Like a River exiled from some Heavenly Picture
Ten thousand hearts ago I was different,
Ten thousand days ago I sang a different song,
Ten thousand nights ago I lived a different world,
Ten thousand thoughts ago I was a collector of words,
Having no time for the trees, no time for the whispering breeze,
No time for the flowers, the birds nor the honey bees.
Ten thousand lies ago I was young and rich,
Ten thousand truths ago I was stumbling like a clown,
Today, tonight with you, my love, I stumble still,
But I stumble with grace, with a pen in my hand
A beggar of words, the towncrier of a deserted town.
My past often catches up and ask me,
“Ho! Where am I? Who are you!
Where are you taking us all!
To which, I only reply that,
“I am me! I was you! And I am paying heed
To the truth in the trees, Moses on the Mountain,
And the sonnets of love sung by the stars in the night sky!
What you do not remember, I have already forgotten,
What you cherish, I am now tasting, what you have left behind
For me to follow, now I am following, taking you and me
To the us in the future,
To the Ocean of Light we flow,
Like a river exiled from
Some heavenly picture.
To the Ocean of Light that we yearn,
Following the Way of Muhammad,
Our Master and Teacher!
………………………….
Imagination or Yearning of the Ocean?
What is life but a journey to the Ocean? A sometimes winding path that takes us from childhood, to manhood, then mid-life contentment to old grey dotage. I am only 42 years this year, but sometimes the Ocean sounds so close by... And I can hear the melodious surf, the seagulls and the peal of a ship's bell in the harbour. It sounds like it just over this dune... but when I arrive atop the sandy peak, I see no Sea, no seagulls, no shore, no ship. Just miles and miles of life still waiting for me to walk.
Was it just my imagination that I heard? Or my yearning?
......................
Returning to the Ocean of Mercy and Divine Presence is a parable about life often used by Sufis and other mystics. And death is the consummation of this ardent desire - to return home to God. To be by His side in eternal bliss. But what is eternal bliss? It is just a word used to describe the indescribable, and really, it says nothing of what could be.
But what is, and what is here now is our life and this reality. And I think we have a lot to give thanks for... for this world that our Creator has given us, the beauty within us and the beauty displayed in nature. And always, that inner yearning... that unending siren call beckoning us to the Ocean of God, to the Sea of Mercy, to Love and Bliss aplenty...
wa min Allah at-taufiq
Hate has no place in Islam
Love will show the Way
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