The House of al-Akhir - the syariat, the tarikat and the fairest deal of them all

 The 2^nd Obligation

Obedience to the Syariat

Is an obligation.

The Tarikat is the presumption

Of a second obligation,

That of love for God.

Love for the Prophet.

Love for the Saints.

Love for Man.

Love for the mightiest suns, and

The smallest grain of sand.

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

The Syariat (the Law) will bring you to the House of God, a Shaykh said. But it is the Tarikat (the Path) that will give you leave to enter the House of God and into the Divine Presence.

I am thinking about this... thus the Syariat is like a road map, with dead-ends, one-way streets, traffic lights, highways, bridges, overhead pedestrian crossings, junctions and roundabouts that channel the continuous traffic of human interaction with God and indeed, with ourselves.

It is the best way to avoid mishaps and accidents in our spiritual journey from Alpha to Omega, from Awal (the First) to Akhir (the Last). But arriving at the House of al-Akhir (House of God, Akhir being one of the known 99 names of God), there the road map ends. There you are in the Absolute End of human conjecture and presumptions. You furtively knock on His door, pleading like a homeless beggar, "Oh Lord... let me in..."

Were you knocking at any other door, what a waste and ruinous journey you have undertaken!

For at the House of al-Akhir there is the Door of Love, the Door of Compassion and the Door of Mercy - These divine attributes that can barely be imagined by our human mind, and is only recognizable in the expanse of Godly infinite quality and quantity through the prism of our heart. It is the Door beckoning all humanity, and calling unto the Nation of Muhammad to guide with exemplary conduct of Love, Compassion and Mercy! Woe unto us if we do any less - for the non-believers will have right to claim, "Oh Lord, these virtues You commanded Your Muslims to exemplify... this they did not do." Yup, you got that right, sunshine. Oh boy... are we in trouble.

Pray that I shall meet you somewhere along the Way, and together, as brothers and sisters united in the worship of the One God of all humanity, we will make our stumbling error-prone journey to God, in the name of Muhammad Habibullah (pbuh), the manifest map to the Divine Presence and mercy to all the world(s). Aye... mercy even unto the smallest invisible grain of sand. This is the standard we are called to live by. Tough? But you Muslims are granted the Best of Creation in the person of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). So if it is tough... it is still the fairest deal of them all!

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

Bernie Ecclestone is Awliya Saint ......if somethings mean something else

The Sufism of F1

If life is an F1 Race,

The Syaria (the Law) is the racing car,

A work of sublime engineering designed

To bring the F1 driver (that's you) from

The starting line (your birth)

To the Checkered Flag (your death)

Pursuing a perfect racing line (the Sunnah of the Prophet)

And avoiding the barriers and hard walls

That ring the circuit (that's your Ego),

With the hope of winning a podium finish (the Divine Presence)

With the brolly dolly girls (that's the Huris (angelic companions) of Heaven)

And popping of the champagne (after all, wine and spirits are permissible there).

The fuel especially designed in God's Lab to run the Horsepower

Of your engine is the Tariqa (The spiritual path often known as Sufism),

Your years of training as a novice driver and test driver before earning your racing spot

Is your daily solat and awrad (prayers, remembrance and praise of God),

The Team Manager is your Murshid (Spiritual Master),

Your pit crew consists of your family and friends,

All the colourul brands that you sport on your racing car,

Your racing suit and cap are the Divine Attributes of God,

The race marshals and safety cars are His Angels,

The spectators at the circuit being all of creation witnessing

Your winning runs (good deeds) and spectacular crashes (bad deeds),

And of course, lastly... Bernie Ecclestone is the Awliya Qutubul Zaman (Saint and Polar of the Epoch) overseeing the overall running of F1 (your life and every other life on the planet), and within whose heart resonates the Power of the Prophet Muhammad(pbuh).

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

I don't think I really have anything to add to this 'prose'. Have a fantastic Friday, sunshine, on this blessed month of Ramadhan.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

If Love is Trying To Drown You, Why Struggle? - the challenging quest of comprehending God and Love

94. I heard this somewhere, I read this somewhere

You say you love God,

Say instead that you love

The idea of God,

For if God has wrecked

Your ship on the rocks

Of fate, why then are you

Still holding on to

Floating planks?

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

I am guilty of speaking easily about love, that four letter word that has conquered hate and hubris, been the fountain of many happy marriages, a constant inspiration for poets, singers and songwriters and has brought evil empires and tyrants down to heel. Love, simple to comprehend, is difficult to master for sinners like myself, who is still here in the kindergarten of Love, the biggest 'little boy' in the playground.

I don't know about you, but I am in love with the idea of God most of the time, and actually loving God during brief storms of clarity that has dashed my ship against the rocks that surround the shores of my soul. And even then, I am afraid that I often gasp for air and cling to the row or any other floating plank close at hand. For you see, I am not really very good with this love malarkey.

The angels often comment that it was my weight that ultimately sank my boat, and not love. But what do angels know?

Thus I am, my friend. Weak and prone to selfishness, conceited and often ruled by a hot temper. It is just my luck that God and the Prophet(pbuh) has populated my corner of the Mercy Ocean with saintly friends, family and sainted masters that would come to my rescue and heave my soaking wet self on board. But perhaps I was always destined to be a stowaway on someone else's ship. For I know that left to myself, I shall never be able to venture far into the beautiful blue waters of God's Mercy Ocean. Oh no, now that I think about it, I am not complaining at all. But before I conclude, I must ask you this -

The Question

If you are about to journey across God's Mercy Ocean,

Why are you wearing a life-jacket?
And if Love is trying 
To drown you,
Why struggle?

Hehehe.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

We are not seeking knowledge, we are seeking to remove the barriers to knowledge - dear old Rumi

"Is that the Quran you are reading, little boy?" asked the Angel.

The Holy Quran is also known as the Holy Furqan, meaning the Criterion or the Standard by which one judges right and wrong, and what deeds that God prohibits, discourages, recommends or makes compulsory upon Muslims .

In the old days, when I used to think about the hukums (rules / laws), I get blurry-eyed and bored, thinking, “Rules, rules and more rules! Is God only God of Rules?!” Well, God is still the God of Rules (the Sharia), and obedience is frankly, the best and straightest path to happiness and grace. But, as others have informed me much to my happy delight, God is also the God of the Tariqa (the spiritual path/journey), a God of the Haqiqa (the Absolute Reality), and God of the Maqrifa (gnosis or direct spiritual knowledge of God).

Rumi always had a lot of things to
share with us. He was like a stream,
pouring forth love and wisdom.

All these technical terms sound terribly complicated, but as dear old Rumi once said, “We are not seeking knowledge, we are seeking to remove the barriers to knowledge.” And really that makes all the sense in the world, for God is not putting an ardous quest for you. For where is knowledge if it is not with God in the divine presence, and where is God if He is not closer to you that your jugular(vein)? - there is a veil cast over your eyes that you do not see Him. So to paraphrase Rumi, “We are not seeking God. We are seeking to remove the barriers to God.” And indeed as one Indonesian analogy once described, the sought end that is the Maqrifa is the ability to see the true God from the false gods manufactured by our own egos, Nafs (base desires) and the whisperings of the Devil. Perhaps you may think that all these fine subtle differences are a waste of time, but God is not anything if not God the Most Fine and the Most Subtle One. For verily, the meaning of al-Furqan goes deeper than only 'the Criterion' or 'the Standard' by which we may evaluate and improve our individual lives. At a more intricate and intimate level, al-Furqan suggests discernment. 

I would like to end this posting on this lovely Sunday morning in reference to the Godly bit about the jugular vein as mentioned in the Holy Quran (50:16) –

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

and We are nearer to him than his jugular vein. (Marmaduke Pickthall)

Have a lovely day, sunshine.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

Through the Veil and Into the Garden of Solace

2. Did You Pray?

I cannot recall.

I do remember folding paper ships

And setting them upon the water,

A gentle breeze from Qubruz came and carried them away

As I waved them farewell

I caught my reflection in the water

To find the face smiling back at me

Belonged to another.

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

17. Putting the Fun in Fana

Do not blame us for feeling happy

Being at the side of our Saidi,

Swimming we are, in a sea of manna

Leaving footprints, on the shore of fana.

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

Perhaps today it is better not to talk much. Sometimes it is better to leave the prose dancing in the halls and salons of your heart, and let it take you to where it shall take you... through the veil and into the garden of solace. Go on... do not be shy.

Thank you for coming in today, sunshine.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

The Nightingale and The Uncle - a journey of 8 years

2. Swayed and Hummed (Amirul)

I swayed and hummed,

Standing in a row,

While the nightingale sang,

Yearning for a morrow on

Which no sorrow hang.

Dreaming awake,

With a voice

Raised

Above

The cosmic quake.

I met him later.

The nightingale bowed,

While shyly taking my hand

With a smile

As sweet

As his song.

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

When I took my first shy step into the pool of the Sufis, I came back with my mind blown away and my heart singing a wonderful tune. It was in 2004, and I attended my first morning sohbet (sermon of sorts) by a Sufi Master from the United States.

I was smiling ear to ear as I recounted to my brother, friends and relatives about this truly awesome thing called 'Islam'. Oh I have had my early childhood Islamic education through to high school and college, but nothing prepared me for this. Nothing except a yearning that spirituality and religion must somehow be derived from that basic human emotion that people call 'Love'. And this I found amongst the Sufis of Kuala Lumpur.

It was here also that I first heard and met Amirul the Sarawakian. A young man with long dark hair and a delicately beautiful face. I heard him reciting verses from the Holy Quran, and thought - WoW. Later I bumped into him at a coffeeshop nearby. (all of my important transactions and meetings somehow always happen at coffeeshops) He told me that he was studying the recitation and memorization of the Holy Quran. Later I also found out that he was an unconventional sort of student, in that he loved music and skateboarding. In the same year I was introduced by my friend Shahzad to Ariffin, Amirul's uncle, and duly joined the law firm founded by them both. 8 years on and here I am still with Ariffin and our motley crew of hombres in Messrs Ariffin Shahzad.

* pic courtesy of Madinil

Amirul is now married and the young couple is expecting a child. The Nightingale has left home and found a nest all for his own.

And what of his uncle Ariffin - my law partner and soul-brother? I call him Umar nowadays and presently Umar is taking part in an interesting project, the story of which I shall certainly share with you as it unfolds, insyaAllah. 

May Love light the way for all our young (and old) friends... How dull life would be without them.

Have a friendful Friday, sunshine.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

Between the Two Mirrors of an Adam and an Eve - confession of a sweet-talker

Bukit Kiara Cemetery

50. His Big Bang

One day, he was with his love,

And shared with her this prose,

"Sometimes, I feel unstoppable,

And the world is but a game to me,

A toy to amuse and distract me.

At times, I feel helpless utterly,

Drowning in an ocean of yearning.

In this curious happenstance,

The Syariat becomes my support,

A rest from my unending pleading,

“O’ Lord, if not now, then when?!”

Then she asked him what

Made him feel and write so,

And this was his reply.

“The way of the Tarikat

Is being in servitude to Love,

And the flaming core would

Burn us all to an end without end...

... Take for instance the Big Bang,

Had the Lord not intervened,

Whatever would stop the blazing energy

From abating, expanding further and further

With no end in sight, nor any purpose or will?

It was for He to halt and guide the energy

From the Big Bang, to allow the atoms and smallest

Molecules to stay awhile, to form the suns, moons and planets,

To rest the celestial bodies into its proper orbits,

The moons circling the planets, and the planets orbiting the suns,

So you see, I need to pray, I need to remember,

Because if I do not, my Big Bang would have

Me speeding to the furthest ends of my soul,

Impelled by the fire forged in the furnace of my heart…

So…”, the man concluded with a wicked grin,

“…how do you like

Being described as a Big Bang?”

And she answered not.

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

Beware of falling in love with a lover. For such person is a habitual sweet-talker. And if you ask him why he talks so, he will say, "I cannot be blamed if the Truth (God) is sweet."

Be careful that you do not take credit that he is speaking of you. For often enough he will be praising the Loveliness that God has planted in every Eve. The coaxing eyes, the desiring smile, the gentle voice and the commanding 'I'. 

Hehehe. Come to think of it, Adams should be cautious too in their dealings with Eves. Good, it is settled then, let us all be cautious and circumspect with one another, for we know not when it is not merely two love-birds chatting but an occasion where a divine reflection is speaking to another divine reflection - Like two mirrors facing one other...

God was a Hidden Jewel and He wanted to be Known

Thank you for dropping in today, sunshine.

Pax Taufiqa

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

Simple Humanity and Humility of His Adab - The Prince Part 9

A Cup of Mourning

My bereavement is a slow burn,

A mourning not to boiling point,

It is a simmering warmth,

Gentle and toastie,

Like a cup of tea.

Would you like to share

Your Cup of Mourning

With me?

………………………

ADAB – Good Manners & Etiquette

This chain of posting is called 'The Prince'
because he is indeed one. A noble prince
of a noble lineage.

A Prince. When I arrived, in the early hours of the morning at Ku Ash’s home, it was already busy and packed with people. So many followers, friends and grieving family were congregating outside the house, down by the front door, in the living room on the first floor, and of course, right in the epicenter – huddled around his deathbed where he laid, silent and prone. Royal attendants dressed in black and military uniforms were already there, making the critical arrangements to fly Ku Ash by helicopter back to Kuala Kangsar, Perak, to be buried in the Royal Mausoleum of  the Perak Royal Family at Bukit Chandan.

Dignified Grief. While I was there I saw no outbreak of hysterics, no uncontrollable sobs of anguish, no wailing. I observed the crowd, many of them I know, but there were also a great many not known to me. Some were standing, others were sitting, some were quietly reciting dzikr under their breadth, while others were twiddling their tasbih (rosaries). I found the mourners to be dignified, somber and solemn in their controlled grief. For make no mistake about it, there was grief aplenty that early Friday morning, the 30th March 2012 - enough grief to fill a sea of sadness. But when I looked into their eyes, what I read was a simple muted “Oh dear…”. 

What is greater than knowledge? I thought the men, women and children were showing good adab (good manners and etiquette), expressing their grief gently and quietly within sight of their master’s unliving person. People might think me mad to keep going on like a mother hen about good manners in such a sorrowful occasion, but I am only remembering what an old friend of mine once told me – “I would sacrifice one hundred years of knowledge to acquire but one moment of perfect adab.”

So when someone asks this sinner, “Hey, what did your Shaykh ever teach you? Wahdatul Wujud? Wahdatul Shuhud? Ma’rifat? Haqiqat? Knowledge of the Arch-Angels? Some of those transcendental wisdom and divine lore that give wings to you Sufis to fly to the Divine Presence?”, this would be my reply, “To be honest, bro, he didn’t teach me much lore or give me any divine knowledge. What always affected me and drew my admiration to him was the simple humanity and humility of his adab.”

I don’t know what anyone else got from his or her association with Shaykh Raja Ashman ibni Sultan Azlan Shah. Maybe he did entrust some wonderful divine learning on the enlightened ones. But for me this is enough. Indeed it is more than enough. 

Al Fatihah.

Pax Taufiqa

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way.

Take your time. You have all your life to discover yourself.

This is just eye-candy. No relevance whatsoever with this post.
Mika was only 5 years old when he caught chickenpox. 

16. Divine Mind-Altering Substance

Food taste better

Prayer feels sweeter

Since I have come to meet

A Naqshbandi Mureed.

Ya Saidi, if we could bottle and sell it

We would be rich, rich, rich!

So wrote an apprentice of a Sufi Order long ago. I was pretty darn happy back then with what I have found.

Now I still feel pretty darn good. But the taste of life and love has altered. I guess it comes with age, for 8 years have passed since this prose was written. The taste is still sweet, but it is more subtle, delicate with many, many layers and nuances.

Of course this means that even if we bottle this experience we shan't be able to sell it in the consumer market. Alas, I won't get rich this way. Not when people want instant gratification, overnight change and spontaneous ecstasy of a spiritual form. Oh, the passion and the wonder are all still there, but the beauty of spirituality is that it turns even the mundane into a beautiful and transcendental experience. Like having your first cup of tea late in the morning while trying to blog something nice. But turning the mundane into something beautiful requires time. Time and effort. Which is the antipathy of our consumer society.

So if you want to drink religion and spirituality, take your time. You have all your life to discover yourself, sunshine. How can you know what you need to know in the context of an infinity of happiness with God when we are still constrained by time? Don't rush.

Pax Taufiqa

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

Different Burdens for the Saints, the Saintly and the Donkeys

148. Faith is a Flower

Faith is a flower of a Jasmine Tree in the Garden of Love,

The Garden is set in the Valley of Certainty,

In which flows a river sprung from the Blessed Fountain.

The Valley is encircled by four hills named Amity, Charity, Patience and Fidelity.

And above them all, rain clouds carrying teardrops of musk drift from the Mercy Ocean.

My beloved Maulana! Your perfume lingers still, and I wonder;

What did you see when you gazed out the window that morning, and cried?

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

What lingering thoughts troubled me that day when I wrote the prose? But the thoughts, or rather memories, that troubled me were not my own. It were that of a young apprentice in the company of a Grandmaster of a Sufi Order. On that occasion, the Grandmaster (Maulana) was minding his own, standing in a quite corner of the house, looking out of a drab little window. The young mureed saw him and was surprised to see the Maulana's eyes swimming in tears, before one pearly fell unannounced across his cheek.

He never asked the Maulana why he was crying. But he later recalled the story to me, and I wrote the above prose - Whoever knows what inspires the tears of Saints? Perhaps it is better not to know. For undoubtedly, we are all blessed to bear our own burdens, and for me, I am quite happy to bear the burden for donkeys. For I do not wish to carry the world on my shoulders.

May God protect and exalt the spiritual stations of the Saints and the saintly.

And God bless you, sunshine.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

The Saints and the Saintly - They walk amongst us

6. Somehow Different

There is no quest,

No holy grail,

For those who would take it

And share none of its blessings

With beggars, strangers and simpletons,

No offering of wine

For someone

Somehow different.

A 1997 STORY. Once upon a time, in 1997, two nondescript friends were having a conversation during lunch. And somehow or rather the topic turned to hermit saints, and this was what one friend said to the other, "What's the point of him staying in his cave in the jungle, on a deserted island or on top some lonely mountain, having learnt all that he have from his meditation, prayers and fasting? He must come back to society to help us! Really wha..." The speaker abruptly stopped as his eyes glazed over, and then he started to cry. He cried and cried and cried, much to the consternation of his friend who was getting desperately worried about him and about the food getting cold, "Hey... Hey... Hey! Are you alright?"

Finally his tears stopped running, and he replied, "Oh my friend. A veil was raised and I saw an ocean of sorrow, a horizon of regret, a sea of despair afflicting all of mankind... Who am I to ask the saints to face such horrifying spectacle." Then he sighed and concluded. "I understand a little now what faces the saints. But it also makes me so sad..."

THEY WALK AMONGST US. Well that was 14 years ago. Since then I have come face to face and met saints of all sorts. Tall and short, fat and thin, and they are in the midst of people, dealing with the poor and destitute, the rich and powerful, from street hawkers to tycoons, ministers, princes and kings. Attending to people with no homes, to people with many, many homes, whether you are a sinner or saintly. They take everyone in... if it is thus meant to be.

For the true saints have no qualm sharing their knowledge with people, albeit with discretion. It is not for glory of the quest nor honour for the holy grail that they do what they do. They do it for God and His Beloved Prophet. And with their 'gifts' they are commanded to be responsible over the kin of Adam and Eve, over the Nation of Muhammad. It is a heavy, heavy task. God bless their busy little hearts!

May you meet a saint, sunshine. If (you think) you hadn't, ask to meet one and see what happens. God will not refuse you. As for the saintly... well, I am sure you have been bumping into them through out your life. Perhaps you are one yourself.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way.

Send me a Saint... Send me a Saint... Send me a Saint...

Send me a saint... send me a saint... send me a saint... send me a saint...

64. Santa Claus

Saints have

The biggest egos around

And hide the best secrets around.

If you desire knowledge, find a saint. For a while you would be a little shy with the saint, playing the role of a student. But in time you will tire of your disguise and will stand before the saint, quite exposed in all your sinful lowliness. Stripped away of your pretentious piety, you can finally begin the journey of healing yourself. For how can you heal yourself if you do not know the illness that afflicts you? And how will you even begin that journey if you do not even know who you truly are? That is the best secret for you to find out.

The saint will answer all your questions. So long as you know the right questions to ask. 

The saint will come, much like Santa Claus, through the sooty black chimney of your soul and bring you the knowledge of your true nature, from whence the knowledge of the Prophet and the knowledge of God would come. So if the desire for knowledge is still burning in you, ask God for a saint. He will send you one. He is God after all, He cannot not send you one. It will be like getting Christmas presents every day.

Have a lovely day, sunshine.

Pax Taufiqa.

Hate has no place in Islam.

Love will show the Way.

Thoughts in the Tariqas - Train rides are not about the stations, but the journey itself.

121. Waiting for a train that will never arrive

The different nuances of the tariqas

Is nothing but different stations

Along the One True Path.

Lo, be warned not to be besotted

By the stations, lest you are

Left in a station, forever waiting

For the train that will

Never arrive.

Know that your Masters are

Not infatuated by the train terminals,

For they know the true reality

Of train travel, and they are

Not swayed in their attention

By the stations that dot

The railway line.

Look! Look closely at

The ticket you are holding,

Don’t you see?

There is no last station

To end your journey.

Hehehe.

How blessed are you.

How blessed are you and me.

Amongst those seekers on the path (tariqa) of enlightenment, much is said about spiritual stations (maqams). But they never actually tell you what is in the stations, only that if you are in one station, the only next action suitable for you is to go to the next station. There are quite a few tariqas out there, I am sure you can google them and find out.

There is certainly some attraction when you are in a spiritual place. A heightened sense of empathy and certainty - empathy for the human race, and certainty in your faith. But however beautiful the view is here, after a while you KNOW life must go on, and YOU must go on. You become restless and ask God for further guidance.

Life is about choice and destiny, yes? And in this journey of knowledge of yourself and of God, perhaps there is indeed no end. No full stop for the enquiring soul, who is constantly yearning for understanding of a God whose delightful clues constantly draws you one step further, to one more station, one after the other.

May you find your path unending in Beauty, Love and Mercy, sunshine.

Pax Taufiqa

DIVINE IRONY - Beware who you hate, God might make you fall in love with him/her.

Oh oh! He is following me! Is he friend or foe? 

17. Friend or Enemy?

I am writing for God,

I am writing for me,

And I am writing

For the me that

I perceive in

Others that

I see.

And though

I am already

In the company

Of such friends,

Others are still

Hidden

From me,

So if perchance,

O’ seekers,

That you are

One of me,

That let me bid you,

“Hello friend!”

And you shall not

Then call me,

“Enemy!”

Though the truth is,

As friend or enemy,

You cannot run

From me.

Nor can I flee

From you.

Not for as long

As I can conceive

You and you

Can conceive me!

I am acquainted with a Mureed (student) of a Sufi Tariqa Order. I remember him recalling this story...

"Do you know, before I met him I regularly cursed the Mawlana (Grandshaykh of the Sufi Order). I said that he was full of it and what he preaches is bida'ah (innovation). I even used four letter words in my rants. Then one time I was performing my mini-pilgrimage (the Umrah)  in Mecca. I was lazing about in my room when a particular verse of the holy Quran suddenly crossed my thought. Then it crossed and crossed and kept running through my head. It was the most craziest thing to have happened. It literally drove me mad and I was hitting my head against the wall trying to make it stop. It didn't stop, but I got a huge headache for my efforts. 

Some months later I was back in Malaysia when I heard that this crazy Mawlana was in town. I decided to visit him and went to the house where he was giving his sohbet (sermon of sorts). A large crowd was already in the house. I peeked through a window, then I tentatively made my way to the front door, and saw him sitting in the middle of a lot of mureeds. Then, by some strange coincidence, people started to move aside and open a way for me to walk in. Curious to hear what the Mawlana was saying, I stepped into the house. Then again the crowd gently parted like the Red Sea before me, so I edged further and closer, until finally I was in front of the Mawlana. He was unlike any man I have ever met. He looked up and saw me and gazed into my eyes. Then he started to recite the exact Quranic verse that almost drove me mad in Mecca. I started to cry. I fell into his honeypot, my friend... and have been in love with him since."

We do not know how long our friends will be friends, and our enemies will be enemies. We do not know what fate may have in store to turn your most hated foe into your most beloved friend. It happened to Umar the 2nd Caliph with the Prophet Muhammad and it happened to my friend with his Mawlana.

So be careful whom you hate. For the Lord may decide to have you falling head over heels in love. Such is the way of God - Most Wonderful, Most Beautiful, and always Most Surprising and Ironic!

It is Friday, sunshine. May this day turn your enemy into your beloved companion.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Adam is the Stranger in the World of Eve - Marriage, Saints, Rapture, Good Manners and other Useful Information

With You, Each night I Die

My prose is camped

Upon the crest of your eye,

My words are lying on the ridge of your nose,

Gently falling into the dunes of your red lips.

My poetry has no meaning compared

To the physical manifestation of you.

Useless to encompass the holy scriptures

Written in your eyes and recited in your heart.

Unable to herald the wind of your breath,

The gentle slope of your breasts.

The morning sun that rises in your auburn hair,

The evening sun that sets in your west.

I am learned,

I am a sinner,

I am all and I am neither

When in your light,

I die each night.

"You married? How old are you? Why you not married? Marry! Find him a wife! Find someone for her! You not married? And you not married? Why not marry each other?! You ARE married? Take care of your wife! Take care of your husband!" This is the refrain I hear years upon years that new mureeds are introduced to the Sufi Master.

Adam is the Stranger in the World of Eve

The Lord created Adam first

But when Eve arrived later

It was Adam who is the stranger

Not Eve...

God gave unto Adam two worlds,

The temporal and spiritual worlds.

Of womankind is a third world

Which the Lord did not grant him,

Only His invitation and by her permission

To dwell in her hidden thoughts

And her secret universe.

God blesses the woman who welcomes

The man into her world with grace and kindness!

God blesses the man who

Pleases and praises his host!

"Two words you must always remember to say to keep your marriage happy and strong!" The Sufi Master said. The mostly male congregation waited in bated breath for the magical spell, the secret incantation, the ancient runes that could help them secure marital bliss. Finally their Master said, "Yes Dear!"

As a divorcee I am an exile. A wandering sheep (or wolf?). Perhaps one day I shall be exile no longer. A passionate cook visited the Ancient Sufi Master recently in his home on The Island East of Albion and asked that Taufiq (that's me) be married soon. The old man raised his hand and said "InsyaAllah! (God Willing!)"

Have a beautiful day, Adam. Have a glorious day, Eve. But if you are in love it is already a beautiful and glorious day, yes? You have no need for my good wishes! 

wa min Allah at-taufiq.