UBAT (THE MEDICINE) - the remedy for bad manners, life and prayers...

Ubat

Ubat biadab

Ikutlah adab si-Abdi

Ubat si-hidup 

Ada dengan pesakit atau si-mati.

Ubat si-peminta

Hanya pada Si-Pemberi,

Medicine

The cure for bad manners

Is to follow the good manners of the Servant,

The cure for those living

Is with the dead or dying,

The remedy for the one asking

Is with The Only One giving,

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

Ubat biadab, ikutlah adab si-Abdi. The remedy for bad manners, which accounts for all the ills and sorrow of humanity is through good manners. For good manners should be the basis of our interaction with the world, from the people that loves us and the enemy that hates us, to the animals that we keep or is wild. Adab (good manners) in Islam encompasses the natural environment that nourishes us, how we organise our community, how we trade and live as neighbours. The very best adab rules even how we deal with inanimate things like rocks and sand, water and air - for there is nothing in this world that is not sustained by Allah (swt) and recites His Names and His praises. From the deep space of stars, galaxies and constellations, deep into the inner space between atoms, molecules and electrons - they all remember His Name and His Glory!

And there is no servant more steeped in servanthood to God and His Creation than Nabi Muhammad (saws), the first servant and prophet.

"I was a Prophet when Adam was between clay and water"

Ubat si-hidup ada dengan pesakit atau si-mati. My late mother (may Allah Almighty bless her soul) always took the time to visit the sick and the dying. Many years ago, our loyal gardener, Mr. Menon was injured in an accident and broke his leg. "When I woke up in the hospital, the first and only person I saw when I opened my eyes was your mother." So he recalled one morning as we chatted about my late mum. For my mother it was no-big-deal. It is a given thing, a natural order and manner that if whomever we know is injured, ill or dying, we must visit them. I wish I had such discipline and natural instinct. Because visitations to cemeteries, hospitals and the sick bed reminds us of our own transient state of health. For all the bad manners from which all ills and sorrows of humanity originates cannot happen until a man or a woman forgets their condition of being in utter need, love and mercy of God the Most Compassionate and Most Merciful.

And boy, do we need all the reminders we can get. So when your conscience is pricked, go and do not hesitate. Go to your friend at his sick bed or at the cemetery. Sickness or death is no impediment to the love and adab you may find there.

Ubat si-peminta hanya pada si-Pemberi. Whatever goodness we receive comes from the Giver, a.k.a. God Almighty. Oh, He may pick and choose the timing, the person, the condition and the form through which a goodness is given, but undoubtedly, for all believers, it is He who is the one and the only one giving. So we thank God all the time, for our parents and our siblings, for our kin and our friends, for the hospital treatment, for the house we are living in, for the car we are driving, and for the infinitesimal atoms and sub-atomic particles that (temporarily) cloth our spirit.

So, whatever and whenever we are asking for... only He can gives. Don't you agree, sunshine? 

So do not be shy with your asking. Ask God for God!

wa min Allah at-taufiq

-Notrumi Embun, 26th June 2014

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way 

LEARNING FROM HAPPY DOGS - don't be a postman-chasing, vet-biting malevolent cur. Be a servant and be happy!

Let us be like happy dogs!

Human beings are more like dogs

Than some are willing to accept,

Just like dogs, we are happiest

When we have a master to serve.

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

In one of James Herriot's dog stories, he recounts how, as a Yorkshire veterinarian he had to deal with a pair of small dogs owned by a couple. The problem is that the dogs are an absolute menace, out of control, bossy and always looking to give a nasty nip at the ankles or hands of unsuspecting postmen or veterinarians. 

While attending to them, the vet noticed how the husband and wife molly-coddled the two dogs in the most saccharine and sentimental manner. That is fine, but when the dogs misbehaved, they appear to take no notice and allowed the animals to think that they can misbehave and act as they please. So the dogs became the masters of the house. 

But just because the dogs ruled the home, it does not mean that they are happy, observed the good vet. In fact, these dogs were much more natural and happier when they first arrived in the household, but the 'tolerant' and 'openminded' nature of their owners turned them from nice, good dogs to malicious, postmen-chasing curs. 

We humans are like that, I think. We need some centre, some focus of service and duty to align our life to the best that we can be. And perhaps there is no more natural essence of a soul than to be a blessed servant of the Soul-maker, the Creator, a.k.a. God Almighty. That we might be of some service to mankind, to animals, and to all of Creation. But when we lose our  bearing, when we forget that we are meant to be servants and not bosses, we open humanity's door to oppression, tyranny, exploitation and violence. Just like those damn dogs. And just like the dogs, we are actually not even happy being so mean.

So my friend says, "Seek happiness, seek servanthood!" And I cannot agree more with him.

Woof Woof!

wa min Allah at-taufiq

- Notrumi Embun, 22nd June 2014

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

THE BANNER OF LIGHT VS THE EVIL KNOT

Unravelling That Evil Knot

You need a little knowledge
To know you own none of your own,

You need a little good manners

To know that good manners 

Is the natural order of things,

You need a little love in your heart

To find true love in the form

Of God Almighty and 

His Muhammad,

So while you are finding solace in these little things,

While walking, prostrating, 
Or upon your knees bended,

Do not act as if

Your search has

 All but ended,

For you are in the path of eternity,

That unfathomable and unending

Journey through God to you,

And through you to God,

Slowly unraveling the schemes

Of your ego, the enemy and 

 The evil knot.

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

When the prose was concluded, I recalled, "Saay... where did I read about 'the knot'?" Then of course, I remembered. 

Say:"I seek refuge with (Allah) the Lord of the daybreak,
"From the evil of what He has created;
"And from the evil of the darkening (night) as it comes with its darkness;
"And from the evil of the witchcrafts when they blow in the knots,
And from the evil of the envier when he envies."
(Al Quran 113, Muhsin Khan translation)

Darkness of the night, witchcrafts, evil knots and enviers. Jeepers. Not exactly the sort of light-n-easy love lorn stuff that we record here. But darkness, the blackness of our world 'exists' only in the absence of light. So seek refuge with our God, Lord of the daybreak, and see your worries and pain, your most secret despairs run skulking from the sunrise of Allah (swt) upon the forest of our (often) needless confusion.

Insya Allah (Godwilling), there is no place where the shadow can hide!

....Light is coming! 

The banner of Muhammad Habibullah is made of light! 

Light upon Light!

wa min Allah at-taufiq

-Notrumi Embun, 2nd June 2014

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

GOD KNOWS - concerning the missing Flight MH370, knowledge, human nature, speculation, and divine knowledge..

The missing Boeing 777, Registration 9M-MRO, picture taken
in 2011, at Charles De Gaulle Airport, Paris.

God Knows

We don't know,

But God knows...

And that is good,

For God is good,

And knowledge is

Encompassed in

The Goodness

Of God.

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

Still Missing. As of today, there is still not much information on the Malaysian Airline System (MAS) flight MH370 which left Kuala Lumpur International Airport on 8th March 2014 heading to Beijing, China. With 227 passengers and 12 crew members. 

"No speculations, ma'am. Just the facts, please."

Speculations. From all corners of government, media, technical, religious and political circles, they have all weighed in with their observations, commentaries and worse of all, speculation. I recall Sherlock Holmes view on speculation - that it is a terrible habit especially when one is fatally hampered with very little factual information. As in the circumstances surrounding the missing Boeing 777.

Unknown Unknowns. From terrorism to the pilots' mental stability, to alien abductions or the plane disappearing into a cosmic wormhole... no speculation has been ignored, however lacking such speculations are, on real substantive evidence. After all, there are things about Flight MH370 that we know and we don't know... but there are also things which we don't know but are actually relevant to the incident...  As the former Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld once clumsily observed in a press conference about the Iraq War... "there are known unknowns... and there are also unknown unknowns..."  

Human Nature. But I guess it is our own human nature (and our ego) to speculate. Especially when the incident involves the fate of hundreds of innocent lives and an enormous civil jet plane, and the authorities ranging from the FBI, Interpol and Malaysia's own Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) are all terribly flummoxed.  

His Perfect Knowledge. In any event, however mysterious and baffling, there is at least one assurance for all of us, and that is... whatever happened, or whatever is happening to flight MH370, God knows the truth of it all, in His perfect knowledge to an infinite decimal point. No sub-atomic particle, much less a human being, goes 'missing' without His all-encompassing knowledge of all causes, effects and consequences of such an event. After all, God doesn't 'miss'.

His Perfect Presence. But we, us mortals... we do 'miss'. And for those with family or friends in the fateful plane, they are all missing their loved ones with a yearning and sadness much too painful for me to contemplate. They miss the familiar faces, the smiles, the twinkle in the eye, the conversations and even the scent of their beloveds... But God is not 'missing' anyone. And wherever the passengers and crew of flight MH370 are now, God is attending to them. Just as easily as God is attending to us, 24/7, 365 days in a year. 

If only we would remember this priceless blessing, life would be so much better for us,... whatever happens. Don't you agree, sunshine?

The sky is filling up with clouds yesterday evening,
And with the growing anxious hopes of many, many people.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

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

WHAT IS HAPPINESS? ...is it merely pleasure and enjoyment? I think our spirit is created to be infinitely more subtle and refined...

The Key to Happiness

I lay in wait, hunting for happiness,

But happiness eludes me like an elusive thingy,

Then I look to God and the Prophet

And desired that the Almighty and the Beloved

Be happy with me,

And lo! I finally found 

My happiness

In me.

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

What is Happiness? How do you know where and how to find happiness? But most importantly, would you recognise true happiness if it bites your nose? Is self enjoyment and gratification the final definition of happiness?

Is it merely Gratification and Pleasure? Because if that is true, then food, money, companionship, sex, power, drink and adrenaline rushes are all that it takes to make us happy. But it doesn't, does it? It touches at a visceral and material level, admittedly. But such things do not last. Money is ultimately spent (or hoarded away), food is ultimately eaten and deposited in the toilet the next morning, companionship can be boring at times, you can't have sex all the time, power corrupts, happy drunkenness turns easily into a morning hangover and you can only bungee jump once in a while. At the end of the day, such pleasure and gratification are very transient, plus they take a whole lot of effort and the outcome often unreliable.

I am too tired to look for this so-called happiness. So I have decided to kick off my slippers, give my restless spirit a break and stop looking for happiness. For I just find all this happiness-seeking enterprises to be too much like work. 

Oh, what shall I do now?!

Spade work ahead. Happily, yesterday a solution came to me on the whisper of a wind - a friend said to me, "Look for God and the Prophet to be happy with you... Then you will have all angles covered."

Yeah. That is better, I think. All angles covered. I like that, for I am sure our spirit is created to be infinitely more subtle and refined...

Well, not even my best-est of friends would describe me as subtle and refined. So I know now that I have a lot of spade work ahead of me.  

Be patient with me, sunshine.  

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

THE SILENCE OF THE SPIRIT... the quivering bow, the trembling draw and the flying arrow.

At a Lost for Words. My archery-mad friend, Enda says that my prose will be inspired by traditional archery, particularly the Sunnah archery of the Prophet Muhammad (saws). But to be honest with you, I am at a lost for words.

For how can you write when you are in the midst of consummating a love? You do not hold your lover in your arms, and then tell her in between kisses and moans, "Wait... wait a second, let me just jot down my feelings and observation.", to then continue passionately making love to her. 

Life, and love simply does not work that way.

The Intermissions. No, life and love is enjoyed and endured in between the draw of the arrow and the release with praise and salutations to God Almighty and His Prophet Muhammad (saws). It is the intermission between sets, drinking my coffee and looking around the empty field near my house, as the first ray of the sun touches upon the seven arrows borrowed from Enda and the bow called Aslan resting beside me.

Sweet, complete happiness.

Distractions. Oh, yes. And this I may share with you. To miss the target is a distraction, and to hit the target too is a distraction. The sigh of disappointment or the squeal of triumph, both are distractions to whatever I am  endeavouring this early Monday morning.

Simply because they spoil the silence of the spirit, in which I hope to hear Allah (swt) and His Beloved Habibullah (saws) resonate in the quivering bow, the trembling draw and the flying arrow.

Have a wonderful Monday, sunshine...

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way 

LEAP OF FAITH - releasing the power of the spirit through gaining mastery over our ego..

"Why does one pass away the instant someone shoots a bullet through them? Who takes that secret away?Why does someone pass away when they are fatally ill? The spirit is always trying to run away and break free from the cage of the body. When it find a way it will run away and go back to its origin. When you yourself, through your power over your own ego, free your spirit, at that time you can control the power of the spirit and it cannot run away. At that time you can do miraculous powers through your spirit."

From Mercy Oceans Secrets of the Heart, Rajab & Ramadan Lectures by

Sheikh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani

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

I sketched the above picture not knowing what I actually wanted to say with the drawing. But yesterday I found a beautiful part of Sheikh Hisham's book (one of the older ones, published circa 1992) which I feel compliments the sentiment of the picture. I hope you enjoyed them both!

Have a blessed Friday, sunshine. And a wonderful weekend...

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

HAPPINESS & THE NEW YEAR 2014... an adventure at sea with Mr. Ikhlas

"It was happiness." said my old friend, Mr. Ikhlas, as he recounted a tale in his distant past. "I was about 17, I think, and our family headed for a fishing trip off the east coast, near Kuantan, Pahang. If I recall well, there was my grandfather and me, my two uncles, one auntie, and our family's driver who was also my good friend and confidante. The sea was calm, the sky was bright and blue with no hint of dark clouds in sight. Then, about noon the sea turned mean and high. Out little boat was tossing and turning helplessly before suddenly a giant wave overturned us and I was flung into the treacherous ocean.

He then paused before continuing, his brown eyes glinting in a sea-grey outer ring that I always found interesting. "I managed to grab hold of a floating plank and an empty water tank. I could not see anyone else although my friend managed to join me. Of my grandfather, auntie and two uncles there were no sight or sound, nothing but the constant rise and fall of the waves beneath a bright afternoon sun. Perfect day for fishing, I remember recalling, except that we are now two rather desperate men, being carried further and further into the vast South China Sea by the low tide. I divined this as I noticed the satellite dish on top the cliff near Sungai Karang (Karang river) slowly drop out of sight over the rising horizon of the sea. 

Unhappy though I was, I was grateful for my little pieces of wood and tank, which helped us to stay above water. I would have to last as long as I can, and the thought that the next day would be Friday, on which no fishermen would go out to sea, left me concerned about my mortality. Is this to be the end of me? To lighten myself, I considered taking off my trousers, which was hampering my movement and was not a little damn heavy. But to be indecently exposed? After all, I was not alone, my friend was still with me, gamely hanging on. It was then I began a conversation with God... 'Surely God, You would forgive me this little sin? After all, survival is also a duty in religion.' After a while, I felt confident that God wouldn't mind at all, and so I unbuttoned and dropped my trousers into the dark blue depth. But not before I checked my wallet, and carefully took out my identity card. This identification paper I then carefully secured in a knot tied at the bottom of my shirt. 'Well, at least people won't find it hard to identify my body if it comes to that.' I remember thinking.'

The day quickly turned into night, and despite our predicament, what I recall best of all was the night sky. For you see, there was no artificial light anywhere near us to spoil the magnificent beauty of the million of stars and constellations that dot the heavens. The celestial lamps were as bright and twinkling as they were millions of years ago and as I looked on, I felt privileged. Privileged and honoured. This, and many other thoughts I shared with God. 

Then, as if by plan, we noticed the lights. They were a bare glimmer in the far horizon, but they were unmistakably lights! We began to swim towards them, but now our journey made easier by the current of the rising sea, carrying my friend and I back to shore."

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

Happily, everyone made it alive. Either picked up or able to swim to safety. Such was the story related to me by Mr. Ikhlas (with a little poetic license on my side). The crux of his tale was that the maritime episode was probably the first ever occasion in which he really spoke to God. "And I have never stopped since. I talk to God all the time."

Today is the last day of 2013, sunshine. Did anything happen to you this year that availed you to conversations with God? Some unfortunate illness? Some pressing financial difficulties? Perhaps a marital upheaval that made you open up to God? It is funny (to me) that as Muslims we are suppose to already be in intimate congress with God Almighty at least five times a day. And yet troubles continue to dog our life, biting at our heels like many malevolent hounds... and in the process chasing us to Him. It is as if God is saying... "I want meaning when you say you need Me. I want passion when you say you love Me. I want true gratitude when you say you adore Me. And if you won't talk to Me, I can make you talk to me."

He he he.

I guess I don't have the answer. Perhaps if I was cast overboard like Mr. Ikhlas, I may find the answer. But maybe this form of oceanic intervention is not for everyone. "Do this to Taufiq?" an Angel might inquire God. "O' God, he will sink like a stone."

He he he.

Have a happy new year and may you find new fulfillment talking to God, sunshine. I am told He listens.  All the time.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way 

GIVE YOUR SALAM (GREETINGS OF PEACE) EVEN TO YOUR ENEMY...

Dear You,

You have hurt me,

In your words and deeds,

So my mind turns to you,

To dig deep into you and

Find out why you say what you said

And do what you did...

Some dark past, a bitter history

To make you thus unkind to me?

And what did I uncover instead?

I peered into your diary

And saw you had your good days,

And you had your bad days,

And on some days, you wondered why God 

Even bothered waking you in the morning,

I saw your petty crimes and pretty lies,

And in between I saw your kindness 

And forgiveness residing still in your eyes,

So neither precious stones, silver nor gold

Did I find in the depth of your earth,

Rather, I found you had a soul...

Still recognizably human

Though tired and old,

And it is thus how I found you...

Not altogether good,

Not altogether a bad, 

And in finding a little of your soul,

I recognised in you, a little of me,

Just another wanderer

 Walking in from the cold...

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

The Veil of Separation Between Us. We have personal identities, separate and distinct from one another. There is the 'me' and the 'you', not to mention the 'us' and the 'them'. But this distinction is only true at the very most shallow end of our ocean of understanding. The truth is that human beings are much more porous and absorbent than we care to admit. We are like a sponge, absorbing our surroundings and the people we interact with.

Understanding Through Prosperity and Adversity. So we are asking Allah (swt) and His Prophet (saws) to bring us to favourable circumstances and in the company of favoured souls. But we are also asking God the Illuminating One to teach us humility and understanding if life in testing company and circumstances is to be our fate. For in both conditions of 'prosperity' and 'adversity' there is much to learn of our soul, and the mettle of our courage and patience.

Peace. So give salam (greetings of peace) even to your enemy(assuming you have one), for he holds within him an understanding of your own self. And truth be told, how you act with someone you disagree with can reveal more of you than the manner you act with someone you adore...

Do you not agree, sunshine?

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

GOD MOST FAIR, FAIR EVEN UNTO THE DEVIL - the Power of Remembrance and the Gift of Forgetfulness

The Devil

I don't hate the Devil,

But I hate what he does.

I hate his conspiracies to spread

The corruption, the oppression,

The lies, the violence, the selfishness,

The exploitation, the wars, the genocides,

The murders, the rapes, the insults and jibes,

The confusion, the hubris and the ignorance of mankind,

Seeding in our society envy and anarchy,

But most of all, I hate what he does

Because he makes me hate me...

And makes me despair of my own humanity.

So this begs another question...

Why do I listen to him?

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

The Devil is real. I think we should be very clear about this. He is not some intangible malevolent force in the human consciousness, like a typhoon blazing destruction across the plains of your soul. Mr. D has a personality, he is intelligent, belligerent and has amassed countless years of experience to hone his skill in his job description - which is to morally corrupt all children of Adam and Eve, and lead them to utter spiritual and physical annihilation. 

But we are also not stupid. God All Wise, in His wisdom has given us akal, the cerebral faculty to reason things out, to weigh the pros and cons of our actions (or inactions), to judge which is the best path to take, and to learn from our own history, the History of Man that is often bloodied with wars, oppression, xenophobia, hubris, ignorance and hate, but are also shining with beautiful examples of messengers, prophets, saints and everyday simple people who were hardworking and intelligent, grateful and worshipful to their Maker, aka God Almighty. Surely, with such knowledge of our shared past, we would not fall to the deceit and dark whispering of Beelzebub.

Old Tricks New Suckers. But we do fall for his tricks, again and again. On a daily basis. Perhaps not murdering, pillaging or robbing a bank... but small 'white sins' that this sinner himself must admit to. I leave it to your imagination to contemplate this.

The Power of Remembrance. Which goes back to our enemy. If only we can always remember... remember God, remember our beloved Prophet, remember the kindness of our parents and siblings, the tolerance of our friends... remember the common history shared by all humanity... and learn from the lessons that our past can teach us...  how would the Devil fool us?

He won't be able to. 

But this would not fit God's plan for us.

The Gift of Forgetfulness. So I guess that is why we are also built with the capacity to forget. To give the Devil the opportunity to fool us and to corrupt us. So you see, God has leveled the playing field between Adam's Children and the Devil to give the Devil an even chance defeat mankind. Which goes without saying that Allah (swt), aka God Almighty is the fairest of them all... fair even unto the Devil himself.

And this also speaks of another thing... God's belief in us and in our inherent courage and goodness, that  mercy-rich fitra (essence) of Muhammad (saws) that is in all humanity (not just them Muslims).  

So perhaps we should remember all this and believe in God too.

I am trying. In my inevitably bumbling and clownish way. 

Some Shaykh: "O' Taufiq. If you clown around too much, you will always
risk dropping and shattering your heart. I am here to help you, but
what if I am not? What then?
The Clown: You will always be here, wherever you may be...

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

SAILING THE SEA OF MATRIMONY - all roads and all knowledge inevitably leads to Hu... and to you.

1. Universe Within

Galaxies swim within my veins,

Stars make home in each cell of my body,

Cosmic winds rise from my lips,

As creation mingle sweetly in my eyes.

                                                     

                                  I am the intangible vessel,                                 

The wandering soul,

Tasked to find and record,

The Speech of the One.

I am the broken vessel,

Holed below my waterline,

Sailing an unbroken sea,

With a smile and verily, a fool’s hope!

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

If you are reading this, know that you are reading the memoirs of a fool. But alhamdulillah you are with a smiling fool. 

I don't know about anyone else, but I am contented to be a fool than a morose scholar, forever crying "Oh woe! Oh sadness! Oh, the things that I know!!" . Instead I am happy to constantly be amused, astonished and struck speechless by this life, on a course set by Him., until the day that it pleases Him to take me back.

But as I am still alive and writing, I guess there are still secrets and surprises left to be uncovered. And in the entwined limbs of lovers in rapture there are secrets to know, for there is nothing of value if that thing does not take you closer in your understanding of God Almighty.

Whether you are sailing across an ocean or the stormy waters of the matrimonial bed, seek God!

Consummated passion and more importantly, safety, is there. 

He he he. And to grease the machinery of your impending marriage (assuming you are getting wed) do remember this fine line spoken by a friend of mine to his betrothed...

Dear Love,

Our contract of marriage is a strange thing,
For the definitions are waiting to be explored,
The meaning of words and names are waiting to be written...

So write me, and who I am,

For I am without meaning until you tell me

What I mean to you...  

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

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

THE TYRANNY OF DISTANCE - the mercy in coming closer to one another...

What Have I Done?

The minister sitting behind his minimalist desk,

The drone-pilot fingering the fire button,

The fat cats purring in their towers of usury,  

The directors spilling ink across a deep clean sea,

The scientists tinkering far from the mushroom cloud...

The more distant you are from something or someone,

The more callous you may become,

So we wonder, if ever such people were troubled by doubt...

What have I done?

What have I done?

What have I done?

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

Ordinary people doing wrong. Save for the barely human psychopaths that paper the walls of salacious tv docos and websites that records (and lets face it, glorifies) violent crimes, evil, that is taking the right of someone (or something) without just cause often occurs in the most mundane of circumstances, and by people of unlikely malice. Many are married. Have good paying jobs, a nice house, children that they love and probably a pet dog or cat. They don't consider themselves bad people, much less evil. After all, evil is an epithet for the truly malignant, the infamous figures like Jack the Ripper, Hitler, Jeffry Dalhmer, Pol Pot, Attila the Hun etc. The pages of human history are red by the blood of their victims.

The distance. It is of course the distance that is the problem. Sometimes the distance between the action and the consequence is physical, like the drone-operator somewhere in the US raining hell with a drone in a remote backwater in Pakistan or Yemen. At other times the distance is wealth. After all, how become it possible for Wall Street CEOs to escape imprisonment for bringing devastating economic crisis in 2008? And no BP directors were jailed when they inadvertently leaked oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Yet in some ways, the tragedy that they have inflicted on mankind, and on planet Earth is terrible. It is of course quite simple, wealth can buy you a lot of smart lawyers and corrupt politicians.

The distant gods. God has no problem of distance. Many people looked up to the sky, wondering where He is and what He is doing. Others looked even further, and through their looking glass into the night sky, they try to interpret God's plan for Man's destiny in the movement of the celestial lanterns. They sought God through some strange Morse code that only they can understand. 

God Most Near. It is therefore an enlightenment of no small measure when the Prophet from Mecca, Muhammad (saws) brought the faith of a very near God. For this completion of knowledge in God that was championed by the previous prophets from Adam (as) to Jesus (as) is in direct contrast to the widespread perception held by Man that God is arrogant, prideful, wayward and can often be callous and indifferent to the pain of humanity... the gods of Mount Olympus or Asgard, or some further place, utterly remote from humanity. But God Almighty has revealed to the Prophet Muhammad (saws) that... 

We verily created man and We know what his soul whispereth to him, 

and We are nearer to him than his jugular vein. (Quran 50:16, Marmaduke Pickthall)

God is no oppressor. And for those thinking themselves safe and contented in their ivory towers who have oppressed thousands to millions of people blanketed in the anonymity of distance? They are committing a terrible wrong. In one of the blessed hadith (oral traditions) of the Prophet Muhammad (saws), God spoke clearly...   

"O My servants ! I have forbidden oppression for Myself, and I have made it forbidden amongst you, so do not oppress one another. 

The Future. Bringing this chit chat down to our daily life, I guess the lesson here is for us to be near to whomever we are considering to oppress. Reflect upon that man or woman's life. Consider their antecedents and history. Walk at least on day in their shoes, these poor, disenfranchised and forgotten people. If, as a banker, a politician, a king or a preacher we still oppress such people, well... maybe we do deserve the world that we have created. But what of our children's future and the world that they will inherit? We can fool ourselves that the 'little' evil we do is for their welfare.

Such is the blindness, self-deception and madness of Man. 

We are asking Allah (swt) and His Prophet (saws) to bless us and keep us safe always, despite our sins and forgetfulness. May we always draw closer together, regardless of our creed, colour or nationality. Perhaps then, we will not oppress one another.

Don't you agree, sunshine?

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way    

MY LOVE, MY GOD, MY LONELIEST - of God, the beggars and the destitute, and the circle of empathy that binds us all

My Love, My God, My Loneliest

I rejoice at the happiness of people,

Smiling like a fool,

Then God interjected and said,

"I want happiness for you too."

"But God..." I answered

"Forgive me, for my happiness is with You,

Many have betrayed their sense of loneliness,

But You stand out as the loneliest of all."

So here I am.

Let them enjoy their happiness...

In their marriages, trades, births and kisses,

My happiest time is my time with You,

My Love, My God, My Loneliest.

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

The Odd One Out. God is the odd one out. He says He is the One and Only. And there is nothing, nothing comparable or can be associated with Him. And He once said, "I was a hidden jewel and I wanted to be known."

I don't know if God can make it more plain and simple for us. He wants our company. Indeed, He created us that we might delight in His infinite facets as the hidden jewel. A jewel utterly unique and unlike any other on earth... That's God for you.

Our Community. But God also created us to be communal. And has created us to be a creature needing companionship. So we seek our family and friends, our lovers and spouses to share our life with. And this is our life.

If God wanted, He could have maintained a humanity of one race, creed and colour. But He has permitted the evolution of many races and creed, many nationalities and cultures. For what? To create conflict, bigotry and hubris? No... so that we might learn to understand one another, tolerate and love the things that makes us different, and the things that we all still share as humans... the need for love, security and prosperity.

And in the course of our life, if we do bump into a solitary figure, a lonely hermit living in the fringes of respectable society, I hope we will remember that he too shares a longing. A desire to be known and to not feel lonely. And in this way, God the Loneliest and Loveliest completes the circle of empathy that joins all of mankind together.

So do not turn away in disdain at the beggar, the alcoholic drifter, the street-walker peddling their weary wares. For somewhere in their hearts, there is God.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way