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It is said,
among Sufis, that Service is Love made visible. Service is not about
fixing or helping. Service is a way of seeing life. Dr. Naomi Remen,
at the Open Heart, Open Mind conference in 1995, said, “when you
help, you see life as weak, when you fix, you see life as broken.
When you serve, you see life as whole.” To be in service is to
allow another being dignity, integrity, sovereignty and respect on
their journey. To be in service is to be willing to connect more
deeply, more intimately, to touch and be touched without wanting.
To be in service is to see another being as Enough -- good enough,
strong enough, worthy enough, beautiful enough, lovable enough,
loving enough, whole enough. To be in service is to be used in the
service of something sacred –because we know, on a soul level – that
we are servers of the Great Mystery of Life.
Kahlil Gibran, in his poetic masterpiece, The Prophet,
has this to say about service: “There are those who give little of
the much which they have – and they give it for recognition, and their
hidden desire makes their gifts unwholesome. And there are those who
have little and give it all. These are the believers in life and the
bounty of life, and their coffer is never empty. There are those who
give with joy, and that joy is their reward. And there are those who
give with pain and that pain in their baptism. And there are those who
give and know not pain in giving, nor do they seek joy, nor give with
mindfulness of virtue; They give as in yonder valley the myrtle
breathes its fragrance into space. Through the hands of such as these
God speaks, and from behind their eyes [God] smiles upon the Earth.”
With heartfelt gratitude, we would like to thank all
who have been in service to Salaam Toronto Queer Muslim Community and
Al-Fatiha for making this conference and this greater vision of life
possible.
First, we’d like to thank our Sustainer -- for Your
Infinite Compassion, Infinite Mercy, Infinite Love and Infinite
Spaciousness, as we have come to realize, in the experience of this
conference, the importance of coming into authentic re-connection with
ourselves, with each other and with Divine Intention. For being our
example as we learn to be spacious with others so that healing may
begin. For Your bounty that came in the form of Strategic Allies who
support our vision, and the synchronistic manifestation of legalized
same sex marriage just days before our conference. Alhamdullilah! We
express to You our deep gratitude for always being available, even
when we are not. For always inviting us to come into relationship with
You, whoever we are, however we are, wherever we are and whenever we
are ready. For spending Your Love in a way that is palpable, tangible
and real to us. Thank you. Allahu Akbar! -- which to some Queer
Muslims means, God is Fabulous!
We would like to ask our steering committee
coordinators to please stand. Thank you for meeting, with grace and
equanimity, the many challenges that came with organizing this
conference: the funding shortfalls, the challenge of SARS and INS
profiling at the border, the homophobia, misogyny and criticism from
some members of the non-Queer Muslim community, the long hours and
hundreds of emails, daily. Thank you for your spaciousness in allowing
our members to express their own, unique relationships to Islam
without judgement, and therefore serving as an example to others.
Thank you.
A special thanks
to our volunteers and members, to the Al-Fatiha Foundation, who
provided funding and advertising as part of their support. Thank you
to Imam Ghazala and Imam Daiyee, to our speakers, our Sufi friends and
to our performers and participants, for having the commitment, the
heart and the unbending intent to make this historic conference a
necessary and integral part of this Sacred Dream we call reality. We
thank you all.
A very special thanks to Sufis and Mystics, past,
present and future,
Who keep the Love Burning and the Spirit Alive.
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