The Congress of Birds at the Court of the Sultan - where only love and mercy is the accepted currency...

The Congress of Birds at the Court of the Sultan

Is this a congregation of people praying?

No, it is a congress of birds, 

At the door of the Sultan,

Asking for release from 

The golden cage of Duniya,

To be permitted to fly free

To the Royal Court of the Sultan

Where grow trees of luminous Light

With flowers that bloom

More beautiful with each glance,

With fruits that become

More delicious with each mouthful.

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Good Friday, sunshine. Life beckons anew with each dawn of your world. Is there a better gift that Allah (s.w.t.) may bestow upon you than by bestowing to you the attraction to sweetness which the Lord God Himself finds sweet and comely? And is there anything or anyone more sweet and comely to God than His Beloved Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.s.) and his Nation?

Allah, Most Merciful and Most Compassionate, in the divine exercise of His absolute love and benevolence for you has granted you such mercy, so be merciful unto all of Mankind.

When you first fall in love with your lover, remember this!

When you first fall in longing to meet God, remember this!

When your firstborn open his eyes to you, remember this!

When you wake up to the sound of music of the birds, remember this!

And above all, when you hold another person in your power, remember this! For verily God(s.w.t.) and His Prophet(s.a.w.s) dislikes injustice and iniquity and loves mercy and generosity. 

And if you do remember, masyaAllah... please remind me! For I am ever the forgetful and weak, negligent and foolish sinner. You may find me at the door of the Masters, barking to be let in, like the naughty dog that I am!

Have a lovely Friday, sunshine.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way 

A Cherubim and the Guardian Angels - a pictorial history of angels part 2

What are YOU looking at?

The Little Cherubim
I caught a cherubim taking aim
With her little bow and arrow!

I caught a cherubim
But it was a she not a him!

How can this be?
How can this be?
I wondered,

Until one grey-beard came and put
My angelic knowledge to shame…

That angels are simply neither
A mister or a dame.
...............

I like Angels. Whether they come to us in the form of man or in the glittering beads and vapour of water flying down a majestic waterfall. Here are some of my earlier sketches, already posted previously but re-shared because this sinner is having a lazy Saturday. Hehehe.

God bless the heraldic wings of Gabriel - Friend of Muhammad the praise-worthy one! God bless the administering eyes of Mikhail - Custodian of worldly blessing! God bless the soothing calm for Man's sorrow, coming from the heavenly balm of Artiya'il the compassionate!

Angels make a good advertising board, if  you can distract him long enough
for a co-conspirator to dab your slogan on their wings.   

There are Arch Angels, mighty heralds of God. But others are less
glamorous ones that attend to the smaller things in life,
like the gentle blossoming of a flower.

Angels are everywhere. A particularly gigantic angel was there
high above the skies of France, observing the frantic dog-fights between
the bi-planes of the Luftwaffe and the RAF in 1918.

Generally all angels love babies and toddlers. Yeah... easy when they don't
have to put them to sleep and clean their poop. But they keep an eye
on us whenever they can. Guardian Angels have a sadder story. These
heavenly creatures are created and destined for each one of us. And as we
grow old and do stupid and foolish things, they become distant, forced away
by the cloud of errors that we smoke out of our ego-chimney. 

Let's find time to clean our ego-chimney, sunshine. For even if we cannot see or hear them, if our ego-chimney is cleaner and emit less smoke and smog, our Guardian Angels will come nearer to us, attracted as creatures of light(Nur) to the Nur of our own heart. And surely then, we would sense their nearness...

Have a happy Sabbath.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

The Saint, the Son and the Throne of Mercy

'...the bravest king will fail in his cage of flesh and bones,'

The Saint, the Son and Throne of Mercy

In a little village on top a small hill there lived a father and son. The father was neither very wise nor very stupid. He was really just a typical kind of man, ordinary in no extraordinary way. He could be one of the millions of fathers who live on this Earth.

One night the father sat beside his son who was sleeping, He gently stroked the sleeping head and in the gloom he muttered, “My little prince… my little prince. Were it in my gift to bequeath to you a throne and a kingdom, how I would love to do so.” He then sighed quietly and went to bed.

In his sleep, a saintly vision appeared before the father and spoke to him thus -

A thousand thrones without a kingdom

A thousand hearts without a home

A thousand kings raised in stone

Where are they now

That lie still, crownless and prone?

They were all regents,

But they desired a throne,

They sought kingly glory

All for their own!

But the bravest king will fail

In his cage of flesh and bones,

The mightiest queen will wither

Upon her peacock throne,

Forgetting that their lives,

Their kingdoms and their thrones

Were never truly their own,

And in truth, all but a loan.

So now choose, o’ father

The inheritance that you desire

For your princeling…

Kinghood of this world

With all its inevitable ending

Or servanthood to the Throne of Mercy,

In the Kingdom of a Love Unending?

Without hesitation, the father answered, “I choose God, and He Who shall Sit on the Throne.”

The saint laughed, and as he gradually disappeared like an uninvited ghost, he said, “Good. For I took all the trouble to put the question into a prose. Thankfully Ye God, I had help…”

“From whom?” asked the father.

“Why, from your son of course.”

……………………………

Have a wonderful day, sunshine. May we always learn from our children.

Wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

The Irritating Thing About Being 'Right' - The Human Ego and Its Diabolical Pretense of Right and Wrong

Muhammad the Prophet prophesied (that being what Prophets do) that there will come a time in the future (ergo, now) when his followers will wake up a believer and go to sleep an unbeliever. And the next morning he may wake up as an unbeliever, but goes to bed a believer. This is not talking about someone taking up or dropping the religion of Islam per se, but about the degrees by which we allow our ego to dictate our action and our words. And it would be very foolish to think that in 'good deeds' and even in our prayers that we are somehow immune to our ego. Our ego will take whatever credit it can in everything we say and do. Whether we are performing our pilgrimage, building an orphanage or writing a blog.

When Muslims bears witness that there is no god but God, it also means that there is no ego but God's ego. After all, He owns everything so He is justified to claim thus. Fortunately, mankind benefits that God's ego is reflected in His Divine Attributes of the Loving, the Most Gracious and Most Merciful Creator. Our ego is nothing like that at all. It is our numero uno enemy, if we allow it to control us.

Many friends say that I am often condescending, and I am unable to hide my feelings if I feel that someone said something wrong, stupid or simply boring. But nothing stirs my gut more then when I read the ridiculous pronouncements of professional God-botherers and preachers who have anointed themselves as God's representatives on this world. I wouldn't mind this really, if they are a nice sensible lot. But some of them are, hmm... how shall I put this politely, two cents short of a dollar. And when they say what they say, it is not good for me, because my ego would be strumming on the boardwalk of my mind, happy at not being wrong. Happy at the sight of the 'others' being foolish...

1. Maddening declarations of bookish scholars

I wish they would just keep quiet,

And attend to more useful charity,

Than their common cause and

Mad judgments, all in the

Name of their piety.

For it does my ego

No good at all.

It is hard enough to keep

My feet on the ground these days,

Without bookish scholars

Making maddening declarations,

Thus feeding my ego,

Who is telling me now,

“Oohh… How stupid are they,

How bright and wise am I!!”

So I am forced to count

How delightfully dumb I am,

Just so I can keep

My ego down…

And I don’t like to do this!!!

Hehehe. I am never satisfied, am I? Not satisfied whether I am right or wrong. I don't think I shall ever be truly happy, not until the day comes and I am (hopefully) brought before the Divine Presence and the Throne, and there I will lay my soul and my ego before the Most Beloved and Most Loving, asking for merciful intercession from the one whose ego never ruled his soul.

Have a soulful day, my brother and sister. God bless you.

Pax Taufiqa.

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

In 2004 I wrote…

156. Jihadi I

While you are fighting the small jihad*

The Devil is fighting the big jihad**.

And guess what? He is winning!

* The so-called ‘holy war’ self-proclaimed and driven by unholy hubris and damn despair
** The one in your heart. The one that actually truly matters.

IN YOUR HEART. It makes sense, you see. Bullets can maim and kill your body. But it is hate (and fear, envy, bigotry, hubris… well, all the negative stuffs) that is the bullet that can actually kill you and me. This horrible tune that beats a different rhythm to the music of love. In fact it cancels out love. Because if we cannot live in Love, then truly we are dead to the world, dead to ourselves, dead to God and His Nabi. No amount of speculation and earnest religious application will save you if you lose the basic bedrock, the foundation and the essential cornerstone of the Temple of Love that is you.

IN YOUR EYES. I love this song by George Benson (Click Here), a titan amongst the love crooners. And I think it is simply too naïve for us to limit this song to a romantic interlude of a man and a woman. As I would often exclaim to my friends (who would often shake their heads with resignation) “This is a Prophet’s song!”

A girl who I love once said, “You are SUCH a sweet talker!” I simply replied, “You cannot blame me for saying sweet things, when the truth is sweet.”

IN GOD’S EYES. And really, it is exactly the same vis-à-vis God. We say such lovely things about Him, we say He is Totally Amazing and Beautiful in countless ways. We cry lonely tears of happiness, away from the crowd, thinking, “How can You love me so…?” We look at our family, friends and lovers, and we muse, “Why do You fill my life with so many treasures?” And when hurt and regretful, we yearn, “Oh God…” until finally, a day will come when you are brought before the Divine Presence, and God Almighty questions you before all of Creation, and asks, “How can you say such sweet things about Me?” and to which you would give the same reply… “You cannot blame me for saying sweet things, when the truth, the Truth of what You Truly Are is heartbreakingly sweet.”

I am no innocent. I have been to places I shouldn’t have been, I have done things which I cannot tell my mama. Yet I think God still loves me. I squirm and my hair stand on ends when I think about this… as each morning the day greets me and I feel that “God, You have not forsaken me…”

And really, I don’t think He ever will. It is not in His Nature.

May I be there, sunshine, to see you squirm with happiness in the Divine Court. Hehehe

Pax Taufiqa.

Footnote – Dear readers, please find me another article which can fit in George Benson, the false jihad, the great jihad, the Devil, God, the Temple of Love and the Divine Court all in one posting… and I will happily eat my shoe.

Ask God for God - From the Sinners' Guide to Shortcuts and Cheat Codes

If you happen to bump into Sufis, you will notice a certain habit that they have - They are not satisfied to pursue heaven in the afterlife. Oh no, such things are not good enough for them. They desire the Divine Presence Itself with God and His Beloved (Muhammad). Heavenly angels, rivers of milk and honey, trees that light up like Christmas Trees are not good enough for the likes of them. They see it all as distractions - divine and blessed, but distractions nonetheless.

I think they are right in their presumptuous claims. After all, why be reticent when it is God Himself asking you to ask Him? Why be shy with your ambition? Why dither and waver before True Love's Beauty? If your heart is trembling and quaking thinking of God, then ask Him to sooth your yearning. Right or wrong, you (we all) belong to Him. So ask God rightfully for God Himself. Do not waste your time like the villagers who scramble to carry away the Sultan's riches and treasures but forget about the Sultan Himself. ("The Sultan & His Gift, Worldly & Spiritual Distractions - Love Bites on your Soul" Click here on earlier posting)

Its a lovely Sunday evening, and the afternoon thunderstorm that has been uprooting trees in my city has gone away. All that is left now is me writing this, and you, sunshine, reading my blog. Thank you for dropping by.

Pax Taufiqa.

The Throne of God, the Noble Hope & Divine Surprises

SURPRISE, GOD! There is no way of surprising God. After all, all things are fated to happen. And fate is in God’s hand… so no surprises there, sunshine.
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BAD SURPRISES. But I wish I could just for once, surprise God. With a happy one, mind you, and not one of those “I CAN’T believe that you just did that, Taufiq!” kinda surprise Oh no, when it comes to bad / stupid stuffs that I have done, I am an expert.
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VERSE OF THE THRONE. It is not fair, I think. After all, God gets to surprise us ALL THE TIME. But I guess, we need him to be 24/7 in the know, otherwise, who can imagine what sort of mess we will get ourselves into. My friend commented to me that I should refer to the holy scriptures once in a while… okaaay. So this is the ayatul-kursi (Verse of the Throne) which kinda makes it plain and clear that God is Ever Vigilant and Ever in the Know…
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[2.255] Allah (God)* is He besides Whom there is no god, the Everliving, the Self-subsisting by Whom all subsist; slumber does not overtake Him nor sleep; whatever is in the heavens and whatever is in the earth is His; who is he that can intercede with Him but by His permission? He knows what is before them and what is behind them, and they cannot comprehend anything out of His knowledge except what He pleases, His knowledge (throne) extends over the heavens and the earth, and the preservation of them both tires Him not, and He is the Most High, the Great.
(*my insert)

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I took some pictures of Mika yesterday. I think he is one of the most beautiful surprises that God has given me in my entire life. And the great thing is that it is a gift given to me each and every day when I see him.

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Mikhail brought up the world map to show me exactly which countries he wants to conquer. As you can see he cannot make up his mind. But for some strange reason he admires Canada of all countries.

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THE NOBLE HOPE. We all feel this way to our children. At the end of the day, what we want is to simply leave this world with the knowledge that we have somehow left it a better place for our children. I am sure we are all holding unto this Noble Hope… Guys like Dennis Piker of North Dakota who continues to be an inspiration safely held in my heart and memory. It was he who uttered the noble hope to me, some 5 years ago in Bismark, North Dakota.

Pax Taufiqa.

Footnote: I have been wanting to share this... I make fun, I Facebook-poke at angels and twist the beards of saints. I approach God and creation without proper levity. But the truth is... Although I am a lone pen in a billion upon billion of pens out there, I take what I write seriously. So... for you who read my almost-twice daily postings... Thank you. Thank you so very much for giving me a little space in the corner of your mind, a little hospitality in the saloon of your soul. May God reward you the kindness you have shown to this sinner and his ramblings.

Many Wedding Invitation Cards, but to the Same One Wedding

His Love is a Love

Intimately Private

As the Bridal Chamber,

Yet publicly rejoiced

Like the Wedding Feast.

ANONYMITY IS GOOD. I am glad that mostly, my readers are anonymous. Because it would be difficult for me to share my feelings with someone knowing that I cannot make he/she feel the same way I do. This blog is a guilt-free way for me to talk of God and the Nabee (the Prophet Muhammad) without the 3 Fears.

THE FEAR. What is the fear you ask? Oh, there are many things that I worry about. For one, I fear to spoil the Good Name of God. And the Good Name of His Prophet(s) and Saints. I fear that if you were to know me personally, see me in all my foul and loathsome aspects, you would say that I am not qualified to talk of what I talk about. I have hoped to keep the readers expectations low by calling the blog “The Sinners’ Almanac”. But that too can be a coy pretension of humility. So rule No.1 is - Never trust a sinner! He may be toying with your emotions. (I am, you know.)

THE FEAR PART 2. The second thing which worries me when I talk to people is the fear of raising a strain of doubt in their heads. After all, I tend to make great claims of God and the Prophet’s love for mankind (me included). I would suggest real intimacy with the Creator. I would say things like I was there with the Prophet – that whenever I read (or am told a story) about the Prophet, I could imagine myself there, beside him, reliving the Prophetic scene, either trembling with sadness or tears flowing with joy. That I could see a gigantic Angel whirling around me, playing an electric guitar while astride two tall hills. Thus, you cannot blame me if I don’t speak much about God and the Nabee to people. It is simply too mad. So what I do is write.

THE FEAR PART 3. Another thing which bugs me is the fear that I might get passionate and all riled-up (and it has happened before) while talking about God. After all, just as you may find my perception of God and His Prophet too woolly, so too may I find your perception of the Divine strange and difficult to swallow, open-minded as I may be. Writing helps me appear wiser than I really am. It is easy to be circumspect in hindsight, you see.

THE ONLY BRIDGE IS LOVE. The only bridge by which we may cross the divide of our perceptions of the Divine is through Love. It is all about Love – so ultimately, what you interact with God in the antechamber of your soul, in the secret garden of your conscience, in your holy communion, is entirely your own affair. No need for me to know! No need for me to understand! So long as you come out of the bridal chamber smiling… that is all that is important to me. Hehehe.

THE WEDDING FEAST. The truth is, sunshine, we have no choice. Not if we wish to understand love. Love the One and love the All. Underneath the Throne of our Lord I survey His creation and He is asking me, “How can you not love whom I love?” And in that context, love is about sharing and acceptance. Submission to God, and submission to what He has ordained to be your creed and your people. After all, are we not all brothers and sisters? And are we not all at the Wedding Feast to which God has invited us? You must know that however the Wedding Invitation may be written - in Muslim, Jewish, Christian, Hindu or Buddhist scripts, it is still an invitation to the same One Wedding and to the Same One God.
Have a nice day, sunshine. I am well again. God bless!

Pax Taufiqa.

Post Script Wednesday morning - This is a rather rambling post, but I hope you still enjoy it. I am sorry, but between catching up with work after 4 days of leave, the writing is rather hasty and untidy - and I KNOW that my writing is commonly untidy already! Oh, well.

An Angelic Message via Mr. Funny Guy

I was in your neighbourhood, sunshine, and I thought it would be a good time to drop in. So I followed the smell of your mother’s cooking and the gospel that was playing in your soul. But arriving at your heart’s door, I was surprised to find an angel peeking through a hole along your white picket fence! The angel was a creature of light and cloaked in feathers of light. He was too engrossed with whatever he was looking at that he did not notice me at all.

I crept close beside him. Well, I guess the correct term is ‘it’, since angels are without gender, but frankly I just do not have the moral fibre to refer to an Angel of God as ‘it’. But I am enough of a fusspot to ask the winged herald, “What the heck are you doing?”

The angel was totally unaffected by my sudden appearence, turning calmly to me and smiling. I find this apparent inability of angels to be surprised infuriating sometimes. But that is besides the point, anyway, this was his reply, “Hi, Taufiq! I was just wondering how to plug this hole.”

Indeed? You were not sneaking a peak?

The angel drew back and stood up to his full height, casting a shadow of light upon me. “Angels do not peek.” He replied coldly. “We merely observe”.

"Hey! I am not judging you." I chuckled. “It is all the same to me - To-may-to To-mah-to, you know. Hehehe.”

The angel gazed at me for a moment before replying, “Ah… We were warned about you, Son of Adam. You are the one that likes to make Ha-Ha. Mr. Funny Guy they call you amongst the lesser brethren”.

“What a pack of lies!” I rejoined hotly.

“You say that, but you are clearly lying."” The angel continued. “I discern that this is yet another one of your attempts at humour.”

Okaay, this angel is a critic. I decided to move on and said. “Oh, nevermind. I am going in now. Are you coming? Or are you too busy ‘fixing’ the peak-hole…”

“I must fly, mortal, for I have urgent errands. As for the hole, I shall ask one of the cherubims to plug it. But this you can tell your friend – That when he sings praises of God, please stop singing the hymns with such sincerity. Or at least not too loud. For he is distracting us from our assignments. Peace!” With that, he was away, flying at a great velocity until he was a speeding little dot in the farthest horizon of your conscience.

Well. Ahem. Here I am then, sunshine… And that was the angel’s message. So keep the volume down, will you?

Hehehe.

Have a good Friday, sunshine.

Pax Taufiqa.

An Ocean in the Infinitely Greater Sea

I am the soul,
I am the ocean,

Older than the blessed Angels am I,
And the life you live
Is but a passing second
Of my wave crashing upon
A mortal shore.

A little of my light is with you,
While I am an ocean, swimming like a drop
In the Infinitely Greater Sea,

Kissing the feet of Ahmad,
Prostrated as I am,
Before the Divine Throne.

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

No.13 from the chapter entitled 'What is in your Basket?' Completed in 31st May 2005.