NOT LOST, MERELY A LONGER LEASH - of happiness and its many veils

Merely a Longer Leash

Tell me not your happiness is best

While mine is a veil,

Who is to judge which of our happiness is true?

Would that person be you?

Tell me not that I need guiding

Because I am lost,

For my Lord has merely given me

A leash longer than yours!

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

It is tempting to bath in the sunshine of our spiritual happiness. To shower under the glazed rain of our inchoate joy. And for those seekers, it is also a common habit to see others and wonder, "Why are they taking their happiness from that which is other than God Almighty or the most sought company of the Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.s.)? They are partying like its New Years Eve, when they could be attending a gracious Mawlud (congregational dzikr and salawat)."

I made the mistake of sharing my observation with an old friend.

"Do not stray there, my friend..." my old buddy-buddy interjected, "Who are you to say that your happiness is true and his happiness is a hijab (veil)? For truth be told (and as painful as it is), by you questioning his happiness, you have thrown a hijab over your own happiness and closeness to Goodness." 

I have?

"Yes. This is an important lesson. Do not forget." He concluded.

Poor foolish me. Always being reprimanded and admonished.

Oh well. Maybe the middle is the best place to be. He he he.

May Allah (s.w.t.) bless you always. And if ever, I have doubted your happiness (or sadness, now that I think about it further)... please do forgive me.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way 

Knowledge, the Ocean of Love and the Snail

What are you looking at? Have you not met a snail before?!

1. O’ little snail!

Knowledge should move

You to action, o’ little snail,

Not burden you like

A house on your back.

You still judge.

That is why you

Do not budge.

Someone pretty damn smart said sometime ago that 'a little knowledge is a dangerous thing'. He is absolutely right. 

Physical sciences exists in the apparent forms of this world. It is something you can observe, weigh and measure. It is much easier to prove or disprove. But even the laws of physics evolve as the ability of man to crack the atomic apple increases and our ability to measure the building blocks of the Universe improves.

If caution is advisable when we approach physical knowledge, there is perhaps more reasons for us to be careful when we dip our toes into the infinite ocean of spiritual knowledge. It is a vast sea, sunshine, and its depth is as inexhaustible as the Imagination of God. Where do we go from our first step into the Ocean?

Where do we go from our first step into the Ocean?

Beats me. I don't know. Perhaps we are suppose to swim like a fish. Or sail like a pirate. Or fly like a seagull. There are many ways to traverse the Ocean of God, and I guess to each his own path. I am however pretty certain that we are not suppose to judge. Judging is the fullstop of our endeavours here. No swimming, no sailing or flying. We just end up like snails, carrying that so-called spiritual knowledge like a house on our back. And of course we cannot get close to the Ocean anymore, consisting as it is of salty seawater. So we end up trailing our judgments of others like slime across the shore of God. And nobody wants anything to do with us... after all, we are so judgmental!

I would like to say here that I do not judge. But I do... I am sorry for being a snail. Perhaps one day my knowledge would grow gills for me, that I might swim the Ocean of Love like a fish. Or perhaps sprout wings, that I might fly across the Sea of Mercy like a seagull. Or build me a ship, that I might sail through life as a pirate and take God's Compassion as booty. But until then... you have to be patient with me.

Thank you for dropping in today and visiting this snail sinner.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

VICTORY FOR THE US of A. The New Jersey Governor and the Muslim Judge - Prose of Ramadhan Part 66

I like American politics. It is just like Malaysian politics - bipartisan, mad and full of interesting characters. I have been following American politics since 2008 and am full of admiration for the good people (and even some politicians) who are fighting the good fight and trying their level best to keep America in her best traditions of multiculturalism, enterprise, freedom of religion, free speech and secular form of governance. So in the course of my understudy, I therefore have very little nice things to say about the Republican Party, and the right wing nuts that appear to infest its hive.

So today I was happy to bump into Chris Christie, the current incumbent Governor of New Jersey. Christopher James "Chris" Christie was born in Newark in 1962, a lawyer, a lobbyist, a former District Attorney and clearly in the Bush team for the duration of the former President’s tenure in the White House (he was a top fundraiser for Bush’s 2000 presidential election). He was a pal of Carl Rove and a mover and shaker in the rarified heights of Republican party organisation. So there is (normally) no reason why I should sing his praise. Until I watched this YouTube video …

He looks like a cast member in the Sopranos, don’t you think? So now I have two things I admire coming out of New Jersey - the Sopranos and Governor Chris Christie. You see, the Governor earned the ire of the right wing fundo-nuts when he appointed Sohail Muhammed, an American of Indian Muslim descent, as a Superior Court judge in New Jersey. By defending Sohail Muhammed and speaking so candidly against the ‘crazies’ in his own party and the right-wing movement, he has painted a political bull’s eye on his back. But by God, how I admire his courage. I don’t care what his antecedents are, but for this brief moment in time, he is one of the stars that are shining brightly in these dark nights that we are living in.

Another fine New Jersey export.

I have been preparing this posting the whole day. And each time I get back to it (I do actually work, you know) I ask myself this question, - Am I being overly enthusiastic about this little piece of American drama? But when I re-watch the video, my sentiment about this story is still the same. There are just so few good stories coming out of American politics that it affects me in places only goodness and love can reach - Chris’s constituency is not just New Jersey anymore, it is now the world. Simply because he decided to speak from his conscience.

God bless his Christian heart.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Please do a good job, Mr. Sohail. You will be judged
even though you are the judge now. God bless you...

After this, I don't know how his political career will develop,
But boy, I wish the Governor the very best...

This is a victory for the US of A. I hope the Americans
will realise this.