Human Usury & the Divine Debt - between servitude and servanthood

Servitude or Servanthood?

Indebtedness to usurious men

Will imprison you forever 

In the chains of servitude.

Indebtedness to God and His Prophet

Will release you from your enslavement,

And bring you to the station of servanthood.

..............................

Human Usury. When I am a little (or a lot) late in paying my credit card bills, car instalments, phone bills, my daily life suddenly becomes stressful with the constant barrage of calls, emails, sms-es and legal notices, all of them making it plain that woeful consequences will befall me if I fail to regularise my account. This is the curse of the credit-driven consumer society that we live in now.

Divine Debt. God is so different though we are utterly indebted to Him for everything, He do not even ask to be repaid, for He knows very well that we cannot. All He asks is that we realise our indebtedness to Him, and that we use our heart and our mind to conjecture from there how best to live our life.

And this admission of indebtedness will make us rich beyond our imagination. 

Creation and all its contents cannot be weighed

Against the heart of a true believer

For he sees beyond his worldly needs,

Piercing the veil to see

The all-nourishing attribute

Of the Creator Almighty...

And on top of all these divine goodies, God the Giver is asking us to continue asking more and more from Him... His generosity is infinite and incomparable. 

If you are attending to matters of the Infinite,

You have to start loving infinitely.

Which brings us to our greatest debt to God... His Beloved, Nabi Muhammad (saws), the Mercy to all the Worlds and Nations. 

You don't remember asking God for the Prophet (saws)? You did, my friend, you certainly did - a long, long time ago, before your soul was ever dressed in your mortal coil, before any mountain grew from the earth, before any bird flew in the sky. 

wa min Allah at-taufiq

-Notrumi Embun, 4th August 2014

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way 

GOD'S DZIKR (REMEMBRANCE) OF YOU ... in a moment split into infinite moments

God's Dzikr (Remembrance)

I am such an irritant,

But God is listening,

I complain and complain and complain,

But God is listening,

I am such a sinner,

But God is forgiving,

I am lost to myself,

Lost to the crowd,

Lost to the world,

But God is listening,

He does, all the time.

Even when I am forgetting,

God... He is remembering...

Remembering me in a beautiful place,

Remembering me in the best of ways,

Oh how they measure their remembrances of Him!

When His remembrance of us is more constant,

More infinite, more subtle and more certain

Moment after moment after blessed moment!

.....................

If we forget Him, nothing happens to God. We cannot touch His Omnipotence and Greatness which is greater than the greatest analogy our feeble mind can bring.

If we forget to praise Him, God is not dishonoured. His Glory is outside this reality and is furnished and burnished by something beyond our mortal inkling. 

If we forget to be grateful, God does not stop giving. He is beyond our petty need for gratitude and praise. How else do the ingrates sometimes live in large houses and the grateful dervish is destined for the gutter?

But if God forgets us? If God grows weary of us... tired of our constant forwards and backwards. Fed-up with our hypocrisy, lies and corruption? 

If God neglects even for a nano-second of His remembrance of us... where would we be? Certainly we would presently stop existing. But what past would we have? Would we be erased even before we were created? No history of me. Not even to mourn over my unfortunate story?

How sad.

But for the sake of the Prophet Muhammad(saws)...

Thankfully, God is God. Unlike any other, He is Most Compassionate. 
Unlike any other, He is Most Merciful. 
Only that reason merits why this sinner continues to exist. 
Continues to trouble your heart with these words.

But perhaps, I hope what is written here will give you 
Some solace, and some comfort. 
An assurance that when God says 
He is Unique and Most Forgiving of His creation... 
He is merely sharing the Truth of Himself with you...

Don't you agree, sunshine?

wa min Allah at-taufiq

-Notrumi Embun, 13th June 2014

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

INFINITY IS JUST ONE MOMENT - the words of the Prophet (saws) comes tumbling through time for us

Momentarily, please...

What is a moment?

When does a moment begin and when does it end?

Between two breaths?

Between the draw of a bowstring and the release of an arrow?

Between your birth and your death and what follows?

How many todays are left for us, o' Saad?

And how many tomorrows?

How far shall your arrow fly?

And wherefore shall your soul go?

....................................

The Oxford Dictionary (which I here summarize) says that a 'moment' means a very brief period of time or a particular or exact point in time or course of event. 

But for God Almighty, time itself is a point of creation. And though we are forced to live our daily life from the crib to the grave in periodically significant moments such as days and nights, births and deaths, work and rest, sleep and play... to God, all these occasions, which may be broken into countless and infinitesimally small apportionment of time, can all count to be one single moment for Him. After all, from the point of creation to the end of whatever end may be, it is in a single glance of God's divine vision... simply because the created can never, even clothed in that barely imaginable idea of infinity, encompass the Creator Himself. 

So like all things manifested by Our Loving God, even infinity is an instrument for human conjecture and reflection. 

Err... I appear to have wandered off topic. Alright, the prose above is actually referencing a hadith (verbal sayings of the Prophet Muhammad saws) - for one day, while walking with his four illustrious Companions, Abu Bakar, Umar, Usman and Ali, the Prophet (saws) came upon his uncle, Saad ibn Abi Waqqas, who was his mother's cousin. Famous for being one of the earliest Muslims, and a courageous and skillful archer, Saad was practising his archery skills when  the Prophet (saws) came by. Looking on, the Prophet (saws) encouragingly said to him, "O' Saad, shoot an arrow for me...".  

And so it is for you, sunshine. Whatever good deed or work you may be doing, however humble. Planting a sapling, cooking a pot roast, cleaning your room, reading a book, embracing your mother, honing your archery skills, or going for a walk... do you not hear our Master? Do it for me... do it in my name... do it on my behalf... do it for my pleasure... in all our prayer, pleasure, pastime or passion.

The words of encouragement from the heart of Muhammad Habibullah (saws) comes to us, passing through the vast expanse of time and space as if it were all just one moment in the Vision of Allah (swt) the All-Knowing, the All-seeing! Because the truth is, it really is.

So let us strive to a beautiful and purposeful life, sunshine. Not for my sake, and nor even yours. But for his sake, for the sake the Light of Creation, Sayyidina Miftahul Jannat (Key to the Garden), our beloved Prophet Muhammad (saws).

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

BREAKING FAST WITH CELESTIAL THOUGHTS - The Ramadan Story, Part 15

Time & the Heart

A second ago is not just one second long,

It can be as long as eternity

And shorter than even one second.

And a thousand years ago is not just one thousand years long,

For that too can be as long as eternity

And much, much shorter than one thousand years.

Such is the vast expanse of a believing heart,

Whose expansion and contraction cannot

Be counted or measured

By physical limits.

And alas, such is also the smallness of a heart

Constrained by hate, bigotry

And hubris,

Deceived by the pettiness of its piety

Or completeness of its knowledge.

..............................

How strange the month of Ramadan can be. For it pulls, stretches and manipulates the normal order of nature, the proper sequence of events, of cause and consequence, and of time itself.

Still many hours to go. Perhaps it is the hunger or thirst that makes the day long. The constant inquiring glance at the clock. Oh, no! Six more hours to go. Then again. Oh no! Still five hours and fifty-five minutes to go before iftar!(the breaking of the fast at sunset and upon the call of the Muezzin for the Maghrib prayers) For a smoker, this wait is often interesting (and always challenging). Even in the last 10 days of this fasting month. He he he.

Praying while fasting. For those pious Muslims, I think the best part of Ramadan is their prayers during fasting. How beautiful and melancholic it must be, to be praying in the state of fasting, their bodies and all their senses suddenly focused in the magical moment, on that intimate occasion and sweet transaction, between the created and the Creator, between the one of many and the Absolute One (Ahad). Each recitation, each posture and gesture that he (or she) makes, in perfect union with the Universe, prostrating before the Unimaginable Beauty of Allah (s.w.t.), before His Unrivaled Mercy, before His Infinite ways by which He shows His Love for all His creatures... How I envy them.

Celestial thoughts. I like to break fast alone sometimes. I am not being antisocial or that I dislike company. It is just sometimes, when I am sitting alone, taking that first sip of water and first crust of bread, I feel like I am breaking fast with celestial thoughts. How gentle is that moment and how reassuring for a sinner like me. It is as if, God is saying, "Who will keep him company? Surely he shall not break his fast alone."

I am not a good person. I wish I was. I only hope that God shall continue to show me the way to commemorate Him better, serve Him better and thank Him better!

For you see, there is still much room for improvement. 

Have a lovely day, sunshine.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

THE GARDEN OF PRAYER & THE ENDURING SALAWAT - The Ramadan Story, Part 8

O' Prophet, if I could, I would

If I could wrap myself around you, I would,

Like a ring of gold and silver

On your little finger,

To mark our engagement

And long-sought union...

Or like a humble black string

A little forget-me-not,

Tied with the Knot of God

By you, o' Master...

I am saying all this because

I don't know what else to say,

Your love, your beauty and mercy

Confound my words

Day after day after day...

........................

Double Assurance. Is there a place better than this for us, o' Muslims? On one hand, you can praise God Almighty with beautiful praises, and the Prophet will undoubtedly say, "This thing that you say and do, this is good!" On the other hand, you can also venerate and plead for glorious blessings from God for the Prophet (s.a.w.s.), and God too will say, "This thing that you say and do, this is good!" It is a double divine assurance. A back to back warranty that you are in a good place and heading to a better place.

The Garden of Prayer & Praise. And however you sincerely sing Allah's (s.w.t.) absolute praises and venerate Muhammad (s.a.w.s.) - there is simply no full-stop to your inspiration or veneration. Your every breath is there to magnify God Almighty and His Beloved (s.a.w.s.), your every gesture, movement and thought can become a Garden of Prayer. And in such a place, you become the gardener, the tiller, the seed, the bloom, the flower and the fruit! Perhaps your only worry is the average life-expectancy in your country. For you are blessed with the certainty that however hard you try, till your voice is raised by the Angels to the heavenly sky, no amount of prayer or praise will suffice to mirror His Love... Leaving you ultimately gasping for words...  

May the Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.s.) be surrounded by his garden of praise, from one invisible horizon to the other invisible horizon. Is this life not well-lived already if we have perished only to be a flower in such a garden? Amidst an infinite bloom of salawats showered upon him already by Allah (s.w.t.) Himself and His Host of Angels? 

Lo! Allah and His angels shower blessings on the Prophet.
O ye who believe! Ask blessings on him and salute him
with a worthy salutation! (Quran 33:56 Marmaduke Pickthall)

Compensating for Sincerity? On a final note, I might add that it doesn't matter if you are not a wordsmith or a poet, that you cannot string two eloquent words  together to save your life. For it is the sincerity of the speaker that really matters, not the words themselves. And I guess I go overboard textually because I am compensating for my lack of sincerity? Perhaps this is okay... after all, you cannot spell sincerity without sin.

And in each breath, our journey is just beginning. 

Have a lovely day, sunshine, and a blessed fast.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

THE GOOD AND BEAUTIFUL WORLD - contemplation of our days and humanity

Dawn in Bukit Damansara.

Meet Monday

I am a Day,
Nestled in the cradle of time,

Waiting for the moment that the Sun

Rises in the East of your Conscience,

Bright and Luminous like Angel Wings,

Feathered heralds of a Lord 

Most Compassionate, Most Merciful!

I am a Day,

And I was created to be yours,

To fill me with love, affection and knowledge,

For you to awake and recall the bounty of your Lord

And to take what is fated to be yours,

And to give freely, as your Lord gave freely!

I am a Day,

And I was created for work, remembrance and play

For how joyful is life in this world when your hand

Turns on the plough of honest toil and remembrance

Of the Lord who gave you this Day

That is me!

I am a Day,

And I am Monday,

Tomorrow you shall meet my sister, Tuesday

And the next my brother, Wednesday,

And thus the world turns,

As the Sun rises and sets,

And the Moon shines upon your twilight,

Rich and bountiful is your Lord's blessings upon you,

Your soul flying high in His sky like a kite!

...................................

I planned to write something different. Some note on the enjoyment of the Mosque, the gathering and association of friends and strangers to the Pool of Remembrance. But perhaps that is meant for another day.

Masjid Umar al-Khattab, Bukit Damansara

The world is good and beautiful. Today, this Monday morning, my attention was turned to my left, as a luminous sky heralds the new day. And so passes through the ken of Man, sometimes unnoticed, the divine signs of Beauty in this world. For however insignificant this world is compared to the reality of Allah (s.w.t.), however transient its nature, this world cannot be anything but good and beautiful, because the Creator, God Almighty is the Absolute One, absolute in His Goodness and in His Beauty. 

The Fountain of Fitrah. And because this world was created as a stage, as each member of humanity looks to understand his role better, to speak his lines perfectly, to immerse himself in his inner character, that fitrah which is the rightful inheritance of all mankind. Your own fitrah, that natural skill and inclination which flows from the Fountain of Fitrah that is Abu Arwah (Father of Souls), Muhammad, Prophet of God (s.a.w.s.).

So have a good day, sunshine. For the day is good already!

Your soul flying high in His Sky like a kite!

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

OUR EXISTENCE ANCIENT - the beautiful nature of time... and of our cousins and mothers.

Our Existence Ancient

Age is just a means by which we mark

Our time in this world,

For however our body may age,

It shall never exceed the measure of our soul,

Our existence ancient beyond its mortal cage.

.....................................

DAY OF COUSINS. Today is a day of cousins for me. I met a 51 year old Shan bin Sulaiman for breakfast (he promised me a local delicacy called popiah basah to lure me to his neighbourhood). And awhile back tonight I attended the wedding of my cousin's son, Aiman. Sitting at my table were two of my beautiful cousins, Kak Nani and Kak Lah, who is 61 and 63 years old respectively. I myself am going to be 43 years old this year, so to count the number of years between us four cousins it is 218 years. If we add my father's time, which is just one year short of 80, it would be 297 years - almost 3 centuries. Hehehe. Makes me ponder, this number does. 

I was thus pondering when suddenly the song A Thousand Years wafted through the wedding hall and I was almost overcome with a profound melancholic feeling. And in that brief moment I recall the history of my Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.s), my Prophet Jesus (a.s.) and the retinue of Muhammad's Companions known as the Sahabat, and the golden chain of forty Grand Shaykhs and many more Shaykhs and Saints, all of whom I have been introduced to. And thus also in that moment, the face of my late mother came to me, who introduced me to this world. 

So you see, more than a thousand years can pass within a solitary moment, though you are in a crowded wedding reception, with happy smiling people and their happy smiling faces. This thought made me paused  in my contemplation, as I too smiled back at my cousins. Alhamdulillah.

Have a lovely Sabbath, sunshine.

See you soon.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

AM I NOT YOUR LORD? - life is the act of remembering our answer to the question

And (remember) when thy Lord brought forth from the Children of Adam, from their reins, their seed, and made them testify of themselves, (saying): Am I not your Lord? They said: Yea, verily. We testify. (That was) lest ye should say at the Day of Resurrection: Lo! of this we were unaware; (Quran 7:172, Marmaduke Pickthall)

How shall we answer Him? When the Lord asks all of mankind, yet to be born from Adam and Eve, "Am I not your Lord"? (Alastu bi Rabbikum?) It is a matter of greatest significance, but not as how we mortal deign to interpret. When the Lord says something, it is not for that one particular moment, but for all moments from the beginning of time to the furthest reaches of eternity. Thus, it is not a past matter, but a present and real question to all of us today, to you and me and the cat named Moses... "Am I not our Lord?" How shall we answer him?

In the holy Quran, all the souls replied, "Yea, verily. We testify!" So we have indeed all replied thus, affirming the Oneness of God, and the Oneness of our One Creator. 

What is He saying in His asking? When the Lord asks the question, "Am I not your Lord?" it is not merely to unequivocally confirm His Eternal sovereignty over all creation, His unparalleled dominance over all things, His unimaginable power and righteousness over all thoughts, deeds and words of humanity. Above all, it is the Divine Confirmation of His Mercy, Love and Compassion...

Alastu bi Rabbikum?

Am I not your Lord?

Will you not accept what gifts

I have planned and stored for your future?

Lo, you have no capacity to imagine My gifts!

Am I not your Lord?

Will you not accept My embrace

Within which no harm can come to you,

Through which you may find all cures for your illnesses,

All knowledge to amend your ignorance,

All good and beautiful manners to correct

The feral purpose and selfishness of your ego?

Am I not your Lord?

Will you not see Me as the Perfection of all perfections,

The unreachable beauty surpassing all beauties created,

The Truth all-high and all-forgiving above all truths,

The One, Most worthy to be sought after?

Am I not your Lord?

And did I not create you and know you best?

Why would you turn to anything less than Me?

When I am the end of all your thoughts and actions,

I am the settler of all plans and conjecture,

And I am the Happiness surpassing all happiness

Ever experienced through the passing of time.

............................

All my life, I am trying to give the best answer, that which my soul has already given. For I wish to confirm my servanthood to Him, for the Gate of His Divine Pleasure to open, through which oceans upon oceans of endless knowledge, forgiveness, love and mercy awaits us all. So life is simply the act of remembrance - Remembering our answer to our Lord.

And when we do remember? Then, all our burden becomes the Lord's burden,
All our hopes become the Lord's hope, and there is naught greater
than He, our One Lord, our One Love. He who settles the
measure of all goodness for all humanity.

And verily, there is not greater guide to the Door of Remembrance that Saydeena Muhammad Habbibullah s.a.w.s.

May our Lord bless us, and keep us always, sunshine.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

THE DIVINE PAUSE - working through one's disbelief of the true awesomeness of Allah (s.w.t.)

My late mother, Arbayah. Her life was both colourful and meaningful.
I am biased of course, but I think she is awesome.
al fatiha

What is Life?

What is life but a pause

Between being surprised by

The embrace of the Lord

And our sighs of thankfulness

And gratitude.

This I believe to be true,

However long or short

That pause turns out to be.

................................

I have a problem. It is disbelief. No, it is not disbelief in God, but disbelief in the attributes of God. On a daily, almost second by second basis I catch myself disbelieving Him.

Disbelieving in the infinite expanse of His Ocean of Mercy.

Disbelieving in His unimaginable Ocean of Love.

Disbelieving in His incomprehensible Ocean of Knowledge.

I say this to you, sunshine, and I guess I am making a sort of confession. Because, if I truly believe in Allah's (s.w.t.) all-Encompassing Mercy, I would be more merciful to others, and myself. If I truly comprehend His love for us, I would be similarly loving of all creatures, Man, Djinn, animals and other sentient or non-sentient creation of God. And if I understood where I stand in the glittering Sea of His Knowledge, by God, I would be more circumspect, and less ready to judge others or myself.

So I guess for me, this pause, this life, is going to take some time for me to work through.

But at least for this morning, I am thankful for however long or short this pause would be. And to top it off, I am able to spend it with you...

Have a meaningful Sunday, sunshine.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

No Better Love Than This, No Better Life Than This

No Better

I give one percent and You give ninety-nine percent,

I take one step and You make one leap,

I think of You and You are already on the way to me,

I think of writing to You and Your postman is already 

Waiting at my door, ready for the delivery...

You are ever ahead of me, encouraging me to You...

You are ever behind me, covering my back,

This love You have for me...

Is there any other place to be

That is better than this?

..........................................

Nothing much to say today, sunshine. What is to be written here is already written.

May you find peace with your Lord. There is no better love or life than this.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

There is no Prefixes to the word 'Muslim' - a journey in the meaning of words...

Are You a Muslim?

Who are you to say I am a Muslim?

Who am I to say I am a Muslim?

I want such declaration to come from

No one but Hu, no one but Hu, no one but Hu...

If you meet my soul, perhaps you may believe him,

But I want to hear it from Hu Himself, from Hu Himself, from Hu Himself...

I find it most amusing to hear people speak,

"Oh... I am Muslim!" and "Oh... he is not a Muslim!"

When the light of their knowledge is barely a flicker

In the cosmic chasm of their manners,

Go on... name your country Islamic!

Name your company Islamic!

Name your trade and your title Islamic!

Name your book Islamic...

For Allah Almighty loves a challenge!

Oh Lord! I am cowering in my sickness,

I am hiding in a mousehole in the plain of my soul,

For I am not worthy to be there, to be here, to be anywhere

Where the where is without You!

Oh Allah the Just! Oh Allah the Wise!

You have given humanity Islam,

And now they think they deserve Islam!?

I am prepared to laugh now,

But all I do every day is cry

And I don't even know why...

Oh God

I don't even know why...

..............................

Well, I know that I am a sinner.
Let us start from there.

There is no prefixes to 'Muslim'. In the dictionary of life that I often leaf through there is no word or phrase such as an Islamist. Or modern Muslim. Or progressive / liberal Muslim. Or a fundamentalist Muslim. Or a political Muslim. Or a traditional Muslim. And certainly no reformist Muslim, no neo-Muslim, no revolutionary Muslim, no conservative Muslim, no lipstick Muslim, no secular Muslim and no hardcore Muslim. To the word 'Muslim' there is no prefixes to redefine the meaning of a Muslim. A Muslim is simply a Muslim.

Right. Moving on...

Am I a Muslim? Muslim is a noun, as in a Muslim. But it is also an adjective in the sense that it describes the 'Muslim' as a human being professing to practice the religion of Islam. And that is where most people stop. And in the name of Allah, the Most Nuanced One, the Most Subtle in His ways, I rather think it is a woefully inadequate meaning to give to the word Muslim.

For to say, "I am a Muslim" is to actually mean, "I am undertaking a journey which began even before I was born and one that shall continue after I have passed on. And it is a journey of self-discovery, through which I hope to find the meaning of God as how God intended me to understand Him. And I cannot say with any certainty at which point of the journey towards Muslimhood I am at, only that with each step I find myself sadly inept and negligent and am barely able to carry the little knowledge that I have of myself, and therefore, of God Himself. It is a journey whose caravan head is none other than the Master himself, Saydeena Muhammad (s.a.w.s.), in train with his Companions and the Saints. The light shines somewhere in the far distant, and I can hear the music in their voices, laughter and weary tears. I can smell the perfume of their presence though they have longed died (as far as we understand what life and death mean). My ragged soul, much tested and found to be wanting by this world's trials and tribulations, is glowing not with my own piety, not my own poor facsimile of faith, but with the reflected glorious spirit of my ancestors who came before me, and my descendants who shall soon come after me. I am unfit to be called a Muslim. I am a soul set adrift in the Sea of Temptation and am still searching for my true harbour. Once I am there, only then I will know that I am a Muslim, if it pleases my God to welcome me home."

It is Friday, sunshine. With the rising Sun comes a rising contemplation of who I am ...of who we all are.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

The Mountain - 2013 and Her Coming...

The Mountain 

I tried to climb a mountain,

So I asked God

And climbed a mountain.

I wanted to conquer the world,

So I asked God

And conquered the world.

I wanted to find the Philosopher's Stone,

So I asked God

And found the Philosopher's Stone.

I wanted patience

So I asked God.

"For all your wishes that I made to come true", God answered,

"And all the wishes that you cannot even recall 

You asked of Me,

Patience is all that I ask from you..."

.........................

I slept through the new year and found myself gently being prodded awake by 2013. Why, I barely got to know 2012 with all her quirks and whims, all her temper and habits. But it appears Time is impatient for me to get to know the new year, and unlike Mankind, impatience is not necessarily a bad thing for Time. For Time is a creation and servant of God that is obedient and answers to God and the Angels. 

May 2013 bring you greater blessings and love, nested and hatched in the palm of the Beloved of God, Saidina Muhammad (s.a.w.s.). It is our destiny, we need only to bring the key to happiness, that is patience by any other name. And for me, this is the greatest challenge of them all...

It is kinda nice of God to assure me that 2013 will be just as interesting as the preceding year.

He he he. 

Have a wonderful holiday, sunshine.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

You Cannot Force Forgiveness - forgiveness and the gathering of virtues

Forgiveness and the Gathering of Virtues

Forgiveness is a feeling,

A state of emotion more

Than mere statement of intent,

And try as we wish, to forgive,

Whether we will or not is almost

Beyond our control, just like falling in love...

So while you intend to forgive,

And you have not yet,

You need only arrange your life

To be in the constant company of love and mercy,

For sooner or later, I have no doubt that forgiveness will hear

The merriment and compassion singing in your heart,

And ask to enter the fine assembly...

Spellbound and drawn as it is

To the gathering of virtues within you.

.......................................

If we have to be absolutely honest with ourselves, how many times have we wanted to forgive, but couldn't. When pressed to forgive, I think we often do try to forgive. But we know that in our hearts, the feeling of forgiveness has not come yet, no matter how we dress our behaviour outside. For true forgiveness cannot be forced.

In such a situation, you can only move on and carry on - being that great guy you have always been, being that wonderful woman that we all know you to be. In time, you will rise higher and I have no doubt, you will forgive, as the most natural thing in the world. In a single breath, in one a momentous sigh, you would be able to let out all your sadness, hurt and pain... to finally forgive and to let go of the bitter past.

Don't you agree, sunshine?

wa min Allah at-taufiq

p/s : My cousin, Abang Shem and his wife, Che Yong just celebrated their 25th Wedding Anniversary. It is amazing that I can still recall the first time he brought his girlfriend Che Yong to our old house, all those many years ago. I remember thinking of Che Yong, "Say, here is a bubbly bundle of cheer.". May Allah and the Prophet (s.a.w.s.) continue to bless their hearts, hearth and home with the glow of heavenly lights. I know that the path has not been easy, but when things were tough, they showed great courage, and of course, great love. 

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

Happy to be Unknown in the Only Truth that Deserves to be Known - Mika and Rihanna...

Mikhail's endless 'Papa this...' and 'Papa that...' drives me crazy.
But happiness is... listening to a trans-pacific call
from your 8 year old son saying the exact same thing. 

1. Each second it gets better and better

Each second of my life,

Each moment that comes

Is more beautiful,

More honoured and more blessed

Than the last moment

Preceding it.

For you see, the division

Of time is illusory,

It is a necessary condition

Of existence when God created

And ordered the Sun to precede the Moon,

As day turns into night,

And seasons come and go.

For the truth is that

Time and space

Is one single giant canvas,

And the Lord whom I know and love

Is an Artist of Unimaginable Brilliance

Who would not leave a single colour and shade

In my life which was not beautiful and meaningful

With the true essence of Divine love and understanding!

Am I frightened to know this?

Of course, I am!

Am I happy to know this?

Happy beyond words!

Happy to know, happy to be known,

Happy to be unknown in the only Truth

That deserves to be known!

Goodbye and peace of heaven to thee, seekers!

........................

Spotted!

It doesn't take much to make me pleased. Earlier today, Mikhail, my 8-year old son called from LA, California. It seems that the entire family of his mum, Gina and his stepdad Herman, saw Rihanna (yes, the umbrella singer... who else?). Mika was less than impressed by the sighting (after all, she is JUST a girl) but he sounded happy, and of that I am glad.

I cannot stay long, sunshine. Too many chores to run back here in Malaysia.

The prose was in fact recorded more than 3 years ago. I am contented to see that things haven't changed. And indeed, if things have changed, it has changed for the better. So as the poem ends, so does this posting... Goodbye and peace of heaven to thee, seekers!

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way