Nashua, the Angel with a Long Train and a German Rock Ballad

I am here because you called me, Nashua. 

An Angel with a Long Train and the Scorpion’s Love Lullaby

An angel robed with a long train
Walked past a mingling crowd of working mothers,
Sitting, standing waiting in a row
With their noisy, clapping, laughing children.
One girl, with curly locks over her brown eyes
Noticed the angel and said, “Hey! What are you?”
“I am an Angel.” Replied the Herald.
“Why are you here?”
“I am here because you called me, Nashua.”
She made a face and denied, “No. I didn’t.”
The Angel then explained.

“Yes, you did. Or rather, you will. 23 years in the future. You were heartbroken by a man (that scoundrel), and you were listening to radio pathetico. Then the German rock band, Scorpions came on air with their song ‘Send me an Angel’. When you heard it, you cried even more, and you whispered along with the song, “Here I am, send me an Angel…” So here I am, an Angel.”

“I do not understand. Then, why are you here NOW?” Said Nashua.

“Because at 31 years old, you have grown up, Nashua. And you have forgotten and unlearnt the innocence and wisdom of children. I cannot appear to you in the future. But I am touched by your sadness. So I have travelled to the past to see you. You must keep this memory so that you know that however ill-used you will become, your Guardian Angel and our Lord God is never far. “

She then ventured a question, “Will I remember this? To which the Angel said, “No. but perhaps the love of our connection will remain. So that at the very least, you will remember to call unto God and His Angels, however much you despair of your life.

Then, the Angel smiled. “For that is why, I am here, you see. You remembered me still. As an echo of a Love Lullaby. Even if it took the Scorpions to trigger your subconscious. To be perfectly honest, they are not exactly in Heaven’s Top 100, being you know... a little naff*. But we Angels have learnt to adapt to humanity’s strange caprice.”

Nashua did not fully understand the Angel’s extended monologue, but her wise 8 year old heart understood enough. “Well, I guess I must thank you, Mr. Angel.” With great dignity, the Angel bowed before Nashua, “You are most welcome, o’ daughter of Eve.”

The little girl blushed looking pleased, and said,

Okay, so now what?”

The Angel stood up to his full height and extended his hand, “Why, now we have a little time before I leave. Hop on my train, and I will take you for a ride.”

Nashua smiled, crying, “Yeah!” But then she paused, and asked, "Wait. What is naff?"

Footnote: Courtesy of the BBC website – meaning of ‘Naff’. N-A-F-F. British slang. It means worthless, tacky, unfashionable - 'that's naff', 'the party was naff', 'those clothes are naff' - unenjoyable, of poor quality. 'Uncool', I suppose people would say these days - 'that décor is naff', 'that software is naff', 'that pub is naff'. In other words, it's used in a huge variety of circumstances as a general dismissive term…

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

Truth be told, I am actually fond of the song by The Scorpions, being kinda naff myself. Anyway, if you would like to see the music video, Click Here.

Hope you enjoyed the story, sunshine. You may have noticed that time appears to be circular in the tale, begging the question, which actually happened first - the past or the future?    

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

Children and Angel Tears

12. Children

O’ Lord,

What honour

Have Thou bestowed

Greater than our children?

Precious beyond the ken of men,

Beautiful, paradise-sprung,

For our hearts to render ill

In thoughtful appraise

Of Thy Magnificent Handiwork.

O’ Boundless King,

In Thy Hands

We trust

Our children’s happiness,

Fresh roses in the Garden of Your Beloved!

Glistening with dew of angels’ tears,

Bright is their mantle,

Sparkling with the Light of Your Most Praised!

If you are done with them, can I have my tears back, Mikhail?

The day after tomorrow, Mikhail will be starting standard 2 in his primary school. 2011 sped through like a speeding bullet, leaping tall buildings in a single bound. I reckon this year will be the same too. Time flies when you are having fun, you know...

Children are incredible inventions of God - as the prose says - fresh roses in the Garden of your Beloved, glistening with dew of angels' tears. When Mika is away, my own home feels diminished. Everyone misses him. The house just seems a little less bright. And a lot more quiet. Really quiet - It is my son's belief that if he stops talking, he ceases to exist. Often I inquire, "Mika, do you really need to verbalize everything that runs through your head?" To which he always answers, "Of course, Papa!" Okay. Good. I just wanted to be clear about that.

May God bless all children, and may you have a lovely day, sunshine. Do you remember your own childhood? 

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

Women and Problematic Facial Hair - First Day of 2012

I have a problem with facial hair. I don't really have enough of it. This would be good news if I was a woman, but bad if I am a man with ambitions of a beard. No, I have not been keeping beard for the past 10 years because of religious tradition. I simply discovered that a crop of facial hair strategically grown on my chin helps hide my double chin.

19. Beards

Some men wear beards

Only to hide their double-chins

And double-faces.

A pretty-looking mask hiding

A pretty forked tongue.

I hope I don't have a forked tongue. At least I try not to make it a habit of lying.

Until yesterday I have allowed my beard to grow long-ish. And I then found out that apart from the scarcity of hair, I also have unruly beard gene. My beard refuses to abide by the laws of gravity. Unlike other beards which falls obediently in a downwards direction, my rebellious facial hair likes to spring to life at the gentlest provocation, bending sideways and often times upwards, as if reaching for the sky. Nobody wants their beard reaching for the sky.

So I finally done the deed and when to a new Indian barber. It is a new Indian barber because I was actually on my way with Heche to brunch in her neighbourhood of Taman Tun. We were coming to park near the restaurant when she suddenly sprang to life, "Look! Look! A barbershop, and it's open. And hey, there's no customers, you don't have to wait at all!" From this you may gather that Heche doesn't like my long beard much.

The barbershop contained the friendliest barbers I have ever found, greeting me with white toothy smiles and "Happy New Year! Happy New Year!" And in a couple of minutes, the eldest barber was done trimming my untidy facial shrubbery. As I was about to pay I saw 2 rattan basket containing cheap colourful brushes and combs, so I inquired as to their prices. "No, boss. This is New Year's Day present." replied the shopowner. I picked an orange hair brush. Hurrah, a New Year's Day gift for me. It really made my day. And of course, I am gonna come to this barbershop from now on. Ah, what can I say?... I am a sucker for free gifts.

As I walked to Heche who was waiting for me at the restaurant, I was pleased as punch, grinning and feeling good. Heche smiled when she saw me, but commented, "Hmm. The barber should have trimmed your beard shorter." There is no pleasing them sometimes, you know. Shorter? Honestly.

8. Ah, a Woman

Fragile, soft

And yielding,

But ever so

Commanding.

How's your year been so far. sunshine?

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

HAVE HOPE. BECAUSE DESPAIR IS FORBIDDEN - Imam Ghazali and the Alchemy of Hope

I was breezing through Martin Lings's book 'The Meaning of Sufism' when I came across his reference to the late great Imam Ghazali, a man who stands in the same nightscape of celestial knowledge, a starlight of the Faith, together with the likes of Rumi and Shaykh Abdul Qader Geylani (among others!). Lings was referencing Imam Ghazali’s opus entitled Ihya Ulum-id-din. So I too started opening up my translated version of the book, 5 volumes in all (translated by Maulana Fazlul Karim). I bought it in 2003, 9 long years ago.

HAVE HOPE. BECAUSE DESPAIR IS FORBIDDEN.

In volume 4, chapter III, Imam Ghazali spoke of Fear and Hope. This was what he said of Hope...

“Love is made strong by hope... God says: Don’t be despaired of God’s Mercy – 39:53 of the Holy Quran. So he made hopelessness unlawful.”

So mankind are forbidden to despair. To sink into a state of helplessness and hopelessness. What is despair? Despair begets despair. It is already bad that if we despair we sink into a state of inaction. But perhaps even worse is when we permit despair to motivate our action. Why? Simply because inaction caused by despair has no good coming out of it. But action motivated by despair often begets great evil. We need only open the newspapers today to read the fruit of mankind's despair - terrorism, war, poverty, iniquity, hatred, racism, bigotry and hubris. So our Beloved God decides to strike an injunction at the very root, and to quote His Words in verse 39:53 in whole...

Say: "O my Servants who have transgressed against their souls! Despair not of the Mercy of Allah: for Allah forgives all sins: for He is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful. (translation by Yusuf Ali)

Imam Ghazali extends his elaboration about keeping hope in God alone, and to not despair out of fear of any thing else, be it a tiger in the forest, or the malice of jealous siblings...

“The story runs thus of Prophet Eakub (Jacob) that God revealed to him : Did you know why I made separation between you and Eusuf (Joseph)? The reason is that you uttered; I fear lest a tiger may eat him when you remain unmindful of him. Why did you entertain fear of (the) tiger and not hoped in Me? Why did you look to the neglect of brother(s) and did not look to Me?”

And again he refers to another icon, Saidina Ali (cousin and fourth Rightly Guided Caliph of Islam)..

“Hazrat Ali saw a man very much despaired on account of his many sins. He said: O brother, you despair of God’s mercy is a greater sin that your sins.”

That is a good point. It is a point of observation placed on the peak of saintly reflection. You cannot give up. You cannot lose hope. You cannot, because simply, God loves you. And He has thus commanded us - do not despair of His Mercy and Salvation. However you have hurt your own self by your sins and misdeeds, do not ever give up on Him.

In this little posting, to which I owe everything to my ancestors and teachers, to the Great Reviver, Imam Ghazali, Jewel of Divine Contemplation, who was learned, became lost, and was found by God in the wilderness of his own despair, Who gently guided him back to true knowledge, above the sciences of religion, into the science of Love, enduring and mighty above all other human conjecture - in this little posting, let Imam Ghazali himself give the conclusion -

“The Prophet said: Let nobody die without having a good idea of God. He said: God says; I work (am) according as my servant thinks of Me. Let him entertain any idea about Me.”

So think good thoughts of God, sunshine. This is an exercise not only of spiritual contemplation, but simple good manners - You can wrap all of Creation in a beautiful bow, but nothing will compare to the goodness and love of God, who continues to think good thoughts of us, despite our folly and forgetfulness. I am not lying here. I am telling the truth.  Reciprocate His Love...

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

Saving the Earth - Have we turned from the House of Trust into a Band of Thieves?

End of the World. I have labels in this almanac (see the label cloud on the right column) called 'end of time', 'Antichrist', 'Dajjal' and 'Armageddon'. Under this vague tags I dumped all postings related to the end of the world (obviously), Armageddon and that sort of flurry of furious activities anticipated by believers to occur when the world ends. There are not many postings, about 5 I think. This is very few considering that I have written 644 postings for 2011.

Something got me thinking... I do not write a lot about the end of the world, because I am kinda busy living. Writing and reading. And in the course of one reading, I have come across this little gem of information. It is of course up to you whether to believe it or not. But being the sort of person that I am, I believe it (and have in fact posted about it earlier in 'God is a Good Book Without End - Adam brought Heaven to Earth' - Click Here)- basically what this nugget of spiritual lore says is that the Earth was a barren world, devoid of life. And it was Adam, who was exiled from Heaven, who brought with him the divine elements of Heaven to Earth, and thus creating on our world, an earthly copy of Heaven. And that got me thinking...

Earth, a barren world. When God says that mankind is suppose to be His representative, His viceregent on Earth, it is not simply a Divine Whim (even though He can do that, of course, being your know... God). It is more importantly because of our common ancestors, Adam and Eve who brought a little bit of Heaven to Earth. It is by their exile and establishment of a new home on Earth, that Earth as we know it now exists. If our grandma Eve did not eat that forbidden fruit, if our grandpa Adam did not chock on it, the Earth would have remained changed. It would still be a barren old brown planet, floating purposeless in the empty void of space. And we would not have been born at all. Not our parents, not our friends... no one.

Divine plan and mortal agency. But as God fated it, the Devil did trick the First Couple, and so triggered the sequence of events leading eons in future to the present. To the right here and now, to me writing this post, and (hopefully) you reading it. It was through the divine plan of God and mortal agency of Adam and Eve that the Earth was recreated, reborn in a beautiful and utterly diverse mirror image of Heaven. The Earth which we have now inherited, the God-given gift for each and every child of humanity.

Ownership is Trusteeship. So I look at the world differently now. I look to the sky and say, it is my inheritance. I look to the earth and the birds and the animals, and proclaim, you are my inheritance. As far as my eye and vision can behold, all of it is my inheritance. But the tiny quirk of inheritance in Islam is that the property is not for your sole use or abuse. In Islam, as how I perceive it, ownership is tantamount to trusteeship, for ownership without the obligation of responsibility and trust for the future generation is not ownership at all - It is theft. Claiming something permanently, when we ourselves are not permanent, for soon we will die. But how many amongst us who still remember this?

O' Believers. Wake up. The Earth needs you to remember your obligations. To be a believer is to be a conservationist. To be a believer is to be sensible about things. Not to take this world for granted, and certainly not to pollute and create great waste and devastation upon this Earth, this Heaven, this Paradise...

The end of the World is coming. But is it coming by Divine Plan alone or through mankind's manifestation of our carelessness, negligence, hubris, greed and selfishness? Have we turned from the House of Trust into a Band of Thieves? And when that day comes, and we stand before the Throne and are asked by the Lord of the Throne -

The Owner questions the Trustees

"O' Mankind. You ask for My Heaven. 

But a Fascimile of Heaven was already given to you on your World. 

How have you treated the Earth while I left it awhile in your custody and trust? 

Did you remember your responsibilities? 

Did you remember that you hold the Earth only for the briefest moments that you are alive? 

Did you remember to be fair, equitable and just? Or did your rape your own world? 

What answers do you have to these questions? 

So, now I ask again. 

Do you deserve My Heaven at all?

Have a thoughtful day, sunshine.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

Happy New Year 2012! - In the valley with a donkey

15. One Day in the Valley

For many years, I wandered like an aimless fool.

Then one morning the Sun pierced the valley gloom
And I realized I was on the back of a donkey.

Glancing down I saw there was a loose rein and halter.

A man then appeared, he took the rein and placed it in my hand.

He instructed me, “Follow me as best you can.”

But looking at my willful donkey’s head, I grew nervous.
I cried to the man, “Wouldn’t it be easier for you to hold the rein and lead the donkey yourself?”

He glanced back and smiled, “That is not the way. That was not the way of my Master nor shall it be mine.”

Suddenly he laughed and concluded,

“And who’s to say that one day, your hand shall not come to resemble mine and you start to question; Who is really riding this donkey? Me or him?”

Then he started walking. I followed his retreating back, goading my donkey to keep up, while it’s anguished brays filled the still air of the valley.

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

New Year Resolutions. The noblest resolution is to control your willful ego, which in the above story is manifested in the donkey. You know, if I have a quicker and easier way to tame our ego, I would share it with you. People often talk about fasting, which is good at disciplining our body's appetite. But complete fasting is not only staying away from food and water from sunrise to sunset. It is also staying away from bad thoughts, controlling what our mouths say, what our eyes see, what our ears hear and what our mind thinks.

Hmm. Even that sounds difficult.

But we are here, already created. Let loose into the valley of life by God. Surely if we are here, God must know something we don't about ourselves. I think we should take it as a challenge to find out exactly what that is.

So that's my new year's resolution for 2012... to better control my rampant ego, and to find out what God sees in us. The question is, will 365 days be enough?

Happy new year, sunshine.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

Nobody Told Me This

Nobody Told Me This

Nobody told me

That I would miss you.

My mind tells me it is impossible

To miss someone I

Have never met.

How is it possible to miss you so,

And how can this yearning my soul forget?

Now people tell me

That you are a dead,

Then why do your voice

In my heart resonate?

They call me mad,

They say that thoughts of you

Will make all good things go bad,

They blame my love for you

For all that is wrong in the world,

Do they not feel love before?

Have they not fallen in love ever?

As a girl for a boy and a boy for a girl?

As if you would hurt anything…

Or ask hurt to be done in your name…

I have no analogy fitting for you,

Though you filled this world with parables

And clues of you,

But now

My pen is broken,

And the night is raining peace,

No more wars in my heart

No more wars for my heart

It is yours already…

Broken, healed and tamed,

So let me hear my heart

Speak your name

Once again.

Hullo, sunshine. Are you getting to know God already? If so, then good luck! Love for God, love from God is a theme that you can create and recreate upon a canvas as big as all Creation itself. It is often boundless and limitless, thus also difficult to put your finger on it.

Like all relationships, it will be fraught with some misunderstanding and miscommunication. But unlike any other relationship, the fault will always lie with us and not God, though we often blame Him for it. As for God, He simply has to bear with having a relationship with such a dodo and fallible creature like Man. We are lucky because God is well... God.

So God bless God, and may God brighten your day with sparkly truths and pearls of consummate love and mercy on this Sabbath. As David Soul once sang... Don't give up on us... baaaby...

Pax Taufiqa

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way