Welcome back to the Wild Heart Podcast with Willow Brook where we explore divinity in daily life with themes of love, mysticism, grief as a spiritual path, and sensual embodiment.

In this episode, I’m joined by Omid Safi, beloved teacher and scholar of Islamic spirituality. Together, we explore feminine wisdom at the heart of Islam, embodied spirituality and the role of sexuality, and the way love rises to meet us, especially in seasons of grief and collective unraveling. We speak of women as carriers of spiritual lineage, of radical love as taught by Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr., and the intertwined nature of love, spirituality, and the human experience.

Omid Safi is a professor at Duke University specializing in Islamic spirituality and contemporary thought. A leading Muslim public intellectual, Omid is committed to the intersection of spirituality and social justice.

Omid has published extensively on the foundational sources of Islam and Sufism. His Memories of Muhammad is a biography of the Prophet Muhammad.  His most recent book is Radical Love:  Teachings from the Islamic Mystical Tradition (published by Yale). 

Omid is also deeply committed to liberationist prophetic traditions in the legacy of Martin Luther King, Rabbi Heschel, and Malcolm X.  He has been invited by the family of Dr. King to speak at Ebenezer Church on the relevance of Dr. King for today’s America, and has delivered the Martin Luther King keynote in the annual national MLK service.

Omid often appears as an expert on Islam in the New York Times, Newsweek, Washington Post, PBS, NPR, NBC, BBC, CNN and other outlets. He is a recent columnist for On Being, and now has a podcast (“Sufi Heart”) at Be Here Now. His Illuminated Tours have taken more than a 1,000 friends from over twenty countries to Turkey and Morocco since 2002, and he is now offering Illuminated Courses for online offerings on spiritual traditions open to seekers of all backgrounds.

If this conversation opened your wild heart, we invite you to join an upcoming event with our community at ⁠wildheart.space⁠

Holy Lament: The Transformative Path of Loss & Longing with Mirabai Starr

A spiritual container for those ready to turn toward loss and reclaim it as something sacred in a community of companionship, creativity, and soul-deep transformation. Through the alchemy of reflective writing, poetry, shared witnessing and sacred song, we invite you to explore the healing landscape of grief in a circle of loving presence. 

Learn more at wildheart.space/holylament

Links:

Connect with Omid: www.illuminatedcourses.com

IG:  @brotheromid

Radical Love:  Teachings from the Islamic Mystical Tradition Translated and Edited by Omid Safi

Omid’s books

Connect with Wild Heart:⁠wildheart.space⁠

IG:⁠@wildheartspace⁠

Connect with Willow for 1:1 sessions focused on love:⁠willowbrook.love 

IG⁠@willow__brook⁠

Connect with Mirabai:⁠mirabaistarr.com⁠

IG:⁠@mirabaistarr⁠

Thank you to the amazing Manny Fassihi for editing the Wild Heart Podcast!

@themannyfesto

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