Soul's Winter - The Prince Part 16

36. Soul’s Winter

O’ ye who have strayed and lost thyself!

God has plucked the Good in thee

And deposited it into the care of another.

If thee wishes to find it,

Look for a man in whose heart enters no winter.

With him shall thou recall

The gentler seasons and good

That is in us all.

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

Sometimes, when we have made mistakes (and who hasn't?), we need someone else, a mother, a father, an uncle, a friend or a teacher to guide us back to who we truly are.

The journey of self-discovery is not a lonely path. It is a path littered with good people who help and guide us, and also the less-good who are also important - because you are also defined by your opposites. Fortunately, the wide open spaces of this world is enough for everyone - the saints, the saintly, the average, the naughty and the down-right bad. And that is lucky for me, because I myself have been down-right bad. But enough about the bad, I want to write about the good stuff...

Al-Marhum Shaykh Raja Ashman Shah ibni Sultan Azlan Shah (Ku Ash) unexpected left this world early this month. But for his followers, he left behind a guide, a dictionary of good manners which will help them look for the Good in them too. It is not actually a book, in fact the dictionary is not written at all - It is the beautiful memories, the kind gestures, the patience, the generosity of heart, and the strength that encapsulates this man. For this writer, the story of Ku Ash is still being written as I bump into his devoted friends, admirers, followers and groupies, and they share with me their own stories about their Prince.

I am not doing this for altruistic reasons. My purpose is all too selfish. I am looking for myself too, and I think it is hidden somewhere in the secret pages of his life.

God bless you. Have a lovely day, sunshine.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

The Adab of Happiness and the Journey of Self Discovery - If life isn't challenging, it would not be interesting

A pure and refreshing stream... running through the plains of Love

In Praise of Muhammad, Most Beloved of the All-Loving

I am a jewel set on the crown of Love,

Were I not beautiful, Lo, who would look to Love?

I am the stream that runs through the plains of the Love,

If I was not pure and refreshing, Lo, who would thirst for Love?!

I am the lamp, a light within the light of Love,

And if I was not shining with happiness,

Lo, who would be attracted to Love?

I am the eye of the storm of Love

And if I was not whirling in happiness,

Lo ,who would be drawn to Love? 

……………………..

HAPPINESS. A man ancient with experience recently said to me, “Be attentive to your Adab (the courtly courtesies and manners of love), which asks only one thing of you – to be happy always. For who will seek the Creator that you and all of humanity worship, and who will ask of the Prophet that you praise if you are not yourself happy? People shall ask themselves - why ought I follow his way when his way does nothing better than mine?"

He then concluded, “Hide your scowls and your angry stares. Lock up your bitter words and your cynical shrugs. Tie blindfolds on your accusing eyes. Keep away from anything that makes you unhappy. Even if that which makes you unhappy is your own self. For in truth, that is not you at all, but your ego and your base desires impersonating you.”

SELF DISCOVERY. Okay, I get it. But his advice begs another question – Then where shall I look for my true self?

92. Whatever, Whomever You are Looking For

I am your Home and your Homecoming,

I am your Beginning and your Ending.

If love is what you are looking for, love is with Me,

If light is what you are looking for, light is with Me,

If truth is what you are looking for, truth is with Me,

If safety is what you are looking for, safety is with Me,

If friends are what you are looking for, they are with Me,

If Muhammad is who you are looking for, he is with Me,

Whatever, whomever you are looking for, they are all with Me.

And if you are looking for yourself?

You too are with Me.

So why look else where?

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

Is the Adab of Happiness an easy habit to pick up? Is the journey of self-discovery a walk in the park? Hehehe. Let us consider it this way. If life isn't challenging, it would not be interesting. And God, in His unique creation and continuous recreation of our reality will not let us get bored - a simple faith in our Creator's eternal inventiveness.

Me: God, why are You testing me this way!?
God: I am only expressing My eternal inventiveness, like you said. Remember?

Thank you for sharing a small part of your day with me, sunshine. I always welcome your company.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

Belief, Love, Life and Death - God's grammar

My late mum and my eldest brother, in London I believe.
She is a large part of why I believe...

82. Believe

If you are on fire, come swim in My Ocean

If you cannot reach My Shore

Wait for My Rain Clouds

If you are buried in soil

Wait for My River to cleft

Its way to you, My love.

I have not seen your record

I have not read your report

I am only looking at the Sun

Which is lighting the passages of your heart

And setting alight,

Your Book of Errors.

If you burn, do not be anxious

If you hurt, do not think you are forgotten.

Have I not been your solace

Through all of your years?

You are My Gift

A nanosecond of My Sublime Imagination

And wrought in My Mercy and My Love

For Muhammad.

Why despair?

Do you think I do not care?

My Love for you is the similitudes

Of an infinite Seas of Love

Lapping upon your sorrowful shore.

Of an infinite horizon of white clouds

Waiting to rain on your barren soil.

Oh my servant!

Believe.

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

So recorded this prose by the sinner, some 8 years ago. And to this day this prose rings true in so many ways.

We all make mistakes. We all forget our promises. We all left unattended things we ought to have done a long, long time ago. It may be a promise to a friend. It may be a motherly advice left unheeded. It may be an instruction from a teacher which we took for granted. Regret is the wasteland outside the gates of your heart. A painful vista for any soul to ponder.

Because of the pain we sometimes over-compensate our past mistakes. It is not uncommon, because we desire to make right what we think we did wrong. And we want to make amends right now and immediately. To make the pain go away.

In the name of love and faith, I have seen Man do strange things. I do not know what is right or wrong. But I believe that God has done me no wrong, nor permit to happen anything which contains a single grain of ill-thought or malice. Not by the birth of a baby, not by the death of any man or woman in my life. For the Lord I believe has no ill-thoughts and is not malicious. Unique and utterly beguiling and mysterious is He, but His love for us? In that I have absolutely no doubt.

This is the overwhelming belief that keeps me at peace with the absence of my mother, who left her earthly shell almost ten years ago, taking with her her cooking, her smile, her kindness, patience and her earthy sense of humour.

Belief, Love, Life and Death - this is how God speaks to us. May He grant the eternal abode of peace to our dearly departed.

Thank you for coming by, sunshine.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

God's Divine Devices & Denominations - love's proxy on Earth

Even in the darkest labyrinth, Love can light your path.

Divine Device and Denomination

O' Love, be with me always

And leave me not alone with myself

And my capricious ego.

And if I cannot see You, O' Love...

Then let me rest in the goodwill of my friends,

Let me sit beneath the shade of my family tree,

Let me seek solace in the company of good deeds

And good thoughts of my kin past, present and future,

Let me take comfort in the kindness of a stranger,

Let me be happy in the smile of a kindly acquaintance,

Let me be guided by the wise and inspired master,

Let me be guarded in the wisdom of those with patience,

Let me take shelter in you, o’ God, o’ Prophet,

In whatever divine device and denomination

You have chosen to express

Your Love, Mercy and

Compassion.

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

This is how I normally fall from the
peak into the valley.

I do not know about you, but I myself have never ever seen God. Oh, I have heard a lot about Him, and like most controversial personalities, there are those who adore Him (most believers) and there are those who abhor Him (such as they are). Neither of both groups have actually seen God, yet they hold very strong and passionate views about Him.

I would like to confess that I adore God 24/7, but my feelings towards Him are sometimes ambivalent, and has its peaks and valleys. Sometimes the peaks appear to reach so high that I can imagine hearing Angels and Saints singing His praise. At other times my valleys are so far down that I can almost smell the crackling black flames of Hades. It does not smell good.

So I am stuck with this world and the proxies of Divine devices and denomination - they can be people and events, things which strike my heart as bearing some beautiful favour and grace from God. Mostly they are my family and friends, but goodness can (and has) come from strangers and unexpected sources. Help and assistance can come from a Muslim, a Christian, a Buddhist or a Jew. Even an Atheist and Agnostic, funnily enough. God has so much to give you that He will use all necessary means to get to you. So if a stranger knocks on the door of your heart, do not be afraid. Give the greetings of peace and invite the stranger in.

Give the greetings of peace and invite the stranger in.

Have a lovely Monday, sunshine.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

The Ever Transient Nature of Joy and Sadness

8. Do not be greedy

Do not be greedy, o’ love,

To lengthen the day that appears perfect,

Nor should you in misery

Hasten a day that appears black.

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

To lengthen the happy day... because we should not be deceived by this world's apparent and often momentary joy, only for our joy to turn bitter in our mouth by the happenstances of fate and destiny.

To shorten a black day... because we should not despair of God and His complete love for us. For who knows what may happen in the next moment, for our sorrow and sadness to suddenly turn to happiness by the churning of fate in the Hand of He that Loves us in the most utter and complete sense of the word.

Alhamdulillah, thank you for blessing my almanac with your visit.

Have a sweet Sabbath, sunshine.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

My Key is Lost and it is Irreplaceable - The Prince Part 15

The Key

I have lost my key,

And my house is locked shut,

I have lost my key,

And I am left outside hungry,

I am cold and lonely,

I have lost my key,

Now who will feed me?

I have lost my key,

And I can’t get into my car,

Another place is waiting for me,

Far away in a place absent of me,

I have lost my key,

Who will give me a ride

In their bright cherry-red Pontiac?

Who will let me sit in the back

And complain about the journey?

I have lost my key

That I need to find in a hurry,

I am locked out of my heart

And my soul is running low on battery,

I have lost my key

And I cannot remember how to smile,

Who will now hold my hand,

Who will now make me happy

While the world passes me by?

Then one day

Love came back...

Love assured me,

“To me you shall always belong.”

Then Love led me to a shiny mirror.

Love said “Look!”, so I looked

And there I found my key,

It was me, it was me.

Oh my Love,

It was me all along.

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

I am far from my hometown. But always my thoughts go back to my friends, still bereaving over the recent loss of their Shaykh, friend, mentor and just simply one-great-guy... al Marhum Shaykh Raja Ashman Ibni Sultan Azlan Shah.

How strange life is sometimes. God bless God, and may God raise the spiritual station of the Prophet(pbuh), His Companions and the Saints by each second that we mourn over our dearly departed. Love does not end at the gates of the cemetery. This I know to be true...

Have a lovely Sabbath, sunshine. Wherever you may be.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

Love & Wisdom. Knowledge & Attachment.

1. The Prism of Love

You cannot see

God and His Beloved,

Through any other prism,

Save of the Prism of Love.

There are many who claim this,

But they divide and they ostracize,

Then count themselves as wise.

They do not comprehend,

For when you are enamoured

With your own relationship

And attachment, even

With the Divinity,

Then, sadly,

Your wisdom

Is broken,

And your cup,

Empty.

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

It is okay really. It is okay to be so enamoured with God and to find your cup of wisdom broken, and your wisdom slowly seeping into the earth like cold milk. After all, what do we really know except to love and hope that we are loved in return? I am tired of looking for the keys to the Library of Knowledge, and perhaps now I am only looking for the secret gate to the Garden of the Lovers. For you see, I know myself only too well. Give me too much knowledge and 'wisdom' and I am sure to neglect or even misuse it.

Throw Me a Rope

Let the wise ones look for wisdom.

I am looking for love and

To be taught the courtly manners

Of courtly love and chivalry.

If you are already there, throw me a rope...

In your kind friendship to me

Is my sweetest hope...

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

Have a lovely Friday, sunshine.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way