What is the Real Purpose of Meditation?

The Hudur Institute YouTube site is an online site dedicated to general spiritual reflection (fikr), meditation (muraqaba), self-introspection (muhasaba), and spiritual companionship (suhbah) for any and all seekers interested in the spiritual life, regardless of religious or spiritual affiliation. Its purpose is to enhance the practice of presence of heart with God (hudur, dhikr) in daily life. It creates space for refelcting upon questions pertaining to spiritual practice and the contemplative life, both in general and within the framework of Islamic teachings.

The Hudur Institute along with its YouTube channel, seeks to cultivate a sense of presence (called hudur in Islamic teachings--that is, self-awareness and God-Awareness (taqwa)--through the methodologies of Islam's spirituality. The institute forsters the practice of presence as a mode of self-knowing, wellbeing, and contemplative living by conducting lectures, workshops, collaborative symposiums and other activities on meditation and contemplation.

The institute offers a viedo archive of monthly Islamic meditatoin and practicing presence workshops and seminars on Spiritual Psychology (from 2016 to the present), as well as recorded and live sessions pertaining to spiritual retreat, such as the Ramadan I'tikaf Program. It hopes to collaborate on initiatives pertaining to Islamic spirituality, art, practicing presence through health and wellness, meditation and the martial arts, and meditation and presence in Islamic spirituality ad other wisdom traditions. It also offers a reading club, with links to articles and books.

The insights explored by the Hudur Institute have been taught in online courses (Alkaram, Albalagh) and through in-person workshops whose content is the basis of the forthcoming book entitled, The Practice of Presence in Islamic Spirituality.