A Ship of Salawat on the Sea of Dzikr - thoughts and musings under the emerald eaves...

Strange thoughts may come to you, walking under the emerald eaves...

I went walking yesterday afternoon. In between preparing a due diligence report for a solicitor friend and a billion Euro deal, I sneaked out for a walk. Don't worry about the billion Euro thingy, for it is my experience that the bigger the value of a contract, the lesser the likelihood that it will actually succeed. But you never know, I guess.

It is important to walk away sometimes. Even for only 30 minutes. Away from the laptop, the phone calls, the sms-es and the WhatsApp. Away from the newspapers, away from the office. As I strolled under the emerald eaves of the park, I would listen to my Ipod. Although I sing terribly, I love songs. And in the Ipod is a playlist of songs I named 'The Red Rose'. It is a compilation of rock love ballads, pop love songs, folksy music and mawlud songs venerating and praising the Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.). Of course, perhaps the songwriters never originally intended the songs to speak of the love of Muhammad and God, but I have an ear for such things. He he he.

Salawat for the Prophet (giving worthy greetings and calling upon blessings of God for the Prophet), which is the fundamental basis of mawlud songs, is important to Muslims. It is the necessary accompaniment to the Dzikr (remembrance of God). It is like a ship traversing calmly across a sea. It is like a stroll in a park, when all animate and inanimate things just feels good.

I soon finished my walk and returned, alas too soon, to the mundane stuff of billion Euro deals.

Have a lovely day, sunshine. A billion Euro here or there means nothings if you are not happy. So look for happiness.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

Make It Be! And Make It Be Me! - music, songs and the sufis

Make it be me

I would love to leave this world a song of Thee,

A sonnet or a ballad glorifying Thy utter wonderfulness,

A hard rock or a soft rhythm and blues piece that praises Thee

With heartfelt prose and love-drunk inflections!

And if this is not to be in my life, o' Lord,

How I would thank Thee if Thy could

Make me return to the world as a whisper,

An inspiration borne on the breeze from heaven

To the heart and ears of a songwriter,

And to be able to whisper into his talent,

Write it like this... Compose it like this... Sing it like this...!

I would love to be a song for Thee,

A tearful poem recited for Thee,

In a concert of saints who would

Raise the music to Thy Divine Presence!

If this would make Thee happy,

O' Lord, O' Lover of the Beloved Muhammad,

Make it be!

And make it be me!

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

There is just something about music that turns something on inside of us. And if I am to leave this world one day, I would love to leave this world a beautiful song for all maidens and laddies in love. They would all be singing or humming me.. in the car, or walking and listening to their iPods. Oh, they will think it is a romantic song about Romeo and Juliet, about Cher and Bono or about Layla and Majnun, when in truth it has always been about you, my Lord! And one day they will know and understand.

Unfortunately I do not have much musical talent. But God can make anything possible, so why not this? And why not me?

And why not you, sunshine?

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

The Spiritual Hobo and The Spiritual Bourgeois - How to write Songs and Prose

A songwriter is driven by his feelings. I know of one famous songwriter with a large portfolio of beautiful songs before his conversion to Islam. The songs were sincere, melancholy and yearning, with a certain edginess in his music which attracted me.

After he converted to Islam, well... the songs are still rather good. But I could sense the feeling of contentment and satisfaction in the music - A 'I-am-home-already' sorta sentiment which permeates through the music and lyrics. And that is good for him personally, but for me it has lost that 'I-am-lost-I-need-to-find-my-way-back' drama and tension which rippled to the surface of his older songs.

I was talking to my brother about it, and I (cruelly, I think) commented that this musical phase as being the songwriter's 'spiritual bourgeois' phase - That middle-class suburban reality of self-satisfaction you achieve when you think that you have "made it". There is not much edginess or grit in this sort of music. The 'Blues' mood of separation, solitude, rejection, yearning and desire just fell away from the songs.

I hope that at a metaphorical level, we shall always be like hobos riding on a freight train of God. Not knowing where we might end up, living life a day at a time, a loaf of bread and an apple a day, utterly in the Mercy of the Lord who made us all. Because frankly, there is really no other way to write beautiful prose or songs.

The Love is in the searching and yearning. So may our search and yearning never end.

Have a lovely day, sunshine.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way