I AM NOT A SUFI or "Oh, don't try to be so humble. You are not that great."

Rumi: "Sufi, proto-Sufi, neo-Sufi... Oh, come on. You doth protest too much of
your aversion to arrogance. Give me a freakin' break, dude."

30. Cows’ Manure = (humility)0

You are not a Sufi, you say,

Talking about Sufism doesn’t make you a Sufi, you say,

But all knowledge comes with a purpose.

So what is the purpose of this knowledge for you?

Please don’t offer me the same cows’ manure in reply.

Denying who you are or what you can be is not humility,

It is bad habits, laziness and your reluctance to change.

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

Oh, I wonder what loathsome experience I underwent to record the prose above. A prose which is undeniably true for me today as it was when I first wrote it many years ago. For despite the decade that has gone by, I reckon I am still very much the same. Perhaps even worse!

I wonder when I will ever have the chance to change this almanac's name to The Believers' Almanac, or perhaps even The Saints' Almanac. By the look of things I am afraid this will never come true. At least not for me. He he he. But my fate need not be shared by you, sunshine. You are already good, and you can be better still, simply because you have the virtue of self-discipline. As another prose observes...

9. Discipline of Roses (with Shamsul)

Though Love is the bloom

Of the rose,

Mercy its perfume,

The Sun its nourisher,

The Rain its sustainer,

It is self-discipline

That first raises the rose

Above the crowd

Of lesser flowers.

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

So don't be a lesser flower, my friend. God has made you to be a rose, imbued with remembrance of God Almighty and His Beloved Muhammad (s.a.w.s.), the Greatest of Flowers in His Garden of Creation.

And yeah... I guess I am hard on myself sometimes. But it is only because I believe that any change for the better is not change at all, but the unveiling of the true nature of our spirit, rising above the corrupting influence of our ego and nafs (base desires). Not a conversion, but a reversion to our fundamental inclination towards love, truth, justice, mercy and beauty. It appears to be so easy and natural to drop a bad habit, but for someone like me, it is so difficult.

*sigh*

It is frustrating sometimes, I must confess. But it can also be very inspiring, sunshine. And I guess that is why I keep writing. 

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way