The New Year 1434 - Maal Hijra and the Tree of Choices

1434 at the Stronghold of Love

I laid siege on the Stronghold of Love for a whole year.

Then a Master of Love came out upon the high ramparts

And said, “You have wasted one long year besieging us,

When you could have gained entry with but one phrase…”

“And what is that phrase?”, I asked.

“In the Name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.”

He replied and continued,

“So the year 1433 has passed you by,

And the year 1434 is coming near,

Will you shed another year of tears

And upon Love’s Gate to wilt and die,

Or will you now believe in the words

That your heart have often spoken

But your mind has long denied?”

……………………………….

In the Name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful - or in Arabspeak, BismillahiRahmaniRahim, is possibly the most recognizable Muslim phrase in all the sultanates and kingdoms of the Muslim world, and even outside. But truth be told here, it is a collection of words that I am forever trying to tie my turban around... and  failing miserably.

As I gingerly make my way through this life, filling my barrel of deeds with both good and rotten apples of my own picking, the phrase BismillahiRahmaniRahim continues to expand in its breadth and scope. 

We do not know, if we shall live the full twelve months of this Islamic calendar year. Perhaps we may only see the sunrise of just one day of 1434. But that is not our worry, for our passing is predestined as our birth was. I think we need only to concern ourselves with picking more good apples and trying to avoid the rotten apples that life and fate may be growing in our Tree of Choices. That is all.

So come on, sunshine. Let's climb this Tree... in the Name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful - BismillahiRahmaniRahim!

Happy new year, my friends.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way