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

What is Religion?

Things took a turn for the bad

When the Muslims took what they had,

The faith and the way that Muhammad brought,

And shoehorned Islam into their limited conception of

Religion and God.

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

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

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

The Islamic Pig

You have not completed your faith 

Until you can look at the lowly dog, 

The dirty, stinky pig, 

The Devil and your worst enemy,

And perceive the Islam

In their action and purpose

Of their creation.

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

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

Have a hopeful beautiful Sunday.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

- Notrumi Embun, 25th May 2014.

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

GOD MOST FAIR, FAIR EVEN UNTO THE DEVIL - the Power of Remembrance and the Gift of Forgetfulness

The Devil

I don't hate the Devil,

But I hate what he does.

I hate his conspiracies to spread

The corruption, the oppression,

The lies, the violence, the selfishness,

The exploitation, the wars, the genocides,

The murders, the rapes, the insults and jibes,

The confusion, the hubris and the ignorance of mankind,

Seeding in our society envy and anarchy,

But most of all, I hate what he does

Because he makes me hate me...

And makes me despair of my own humanity.

So this begs another question...

Why do I listen to him?

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

The Devil is real. I think we should be very clear about this. He is not some intangible malevolent force in the human consciousness, like a typhoon blazing destruction across the plains of your soul. Mr. D has a personality, he is intelligent, belligerent and has amassed countless years of experience to hone his skill in his job description - which is to morally corrupt all children of Adam and Eve, and lead them to utter spiritual and physical annihilation. 

But we are also not stupid. God All Wise, in His wisdom has given us akal, the cerebral faculty to reason things out, to weigh the pros and cons of our actions (or inactions), to judge which is the best path to take, and to learn from our own history, the History of Man that is often bloodied with wars, oppression, xenophobia, hubris, ignorance and hate, but are also shining with beautiful examples of messengers, prophets, saints and everyday simple people who were hardworking and intelligent, grateful and worshipful to their Maker, aka God Almighty. Surely, with such knowledge of our shared past, we would not fall to the deceit and dark whispering of Beelzebub.

Old Tricks New Suckers. But we do fall for his tricks, again and again. On a daily basis. Perhaps not murdering, pillaging or robbing a bank... but small 'white sins' that this sinner himself must admit to. I leave it to your imagination to contemplate this.

The Power of Remembrance. Which goes back to our enemy. If only we can always remember... remember God, remember our beloved Prophet, remember the kindness of our parents and siblings, the tolerance of our friends... remember the common history shared by all humanity... and learn from the lessons that our past can teach us...  how would the Devil fool us?

He won't be able to. 

But this would not fit God's plan for us.

The Gift of Forgetfulness. So I guess that is why we are also built with the capacity to forget. To give the Devil the opportunity to fool us and to corrupt us. So you see, God has leveled the playing field between Adam's Children and the Devil to give the Devil an even chance defeat mankind. Which goes without saying that Allah (swt), aka God Almighty is the fairest of them all... fair even unto the Devil himself.

And this also speaks of another thing... God's belief in us and in our inherent courage and goodness, that  mercy-rich fitra (essence) of Muhammad (saws) that is in all humanity (not just them Muslims).  

So perhaps we should remember all this and believe in God too.

I am trying. In my inevitably bumbling and clownish way. 

Some Shaykh: "O' Taufiq. If you clown around too much, you will always
risk dropping and shattering your heart. I am here to help you, but
what if I am not? What then?
The Clown: You will always be here, wherever you may be...

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

Upon the Wings of Ilmu & Adab - knowledge, good manners and the dangers of hubris

Ilmu & Adab

O' seekers,

To fly to the divine presence,

You need a pair of wings,

The wing of Ilmu (Knowledge)

And the wing of Adab (Good Manners).

In the course of human history

There is no more tragic event

Than when humanity has gained Knowledge

But has left Good Manners far behind.

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

Whatever enlightenment that you have acquired, religious knowledge, metaphysical knowledge, knowledge of the self, knowledge of people and their history, knowledge of the sciences - physics, biology or chemistry, knowledge of the DNA, knowledge of the Atom... all knowledge comes with its appropriate code of courtly manners and courtesies (Adab).

A significant part of the Western civilization hinges upon the Age of Enlightenment that began in France and spread to the rest of Europe, then the world over through conquest and colonialism. Alas, while bringing some good to the people, it is probably the most severe example where knowledge has ran away from good manners. It is an illness that  can be remedied, but if the body politic cannot even see that it is unwell, how may the patient be treated? It is now a global problem.

Great Ilmu without great Adab is the greatest danger facing humanity. The devil himself is intelligent and acquired an angel's trove of physical and metaphysical knowledge, but alas, he gained not enough good manners to keep him safe. He lost himself to hubris, which is born whenever knowledge is attained without the appropriate good manners. 

Have a thoughtful day, sunshine. May we learn to bear both the knowledge and the manners appropriate to our station before God and the Prophet (s.a.w.s.). I will not say that is is easy, but...

Knowledge? They will see your habits and manners, then choose for you
the appropriate knowledge that you may carry. This is the way of the Path,
and it is the safest and best way, not merely upon the wings of ilmu and adab,
but upon the wings of love and mercy. InsyaAllah...  

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

The Tired Devil and The End of Time - Fear not fear, fear God...

He asks some pretty difficult questions sometimes. Cheeky boy.

I went back earlier to the house to assemble a book shelf and Mikhail was at home. He had misplaced two books of the Dairy of a Wimpy Kid series. I think he has five. He was searching high and low for them, and so I suggested a small prayer that he might recite to help him find it. It is a common enough prayer for those who knows it, but is perhaps less common to those who are not aware of it, involving the assistance of invisible servants of the Lord, by whatever name or title you call them.

In the course of our chat, Mikhail suddenly asked me, "Papa, are there good Djinns?" It is a tricky question, but I did my best, "Well, Mika... Djinns are similar to Man because they can choose between good and bad. Just like you, right?"

He nodded his understanding. Then I continued, "But I have heard some people say that the best of Djinns are like the worst of Man. And yet, I am also told that in the Djinn World there are Djinns who are believers, and there are Djinns who fight against them."

He pondered a bit, then asked me, "Don't the Devil ever want to be good?"

"Eh?"

"You know, Papa. The Devil is immortal, right? Isn't it a waste that he has all this time and doesn't do good? Doesn't he want to change?"

I was stumped for an answer. "Err, err... let me get back to you on that, Mika."

The Tired Devil. It is a good question. I would like to know the answer to it myself. Then I recall just a couple of months back, when I heard the sohbet (speech) of a Sufi GrandShaykh. He was alluding to the state of affairs of the world, and just how fasad (corruption) appears to permeate every level. And that the interaction between good and evil, between goodness and corruption is reaching a culminating point in history. Then he said that even the Devil is tired, weary of his work.

After that however, in a later talk, the Master intimated that the Devil and his minions never rests for even 5 minutes in their conspiring and whispering campaign against all of the children of Adam. Perhaps the Devil was weary only in a 4 brief minutes, and then he is once again reinvigorated and rejuvenated in his 24/7 job to corrupt as many man and woman he can lay his whispers upon.

This almanac is just this - observations of observations. And perhaps I would despair at all this hate and poison engineered by the Devil across the epoch against our ancestors and all of humanity, of whatever hue our skin is or faith we believe in. But then I remember the goodness of Nabi Muhammad, Prophet of God (pbuh), I recall the noble reality and essence of his family, the humility and prowess of his Companions, and the continuing ministration of this world by his Saints the Awliya Allah (Friends of God). And at the end of this path of reflection, ultimately I recall God and how I would like to fear Him. In this way...

3. Fear of Fear

An eternal evil,

A false path,

A vigorous opponent

To all that is good,

Is that which is born

From confusion and uncertainty,

An offspring from the unholy wed

Between your Ego and impiety,

And this child is named Fear.

By the blessings of Fate

Is often Fear laid bare,

Yet most choose to follow Fear,

And Wherever Fear may lead you to,

Know surely that perdition awaits you there.

Had you only feared God,

You would not have feared Fear,

For fear of God leads to peace,

But fear of Fear will lose you

All whom you hold dear,

And profits you not.

.........

Fear not 'Fear' in whatever skin it wears...
Even in a dragon skin.

Have a lovely day, sunshine.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

Life and the Alchemy of Meanings - The Prophet(pbuh), music and messrs rock and roll

I Cannot Be More Than This

I cannot be more than this,

A man dressed in the humanly attributes

Of weakness, shamefulness and error.

I cannot be more than this,

A sinner hidden by a veil,

A jester in a court…

But who’s court?

Playing and dancing for a king,

But who is the king?

I cannot be more than this,

To have feelings of success and disappointments,

To be weary sometimes, to be strong sometimes,

And I am ashamed to ask for anything

When I am asking only

To be nothing,

… or so I claim.

I cannot tell you what to do

I cannot tell you what not to do,

I am only a gold digger,

A hobo with a pan in my hand

Scouring the world for

Signs of God in

The earth

Of Man.

You speak to me of your worry

...But I cannot understand,

For just now I heard my Master

Tell me of the Beauty of God

And the blessings for Man,

You tell me of the signs, the names

The words and the secret numbers

Of Djinns and Demon Kings,

But I must be forgiven for taking

My indiscretions a step further -

For I do not care for such meanings,

Looking for the dictionary of the dictionaries,

Looking for the hidden meanings behind the meanings,

For I change the world

With every breath I take,

With every good or bad

That possesses my being

I give meaning

to everything.

………………

This morning my friend arrived from the mountain bearing some grave news, and upon his furrowed brow I saw discontent and worry.

He was worried about his way in life, about responsibilities and knowledge, about effort and sacrifice. I told him not to worry too much, for to be honest, I have always believed him to be a fine and upstanding fellow. A gentleman cut from a fine beautiful jewel, and one whom I am honoured to call a bosom buddy. 

Then he spoke to me of a shirt I made and gave to him many, many years ago. On it was emblazoned the heading 'We Rock 4 Mustafa', a phrase that made me extremely happy, in reference to some presumptuous love we have for Mustafa a.k.a. the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). Now I am informed that the phrase is wrong. I should have not used the word 'rock' in relation to the Prophet. Because it appears that the word 'rock' as in 'rock and roll' is actually the name or title of a pair of Djinn Demon lords who conspired for rock & roll to be the name of their dastardly new musical form, intended with the sole purpose of corrupting mankind. Yes, I remember the shock that engulfed humanity when American TV first aired Elvis Presley and his gyrating hips. Cunning, these Djinn Bosses.

Well, I cannot please everyone, nor is it my intention. I am not 'a Sufi', though I love them all (both the sober and the drunkards), and my admiration for the Masters is I believe sincere. I do believe in the existence of Djinns, though I see them not. I have not acquired (nor do I want) the talent to see these foul creatures. But then again I also do not see God nor His Angels, yet I believe in Him and the Angels, and I believe in the teachings of the Prophet(pbuh) and the Saints.

Of the Djinns and Demons..? Let them play their part. And let those who fight such creatures do their noble duty. But if there is a stout little Djinn out there (and no... not Dwayne Johnson) who connived to have his name glorified as Rock (or Roll) through some hedonist and soul-corrupting genre of sexually pulsating melodies, well... we are taking your name and changing it for our own purpose. We can do this, you see, and not just to words or names, but also to  sounds and music, symbols, signs and any other visual or audio depictions that the Djinn mind can conjure. If you knew the extent of our mischief in this regard, you would be scandalized. 

This is a technical posting, sunshine, that may be of interest to some but possibly an utter drag for others. We will revert to our normal programming tomorrow.  

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

The Devil's Domino and the Salvation in Servanthood - America, Christians, Muslims, the Middle-east, Iraq, Afghanistan and the War on Terror

10. Armour

People grow armour,

When they should grow flowers,

And they think themselves protected,

Hiding beneath the hard exterior

Of their adopted personality.

Unable to drink

When they have found the river,

Dying and burning in their thousands

Under a radiant morning Sun,

As they walk in their armour,

Cast from molten fire,

In moulds made of hate and fear.

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

Dehumanizing War. The War on Terror is a dehumanizing term because it suggests that it is not a human being behind the bombs and the murders. That terrorism exists in our time because it simply is and there is no point studying the root causes - as if people or a religion (or at least the 'other' people and the 'other religions) are by their nature, evil. I don't know whether this is planned or merely an unintended consequence behind the resurgence in patriotism, wars and defense spending in the U.S. But intentional or otherwise, I think we have read and watched enough news report of 'incidents' where innocent men, women and children in Iraq and Afghanistan have died for no reason whatsoever save that they were in the wrong place and at the wrong time. And I also believe in my heart that they were also guilty of being of the wrong colour, ethnicity and religion. Because I  cannot imagine that the American government would be so cavalier with the extent of 'collateral damage' (yet another dehumanizing term introduced since the First Gulf War) if they had to invade a predominantly white country.

Terrorists? Or simply a case of wrong time, wrong place,
wrong ethnicity and wrong religion?

What Mission? After President Bush declared 'Mission Accomplished!', it is patently clear that the U.S. led coalition has not. Unless of course it was the mission objective to destroy completely the national infrastructure of Iraq, unhinge the fine balance between the Sunni and Shia populace, create a lawless free-for-all state of mayhem, set in motion the undeclared civil war between Sunnis and Shias, promote the influence of Iran amongst the Shia majority in Iraq, help cultivate the al-Qaeda support in the Sunni communities where previously none existed, give billions of Dollars in infra and oil work to American crony corporations, issue contracts to mercenary defense-contractors (Blackwater, now renamed a more respectable "The Academy") - an unhinged collection of war profiteers unregulated even by the U.S. Army handbook... Where do I stop? My litany of woe can go on and on and on.

War on 'the others'. The U.S. government insists that the War on Terror is not a war on Islam or Muslim Arabs. And I agree, because firstly, I do not think that the U.S. government understands what Islam is. So at a contextual basis, Islam as taught by the Prophet Muhammad(pbuh) is not in the picture. But such is the influence and penetration of Islamophobia into the national psyche and Western mainstream media, that despite this official line, the lives of many, many innocent Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan have been cut short... in the hundreds of thousands. The U.S. military may not have pulled the trigger on each of these deaths and undoubtedly many were killed due to sectarian strife, but as a famous Chinese proverb says, "If you save someone's life, you are responsible for it." So if the U.S. government wanted to save Iraq and Afghanistan and went in to topple the dastardly Saddam and Talibans and bring democracy, freedom and progress... well the smarty-pants must take responsibility.

Seconds later, the American gunship tore through feeble human flesh.
"The good Iraqis stayed indoors. If they were out they were up to something." was the
feeble reasons given. Would this happen in a white country?

Unprepared for war or peace. The U.S. Army and Marine cultural preparation of their soldiers for the war on Iraq was woefully inadequate and at times misguided. Saddam was a ruthless dictator who gassed his own people, true, and certainly deserved to be toppled. But for many of these young men (and women), their Iraq tour was their first trip abroad, and certainly their first encounter with the Middle East, the Arabs and their religion and culture. Sadly, the leaked pictures (and videos) of the 'Ugly American' became just all too common during and after the Iraq War. Donald Rumsfeld was asked about the American troops trashing the Baghdad museums and Saddam's palaces during the capture of Baghdad, and he basically said that it was not a big deal, just a case of the 'boys' letting off steam. For the U.S. Secretary of Defense to utter such a cavalier remark is astonishing. During the U.S. entry into Baghdad and Nazariah, there were many innocent lives lost in the fire-fight. A senior ranking U.S. military officer said that all the innocent good people were in their homes, and those out on the streets were obviously up to no good... Really? And this comment did not come during the heat of the war, but many, many years later in a television documentary about the tactical and strategic mistakes of the Iraq invasion. Even in hindsight, some soldiers still want to defend the indefensible. This is sad because by comparison, there has been many other fellow American soldiers and marines who have come out to complain and confess their own participation in some of the mindless slaughter of unarmed civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan, to prick the conscience of a nation deluded by politicians and mainstream propaganda.

The politicians and generals must take responsibility. But President Obama is
not interested in 'looking back'. Thus the architects of one of the most ill-conceived
U.S. invasion of a foreign country, and criminals who authorized torture and
water-boarding walks freely on the streets of America, without fear of prosecution.

The core issues. As the almanac has mentioned before, there is a need to address all problems at its inner core. Why are the Arabs becoming terrorists? Why are the Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan? Why is there so much hate being spouted from both sides of the no-man's land? Who is an Arab? What does it mean to be a Muslim or a Christian? What is our common shared heritage? What can we learn from our past conflicts?

The Devil's Domino. As human beings we are taught to control our egos, nafs (base human desires) and reject the wicked promptings of the Devil. If we say that the West is corrupt, are we so perfect? For the West has gain ascendancy since colonial times, and for that reason the Devil has also focused his attention on the western civilization. He will first corrupt the West and with its dominance spread his cruel lies and tricks the world over. In a manner of speaking, the Western society is one of the first domino to fall in the Devil's plan to corrupt and enslave all of humanity to our ego and nafs. The other domino is the fall of the last Ottoman Caliphate, an event that would not have occurred without the connivance of Muslims themselves, especially in the Middle East.

War is a special condition of the human state. And it must be governed
by rules of engagement. For Muslims this would mean no civilians must
be harmed or placed in harm's way. Even as we condemn the U.S. attitude towards
the Geneva Convention, so too we must condemn the cruel tactics of suicide bombings
and killings of innocent civilians perpetrated by the so-called jihadis.

So while the conservative war hawks in Washington and Moscow (yes, the Russians are simply biding their time) are focusing their hatred on Islam and Muslims, and the misguided 'jihadis' are pouring all their hate and bile against 'the grand western conspiracy', somewhere in his laboratory of fear and hate, the Devil is smiling and laughing, musing to himself, "Ah... the fools! They NEVER learn..." 

Salvation is in Servanthood. Things are happening as it is written. Lines have been drawn on the sand of human conflict. But it is the Devil who is actually holding the stick and drawing the lines. O' Muslims, do not be deceived! O' Christians, do not be deceived! O' Jews, Hindus, Buddhists and Sikhs... do not be deceived! If there is a noble conflict worthy for the children of Adam, this is it - who amongst us is the kindest, most generous, intelligent, wise and compassionate towards his fellowmen? Who amongst us best reflects the benevolent and divine attributes of our One beloved God? Who is willing to be a servant of God and of all humanity?

Despite all this, I am hopeful. For this is what
the Prophet Muhammad(pbuh) is teaching
his nation and all of humanity.
Salvation through servanthood.

Have a thoughtful Thursday, sunshine.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

The Devil is the Enemy of all Humanity - Holy Quran, verse 2:168

The lovely thing about religion is that you (should) develop a personal and intimate relationship with your Maker, aka Allah aka God Almighty, Most Compassionate(ar-Rahman) and Most Merciful (ar-Rahim). The only problem is that because your spirit is presently residing in your ego-body and in this ego-reality, your ego can be prone to think only your perception of Who God is and What He is to be the only valid truth of God. And this is simply wrong. And let me tell you why...

God in his essence is unknowable. According to Muslim Lore, God has indeed defined Himself as without limit and cannot be wholly comprehended by the human intellect. In this context all Muslims, when they approach the reality of His Essence, becomes essentially Agnostics. This is what my brother observes, and I cannot disagree with him. So Muslims the world over should be minded to behave with a bit of humility in the absolute uniqueness and unknown quantity and quality that is God. So no going about making fun, ridiculing or insulting the other faiths and religions of mankind.

Knowledge of God is without limit. But God being the All-Friendly and Best-Buddy nulli secundus (second to none), also wants you to get to know Him. That is after all, the entire point of creation. Ibn Arabi commented of the reason behind creation and quoted God, "I was a Hidden Jewel, and I wanted to be known." So get ye down unto Earth with humility and start learning. And this learning process is coming from the infinite ocean of knowledge of God that He deigns to release to humanity. So it is a learning of a lifetime, yes?

Mr. Global Enemy. As we are on this topic of God, I also wanna mention a bit about the Devil. You know, sometimes I observe that our religious pride also take a distorted manifestation when we even want to OWN the Devil. I am saying this because some Muslims appear to take the view that the Devil is the eternal enemy of Muslims alone. But that is simply not true... for God was addresing all humanity when he said,

O mankind! Eat of that which is lawful and wholesome in the earth, and follow not the footsteps of the devil. Lo! he is an open enemy for you. (Quran verse 2:168, Marmaduke Pickthall)

Yet seldom have I heard conventional preachers rail against the Devil as enemy of all humanity. It's all about us, us, us Muslims. The Devil wants to corrupt 'us Muslims'! The Devil wants to misguide 'us Muslims' to stray from religion. The Devil are using the Jews, the Christians, the Hindus, the Freemasons, the Illuminatis, the Sufis, the bankers, McDonald, Facebook etc ... (just key-in your favourite Devil-conspirators here) to destroy us Muslims!

Good grief.

Broad generalization of this nature is not worthy of us, sunshine. Let us assume, just as an example, that indeed the Devil has tricked and is using the the McDonald franchise to help create his world domination. But the shareholders of McDonald are also children of Adam and Eve. They are also a part of humanity. A part of us.

Do we cut out a limb because it is injured? No, we try to heal it. And who knows if we ourselves are not being duped by the Devil... Certainty is not with us, after all. Certainty is only in the divine presence of God and in the loving embrace of His prophet, Muhammad Habibullah (pbuh).

So, our thought for today - A little bit more understanding, and empathy for your fellowmen. As Muslims are you not favoured already by the attendance of Muhammad (pbuh) unto your welfare? If you have at least some faith in the Prophet(pbuh), you would have no problem showing a bit of tolerance and sympathy to other people... If you find it difficult, then my advice is to re-look where you are drinking your Islam from.

74. Rusty Tap

May God guard Islam from us Muslims,

When even the clearest water turns bad

Running from a rusty tap.

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

Have a lovely empathy day, sunshine.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

Hide the Weaknesses of Others - Adam, Eve, the Devil and the All-Loving God

103. The Second Lesson (with Shal)

What did Satan do

But to only expose

The truth of man’s

Innate weakness?

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

When you think about it, Adam and Eve was created with a certain level of weakness. In the contented existence of Paradise, it didn't show. It needed the Devil to come around with his bag of tricks, whispers, innuendos and fear-mongering to reveal our poor ancestor's folly under the tree of the forbidden fruit.

"Hey... I just showed the first couple for what they truly are... oh so weak and susceptible to persuasion!" the Devil might say.

When I watch the western mainstream media, I see how it all fits together. And the Devil didn't have a 24 hours 7 days a week 365 days a year television channel drumming his malicious agenda non-stop into Adam and Eve. The west is still mighty, with its fingers on the nuclear button, but the Devil is satisfied already, for he has helped create the division between left and right, liberal and conservative, progressive and traditional, believers and atheists, mothers and daughters, fathers and sons. Christians huddle together defensively in their suburban churches, while the progressives and Libs control popular media and entertainment, with stand-up comics poking fun at Christ and the Bible, scorning the very idea of the existence of God.

But hey, the Devil is only revealing the truth of our existence... our unruly passions, our lack of patience and empathy, our quick response to judgment, our overbearing pride and hubris. It is not as if he is creating something that is not already existing in our bodies. The ingredients was already in man's pantry, the Devil just decided to cook up something really nasty for humanity.

Hmm.

Yes, it is true. We are weak, for that is how God made us to be. For only the weak would recognise the strong. Only the imperfect would recognise perfection. Only those who have been misguided would seek guidance, and only the exiled would yearn for home. And Adam never conspired against the Devil, it was the Devil who first cast the stone.

So reject the way of the Devil... cast not any stone of judgment, sunshine. Hide the weaknesses of others, for verily I am certain that God will hide yours too. For He is All-Knowing and All-Loving.

The Angel: There he goes again, the Devil... And true to form, the children
of Adam and Eve are ever susceptible to his whispers...
*angelic sigh*

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

The Prophet and the Dragon - heaven is wherever your Beloved is...

Heavenly Dragons & The Prophet's Presence

Only heavenly shoulders will bear your heavenly burden

Only with heavenly eyes can see heavenly dragons.

From heavenly lips you will hear heavenly sermons,

From heavenly books came the heavenly commandments,

With heavenly guidance you may reach the seventh heaven,

But only with his intercession may you reach the Prophet's presence,

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

Heavenly address. We are told by resourceful and informative sources that there are quite a few heavens up there in the afterlife. And each plot of holy land already has a name written in the deed, and verily your piece of heaven is already yearning for your presence. But it appears that the best heavenly postcode to have is 101, Abu Bakar Avenue, Muhammad Heaven.

Pretentious, presumptuous Sufi attachments perhaps, but for the followers of Muhammad Habibullah, Prophet of God(pbuh), there is no yearning more bittersweet, no desire more complete than to finally be in the presence of the Prophet, Mercy to the Worlds(pbuh). And I reckon they would not care whatever or however the place is called in the Divine Yellow Pages, because it is only in the Prophet's presence will they find their whole true selves and happiness. The perfection of God's heaven is really wherever Muhammad(pbuh) is, you see.

Well, this is what they tell me, anyway.

You will get to see J.R.R. Tolkien's Smaug the Dragon in a couple of year's time
when the third part of 'The Hobbit' will be playing in a cinema near you.
You will not help but feel some empathy for Smaug, because Tolkien's Smaug,
much like our heavenly dragon considers himself exceedingly beautiful and
wise. Because you see, just like Mankind, dragons too have
rather large egos, which means that the Devil has something
to manipulate the dragon with. Just as He has manipulated
Man since the very beginning.

Dragons! Dragons have gotten some pretty bad rep, but the very first original dragons were heavenly beautiful creatures, splendid in their golden skin and mighty wings. Alas, one ancient dragon was tricked by the Devil to convey him into paradise, where the Accursed One proceeded to conspire and fool the First Couple to partake the forbidden fruit. Because of that single error the dragon lost his limbs, wings and heavenly finery, becoming a loathsome and despised thing, a limbless serpent both hated and feared by mankind... aka the snake.

What a bummer for the poor dragon. And yet how many amongst us who were also attentive listeners to the whispers of the Devil? Quite a few I suspect.

As for the Accursed One(the Devil), he was already cursed, but not by God, but from his very own lips. But perhaps that is an interesting tale for another posting...

The Prophet and the Dragon. A happy treat for a happy day. After all, it is still Ramadhan and the sinner (hurrah!) is finally well.

God bless you, sunshine. Always happy to have your company.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

The Legion of Saints in The Age of 'Enlightenment' and 'Renewal' - democracy and the repeated lies of the Arab Spring

The Mawlana

Life begins at 40, they say, so I must be only 2. Hehehe. Life begins at our birth they say, and yea they are not wrong. But my life, your life, our lives is much, much older than that. From our birth, we have in our beings already the past history of mankind, from the creation of Adam and Eve, through the tumultuous events of the past Prophets of God until the arrival upon this Earth, and great was the welcome given unto him because by his birth God has honoured and blessed the world, of the Seal of the Prophets, Master of the Beginning and the End, our most beloved Prophet, Nabi Muhammad ibn Abdullah (pbuh), radiant light of Mercy, perfection upon perfection, the most beautiful rose in the Garden of Creation. Muhammad(pbuh) is the final and complete divine assurance given by God that verily, He has not forsaken us and verily He is most concerned unto his creation with the sublime and all-encompassing attribute as the Most Compassionate (ar-Rahman) and Most Merciful (ar-Rahim).

So how can we say we are young? It makes no sense, even if we are 1 year old or 15. We are only young in experience. So how can we say we are old, for our life stretches from the known history into the known future. The Devil, who is our tireless enemy, has conspired through his arsenal of tricks and traps to disconnect us from this knowledge. And verily, he has succeeded. First through the Renaissance of the West, when he duped people into thinking, “We are young! We are new! We are fresh thinkers! What for we obey the traditions of our forefathers? What for we respect our elders and their silly bumbling ways? King? Who needs a King when we can ALL be Kings?”

146. Old King Louis

Who was it that deposed the King,

And invited the devil(s) in?

Hah! They speak of nations with no thrones,

They speak of republics with no tyranny.

In truth, what have they done

Save only to leave the people

Kingless and unguided

But for the single-minded pursuit of avarice.

Emptying the Bastille

Only to fill her up again.

The hallmark

Of mobs in power.

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

They started it.

And we follow. Very smart. 

For the Devil knew that if he wanted to use a people to corrupt others, they themselves must be assured that they are right, that they are the enlightened ones. And the Devil was most arduous in cultivating his ideas amongst the young, the intelligentsia, the soldiers, the politicians and the merchants, breaking down the authority of the Church and the King, until churches and palaces are now mere museums and a showcase for European royalties without authority. Figureheads forced to accept the tyranny of the majority.

PR and Propaganda at its finest.

And once assured of his control, the Devil used the West to spread the Renaissance ideas of corruption, deception and ill-manners under the guise of egalitarianism, liberty and equality, this poison upon the natural human spirit that is called popular democracy. And they found amongst the young Turks and Arabs an eager audience of listeners, ready to uproot the old ways, to topple the Throne of the Shadow of God, to stop calling themselves Ottomans, but now simply Turks! To stop calling themselves Arabs and the Nation of Muhammad but now Iraqis, Jordanians, Egyptians etc… The Devil has reintroduced selfish nationalism and tribalism back into the soul of Islam, when the Prophet himself(pbuh) has cursed it for the hatred and enmity that it sows amongst humanity.

What has happened has happened.

The House of Democracy, Tahrir Square, Egypt.

The House of God, Mecca. Which of this places has God blessed?

The Mawlana of Lefke, Cyprus is calling unto the Nation of Muhammad, and the Believers not to forsake their history. To remember and respect the past, and to seek support from the Prophet Muhammad(pbuh) and unto all His Companions and Saints who are themselves ready and supported by the Light of God. But now people are walking past the Maqams (graves and tombs) of the Saints not knowing or not caring. They don’t even bother to give gracious greetings of salam(peace). Do they think such personages are dead and sleeping in their graves? The saintly dead has hallowed their life and death in the perfection of their Adab (courtly manners and courtesies) while the living walk around with no Adab at all.

What has happened has happened.

You and I know that the dead do not sleep. That death is but a door, a gateway to another place, and verily the blessed Friends of God are more alive than we are. Let us recall our history, for alone we cannot sustain our vigilance against the unending conspiracies of the accursed Devil and his tribe, who sleeps not for even five minutes in their undying hatred for all of Mankind.

God has blessed you, sunshine. For though we are weak and a little pathetic, we are with The Legion of Saints.

Three don't make a Legion, you say? Look with your heart, they reply.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way.