Finding Muhammad among the Cartiers, the Sonys, the Louis Vuittons, the McDonalds & Raouls

The Muezzin & The Prayer Call

When the plains of your soul is silent,

When the cliff edge of your conscience

Resting by the sea is quiet and tranquil,

When not a single seagull is flying overhead,

That is when the call of prayers of the muezzin

Is most hypnotic - Casting down your most

Earnest walls of ignorance, breaking

Your towers of vanity, stone by stone,

Mortar by mortar, brick by brick.

If you are asleep, awake!

If you are dreaming, take control of your dream!

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

I spent the day in KLCC, one of the biggest and most famous shopping malls here in Kuala Lumpur. I took Mikhail out to watch MIB3 there you see. The movie was good, but truth be told I felt like a fish out of water in the sprawling temple of consumerism. And this being a working day, I felt even more alone walking among the thousands of white collar workers munching through their lunch hour. I did not feel like a tourist... after all, I am in my hometown. I felt like an observer, a wanderer in this bastion of ostentatious living at the base of the Petronas Twin Tower. I was not too pleased with what I saw. I felt like part of the lemmings horde, being led by some demented instinct to plunge ourselves off humanity's cliff edge. Sustainable development? Sensible lifestyle? Care for the environment? They become merely echoes and ghosts in this vast assembly of people in religious worship of money and luxury.

But happily, me and Mikhail found ourselves in Kinokuniya, that Japanese bookshop chain, and I found myself one again, in possession of this book... (Mika bought himself a couple of Naruto mangas)

The writer.

If ever you would like to read a book about Muhammad, Prophet of God(pbuh), I can recommend no better book than this. I purchased this book because my original copy was given to a brother of mine, and I really (really!) cannot wait for him to return it. I have always found the book to be magical. Written by the late Hajjah Amina Adil, it feels as if she is right there with you, narrating the stories of the Prophet as you look into the past to find seeds of hope for your present and future. It is a book written with knowledge, mercy, love and kindness. A food for the thirsting human soul, written by someone who lived her blessed life in service to God and mankind.

So you see, sunshine, you can find great good in the most unlikely of places - hidden somewhere between the Cartiers, the Sonys, the Louis Vuittons, the McDonalds and Raouls, sitting quietly in a bookshelf is the book... just waiting for you to find it and pick it up.

I hope you will find it soon. Or may it find you soon.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will find a way