THE RANSOM OF CREATION

The Ransom for Creation

Every time you inhale

With the intention of reciting

Salutations and praise 

For the Prophet,

Lo, that lungful of air 

Is worth more

Than all of Creation... 

So let your salawat 

For the Prophet 

Be heard,

Release the ransom of creation

And let your salawat 

For the Prophet

Be heard,

Let it be known

The reason for Creation,

And let your salawat

For the Prophet

Be heard...

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

Fossils, not Faith. One day I will not be here anymore to write this almanac. But I will be happy to receive the ending credits, that final curtain call of Allah (swt) that all creatures face, if I but know that these words will continue to float in your consciousness, sunshine. And for this, I would be eternally grateful.

Fossils, Not Faith

Lo, seek for the crier of tears!

The yearning ones,

The ones overcome with passion

At the mere recollection of the Prophet,

For their river of tears

Waters the field of real knowledge

And prevents the lore of God

From ossifying, drying up

And hardening into 

Fossils of faith,

Dead bones

Only fit to be

Exhibited in

The museum. 

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

Just Words. It is hard speaking, but how will we find God Almighty without the Prophet of God (saws)? Is it faith we have, or have we collected some old bones, dug from the earth of the holy Quran? Fossils really, dead lifeless prose, undoubtedly beautiful, full of knowledge and hypnotic, but at the end just words. And this we think suffices us to face this world, our willful ego, the accursed Satan and his minions?

Truth is choking them. Neither by our strength, nor by our greatest intellectual grasp of religion will we be safe. Oh how easy it is to say, "O' Prophet (saws), you have been sent to us and we are in need of you. So be alive in our hearts and our conscience, do not leave us for one moment to our fickle self. We are your nation, and we are undone without your love and mercy! For have you not been sent to all worlds and nations as God's Own mercy?" How strange then that some believers in the holy Quran find such words choking in their throat, unable to spit it out, crying out instead, "Bida'ah! Bida'ah (innovations and heresy)!"

Sigh.

But then again, love can never be completely explained. So I will stop here and ask God to show us His Love - Nabi Muhammad (saws), the Seal of the Messengers, the completion of mercy and generosity of the Merciful and Generous One to all His creation.

That's you and me, kiddo! So never despair, and smile always... 

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

THE BANNER OF LIGHT VS THE EVIL KNOT

Unravelling That Evil Knot

You need a little knowledge
To know you own none of your own,

You need a little good manners

To know that good manners 

Is the natural order of things,

You need a little love in your heart

To find true love in the form

Of God Almighty and 

His Muhammad,

So while you are finding solace in these little things,

While walking, prostrating, 
Or upon your knees bended,

Do not act as if

Your search has

 All but ended,

For you are in the path of eternity,

That unfathomable and unending

Journey through God to you,

And through you to God,

Slowly unraveling the schemes

Of your ego, the enemy and 

 The evil knot.

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

When the prose was concluded, I recalled, "Saay... where did I read about 'the knot'?" Then of course, I remembered. 

Say:"I seek refuge with (Allah) the Lord of the daybreak,
"From the evil of what He has created;
"And from the evil of the darkening (night) as it comes with its darkness;
"And from the evil of the witchcrafts when they blow in the knots,
And from the evil of the envier when he envies."
(Al Quran 113, Muhsin Khan translation)

Darkness of the night, witchcrafts, evil knots and enviers. Jeepers. Not exactly the sort of light-n-easy love lorn stuff that we record here. But darkness, the blackness of our world 'exists' only in the absence of light. So seek refuge with our God, Lord of the daybreak, and see your worries and pain, your most secret despairs run skulking from the sunrise of Allah (swt) upon the forest of our (often) needless confusion.

Insya Allah (Godwilling), there is no place where the shadow can hide!

....Light is coming! 

The banner of Muhammad Habibullah is made of light! 

Light upon Light!

wa min Allah at-taufiq

-Notrumi Embun, 2nd June 2014

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

THE TYRANNY OF DISTANCE - the mercy in coming closer to one another...

What Have I Done?

The minister sitting behind his minimalist desk,

The drone-pilot fingering the fire button,

The fat cats purring in their towers of usury,  

The directors spilling ink across a deep clean sea,

The scientists tinkering far from the mushroom cloud...

The more distant you are from something or someone,

The more callous you may become,

So we wonder, if ever such people were troubled by doubt...

What have I done?

What have I done?

What have I done?

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

Ordinary people doing wrong. Save for the barely human psychopaths that paper the walls of salacious tv docos and websites that records (and lets face it, glorifies) violent crimes, evil, that is taking the right of someone (or something) without just cause often occurs in the most mundane of circumstances, and by people of unlikely malice. Many are married. Have good paying jobs, a nice house, children that they love and probably a pet dog or cat. They don't consider themselves bad people, much less evil. After all, evil is an epithet for the truly malignant, the infamous figures like Jack the Ripper, Hitler, Jeffry Dalhmer, Pol Pot, Attila the Hun etc. The pages of human history are red by the blood of their victims.

The distance. It is of course the distance that is the problem. Sometimes the distance between the action and the consequence is physical, like the drone-operator somewhere in the US raining hell with a drone in a remote backwater in Pakistan or Yemen. At other times the distance is wealth. After all, how become it possible for Wall Street CEOs to escape imprisonment for bringing devastating economic crisis in 2008? And no BP directors were jailed when they inadvertently leaked oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Yet in some ways, the tragedy that they have inflicted on mankind, and on planet Earth is terrible. It is of course quite simple, wealth can buy you a lot of smart lawyers and corrupt politicians.

The distant gods. God has no problem of distance. Many people looked up to the sky, wondering where He is and what He is doing. Others looked even further, and through their looking glass into the night sky, they try to interpret God's plan for Man's destiny in the movement of the celestial lanterns. They sought God through some strange Morse code that only they can understand. 

God Most Near. It is therefore an enlightenment of no small measure when the Prophet from Mecca, Muhammad (saws) brought the faith of a very near God. For this completion of knowledge in God that was championed by the previous prophets from Adam (as) to Jesus (as) is in direct contrast to the widespread perception held by Man that God is arrogant, prideful, wayward and can often be callous and indifferent to the pain of humanity... the gods of Mount Olympus or Asgard, or some further place, utterly remote from humanity. But God Almighty has revealed to the Prophet Muhammad (saws) that... 

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

and We are nearer to him than his jugular vein. (Quran 50:16, Marmaduke Pickthall)

God is no oppressor. And for those thinking themselves safe and contented in their ivory towers who have oppressed thousands to millions of people blanketed in the anonymity of distance? They are committing a terrible wrong. In one of the blessed hadith (oral traditions) of the Prophet Muhammad (saws), God spoke clearly...   

"O My servants ! I have forbidden oppression for Myself, and I have made it forbidden amongst you, so do not oppress one another. 

The Future. Bringing this chit chat down to our daily life, I guess the lesson here is for us to be near to whomever we are considering to oppress. Reflect upon that man or woman's life. Consider their antecedents and history. Walk at least on day in their shoes, these poor, disenfranchised and forgotten people. If, as a banker, a politician, a king or a preacher we still oppress such people, well... maybe we do deserve the world that we have created. But what of our children's future and the world that they will inherit? We can fool ourselves that the 'little' evil we do is for their welfare.

Such is the blindness, self-deception and madness of Man. 

We are asking Allah (swt) and His Prophet (saws) to bless us and keep us safe always, despite our sins and forgetfulness. May we always draw closer together, regardless of our creed, colour or nationality. Perhaps then, we will not oppress one another.

Don't you agree, sunshine?

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way    

INDEPENDENCE!! - independence for what purpose?

Wearing the Rain

I wear the rain like a dress,

And I drink the golden Sun

From a cup of love.

Whither the worry for tomorrow

When this day is not ended yet?

I wear the dusky sky

Like a bridal train 

Through the aisle of a church,

A mosque, a temple

And a synagogue.

Whither the sorrows for tomorrow

When this day is not ended yet?

................................ 

It is unfashionable to talk about submission. Not when the entire world is motivated towards independence, freedom of choice and individuality. 

In an exchange on Facebook on Malaysia's 56th independence day, a good friend asked me, "Are we really independent?" The question can be answered at many levels of course. The sovereignty of our country, and also the independence of our thoughts, words and actions, as a community and ultimately, as an individual. But to turn the question around, I began to ask myself, independence for what purpose? Freedom of choice and sovereignty to what end?

An ancient friend shared his two pennies worth and said that independence is only worthwhile when one uses one's independence on the path to submission to God. And this is regardless whether they are choices you make while grocery shopping, or as a diplomat in a multilateral summit on international trade. As a common man, minister or a King, we all have our decisions to ponder over.

I guess it is paradoxical... this independence in the path towards submission. But as God Himself revealed in the Holy Quran through divine revelations to the Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.s.)... 

Let there be no compulsion in religion: Truth stands out clear from Error: whoever rejects evil 

and believes in Allah hath grasped the most trustworthy hand-hold, that never breaks. 

And Allah heareth and knoweth all things. (Quran 2:256, Yusuf Ali)

Something to think about, sunshine, on this wet Sunday here in Kuala Lumpur. So don't bother about tomorrow, it hasn't happened yet! 

He he he.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

SAYYIDINA MIFTAH (saws) in the SHAHR AL-MIFTAH - The Ramadan Story, Part 4

The Further Prophet

Oh Prophet of God,

Oh Muhammad, the Flag of Guidance,

Oh Muhammad, the Key to the Garden,

Verily, the further in history you are,

The more there is to know of you,

Like a glittering star,

The more distant you appear to be,

The more fascinating your story,

The more immense your personality,

The more complete your mercy.

The Greatest Master

And the Greatest Servant,

The One who is named after the Only One,

The Reason for Creation,

God's Mercy to all the Worlds!

............................ 

End of Time. The Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.s) departed this world in the year 632 A.D. But unlike any other person before him and since, his story has not ended with his demise. Indeed, his story continues to flourish with greater vigour and spirit, despite the best efforts of those who would cut short his prophethood. 

120. The Wounded Shepherd (With our own mason)

I hurt, I bleed.

But not a drop

Of my blood must fall

On the soil of Ta’if.

Am I not the prophet for the end of time?

And the end of time is not here yet, O’ Gibrail.

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

A Dynamic Life. And flowing from this understanding of the Messenger's (s.a.w.s.) unique station that transcends time and space, comes the supporting life tales of the holy host of Messengers, Prophets and Saints before him and of Saints after him, that are sent by our One Loving God to guide all of humanity towards adab (good manners) and ilm (knowledge), and to forsake our hubris, hate, bigotry, pride and selfishness. This dynamic nature of spiritual lore that both transcends and governs physical knowledge is the particular hallmark of Islam, which is manifested by the Criterion, the Book of the Universe called the Holy Quran, and the traditions of the Chosen One, Muhammad Habibullah, known as the Sunnah.

The Guide and the Key. But I cannot say anything anymore on this. For beyond this is the path of experience and love. And for this, you need to find your guide. So for heaven's sake, don't forget to ask God for your guide, who will lead you, on a direct course for the Key. The Key to Creation, the Key to Mercy and Compassion, the Key to knowing best the person that you call "me" or "I", that being none other than Muhammad Sayyidina Miftah, Most Beloved of God (s.a.w.s.).

And since this month of Ramadan is also known as Shahr al-Miftah (the Month of the Key), I think this is most apt. Don't you agree, sunshine?

Wake Up!

Do not despair in this world and its nightmares!

Wake up to Him! Wake up to Love! Wake up to Truth!

Wake up to Beauty, Mercy and the real you!

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

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way  

Ramadan al-Mubarak and the Nourishment of Love - The Ramadan Story, Part 1

The Month of Sinners. Do you know that this blessed month of Ramadan is the month of us sinners? Oh yeah. Well, it is also a month for all sorts of things... it is also the Month of Quran, the Month of Light, the Month of the Poor, the Month of Repentance, the Month of Invocation and Standing in Supplication, the Month of Doing One's Best, the Month of Victory and Success and the list goes on and on. And just so you and I are not mistaken in the divine awesomeness of Ramadan, it is also known as Sayyid al-Shuhur, the Master of All Months. 

ADAB (Good Manners) YA HU (Oh He!) This, in two very short and perhaps surprising phrase for some, is inscribed above the doorway of a Sufi Grandmaster, in his little abode in Lefke, Turkish-Cyprus. In a breathless act of grandstanding, this sinner is also putting one up above the entrance to the hermitage in the sky. Below are practice sketches of the writing by my good ol' buddy, Moses. I think they look beautiful, don't you?

There is only a few minutes left before fasting on this very 1st day of Ramadhan. So I bid you a wonderful and joyous Ramadan al-Mubarak, and though we may empty ourselves of food and water for awhile, may we also gain eternal light, peace, good manners, knowledge, patience, constancy and contentment that is the Nourishment of Love. And this is a dish served especially in this blessed month.

Have a lovely month, sunshine!

wa min allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

The Physical Gloss over the Spiritual Essence - knowledge and learning in the embrace of the Master

I asked a friend of mine recently, "Have you read Shaykh Abdul Qader Geylani?* (*a famous Sufi Grandshaykh of the Syariat (the Law) and the Tarikat (the Path)). To which he replied in the negative. And I think he was amused by my crestfallen reaction (which I think I found hard to hide) for he said, "He is not in my priority of reading..." 

So I asked him what was his priority reading, and he said, "The Holy Quran, the Hadith (verbal traditions of the Prophet), perhaps the books of the four school (mahzabs) of jurisprudence of Islam..." He felt that it is important for him to focus on these basic groundings and not be distracted by other books, which I guess appear to him to be secondary and collateral to these books.

My first (and emotional) reaction was to spring on him and shake his structure- Oh why oh why would you not want to open yourself to the love manifested by someone such as Shaykh Abdul Qader? A love of divine presence connected through the Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.s.) and the Companions and Saints? A love that you can sense, taste and feel through his spiritual discourses? Why would you not want to grab hold of this Saint's robe and let him drag you through our simple hypocrisies though it may hurt our spiritual sensibilities? Why would you not want Love at all? But then someone interrupted us and he whispered to me,

In the Kiss, In the Embrace

Love cannot be informed upon,

Love cannot be explained,

Love cannot be told from 

One person to another.

Love must be transmitted in a kiss,

In the embrace of the Master 

And submission by the apprentice.

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

So I said no more on this matter.

But the next day, another old friend of mine dropped by in the hallow of my thoughts and by this he challenged my friend's view - You say that you wish your religious study not to be distracted by other spiritual books than the Holy Quran and the Hadith and the books of the four Imams of Jurisprudence. But in your life you are reading the newspaper, you are reading about politics, the economy and society in general. You are driving and you would be studying the advertisement billboard that litter the roadside. You are reading books, journals, magazines, brochures for computers and surfing the internet and reading all sorts of things, written by all sorts of people. And this you say is okay because those reading material are not spiritual or religious in nature. 

But what is 'nature'? At another level everything in its very nature is spiritual. Whether it is about health or wealth, science or technology, people and society, politics and ideologies, banking and commerce - Such things sometimes appear with a gloss of materialism because we are dealing with the physical world and its inhabitants. But truth be told, the knowledge is coming from the same source and MORE importantly, one way or another, it is TALKING about that same source - the One Originator of all things physical, felt or deserving of our contemplation, our One Lord God.

Coming and Returning

All knowledge comes from God,

And all knowledge returns to God...

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

But I cannot share such things with him because there is of course adab (good manners) to consider. I cannot intrude into the bridal chamber of Love. So I ask of Love for Love and no more. Love will bide His time as He wishes.

Have a lovely day, sunshine.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

LAMP OF THE LAMP, LANTERN OF THE LANTERN - books, saints and experiences

Why I Read

I read to sooth my nerves,

Tossed about like a ship in a storm,

I seek a quiet harbour full of divine words,

Stories of God and His Prophets...

I read to sooth my nerves,

Pulled and pushed by Love,

Driven to distraction by Beauty,

Pained by the bitter sweet taste of Truth!

I read to sooth my nerves,

To settle my ship in calmer waters,

And see how and where Love may take me

On my next love-drunk journey!

I read to sooth my nerves,

Torn ragged and sundered from my flesh,

To pass back through history

To the time of Adam and Eve,

And finding assurance in the Assurances of God,

His Words intimate, personal 

And oh so compelling!

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

Fitrah. Oh my friend, you and I, we are so alike, yet different. Heaven knows what divine fitrah (essence) that God has placed in your being... to be a cook, a leader, a soldier, a poet or a judge, or perhaps a singer or dancer? Or a preacher man preaching from the soapbox? And to be the best that you can be in your essence. May Allah (s.w.t.) guide you there. Me? I am the dog!

Book and Man. No book is comparable to experience and there is no book comparable to the Holy Quran and the walking, talking breathing manifestation and mirror of the Holy Criterion... that being our beloved Prophet, Muhammad Seal of the Prophets (s.a.w.s.). We look to our Murshid as he walks  us step by step, each moment closer and closer to the most exalted presence of Muhammad (s.a.w.s.). May Allah Almighty sanctify the secrets of the Saints who walk amongst us as a lamp of the Lamp and lantern of the Lantern, shining a bright starlight to guide us through the maze that is our life. insyaAllah...

May Allah bring you peace, and give you the ability to recognise peace. I stand outside your door, sunshine, to be your companion and friend always. Woof!

wa min Allah at-taufiq

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

THE DAUGHTERS OF EVE - Allah through their light, beauty and love...

The Daughters of Eve

First I knew the Daughters of Eve

As the ones of great love, mercy and benevolence, 

Tireless in love, unconquerable in adversity.

Later I knew the Daughters of Eve

As great youthful beauties,

Unapproachable and only to be

Admired from a distance.

Older, I came to know the Daughters of Eve

As wholly human just like me,

But unlike in so many ways,

Captivating in their loveliness,

Their voices and curves.

As I grew foolish, I came to see the Daughters of Eve

As a vessel of both beauty and vanity,

Foolish and wise, safe and dangerous,

And I blamed the Daughters for making

Too much noise, distracting me from

My pursuit of God.

In this foolishness, long did I prevail...

Until a saint took pity and threw an apple at my head,

And I realised, "Oh dear... all the noise created

Was in my head, and I am to be blamed after all!"

So I sat quietly, sullen and a little ashamed.

Finally, one day an anonymous soul wrote

On the walls of my thoughts...

"For the one who knows, there is no noise, no distraction

For in the pursuit of Allah, even the distractions are all Allah..."

So now... when I see the Daughters of Eve,

In all their manifestations of grace and mortality,

In all their divine beauty and inflections, 

I say to myself, "Allah... Allah... Allah..."

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

God has anointed for the Sons of Adam a partner of amazing conditions and abilities - Our mothers, our sisters, our daughters, aunties, cousins and nieces, our wives, friends and lovers. 

Woman. Lo, that we do not presume to know her completely. For the secret of her creation is unknown, when Adam (a.s.) was sent into a sleep which only God knows is long or short. Lo, that we do not presume to encompass  the knowledge of Mary Mother of Jesus, of Aminah the Mother of the Prophet Muhammad, of Khadijah, of Aishah, of any of the wives of the Prophet. Nor should we presume to understand the maqam (spiritual station) of Fatima az-Zahra, the blessed Daughter of the Prophet Muhammad... not when her marriage dowry to Saydeena Ali was salvation for the entire Nation of Muhammad(s.a.w.s).

We men do not try to presume knowledge of thee, o' Daughter of Eve. We seek only to show thee the beautiful adab (good manners) deserving of thee. So if we err (which is our wont), forgive us and do not mark us too harshly with thy judgment. Show us the mercy that is within you, just as God Almighty has dressed you with great beauty and attraction flowing from thy mother Eve.

And what of Eve (a.s.) herself? She was the fount and vessel of
all beauty that will after her be born of women. So although artists will
depict her beauty as is the taste of beauty prevalent in their time, the truth is
simply that the depiction of the Beauty of Eve is unapproachable by the human hand,
not unless that hand can depict all womanly beauty manifested through all the ages.
May Allah bless Eve always. Had she not been created, we would not be here today.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

I DO NOT DISCRIMINATE BETWEEN THE LIVING AND THE DEAD - God bless and all high praise for Muhammad s.a.w.s.!!!

Brotherhood of the Living and the Dead

They found religion,

They found brotherhood,

But they denounce brotherhood

Between the living and those who

Have passed away.

Thus, they have found religion,

And they have found Islam,

But they left the Prophet of Islam behind.

Saying, "Muhammad was just an average Joe before

Gabriel descended with the Holy Revelations,"

Saying, "His mother knew not her child was destined

To be the Seal of the Prophets long awaited,"

Saying, "Why celebrate the Prophet's birthday?"

They have found Islam,

And it is an empty hollow shell.

They think they are authorised to interpret God's words,

But it is their own words speaking to them from hell,

Making the most gentle Prophet appear hard,

As the ego-voice in the empty hollow chamber

Distill history and make mischief

In their unfortunate hearts.

.............................. 

It is election season here in Malaysia. And word in the street (and cyber-street) is that the political party in Malaysia that is championing Islam will do very well (again) in this 13th General Election since our independence in 1957.

For myself and my friends, whom do not believe in this thing called Democracy, we can understand how people have spiritual aspirations. But when you mix religion within the context of a populist electoral process, what you essentially get is a spiritual leader with the most followers. And you get the most followers by saying things people want to hear. This is one problem, but the biggest problem is when it is you who wants to be the leader. It is you who wants to become the Prime Minister or (God forbid!) work to bring down the Sultanates of Malaysia, so that you can also become the first President of the Islamic Republic of Malaysia. And may Allah s.w.t. protect us from that spiritual reformation. For despite all your protestation of loving akhira (the world Hereafter) and despising dunya (this world), you are in fact chasing power in this world after all.

The Muslim is the one who loves and appreciates this world, as a mirror to the other world, and the True Reality of Allah s.w.t. and the Beloved One, being Muhammad s.a.w.s. Nothing else matters. The Muslim who has not found love - visceral, real and passionate love and veneration for Muhammad bin Abdullah s.a.w.s. and His Family and Companions and Saints, has not completed his faith. God has made it clear in His Holy Quran... 

Lo! Allah and His angels shower blessings on the Prophet. O ye who believe!
Send ye blessings on him, and salute him with all respect.
(Quran 33:56, translation by Marmaduke Pickthall)

The Election Day is this coming 5th May 2013. I pray that Allah s.w.t. shall continue to bless and protect this country. For it is my country, and despite everything, I love my people.

What can a Muslim build if the Prophet's name is not spoken
and his person venerated and blessed with high praise?
Nothing, but a false edifice of the human ego.

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