UN AMOUR INFINI (ENDLESS LOVE) - God, Love Songs and the Petri Dish

By logic, endless love comes only through endless waiting.
But you need not wait so long.
Read on and have hope!

His Alone

Give up the ghost 

For any description

Beginning with "Most..."

Never and Forever is He,

Endless and Eternal is He,

Absolute and Permanent is He,

Any claim of ours to the contrary

Is plain human boast.

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

In the Beginning. I have always wondered what some words actually mean. Words whose meaning suggests a never-ending character such as 'never', 'forever', 'endless' or 'permanent', Even a word such as "absolute". After all, what is the standard of 'absolute'? For 'absolute' also suggests a condition or character which is beyond reproach or questioning. And the same goes also to phrases beginning with 'most' such as 'most beautiful', 'most wise' etc.

Petri Dish. The truth of the matter is such words are really meaningless when applied to our human condition, and to the reality of this world we inhabit. For we are unable to ascertain with certainty what these words are, ...after all, who among us have actually experienced or observed eternity or even permanence? Long before eternity ends, you, your children and grandchilden, your one thousandth future generation  have all perished. You cannot observe eternity in the petri dish of human limitations. By their very meaning these words are beyond human observation and all we can do is really, only speculate.

Infinity in a petri dish? Oh, I think not...

Love Songs. It is also interesting that such words adorn our love songs, that prose and rhymes which extols our love for one another, especially the romance between a man and a woman. But in the case of love songs, letters and poems, the repeated allusions to 'our infinite love', 'our eternal devotion, 'or unchanging feelings' for a man or a woman is not speculation. When the singer sings his eternal love for the maiden, he is actually singing a promise and a vow couched as a fact. 

He he he. Oh, the things we do and say for our amour... 

I love this song. Often, it makes me think of God and the Prophet.
As you can see in the album cover, hairstyles and fashion come and go...
but His Love truly is eternal and endless.

Whether you are in love and trying to guess at the 'endless depth' of a woman, or whether you are a quantum physicist trying to understand the 'infinite gravity' of a black hole, I think we should be pretty honest to ourselves here and stop suggesting that we can encompass the endless and the infinite. Or that we can even begin to imagine what never and forever means. Our mind is simply not built that way, framed as it is within our vast but still very much limited intellect.

Where God Continues...

Where endless and eternity ends,

Where never and forever expires,

Where absolute and permanence stops,

That is where my Lord and Love continues...

And continues... and

Continues...

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

Better and Better. I have not found love nor science to be dulled if I am able to experience both through God Almighty. Actually, I have found love to be more meaningful, passionate and real. And I have found the accumulation of scientific knowledge far more exciting and thrilling, Because both roads are leading me to Him...

Naught that I turn to that the path does not wind its way inevitably towards Allah (swt). And the brightest lamp shining in the celestial sky, lighting our travel is His beloved Nabi Muhammad (saw).

Notrumi, 15th April 2014.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

HAPPINESS & THE SWEETNESS OF SERVANTHOOD -being a slave to God all-Eternal vs being a slave to logos

Happiness & the Sweetness of Servanthood
Why pursue happiness,
When happiness itself will pursue you
If you devote yourself to
The sweetness of servanthood?
.......................

Slave to the Logos. I have been selling myself short, sunshine. The fool that I am, to be hoodwinked by this world, and by the wasteful consumer society that we have become. To become a slave to the logos, brands, trends, fads, and the illusion of human progress. 

A very, very smart lady who has written a best-selling book on
advertising and consumerism. Worth a read, I reckon.

The Meaning of Happiness. So we seek happiness by buying whatever Madison Avenue advertising companies are selling, and by voting whatever faddish trends are being promoted by politicians. But what is the happiness we find? Is the happiness being sold by the corporations and politicians permanent and completely fulfilling? Or is it really a temporary form of self gratification?

As one servant to another, help me...

Transient Nature. By the nature of everything conceived in Creation, it is all transient. So your feeling of joy at getting the latest iPhone, or satisfaction by voting in the most attractive candidate into office are both transient, temporary emotions. 

In this World and in the Hereafter. If we seek contentment (as opposed to gratification), it is useless to try and plant our hopes on our turbulent emotions and feelings. For they rise and ebb according to our circumstances at any given moment. That is why, our Beloved Prophet Muhammad (saws) has brought the ideal of servanthood into our central core of living - servanthood to humanity, animals, the natural world and ultimately, to our One Creator, God.

As a typical consumer, I am greatly distracted from servanthood by my own selfish need for gratification. But then, I am not the sort to leave 'civilization' and bunker down in some cave up some lonely mountain. So a sense of proportions and balance must be achieved. This, I cannot do alone...

Help me and pray for me always, sunshine. I am in need of your good wishes and good examples.

I ask this of you, as one servant to another...

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

A LIFE IN ETERNITY

Life in Eternity

Time, ticking slowly on the wall is an illusion

For those who have awaken to the realisation

That eternity has already begun...

And thus they are already living a life in eternity,

So what ails thee that 

they may wear this garb or that garb?

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

You! Here?! I think we best overcome the test of this life when we know that each and every single person that we meet, we shall meet in the afterlife. Imagine that! Having to spend an eternity with the neighbour you hate, or the mother-in-law you dislike, or the love rival you detest. Thus, it would be good to keep our report book clean and unblemished, no secret hatred, no malice, no condemnation on another fellow human being. It is hard... but we must try, yes?

Alhamdulillah! And it is also good to remember that we shall also be reunited with our dearly departed - our mothers and fathers who cared for us. Our sisters and brother... friends, cousins, aunts and uncles. And our masters, to whom we have sworn love and devotion. We only ask that we are blessed with mercy (for we have done so many sins and forgotten ourselves), so that we are brought to the company of the saints and the saintly, and into the Divine Presence of Allah (swt) and His Beloved Muhammad (saws).

al-fatiha...

Goodnight, sunshine. Have a beautiful eternity tomorrow and everlasting...

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 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 

Death Beneath the Bowing Eaves

A MEETING
I came to see you, 
Beneath the bowing eaves
Of the willow trees, 
Bent in praise to the Lord,

I greeted you kindly, 
But your downcast eyes
Did not see me at all,
Cast in pearly tears
For a life spent
Looking for love
All your weary years,

Beneath your emerald robe
Rivers of sadness streamed,
Above your noble head
Was tied a turban 
Of strange symmetry,

Two roses keep your company,
Burnished white and crimson,
The shy fleeting prayers
From two constellations,

At the end of the river
Two clouds form
Like a burial wreath,
For all your trials,
Your poverty, your sickness
And your wealth,

Now finally, you looked up
And you saw me,
And then you said,
"O Death...?"   

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

Prepping for death. I am advised that all I need to know about life is that it is best spent preparing for death. For that moment not to be hastened or delayed when we are introduced to Mr. D himself. But waitaminute... my mistake, it is not about prepping ourselves for death, but for the life after death. "I am but a door." Death says.

Evil does not win by death. In the ancient and modern take of life and death, I find it interesting that ghosts, demons and all sorts of nefarious creatures (including mankind also) are treated to have succeeded in their wickedness if they are able to terminate the life of the hero / heroine / innocent in a story. You will find this in the oldest folklore and you can watch it in the most contemporary horror films. For a believer, death is not a dice game between good and evil. For these fellows death is a threshold to a homecoming, as birth is a witness to a sorrowful parting.  

Azrael (Izra'il) Mr. Death is no servant of the wicked or evil. As an Arch Angel of God, he gets his instructions from the Divine Presence. And no doubt a piece of paper with our names scribbled will one day pass into his angelic In-Tray. InsyaAllah, may we all end in a good passing, at the end of a life beautifully lived as a servant of God and humanity. You know... to be remembered as good sorta chap (or chapette).

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

The Good News and the Good Ending - the thing about talking with God is to not interrupt Him...

Talking with God is always a knotty matter. But with patience
you can unravel the most beautiful of meanings... God

Set No Limit to My Love

My servant, My love, My friend…

Why are you sad and despondent,

Why are you angry and bitter,

Sorrowful and full of woe

Listening to what I am sharing with you?

For I have not finished speaking

And never will I...

As I am deeply, sincerely

And ever faithfully in love with you…

Not a step that you take,

Not a breath that you inhale and exhale

That is not in My plan for you,

So despair not if despair comes calling,

So worry not if you hear trouble

Knocking on your door,

For it will always be Me, your Lord, your God

Who shall always love you,

Forever more,

This you would know if only

You would let Me finish speaking...

So give glad tidings to those who would listen,

That I am this way, and I am the Right way,

The God that they forgot,

Who loves them, Who loves you,

With a Love that is beyond what you may think

To be a fair and true,

For I am the Most Fair,

I am the One Most Lovely,

And My name is Truth itself,

So set not any limit of Love unto Me.

Because I have no limit set unto Myself,

…………………………..

6am. I am sitting hear in my room, waiting for the birds outside my window to sing the songs of Dawn. They do it every morning like clockwork.

Last Saturday morning I spent some time listening to a dear friend, an old and ancient soul. "Do you know what is the source of human sorrow, hate, anger and despair?" He said. "It is firstly because Man sets limits on God's Love. And secondly, it is because they like to interrupt His speech and come to a premature conclusion. Because if life, both mortal and eternal, can be defined, it is an abiding and constant conversation between you and God. And all the bitter and hateful episodes in this life is attributable solely on your premature judgment on what God is saying to you."

I thought over what he said. And it is true. So true. Now the only thing is the patient contemplation to wait for the Good News and the Good Ending that God wants to share with us. I am good (some people say) at contemplation. But I am the first to admit that patience doesn't come easy. So perhaps there is some spade work for us to labour here in this world. Yet if you recall, are you not talking with God already? So truth be told, how can you not already be a winner...? We need simply to listen to Him. And not interrupt.

Don't you agree, sunshine?

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

Have a Lovely Eternity - Muhammad, My Only Other

"Hold me, and of me never let go. Say my name and never stop,
For I am nothing unless my name is on your lips..."

1. MUHAMMAD, MY ONLY OTHER

We are farmers,

Busy making Hayys

while the Sun is

still shining.

We are writers,

busy writing books

while the ink

is still running.

We are singers,

busy singing mauluds

while the

music is still playing.

We are the Masters,

busy calling on to people

while the Prophet

is still calling.

I am Muhammad,

busy guiding my nation

while a single soul

is still abiding.

I am God,

Uncreated, Undying.

and there is no pause nor whiles

in my Absolute Love.

Know whom I Love,

Then, you will know Me.

I am the One Unique,

and He My Only Other.

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

Belief in one God makes you a Believer, belief in the Prophet Muhammad makes you a Muslim. The hunger pangs that you suffer and the satisfaction of a full belly makes you human. The yearning to know who you are and your Maker makes you a soul, because only a small part of your soul inhabits your present body, the rest remaining in the Divine Presence of God. For the truth of the matter is if God is the Most Lovely, the most Compelling, the Owner of Absolute Attraction, how could you have ever left His presence?

So this life, this struggle, these worldly tests and lessons you are going through now is only for the benefit of your earthly soul. And thus the Devil is fighting only a little shadow of who you actually are, your substantial essence being the heavenly soul with God and the Prophet.

So make hay while the Sun is shining in this Universe, for one day the Sun itself will die away, and however glorious and life-giving it may be now, it shall only be a little starry milestone in the eternity that you shall have to discover God and Muhammad, His Only Other. And don't you see, eternity has begun already?

Have a lovely eternity, sunshine.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

The Talkative Dead - Garden of Stones Part 1

The Talkative Dead

The world does not understand us. When the world disappoints us and appears unfair, we simply unfurl our wings, flex our feathered appendages and fly. We return to the Garden of Stones, a place of homecoming soon to be ours, and we listen to the voices of the dead. They are very talkative, if you listen careful enough...

“If you are not preparing for your inevitable death, you are not living well enough.” Says one.
“Aim high, tackle low.” Says another.
“Mind the planet, you are joining us but your children will still be needing it.” Adds a former green activist.
“Be grateful for everything, even the most dire events, because everything comes from God, and He would not have let it happen to you were He not confident in you and your promise.” Says a Guru.
“Don’t eat too much chicken. Or beef. In fact, don’t you think you have had enough?” Says a dead Vegan.
“Think before you speak.” Advises a spy.
“Find out who you are before you die. We are tired of explaining to the newly deceased who die without finding out.” Counsels a Saint.

Then finally, I heard, “Okay, stop feeling sorry for yourself. Make a good show of it, old boy. Don’t be deceived. And for God's sake, exercise!” Thus confides a dead friend who when he was alive regaled me with the most wonderful of stories. Mostly about God, the Prophet, Sufism and his (many) romantic entanglements with women. What a rascal was he! But a good, good chum. I think you know the sort, yes?

19. My love…

My love is a cradle,

And an epithet

Upon my tombstone.

Have a lovely day, sunshine.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

McIslam and Faux Faith

110. McIslam

I am not fond of fast food

Nor fast faith.

Not for me is the faux taste

Of McIslam.

Religion, any religion really, should be savoured like fine wine or a Cuban cigar. It is not something to be hurried. It should not be sold retail, on late-night television or at a 24 hours Super Faith-O-Mart.

If you have found a religion that is beautiful and delicate, intimate and cosmic, why act in haste? Everyday brings fresh new appraisal of our lives, our good and bad, our profound and comical. All reaching to the all-encompassing Love and Beauty of our One Lord.

So say no to McIslam. No to McChristianity, McBuddhism or McJudaism. Say hello to life-long (and eternal) interchange between the Creator and the Created (ergo, us). We don't actually have a choice over the matter... There is just no hurrying up God and His Plan. He will have His Way in His Time.

Have a good Monday, sunshine.

Hate has no place in Islam

God & The Door of Love - The Journey is the Destination

BIG PLANS. I have big plans. Really ambitious. I have decided to stop the bad habit of qualifying what I want by my age, my health and my wealth. I am throwing my hopes and aspirations as far as my furthest sight, and people will say that my dreams are a fool’s dream. I hope to raise the happiness and joy of people around me by several terabytes at least. If only people can get into my head, then they would see, they would not despair of my prayers and they would believe.

GOD’S PLAN. I was pondering about this when I started thinking about God. For unlike me, He has no Limit. Whether perceived or hidden limits. His Powers are endless, His choices are not really choices because there is no quantifiable limit to His choices. So what are His choices for us? I believe that God has an infinite ocean of happiness in store for us, only if we can believe in His Love.

WE ARE HERE ALREADY. And unlike me, we are all already living in His mind. Where as I cannot make people come into my mind. What dreams I have is wholly and exclusively my own until by some supreme effort of Fate, I am able to manifest that dream in real life. But God is different. We are already existing in His world. It is His creation that we live in, our bodies, our clothes, the ground that we walk on, the air that we breathe. Why, even the thoughts that we think and the feelings that curl in the most secret corner of our soul – All of it is manifested, whether physically or in spirit by His power.

UNHAPPY? So why are we unhappy, if we are already in His Most Benevolent world? Because we continue to act as if we are not. Forget awhile about what we think we know about what God wants of us. Let us discard theology for awhile and go back to the basics – Love. Compassion. Understanding. Tolerance. Courage. Chivalry. Honesty. Frankly, I think most of us are stumbling about blind like a bat because we are ignoring the sonar sense which God has granted us – our heart and conscience. The world appears to be dark and gloomy because we have made some poor judgment calls in our lives. And more often, it is because we choose to act upon our ego and leash our heart and conscience to the pillar of greed, hate and envy – these natural allies to our love-devouring ego.

So there is no need for a special invite by God. We are here already, you and I. In this most perfect planet called earth, and alive in this most perfect form created by God the All-Loving.

THE DOOR OF LOVE. 

(The journey is the destination)

I am told that if you desire God, 

You must follow your conscience and heart. 

For that is the only path to the Door of Love. 

But once you get there, you will be surprised. 

Because when you open the door, 

You will find that there is in fact nothing inside. 

For you are already 'in love'. 

With a Love unlike any other.

Wa min Allah at-taufiq

If God is Best, why settle for less? - Prose of Ramadhan Part 70

Why settle for less?
(Ramadhan Verses 35)
O' little man,
O' slave of your passion,
Do not choose in haste,
Whether in a state of delight
Or cold sorrow.

Pause and stay your choice,
Wait until tomorrow.

Give your most passionate deeds
For God, the only safe host
Of passion.

Do not burden people
With your undying, 
Give your yearning
To the Only True Undying.

Do not give your heart away
That most priceless treasure,
Give your heart unto Him
Who will give you more
Than your fair measure.

If God is Best,
Why settle for less?

If you love someone, let him/her be. If you love somebody, set them free - Sting had something to sing about that... (Click Here)

It is the able lover who will set his lover free. It is the able friend who will have the conviction of purpose, the certainty bordering madness who will set his friend free. Free from the chains of his words and actions, free from the tyranny of his cutting words. For a true friend will not feel hurt at all, he will feel love, and look beyond the words, seeing with the keen sight of a believer. Beware if you have such a friend or a lover. For he or she will see beyond your hurtful words and protestation. You shall not understand him or her fully, but you are blessed to have their company. For it is only with God are they truly happy, and they do not place the burden of their undying (fill in here... love / hope / trust / belief) in you. To them, you are always a reflection of God, however awful you can be. I am speaking as one who can be truly awful (just ask anybody) to his closest and dearest.

In any relationship between one person and another, God is not just a helpful third, God is, in truth, the One and Only, and we are naught but mirrors. Or so I am told.

Have a joyful Thursday night, my Mirror, my Trinity, my Love.

wa min Allah at-taufiq.