Thanksgiving will always be a religious experience for me...

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Just over 300 years ago, the Muslim Sufi poet Bulleh Shah, while a student at a madrassa (Islamic school) in what is now Pakistan, asked his religious teacher this question: "What is the point of washing one's hands and feet before prayers if the heart wasn't clean?"

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For me the journey has always been the destination, as Rumi says, that "there is no flying off to blue perfection," we simply wake up each day and go out and plow the fields armed only with our God consciousness and a clear awareness of the purpose of our individual journey.

The "I" is the illusion and Oneness is the Reality that everything emanates out of One all powerful compassionate, creative, Infinite Light Source and that we humans are all satellites reflecting that Source Light. In Islam there are 99 names/attributes of God/Allah and the most often repeated in the Quran are The most Compassionate (Al-Rahman) and The most Merciful (Al-Rahim.)

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The Muslim affirmation of faith is: "THERE IS NO GOD.... BUT GOD, (AND MUHAMMAD IS HIS PROPHET)

The affirmation suggests that you move gradually towards faith with the sincere intention of seeking Truth with all the lights turned on. From my reading of it, within the Quran there is an inherent openness to explore all questions relating to Truth and of those which Cover the Truth (Kufr). The sacred and the profane realms all give out powerful clues to where Truth truly resides.

Then for those whose journey has exhausted all avenues of seeking the ONE, and still feel they haven't found what they were looking for.... the Quran says: THERE IS NO COMPULSION IN RELIGION. (Allah is most compassionate and most merciful.)

JIHAD

Prophet Muhammad described armed struggle against tyranny and oppression as a LESSER JIHAD. He also warned against the dark whisperings of the Nafs(ego) and called the fight against the lower self, the Greater Jihad. Ever since I can remember I've been fighting an inner Jihad against the "I" of my ego. Being a believer and a rock musician means having to navigate between the parallel and sometimes intersecting streams of creating and performing passionate, soul stirring music and the magnetic impulses of rock and roll excess and all that it entails. It's not a battle for the fainthearted: I've seen too many close friends consumed by the sex, drugs, alcohol and/or the accompanying megalomania that comes with the turf of being in the pop culture industry.

Islam and my music provides me with an anchor and a shield which protects against being sucked into a sea of vapid souls. This inner Jihad is more difficult because on days when my defense is weak, the demons will conspire from within, they will try to knock me off my saddle.

As the Koran says: "Man was created weak"; we just have to soldier on and get right back in the saddle again.

SUICIDE

My advice to anyone who contemplates suicide is simple, your denying God his greatest blessing to you: LIFE. At the same time your condemning your soul to darkness till eternity.

There is no Islamic justification for suicide bombing.In 7th century Arabia, Prophet Muhammad's people were humiliated and persecuted mercilessly by the pagan Quraysh, yet never did he ask his followers to kill innocent men,women and children or to commit suicide in the name of Islam.

My most successful Jihad has been fighting for my music in the film "Rockstar and the Mullahs."

As a musician I've always been fascinated by the creative process and how it relates to music, God and the Universe. Innate talent, hard work and intuition seem to guide this magical, mysterious and musical manifestation of our thoughts and feelings.

John Lennon made the observation after writing his magnum opus "Imagine" that he felt like a channel through which the Universe was filtering its thoughts. Other artists, writers and poets from all belief and unbelief systems have also been humbled into similar confessions.

As a Muslim I can relate to that because Islam gives mankind the title of 'Ashraf-ul-makhlooqat' (The greatest of God's creation). The Qur'an insists on the Unity of a humanity derived from a single Creator expressed through the culturally diverse expressions of human societies engaged in similar attempts at actualizing their divine gifts.

A couple of sayings and quotes that stay with me when I'm on tour and home:

"When you follow your own personal legend the entire universe conspires to make you succeed ' --Paulo Coehlo

"When the Power of Love Overcomes the Love of Power, the World Will Know Peace" -- Jimi Hendrix

"O Mankind, God created you into nations and tribes so that you may get to know each other" -- Holy Qur'an