Training Course 2027: Between the Heart and the Secret

WEEKEND I: THE HUMAN BEING & THE HEART

What does the heart know when it is no longer looking through the eyes of the nafs, but becoming a mirror for the Real?

From the human being to the heart, from knowing about the Divine to knowing through the heart.
What is the human being beneath the identities, roles and stories of the self?
What is the heart capable of perceiving when it becomes clear?
And what does it mean to become a mirror in which the Divine Names can be recognized?
This opening weekend enters the Sufi understanding of the human being as a meeting place of body, nafs, qalb and rūḥ, a being called to move from outward perception toward inward witnessing.

Al-Qushayrī · Abū Ṭālib al-Makkī · al-Ghazālī · al-Anṣārī,  Rābiʿa al-ʿAdawiyya · ʿĀʾisha al-Bāʿūniyya

Rābiʿa al-ʿAdawiyya - ʿĀʾisha al-Bāʿūniyya
Two luminous women of the Sufi tradition whose teachings place the heart, divine love and intimate knowledge of God at the center of the path. Their voices bring a feminine dimension to the journey from purification to presence, from knowledge to love.
Al-Qushayrī - Abū Ṭālib al-Makkī - al-Ghazālī - al-Anṣārī
Four voices of classical Sufism who explored the transformation of the human being through purification, knowledge and the awakening of the heart. Their teachings illuminate the journey from outward knowledge to inner knowing, from the nafs toward the heart and from the heart toward Divine presence.

Themes
Qalb - Rūḥ - Nafs — the inner architecture of the human being
Dhāhir & Bāṭin — the visible and the hidden
The heart as an organ of perception — knowing beyond the conceptual mind
Tazkiya — purification, refinement and the unveiling of the heart
Aḥwāl and Maqāmāt — states and stations on the path
ʿIlm and Maʿrifa — knowledge and intimate knowing
The human being as mirror — receiving and embodying the Divine Names
From self-consciousness to heart-consciousness
From looking at reality to learning how to witness

WEEKEND II: THE NAFS & LOVE 

From the self that seeks to the heart that loves
Love does not ask us to become someone else. It asks us to become truthful enough to let go of everything that stands between the heart and the Beloved.
This weekend turns toward the nafs, not as an enemy to be destroyed, but as the part of us that must be recognized, refined and released from its claims. We explore how the need to be seen, accepted, admired or loved can shape our lives and how surrendering the self-image opens a deeper freedom.
Junayd · Ibn ʿAjība · al-Darqāwī · Rūmī · ʿAṭṭār · Nafīsa al-ʿAlawiyya · Fāṭima al-Naysābūriyya
Nafīsa al-ʿAlawiyya is a revered woman of knowledge and devotion whose life brings together spiritual depth, worship and inner authority. She brings the depth of devotion, knowledge and spiritual discipline.

Fāṭima of Nishapur is remembered among the early Sufis for her spiritual insight and her influence on male masters; a voice for the kind of knowledge that arises through purification and direct experience. She represents the early feminine voice of direct spiritual insight, purification and intimate knowledge of God.

Junayd · Ibn ʿAjība · al-Darqāwī · Rūmī · ʿAṭṭār
Five great Sufi voices who explore the transformation of the nafs through love, sincerity, longing and surrender. Together, they illuminate the movement from the self that seeks recognition toward the heart that becomes free in the presence of the Beloved.

Themes:
Nafs and ego — seeing the movements of the self without judgment
Recognition and belonging — the longing to be seen and affirmed
Fear of rejection — what we compromise when we are afraid of not being loved
The spiritual ego — when even spirituality becomes an identity
Ikhlāṣ — sincerity and freedom from hidden motives
Faqr — spiritual poverty, needing nothing for the self
Love as transformation — not merely a feeling, but a way of being
Shawq — longing for the Beloved
Surrendering self-image — releasing who we think we must be
Ṣidq — truthfulness with oneself, with others and with God

WEEKEND III: DHIKR & SURRENDER           

al-Shādhilī · Ibn ʿAṭāʾ Allāh · al-Mursī · Ibn Mashīsh · al-Jazūlī,, Karīma al-Marwaziyya, Fāṭima al-Fihriyya
From remembrance to presence: What happens when remembrance is no longer something we do, but becomes the way we live?
Dhikr begins with the tongue, descends into the breath, enters the heart and gradually changes the way we meet life. This weekend explores remembrance not as repetition alone, but as a movement from effort to reliance, from control to surrender, from seeking presence to discovering that Allah is always present.
Not only how do I remember Allah, but:
Can I live in such remembrance, that every breath becomes a return, every circumstance becomes a teacher and the heart no longer forgets the One who is always near?
Abū al-Ḥasan al-Shādhilī teaches trust in Allah while remaining fully present in the world; remembrance becomes a way of living rather than withdrawal from life.
Ibn ʿAṭāʾ Allāh al-Iskandarī brings the seeker again and again from self-reliance toward reliance upon Allah. His Ḥikam and Miftāḥ al-Falāḥ offer profound guidance on surrender and dhikr.
Abū al-ʿAbbās al-Mursī emphasizes continuous witnessing and the remembrance of Allah in every condition, allowing ordinary life itself to become a place of presence.
Ibn Mashīsh embodies the depth of surrender, blessing and Prophetic love within the Shādhilī lineage; his Ṣalāt al-Mashīshiyya opens the heart toward the Muhammadan Reality.
Muḥammad al-Jazūlī united remembrance and love of the Prophet (sas) through the Dalāʾil al-Khayrāt, creating a path in which repeated prayer becomes a vessel for presence.
Karīma al-Marwaziyya, renowned as a transmitter of ḥadīth, she represents a feminine lineage of sacred knowledge in which remembrance, transmission and devotion meet.
Fāṭima al-Fihriyya , she is remembered as the founder of al-Qarawiyyīn in Fez, she offers a powerful image of devotion expressed through service, knowledge and the creation of a place for sacred learning.

WEEKEND IV: RECOGNITION & UNITY

Ibn ʿArabī · al-Jīlī · Ibn ʿAjība · Rūmī · al-ʿAlawī, Fāṭima bint al-Muthannā, Fakhr al-Nisāʾ bint Rustam
From knowing the One to seeing the One in the many: When the seeker is no longer the center, what begins to reveal itself?
To recognize the One is not to turn away from the many, but to meet the many with eyes that have learned to see the One.
The final weekend turns toward maʿrifa, not knowledge about God, but recognition born from a heart that has become transparent. We enter the mystery of tawḥīd, where unity does not erase multiplicity, but allows the many to be seen as signs, expressions and mirrors of the One.
Ibn ʿArabī and al-Jīlī offer the metaphysical architecture of al-Insān al-Kāmil, the Divine Names and the Muhammadan Reality. 
Ibn ʿAjība, Rūmī and al-ʿAlawī bring these vast teachings back into the intimate life of the heart, into witnessing, love, remembrance and service.
The journey moves from contemplation back into life: from the secret of the heart into relationship, from recognition into responsibility, from unity into compassionate service.
Fāṭima bint al-Muthannā is an Andalusian woman of profound spiritual realization and one of Ibn ʿArabī’s own teachers. Her presence brings the theme of maʿrifa into its most intimate form: knowing God through presence, inward realization and the transformation of the whole being. 
Fakhr al-Nisāʾ bint Rustam is a distinguished woman of sacred knowledge in Mecca, respected by Ibn ʿArabī for her learning and transmission. She brings another dimension to recognition: knowledge that is received, embodied and passed on through a living chain of wisdom. 
Both deepen the themes of knowledge, gnosis and transmission from distinctly different directions.
The movement of the weekend
Maʿrifa - Tawḥīd - Witnessing - Unity - Love - Service