The Best Things in Life Are Free - lovingly wrapped in your mortal skin and crowned with a heart and a conscience

I am a confirmed hoarder. My bedroom and my office is full of knick knacks and bric-a-brac from my misadventures over the past couple of years. A few are impulsive purchases, but nowadays, as I grow old, I tend to contemplate long and hard before buying anything. It can be as big as the purchase of a new car to something trivial like a new pair of walking shoes. I don’t why know why I do it. Perhaps it is because of my fondness for familiar things. Take the walking shoes for instant. It’s a New Balance, and I have had it for almost 7 years I. Literally it is now in its last gasp of life, barely hanging on - having been re-glued at least twice and stitched once over the past year.

But nothing beats the free stuff. I think that old saying, ‘The best things in life are free’ is so true. Take for instance this picture of my ‘possessions’. I put the word in open and close inverted commas because these things are not really mine. I am simply holding these gifts in my care and custody for a while. The long beige velvet Mehlevi hat is from my Turkish hombre, Mr. Ihsan Aslan, who gave it to me about 4 months ago. The small green and red insignia of the Prophet (pbuh) adorning the hat was given to me about 8 months previous by an Indonesian of Yemeni extract from the Hadramaut region, this same Mr. Ahmad Alatas also gave me the two hundred beaded tasbih (rosary). The yellow turban cloth is at least 20 years old, but it was given to me by my own brother, Mr. Saiful Bahri some 4 years back. And beneath all that headgear is little Muhammad Mikhail bin Taufiq. And he was given to me some 8 years ago by God Almighty.

I do not know why they give me these things. Perhaps they believe that I have been a good friend and brother (What a ridiculous idea). I certainly cannot fathom why God gave me Mika. Perhaps it is because He sees something in me that is lost to my own sight, but is apparent and clear in His Vision. I cannot say that I will succeed (in fact I have little faith), but I hope to one day see this Taufiq He is seeing. Because once I perceive who I really am, I shall be able to perceive God. And finally get to 'know' Him better. At long last...

At least that is what bearded wise men tell me.

If you are a father or mother, I think this is a good quest to take up. And even if you have no children, it is still a good quest. After all, you are God’s gift and trust to your own father and mother. So again, there must be something utterly perfect and beautiful in you that God had decided to present you to your parents as a precious gift of His own creation - Lovingly wrapped in your mortal skin and crowned with a heart and a conscience.

Have a lovely Monday, sunshine.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way