The Ha-Mim Institute, institute of personal and spiritual development,
offers you a stay of study, healing and discovery of the heritage
left by the spiritual figures of Turkey. Click here for the retreat itinerary.
Journey Through the Gardens of Lovers
STUDY AND RESOURCE HOLIDAY IN TURKIYE
With Shaykh Hamdi ben Aissa
Istanbul - Bursa - Eskişehir - Cappadocia - Konya - Antalya
May 19th to May 31st 2023
Meet The Lovers of the Divine!
In the Islamic spiritual traditions, all things are infused with love, because God’s attribute of love brings them into existence and motivates all their activities. When we feel the warmth of the sun on our cheek, hear the sweetness of a bird’s song or experience joy in our heart, all of this is from Divine Mercy. The whole universe is in love: “If the earth were not in love, it would not release the seeds from its womb. Each atom is moved by this power of Love which is universal and which gives life to all things”. God is Love in essence and the only way to reach this reality is to experience it through Love, through the heart. The Sufis commonly express the quest for God in the language of love, the most intense and profound of human experiences, with Rumi being one of the great masters of this tradition. In on his major prose work, Rumi says:
"All the hopes, desires, loves, and affections that people have for different things –
father, mother, friends, heavens, earth, gardens, palaces, sciences, deeds, food, drink –
all these are desires for God, and these things are veils.
When people leave this world and see the Eternal King without these veils,
then they will know that all these were veils and coverings and
that the object of their desire was in reality the One."
- Rumi
Once the lovers see things clearly, they find that they love everything in creation, because all of creation displays God’s beauty, and their own love displays God’s love. Ibn ‘Arabi tells us that when the seekers pass beyond “natural” and “spiritual” love, they reach the stage of “divine” love, where they love God in all things through God’s own love of the things. Then they love all things in every dimension of existence.
In the Journey Through the Gardens of Lovers, we will come across the heritage of seekers and wayfarers in the path of Divine Love. We will be immersing ourselves in the teachings of the lovers, starting our journey through the garden of Abu Ayyub al- Ansari ﷺ in Istanbul, making our way to Eskişehir, via Bursa, where we visit the Mausoleum of Ertugrul Gazi followed by the Mausoleum of Yunus Emre. We shall then go through Cappadocia, and visit the Mausoleum of Rumi, and his teacher Shams Tabrizi, in Konya, finishing in the turquioise Antalya.
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The daily teachings
Daily sessions, taught by Hamdi ben Aissa, will be dedicated to the study of Rumi's major world-famous work, the Mesnavi. This collection which brings together a selection of his most famous poems will accompany us on the path of the soul throughout this journey from the North to the South of Turkey. -
Individual and collective spiritual accompaniment
Proposed by Hamdi ben Aissa, the accompaniment will take the form of a gateway for transmitting the keys essential to the inner journey. In these places imbued with spirituality, true sources of inspiration, the teacher will deliver us rich new teachings, in the traditional way of the well-guided ancestors.
THIS REVITALIZATION STAY IS FOR ME IF I WISH TO:
🌱 Reveal the high places of my heart and my connection to the Divine and Divine Love
🌱 Connect to heritage of the Lovers of God: Abu Ayyub al-Ansari’s ﷺ, Rumi, Yunus Emre, and many others
🌱 Dive to discover the depths of my soul
🌱 Discover or deepen my knowledge of Rumi, his work The Mesnavi, and the symbolism
of the sema ceremony
🌱Discover Turkey from another angle
Aby Ayyub al-Ansari
Abu Ayyub al-Ansari’s ﷺ, greatly venerated by Muslims, was a close companion of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, and from the tribe of Banu Najjar. When Prophet Muhammad ﷺ migrated to Medina, he stayed with Abu Ayyub al-Ansari’s ﷺ until the construction of Masjid al-Nabawi. The Eyüp Sultan Mosque in Istanbul includes a mausoleum marking the spot where Abu Ayyub al-Ansari’s ﷺ is said to have been buried.
Abu Ayyub al-Ansari narrates that on the night of Mi'raj, Prophet Muhammad ﷺ passed by Ibrahim ﷺ (Abraham). Ibrahim asked, "O Jibreel (Gabriel), who is with you?" Jibreel answered, "Muhammad." Ibrahim ﷺ said to him, "Command your Ummah (community) to plant trees of Paradise in abundance, as the soil of Paradise is fertile and its plain is spacious." It was asked, "Which are the trees of Paradise?" He replied, "La hawla wa la quwwata illa billah (Arabic لا حول ولا قوة إلا بالله) [English: "There is no power and no strength except with God", implying a person's admission that he/she is unable to do anything without the help and support of God.]
Rumi
Jallaluddin Rumi, renowned theologian, benefited from a solid education in Islamic sciences. Past forty, his meeting with Shams of Tabriz, literally the sun of Tabriz, marks a crossroads in his approach to spirituality.
This wandering dervish from town to town challenges Rumi and invites him to The Meeting of Absolute Love. This episode marks an essential turning point in the life of Rumi who experiences, through his relationship with Shams, the incarnate Love of God. Rumi's work then invites to open the eye of the heart of whoever hears or reads it.
This visionary of Love has to his credit: "Rubai'yat", collection of 2,000 quatrains on the mystical experience, "Sun of the Real", Poems of Mystical Love, various collections of sermons, 3,500 ghazals (odes) and 147 maktubat (letters).
"Come, come, whoever you are...
Wanderer, traveler, departing admirer... Come, even if you have broken your vows a thousand times.
Our caravan is not one of despair."
-Rumi
Yunus Emre
Yunus Emre was one of the greatest and the deepest poets of the Turkish folk literature from 13th-14th century, loved for his simple humanity as well as sublime wisdom. His poems mostly dealt with Divine Love, reuniting with God or one's True Essence, two of his major works being “Risâletü'n-Nushiyye,” written in 1307-1308, and “Divan”.
Being a man of people, he called for social justice, equality, and other humanistic ideals, often coming at odds with those whom he deemed as oppressors of the common people. He felt that loving one's self and seeking power or wealth created distance between one and the community, hardening the heart and obscuring the divine love we have for God and all of humanity.
"My heart is the throne of the Beloved, the Beloved the heart's destiny; Whoever breaks another's heart will
find no homecoming in this
world or any other."
- Yunus Emre
TAKE ADVANTAGE OF EARLY BIRD PRICING
RESERVE YOUR SPOT TODAY [SAVE $250 CAD]
Join Us on this Spiritual Journey with the Lovers of the Beloved.
Book Your Airfare Tickets As Early As Possible To Benefit From Lower Airfares.
Double Occupancy:
Three Monthly Payments
$775 CAD per month
$858 CAD per month
(tax included)
Single Occupancy:
Three Monthly Payments
$885 CAD per month
$968 CAD per month
(tax included)
What's included in my stay
- Once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to experience Turkiye through Istanbul, Bursa, Eskişehir, Cappadocia, Konya, Antalya.
- Daily Spiritual Teaching Sessions.
- Discovering spiritually and historically rich sites (the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia Mosque, Eyüp Sultan Mosque, Topkapi Palace, Mausoleum and Tomb of Ertugrul Gazi, Tomb of Yunus Emre, Mausoleum of Mevlana Rumi, Mausoleum of Shams Tabrizi - among many others!)
- Return airport/hotel transfers + Comfortable and air-conditioned bus transfers + professional English-speaking guide.
- Single/Double Occupancy Accommodations (4/5-Star Hotels) + Breakfasts.
- Entrances to Ancient Sites (exclusions apply; for entrance to certain monuments, allow $30-$50 CAD per person).
What's not included in my stay
- International flights (go and return) to Istanbul (each participant will have to pay for their return plane tickets to Istanbul offered in particular by the following companies: Turkish Airlines, Pegasus, Air Arabia, Easyjet, etc.)
- Entrance to certain monuments and the Istanbul cable car: allow $50 CAD/person.
- Lunches and Dinners - allow between $20 CAD to $35 CAD per day per person.
- Optional Cruise to Suluada the Maldives of Turkiye on Day 12 in Antalya (additional $60 CAD).
