Inner Archery - where the arrow lands is already written by God Almighty even before we drew the bowstring and released the arrow

Inner Archery
I found myself at the archery field
Sending arrows on their way,
I found myself standing on the grass
Still wet with morning dew,
As the slumbering Earth
Awakes with power
For a new day,
Oh my friend, I wondered...
Where oh where are you!?

I found myself in the shaft,
In a quiver of arrows,
In their uncertain flight
To Hu knows where,
For once my part is done
And I have set the arrow free,
Wherever it lands 
Is where my Lord
Wants it to be,

I found myself in the company of a mad man,

Who insists that we were there that day,

Remaining steadfast on the Hill of Uhud,

And thus, I found myself and I found God,

Faithful to the last, standing amongst the good.

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

The Mystery of the Missing Toilet. After archery yesterday morning, I rushed into my house, leaving the bow and arrows in the car, distracted as I was by an urgent need to relieve my bladder. So much so that I did not even take off my sunglasses. I sped past my father still having breakfast at the dining area and entered the bathroom, not even pausing to turn on the bathroom lights. "Damn, it is dark!", I remember thinking to myself, "So dark that I could not even see the toilet!" And with that I deposited myself on a non-existent toilet and painfully onto the hard tiled floor. My coccyx (the tail end of the spine) is still sore, and thus you find me in my bedroom this morning and not shooting arrows. Still resting after the unfortunate accident.

It appears that my dad is having the toilet replaced, and the contractor has removed the toilet earlier yesterday morning. Of course, I don't blame anyone. No one could have imagined anyone so dumb so as to not notice a missing toilet. He he he.

But at least I am finally going to finish this posting (although sitting slightly awkwardly), thus you will know that I am still very much alive after days and days of no new postings in the almanac. There is always a silver lining in any grey cloud, yes?

Meant to be. I wish I did not fall in the bathroom yesterday. But it was meant to happen. Just like where the arrow lands is already written by Allah (swt) before we even drew the bowstring and released the arrow. And I hope I am accepting both fates with a light heart and loving acceptance of His plan. I am saying this because it is always a struggle when you have to sit with a sore buttocks and type this out. *Ouch!*

He he he.

Have a lovely day, sunshine. May Allah (swt) bless you and may the Prophet Muhammad (saws) support you in all your endeavours in life and love.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

THE HAND OF FATE - take the hand and make your fate

Love Regardless

If love didn't wake you up this morning,

Let love put you to sleep in the evening,

If love did not begin your conversation,

Let love still be its conclusion,

And if you began everything with love,

In prayer, leisure, work or play,

Then by God, let love end them all the same way!

With love, through love, in the Name of Love,

That is God and no one else 

To whom you turn and pray!

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

God has created the world with love, and filled it with infinite means and causes by which love may be displayed. This is very, very good. But this also means that this world is filled with many, many trials and tribulations, doubts, errors and corruption that will test your love. As this sinner recorded almost 10 years ago in a prose about our Beloved God Almighty...

55. Love Test

I am He who heals all wounds

I am He who cherishes the afflicted

I am He whom you claim to love

What is love if it is not tested?

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

So don't worry if you start something with love, only for it falls over the side into unlove and regret. You are still alive after all, and it is still in your hands to determine the contents of your destiny.

Love Test 2

O' My servants...

In My hand is the fate of all things,

So take My hand and have no fear

To lose everything that you hold dear!

For am I not the one you must hold dearest...?

Above and beyond any other?

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

We need not face up to the conniving enemy, our ego and hubris all alone. We need not be looking for God by our own little knowledge and caprice. For in the Hand of God are all His Prophets and Saints... So wherever you will find these holy souls, verily you will find Him. 

We seek support always in this and all our undertaking, from the Seal of the Prophets himself, Muhammad Sayyidina Safiyullah (s.a.w.s.) (the Intimate of God).

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

THE COMPLAINING ONE - The Ramadan Story, Part 3

There too, Allah Verily Goes

Give Him a moment in your day,

And Allah will give you an eternity,

Give Him a smile in your day,

And Allah will give you something worth smiling for,

Give Him an entry in your day,

And Allah will give you a thousand doors,

Give Him a word in your day,

And Allah will give you a chamber of echoes,

For wherever His servant goes,

There too, step by step, word by word,

With every sigh of contentment,

Allah verily goes.

For is He not 
Very best of company,
The very best of hosts?

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

It is coming into the third morning of Ramadan, and I would like to make a confession here.

I wish I was one of those who can submit to illness with a smile in his heart and faith in his bosom, whatever may happen. Instead, if I feel hurt, I will grimace and maybe even emit a pitiful groan. If I am in pain, I do not hide my pain. Instead I shamelessly parade my pain in front of my Lord... "Oh God, I am hurting here... real baaad!" I bitch, gripe, moan, complain and register my list of dissatisfaction with the Almighty, wherever and whenever it happens.

Physical pain has a way of making us forget temporarily, our blessings. And through the noise and litany of grievances, I guess there must be some good here. Even in this illness(es) that is affecting my Ramadan.

My only prayer to the Almighty (and I know that He is aware of this) is this...

4. Too good a disguise

Lord! Oh Lordly, Lordly Lord!

You say that in all hardship and trials

There lies a silver lining.

A blessing in disguise.

But please.

Don’t make the disguise so good

That I cannot finally see through it. 

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

Patience is often a molehill. A hillock or sometimes
a mighty mountain to climb.

Have a lovely healthy day, sunshine. Have a good one for me.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

GOD ASKS TO BE ASKED, SO ASK! - life-vocation, work and the Lord of Surprises, the All-Hearing (al-Sami), the Compeller (al-Jabbar)

Say... in the Name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful, then ask.

Give Me Forever

If the words of my language are not enough

To extol Your Beauty, Mercy and Magnificence,

Teach me another language that I might try!

If the charity of my deeds lie so low 

Compared to the charity of others,

Give me the means to do charity

Until I forget what my hands have given away

In Your Name!

If my work is transient until 

My real purpose is revealed,

Please do not delay disclosure

And share Your purpose for me!

If I am meant to be Your mathematician,

Oh Lord, teach me mathematics,

If I am meant to be a teacher,

Teach me patience and give me knowledge,

If I am meant to be a student,

Send me the righteous Imam,

If I am meant to build bridges,

Teach me physics and engineering,

If I am meant to praise You forever,

Give me words worthy for Your praise,

And give me forever!

Oh Lord, Oh Allah the Beautiful,

The Fountain of Unimaginable Source

Of Love, Compassion and Mercy!

Your generosity is bigger than the night sky

And bigger than my contemplation of what

Is bigger than the night sky!

You asked to be asked,

You asked to be sought,

You asked to be loved and praised,

So here am I,

Your weak, weak servant...

Asking You,

Seeking You,

Loving You,

Praising You...

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

Work and the Lord of Surprises. We are what we are now because it is fated. You are perhaps an engineer. Or a lawyer. Or a government servant. Or a banker. Or a stay-at-home philosopher. Or a trader. Or a soldier guarding the kitchen store against all comers. But whatever you may be right now, your job might not last forever. And perhaps it is a temporary-while-you-get-yourself-sorted-out career. Your true work, your divinely favoured purpose, specific for your natural talents and inclinations may be something totally different. God does these things for us... and I think it is good to always consider what He has planned for you in the future. As I said, it may be something totally surprising. 

For I have always contemplated God as the Lord of Surprises. And the surprises are always good ones, insyaAllah.

Beneath this Monday morning's overcast sky, strange incoherent thoughts assail me. It is not because of some spiritual-mystical reason. I am simply tired and sleepy. He he he. We humans are still caged in our mortal bodies, and susceptible to the weather, tiredness and lethargy, however lofty our sufi pretensions. Don't you agree?

Al-Sami, Al-Jabbar. I was contemplating the evening sky last night, in the hour of Maghrib (sunset prayers), and I said to God (after all, he always listens... being al-Sami - the all-Hearing), "You distract me to distraction, my Beloved God... with Your endless repertoire of Loveliness and Beauty that You manifest in the natural world. Every day, I feel compelled by Your work of utter Beauty (after all, he is the Compeller - al-Jabbar) and every day I find myself challenged to put into words what cannot be put into words - the Beauty of Creation that is all Your Own..."

I have such conversations with our One God. For He always listens. Like I said. 

May this Monday bring Beauty into your life. After all, Beauty closest to Allah (s.w.t.) came on a Monday many years ago when the Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.s.) was born.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

Tragedies and Tribulations, Happiness and Successes - attachment, detachment and God

The Angel is looking on Mankind, and wearily shaking its head thinking,
"Oh what has become of thee, Children of Adam and Eve...?"

1.      No loss, no win

Truth is come,

Will the heart withstand?

In the fastness of its hallowed pasture

Truth is here as a storm of hailstones,

As a dry and bitter drought,

Assailing your home,

Or whether Truth is here

As the teardrop of angels

In the morning rain?

Do we not always struggle in vain?

Looking to Truth as

Boon or bane?

When in truth, Truth is Truth

In whatever guise Truth

May come in,

And to surrender is to accept

That there is, in truth,

No loss, no win.

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

It is difficult not to consider winning or losing when in each moment of our lives we are torn between both emotions. Why, even some Angels of God applaud our victories and wearily shake their heads at our losses. 

But of course, the heavenly heralds only look unto our spiritual state, and how we respond to every twist and turn of fate, as truth is revealed, manifested in something 'good' for us, or something 'bad'.

Yesterday, I wrote that the human ego is a complex creature. And it is indeed complex because the very nature of this physical world which motivates and propels us towards some spiritual enlightenment. And the ego will take its share and dominate us whether we are facing tragedy and tribulation or happiness and success. Wherever the Angels may be, they only shake their heads when they see our natural fitrah (essence) towards goodness being clouded or totally swept aside by our ego. Out goes our happiness and generosity, and in comes our sorrow and selfishness.

I have been a little unbalanced of late. Which means that my own ego has  supplanted my heart as the guiding light. So I seek for solace in writing this to you, sunshine. And hoping that the Most Benevolent God, Lord of the Angels, shall notice and give me succour and aid in this times of my unhappiness. My 8 year old son notices it, I think, and Heche certainly does. I hope to ride my ship through this troubled sea and find calm waters once again. For however well I write these prose, I think I am losing and lost... And I am asking for help from Him, and from His Beloved Prophet, Muhammad ibn Abdullah (pbuh) to guide me.

Ameen.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

The Way of Muhammad, The Silk Road to God

On the Silk Road of God, my son is sometimes my companion,
sometimes my ward and trust, and sometimes my guide,
but I hope he shall always be with me.

Is it Love, or is it Something Else?

If you hear Love tell you,

"I do not know you..."

If you hear Love tell you,

"I do not care for you..."

If you hear Love tell you,

"I do not love you anymore..."

If you hear Love dismiss you,

"I am done with you...!"

You are only hearing yourself speak

On behalf of God because you cannot

Encompass what Love is to God,

Who by any other name is Love Personified

In means and ways that is beyond 

Man and the limitations of his mind!

But the heart of Man?

The heart of Man is another matter entirely,

For what issues of transcendental love

That may be pondered by the human heart

Is a secret known only to God and Muhammad!

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

God and Love. As a sinner I stumble and I make mistakes. And sometimes 'stumblings' and 'mistakes' come my way in the guise of accidents and unfortunate events. Like a flat tire. A parking summons. A letter of demand from the credit card company. A sickness. A death, even. All this sometimes make me wonder, even if only momentarily, "Why does this happen to me? Does God love me not?"

God is Love. But the truth is, if God is not Love Defined, then there is, in truth, a very short meaning to 'love' in our lives. Because otherwise, we shall have to limit our understanding to love within humanity only, with all our faults and indiscretions. 

Then Love has no End. I am happy to believe in God because Love becomes not a destination, but an unending journey with wonderful vistas to ponder over and profound and beautiful experiences for us to go through the many, many infinite layers of Love... as Love is subtly formed with each passing second of our life.

So I am always trying to learn Love / God. And be able to discern when it is my Lord that is speaking and when it is in fact my hurt or angry pride that is talking to me.

I have far to go. But I think there is no better path for humanity than this path. The Way of Muhammad, The Silk Road of God.

Keep me company, sunshine! I hate travelling alone!

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

The Karmic Junction, Deaths in Benghazi, the Cruel Salafi Ideology and the Coming of Archers of Sa'ad ibn Abi Waqqas

1. Orbiting around the Sun, looking up to the Stars

The Sun will orbit around you,
When you orbit around the Sun,
Truth will protect you,
When you protect Truth,
Mercy will save you,
When you save Mercy,
Love will love you,
When you love Love,
Kindness will welcome you,
When you welcome Kindness,
Honour will honour you,
When you honour Honour,
Forbearance will care for you,
When you care for forbearance,
The Stars will guide you,
When you look up to the Stars,
Muhammad will be your Captain,
When you obey your Captain,
God will be your God,
And for this,
You only need to ask.
.................

A Karmic Junction. Life is about reciprocity, a two-way street. A karmic junction where meets all our good and bad deeds, all our hopes and fears, and all our loves and hates. If left entirely to our own devices, the karmic junction would be the scene of our tragic crash, because, let's face it, we are not perfect, and often we err.

The Divine Modifier. Happily, above us and around and within us is God. The Divine Modifier of fate and just desserts, adjusting our lives, fine-tuning the events and incidents that make up our days, that we might learn of who we are, and be guided to Who He is - our Lord, our Love, our Creator.

Muhammad. And coming to the fabled end of this world, the Lord sent His most subtle agent, His anointed mercy to the worlds, Muhammad ibn Abdullah the Seal of the Prophets (pbuh), carrying the banner of Truth (Haqq) to help rid this world of hubris, hate and ignorance.

Deaths in Benghazi. We are aware of the current controversy and tragedy surrounding a movie which purports to insult the Prophet. But I have not seen it. Nor am I interested to watch it and flame my own anger. For where does anger ultimately leads to but hate and violence? The true Muslims of Libya have already come out on the streets protesting against the murder of the Americans in Benghazi. True Muslims have already come out fighting to protect their rightful heritage of the Saints of Islam from the same people that wrecked the tombs of the Saints, who undoubtedly rejoiced in the death of the Americans. These people (salafis or wahabis, however you wanna call them) are led by their noses by the chain of hate and fear and despair, and they call it Islam. It is not Islam that they follow.

The Eastern Dogs. Why do people stoke the fire? It is to prick the ego and provoke a reaction. Muslims, especially our brethren in the Middle East and Northern Africa ought to not be the Eastern dog perpetually wagged by the Western tail. We knew this was coming. So reject the Salafis. Reject the Wahhabis and their demented ideology. As these Libyans have...

Two Bow's Length. That is all. Just writing about the Salafis and Wahhabis brings a brooding pall over my day. But never you mind, sunshine. For the karmic junction for these liars and deniers 'in Islam' is coming. It is merely two bow's length distant from this present.

They may not be carrying rocket launchers, molotov cocktails or AK-47s.
But the archers are bearing the heart, the bow and the arrow of Sa'ad ibn Abi Waqqas,
Madad ya Saydeena...

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

Good or Bad... Whatever! Thank You nonetheless for Everything!

1. Gee… thanks!

You remember, Me?

And you are giving thanks to Me?

Gee, that is so sweet of you.

For I am the one who Created you,

And I have been here all along.

Had I turned away from you,

Long would you have

Perished into a nothingness

More absolute than you

Can imagine. No one would

Remember you to write love songs

More sorrowful than any

Written by poets and the love-sick.

But the moment I created you,

Oh, how precious you seem to Me!

And it is from this single point

In a moment before time

That your history and life

Was already written

By your Consumate Love,

That is Me!

I am touched, really...

By your sincerity,

And your little appreciation

Of what you are able

To comprehend

Of the countless gifts

I have granted unto you

Makes Me... the All-Pleased

To be your Lord,

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

Someone once said to me, "Whenever you are moved to give thanks to the Lord, do it. For let's face it. We don't do it often enough. For the inspiration of gratitude is heaven sent, to bring the servant's attention to the loving presence of God." 

If you win a lottery, give thanks. If it looks like a beautiful day outside, give thanks. If your customer pays you early, give thanks. If you stumble down a staircase, give thanks. Because you could have fallen down an open manhole instead. If you stepped on cat poo, give thanks. For you could have stepped on a landmine. So even if life serves you a whopper of a problem, give thanks. Because an even BIGGER whopper was avoided, and that God (Bless Him) thinks you well able to deal with your present crisis.

For 'good' or 'bad' incidents, and the illusory nature of 'luck' hides a secret intimacy that God is calling unto you. But saying all this, I am the last person on Earth to ask God to send me 'bad luck' as means of conversing with Him. It is just sometimes, I know I can be forgetful, negligent and a down right scoundrel. So He sends me a curve-ball to knock me back to my senses. And even that... is a manifest example of His Love, to not leave this erring and foolish sinner forever the erring and foolish sinner.. So thank You.

No specifics today, sunshine. Just thanking God generally for everything and everyone. And of course, thanking Him for your company.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

The Most Beautiful Woman Ever - remembering Adam and Eve...

Adam's Confession

Woman,

Inscrutable and beyond me,

She places her head before me,

But I see her instead sitting upon a throne,

She cares for me and settles my worry,

But I see her planting her flowers in a garden of heaven,

Marking her place in the divine presence,

While we men still stumble about like clowns,

She smiles at me, having forgiven my error

But I see her completely, and I am the one mastered,

She bears my burden and gives me love,

And lo I cannot recall how and when God made her!

My life and my love

My only other.

My Eve.

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

The Beauty of Eve. It is in the lore of Islam that Eve was not only the first but the most beautiful woman ever created. For within Eve is the beauty of all her daughters and granddaughters that would come after her. So you know that when God created Eve, He wished for absolutely no doubt that Adam would quite literally fall besotted in love with her. So if you look at all the women that grace the magazines, television and the internet, you must remember that however heart-breakingly beautiful they may be, they are but a very small reflection of the magnificent beauty of the first Eve. But I don't know why I bother... I know my suggestion will soon be forgotten, because men will always be men.

And that is what makes life so wonderfully interesting. God baits us with the same thing, again and again! And again and again we fall besotted and love-struck. Just like the first Adam.

I do not want to write much today, this being Sunday. Just something to recall us to our ancient lineage, and to the fascinating story of our great and noble ancestors, Messrs Adam and Eve. al fatiha

Eve: I worry about our grandchildren sometimes...
Adam: I worry that a day will come when they won't
even recall we ever existed...

Have a good one, sunshine.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

Love is Trouble... but it is a Beautiful Trouble - love and marriage in Perlis part 2

Love is like the rumbling thunder in the overcast skies of your heart.
"Uh Oh... sounds like trouble." your heart confides. And yes, it is
trouble, but it is a beautiful trouble.

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

1. While sipping coffee
While sipping coffee,
I was distracted by 
The veil of angels
That man call rainfall.

The curtain fall of
A billion angels
Plummeting earthbound,
As they cry out,
“Mercy is coming down!
Mercy is coming down!”

A few noticed me,
And they smiled
As they greeted me,
“Hi, Taufiq! Hi, Taufiq!
Do not listen to the whispering one!”
.............

Update - The Wedding Prep in Perlis. The above prose was recorded in early 2009. I am pretty sure I was sitting somewhere and it was raining, as it is right now here in Kangar, Perlis. Heche and Efa is at the bride's house, no doubt keeping the lovely girl's emotion steady and calm amidst the hustle and bustle of the wedding prep. Fifi is the eldest daughter, you see, and this wedding is the very first for her family. Nervous hearts all around. And now it is RAINING! Oh no... what will happen to the just-raised canopies and tents? But the rain is not too heavy (which by Malaysian standards means that it is not in the risk of uprooting 120 years old tropical trees), so we are hoping for the best.

As you have read in the earlier post this morning (and if you haven't, why haven't you?? Click Here), the marriage is of Fifi (Malay-Malay) with Syed Khaled (Arab Malay), and things are just getting interesting. I am here also with Kamarul, and it has been made clear to us that although we are friends with both bride and groom, that for today and tomorrow, we are with the bride's host and should, under no circumstances, 'act' as if we are with the groom's entourage... He he he. Boy, people sure get competitive at weddings! Not that Khaled will miss us, as he has about 100 strong already here or arriving soon. With the open invitation to the whole kampung (village), family and friends of Fifi, they anticipate more than 300 guests for today's Aqad (Muslim wedding ceremony), and about 700 tomorrow afternoon's official reception.

Love & Marriage. As we are in the topic of rain, love and marriage (which goes together like a horse and carriage, as the song aptly says), here is another prose recorded around the same time in 2009. It was written in the throes of passion for a human being called Heche. We have been to many, many weddings since, a few of my friends' but mostly hers. And as the rain falls more heavily today, I am wondering to myself, "When will our turn come?"

16. Like the rain

Whenever I look at you,

I am blessed by God,

Whenever I sit beside you,

I am blessed by God,

Whenever you smile,

And whenever you frown,

In that and all, I am blessed.

Whatever you say,

Whatever you don’t say,

Whatever you do, and

Whatever you don’t do,

I am blessed by God.

Like the rain,

You simply happened.

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

Good things ought not to be delayed, people say. So I am asking the Angels of the Rain to tender my application to God and His Prophet(pbuh) to hurry things up up there. Pray for us, sunshine.

I think there is a traffic jam of marriages destined to happen up there
in heaven. I hope the Angels will sort out the bottle neck and unclog
the matrimonial congestion. 

And to conclude, this is the ending of the collection of prose entitled 'Just between You and Me', more than 3 long years ago...

wa min Allah at-Taufiq

25th February 2009

There is only God, and naught but God,

And by my skin that hides my soul,

And by the bones that bear my body,

And by the fire of my ego, and the crowning throne

That is the heart to be possessed by my Him,

Muhammad Habibullah al-Mustafa,

Abu Arwah, the most perfect Rose

In the Garden of my Lord’s creation, it is He! It is He

That is the Messenger of God!

All Glory to God!

All Praise!

All Thought!

All Love!

All Life!

All me!

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

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

Ramadhan is for Sinners (also)

Ramadhan is for Sinners
Life is full of odd ends and bits,
And odd men
With crooked ends
And straight bits,

I found myself coincidentally
With three examples tonight,
With many years of hard drugs,
Mischief and Misdemeanors
Between them.

How pleased I was to be with them,
Completing a quartet
Of sinning believers
And believing sinners.

In this holy month of Ramadhan
It is ours in favour and flavour,
For it is a month especially
Made by the Lord for sinners,

To abstain and to seek forgiveness,
Resting our weary spirit
From all of men’s wickedness.
…………………………

It was some eight years ago that I met Abdullah (not his real name), a gifted musician and Sufi of Hadramaut descent. He led a naughty life when he was younger, a drug-pusher who was not adverse to sampling his own product and being a right nuisance to the local enforcement force in his town, ending up an unwanted guest of the prison and drug rehabilitation facilities.

One day a doctor at the clinic asked him why he was in such a dire strait, being warded for drug overdose. Abdullah only smiled and replied, "It is better to be naughty now while I am young. I have seen old men with their drinking, drugs and womenising. I don't want to be like that. I will reform before that happens to me." The doctor looked surprised and said, "How do you know you will change?" Abdullah, without any doubt assured him, "Oh I am certain (yakin). Maximum by 40 years old I would be good and leave all the things which God forbids! Most probably around 30s. I am certain!"

Today Abdullah is contented, happily married with two kids. He doesn't smoke, he doesn't chase women anymore and he doesn't drink or take drugs. An almost boring pillar of the community, so thank God for his musical talent, humour and ready smile. I first met Abdullah in 2004 at the cusp of his change, the metamorphosis of a soul. But like the caterpillar shedding its skin to become a butterfly, the change in his life was natural, the unveiling of the true spirit after years of stasis.

A happy, hopeful story for a rainy day in Ramadhan, sunshine.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

The Young Turks & The Miracles - America, the gun culture, atheism and miracles.

In this Colorado cinema, just days ago during a night showing of the latest Batman flick,
a mad gunman entered the hall with an assault rifle and killed twelve innocent souls.

The Young Turks & The Miracles

A couple of nights back

Shots rang out in a Colorado cinema,

Twelve dead, fifty-eight wounded,

Four men leaped to their death

In front of the bullets to save

The lives of their lovers,

And one woman was saved

By an unlikely illness in her brain

That allowed the bullet to pass

Through her skull avoiding

All the critical parts

Of her brain.

Her Christian family rejoiced

Saying, “Oh what a miracle (of God)!”

And yet the Atheists cry out

In protest, “Verily, it is no miracle!

And if it is so, why her alone? Why did

God not save anyone else?!”

……………………………

Smart, sassy Cenk. The Young Turk.

I am fond of the Young Turks. It is an American website and reputed to be the largest online news and political commentary show. I have been following their incisive, intelligent and often hilarious news commentaries over the past 4 years (Wow. Has it been that long?).

It is also Atheist / Agnostic inclined. Which basically means that most of the hosts do not believe in the existence of God.

I respect and find Cenk Uyger, the American anchor of Turkish descent quite huggable.

But however sincere my admiration, I find it interesting that the show, despite its pretension of progressive and liberal thoughts, has an absolute blind side to religion and God. So much so that they, in the most respectful tone admittedly, finds it uncomfortable simply because the family of Petra Anderson rejoiced in her recovery and called it miraculous. (Click Here to watch their coverage of this story)

The Young Turks argued – Why did God allow her to get shot in the first place? Why did God not save the others? Isn’t the others worth saving as much as Petra?

Well, ten years ago, my mother died of cancer. Why did God not save her? Why did God create such a lovely human being, only to take her away? Other cancer survivors made it, did she not deserve a ‘miracle’ too? Did my mother not suffer enough? Did my mother not do enough good and charity? There are murderers and rapists still alive out there in the world, why did God not kill them? In fact why did God create them to begin with???

The narrow and naïve posturing of Western Atheists boggles my oriental mind. Yes, us believers do actually use our minds, despite the direct and sometimes implied suggestions by the Atheists. When Atheists try to look into the spiritual stance of people, regardless of whether they are Jews, Christians, Hindus or Muslims,... I think it is an exercise in absolute futility.

Because they do not look at the world as believers do. Simply because Atheists see death as a full-stop in the existence of a human being. They do not see it like we do, sunshine. They do not see death as merely a comma, a brief pause in the sentence of love written by God for us, His beloved creation. I am ar-Rahman, God says, the Most Compassionate. I am ar-Rahim, God says, the Most Merciful.

Even Moses the Cat gets God.

Their material and physical-centric mind cannot accept the existence of metaphysical realities, wherein the True Reality of things exist, ergo in the Divine Imagination. They are unable to accept that human beings, this world and all the Universe (and other Universes) exist merely as a reflection of God’s Own unapproachable Power. Like a shadow on a wall. Lika a ripple in the ocean. 

And yet, if you sit long enough watching the show, you would discern much reference to love. For the Atheists still recognize human love and affection. As they did when they covered the story about the four boyfriends who died saving their girlfriends in the same tragic Colorado shooting (Click Here to watch their second coverage). But love and affection is a human emotion and rests in the metaphysical reality. How can this fit in their all-physical, all-material perception of this world?

The miraculous survivor. Or as the Young Turks would like to put it,
the 'lucky' survivor. But don't Atheists understand that even the laws of
probabilities is a creation of God?

I will still continue watching Cenk and his gang. Because despite their agnostic / Atheistic blind side, their sharp political commentary is still excellent.

Wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way