THE SINNER AND THE SKY FULL OF STARS - Nabi Muhammad (saws) and Coldplay. It all makes perfect sense.

A Sky Full of Stars

...'Cause you're a sky full of stars,

I am going to give you my heart...

...'Cause you're a sky full of stars,

And 'Cause you light up the path...

I don't care, go on and tear me apart,

I don't care if you do,

'Cause in a sky, cause in a sky full of stars,

I think I saw you...

'Cause you're a sky, cause you're a sky full of stars,

I wanna die in your arms,

'Cause you get lighter the more it  gets dark,

I am gonna give you my heart,

You're a sky, you're a sky full of stars,

Such a heavenly view,

You are such a heavenly view.

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

So ran selected extracts of the Coldplay song, "A Sky Full of Stars".

And many eons before, the Prophet Muhammad (saws) said,

My Companions are like stars (on a dark night)

Whichever of them you follow,

You will be guided.

Coincidence or Karma? He he he. Of course you know the truth, sunshine. There is no such thing as coincidences, which is merely a convenient word to describe an event whose thread of cause and effect we are not able to discern yet. It is a lazy man's escape.

But we are not lazy, you and I. Not when the meanings of meanings blaze a trail like a comet through our soul's sky. White, blue, orange or purple... the Truth guides us, cherishes us and raise our petty worldly burdens off our tired shoulders. So is it a pop song performed by a British band? Or is it a universal pledge of guidance spoken by the Habibullah (saws), re-animated for us?

Enjoy the vid, peeps.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Notrumi Embun, 25th June 2014

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

A BOUQUET OF SALAWAT - the meaning of salawat... and we are not even scratching the surface.

A Bouquet of Salawat
I wanted to present the Prophet 
With a gift of a smile,
So I smiled at my father,
I wanted to present the Prophet
With a gift of honey,
So I gave my auntie a flask of Yemeni,
I wanted to present the Prophet
A gift of assistance and succour,
So I turned away from the TV adverts
And gave my money to the needy instead,
I wanted to present the Prophet
With greetings of peace and praise,
So I gathered all these gifts in my heart
And recited the Salawat for him,
And tied the Words of Light together 
With binds of love, gossamer and frail
In a bouquet of words whose endings trail,
High above me... 
Gently swaying in the breeze
Of Angels' Wings as they take my Salawat
To bear them to the Prophetic Presence,
To be graciously accepted by the One created by Allah
To be gracious beyond compare.

So now... whither my Salawat is, 
Verily I know with certainty,
The Prophet is there.

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

(Salawat, the greeting of Peace and calling upon Allah's (s.w.t.) blessings for the Prophet Muhammad s.a.w.s.)

Lo! Allah and His angels shower blessings on the Prophet. O ye who believe! Ask blessings on him and salute him with a worthy salutation. (Marmaduke Pickthall)

The blooms withers not. The perfume does not die away with the passing of earthly seasons, its scent lingering in the Prophetic Presence. That is the value of your Salawat.

Birds do it. Bees do it. Even educated fleas do it. Let's do it. Let's fall in love and give him the Salawat.

The stalk does not break or bend. The colors do not fade with the passing of time, nor shed its petals. It will last longer than the longest rerun of the longest Indian tele-drama ever produced. That is timelessness of your Salawat.

Wise men say, "Only fools rush in... but I can't help falling in love with you... and giving you, Oooh my Prophet, your Salawat..." (Extended ElviSalawat Remix)

Words of Light, bound with the band of love and human frailty, growing luminous. You say you understand the meaning of Salawat? Verily, you are presumptuous. One day, if Allah(s.w.t.) wills it, you will be brought to the Place of Salawats, and there will you lose reckoning of your limited understanding. Glory be to He Who Reveals His Glory and Who Hides His Glory!

Gemstones, gold and silver stumble from your lips. If the giant megacorporations were to know of the value of the Salawat, verily they would bribe governments to buy the mining concession on your lips and mine your Salawat. 

If the United States knew of the value of the Salawat, they would incite a regime change on your lips, that they might benefit directly from your Salawat. That is the attraction of your Salawat.

If teenage girls (or middle aged women with teenage hearts) knew the value of the Salawat, not the most pretty, wiggle-wiggle dancing, androgynous K-Pop boyband can make their heart sway the way the Salawat would. Psy would supersede his Gangnam hit with his Salawat hit. And it will be listed in the Heavenly Top One Hundred Billboard. That is the value of your Salawat.

Ahh. That's about enough reasons for the Salawat, don't you agree? And I have not even scratched the surface of the surface of the surface of the meanings. Have a beautiful day, sunshine.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

Between Rumi and Avatar - poetic divinity and over-design

The Wings of My Soul

I would spread the wings of my soul

But even the vast expanse of this universe

Will not be able to contain them,

I would wear the crown of my soul

But the light would blind the rest of creation

And leave them stumbling in a formless world,

I would walk around with the slippers of my soul

But I am not used to walking on air,

Accustomed as I am to the earth

Of my being.

I would unmask my soul

But the mirror of this world

Is held up by my own hands,

And the contradiction of my existence

And my non-existence

Would annihilate my world,

And I would come to be to myself

An unknown, anonymous thing,

To be drawn and written and composed

As God deems fit, as the Prophet instructs.

And even this is not the complete truth!

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

AVATAR. I don't have time for spiritual poetry. For I find this physical world manifest already with the poetic symmetry of creation that can come from God alone. If you do not believe me, look at man's own attempt at creature design... from 'scientific' television documentaries which depict animals and plants dug up from the imagination and tenuous rationalization of scientists (who really ought to know better than go for this 'pop' pseudo-scientific fiction) to mega gazillion movies like Avatar and Prometheus. Not one or two, but all the man-designed creatures somehow appear to be contrived and fictional, lacking the symmetry and asymmetrical cohesiveness of this real world and real creation, registered and copyrighted by our one God. 

Oh my God... you are ugly. I would now normally say,
"Prepare to meet your Maker..." but I know for certain God didn't make you.

And almost all fictional creatures end up with
this one singular fault - over design.

RUMI. Err... I appear to have deviated somewhat from today's topic. So back to poetry and poets. I have assiduously avoided reading poetry, because I don't really enjoy language for language's sake. And even that most celebrated poets such as Rumi and Hafez I evade from reading. But sometimes life moves in its twists and turn and you cannot avoid bumping into these spiritual luminaries. As in a little book Heche acquired for me entitled Rumi - The Fire of Love. This book turns out to be a biography of sorts covering Jelaludin Rumi and his muse, Shams of Tabriz. The book is the creation of Nahal Tajadod, a Teheran born scholar and sufi now residing in France. What makes this book very accessible is that it is written from the point of view of a Rumi mureed (student), but composed in a modern novel language. Nicely done.

I am still reading the book, and slowly devouring the stories and history of Rumi, his family, companions and mureeds, all living in that age under the shadow of the rapacious Mongol hordes from the east. Of the many books I have acquired or been given over this past one year, I think this will be one of my favourites! I will share with you my conclusions upon finishing the book later.

But before I leave you (and leave I must), I recall a prose I recorded many years back. It is kinda funny...

1.      Rumi Freak

A friend once said that

I am a Rumi freak.

But the truth is

I don’t read Rumi.

I am holding his beard

And he has his hands

On my head.

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

Have a thoughtful day, sunshine.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

It is Okay to be Naive - bowing before the Greatest Good and the Greatest Truth

Whoever said that a throne of melted-down swords would be comfortable?
My hernia is killing me!

18. Kingly glory, kingly despair

If everyone are kings,

There are, in truth, no kings,

But slaves.

Kings craving queens greedy

And kingdom castles fair,

Ignorant that,

In kingly glory

Is crowned

Kingly despair.

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

Game of Thrones. Poor Ned Stark. If you are a loyal fan of the TV fantasy mini-series 'The Game of Thrones' you would see plentiful reasons why being a King or a Lord or a Baron would suck big time. Oh yes, you will get to lord over your peasants and minions, but it is only until another King, Lord or Baron peers across the garden fence and wonders, "Saaay... them land and riches look mighty good to me."

The Young Turks. There are not many Kings, Lords or Barons nowadays in the world. Now there is Democracy which purports to be the best solution for a human society. And there is no more iconic symbol of Democracy than the U.S. of A. But any system is only as good as the people who works it. I learn a lot about America and its politics from the Young Turks channel on YouTube. It is the biggest internet news site with millions of hits.

Atheism and Hubris. It is also an atheist-centric show, and oh how they poke fun of many religions, mainly Christianity with Islam coming a close second. But they are not rabid religion-haters, although I guess it is hard for them sometimes to maintain a balanced view towards religion. To be fair, they do try to filter between the 'good' Christian teachings and the 'bad' Christian teachings. Same thing goes to Islam, Hinduism and other religions of the world. At other times, the condescending tone of 'we know better' comes out into the open, and I just sigh a little.

Democracy in the U.S. of A. I am talking about the Young Turks again (See some earlier postings like 'The West and the Irrationality of Rationalism" and "The Young Turks and the Miracles") because in a recent video upload, Cenk (the big boss of the TYT) was despairing on camera about the state of American democracy because of the U.S. track records on torture. And how many people under the previous Bush administration who authorised water-boarding, torture and 'rendition flights' are happily walking freely on the streets of America - simply because President A-Change-You-Can-Believe-In Obama wants to look forward and not backwards. But lastly, Cenk admitted that he still believes in the idea of America, a liberal, progressive and strong democracy, even if people would call him naive. See video link below.

. How are we any different? Well, that is the same view all believers in all religion have. There will always be bad apples in the barrel, but we still believe in the Barrel of God. And we still believe in the holy scriptures brought down by His Prophets, though there may be some who misunderstand or places different priorities in the faith to the point that their actions, meant to 'defend the faith' ultimately destroys their own faith. Why is religion perceived in any different way? Exchange the word 'idea' with 'religion' and it turns out that we are all the same, whether you believe in God or you don't. .

We all have our share of bad apples. How are you any different from us?

. I don't want to be a democrat, and I don't want to be a King. I just wanna be me, a naive and error-prone man stumbling his way towards some meaningful understanding and experience of servanthood, to God and to Mankind. This is what Prophet Muhammad(pbuh) is teaching us.

So it is okay to be naive for we are all weak servants to the Splendid Truth of God - Love, Beauty, Compassion and Mercy.

Have a lovely day, sunshine. However naive!

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

Beauty and the Beast - a whimsical musing on women, men and vanity...

Yup. Cut the chin a bit. The model is hideous. Sheesh, can you believe this...

This billboard came up just down the road from my house. This reminds me just how thankful I should be for being born a man, and how I empathise with those who are opposing the image industry for women. This is just one billboard, but in the newspaper, in the magazines and the internet, we are inundated with billions of pictures of drop-dead gorgeous models. Then we wonder why women are so particular about how they look. If men had their skull drummed with the constant stanza of "must be beautiful', 'must be skinny', 'must have abs'... let's face it, guys, we would also be just as paranoid.

Happily (for men), we are not. Of course, there are some adverts out there promoting the media specialist's idea of the ideal male beauty (which presently seems to be metrosexual and feminine, akin to the K-Pop boy bands... boy, do some of them look prettier than the Wonder Girls!), but most of us just chuckle and admit defeat - a gut, a balding hair and a face only a mother could love, but so what?

K Pop boyband 'Beast'. Never has a band name been so inappropriate...

Not that we would not benefit from some grooming discipline. For myself, my maxim is 'more than one minute combing my hair is just wrong'. So I reckon that a visit to the Spa would undoubtedly improve my looks. But that visit is postponed and I procrastinate ad infinitum. We men are simply too lazy to pander to our physical beauty. Yet we do have our vanities, but they manifest in the strangest of things - our cars, our toys, our LEGO and comic collection, our mountain bikes and our 'high brow culture', our tattoos, cellphone and laptops, our books and our music collection. For you see, the train for Perfect Manly Beauty left our station a long time ago. So we simply took another vanity train, that's all.

It's 3.30am, sunshine. Just finished work and I thought I would write a bit before I sleep. Have a wonderful day!

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

The United Kingdom, Beatles & Pink Floyd, the Oracle and the Columbine Massacre. And something about houses - Books connect us

Was the queue long? Is the Pope Catholic?

Hi, sunshine. As I mentioned earlier, we visited the Big Bad Wolf Book Sale last Sabbath, and below are some gems I managed to purchase at really great discounts. They are not the latest books, but awesome nonetheless.

A chilling read says Oprah.
I agree.

'The Sceptred Isle Twentieth Century' is essentially a large but effective tome covering the United Kingdom's 100 years. Great up to page 50 already, and the only sad thing (for me at least) is that it also highlights the crisis in the early 1900s which saw the slow demise of the Ottoman Empire, beginning in the Balkans as well and the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsular. 'The Secret Architecture of Our Nation's Capital' by David Ovason is an interesting but a little laborious study of freemasonry's influence in Washington's iconic buildings. It's not for me actually but for my friend, Longhair, who is an enthusiast in masonagraphy (is there such a word?). Rarely for me, I am also starting to read an uberdark book entitled 'Columbine' by Dave Cullen, about the two high school seniors who decided one day in April 1999 to massacre their friends and teachers in Columbine High School, Colorado. Into the 3rd chapter, I must say that it is very well written, giving me a bird's eye view into the psyche of these 2 demented killers. 

After watching an excellent documentary on the Oracle of Omaha, I was curious enough to pick up this book by Alice Schroeder called 'The Snowball - Warren Buffet & the Business of Life', then one book about the Beatles and a pictorial biography on Pink Floyd. Oh yes, I also picked up 4 home design books for ideas. The houses are so beautiful.

If you wanna build houses, you gonna need some help...

In the early days of Pink Floyd the audiences were expected to sit or stand still
and listen attentively to the music. For Pink Floyd is not just about rock music.
Pink Floyd was a rock renaissance.

Nothing poetic this time, sunshine. Just books. Wonderful life-enriching books. May you have a good read this Sabbath.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Smile, Love, Music and Fools - Avril Lavigne

The things you can do with Photoshop nowadays...

Avril Lavigne’s latest single “Smile” (Click Here) has been drumming in my head for the past week. She has toned down her angst ridden prose to write a happy song full of profound lyrics…



'Crazy Bitch'

 You know that I’m a crazy bitch
I do what I want, when I feel like it
All I wanna do is lose control
But you don’t really give a shit
Ya go with it, go with it, go with it
‘Cause you’re fuckin’ crazy
Rock n’ roll…

…[chorus]

And that’s why I smile.

It’s been a while

Since everyday and everything has felt this right

And now

You turn it all around

And suddenly you’re all I need

The reason why,

I-i-i, I smi-i-i-ile…

I have not written about Avril in any postings, but in an earlier write up on music entitled God, Prophet and Rock &Roll, I did refer to one of her songs (I didn’t even know she wrote it) ‘Breakaway’ sung by Kelly Clarkson. The (mad) metamorphosis of a pop ballad into spiritual music is explored there in some detail (Links below).

Having to read a bit about this Canadian songstress, I found out that she was divorced in 2009 from her husband (former lead singer of Sum 41). And that somehow saddens me. I was just mentioning last week to my brother, how I found it positively sweet that many musicians, especially Americans, tend to marry early, in spite of the appalling divorce rate in the USA. Here in Malaysia, the statistics are just as disappointing.

So as one divorcee to another, I hope Avril will find another mate, and hopefully this time their union will last longer.

Love makes fools of all of us. But sometimes, being in love and foolish is the only way that this life is worth living. Who am I kidding? It is ALL THE TIME that way. And guess what, sunshine? The bigger your lover, the bigger the fool you may become – So if you choose God, or are chosen by God Himself to be in the congregation of his servants and lovers – then prepare thyself to appear foolish many, many times over.

So it is good, if you become associated with the way of the mystics, to have a healthy sense of irony, self-effacement and the ability not to take yourselves too seriously.

After all,you don’t want to appear more foolish than you really are… Or do you?

Hehehe.

Pax Taufiqa.

Some previous musical postings -
God, Prophet and Rock & Roll
God, Prophet and Rock & Roll - Part 2
God took away my chance to die young - The Band Perry

Music and Muhammad, Grace & Gratitude

In the Temple of Love there was George Benson... and Almighty God had a question to ask.

Believing IN God and Believing God is not the same thing.

BELIEVE IN GOD. God has no need for us to believe in Him. He has the entire Universe, from the biggest Sun to the smallest slice of the atomic apple that believes in Him already. Why does He even bother with us? Why should we bother with Him?

...TO BE SANE. I guess it is about keeping sane against the arbitrary workings of Fate. Why was I born fat? Why do I drive a beat-up old car? Why am I poor and she is rich? She didn’t work for her wealth, her parents did, is it fair? Why does it always rain after I wash my car? Why is my calf so thin but my thigh Beyonce-esque? If given full freedom, our ego will drive us mad with its incessant demands. So God is saying don’t raise yourself (your ego) as your own private god. Believe in Him that all will work out for the best. He has the Good Plan for you.

BELIEVE GOD. It is not the same as believing in God. For me, at an intellectual plane, I do accept the existence of the Almighty. But in my ups and downs, I sometimes fail to believe Him. When I am up, I can be obnoxious and uppity, thinking my success is of my own efforts, forgetting that God says that success is His reward to give and to take away as He wishes. When I am down, I forget God’s words in Surah Inshirah (XCIV) when He uttered these words of comfort (with double emphasis) ‘So, verily, with every difficulty, there is relief, verily, with every difficulty, there is relief’. I think it is fair to say that although we generally believe He exists, every day we are striving to believe His assurances to us… Why should we?

...TO BE HAPPY. He want us to believe Him when He says He loves us more than Romeo loves Juliet, more than Batman loves Robin, more than your mum loves you… Surely happiness is only a heartbeat away if we believe Him. It is much harder than believing in His existence. But really, the sweetness of this understanding is beyond the comprehension of our mental faculty. This deal, this superhero bargain is offered to us in the kingdom of our heart, because simply put, only our heart can comprehend His love for us.

.

TO CONCLUDE, God is asking us to believe Him, not just believe in Him – because He wants us to be happy. And to realise just how loved and favoured we are. *Sigh* I say this as a sinner, but you? Just how much He loves you is honestly beyond me...

To the Batmobile, Robin!

Pax Taufiqa.

Footnotes – Picture and prose entitled ‘Believe God’ is new.