Journey in Grace

Sterling's remarkable and deeply inspiring account is a real-life Meetings with Remarkable Men for the 21st century.

-- G. A. Lipton - Author of Rethinking ibn `Arabi


This book has been in the making for nearly two decades. As my experiences multiplied over the years, I found myself sharing these experiences in gatherings - big and small - especially among the Sufi community I had been a member of for the better part of four decades. As time passed these stories became a regular feature in our annual gathering. It seemed no matter how many times I would repeat them they never lost their freshness and veracity to touch people's hearts and inspire the mind and imagination of the miraculous-ness of life and the unique gift of life's experiences we all share.


As time went on the volume of stories grew. It became clear that I needed to do justice to these experiences and share them with a greater audience. This inspiration was confirmed and magnified by Shaykh Fadhlalla Haeri who encouraged me to collect these stories all together and share them widely for the benefit of others that would surely be touched and inspired. It was a struggle for me to corner myself and actually write these stories down. I had been in the habit of "performing" them as is common in the Sufi tradition of oral storytelling. After much reflection I realized my reticence for writing these down was an egoic attachment to performing them, that I had become identified as a persona "Hajj Mustafa - the Sufi Storyteller." It was an ugly but needed realization which led me to put aside storytelling for a while. Overtime, with the grace of God, this inclination dissolved and replaced with a compulsion to share these stories not as an act of self-aggrandizement, but of gifts given to me with the responsibility to pass them on to others. The stories in this book are from my life's experience, but "my life" is a gift of the Life-Giver and the best one can do is get out of the way and be present in the moment as it flows through one. This is what I have attempted to do here in this book and He knows the truth of all things.


I hope you in-joy these stories.


ENDORSEMENTS

I have respected and loved Hajj Mustafa for so many years that I cannot even count them.
The quality that I have enjoyed - and know others do too - is his story-telling ability, which carries considerable meaning and always have an ever-lasting transformational effect on others.


It's a rare situation to have someone who has had most of their life searching, investigating and enjoying meetings with remarkable and enlightened people.


His honesty, truthfulness and courage are the outstanding qualities that will come out in most of what he is conveying in his book.


This book is indeed one of the best ones in our times!


-- Shaykh Fadhlalla Haeri - An Enlightened Spiritual Master and Author