Divine Names

The path to self-discovery and inner and outer peace... Divine Names is a unique contribution to understanding life and oneself on a deeper level: by learning to open to the Divine. It draws on original Arabic literature—often not available in European languages—and on the author’s many years of personal practice, teaching, and guiding others on their spiritual paths to healing, to becoming whole. It focuses on the use of the Divine Names in dhikr, individual meditations and healing practices. Whether we admit it or not, human beings are searchers: we want to understand; we want to know; we want to be known. Our quest may take many forms, yet ultimately it ends in nothing but pure praising of the Divine, even if this comes after our last breath. The outside always furthers the inside because the task and the meaning of life is always about reuniting—about connecting everything on the outside to its inner truth. It is the knowledge of the heart which is always capable of uniting. Such is the path of the Sufis. The Sufi tradition centers on the opening of the heart and nothing touches the heart as much as beauty. In this book, the author’s unique style of writing, which combines clarity and poetic inspiration, is coupled with distinctive and ornamental Arabic calligraphy of each of the 99 Divine Names to make it a visually stunning tribute to this tradition. It will be enjoyed regardless of a person’s religious beliefs.

Dr. Rosina-Fawzia Al-Rawi was born in Baghdad and spent her childhood in Iraq and Lebanon. She is the author of Grandmother’s Secrets: The Ancient Rituals and Healing Power of Belly Dancing, Divine Names: The 99 Healing Names of the One God, and Midnight Tales: A Woman’s Journey through the Middle East. She holds a PhD in Islamic studies. She completed her Arabic, Islamic, and ethnological studies at the Universities of Vienna and Cairo and has been teaching Sufism for over 20 years. She holds workshops in various countries and her books were translated into Arabic, German, English and French. Al-Rawi’s workshops, classes, and training courses are based on knowledge drawn from psychology, spirituality, cultural anthropology, and medicine. They are underpinned in particular by a body of knowledge known as Sufism, which has been collected and passed down over centuries, especially in Africa, the Middle East and Asia. Dancing, meditation, breathing techniques, traditional Sufi-practices such as zikr, whirling or working with the Divine Names all focus on opening the heart and embedding oneself into the great universal laws, beyond egocentric and social norms, connecting body, soul and spirit. In Vienna she set up a center for female spirituality, where seminars, workshops, and personal support on the path to self-discovery are offered.

Majed Seif is a New York-based visual artist specializing in Arabic calligraphy, Arabesque and other Islamic arts. He currently teaches Arabic calligraphy at the United Nations and at New York University (NYU). Majed was born in Jerusalem and obtained a Bachelor's degree in archaeology and history from Birzeit University and a degree in Arabic calligraphy from the Institute of Fine Arts in Ramallah, Palestine. He is also a graduate student in archaeology and anthropology at Hunter College in New York City. He has participated in numerous art exhibitions and workshops in Palestine and the United States.

Monique Arav MA, Dip. Int. has worked with Fawzia Al-Rawi on many projects that have required cross-cultural sensitivity to achieve their vital communicative aims. Her own multi-cultural origins and background together with her generosity of spirit and love for inner beauty serve to make her more than a fitting communicator for this particular book.