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Sufi Heart with Omid Safi

Sufi Heart with Omid Safi

By: Be Here Now Network
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The Sufi Heart podcast with Omid Safi features teachings and stories about a sacred tradition of love, one that manifests outwardly as justice and inwardly as tenderness. Drawing primarily on the wisdom of the Islamic tradition as well as the legacies of the Civil Rights movements and other wisdom teachings, Omid invites you to a meditation on the transformative power of love and recalling the necessity of linking healing our own hearts with healing the world.

Omid Safi is a teacher in the Islamic mystical tradition of Radical Love, and serves as a professor of Islamic studies at Duke University. Omid’s passion for teaching has been recognized by his ten nominations for Professor of the Year awards.

Omid has published extensively on the foundational sources of Islam and Sufism. His Memories of Muhammad is an award-winning biography of the Prophet Muhammad. His most recent book is Radical Love: Teachings from the Islamic Mystical Tradition.

He teaches online courses through Illuminated Courses on topics ranging from Rumi to the mystical dimension of the Qur’an. Lastly, he offers for the general public Illuminated Tours , spiritually oriented contemplative journeys and retreats which have brought more than 2,500 friends from over twenty countries to Turkey, Morocco, Andalusia, and now Umrah since 2002.

© Be Here Now Network Islam Spirituality
Episodes
  • Ep. 39 - The Womb of Love: Feminine Wisdom & Embodied Islam with Willow Brook

    Ep. 39 - The Womb of Love: Feminine Wisdom & Embodied Islam with Willow Brook
    Feb 4 2026
    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 YoutubeThis 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 togetherConnecting to the lived experience of othersWhat it means to make love and beauty realLessons from great activists like MLK Jr. and Malcolm XHow essential black women have been in the civil rights movementExpanding our notions of love beyond the romanticThe divine mother and feminine wisdom within IslamDeeply knowing that we are never apart from GodHow we are all living in the same spiritual ecosystem, the same divine wombThe dichotomy of form and formless, body and spirit Love as embodied serviceAbout 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 SafiSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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    1 hr and 10 mins
  • Ep. 38 -The Mystical Teachings of Ibn ‘Arabi

    Ep. 38 -The Mystical Teachings of Ibn ‘Arabi
    Jul 14 2025

    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.
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    56 mins
  • Ep. 37 – The Path of Love, Harmony & Beauty

    Ep. 37 – The Path of Love, Harmony & Beauty
    Jun 10 2025

    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

    See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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    1 hr and 13 mins
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loving the lovers & all others is loving Allah, & I love Prof Omid Safi

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