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

God's Dzikr (Remembrance)

I am such an irritant,

But God is listening,

I complain and complain and complain,

But God is listening,

I am such a sinner,

But God is forgiving,

I am lost to myself,

Lost to the crowd,

Lost to the world,

But God is listening,

He does, all the time.

Even when I am forgetting,

God... He is remembering...

Remembering me in a beautiful place,

Remembering me in the best of ways,

Oh how they measure their remembrances of Him!

When His remembrance of us is more constant,

More infinite, more subtle and more certain

Moment after moment after blessed moment!

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

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

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

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

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

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

How sad.

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

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

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

Don't you agree, sunshine?

wa min Allah at-taufiq

-Notrumi Embun, 13th June 2014

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

FORGIVENESS, FEAR OF GOD - The Ramadan Story, Part 18

Forgive me, o' Lord

Forgive me, o' Patience

For not knowing your better,

Forgive me, o' Wisdom

For thinking I have already attained you,

Forgive me, o' Hope

For abandoning you again and again,

Forgive me, o' Beauty

For failing to distinguish you from Vanity,

Forgive me, o' Mercy

For putting limits to your vastness,

Forgive me, o' Love

For putting a lie to you

And accepting a mere facsimile,

Forgive me, o' Me

For wavering in my quest

To understand You.

Forgive me, o' Forgiveness

By the Light of the Moon

And the Ocean that washes upon my shore,

I am standing here beneath the crying seagulls,

Counting my daily errors and unspoken curses,

Realising that more than ever before,

I am in need of Your Attention,

Your Conciliation,

Your Forgiveness...

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

Ramadan is the time not only to restrain
our hunger, but perhaps more importantly,
our wayward ego.

The Ego Sickness. Every single day, there is always something that happens to send me scurrying like a frightened mouse back to God. And what 'happens' is actually me, driven by some angry thought, bitter recriminations and hubris, motivated by my wayward ego. And it happens so often that I am led to realise that at this juncture of my life, I am more comfortable with my ego, allowing it to become my habit, which of course means that my ego has become me. This is not good news.

Good and Bad Days. Well, awareness of our own sickness is a beginning, I guess. And there is no better month than the month of Ramadan to try to bring our ego under containment and control. For the obligatory fasting is intended to also help quell our ego and nafs (base-desires). This requires some practice, because I have witnessed even the most gentle souls breaking into anger and impatience during fasting, as it occurred today just minutes before iftar (breaking of the fast at sunset) between a newly married couple who are otherwise contented and happy on any other day. But they soon get over it, and were back to their lovey-dovey default mode.

Fear only God. I guess we all have our peaks and valleys, and though we always try to put a brave happy face, we are in fact constantly being pulled and pushed by some anxiety or subconscious fear of something - money, health, marriage and relationships, work, tax, debt and career failures. To this, the Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.s) has said and exemplified the important and very fundamental tenet of the Muslim faith, which is - fear only God, so that you need not fear anything else.

39. Taqwa (With Poon)

Fear of God is not paranoia,

It is the certainty that you need not fear anything but Him,

Since nothing exists but Him.

It is therefore not the affirmation of your fears,

But the affirmation of His Oneness.

It is not the negation of His Mercy,

But the negation of all that is illusory.

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

Nice... but mind the mountain goat.

Muhammad's Faith. The Islam of the Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.s.) isn't and has never been the hermetic, lets-leave-the-world-and-find-a-lonely-mountain-top-to-occupy. After all, not many mountain tops are lonely, and you would probably be unfairly evicting a mountain goat or a golden eagle who has lived there for generations. No, your life belongs here, amidst the crowd of humanity, striving and working for a honest living. Being born, growing up, learning and working, getting married and having children, before withering gently into contented, forgetful dotage. In this sense, what the Faith of Muhammad has to offer are the tools and instruments that we need (if we only knew better!) to face such a life, with a good heart and a healthy active conscience. And to leave this world one day, if not better, at least not making it any worse, for our children and grandchildren. And one of the greatest sunnah (Prophetic tradition) is to fear Allah (s.w.t.). For that is the equalising factor between people, whether you are rich or poor, old or young, a king or a beggar in the gutter...

O' mighty kings! Fear God!

O' religious preachers! Fear God!

O' presidents and prime ministers! Fear God!

O' generals and leaders of men! Fear God!

Fear God and obey His Prophet!

And how worthy is God to be the only centre of your fear and anxiety to please! For no one, nothing created or uncreated, past, present or future, known or unknown, will ever love you more or know you better than your Maker, who coincidentally, is also my Maker... a.k.a. God Almighty, Allah (s.w.t.) - the One God and most Beloved of His Beloved, Muhammad Habibullah (s.a.w.s.).

And that is the happy conclusion of our travel through this form of 'fear'... into the all-welcoming arms of God - the Most Compassionate, Most Merciful, Lord of Mercy, Giver of Mercy, that being none other than Muhammad (s.a.w.s.), the Mercy to all the Worlds...

Fear of God is the balloon by which you can float above
the valley of illusory fears that has plagued not just
you, but all of humanity since time immemorial.

So are we not blessed in infinite ways, sunshine? 

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

The Sea of Golden Memories - the infinite blessings of remembering

Set sail upon the Sea of Golden Memories, the path of love ordained
by God Himself for your past, your present and your future.

The Blessing of Remembering

Blessed is he that remembers...

Remembers his past, his parents and ancestors,

Remembers his future, his children and lineage,

Remembers such memories before the memories are made,

Remembering that God knows the beginning and the ending,

And that God has planned it all for him 

In His perfect planning,

Blessed is he that remembers...

Remembers his prophet and his living history,

Remembers his place in the Nation of the Nabee,

Remembers the love promised by God Almighty,

Who has forbidden upon Himself to forget nor be unjust,

Golden memories to remember forever,

Never to rot nor turn to rust.

Blessed is he that remembers...

That in remembrance of both past and future,

He dons the garb of the servant,

That he may address this very moment, this present,

As both the servant, and the master.

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

I am quite forgetful. Sometimes unintentionally, and at other times, there is undoubtedly a hint of pre-meditated forgetfulness - My road tax has expired? Gee... I must have not realised it. I didn't file in my taxes? Honestly, I am such a dodo head!

And let us be honest here, it is not merely these worldly matters that I am forgetful of. In my remembrance of God, I can also be very forgetful. Neglecting the golden memories, distracted by this world, and above all, distracted by the God-awful noise my ego often makes in the hall of my consciousness. So my chances of being a good servant (let us not even attempt to calculate the possibility of being a master) is quite small. Insignificantly small. It would take some form of miracle to get me out of my Hole of Forgetfulness.

Remembering can be beautiful,
inspiring and a pleasure
indescribable in
words. 

Happily, I am assured by two truths - Firstly, that God made us to be forgetful, clumsy and often neglectful, that we may, in times of realisation of our utter helplessness, turn to Him for forgiveness. For God Himself has said that He made us to forget and to sin, that we may turn to Him seeking mercy, that His attributes of ar-Rahman (the Most Compassionate One) and ar-Rahim (the Most Forgiving One) is exalted in this world.

Secondly, the form of miracle blessed unto humanity (and all the world(s)) in this End of Time has indeed appeared in the form of Muhammad Habibullah (s.a.w.) - the Guiding Lantern for all creation, held by the Hand of God Himself, shining the straight and safe path for us to follow. Lo, how beautiful does the Nur of Muhammad (Light of Muhammad) shines. To light the darkest corner of our vanity, to dispel the blackest mist of our hubris - to bring Truth which is Beauty by any other name, into our hearts - that being Allah s.w.t.

Dzikrullah. As for this old sinner, where am I in this fascinating spiritual station of dzikrullah (Remembrance of God)? I am afraid that I am at a mean low stage - somewhere in the state of trying to remember that I should try to remember these Golden Memories.

But thankfully, God is Most Forgiving of his weakest of servants!

Don't you agree, sunshine?

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

Everything is a Blessing. Even Forgetfulness - and an observation of a dog by a dog

I call him Katmir, after the loyal dog of the Seven Sleepers as
mentioned in the Holy Quran.

A Dog. Am I better than this dog? He's a couple of years old, born from a stray bitch that is also a familiar face around my office. Unlike some human-friendly dogs, he was not a family pet and then abandoned. But he has adopted the denizens of the Chinese kopitiam (coffeehouse) under my office, and they have adopted him. He stays close to the shop entrance, waiting for scraps and since the proprietor serves a myriad of dishes, he gets a pretty varied diet. A gentle tail-wagging creature, he often sits at the entrance of my office but would get out of the way anytime I come through. He is a good dog, he is. And I think he is a better dog than me.

Forgetfulness. A screeching hectoring voice came over the p.a. system of the mosque last Friday. It was one of those pre-Friday prayers tazkirah (mini-sermon, I guess...). I don't like screeching hectoring anything at the mosque so I grumble quietly under my breath, 'Bisingnye!' (Why so loud!). But as the ustaz (religious teacher) continued, I found his form and repartee quite engaging and funny. I found most interesting was his saying that we should not feel too bad if we forget. For as in everything that God has given to humanity, even this apparent weakness of forgetfulness is a divine gift. And as someone who beats his own head up a lot for forgetting (forgetting my car keys, forgetting my wallet, forgetting my reason... when I am in love), I was interested to hear what further things he had to say about my forgetfulness...

"God gave Mankind forgetfulness so He can have an excuse to forgive you, my friends!" the ustaz said. "After all, we forget to pray sometimes, we forget to fast and all sorts of promises that we made to God... in fact we do it all the time! If we were like Angels, made perfect in remembrance, we would be unpardonable. But we are not made thus, we are made to forget all manner of things... our tax returns, our wife's birthday and even our anniversary. So God who made us is best aware of our weakness and is most forgiving to us. But our wives? He he he... wives are not so forgiving. 

So it is okay if you forget somethings sometimes. But of course, you should not forget everything! And definitely not your wife's  birthday!"

Have a lovely Sunday, sunshine. I woke up this morning with a bright clear head. I hope you did too.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

THE MORAL HAZARD OF DOING GOOD - turning honey into hemlock

I Am One of Them

Dear God,

Make desirable unto me,

What is desirable unto You,

Make undesirable unto me,

What is undesirable unto You,

Yet give unto me the space in my heart,

To accept and love those who still

Omit to do what is desirable

And do what is undesirable,

For verily, You have not turned away

From any of them who turns to You

Seeking love, forgiveness and acceptance...

And verily, I know this to be the truth,

For I myself am one of them.

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

Moral Hazard. Doing bad obviously is a moral hazard. But doing good also has its own moral hazard. It is of course our ego and its terrible offspring called self-righteousness and hubris. So when you go supping upon the cup of faith in the cathedral of love, beware that your tongue do not change the honey into hemlock - your ego prompting you into thinking, 'Yea... how good am I. How bad are those others!'

The Selfless Sunnah. After all, if God says... there is no god but Me, and Muhammad is My Messenger, He is talking about the annihilation of our 'self' and abasement of our ego... Through the daily, constant, minute by minute, microsecond by microsecond application of the selfless Sunnah (traditions) of the Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.s.).

The Desirable Medicine. This is the medicine to cure us of our egocentric worldly addictions. But unlike other medicines, this medicine is desirable and increases in desirability the more we take it. 

That is what I call Godly Awesome.

He he he.

Have a lovely Tuesday, sunshine. I have been away for awhile, but I am back now. Alhamdulillah...

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

Do not run from Me! - remembering, forgetting and forgiving

I leaned over the bar of heaven,

And saw white clouds of angel hair drift by,

And the voices of the dearly departed rises higher

And resonates more completely 

In the well of my soul,

As the Water of Life bursts

Aflame in Love's White Fire.

I climbed over the bar of heaven,

And plunged into history,

And the hymns and songs for the Lord blew gently by

Like leaves falling from Heaven's trees;

Do not deny Me...

Do not run from Me...

Do not forget Me...

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

An old friend shares with me that life is all about remembering and forgetting - remembering the tireless love of our fathers and mothers, and the incomparable love of God Himself for us. It is also about forgetting and forgiving insults, hurts and slights that we may have suffered in the hands of humanity. And when bad things happen and we really have no one to blame... we must forgive ourselves, for sometimes we inadvertently (and often enough intentionally) blame God, our Creator. And as far as I am told, the only path of self-forgiveness is to abase our pride and ego before the Almighty... I do not understand sometimes why things happen the way they do, but I know of no lover more true than You, o' Lord. And I know of no lover more unfaithful than me.

With that thought, I leave you to enjoy this blessed Thursday. May you always find favour with the Lord.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

You Cannot Force Forgiveness - forgiveness and the gathering of virtues

Forgiveness and the Gathering of Virtues

Forgiveness is a feeling,

A state of emotion more

Than mere statement of intent,

And try as we wish, to forgive,

Whether we will or not is almost

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

So while you intend to forgive,

And you have not yet,

You need only arrange your life

To be in the constant company of love and mercy,

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

The merriment and compassion singing in your heart,

And ask to enter the fine assembly...

Spellbound and drawn as it is

To the gathering of virtues within you.

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

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

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

Don't you agree, sunshine?

wa min Allah at-taufiq

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

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

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

Love Already Told Me, But I Disbelieved

Love told me, "Be patient..."

Love told me, "Persevere..."

Love told me, "Eat healthy..."

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

Love told me this and Love

Told me so many other things,

But did I listen?

Never...

So I was brought down,

My stature lowered,

My station left down low,

My wealth and my health

Waiting for a better tomorrow,

And then Love came to me in the night

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

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

Give me my face that I might prostrate before Thee,

Give me my hands that I might do charity,

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

Give me my veil that I might hide my piety,

Give me my health that I might do all this

When now I know that all that

You've ever wished for me

Was for my best.

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

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

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

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

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

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

Dealing with Perceived Betrayal - Chivalry & Empathy

159. Zulfiqar I

Victory without chivalry is not victory.

Defeat with chivalry is not defeat.

Not War.

And I think this is the best way forward for anyone anytime. The prose was written about war, a serious endeavour at any time, but for many of us, thankfully, we are not involved in any adventurous land war. We are middling our way through life, working, sleeping and playing. No war zone for thousands of miles, no war correspondence embedded in our daily life to witness and record our enduring joy and sadness, and our conflicts with our neighbours, co-workers and family.

Conflicts.

Because so long as we are a part of humanity, conflicts will arise. Betrayal, or perception of betrayal is not war, but it is something which we all have faced to a certain degree. But betrayal, just like war, must be handled with care. And chivalry. To win vengeance or revenge is no victory, not when it is done in hot-temper or cold-blooded malice. Oh, how we are often tempted by our perception of someone's betrayal to act against that person. Thankfully, nowadays we seldom reach for our gun or our dagger. But often enough we hit back... With mankind's own Weapon of Mass Destruction, the WMD of Words.

Betrayal. 

I do not know how people resolve their feelings of betrayal. I myself, find such feelings a dirty, dirty stain in my conscience. So I distrust my mental calculations, I discount my anger, and I try (as humanly possible) to detach myself from my mind's sense of injustice, and its machinations against the betrayer. How can I believe my feelings and my so-called reason, when the entire scheme is all about feeling betrayed, and the accompanying feeling of hate and anger.

Two sides of a Coin. 

The reason why I detach myself is because everything that happen is for the ultimate good end. And the ultimate good end is the knowledge of myself, the knowledge of God, the knowledge of both this world and the next. That is the ultimate reward that we are playing for. We are not desiring short term gratification offered by this world, nor are we desiring something other than God in the next. These things we must consider especially when we are in the throes of righteous indignation. After all, we do not know what is in the heart of the betrayer. We do not know even that he considers his deed as an act of betrayal. And on our side, have we TRULY been honest and transparent, and have we ourselves TRULY kept to our side of the bargain?

Chivalry 24/7. 

To release ourselves from the bitter poison of human failings we must do this - to see other people in the best light possible, and to see ourselves in the worst light possible. And we must do this in the most dire straits - when we think we have been betrayed. It is easy to love the lovely, it is easy to trust the trustworthy, but when we are so biased and prejudiced, and we must accept the fact that this is our natural baser habits, we must learn to love the unlovely, and we must learn to trust the untrustworthy.

GOD.

For God loves this way. Everyday He looks at us unlovely humans, and He thinks us lovely. Everyday He looks at us untrustworthy humans, and decides to trust us. Again and again and again.

Don't you agree, sunshine?

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

God Loves the Adoring and Forgiving Couple

25. Fifty - fifty

I am not a puzzle to be solved,

Nor a clay to the mould,

Perhaps all it involves

Is to love and to grow old.

I am not a book to be read,

Nor a bride to be wed,

I am me, a butterfly,

A song on your lips,

A petal of rose, bright and red.

I am not a bridge to be crossed

Nor a faith to believe in,

I am me, glad and beautiful,

And in my eyes is a fire,

Golden and keen.

I have no shelter to give you,

Nor a harbour by the sea,

But if you were not you…

Then certainly, o’ love,

I would not be me.

Love is such a funny old thing. It can make you wise, but very often it can also make you mad. Chris Rock once said that if you have never contemplated murdering your soulmate, you are not actually in love. "Wow." I thought, "Chris Rock is like a sage, a Socrates for the new century. But of course, I think Socrates never cussed as much."

What do we bring to the table of love? Is it our wealth? Is it our lineage? Is it our class and respectability? Is it our good looks and health? All those things can be lost in a blink of an eye, often by our own mistakes, but sometimes by things which are out of our control. It would be foolish to rely on such baubles. 

I guess that at the end of the day, we can only bring ourselves into the grand equation of love. With all our niggling faults and imperfections, we hold our lover's gaze and ask, "This is who I am. I have poor table manners and I belch a lot. Do you love me still?" And every day, he or she will have to make that same commitment, as you do too.

I think God adores that in an adoring and forgiving couple. After all, it was He who created Love and Forgiveness.

Have a graceful day, sunshine.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

Chapters and Nuances of Knowledge. Prophetic Guidance and the Oneness of God

One God. One Humanity. One Love. And One Biscuit.

Who He Is

His Names, his Identities

Are written and often times hidden,

His Essence and Spiritual Station

Are both celebrated and unknown,

His Love is exemplary,

He is the Mercy to the Worlds,

And in His Knowledge

Is His Power.

His Family is destined

For Greatness and Tribulation,

His Mission was to give glad tidings

And firm warnings, to defeat

Falsehood with Truth.

His Companions are like

Stars in the night sky

And the very best of His Nation.

Through Him we have come

To understand more of

The Angelic Realm

And its inhabitants.

Through Him we have come

To be cautious of

The Kingdom of Djinns

And its denizens.

He is the Seal of the Prophets

Who were before him,

And He is the Garden of Saints

Who are to come after him.

He is the Beginning

Of both the Past

And the Future.

He is the Crossroad of Creation.

And when He left

This physical world,

He left the Holy Criterion

And His Traditions

As a golden reminder

Of who He is

And Who He is

Guiding us to...

The sinner is busy doing the impossible. Classifying and categorizing topics / chapters about the Prophet Muhammad, as described through prose. It is not because He IS the Prophet Muhammad, but it is simply because history, knowledge and belief often merely describes the nuances of one central character, and these nuances, by their nature often overlap each other. This rule is the same for all humanity, including Prophets, Messengers, Saints and sinners....

Ultimately, when you fall far enough down the rabbit hole of spiritual contemplation - all our knowledge and lives, all our rights and wrongs, all our successes and failures, all our celebrations and regrets, love and hurt, joy and sadness... all this leads us to the Divine Reality - The Oneness and Absolute Uniqueness of our One God, Lord of both believers and unbelievers.

Tonight I am resting my tired soul on the pillar of Oneness. Seeking refuge from the multiplicity and plurality of our existence. Sometimes, we are just tired, you see. Tired of work, tired of life and tired of our trials. So I try to find God, the Balm of all tiredness, the Medicine of all heartaches, the Cure for the Brokenhearted. 

Have a perfectly beautiful day, sunshine. And if you are tired, then rest. Do not starve or wear out your body or your soul. We may be weak and feeble mortals, but we are still responsible for both.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

Heading for Sham! Conspiracies, your heart and conscience

13. Sleeping

We are sleepers,

Thoroughly unreliable when awake,

But slipping not when we sleep.

We work in dreams,
And tarry in the closeness of your souls,

You speak of secret guilds,
We are only concerned with patience,
The priceless ornament, set by the Divine Giver
Upon a crown of stars,
Beyond the unique obedience
And understanding of the mighty arch angels.

If you trade in such wares,
Come! Join our caravan!
We are heading for Sham!

SHAM-SYRIA. In the prophecies of the Prophet for the end of time, Sham (which is now Syria) and the city of Damascus wherein resides the Ummayad Mosque, is a place of great importance. Sham is also the final resting place of many Companions and Saints of the faith.

CONSPIRACIES. We are not concerned with the conspiracies of men, nor are we very interested with people who are interested with such conspiracies. We are after all humble and clueless men and women who rely on nothing but God's own divine plan. Not for us are the sort of mortal grand design and plots for world conquest. For as far as I am aware, God conquered the world already when He made it. So there is nothing to conquer except for our grasping and ill-tempered egos.

Ignore that damnable ego that will corrupt every good thing that you have in your life. Be in tune with your heart, sunshine. Feel at ease with your conscience and follow its exhortations to goodness, patience and forgiveness. For when you at one with your heart and conscience, you are at one with the Universe. And that is the first step to knowing the Lord and the Master of the Universe.

God bless.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

The Sun, the Cold & the Old Soul - Prophecy concerning the Sun rising in the West

The Old Soul

The poor is not in poverty,

Rather the rich who fill

Their lives with distraction,

The beautiful in love

With their own pain,

The learned ones

Collecting their degrees of ignorance,

The miserly who gives charity in pittance

Even as the Lord befuddles tyrants

With castles and princesses...

It is they who are sadly poor.

I find no lesson cruel,

but mankind.

And it is not time

that is ancient,

but me, an old soul

coming out of the cold.

Life is not ugly

But for me,

Hate cannot consume me,

But I too will be lost

Confronting hate.

If there is a flame of humanity

Left of me, leaving a scorched mark

On the tapestry of man,

Remember me to God…

That I was just an old soul,

Coming out of the cold,

Seeking His shelter and His forgiveness

That the Prophet and Saints foretold.

Tell him I had no doubt,

That I gave my best

And daily when I awake,

My eyes looked a sun rising in the west.

MORNING COFFEE. I fell asleep early , and I woke shivering in the early morning air chilled by rainstorm and wind the day and night before. I guess waking up alone and cold can make one melancholy. But once I gathered up my fuzzy thoughts, I am myself again, feeling glad and happy. Especially after my morning cup of coffee.

THE SUN RISING IN THE WEST. This is an ancient lore, passed down from master to student, recalling a prophetic tradition that coming to the end of times the Sun shall rise not in the East but in the West. I do not know what this actually means in the physical or metaphorical sense, although I am aware of some speculation.

MY SUNSHINE. Have a lovely Wednesday, sunshine. We may never find out the truth about the prophecy, but at least I am comforted that many of my readers awake in their beds to the West of me. By far the largest number being from the USA, next Malaysia (okay, don't count this!) and followed by United Kingdom, Canada, India and Pakistan. So I guess for me at least, the Sun is indeed rising in the West now. 

Hehehe.

wa min Allah at-taufiq.

God has no Zealots. That thing they are? That is ALL them, my friend... - the Drift from Mercy & Compassion

1. Calling on Rain, Mercy and the Ocean of the Lord

I am calling on rain,

I am asking for mercy,

To put out the fires

In my garden of flames,

They talk of Hell

As a place far off,

Do they not see

That it is here and now?

Why are they not

Calling for rainstorms?

Why do they remain silent

When there is an ocean

Waiting to wash away the

Fiery blooms and weeds

Of Hell’s garden?

They talk of God

As a far off Lord,

Do they not see

That He is here already?

In their blindness

They despair,

And in their despair

They overcompensate,

Mixing regret with

Sorrow, envy and hate.

They talk of Religion

As a far off idol,

Cold and indifferent,

Unseeing the glittering pearl,

Refusing their inheritance.

We? We are not worried,

For if we missteps into

A field of fire, we just

Scream, Ouch! And

Step out.

GET-RELIGION. People around my age often 'get-religion'. Coming into the 40s or perhaps 50s, we suddenly feel our own mortality looming over the horizon - that expiry-by-date that cannot be delayed one second by anyone. Often they become religious which is good I guess. But sometimes we overcompensate our mistakes, and who pays for own sudden found religious zealotry? People close to us, of course - our kids, our friends, our family and our work mates.

A young friend once shared with me his exhaustion to hearing a Sermon-in-a-CD which his mother used to play ALL THE TIME, wherever they were going. Finally, he took things into his own hands and hid the CD. Another friend then complained that his auntie has taken pictures down in her house and hid it all away in the store room. One friend complain of his cousin who's status on Facebook ominously read "Why is it that now I am becoming more 'islamic' that people are avoiding me...?"

GOD, THE ALL KNOWING AUDITOR. I can give a simple answer to that last question - It is because a lot of people are still imagining God (yes, they do that ALL the time even if they will tell you that we cannot truly comprehend God) as this All Knowing Auditor with a divine calculator, meticulously recording their good and bad deeds, especially their bad ones. God judges them, they believe, by a wholly human standards, and they in turn becomes condescending and judgmental themselves. So OF COURSE people avoid you now.

BUT GOD IS UNLIKE US. Yes, of course God is the Ultimate Mr-Know-it-all. It is one of His Divine Attributes. It is however what He does with His knowledge that distinguishes God from mankind, and thank God for that!

Above all else, God is the Most Compassionate and Most Merciful, ar-Rahman and ar-Rahim. And He Himself says He loves these names best, and asks humanity to call upon Him by them. But mankind's propensity for mercy is somewhat limited, and his disease of acute-auto-judgemental-itis hinders his contemplation of the Divine Attributes of Mercy and Compassion. Mankind finds it hard in their hearts to forgive others, and that way they find it hard to forgive themselves. Misery all around...

This is no LaLaLand discourse, but one of the most important lessons we can learn, I think. God's rain and ocean of mercy is waiting. And it is closer to us than our own jugular. So do not be judgmental on others, for that is the best way to block your horizon and the view of the Divine that is just around the corner, and only a rain shower away.

God bless you, sunshine. Have a good Sabbath. And if I have in anyway hurt or offended you. Have mercy and forgive me, my brethren.

wa min Allah at-taufiq.