 |
| Good looking one, isn't he? al fatiha |
15. We need heroes and flags
We need
heroes.
But the
heroes need you
To remember
them
As men of
flesh and blood.
In this lies
their
High station of
spirit
And faith.
For they have
the ability
To be
themselves,
In form and
in substance,
In what is
apparent
And in what
is hidden,
Seeing only
the thin gloss of mortality
Upon God’s
Own Looking Glass,
Between the
Here and the Hereafter,
Between now,
and what is promised
To you and me.
.....................................
Ramadan, 2008. So recorded the sinner on this very same blessed month of Ramadan, five years ago in 2008. It was part of three prose that sought to clarify and illuminate the relationship between the apprentice and the master, between the mureed and the shaykh, between the seeker and the guru.
14. Between the needy and the free
You may take
me as your leader,
Your captain
in the trenches,
Your class
monitor.
…But in the
consecration
Between the
needy and the free,
The earth and
the heavens,
And in what
you see
As my form
and body,
And what you
cannot see,
Is the
miracle of the Lord
Immeasurable
in
His Divine
Creativity.
...................................
A moment in the Tariqat. Five years on, I think my thoughts on the Masters are still the same. But my belief that each one of us, however good or bad we are, will always need a Master - a hero to look to as a guide is perhaps even stronger now. And with the passing of my closest Master last year, almarhum Shaykh Raja Ashman Shah ibn Sultan Raja Azlan Shah, the lingering words about '...the thin gloss of mortality' and '...in what you see as my form and body, and what you cannot see," take on a deeper meaning. It would not have crossed my wildest imagination that only four years after writing the words I would bear witness to his passing.
 |
| Everyone, even Masters of the Path, has had to bear the passing of someone close to them. al fatiha |
The Miracle of Death. People often speak of the miracle of life. Of the very improbable sequence of events from the creation of the Universe which ultimately led to our own birth and life. But now that I am contemplating about this, I guess even death too, must also be part of that sequence of miracles. And truly I swear... it is the miracle of the Lord Immeasurable in His Divine Creativity.
And in this regard, the miracles have already embraced so many of my beloved kin and friends. In this we may count my dear loving mother who died in 2002, and my old buddy, Nakesh Singh, who passed away in 1986 at the young age of 16.
 |
| Mumsie at South England coast, 1995. al fatiha |
So here we are then, sunshine. Just a traveler between birth and death - between a beginning and a homecoming brightly reflecting Allah Almighty's utterly magnificent manifestation of His Divine Mercy and Miraculous Love for all humanity.
So what really do we have to worry about now, save to always be in His pleasure? And it is toward this end that we thank our guide, and we give our ultimate thanks to the Guide of Guides, the Master of Masters, God's Own Manifest Pleasure, Muhammad Sayyidina Sa'adullah* (s.a.w.s.) (*The Joy of Allah).
My master, Shaykh Raja (q.s.) may have left me here in this worldly plane. But I know with certainty, that death is not an address, but just a doorway. A threshold that we shall all pass over one day.
 |
| al fatiha |
May Allah (s.w.t.) bless your day and your fasting tomorrow.
wa min Allah at-taufiq
Hate has no place in Islam
Love will show the Way
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