Aisha Rafea – Chairman

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Aisha is a writer, researcher in Spirituality, and the designer of Be Yourself programs for psycho spiritual growth. She is also Co-Founder of Ain Foundation: Between Soul and Soil and the head of its board of trustees. http://www.ain-eg.org/. Aisha is the sister and disciple of Master Ali Rafea https://www.esscr.org/assayed-aly-rafea, and the daughter of Rafea Muhammad Rafea, the spiritual and Sufi leader.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafea_Muhammad_Rafea.

Aisha was born to two parents where spiritual values were the essence of how they thought and acted. Her father is Assayed Rafea Muhammad Rafea, a spiritual teacher of the twentieth century (1903- 1970). Her mother Assayeda Hazami Rifaa (1921- 2012) is a great granddaughter of Rifaa Rafea Al Tahtawi, the father of the modern Egyptian Renaissance (1805-1873). Both her parents are descendants of the Prophet Muhammad PBUH. The following is what Aisha tells in her own words about the way she was raised and how life took her to design Be Yourself programs.

A short Background

In our family I learnt to open my mind and heart for receiving any word of truth and learn from it. That was so because, my father was breeding in us the awareness about the oneness of the higher Source of all guidance, and about the oneness of humanity beyond color, race, and/or names of religions . I have learnt, since childhood, that Islam and all religions, divine or primordial, invite humans to direct themselves inwardly to the light that dwells in their hearts and let it guide them to what is good for themselves and their human fellows. We have believed that by the light within humans, they can connect to the spirit of the sacred teachings so as not to reduce them into plain shapes and forms. Such openness of mind and heart uprooted from within us possible human inclination for religious bias and extremism. In the meantime, we strongly felt our belonging to Islam in its sense as the Message revealed to the Prophet Muhammad PBUH. It was that Message that guided our minds and hearts to be open to every word of truth in the past and even in the future . To put it simple, we have enjoyed a sense of inner peace with all our human family since our childhood.

To realize peace with oneself and with the world lies in the core of Be Yourself. The program addresses the spiritual essence of humans, and its role in handling their feelings, thoughts and beliefs in ways that decide the quality of their lives and relationships. Connection to the spiritual essence cultivates peace within and without.

A major personal challenge:

Even though the family atmosphere I was brought up in was flooded by deep mutual love, respect, and safety, I was haunted often, on the personal level, by hidden feelings of emotional pain and bewilderment as though I was searching for something that I even did not know what it was then. It was like a sense of loss which I could not track its roots. As if life was just doing to me what it wanted to do, and I was giving way to what was going on without having any clearance of what I wanted, hoped, or looked up to. That attitude went on for many years. Now I contemplate that attitude as the deeper urge that was preparing me for discerning many things about life which I was not aware of as a child, an adolescent, or even a wife, and a mother.

The sense of searching for something that I did not even know then, seems to be the deeper provocation that took me for designing Be Yourself once I started to understand a bit of things that I had never realized before. For instance, I discovered that, in my interaction with the higher values that I was brought up to, I was lacking maturity, comprehension, and depth. To explain, the spiritual values I was brought up to, were in full harmony with my mind, soul, and heart but my earthly personality was, for sure, in need of much training for being mature enough to manifest my spiritual essence through the potentials of my humanness.

A sign of immaturity, for instance, was that I required, from myself and others, to show perfection in everything they do; I was not aware of the need to accept human limitations, weaknesses, or flaws that came out of lack of life experiences. With lack of understanding the nature of things, I used to hurry in judging myself and others and showing resentment whenever a behavior of mine or theirs seemed to be violating the kind of idealism that I expected according to my own standards s. Looking up for spiritual elevation without understanding the human limitations created emotional tension in the relationship with myself and with others. Later on, I discovered that rigid application of moral values, which I was not conscious of, slipped me of any capability to be understanding or forgiving to myself and others.

I was not aware that human’s capability to embrace themselves and other human beings is one of the basics of the spiritual life. When gaining that awareness, I made it as part of Be Yourself that we are to be trained to acknowledge and embrace the human vulnerabilities of ourselves and of others.

As such I became more interested in understanding the dimensions and mechanisms of the human entity and discovering its ways of interacting with surroundings. With that understanding, I came to know that our humanness can be a wonderful tool for expressing the innate beauty, love and compassion of the soul. I also sought the support of my spiritual roots for more discovering myself as a unique human entity.

I have learnt that to be an evolved human being does not imply that we become infallible, rather to look up to beauty and loftiness while learning from our faults or pitfalls. Such state needs honest observation of oneself, having a pure intention, sustainable inner work, together with praying for guidance from a higher source. Be Yourself is designed to help human beings to acknowledge and embrace their humanness with all its weaknesses and challenges. The exercises included clarify for them that what we call ‘mistakes’ are but legitimate means for learning and for psychological and spiritual growth. Seeking integration of our bodies, minds, and souls is in the heart of Be Yourself.

From that moment on, my focus was directed to exploring the dynamics between our spiritual essence or divinity and our human existence so as to know how those two levels can be in harmony. I came to believe that with harmony between the two dimensions of us, our life can be more fulfilled, benevolent, peaceful and happier in ways that are distinct according to the uniqueness of every person and their individual journey.

There are no forms to be over imposed on human beings. Rather, there are diverse and distinct journeys that are as many as the breaths of humans. This belief is in the heart of By Yourself.

A Shift of Consciousness

In my forties when I had the chance to be in connection with many women of our spiritual family co-guided by my sister, Assayeda Aliaa Rafea , I started to recognize some sources of the pains and confusions that humans suffer from in their relationship with themselves, with each other, and even with their Creator, and the religious teachings. I came to know that their confusions about how to relate to oneself and to God was due to their being victims of lots of accumulated inherited concepts that hindered their connection with their spiritual essence and, normally, pushed them into inner and outer conflicts as individuals and also nations. A striking example was what happened when the Iraqi troops invaded Kuwait in 1990 and a war took place between two Arab countries where each of them used to claim that it had a right to fight, using holy verses of the Qur’an to prove their stances. That attitude made me see clearly that many humans suffer from a spiritual turmoil. I documented my thoughts and insights in a small book with the title The Soul in Crisis (1992) in which I wrote:

“Each and every human being is a soul and matter; he or she has a mind, a self, a heart, and physical organs. This fact applies to all humans regardless of the degrees of their power or weakness; knowledge or ignorance; capabilities or deficiencies. Each and every one is a world of its own. Experts knocked the doors of that world and discovered some of its secrets, and they are still short of knowing more and more. While it is true that when the human vehicle, with all its organs, is efficiently working, the person is termed as ‘healthy’. This fact applies also to that aspect of us that is not physically seen (the soul). Even though we may be aware or unaware of it, it still lives, interacts, moves about, contemplates, and even influences the states of our bodies in many times. When the soul is active and vivid it supplies our bodies several powers and capabilities.” “It is not required from any person to be another person, but rather to be oneself; to see oneself with all its potentials, capabilities, weaknesses, strengths, and privileges. Such awareness leads us to choose our goals in life unreservedly. From therein love emerges, for we are what we love.”

In that period of my life a great dream was born within me:

I dreamed that a time comes when children have the chance to connect to their true self so as not to be liable to enter into such traps where they do not have the chance to keep their consciousness of themselves as essentially eternal spirits and not transitory bodies. I dreamed that they would approach religion as an experiential living journey that cannot be inferred from one person to another; it is an experience that would support a human being to have a vision and a goal for his or her life.

From her side, Dalia al Chorbagui—a daughter in our spiritual family—started to write a story about the Prophet Muhammad PBUH from that perspective illustrating how he used to listen to the light within him since his childhood and all his life. At this stage our focus was on designing a character-building program based on the Islamic spirituality. I had a comprehensive educational and mass media plan for such a program based on the approach that the essence of all religious teachings is inherent in our primordial nature; it is through connecting to that inborn nature that we interpret the teachings in ways that enhance peace and love, and uproot conflicts and violence. I included that approach in a book named “Towards a Better Civilization: An Approach to the Basics of Character Building”, published in 2007 . In this book I suggested an educational and mass media strategy based on addressing the essence of children and adults aiming for awakening their spiritual identity and not focusing on imposing do’s and don’ts. The book presents the methodology of the Holy Qur’an in illustrating the versatile dimensions and qualities of human beings as soul and matter, guiding them to attain wholeness between the two dimensions. The book assumes that wholeness is the core objective of every religion.

After considering the whole thing from different angles, we decided to design Be Yourself program for children without any specific religious flavor. Rather, we present the values that would reflect moral depths inherent in all religions as well as the authentic primordial nature that manifests under diverse names.

I wrote a story about a small girl named Bannoura who realized, with the light in her heart and mind, that we can learn from any mistake, and that to make a mistake does not mean that we are “evil persons”. This was followed by many other stories. Dalia also wrote The Story of a Seed of Rice, which awakens children to the unity of creation. In the meantime, I had much research in the kinds of meditation to be practiced with children for being trained to reach inner stillness as well as movement meditations. The program included some art activities, songs, and games that help children to express themselves freely. Dalia, my sister Aliaa Rafea, and me applied the program on some children in our family, an orphanage, and Dalia’ acquaintances. More applications went on where we found wonderful responses from all the children.

With the same passion, my contemplations of how my spiritual path approaches the teachings of Islam as guiding humans to realize who they are truly, were documented in my second book We All Are That Human (1993). From that book I chose the following words:

“No matter how different the human beings’ circumstances are;
No matter how surroundings destroyed their dreams;
No matter how other people assassinated their hopes’
No matter how they were so involved in over imposed dreams that they forgot their innate ones;
A moment comes when a person is alone with their innate soul listening to its talk.
The soul would reveal a lot of staff; the many longings it was desperately yearning to fulfill.
The number of the soul’s longings is as huge as the number of humans, the variation of inner sensations, the beats of the hearts, the diversity of souls, the levels of knowledge, and the capabilities of the minds.
The commonality among all differences is that they represent the dreams of human.”

On writing such books I was really trying to more understand the nature of humankind and the factors that lead human beings to behave in inappropriate ways and attribute them to religion. I saw it as a bless of God Almighty that I was born to belong to a spiritual path that helps many people to avoid falling in the trap of religious prejudice, conflict, and violence. At that moment I was so enthusiastic to go in more depth of the basic teachings of my spiritual path through reflecting on the Speeches that my teacher and brother Assayed Ali Rafea gave to the spiritual circle. Here came my third book In Islam, First Comes the Word (1996) .

Practical steps and broader knowledge

In the beginnings of the 2000s I used to gather with a small group of our spiritual circle who had the passion for issuing a magazine that would include our experiences on the spiritual path. A member of the group, Magda al Mufti introduced to us The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle and gave me the book as a present. The Power of Now reveals the author’s journey of realizing that he is a spirit and not a transient body; a shift that changed all his life in all aspects. What drew my attention most was what the writer mentions, smoothly and simply, about how important it is to watch the quality of our thoughts and their effect on our daily life; our feelings, our bodies, and also our spiritual journey. What attracted me more was the human experience that the author went through without having any previous spiritual background, and how he made out of it a means for addressing all human beings regardless of their backgrounds. That is, he starts by drawing their attention to what happens on the surface of their consciousness; pain, confusion, bewilderment, and/or sense of loss, then gradually guide them to their deeper Self within. He could transfer to the reader the consciousness he gained by realizing himself as a spirit and could see the vulnerability of his human aspect and could embrace it and reconcile with it.

From that moment on, I started to devour tens of books related to the work of the mind and thoughts, the emotions, and their correlation in affecting our psychological and spiritual wholeness. Such books took me to discover a lot of details about the work of the human body and its effects on the psychological and spiritual dimensions. I have been gaining much knowledge about the connected system related to the body, the mind, the soul, and the spirit. Working on that system as one whole is a basic factor in Be Yourself programs.”

I started to study Spiritual or Transpersonal Psychology, Mental Science, the school of the New Thought, Positive Psychology, and other fields that touches the influence of the mind and the thoughts on our emotional, psychological, and spiritual systems. I also started studying more about the intimate relationship between the spiritual intelligence, the emotional intelligence, the body intelligence as well as the effect of the work of the brain on our emotions and spiritual awareness. A kind of a comprehensive approach has been revealing itself to me with its interwoven elements that affect many aspects of our being. My objective herein is not to mention the tens of books and references I have studied in those fields but just to say that:

The great shift I experienced in that stage took me to crystalize a new objective, which is to work for helping all people who come across my way, and also myself, to turn the pains of the life journey into tools for growth through gaining knowledge and trainings. In that stage I started designing part one of Be Yourself Be Happy directed to adults.

In that stage I used to work with Dalia, Assayeda Aliaa, and some members of the spiritual family. I cannot list all the names of the trainers who graduated then but I remember some of them such as Dalia al Chourbagui, Lamiaa Abdel Shafi, Marwa Saleh, Nivin Sedqui, Maha Gohar, Heba Rafea, Hossam Saleh, Abir Zein, Iman Habib, and Iglal Assalamoni. Then Assayeda Aliaa got involved in so many important matters that took most of her effort and time, and Dalia was busy doing her Master’s degree in children’s learning difficulties. I continued the development of the program alone for more than five years.

Be Yourself Made available to the Egyptian Society:

In 2011 Assayeda Aliaa established The Human Foundation and made of Be Yourself one of its projects. She believed that the program can be of great service to the society, human, and the message of peace and love we were brought up to and continue to work for. We started by presenting three programs; Be Yourself for Children; Awakening the Inner Child for trainers to be; and Be Yourself Be Happy part one (The Witness) for adults. The latter was the first program I officially presented in THF. I was the sole trainer then. During the continuous development of Be Yourself for children, I wrote more stories. Nahdet Misr Publishing House contacted me asking for publishing the stories in series, and we had a contract in 2013.

Due to the success of the Be Yourself Part One (The Witness), there was a demand from the side of trainees to have another part. Accordingly, I had more studies for designing Part Two (A Journey Towards Balance and Wholeness) as I was continuously discovering many new aspects to be added. In that same direction one more program was added under the name “Be Yourself Refreshing” which was also created due to the demand of trainees who wanted to continue the training even after finishing Be Yourself Part Two and Awakening the Inner Child. The latter program was developed to be a general personal growth program and not only a TOT one. It is still a prerequisite for trainees who want to be trainers of Be Yourself programs.

In that stage I became more and more assured that the program can possibly be presented to all human beings in any culture or faith as long as they long for discovering more about themselves and life. Through the knowledge and exercises presented, trainees used to find that full indulgence in the superficial layer of life takes them to be disconnected from their higher Self, and consequently lose happiness and peace. Actually, all the topics included in the program were meant to address their daily life challenges while holding their hands delicately towards liberation from their sufferings which emerge due to the lack of a mindful handling of oneself and others.

After one year in which the program designer was the sole trainer, a number of trainers were graduated and had the accreditation of The Human Foundation. The number of trainers increased considerably in the years that followed to reach now about forty.

In that stage I became interested in designing some specialized programs for caregivers; parents, teachers, and orphanage caregivers. I studied the kind of parenting programs and books that depend on respecting and treasuring the child while helping them to discover themselves and gain a sense of responsibility, rather than rewarding and punishment . My objective has been to boost a kind of care of the child as a seed for building an authentic Egyptian civilization based on respecting human as spiritual being; that is, all moral values are inherent in the human nature which is capable for establishing a great civilization.

In a later stage, I thought it was time for establishing a kind of united leadership system where the expert trainers supervise and mentor the group of trainers and continually develop the training material in ways that are in harmony with the nature and spirit of the program as was presented by the designer. The expert trainers are currently enriching the program by adding new exercises, workshops, and skills that help the trainees in smoother, and still deep tools, to realize the kind of human and spiritual growth in ways that make their lives richer, more loving, and happier.

Throughout the ten years of work under the umbrella of The Human Foundation, Be Yourself programs had realized great success. This was due to the care of Assayeda Aliaa Rafea, the dedication of one of our spiritual family members, Adham Shaher who volunteered to be an administrative head in cooperation with Assayeda Aliaa. Another factor of success was the loyalty and commitment of the trainers who had great faith in the positive effect of Be Yourself programs on them and on trainees. The Human Foundation made of all the programs a service for a wide stratum of the Egyptian society; care givers and students in orphanages, students and teachers in governmental schools as well as many individuals from diverse backgrounds.

The Birth of Ain Between Soul and Soil Foundation

By the end of 2020 AD, some members of the Board of Trustees in The Human Foundation thought that the diversity and growth of Be Yourself programs led to the need for more administrative mechanics, and that Be Yourself deserves to be more than a project. They suggested that Be Yourself programs would have a foundation of their own. At that point the idea of establishing Ain Between Soul and Soil Foundation was born, and it was announced officially on the 23rd of March 2021 AD under the number 6982. Be Yourself programs have been continually growing and developing by the cooperation of the designer and the expert trainers. Lately a new program in Spirituality was born under the name Between Me and Hu. Its major objective is spread consciousness that all religions, heavenly and primordial, came to guide humans to uncover their spiritual essence, and let it activate them to lead a life on earth that is safer, more peaceful, and more compassionate. The program teaches that all religions supply humans with tools for psycho/spiritual training so as to awaken several things: They would become conscious that the higher Source of guidance is one that communicated with humankind under diverse names; that their spiritual essence is one; and that we are one spiritual family with diverse colors, races, and affiliations. We better be more embracing to each other, more cooperative in creating a better life for ourselves, all creation, and our earth as a whole.

Some of Aisha’s Publications:
  • a. Books (In English and Arabic) :

    • Co-author of “One Humanity One Home: Journeys of Spiritual Seekers”, The Human Foundation, 6th of October City, Egypt, 2021.
      https://www.facebook.com/hfpdegypt/photos/577614720596125/

    • Co-author of “Divine Revelation and Human Interpretations: Opening New Horizons”, The Human Foundation, 6th of October City, Egypt, 2021

    • Co-translator of “Islam: Living in Harmony with the Laws of Life”, an Anthology of Master Ali Rafea, Sadek publications, Egypt, 2007

    • Co-author of “Beyond Diversities: Reflections on Revelation”, Dar Sadek, Alexandria, Egypt, 2000, Nahdet Misr Publication, 2005 .

    • Co-author of “Islam From Adam to Muhammad and Beyond” (also published under the name: “The Book of Essential Islam” by The Book Foundation, Watsonville, California Bath England, 2004)
      https://www.amazon.com/Book-Essential-Islam-Spiritual-Education/dp/1904510132

  • b. Papers and Articles (In English):

    • The Human Civilization in Search of Wholeness: Presented to the “International Coalition for Humanism” – 2006 Conference (Petersburg).
      http://forhumanism.org/en/materials/sharpening_rafea.htm

    • Islamic Spirituality: Enhancing Women’s Leadership: Presented to Women’s Islamic Initiative in Spirituality and Equity WISE, a conference held in New York, 2006, arranged by the American Society for Muslim Advancement ASMA.

    • The Soul’s Longing: Presented to the “International Association of Sufism” and published in “Women of Sufism: A Hidden Treasure (2003)”, and “The Book of Character (2004)” edited by Camille Adams Helminski,

    • Peace: A Quest for Universal Harmony Presented to “Parliament of World Religion” held in Barcelona 2005

    • The language of the Qur’an (Garrison, New York, 2002)

    • Listening to the Inner Voice, published in A Road Home e-magazine (17-05-2001)

    • A Spiritual Approach to Women Would Change the World Positively Presented to the “International Association of Sufism Symposium” – held in Seattle, USA, 2000

  • c. Books (In Arabic):

    • Parenting: Communication… Cooperation… Joy التربية: تواصل… تعاون… متعة (2015)

    • Be Yourself .. Be Happy كن نفسك تكن سعيدا (2013)

    • Nahw Hadaraten Afdhal (Towards a Better Civilization) نحو حضارة أفضل (2007)

    • Al Bad’ Fil Islam Kalimah (The Start in Islam is A Word) البدء في الإسلام كلمة (1996)

    • Kulluna Hadhal Insan (We are all this Human) كلنا هذا الإنسان (1993)

    • Bal Azamtel Rouh (The Soul in Turmoil) بل أزمة الروح (1992)

    • Editor of Islam Is A Book and a Human الاسلام كتاب وانسان an Anthology of Assayed Ali Rafea .

  • d. Books for children :

    • a. Amina, Can I Be Your friend?

    • b. Sabeh and Rabeh in Hamdun and Sa’dun Country

    • c. Yousef and the Magical Balloon

    • d. I Mourn.. I am human

    • e. How She Could Transform into a Lovable One?

    • f. I Couldn’t Do Anything by Myself

    • g. Messages to Bannoura.

    • h. Karim on a Path of Thorns.

    • i. I Am Beautiful Just as I Am.

    • j. Maymoun the Grass Caretaker.

    • k. The Wise King

    • l. The Bag of Kindness.

    • m. I Will never Consult a Pessimist.

  • e. Documentaries (writing):
    • 1. for the Egyptian Television directed by the prominent director, Samiha al Ghoneimi, including:

      • The Royal Palaces of Egypt القصور الملكية

      • The Sacred Family’s Visit to Egypt رحلة العائلة المقدسة

      • A Message of Love to Humankind رسالة حب للبشرية

    • 2. For Arab Radio and Television ART:

      • “a Place and a Story” أماكن وحكايات

        • The House of the prominent poet Ahmad Shawqui
        • The House of the prominent man of letter Taha Hussein
        • The House of the prominent man of letter Abbas al Aqqad
        • The house of the great artist and philosopher Hamed Said.
    • 3. Articles:

      • A weekly column in October magazine under the name “A Moment of Realization”. (2005-2009)

      • A weekly article in October magazine under the name “Be Yourself.. Be Happy”.

“Be Yourself” Experience:

Supervisor: Aisha is the guide of Be Yourself family; the trainers who present the program. They are more than forty trainers where the expert ones mentor new trainers, and also help with the development of the program content. (2014- currently)

  • Self-Growth Trainer:

    • Presenting Be Yourself Be Happy part one and part two in the headquarters of The Human Foundation. (2012- 2014)

    • Giving training to psychologists at Wa’i Society for spreading Psychological awareness: http://www.facebook.com/PHASEorg. (2012)

    • Introduced the Self-Growth program “Be Yourself… Be Happy” at Nissan Company (2010).

    • “The True ‘Me’: Focused, Free, Fulfilled” program for children: Maadi Public Library. (2010)

    • Led a workshop for spiritual training in Kuala Lumpur, within a conference for WISE (Women Initiative for Spirituality and Equity) (2009)

    • Dar el Fikr School (Saudi Arabia) (2009)

    • Applying the personal growth programs: Be Yourself.. Be Happy” and Awakening Our Inner Child”: at the Egyptian Society for Spiritual and Cultural Research ESSCR. (2007)

    • Applying Be Yourself program for adults with friends and supervising the application of “The True ‘Me’: Focused, Free, Fulfilled”, for children at several Branches of Risala orphanages. (2005-2007)

Career Background
Aisha worked in several mass media, Egyptian, Arab, and International:
  • Writer and anchor in Arab Radio and Television ART (1993-1997)
  • The World Today Newspaper جريدة العالم اليوم (1994- 1995)
  • Voice of America (1989- 1993)
  • A freelancer in the Egyptian Television (1997- 2016)
Education
  • Self-motivated and free studies in Transpersonal (Spiritual) Psychology, Cognitive Behavioral Psychology – Positive Psychology – Dynamic Psychology- Logo therapy, Positive Parenting, Conscious Parenting. (For more than 15 years)
  • Certified Positive Discipline Parent Educator ( https://positivediscipline.org ), 2015.
  • Master’s Degree, Mass Communication, February 1984 The American University in Cairo (AUC), Egypt
  • Diploma of Translation (Arabic-English), June 1976 The American University in Cairo (AUC), Egypt
  • Bachelor of Arts, English Literature, June 1974