Metaphors and Divine Promises

Realities, Metaphors and Analogies

If you say this world is real,

I will not disagree with you,

If you say this world is illusory,

I will not disagree with you,

If you say that this world is a metaphor,

I will not disagree with you,

As a reality and an analogy,

I will not disagree with you.

For every day, and every moment,

So long as you are a thinking and feeling

Member of the human race,

You will live in both worlds,

Standing across two meanings

Whose divide is wider than the Universe,

Seeing illusions and bearing witness

To His Embrace, He that is God Almighty,

The Last and the First.

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

I have not written much but here I am, still very much alive and kicking. Metaphorically, speaking. He he he.

Have a wonderful Eidul Adha, sunshine. May Allah (swt) ease our journey from faithlessness to faithfulness, from all that is ugly and illusory to all that is true and lovely... towards Muhammad Habibullah, Mercy to all the Worlds (saws).

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Divine Promises
Escape the illusion of the bars that cage your soul,
Remember God and His Prophet,
Remember the divine promises long foretold!

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

IN THE WINDOW-SHOP OF THE WORLD, THE ONLY ITEM FOR SALE IS MADNESS - MH17, rejecting despair, embracing hope and the real struggle within us all...

Our Struggle

Today I declare my struggle against hubris,

Against hatred and bigotry,

Against the warmongers and the war profiteers,

Against the hidden hands and their well-dressed murderers,

Today I declare my struggle against the ignorance of Man and their arrogance,

Against their petty quarrels and pious slights,

Against the venom of the backbiters,

Against the whispers of the whisperers in the night

Taunting Man to fight and kill for his 'rights',

Today I declare my struggle against all these vices,

But above all else, I declare my struggle against these vices in me,

Shadowing my waking and sleeping hour

Giving my heart no rest till

My very soul tremble and cower,

Today I seek the Light upon Light, to guide and save me

Lest I be yet another slave to 

The One-eyed King in 

His Golden Tower.

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

Don't despair, sunshine. Do not be too worried about the theatre playing in the world stage. Attend to the present, to yourself and to those closest to you.

The world may attempt to bring its conflicts, its wars, its greed, inhumanity and hate to our very doorsteps. But it is forbidden to enter. Not unless you permit it to enter.

MH17. Yesterday, being a Friday, the whole nation of Malaysia mourned for the loss of innocent lives onboard MH17. A day of mourning was declared as the remains of our fellow citizens were brought home with honour and solemnity. But the question remains - someone shot it down, and I used to wonder aloud, "If we found out who really did it, whom should we invade? Russia or Ukraine?"

Russia or Ukraine? But truth be told, I am not wanting to declare jihad (struggle) on anyone really. For at the moment they are like little dusts messing the threshold of my soul. And I want nothing of the madness that appears to be the only item for sale in the window-shop of this world.

The real struggle. You and I, we are concerned with the inestimable infinity. What is a few days, years or centuries in our heart? For we are busy making our heart presentable for the Light of Muhammad (saws), and everything else are false and worthless distractions, pretentious facsimile to the True Reality of God Almighty. That is the struggle we are endeavouring to win, a struggle from the moment our conscience understands right and wrong, until we are returned to the bosom of the earth, back to Allah (swt).

So I will see you there, yes? In the antechamber of the heart, where secrets are revealed again and again and again. Hold my hand, sunshine. For I am always in need of guidance and encouragement. And that fact, alas, is no secret at all!

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Notrumi Embun, 23rd August 2014

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

THE ENEMY, THE DOG, THE PIG AND THE RELIGION ... ending the illusion of 'religion'

What is Religion?

Things took a turn for the bad

When the Muslims took what they had,

The faith and the way that Muhammad brought,

And shoehorned Islam into their limited conception of

Religion and God.

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

Think about it, sunshine. There is no comparable religious study program of Islam and any other religion. For the truth is Islam encompasses everything. It is the tea that you drink, the charity that you do, the sin that you commit, the trust that you keep, the friendship that you have betrayed, the life that you live, and the love that you have faithfully kept or lost. For God has said that He knows your all, your past and future deeds, your black and white and grey. Islam of the Prophet Muhammad (saws) is a key to the infinite, and as such cannot be judged in finite empirical methods. 

Often, we repeat similar sentiments when we say, "Oh... Islam is not merely a religion. It is our way of life!". But the truth is we are merely parroting some preacher man. For in our conduct, in our prejudices and delusions of humility and obedience, we have still far, far, far to go in understanding and keeping to the Islam and Sunnah (traditions) of Nabi Muhammad (saws). Sad that many of us still cling to the intoxication that we somehow deserve Islam and the Prophet of Islam - that we have better rights than the pig in the sty, than the dog in the gutter... may Allah (swt) save us from this foolish 'piety'!

The Islamic Pig

You have not completed your faith 

Until you can look at the lowly dog, 

The dirty, stinky pig, 

The Devil and your worst enemy,

And perceive the Islam

In their action and purpose

Of their creation.

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

Dwell on this, my love. For one day, you may find me reprehensible, a liar and a wretched fool. And I hope that on that day, you will still perceive the Islam in me.

Have a hopeful beautiful Sunday.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

- Notrumi Embun, 25th May 2014.

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

YA MAWLA YA MAWLANA - some words strung together. But loosely. You may fit a few infinities between the letters.

Awake in Sleep, Asleep in Wakefulness

O' Allah the Wondrous One,

Let not my attachment to You

Be a hindrance to You,

O' Allah Most Melodious One,

Let not my praises for You

Be a barrier to You,

O' Allah Sender of Dreams,

Let not the waking hours of my apostasy

Drug me to sleep far from You,

O' Allah Owner of Sweetness,

Let not my blessings make

Me one moment forgetful of You,

O' Allah Most Gentle,

Let not my words imprison me,

Let not my life defeat me,

Lead not my hopes astray,

O' Allah,

My words stop here,

But You are Eternal!

Unfathomable, Unique 

The all-Arresting One,

So arrest me, charge me of my crimes,

Imprison me in Your love,

Tether me like a donkey

To Your unspoken Reality!

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

I am such a sinner. And I have a sin to confess to you. Since writing this blog, I used to schedule my uploads. Sometimes writing them many hours ahead before actually posting them here in the Almanac. But who is to say if God would give me time to live that long? How shameful I have been, taking time for granted... taking God for granted.

So here are the words, pressed into service as fast as my fingers can type them. No delay. As we should not delay in service to Him.

For why delay a lovely thing? Why delay beauty? Why delay our prayers?

Ya Mawla... ya Mawlana...

I had dream. I woke up. I prayed. It lead me here. To you, sunshine.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

THE GHOST... Death becomes him - Saiful Bahri (1964-2013) Part 2

Poone... in Jordan, May 2011. In the company of his friends.

The Ghost

I keep feeling him,

There he goes, on my door, knocking,

Asking for a lighter, or a fiver,

I keep feeling him,

There he is, lazing on the sofa,

From dawn till dusk,

Though he never liked Edward or Bella,

I keep feeling him,

Sitting quietly outside my bedroom,

Fiddling about on the internet,

Making pointed comments,

Needling the bigots,

I keep seeing him,

Right in front of me,

Or sitting there, by the piano,

Smiling, and happy.

I keep feeling him,

In the books that I read,

In the music that I cherish,

In the ripening of an ancient flame,

In the passion of the dervish

And the Golden Chain...

He always had a story to share,

This brother of mine,

But rarely of himself,

So let me share with you

A thing or two

About Saiful,

a.k.a. Poone...

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

The dotting uncle. Keeping an eye on
his beloved nephews.

Hi there, sunshine. It's been more than two weeks since my brother, Poone (a.k.a. Saiful), passed away suddenly. Since then I have written but only one posting, and I cannot reason out why. I can only hazard a guess that unlike the passing of my mother, which was preceded by an agonising 6 to 9 months of debilitating cancer and chemo treatments, the death of my brother was surprising and unexpected.

A contented soul (dammit!). As the prose suggests, I need only to pause to recall my brother. It is the easiest thing in the world for me to imagine him playing his guitar in his room. Reading a book outside on the landings, and just you know... shuffling about the house. Utterly lacking in worldly ambitions, he was an alien creature to me, though perhaps I know him as well as any other person. But he was contented, dammit, much to my own discontent and bemusement. 

How ironic. He he he. He would like this sort of conclusion. For he had always agreed with me about wit - 

Sarcasm is from the Devil, Irony is from God.

A brotherly kiss. Many, many years ago, I remember falling asleep in the sofa downstairs in my old house. Those were in fact the early days of my brother's rites of passage into a Sufi order. Anyways, I was awoken by my brother gently pressing a kiss on my forehead. He did not notice that I was awake. I didn't say anything and merely looked on as he walked away. "Now that was unexpected. What was that all about?" I pondered wearily before falling back to sleep. Alas, now I wished I had asked him. 

When Poone passed away, my immediate impression was that my brother has become a ghost. A memory that will haunt me forever. A furtive omnipresence in the corner of my eye. But an old prose posed an alternative view... 

2. Layla’s ghost

I thought I was tangible,

I thought I had meaning,

I thought I was a lover,

Ruling with the heart of a king.

I now know

I am none of the above,

I am but a ghost,

A vagrant amongst the living.

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

The Real Ghosts. Thus I am reminded of the truth. That the ghost in this sad and beautiful story is us. Continuing to persist in this physical world that is so darn convincingly real and permanent, when the truth is that this life is transient and its reality a mere reflection of the absolute reality of the afterlife. For our cherished departed friend and kin, theirs is the privilege of the true existence in the divine presence. In the cobbled stone path, the grassy knoll of the cemetery and the silence of the graves is the long-awaited union between the Creator and the created. 

Mika was at my mother's grave last year. Who would have guessed that
my brother would soon join her near her final resting place.
The return of the prodigal son...

The First One. It is strange, this death. Even as I write this I am torn between what to say and what to keep silent. He had such an impact in my life that I cannot begin to count them. I did not realise this earlier, but after these thousands of prose and poems, our conversations and arguments, now I understand that Poone was my first Shaykh (master) before I even knew about the existence of Shaykhs and the Sufis. I never knew this because he never acted like a master. He acted like a brother... a kindly and forgiving one. 

Poone was not one to dress up, always in his old tattered shirts
and ancient khaki pants. "Dammit..." I ventured to anyone who would care to listen,
"...Don't you think he looks better than when he was alive?
Death becomes him..."

Our siblings are not perfect. But who is? Do not be like me, sunshine. Be contented with them, regardless, for they are who they are, and a large part of us comes from them too. 

Permit me to end with a prose recorded almost 10 years ago, and one which was mined from a conversation I had with my brother, whom I call Abang Chik, the one you call Poone.

27. Arms-Length (With Poone)

Never get too close to a problem,

Because even a grain of sand can eclipse the sun,

If it is lodged in your eyes. 

May we never be blinded, may Allah (swt) always light our understanding,
in the perfection of humanity and servanthood that is Muhammad (saws). 

Have a lovely day, sunshine. al fatiha.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

GOD IS NOT A SACK OF POTATOES - ... you better let Him lead.

Love is Love

You are confused,

Asking and thinking you are not being asked for,

Desiring and thinking you are not desirable,

Searching and all this time thinking

That you are yourself not sought.

It would be good

That you dispel such confusion,

And come to know a little of that which you seek...

Our Beloved and True God.

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

Man like to think that we are the only one putting the effort in our relationship(s). And it doesn't matter whether it is our relationship with our spouse or lover, or in our relationship with our Maker. We err in thinking that God is the Most Desirable One, when He is also God the Most Desiring One.

Sometimes we are so far up our self-righteous wazoo, that we forget that it takes two to tango, and that the other has to be a proactive and reactive tango partner. After all, you don't want to be swishing and gliding across the dance floor as if you are lugging a sack of potatoes. Oh no.

So cease your ignorance in thinking that God is like a sack of potatoes. He is waiting for your dance together. And He will be setting the music. And though this is unusual (as you may be a Man), you gotta let God lead.

Because I reckon that the reason we always trip and fall in our dance is because of our refusal to let God lead. Our pig-stubborn ego, constantly rebellious and refusing to follow God. So come on, sunshine, stop listening to your ego. Get off the floor. Your life has not ended and God is waiting to begin your dance again. 

Yes. He waits, the Most Patient One. That is His Love for you... and in the Completeness of His Understanding and Knowledge over you. And not just about your skill (or lack of skill) at tango. He knows every atom and sub-atomic particle that makes up the transient and fragile reality that you call you.

In this we are more blessed than we can imagine.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

THE FLAG OF GUIDANCE, THE HOLY SPIRIT AND THE JOY OF GOD - three names of the Prophet (s.a.w.s) and the little matter of the jihad

The Kalimah of Jihad

There is no G but G, and M is the M of G.

There is no jihad but G-Heart,

And in this venture, there is no messenger better.

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

G-HEART. What is jihad? Jihad is about bringing God into your heart, which directly brings goodness into the world. It is about translating our humble life to magnify the Greatness of Allah (s.w.t.), to suppress our ego and nafs (base animal desires) and raise the Flag of Guidance in our heart, who is none other than that 'M'... Muhammad Prophet of God (s.a.w.s).

Guide us, ya Sayyidina Alamul Huda (s.a.w.s.)!

GEE-HEART. And if you are a Christian? What is Jihad for you? It is not the crusade of ancient times, nor the poor facsimile of the crusades now. It is to stop saying 'Gee Whiz!" or 'Golly Gee!" but to instead resonate the Gee (G) of Jesus Christ in your heart. And for this, there is no wiser arbiter than the Holy Spirit, who is none other than Muhammad Prophet of God(s.a.w.s).

Guide us, ya Sayyidina Ruhul Quds (s.a.w.s.)!

JOYFUL HEART. Banish the pain and sorrow of your life thrown up in the pursuit of being something, when nothing is much simpler. Hold the bridle tightly on the donkey (ego) and say, "Go straight! Let us ride upon the Path of Haqq (Truth). O' my ego, you tell me to turn here and there, to turn left and be distracted by this world, to turn right and be overcome by my sensual desires, you promise me that by following your nature, I will find joy, but you are deceitful, for what is joy if it is not the Joy of Allah, who is none other than Muhammad Prophet of God (s.a.w.s.)? Come, on our way now, the Prophet beckons!"

Guide us, ya Sayyidina Sa'dullah (s.a.w.s.)!

Lovely. Have a beautiful Sunday, sunshine.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way 

FAITH HAS NO WEIGHT, LOVE HAS NO MASS - tea and the divine parables and metaphors

Faith Has No Weight, Love Has No Mass

Heavy books with heavy phrases,

Heavy looks on heavy faces,

Heavy thoughts in heavy hearts,

O’ scholars, what are you teaching yourselves!?

Heavy tents and heavy politics,

Heavy plans and heavy tricks,

Heavy words and heavy hubris,

O’ scholars, what are you teaching yourselves!?

Heavy pride and heavy fences,

Heavy fears and heavy defenses,

Heavy deeds and heavy offences,

O’ scholars! What are you teaching yourselves!?

In truth, faith has no weight

And love has no mass,

And the only thing heavy

Is a heart of both bereft.

…………………. 

A good heart gives the fortunate owner a nimbleness in his thinking, his work, his play and his loving. A good heart does not see the world in the material and spiritual sense, knowing as he does, that there is in truth only one reality. Only that such reality can be read and understood in two aspects, like two sides of the same coin.

Tea and the Divine Parables and Metaphors. In the holy Quran, we are informed that God talks to us in parables and metaphors. And so He does, while we work out what He is saying to us through our physical and spiritual interpretation of the world. So, when you drink tea, it is not merely a temporal  action, but also a spiritual action. It's the same whether you are asleep or awake, working, playing or praying. 

And good heart is important for this sorta thing.

So I hope to one day gain a good heart. It is not a complicated concept. Just do more good than bad. But for myself, this has been the most challenging ambition of all. But I still have hope, and I pray. To gain that nimbleness of footing upon the mountain.

'Tis Friday. Have a lovely weekend, sunshine.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam 

Love will show the Way 

Kun-Faya Kun! - When the mind wavers, the heart takes over.

Kun-Faya Kun 

("Be", and it is!)

No kites in the sky,

No ships in the sea,

No books for the wise,

No potions for the ill,

No fat to fry,

No money to steal,

No waiting to die,

No body to bury,

No butterflies, no birds,

No flowers, no bees,

No lions, no trees

Nothing till the Lord says "Be!"

And the Prophet answers

"...and it is!"

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

Verily, when He intends a thing, His Command is, "Be", and it is!
(Holy Quran 36:82, Yusuf Ali)

There is so many things that we do in our daily lives, which we miss out. Our breath and our sight, our voice and our hearing, and yea... even our thoughts. We miss out not in failing to do such things, for certainly we use all our body, faculties and senses to live. What we miss out is the super-uber nano-moment between our desire for something and the achievement of that thing. For in between the common everyday event like breathing and thinking, there is an infinitesimally small point in time, when we are actually asking God, "Oh Lord, let me think this thought." To which God answers in the affirmative, "Yes, think that thought. Yes, write that book. Yes, plant the rose tree. Yes, you may climb that one step. Yes, you may inhale your next breath." 

When I think of all that God has given unto me in a single day, I am ashamed at my callous disregard. When I think of the whole of my 42 years...? The mind wavers and ultimately surrenders. And that is when the heart takes over.

Something to think about with your morning cup of tea, sunshine.

God bless you.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

Divine Allegory - God, the path and the rose of wisdom

You turned and you pointed, and when I looked in the direction You were indicating I saw a vast horizon of which I was unaware before. We stood at a great height and from here the

distant sea was visible with its sparkling reflections of light...

A Friend. Thus wrote a friend, the beginning of a short-short story. It is nice to meet a friend. Yafiah Katherine dropped by recently and as is the norm, I returned the courtesy and paid a visit to her at her site entitled Wild Dervish Writes - a Sufi Look At Life. If you would like to know how the prose ends, you may visit her by clicking on the picture below. She is also an author, a postgraduate presently doing her thesis and invites you to swot on Sufi books that have influenced and inspired her. You may glean such tomes here in her Amazon Sufi Book Store.

Hikmah. In this short and often ill-used life of mine, I have at least found out certain hikmah (wisdom) through observation and also rolling through the mire of my mistakes and error. Oh, it is not something extraordinary or secret. The hikmah is there, apparent as the Sun, and perhaps just as blinding (obvious). 

God speaks in Allegories. In the Holy Quran, verse 24;35, God says that He speaks to mankind in allegories. And this is how my friend Yafiah is speaking to me and you, through her stories and prose. Now the trick of it all is for me to realise that God is speaking to us all the time in allegories. He weaves His story and His Love and Lesson all around us. He's is all there for us to be aware. But being aware is the hardest bit of all, especially when we are tested...

Forgotten Allegories

I forgot that God was speaking to me in allegories 

when I was scolded and came away bitter and angry. 

I forgot that God was speaking to me in allegories 

when my hopes were broken and I felt myself broken. 

I forgot that God was speaking to me in allegories 

when in the middle of nowhere my car had a flat tire. 

I forgot that God was speaking to me in allegories  

when I became ill and felt my body on fire. 

I forgot that God was speaking to me in allegories 

when I came to money and ill-used all my wealth.

God speaks to me in allegories all the time

But how easy it was for me to forget! 

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

Hindsight. Of course, in hindsight, we inevitably learn and realise the truth. That the 'good' and 'bad' occurrences in our lives are nothing if not God speaking to us. Then we are able to find the balance, and read what God intended us to understand all along. The trick and wisdom is for us to realise this truth without hindsight, and realise it as it happens...

A Rose of Wisdom. This is the Rose of Wisdom that I seek from God. I am told that such divine bloom can be found in the Garden of the Prophet (s.a.w.s.). Now that I know of this rose, I am asking for it. Can you show me the way to the Garden, sunshine?

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

The Gossamer Screen - beauty is the projection of power.

Beauty and Power

Beauty is just one

Of many devices

By which God projects 

His Power.

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

Singapore. I flew to Singapore yesterday for a day-trip at the behest of one of my clients. Like little legal gnomes, my group of lawyer friends guided and witnessed the signing of more than 40 contracts for the purchase of apartments by the well-to-do citizens of the southern city-state. I do mostly corporate stuff, but I sometimes help out my partner, Alex, in this conveyancing work (sale and purchase of real property), and I do enjoy dealing with retail customers... talking to real human personalities up-front, rather than through the corporate veil of companies and organizations... For you see, people think differently when they are spending their own money, as opposed to the company's money. It is a welcome change.

Beauty. The rain has been pouring like nobody's business these past couple of weeks, and as we took the morning flight I saw white plumes of cloud rising majestically in the sunny sky. And it was the memory of me and Alex flying fearlessly in a tin cylinder through the heavens that made me think later this morning - that beauty is the projection of power.

Eternal Beauty. And how strange it is for most people to fall for transient beauty when the eternal beauty and power of God is there, clear as day, looming over our lives like the clouds and storms in the sky, or intimately close to us, in the form and beautiful aspects of our children... 

The Gossamer Screen

You have witnessed it yourself, 

God is projecting His power 

upon the  thin gossamer 

screen of your life.

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

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way  

Far Beyond the Shores of Mortal Thoughts... sailing the Ocean of Belief

The Shore of Understanding and the Ocean of Belief

Understanding has its limits,

Belief has no limits,

It has oceans, and when you reach

The end of one, another ocean

Opens up for you to sail,

And another, and another.

Sometimes, in the quietness

Of the early morning,

When everyone else's asleep,

I would stand in the mirror

And look to my day’s words and deeds,

And verily, I would shake my head

And address myself, saying,

“O’ you weak fool. I sometimes do not

Understand you at all!”

So how far outside our skin do we

Have any knowledge, when we are

Limited by our own understanding

Of who and what we are?

This is where I often meet my Master,

In the ocean of belief,

With angel-like seagulls flying above,

But I am not catching any fish!

I try to keep close to the familiar,

Hugging the coastline of my own understanding,

Fearing the unknown, but ever the Master

Sends the wind of belief, and whether I like it or not,

My ship’s sail is catching his prayers,

Billowing in the divine breeze of God,

And my ship is entering further and further

Into the Ocean of Belief, 

Far beyond the shores of mortal thoughts.

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

Sometimes, things happen beyond the normal. It is not abnormal, but it is strange for the course of existence that we would like to take. But the truth is, we cannot have everything our way (thank God!). So we should take some hope that wherever the wind blows our soul towards, it is anywhere and everywhere the Ocean of God, if we would only surrender our own plans and conspiracies and accept the infinite Ocean of Belief.

Where you are right now. Whatever you may be doing, and whomever you are with. All these things occur for a reason. Believe that you are on your way to the Divine Presence, and you will be...

Have a lovely day, sunshine. Happy sailing!

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way