On the occasion of the forthcoming Lailat ul Isra wal Miraj we would like to present you a book from the House of Abd Hafidh Wentzel:

The book is at offer for a budget price of 4 Euro only. If interested, please send an e-mail to books(at)osmanische-herberge.de

Seit inzwischen 20 Jahren ist in dem vormals als Dorfkneipe dienenden Gebäude in Kall-Sötenich eine der schönsten Moscheen im Kreis Euskirchen, ein Restaurant und ein Ort der Begegnung und Spiritualität für Muslime und Andersgläubige aus aller Welt. Unsere Türen stehen offen für jeden, und wir freuen uns, wenn Sie nach dem Besuch dieser Internetseite Lust bekommen haben, bei uns einen Tee trinken zu kommen, oder an einer der Zusammenkünfte und Veranstaltungen teilzunehmen!

Today, the new mayor of the municipality Kall, Mr. Hermann-Josef Esser, honored us with a visit to the Osmanische Herberge. The Sufi Center has been an integral part of the region for more than 20 years and serves not only as a meeting place for our Jamat, but also plays an important role in the Kall community as a social and cultural vehicle and meeting place for different cultures and religions.

The Herberge currently has more than ten brothers and sisters from Syria, Morocco, Turkey, Italy, Argentina and other countries, who not only find a safe place to stay with mosque connection and food, but also voluntary support in office visits, job and apartment searches.

While talking to the host and spiritual leader in the center's restaurant, Mr. Esser was able to admire the elaborate Arabic calligraphy and ornaments that were hand-crafted by a Syrian guest. They testify that integration does not have to mean giving up cultural identity and tradition. Musically too, our new neighbors have enriched us - their songs tell us beyond the words of passionate love for the Prophet and deep yearning for home.

Music connects people and creates bridges, and it speaks to our hearts. This explains the popularity of the annual Sufi Soul Festival, which will be held for the 19th time this summer on the green space behind the Osmanische Herberge. On the occasion of the mayor's visit, organizational issues relating to the festival were discussed as well. Further there was mentioning of the long-term school project, where students of Kall Elementary School visit the Osmanische Herberge as part of an annual interreligious event to learn more about Islam.

The meeting was an interesting encounter between a secular and a spiritual leader. Mr. Esser also showed his human side when talking about the heavy burden that his office imposed on him. Sighing, he mentioned that you can often see a light burning in the town hall when you drive past it in the evening at eight, and that this is usually his room. During the final tour the obligations of our honored Sheikh Hassan got mentioned, whose phone never stops, because brothers and sisters from all over the world call for advice on spiritual, health and professional issues, or just because they had a bad dream. Sheikh Hassan added with a smile that his light also is still burning at eight in the evening (and as we all often know after midnight).

The first stage of the renovation of the barn at the Rasenmühle in Kassel in the week of 12 to 18 February has been successfully completed. It is planned to convert the barn to a complete Dergah with mosque, ladies area and washrooms until the summer of this year. The work was carried out under the supervision of our carpenter Qasim Wentzel and the host Ahmadullah with the help of many energetic volunteer helpers from Freiburg, the Eifel and Bielefeld.

If you want to measure the success of the project by the visible result, then you can draw a positive conclusion: All planned work, namely insulation of the roof and replacement of all skylights, were done timely and with German thoroughness.

Or, if you measure it with the satisfaction of the volunteer planners, helpers and supporters, it looks even better. The atmosphere in the team was just perfect and despite all the hard work there was enough time to relax. The beautiful nature of northern Hessen invited you to long walks under magnificent, wintry-blue sky, after which you could warm yourself up in the cozy living rooms of the main house and enjoy the good company. The best food was provided by the host Ahmadullah and the wives and sisters, without whose delicious meals - prepared with love - certainly no beam would have been raised, and no nail set.

However, if one applies spiritual success as a measure of the success of the work, then all of our evaluation criteria fail. But according to the words of our Master Sheikh Nazim, the service in a Dergah is associated with immeasurable blessings, and the Prophet says in a confirmed tradition:

”Whoever builds a mosque for the sake of Allah, Allah will build for him likewise in Paradise." (Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim)

Just as the rays of the sun reach the earth, so do heavenly blessings flare up briefly even in this world. At the end of the work week, our honored Sheikh Hassan visited the Rasenmühle on Sunday and hosted a Maulid with Abu Nur and Ustad Daud Khan (to video). While listening to the beautiful praises of our Prophet , those present were able to forget space and time and open their hearts to receive waves of light, love and beauty.

As soon as next wek we will be proceeding with the second stage, inshallah. Among other things its planned to do the insulation and lining of the ceiling of the lower room as well as the wiring and electrical installations. Any support is welcome, be it in the form of labor, provision of resources or donations.

Not only the refurbishment of the barn needs to be be financed, but even more the planned purchase of the Raenmühle. Information on this matter can be found at our donations page.

Sheikh Hassan and the Osmanische Herberge like to give thanks to all our guests and helpers of the annual Wintercamp for a gathering full of bliss and light. Once again we were honoured to welcome our brothers and sisters from London to Sicily, from Paris to Vienna, for the traditional Wintercamp in the days between Christmas and the beginning of the new year.

Of course this positive resonance is mainly due to the presence of our beloved Sheikh Hassan, who came night by night to lead the night prayer and dhikr, to give sohbat and to answer the personal requests of our guests with good advise and humour until late after midnight, despite his advanced years. Every night the hearts of the visitors got illuminated by the loving kindness of our host. Recordings of the Sohbats can be found at our video page.

Good mood was provided also by Ustadh Ali Keeler, who not only brought near to us in his famed Quran school the beauty of the noble Quran, but also of the Arabic und Andalusian music for the sake of Prophet , accompanied by Abu Nour, Muslim und Abdul Razzaq. Recordings of the concerts will be published here within the coming days.

Music also played an important part at the well attended psychology seminary with Sheikh Abdul Hamid Staepke. Based on the teachings of Imam Ghazalis we learned not only in words but specially in practical exercises, that Allah didn't create us for grieve but for joy.

This might be confirmed by the participants of the Clown workshop of Dr. Omar Obst, who got encouraged to rediscover their inner Clown and present it in a playful way.

Hard work brings its own reward (or fi'l haraka baraka, as the Arab says). That's why the sport activities where in high demand, specially with the youths. The Sunna of the Prophet got exercised at Brasilian Jiu-Jitsu with Yunis Aways and at traditional archery with Ibrahim.

A bit more quiet was the popular calligraphy course with Sajida - here the attendees were allowed to experience the healing, relaxing effects of drawing in focussed contemplation, while the visitors of the Hu meditation with sister Rabia could find access to this deep relaxation by singing and breathing exercises. Many thanks also to Maria, who managed to get the kids enthusiastic about learning the Arabic alphabet, despite of the concurrence of iPhone & co.

No Wintercamp is complete without snow and ice. After the blessings of the Juma brought us a strong snowfall within the first days of the camp, there was only left to us artificial ice towards its end. The excursion to the ice rink at the lake of Zülpich provided a lot of fun for kids as well as adults, with the backdrop of a serene, sunset light scenery.

We say Alhamdulillah for the present of the community, for the blessings of this gathering and of Sheikh Hassan and Mawlana.

As every year we invited neighbours and immigrants, regulars and strangers, oldtimers and newbies, believers and curious people to the Day of the Open Mosque, which is celebrated in German every year on the day of German reunification. After a brief warming up in the restaurant of our Sufi-Center, where the guests discussed various topics over coffee and cake in a relaxed atmosphere - from regional childhood impressions over the national elections up to questions regarding life and death - we descended to the Mosque.

There our guests had the opportunity to listen to a lecture of Sheikh Hassan Dyck, in which he explained the principles of Islam and Sufism, the relation between Islam, Christianity and Judaism, and spirituality in general. Fitting the occasion we were reminded, that faith means to open up, not to close down; it should connect us, not disconnect. And since Islam is a deeply practical religion it got practised immediately with a communal remembrance of God (Dhikrullah - Remembrance of the 99 Names of Allah).

Then our honoured guests had the chance to raise questions, and after some brief hesitation they were engaged in a lively conversation, which led to Sheikh Hassan explaining, why Christians and Jews are not unbelievers for Muslim people, but in the contrary enjoy special protection, and why music as expression of love of Allah Almighty is not haram but encouraged.

If you like have a look at our video recording of the whole event:
Sheikh Hassan - Wege zu den Himmeln und Sufi Meditation

And so we hope, that this day of encounter was a enrichment for all visitors and that they share our perception: that we happened to came a bit closer as brothers and sisters, as witnesses of the One-God-Believe, as humans.

As-salâmu alaikum, Grüß Gott , pax vobiscum, liebe Freunde,
während die Festtage des ‘Îd al-Aḍḥâ noch nachklingen – wir hoffen, daß Ihr sie gut verlebt habt –, kündigt sich schon ein ereignisreiches neues Hijra-Jahr an.

Krieg, Flucht und der Terrorismus eines sich mit den Federn des Islam schmückenden „Islamischen Staates“ scheinen die Menschen mehr denn je zu beunruhigen. Verliert ISIS zwar an Kraft und ist seine militärische Niederlage absehbar, so besteht ja weiterhin eine Gefahr in den Köpfen manch junger Muslime, die die Idee eines „Gotteskriegers“ als attraktiv empfinden.

Dazu, daß eine solche Idee indes nicht verwirklicht wird, könnte das Werk eines namhaften Damaszener Gelehrten und spirituellen Lehrers, Muhammad al-Yaqoubis, beitragen, dessen deutsche Ausgabe „WIDERLEGUNG VON ISIS“ gerade bei uns erscheint. Es liefert eine gründliche Zurückweisung von ISIS und seinen Verbrechen, entzieht in Berufung auf authentische Quellen seinen Ansprüchen jede Berechtigung und kommt zu dem Schluß, daß ISIS den Islam nicht repräsentiert, seine Ausrufung des Kalifats keinen haltbaren Grund hat und es für Muslime Pflicht ist, ihn zu bekämpfen. Enthüllt es in exzellent begründetem Widerspruch zu den Verrücktheiten und Anmaßungen von ISIS Schritt für Schritt die wahre Natur des Islam in seinem Bekenntnis zu Respekt und Menschlichkeit, die ihn jahrhundertelang so attraktiv gemacht hatten, wird das vorliegende Werk nicht bloß zu einem unverzichtbaren Mittel der Djihadismus-Prophylaxe, sondern läßt wie nebenbei auch unvermutete Schönheiten dieser Religion zutagetreten.

Als Leseprobe verlinken wir hier das Kapitel X „Rechtsnormen für Nichtmuslime in muslimischen Ländern“, in dem deutlich wird, wie sehr ein Nichtmuslim in einem islamischen Land von Rechts wegen geschützt ist.

Mit besten Wünschen
für eine weiterhin gesegnete Zeit
wa s-salam,

Salim & Hagar

Im Rahmen des Interkulturellen Festivals lud das Salvatorianer Kloster Steinfeld zu einem gemeinsamen Gottesdienst mit anschließendem kulturellen Unterhaltungsprogramm ein.