan’s timely and timeless teachings
Music as a sacred bridge between cultures and a channel for divine connection
The universality of love across religions and wisdom traditions
Seeing the unity in the multiplicity and the multiplicity in the unity
The reduction of love to romantic ideals and reclaiming its divine essence
Radical love, loving all beings, and the claim that love is God
The mystical poetry of Hazrat Inayat Khan and Rumi
The ultimate unity of love, lover, and beloved
Seeing each one of our faculties—sight, sound, breath, as a portal to see and be seen by God
The symphony of creation and what it may sound like if we operated in harmony
How global disharmony—social, political, and ecological—reflects spiritual/inner disconnection
Harmony as one of the keys that connects the human realm to the divine realm
The divine light of God which is hidden in each of our souls
Surrendering willingly to beauty and allowing it to connect us to the divine mystery of God
This episode was part of a longer conversation with friends over at Spiritual Wanderlust. Omid encourages listeners to check out that offering, part of their series on “Mystics and Prophets”, HERE.
About Omid Safi:
Dr. Omid Safi is director of Duke University’s Islamic Studies Center. He specializes in the study of Islamic mysticism and contemporary Islam and frequently writes on liberationist traditions of Dr. King, Malcolm X, and is committed to traditions that link together love and justice. He leads spiritual tours every year to Turkey, Morocco, or other countries, to study the rich multiple religious traditions there. The trips are open to everyone, from every country. More information is available at Illuminated Courses & Tours.
"The path of radical love makes an extraordinary claim. The claim is fundamentally the notion that there is no ultimate divide between the love of God and the love of creation. Love is one. Love is not merely a quality of God, love is God. It is the very being, very essence, very heart of God." – Omid Safi
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Re-enchanting the world with God, the beloved, Omid Safi and teacher Joshua Michael Schrei explore the push-and-pull relationship we have with the divine.
Today’s podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/beherenow and get on your way to being your best self.
This week on Sufi Heart, Omid and Joshua get into:
The many types of love we experience with the divine
How the seeker was first being sought by God
The possibility of tying together the sensual and the spiritual
Nature as a living saint and master of seasons/cycles
Remembering the greater picture that we are all a part of
Balancing transcendence and imminence
Considering how we relate to lack and longing
Being in ecstatic union with the beloved
Knowing that God is present both within and without moments of consummation
How the treasures of our lives are often related to the hardships we have endured
What activism could look like in the political and social climate we are living in
Re-enchanting the world and suffusing it with divine love
The ripple effect of global events and how everything is interconnected
Pontificating how we can build a just, loving society
Check out Joshua's podcast, The Emerald, where you can explore more of the human experience through a vibrant lens of myth, story, and imagination. You can also keep up with the podcast via Instagram.
About Joshua Michael Schrei :
Joshua is a podcaster, mythteller, teacher, and a lifelong student of the cosmologies and mythologies of the world — in particular, the Indian subcontinent. Throughout a lifetime of teaching, study, meditation and yogic practice, wilderness immersion, art, music, and public speaking, Joshua has sought to navigate the living, animate space of the imagination and advocate for a world that prioritizes imaginative vision. Joshua has taught intensive courses in mythology and somatic disciplines for over 20 years. He is the founder of The Emerald Podcast, which combines evocative narrative, soul-stirring music, and interviews with award-winning authors and luminaries to explore the human experience through a vibrant lens of myth, story, and imagination. Less a traditional podcast and more a multi-layered sonic journey, The Emerald aims to reawaken the lost promise of oral storytelling tradition — the transmission of the direct felt experience of wonder and awe, and the rekindling of our relationship with spirit. Keep up with Joshua on his website.
“In any great love affair, in every great love-making, there is always that moment where you lose track of where your body ends and the beloved's body begins. There is no more notion of who is the lover and who is the beloved; there's only the moment and pure absolute pleasure and bliss. That's in some ways what the mystics are trying to get to. They're trying to get to that place where the boundary between you and I, lover and beloved, human and divine, becomes very blurred.” – Omid Safi
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Omid Safi sits down with Mike Petrow and Drew Jackson from The Center for Action and Contemplation, founded by Franciscan friar Richard Rohr, to explore how a unified approach to spirituality can deepen our faith.
This podcast was originally published on the Everything Belongs Podcast, produced by The Center for Action and Contemplation (CFAC).
The Center for Action and Contemplation (CAC) is an educational nonprofit introducing seekers to the contemplative Christian path of transformation. Franciscan Richard Rohr founded the Center for Action and Contemplation (CAC) in 1987 because he saw a deep need for the integration of both action and contemplation—the two are inseparable. As Father Richard likes to say, the most important word in our Center’s name is neither Action nor Contemplation, but the word and. This podcast episode explores elements of a chapter in Richard Rohr’s book: “Entering the World of Another: Francis and the Sultan of Egypt.”
Today’s podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/beherenow and get on your way to being your best self.
Hosts of the Everything Belongs podcast, Mike and Drew, enjoy a conversation with Omid Safi about:
Love as a representation of God in action
The heart of the Islamic tradition
Seeing the soul of the divine in all humans
Coming from love and returning to love
Considering how we want to spend our lives
The genocide and pain happening in our world
Remembering the core roots of religion as kindness and love
Traversing across many different traditions and seeing the beauty in it all
The importance of language and art in our experience of life and religion
Saint Francis and the Sultan as a model for compassion
Combining the mandates of contemplation and action
“What if we come to see the human heart as the highest shrine of God? How would it change the way we live together? How would it change the way we treat one another? How would it change the way we walk on the earth? The more our ethics and contemplative life feed into each other, the more luminous all of it becomes.” – Omid Safi

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