SUBTLY, ESSENTIALLY, PAINFULLY BEAUTIFUL

A Pen Full of Raindrops

My Love is in the falling rain,

He tells me to stay awake 

And to come out into the night,

My Love is in the sleepless twilight,

Beneath starlight eaves with

Columns of white light

From the prayers of men, 

My Love is filling my pen

With raindrops as countless

As my sins...

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

I am a rainy fellow. I love the rain, and when I heard the heavy patter of rain on the roof, I know that I cannot stay in. Not when the black night outside is suddenly alive with His Merciful rain. So much for my plans for an early night. He he he. I am sure God plans best of all.

Earlier tonight I asked myself if I know Islam. And I am quite sure I do not know anything much, if anything at all. In fact, I am beginning to suspect that Islam is much, much more vast than even my wildest imaginings can imagine. Islam is far, far more wondrous than any wonder that man has ever built. And it is beautiful. It is subtly, essentially, painfully beautiful. For it hurts your heart's eye even to glance but for awhile into Islam's forge of love, where words and deeds are hone in the white fire of Divine Love... syariat... tariqat, hakikat... makrifat...

What do these words even mean? I am stealing words from the library of the saints, knowing nothing of their meanings. 

What has meaning to me is the rain. Little pools of mercy and blessings on the ground now that the rain has left. Many people will be asleep not even realising this. God's blessing whether we are good or bad, whether we are awake or asleep. So what do we have to complain about? Nothing. And what do we have to be grateful for? Everything.

Let us discard the garbs of knowledge, thinking ourselves as 'knowing' our religion. There is no knowing or owning of anything in this world. There is only God Almighty, and there is His Beloved Habibullah (saws). Everything, and anything else are just shadows on the wall, transient ripples in the ocean. 

Don't you agree, sunshine?

wa min Allah at-taufiq

-Notrumi Embun, 8th July 2014

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

THE ONE ABSOLUTE TRUTH : THE TRUE ABSOLUTE ONE, about God, the nature of energy and the laws of thermodynamics - The Ramadan Story, Part 17

The One Absolute Truth : The True Absolute One
As the wind blows, so it must dissipate,
As the sapling grows, so it must wither,
As the child is born, so begins his end,
As the Sun burns, so it must, one day, die.

As you throw a ball in the air,
So it will return to you,
For you are the center,
You are the originator,
You are the cause
Of its flight.

O' man, so is it any wonder,
That however far your journey,
However long or fleeting your time here,
You will return to Him?

He who is the Center of all centers!
The Originator of all originators!
The Cause of all causes!

And the longer you are in your mortal shell,
The faster is your journey back,
Gaining speed with each breath,
With each thought that temporarily
Occupies your mind,
Whether it is a distraction
Or musing of your inevitable return...

Until one day, just like the Sun,
You end at your homecoming,
To the One Absolute Truth,
To the True Absolute One,

To the Most Compassionate, Most Merciful,
Most Abiding in His Ministration for you;

"Verily, my servant, I have been thinking of you...
And I know, you have been thinking of Me..."
................................

Scientific Documentaries. When I watch BBC documentaries on the sciences, on nature and on the continuing opening of physical knowledge, I am compelled more and more into believing in God. And perhaps even more importantly, how God has created and continue to create and recreate each and every second that passes in our Universe with breath-taking colour, wonder and vigour. Manifesting His truly unimaginable Love and Wisdom in infinite layers.

What God? As I have said before, some scientists experience and explain God through their scientific discoveries. While other scientists, are convinced that the knowledge they have gained in fact explains away God. But perhaps such is destiny, and the existence of the karmic opposites is a necessary outline, a border by which we distinguish our knowledge, understanding and ultimately, faith.

You know he is smart when he can write and read squiggly mathematical equations.
My own mathematical ability is on par with the Great Apes - One, Two, Many...

Prof Jim. Professor Jim Al-Khalili of the University of Surrey, UK, is a famed theoretical physicist. He is also a well-known broadcaster and writer and has hosted many BBC documentaries on Science. In one fascinating documentary, Jim opened up the important contribution of Muslim scholars during the times of the Baghdad and Spanish Umayad Caliphates, and how these brilliant Muslims affected the world of mathematics, physics, chemistry, astronomy and engineering even to this day. But for now, I am keen to share with you another of his documentaries, which is about the nature of energy in the Universe, and how through the natural flow of order to disorder, this world and everything here was enabled and created. You will be exposed to the Laws of Thermodynamics, the history of their discoveries by the great European minds. And at the end Jim even hints at what lay ahead for humanity, involving the creation of a mini-Sun, right here on Earth (Good luck with that). You can watch it by clicking Here.

The above prose 'The One Absolute Truth : The True Absolute One' was written after viewing the documentary. Perhaps after watching it, you will understand why, despite the good Professor not mentioning anything about God at all in this particular program, he still inspired me to think about God and His ordering (and disordering) of this Universe of ours. Fascinating stuff...

Have a lovely day, sunshine.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

HE HU NEVER LETS US SINNERS DOWN - The Ramadan Story, Part 12

Uh oh. That's a lot of candles!

Numbers. Numbers are important. Especially to God, for it is through bearing witness to His Absolute Oneness and Utter Uniqueness (which is even beyond our bare estimation of what is common and what is unique), that makes you a believer in Him, in our One God. What makes you on the way to be a Muslim (for it is of course a journey), is to bear witness that Muhammad bin Abdullah (s.a.w.s.), is His Messenger.  

Clingy. Numbers are important to me too. Especially yesterday, when I crossed the threshold of 42 into the brand new me of 43 years old. I don't know why, but since hitting 40 I feel like time is accelerating, and I am being flung across the time-space continuum when I am still barely getting over not being a 30-something. Dismayed by the ever increasing numbers of candles on my birthday cake, I am becoming more and more attached to the number One, a.k.a. Allah (s.w.t.), the Most Loving, Most Assuring One. Perhaps not just attached... perhaps even clingy... Oh God! Don't leave me to these distracting and confusing numbers! 

Clingy. You get this way with age. He he he.

One. But numbers can also be good fun (and a good read). For instance, do you know that the number of words that make up The Hobbit bestseller by J.R.R. Tolkien? It is 95,694 words according to Wiki.Answers.Com. And from this same source, I also found out that the number of pages of The Hobbit depends on what edition you have, but they tend to be somewhere in the range of 270 to 330 pages. The reason why I am sharing with you this oh-so-interesting information (wait, wait, don't fall asleep yet!) is because last night Heche gave me my birthday present. It was the entire book printed on a single poster. For a Lord of the Rings acolyte, this is considered Tolkien-nirvana.

You can't read it from this small jpeg, but it's all there... the entire book. The poster is jusr
below 4 feet tall and more than 2 feet wide I reckon. When framed it must be mounted
on a wall in a library. And just when I was thinking of ending my tenancy at the Hermitage in
the Sky, Heche gives me a reason to stay on. There is a library, you see, in the Hermitage.

One But Any Number and Beyond Infinity. We had my (second) birthday dinner at my neighbourhood Mamak (Indian-Muslim) restaurant which is well known more for its location and service than its food or drink (I am being honest here). It is a bare spartan establishment, but I have had many a cuppa there and for this birthday I just wanted something friendly and familiar. So myself, Heche, Fifi, Efa and Kamarul purchased some food from the Ramadan Bazaar and enjoyed a cheerful break-fast there, thanks to the flexible interpretation of the no-outside-food rule by Iqbal the manager. So you see, the number 6 made me very happy yesterday too. For God is indeed the One, but when it comes to blessings, His measure is any number and beyond infinity.

HU. Allah (s.w.t.) is Hu (He). And Hu is He Hu never lets us down... masyaAllah, even if I am just a dog barking at the door of the Master.

Woof Woof!

That is sinner talk to mean "Right now I am simply happy. Thank you."

I was alone in the rain. Then You came and said You were my Friend.

Have a lovely day today, sunshine, and while you are at it, have a nice life too. For only God can truly compensate you for finding a place in your heart for an incorrigible sinner like me. Woof woof!

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

ATHEISTS, THE LAST ROMANTICS - of science, knowledge, mathematics, probabilities, nothingness, atheism and all creation of God Almighty

"Yes... you have a question to ask me?" inquired the World.

11. It is sometimes

The world is ready with all the answers

To your most intimate query.

And the world itself is also an answer.

Only you must know the right questions to ask.

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

 A friend tells me that (one of) the key of happiness is finding the right answers. But before we begin that quest, we must first learn the right questions to ask. And often enough, the questions are the basic and common inquiry of the human mind - Who am I? Where did I come from? Who or what created me?

Atheists like to say that chance created humanity. However unlikely and improbable the chance of that happening as they speculate by their limited sciences. 

It sounds boring, but when they conjure and weave the baffling mathematical probabilities, it is almost magical, elegant even, this thing that they call chance.

But chance is also a creation of God. And so is mathematics and the physical sciences. I do not understand the scientific paradigm by which humanity choose to interpret the world and the existence or non-existence of God, when all knowledge that are unknown and yet to be discovered are all flowing from the creation of God, and His Existence exists separate from 'knowledge'.

Atheists are the last real romantics, I guess. Infatuated by the little drop of knowledge that they feel they alone have discovered, as if their knowledge was conjured out from nothingness by nothingness.

And even 'nothing' and 'nothingness' is a creation of God. Just like 'disbelief' and 'atheism'.

By their existence they affirm the existence of God, and reaffirm the intimate relationship between God and His creation, and yea... even Atheists, those poor romantics.

He he he.

Have a lovely day, sunshine. Find a question to ask the Universe.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

THE DAUGHTERS OF EVE - Allah through their light, beauty and love...

The Daughters of Eve

First I knew the Daughters of Eve

As the ones of great love, mercy and benevolence, 

Tireless in love, unconquerable in adversity.

Later I knew the Daughters of Eve

As great youthful beauties,

Unapproachable and only to be

Admired from a distance.

Older, I came to know the Daughters of Eve

As wholly human just like me,

But unlike in so many ways,

Captivating in their loveliness,

Their voices and curves.

As I grew foolish, I came to see the Daughters of Eve

As a vessel of both beauty and vanity,

Foolish and wise, safe and dangerous,

And I blamed the Daughters for making

Too much noise, distracting me from

My pursuit of God.

In this foolishness, long did I prevail...

Until a saint took pity and threw an apple at my head,

And I realised, "Oh dear... all the noise created

Was in my head, and I am to be blamed after all!"

So I sat quietly, sullen and a little ashamed.

Finally, one day an anonymous soul wrote

On the walls of my thoughts...

"For the one who knows, there is no noise, no distraction

For in the pursuit of Allah, even the distractions are all Allah..."

So now... when I see the Daughters of Eve,

In all their manifestations of grace and mortality,

In all their divine beauty and inflections, 

I say to myself, "Allah... Allah... Allah..."

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

God has anointed for the Sons of Adam a partner of amazing conditions and abilities - Our mothers, our sisters, our daughters, aunties, cousins and nieces, our wives, friends and lovers. 

Woman. Lo, that we do not presume to know her completely. For the secret of her creation is unknown, when Adam (a.s.) was sent into a sleep which only God knows is long or short. Lo, that we do not presume to encompass  the knowledge of Mary Mother of Jesus, of Aminah the Mother of the Prophet Muhammad, of Khadijah, of Aishah, of any of the wives of the Prophet. Nor should we presume to understand the maqam (spiritual station) of Fatima az-Zahra, the blessed Daughter of the Prophet Muhammad... not when her marriage dowry to Saydeena Ali was salvation for the entire Nation of Muhammad(s.a.w.s).

We men do not try to presume knowledge of thee, o' Daughter of Eve. We seek only to show thee the beautiful adab (good manners) deserving of thee. So if we err (which is our wont), forgive us and do not mark us too harshly with thy judgment. Show us the mercy that is within you, just as God Almighty has dressed you with great beauty and attraction flowing from thy mother Eve.

And what of Eve (a.s.) herself? She was the fount and vessel of
all beauty that will after her be born of women. So although artists will
depict her beauty as is the taste of beauty prevalent in their time, the truth is
simply that the depiction of the Beauty of Eve is unapproachable by the human hand,
not unless that hand can depict all womanly beauty manifested through all the ages.
May Allah bless Eve always. Had she not been created, we would not be here today.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

How will the Created encompass the Creator? - knowledge without vanity, fighting the burning cliches of atheism and revolutions

He Hides, He Loves & He Asks…

My Lord hides in the quiver of a smile,

My Lord hides in the loveliness of a child,

My Lord hides in the honesty of my father,

My Lord hides in the sweetness of my mother,

My Lord hides in the books I have read,

My Lord hides in the friends I have kept,

My Lord hides in the laughter of my happiness,

My Lord hides in the shadows of my regret,

My Lord hides in the spring in my steps,

My Lord hides in the fever of my illness,

My Lord hides in the tears that I have wept,

My Lord hides in my certainty and wariness,

My Lord hides with the clouds in the sky,

My Lord hides with me, wherever I am,

My Lord hides with me however I try Him,

My Lord hides in the ink of my pen,

My Lord hides in the wisdom of the wise,

My Lord hides in my house and my family,

My Lord hides even in my enemy’s eyes,

He hides, He loves and He asks…

“o' My servant, do you not see Me?”

…………………

Knowledge. Truth. Beauty. Love. Mercy. All these attributes of life and this world is naught but a sign. A door. A gate through which you may find infinite knowledge, infinite truths, infinite beauty, infinite love and infinite mercy without comparison that is our Lord God. And even in the trials and tribulations of our times, even in the heart of our most ardent enemies, you may find God. For nothing may exist and persist without His will. 

It is the folly of humanity. These new thinkers thinking 'new ideas' that are in truth cliches and rehash of past rebellions... Rebelling for the sake of rebelling. Being different for the sake of being different and casting aspersions upon people's faith in God. Atheists and revolutionaries and reformers often impute that believers (of whatever creed) are foolish, conservative and hidebound to traditions and unimaginative. But we can make the same accusation also. For their burning flags and mobs are also burning cliches... nothing is new under the Sun.

Is it not they who are unimaginative instead? Thinking God's existence and breadth of planning as framed within the confines of His creation? But how can a building encompass the builder? How may a book encompass the writer and how will a poem encompass the poet? These simple examples are clear and apparent for those who would reason without vanity. 

May we all, sunshine, be there... guided by God, He who exists beyond the mortal thoughts and ideas that He permits to manifest in this world. Sorrowful and lost are those who decipher such thoughts and ideas but are blinded by the hubris of the little understanding that they have gained.

Always, I seek refuge in Him from the folly of such pride. Pray for me, please...

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

Speak to Him... awake or in your nightly dream...

Break the Silence

Talk to Him,

Talk to Him However Way You Want to...

Through your Prayer,

Through Your huMan Tears and holy Hymn,

Break THe siLence,

And talk to HiM...

eVEN in your nightly Dreams...

For though your lips stay stubbornly silent,

Your Soul may yet find its ReAl appearance, 

And while you fall asleep like a Heathen

Your DreaM takes its path to Heaven.

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

Life is about conversations about God and with God. And it is meant to be a two-way communications. A dialogue. And even if we are naughty and negligent in our prayers, does God turn away? Is our connection to Him severed?

So long as there is a single breath animating us, there is a link. For God is unlike us, whimsical and often arbitrary in our actions. "I am closer to you than your jugular vein", God expresses Himself clearly in the Holy Quran. Therefore, the only question is whether you are up to the task of accessing and filtering the information downloaded from the Divine Presence on a daily, second by microsecond basis. 

And this happens even in our sleep, as our spirit partially (and temporarily) relinquishes its worldly passport to find some divine sustenance from the Fountain of Knowledge. For this world is indeed a mere journey from our real home in the beautiful meadows of God's Divine Presence. And one day (and may such a day be blessed!), our worldly passport shall indeed expire and we will be invited home to the  place of honour as a weak servant in the Heavenly Court of God - Creator and Lord of all mankind.

This is something the Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.s.) teaches his followers. This is not just a journey for the Muslims, this is a journey fated for all humanity. So let us be nice to everyone sharing our travel!

Uh oh... and lest I forget, here is wishing all my Hindu brothers and sisters a wonderful Deepavali!

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in  Islam

Love will show the Way

The Tree of Love - Subhanim Allah Sultanim Allah Nabim Muhammad alayhi salam

To Set This Love Free

I have waited for you for so long,

I have patiently bided my time

Under this tree,

Until my shadow is the tree’s shadow,

Until my skin is the tree’s bark,

My feet, its roots,

My hands, its limb and branch

Reaching up to the sky

For you…

Oh my sweet,

Oh my love,

Oh my gentle star,

Shining on me

From your abode above,

Praising you and waiting

Till I am no more,

My branches withered and broken,

My feet uprooted from the earth,

My leaf dry and dying on the ground,

As nations rise and fall,

Towers are built and broken down, 

I shall always be waiting for you,

To return to you once again,

As a man, or as a tree,

To my Maker, My Love,

My Beloved,

My God… and

To set this love finally,

And completely

Free.

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

Prose Post Script - I have set my love, infinite in its breadth for He who is infinite in His breadth. I have set my root and lonely branches for He who has an infinity to assure me of His love. I have set my hopes and my highest praise upon He who shall never wither in winter, in Whose name the flowers of the worlds bloom in spring, in Whose glory the Sun shines the brightest in summer, and in Whose silent praises that my golden, yellow and red leaves fall to the earth in autumn, prostrating before His infinite Mercy for the trees.

Thank you for dropping by, sunshine. Have a lovely day, sharing this world with the love that even the trees themselves recognise. Subhanim Allah, Sultanim Allah, Nabim Muhammad alayhi salam.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way 

Sinners Guide to Reading the News and The Agenda of Inclusiveness

Pick your Agenda. Or in the new world of data-mining your internet history,
the Agenda will pick you. He he he.

As part of his mandatory community service to pay for all his past sins, this sinner is compiling some rules for reading and watching the news. It is a one-size fit-all baseball cap to fine tune your brain in reading and distilling the vast 'information' tsunami pouring out of the newspapers, internet and television...

Rule 1: Facts are not Neutral. It sits in an Agenda.

Rule 2: Yes. Everyone has an Agenda. Even Julian Assange. 

Rule 3: If you are reading or watching any particular News, you are likely the target of the Agenda.

Rule 4: Don’t just watch the News. Read the stories behind the News. And the stories behind the stories.

Rule 5: Business News – There is no such thing as pure price discovery (there never was, to be quite honest), only price propaganda for the Agenda.

Rule 6: Don’t react. Think about your reaction. This will scupper the Agenda.

Rule 7: When did mainstream become mainstream? But both mainstream and alternative news sites have their own Agenda. 

Rule 8: Advertizing and Psycho-technics - News are advertisements for the Agenda, and driven by the Agenda. 

Rule 9: There are no real News Reporters, per se. Only News Makers. So even Journalism advances an Agenda.

Rule 10: So what is the Agenda then, Mr. Smarty-pants?

Yes, sunshine. Even these guys have an agenda (or agendas),

Good question. Some agendas are well documented and follows the normal grain of ideology, race and religion. You know... right wing, left wing, centrist, nationalists, patriotism, Atheism, religion, race, socialism, communism, capitalism and all other sorts of -isms that mankind has created to mirror their views and unfortunately divide humanity. 

I too have an agenda. I am just not too sure what it is. I am a Muslim, I am a Malay, so there are some beliefs that I lean towards. I like to eat. I don't like conflict. I can be lazy sometimes. I have diabetes. Like it or not, your entire person influences your thoughts and aspirations. I like to write. I like to sketch. I love music. Even Kylie Minogue and Abba (I think Abba is so underrated). All this forms the foundation on which I write this Almanac. But above all this (I would like to believe, I may be fooling myself after all. I don't discount that possibility), I am most fond of the teachings and experiences from the Sufi Masters and friends that I am aware of. For however I define what I am, the inclusiveness taught to me by these fine fellows helps me break down the walls that we sometimes prop up because of our own origin, upbringing and social, ideological and religious prejudices.

So people may talk to you about this Islam and that Islam, this Muslim and that non-Muslim. But things are not as simple as that. If you are a Muslim, and if you believe that the Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.s.) is the Seal of the Prophets, the Prophet for the End of Time and God's anointed Mercy to all the World(s) and all the Creatures, then a sense inclusiveness must play some part in your faith. And this sense must encompass all mankind, whatever their piety, creed, race or religion. And this also includes the animals and the natural environment of the world.

I guess this is my agenda (for now). Inclusiveness. It is not about agreeing about everything. It is about agreeing to sometimes disagree. Isn't this what the Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.s) has taught you, o' Muslims? O' Arabs?

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

Thank you, for praying for me - Sleep, Life, Death, The Tapestry Divine, God and His Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.s.)

Thank you, for praying for me. In whatever way you may be praying...

Awake. After a night’s rest of the mini-death that we call ‘sleep’ I am awake once again. And I am not dead. God has decided NOT to finally end my ill-used life, my wasted hours, my neglected prayers, my poor facsimile of a good human being (what more a Muslim…), my crowing cockerel on top the heaps of my foolish deeds, my failed attempts to virtue, my successful claim as a sinner, my growing record of mistakes… in other words, God has delayed the termination of my mortal life for one more day.

I don’t remember praying for this. I don’t remember asking God last night, “Ohhh… Lord… please don’t end me yet. Not when I am like this… not when I have so many things I wish to do… so many missteps to correct, so many defeats to reverse, so many promises to keep… oooh God… pleeease… Amen.” No, I did not do that, instead the last words I heard was a documentary on RBS (Royal Bank of Scotland)…”acquisitions… NatWest Bank… Citizens… entering large market in Chicago… failure in risk management… cost-cutting… 2008… mortgage derivatives… bla bla bla…” . Then my eyes slowly closed and to sleep I fell.

So someone must have been praying for me instead. Was it you?

Thank you, sunshine. Preachers and clerics often tell us, “Pray! Pray! Pray!”. But sometimes (if not all the time), our existence in this world, is carried upon the prayers of others. They are easily recognizable, the prayers of our fathers and mothers, our aunties and uncles, our brothers, sisters, cousins and friends. But above all of these ‘others’, in the highest firmament of love and compassion, there in the Divine Presence of God, the prayer for us is being recited by our Master, Muhammad Prophet of God(s.a.w.s.), Warner and Bringer of the Good Tidings of God upon All Creation, anointed Mercy to all the world(s). He was nigh but a mere orphan, poverty-stricken, but his prayers is heard by God. Alhamdulillah always…

But I am thankful for all prayers that come springing my way. They are like little flowers of spring blooming upon the path through a Meadow of Light. So, thank you.

Generally... I may not know you specifically, but by Allah, I know you generally at least. You are my brothers and sisters united in the worship of the One God, however you may be dressed in such worship – whether you say you are a Muslim, a Christian, a Jew, a Buddhist, a Hindu, a Sikh... in the many colourful ways that Humanity calls upon our One God. The Tapestry Divine.

It is my hope to know each one of you, specifically. If not in this life, surely the Lord will bring us together at the Good Place where the Good People meet. I may not be one of the Good People, but I believe you are one, sunshine… so your prayers for me will bring me to you. Wherever you are.

Ameen.

Wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

Far Beyond the Shores of Mortal Thoughts... sailing the Ocean of Belief

The Shore of Understanding and the Ocean of Belief

Understanding has its limits,

Belief has no limits,

It has oceans, and when you reach

The end of one, another ocean

Opens up for you to sail,

And another, and another.

Sometimes, in the quietness

Of the early morning,

When everyone else's asleep,

I would stand in the mirror

And look to my day’s words and deeds,

And verily, I would shake my head

And address myself, saying,

“O’ you weak fool. I sometimes do not

Understand you at all!”

So how far outside our skin do we

Have any knowledge, when we are

Limited by our own understanding

Of who and what we are?

This is where I often meet my Master,

In the ocean of belief,

With angel-like seagulls flying above,

But I am not catching any fish!

I try to keep close to the familiar,

Hugging the coastline of my own understanding,

Fearing the unknown, but ever the Master

Sends the wind of belief, and whether I like it or not,

My ship’s sail is catching his prayers,

Billowing in the divine breeze of God,

And my ship is entering further and further

Into the Ocean of Belief, 

Far beyond the shores of mortal thoughts.

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

Sometimes, things happen beyond the normal. It is not abnormal, but it is strange for the course of existence that we would like to take. But the truth is, we cannot have everything our way (thank God!). So we should take some hope that wherever the wind blows our soul towards, it is anywhere and everywhere the Ocean of God, if we would only surrender our own plans and conspiracies and accept the infinite Ocean of Belief.

Where you are right now. Whatever you may be doing, and whomever you are with. All these things occur for a reason. Believe that you are on your way to the Divine Presence, and you will be...

Have a lovely day, sunshine. Happy sailing!

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

I will not bow my head to the God called Facts - Human Perception, Good Manners, Ego and the Unity of Mankind

The God called Facts. If you follow the social media websites, blogs, postings and commentaries of Atheists, you will notice that they too believe in God. Well, not exactly God, but the God called Facts... Evolution is fact, they will say. Intelligent Design is not fact, they will insist. God does not exist, and that is fact they will argue. Religious strife appears to be the sole and only cause of violence and war, and facts prove this, they will say. And on, and on and on they refer to Mr. Fact and his omnipotent all-conquering remit. 

But facts are entirely what a human being perceives them to be. So actually, they are not relying on facts but human perception. Just as how believers also construct their own world-view with God in the centre and humanity orbiting around the Divine Presence. Thus, however entrenched anyone may be in their belief in God and their religion,  or their disbelief in God and their belief in their dogmas and isms (socialism, capitalism, democracy, positivism, atheism, whatever...), all are united in use of the medium of human perception. What disunites Mankind is the conclusion of such subjective perceptions. And this encompasses scientists also - 

The Scientists

Some scientists use their knowledge to explain God

While other scientists use their knowledge to explain away God

In the course of our lives, we will drift between different points of view. I for one, can be seen as a progressive today, the next a traditionalist, tomorrow a firm conservative, and next week an unapologetic liberal. But however I may drift I return to the centre of all human feelings, thoughts and conjecture - the Human Heart. 

'Adab'

I like Islam because the Islam I am taught teaches me this balance and gives me a point of focus - the Holy Quran and the Sunnah (traditions) of the Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.). But this two source of my happiness and contentment ultimately revolves upon Adab (good manners and courtesies). For Adab is the ultimate saviour of Mankind. For however we may disagree between one another, between Jews and Christians, Muslims and Jews, Atheists and Agnostics, Atheists and Believers of God, at the end of the day, we are trained to accept that people are different. And each one of us have our own paths to travel, our own destinies to make (or unmake), our rights to do and our wrongs to deflect. It is only when good manners break down between us that we act in anger, bitterness and hubris... reaching for the sword, the gun, the drones, the missiles and the nuclear button.

'When Adab ends'

Adab is absolutely important in all parts of our daily lives - how we entreat with God Himself, how we treat each other, other creatures and the environment, everything is based upon Adab. Or at least it should be.

Let me confess that I do not have very good Adab. Heche tells me that I can be very bitter sometimes (this is true) and can get mad over petty things. But (I hope) I am anchored upon some simple rules that the Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.) teaches all humanity - maintain good manners in all occasions, and if you fail, as we are wont to do, being all too human, try and learn from it and seek forgiveness from the person we have aggrieved, whether by our words or deeds.

So the God that I worship teaches me this. I will not bow my head to the God called Facts, for the God called Facts is in truth the God of Human Perception, who by any other name can be known as the Ego. I wish Atheists could see this simple danger that is forever attempting to usurp their good manners. I say this because I have the unfortunate habit of bumping into Atheist iconic personalities being so darn swarmy and oh-so condescending on believers, especially towards Christians of the West. 

Oh well, we can only do so much, I guess. God bless you, sunshine and may you have a restful Sunday.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way