The Practice of Presence in Islamic Spirituality: An Islamic Meditation Program with Shaykh Dr. Hasan Awan.
This program is not currently open for registration.
This interactive course explores our essential sense of self as spiritual presence (hudur) and its relation to religious practice in Islam and contemplative living. The course will experientially examine the role of reverent mindfulness (taqwa) and our presence of heart (hudur al-qalb) as it relates to the contemplative practices and dimensions of Islam. This will be done through pointed reflections, engaging discussions, guided meditations, and take home exercises which reinforce each module of learning. Each session will build upon the foundations set by the prior module. Topics to be addressed and contemplatively explored include:
1. The Role of Muraqaba (spiritual vigilance), Muhasaba (self-introspection), Fikr (contemplation) and Dhikr (invocation) as foundations of Islamic meditation and as a mode of self-knowing.
2. Appreciating the Psychospiritual Benefits of Spiritual Retreat as a Prophetic Practice.
3. Contemplatively Living the Five Pillars of Religion in our everyday life.
4. Embodying Essential Prophetic Virtues in our personal and social living.
Shaykh Hasan Awan, MD is a spiritual teacher rooted in the Islamic traditions of Qadiri and Shadhili spirituality. He teaches to all seekers and emphasizes direct experience in his teaching methodology. He is the founder of Hudur Institute, which seeks to revive the contemplative disciplines of Islam in contemporary living. He has been a physician of internal medicine in private practice in Baltimore, MD, since 2007 and has served the Islamic Society of Baltimore Free Health Clinic since 2015. He began studying basic Islamic sciences, including fard ayn, usul al-fiqh/hadith/tafisr, and Arabic with local scholars at the age of 17. During medical school, he began to study Islamic philosophy, spirituality, and comparative religion with various esteemed teachers, and he regularly delivers sermons to local masjids in the Greater Baltimore-Maryland region. His interests include wellness medicine, meditation, external and internal martial arts, chi gong, yoga, and mindfulness practice, and he has studied and practiced meditation and self-inquiry with various teachers inside and outside the Islamic tradition. He is a member of the teaching faculty of Alkaram Institute and Albalagh Academy, where he teaches various courses on Islamic meditation, including methods found in Islam’s spiritual traditions and how to apply them to contemplatively living and Prophetically embodying the Five Pillars of Religion. This Alkaram course is exclusively based upon his forthcoming book,The Practice of Presence in Islamic Spirituality: A Guide to Meditation, Retreat, and Contemplative Living.
