The Guest House by Rumi

The Paradigm House is six years old today!

The journey has had its highs and lows.There have been apparent losses and awareness of bitter realities. Yet there have been effective gains of knowledge and wisdom that have unveiled the paths to inner peace.

Here's my inspiration that I'd like to share with you. Hoping that this will inspire you too, and make your journey easier.

~ Shazia

The Guest House


This, being human is a guest house,
every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.

He may be clearing you out, for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.

Be grateful for whatever comes,
because each has been sent as a guide from beyond. 

Jalaluddin Rumi 
Translation By Coleman Barks
Painting by Sadaf Farasat

Justice and Spirituality of Hazrat Ali

Ali bin Abi Talib, son in law and cousin of the Prophet, first Shia Imam and the fourth caliph of the Islamic community. He was described by the Prophet as the ‘gate’ to the 'city of knowledge'.

“I am the city of knowledge and Ali is the gate; so whoever desires knowledge, let him enter the gate.”

Imam Ali lived physically in the shadow of the Prophet and absorbed spiritually all that radiated from him. The intimacy of the relationship between the Prophet and Hazrat Ali is summed up in one of the sermons of the Imam:

“When I was but a child he took me under his wing…I would follow him [Prophet] as a baby camel follows the footsteps of its mother. Every day he would raise up for me a sign of his noble character, commanding me to follow it. He would go each year into seclusion at [the mountain of] Hira. I saw him and nobody else saw him…I saw the light of revelation and the message, and I smelt the fragrance of prophecy…”

Here are some of the words of wisdom, spirituality and justice, that Imam Ali left for us to remember and to practice.