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

The Heat of Politics - there is no good without good manners...

No Good Without Good Manners

There is no good

Without good manners...

There is no success if you

Attain it without good manners,

Nor is there failure if you

Fail despite your good manners,

Good manners is the precondition

And the condition precedent of success,

Thus if you win or fall in this life,

Keep your adab to God and His Prophet,

To your family, to your friends, to all of humanity,

To all creation of God,

For above all

Only God knows best,

Most Merciful, Most Compassionate is He,

Who saw fit to teach us good manners

To refrain from the egoistic habit

Of allocating blame,

And naming names.

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

The political temperature in Malaysia is becoming feverish, in so far as we Malaysians want to get hot and bothered when the real temperature has become already warm these past few days. More heat? Forget it. 

And of  course, with the coming not-to-be-delayed-much-longer General Election, political parties on both sides of the parliamentary aisle have been throwing accusations and criticisms at each other. More heat? Forget it.

So enough of the allocation of blame. Enough with the naming of names, the revelation of secret documents, the scandals, the leaks, the paranoid hypotheses and the righteous indignation. More heat? Forget it.

I am a little tired today of this world's noises. I am going to look for a good book, a book about Adab (good manners). Anyways, the day is much too warm already for anything else. More heat? Forget it!

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way   

The Congress of Birds at the Court of the Sultan - where only love and mercy is the accepted currency...

The Congress of Birds at the Court of the Sultan

Is this a congregation of people praying?

No, it is a congress of birds, 

At the door of the Sultan,

Asking for release from 

The golden cage of Duniya,

To be permitted to fly free

To the Royal Court of the Sultan

Where grow trees of luminous Light

With flowers that bloom

More beautiful with each glance,

With fruits that become

More delicious with each mouthful.

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

Good Friday, sunshine. Life beckons anew with each dawn of your world. Is there a better gift that Allah (s.w.t.) may bestow upon you than by bestowing to you the attraction to sweetness which the Lord God Himself finds sweet and comely? And is there anything or anyone more sweet and comely to God than His Beloved Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.s.) and his Nation?

Allah, Most Merciful and Most Compassionate, in the divine exercise of His absolute love and benevolence for you has granted you such mercy, so be merciful unto all of Mankind.

When you first fall in love with your lover, remember this!

When you first fall in longing to meet God, remember this!

When your firstborn open his eyes to you, remember this!

When you wake up to the sound of music of the birds, remember this!

And above all, when you hold another person in your power, remember this! For verily God(s.w.t.) and His Prophet(s.a.w.s) dislikes injustice and iniquity and loves mercy and generosity. 

And if you do remember, masyaAllah... please remind me! For I am ever the forgetful and weak, negligent and foolish sinner. You may find me at the door of the Masters, barking to be let in, like the naughty dog that I am!

Have a lovely Friday, sunshine.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way 

Truth, God and the Bridle of Adab - the best virtue is good manners (adab), and real truth only manifests itself in the Divine Presence of Truth

Speaking the truth to power

I spoke truth to power

When I said good morning to my father,

I spoke truth to power

When I said goodbye upon my mother’s passing,

I spoke truth to power

When I said my marriage vows,

I spoke truth to power

When I spoke at the divorce proceedings,

I spoke truth to power

When I raised my voice at my son,

I spoke truth to power

When finally I said that I was sorry,

I spoke truth to power

When I orated in a crowded hall,

I spoke truth to power

In my prayer and its private intimacy

I spoke truth to power

Every second of my life,

But to Love, to the Power behind the power

I spoke the truth to the Truth

When I promised Him that

I shall adore Him and no other.

 ……………………………………….

Over a couple of days, an old friend has been trying to share with me the lessons of truth, the Truth, and Love. It took him some time because I am kinda thick and slow with the uptake. But this was the outcome of our secret liaison...

Speaking the truth (in its proper sequence). We should always speak the truth. That is virtue. But there is always many different truths that we can choose to share with our listener at a single given time. So the sequence of truths that we disclose to our listener is our choice. And it is Adab (good manners) that we choose to say the truth that does not grate the listener, that does not belittle or anger the listener. Instead, speak the truths that soothes the listener and encourages him towards hope, knowledge, humanity, compassion and mercy. And this is better, because the best virtue is Adab.

Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.s.), the Bridle of Adab.

Real truth is with Truth. Real truth and openness is only in the Divine Presence, that is why in the third last line of the prose, truth is being spoken to Truth (Haq), which is one of the mighty names and attributes of God. This happens when our senses and our limbs, our past, present and future antecedents admit to our own failings and weaknesses... our confessions of guilt and impropriety before God, who is happily(for us) also known as the Most Compassionate (ar-Rahman) and Most Merciful (ar-Rahim). So do not be discouraged by our very human failures and follies. He who created us, verily, knows us best. Better even than our own timid selves. 

Why argue? So unless it is a fundamentally life and death situation, why argue with someone? Even if truth is on your side (or so you think), let the conflict pass you by... after all, it takes two people to make a fight. Restrain your argumentative ego to the Bridle of Adab. I do not think there is a better way, insyaAllah.

Have a happy, care-free, argument-free day, sunshine.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

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

"STAY...", Love said to me

1.      I have seen You!

I have seen You, Love!

Reflected upon the waters

Of your creation!

I have heard You, Love!

In the sweet muttering

Of your creation!

You will not let me sleep,

You will goad and flirt,

You will be selfish

With me,

Again and again.

How You love me

I do not care,

For here You are,

With me,

In any time,

Anywhere.

I cannot walk away,

Not when you look

At me that way,

Telling me,

“Stay.”

Love never said, "Go away." Love never said, "Leave me be." Love never said, "You are excused, you may go." Which is really fortunate for us, for how will we leave Love's presence, sustained as we are in our spirit and our very being by Love's loving gaze?

100. The Minnow

O’ Little Minnow

Swimming in the shallow.

No where could you go

That His River does not flow.

God is Love Manifest beyond the wildest dreams of poets and lovers, and from there comes His Attribute as your nourisher and sustainer. And though He could compel the smallest minnow or the mightiest king to be in His divine presence, He does not - He asks you, as how befits the Lover to the Beloved, "Stay."

So if one day you find yourself standing at the corner, waiting for a cab to take you away from Love, turn off the bitterness and come back inside, where there is love, warmth and you. For where would the real you be if not with love?

"Stay."

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way 

Breathing - life, grace, gratitude and God

 If not now, then when?

You ask for air every few seconds,

And lo, you take your breath.

When there are always a multitude of reasons,

Why your request may not be answered,

But it is! It is! And you breathe!

How we take for granted our wish

And how it is answered by God,

In each moment,

In each breath,

In each thought.

God is in all the details, you see

Not just the Grand Cosmic Events,

So if you do not realise this now,

Then when?

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

Hey, sunshine. I hope your day has been swell for you. For me it has been a little of hit and miss. But I am glad to be back, and find this little prose recorded some while back. Of all things that God has granted me, it is undoubtedly my breathing that I regularly forget to give thanks for. It is so 'automatic' you know, your heart and your lungs doing all the work, gathering oxygen to feed our body. Then one day the heart goes kaput or semi-kaput and we are immediately reminded of our mortality. Oopsie.

So while my heart is still in an A-Okay condition, I would like to register with God, the Originator of the human breath and the Divine Breath, my sincerest thanks.

And my appreciation to Sumathi, my former colleague who once shared many hours with yours truly, talking about God and Saints, and finding commonality in our different faiths. It is a good feeling, and I wonder why some Muslim leaders are so afraid of talking with non-Muslims. Surely it is not because they fear something? Someone posted something rather smart on my FaceBook recently, 'Fear often overcomes our natural instinct to compassion and tolerance.'

So do not fear anything but God, sunshine. And let God the Most Compassionate (ar-Rahman) and Most Merciful (ar-Rahim) find in you, and through you, His own Device for Divine compassion and mercy unto this world, for all mankind and creatures of differing colour and creed. Ameen.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

A Love Letter in Ramadhan - how shall I answer the Lord?

A Love Letter in Ramadhan

Lay your weary head on My names,

The Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful,

And dwell not in your folly and error,

Cast your line into the Sea of My Mercy,

And fish for the bounty that is Me,

And worry not of going hungry,

Close your eyes and listen to Me,

In the temples and in the churches,

In the synagogues and in the mosques,

High upon the hills and through the Mountain passes,

Deep in the forests, farms and meadows,

Wherever you go, there My blessings go,

Glory to Me, mercy for you,

Praise to Me, guidance for you,

Even before you were given life,

Before you first opened your eyes,

Verily, I cherished you and loved you,

And My own angels gathered around

Fascinated by My fascination for you,

And lo, they doubt My faith in you

And touched by the devil’s treachery,

They asked, ‘'Will you bring unto us

The nation of Adam that will bring

Strife and destruction?”

And when you were silent,

I spoke for you,

And when you could not answer,

Verily, I defended you and replied,

Saying unto My heavenly heralds,

“I am God, I know what ye knows not.”

And that is My love for humanity

Before a single child was ever born,

And that is My faith I declared

Before the first church was ever raised,

And that is My blessing for you

Before a single word of praise for Me

Was ever uttered by the children of Adam and Eve.

How I looked forward to your first breath of air,

How careful I gathered and plotted your birth,

Glory be! Glory unto Me! How I yearned for you,

Will you now not yearn for Me?

Will you now not love Me?

Will you now not even

Remember Me?

……………………………….

Ramadhan is coming to an end I am told. In the small bundle of greeting and festive cards we received in our home, one arrived rather late. It was a love letter.

I am sharing it with you today because perhaps you can help me write a decent reply. I am quite at lost for words right now. A rare thing, but it does happen once in a while.

I hope you are enjoying your very last day of Ramadhan. Come evening, the month of Syawal beckons us to another day of hope, praise and love unto the One God, and His beloved Prophet Muhammad Habibullah (pbuh).

See you there, sunshine.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

The Legion of Saints in The Age of 'Enlightenment' and 'Renewal' - democracy and the repeated lies of the Arab Spring

The Mawlana

Life begins at 40, they say, so I must be only 2. Hehehe. Life begins at our birth they say, and yea they are not wrong. But my life, your life, our lives is much, much older than that. From our birth, we have in our beings already the past history of mankind, from the creation of Adam and Eve, through the tumultuous events of the past Prophets of God until the arrival upon this Earth, and great was the welcome given unto him because by his birth God has honoured and blessed the world, of the Seal of the Prophets, Master of the Beginning and the End, our most beloved Prophet, Nabi Muhammad ibn Abdullah (pbuh), radiant light of Mercy, perfection upon perfection, the most beautiful rose in the Garden of Creation. Muhammad(pbuh) is the final and complete divine assurance given by God that verily, He has not forsaken us and verily He is most concerned unto his creation with the sublime and all-encompassing attribute as the Most Compassionate (ar-Rahman) and Most Merciful (ar-Rahim).

So how can we say we are young? It makes no sense, even if we are 1 year old or 15. We are only young in experience. So how can we say we are old, for our life stretches from the known history into the known future. The Devil, who is our tireless enemy, has conspired through his arsenal of tricks and traps to disconnect us from this knowledge. And verily, he has succeeded. First through the Renaissance of the West, when he duped people into thinking, “We are young! We are new! We are fresh thinkers! What for we obey the traditions of our forefathers? What for we respect our elders and their silly bumbling ways? King? Who needs a King when we can ALL be Kings?”

146. Old King Louis

Who was it that deposed the King,

And invited the devil(s) in?

Hah! They speak of nations with no thrones,

They speak of republics with no tyranny.

In truth, what have they done

Save only to leave the people

Kingless and unguided

But for the single-minded pursuit of avarice.

Emptying the Bastille

Only to fill her up again.

The hallmark

Of mobs in power.

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

They started it.

And we follow. Very smart. 

For the Devil knew that if he wanted to use a people to corrupt others, they themselves must be assured that they are right, that they are the enlightened ones. And the Devil was most arduous in cultivating his ideas amongst the young, the intelligentsia, the soldiers, the politicians and the merchants, breaking down the authority of the Church and the King, until churches and palaces are now mere museums and a showcase for European royalties without authority. Figureheads forced to accept the tyranny of the majority.

PR and Propaganda at its finest.

And once assured of his control, the Devil used the West to spread the Renaissance ideas of corruption, deception and ill-manners under the guise of egalitarianism, liberty and equality, this poison upon the natural human spirit that is called popular democracy. And they found amongst the young Turks and Arabs an eager audience of listeners, ready to uproot the old ways, to topple the Throne of the Shadow of God, to stop calling themselves Ottomans, but now simply Turks! To stop calling themselves Arabs and the Nation of Muhammad but now Iraqis, Jordanians, Egyptians etc… The Devil has reintroduced selfish nationalism and tribalism back into the soul of Islam, when the Prophet himself(pbuh) has cursed it for the hatred and enmity that it sows amongst humanity.

What has happened has happened.

The House of Democracy, Tahrir Square, Egypt.

The House of God, Mecca. Which of this places has God blessed?

The Mawlana of Lefke, Cyprus is calling unto the Nation of Muhammad, and the Believers not to forsake their history. To remember and respect the past, and to seek support from the Prophet Muhammad(pbuh) and unto all His Companions and Saints who are themselves ready and supported by the Light of God. But now people are walking past the Maqams (graves and tombs) of the Saints not knowing or not caring. They don’t even bother to give gracious greetings of salam(peace). Do they think such personages are dead and sleeping in their graves? The saintly dead has hallowed their life and death in the perfection of their Adab (courtly manners and courtesies) while the living walk around with no Adab at all.

What has happened has happened.

You and I know that the dead do not sleep. That death is but a door, a gateway to another place, and verily the blessed Friends of God are more alive than we are. Let us recall our history, for alone we cannot sustain our vigilance against the unending conspiracies of the accursed Devil and his tribe, who sleeps not for even five minutes in their undying hatred for all of Mankind.

God has blessed you, sunshine. For though we are weak and a little pathetic, we are with The Legion of Saints.

Three don't make a Legion, you say? Look with your heart, they reply.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way.

The Origin of Creation - Divine Sharing of Himself (God)

God the Treasure

A treasure is something which is so lovely to you

And fills you with so much joy

That you wish to share it and not hoard,

Thus, if you have not found such a treasure,

Nor a single thing which you wish to share,

Whether it is a golden coin or a friendly smile,

Then sadly, alas… you have not found God.

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

Thus it was that the Prophet's saying, much publicised later by the writings of Ibn Arabi and Jelaludin Rumi which encompassed the reason of creation, wherein God said, "I was a hidden treasure, and I desired to be known..."

God found Himself to be pleasing and a joy unto Himself. But He desired to share Himself and to share the knowledge of His Love, Beauty, Mercy and Power. Thus He created creation, beginning first with the first of creation, the root from which all trunk, tree, branch, flower and fruit of creation blossomed - The Light of Muhammad, the NurMuhammad.

So to share one's joy. To share one's wealth, one's knowledge, one's time, one's food and water, hearth and home... is to mirror the Divine Sharing of God when from some utter state of absolute vacuum, our Lord manifested the infinite ocean of His Imagination, and the infinite ocean of His power.

Alas, does who do not think they own anything to share, when the Prophet himself once said that to cast a smile upon another, is a form of sharing (charity).

The Sun is up, and there is gladness in the air here. Thank you, sunshine, for sharing a little corner of your time today with me.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

Spilling Cups of Tea - Love the Eternal Opposites and God The Eternal Assurance

The Eternal Opposites

& The Eternal Assurance

Love is easy

And Love is not,

Love is Mercy

And Love is God!

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

As a vessel of very human emotions and peccadilloes, we often make life difficult for ourselves. Love is easy, but this certain condition of the human species makes it hard for us sometimes to assimilate love in our daily life - If a friend betrays your confidence, do you still feel the love? If your mate makes a cutting remark about your family, do you still feel the love? If your employer says that he has to cut overtime this month, do you still feel the love? If a policeman pulls you over for talking on your cellphone while driving, do you still feel the love? If a waiter accidentally spills a cup of tea on your nice clean shirt, do you still feel the love?

Ah, such is life, that our cup of love often spills just as the cup of tea did, and we feel irritated and angry. No love there, just a predominant thought running through our ruffled soul, "I want to speak to the manager now!"

But thankfully, to my heart, the highest manifestation of Love is Mercy. And Mercy by any other name is ar-Rahman and ar-Rahim, being God's most beloved names (He admits it!) and divine attributes as the Most Compassionate and Most Merciful. Call unto Me by My Beautiful Names, Call unto Me for support, guidance and reward, God said. Call unto Me, for verily, I made thee of a weak nation and often vacillating between good and evil, right and wrong. Call unto My forgiveness, for I want to forgive thee. That is God to me. The Eternal Assurance.

I write nothing new really. I just kinda rehash the same ol' kindergarten truths passed down through the ages by your own ancestors. But I guess I need to remind myself of such blessings, each and every day. Lest I forget that even if Life and Love can at times be tough, God is Most Merciful and His crowning glory of mercy in all Creation is His most Beloved, our Prophet Muhammad Habibullah(pbuh).

There. A happy ending for a posting. I leave you now to continue your journey to your own happy ending.

Take care, sunshine. Have mercy - don't call the manager and overlook other people's errors, that God might show you forgiveness too and overlook your own habits of spilling cups of tea. He he he. 

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

And the Way is Mercy

Love Already Told Me, But I Disbelieved - Religion, Sufism, Escapism and Our Bold Presumptuous Promises

Love Already Told Me, But I Disbelieved

Love told me, "Be patient..."

Love told me, "Persevere..."

Love told me, "Eat healthy..."

Love told me, "Go to the gym..."

Love told me this and Love

Told me so many other things,

But did I listen?

Never...

So I was brought down,

My stature lowered,

My station left down low,

My wealth and my health

Waiting for a better tomorrow,

And then Love came to me in the night

And said, "Will you NOW then listen to me?"

Thus I replied, "Give me my pen that I might write 'Yes',

Give me my face that I might prostrate before Thee,

Give me my hands that I might do charity,

Give me the Sun that I might know where is West,

Give me my veil that I might hide my piety,

Give me my health that I might do all this

When now I know that all that

You've ever wished for me

Was for my best.

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

TWO AIMS. The spiritual path of the Sufis has two aims, to address our heavenly endeavours and our worldly enterprises. Because you know, unless you are packing it in, and retiring from your job to become a full-time paid-up member of the Path, you still gotta eat, sleep and work to provide a living for those whom you are responsible for.

What is the point if you are learned in the transcendental truths and knowledgeable in the history of the Saints when you are not well? You have to take care of yourself, sunshine - in all aspects of your life, health, wealth and worldly knowledge, that you might contribute to society as an upstanding citizen, and nevermind your most Sufi-esque pretension.

Otherwise, for all these 'meaningful' and 'profound' expositions on love, truths and mercies, your faith and your 'sufism' would become nothing but a form of escapism. And I know, masyaAllah, how I know that there is so much promise in you.

Believe me. For I am not lying. For I too was there on the Day of Promises when we each made our bold presumptuous promises to our One Loving God. And we promised each other before Him that we shall look out for one another, and to remind one another. So here I am, reminding you. And reminding myself too. God bless.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way