There Is Only Love: Sufism, Spiritual Healing & the Deeper Wisdom of the Heart | Dr. John Wadude Laird
What if, beneath all our fear, pain, confusion, and struggle, there is a deeper reality where there is only love?
In this episode, I sit down with Dr. John Wadude Laird, a physician, pioneer in integrative medicine, longtime Sufi practitioner, teacher, and co-founder of the University of Spiritual Healing and Sufism. For more than 40 years, Wadude’s spiritual path has been rooted in classical Sufism and the healing wisdom of the human heart.
Wadude shares the unexpected mystical experience in nature that changed the course of his spiritual life—a profound encounter with light and the realization that “there’s only love.” He recounts how seemingly random encounters and synchronicities gradually led him toward Sufism, and how his spiritual names, Qalbi and Wadude, became signposts pointing toward a life of love, surrender, and service.
We also explore the profound Sufi teachings of Jalal and Jamal—difficulty and beauty—and how illness, suffering, trauma, and hardship can become opportunities for love, healing, purification, and transformation.
Wadude shares a remarkable story of a kidney stone and a moment of surrender that became a “tasting” of the truth that Allah has power over all things. We talk about the danger of allowing trauma to become an identity, the challenge of maintaining faith during times of Jalal, and the spiritual practice of surrendering our need to control and understand everything.
Finally, we go deep into the levels and worlds of the heart. Wadude describes an extraordinary experience of moving from the chaotic surface of his heart into deeper levels of compassion, love, and ultimately the soul’s continual remembrance: la ilaha illallah—there is no god but God. He offers a beautiful reminder that beneath the fear, division, and turmoil of our ordinary experience, there is an inner light and a deeper place within us that we can return to through spiritual practice and remembrance.
This is a conversation about Sufism, spirituality, spiritual healing, mystical experience, surrender, trauma, suffering, the heart, remembrance, and divine love—and about learning to trust that even when we cannot see the larger picture, our lives may be unfolding within a deeper wisdom and love.
In this episode, we explore:
The mystical experience of “there is only love”
Spiritual awakening, and finding a spiritual path
How synchronicities can reveal a deeper spiritual guidance
Sufism and the wisdom of the heart
Jalal and Jamal: difficulty and beauty
Finding love, healing, and transformation in suffering
Trauma, identity, and the danger of spiritualizing or judging our pain
Complete prostration and surrender to Allah
The difference between knowing about God and tasting spiritual truth
The deeper levels and worlds of the heart
Remembrance (dhikr) and la ilaha illallah
Finding an inner place of love, compassion, safety, and hope
Living from the deeper reality that there is only love