The Writer - My name is Taufiq bin Abdul Khalid. I am a 41 year-old single father. The fruit of my loin is Muhammad Mikhail (7). My father’s name is Abdul Khalid(77), and my late mum is Arbayah. I have 2 elder brothers. I am a Barrister of Lincoln’s Inn, and a practicing Advocate & Solicitor of the High Court of Malaya. I live and work in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, my hometown for the past 36 years. That's me (at 16) sitting in a boat with my father on the river Rhine, Germany, 25 long years ago. My late mother must have taken the picture.
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The Blog - The Sinners Almanac is sourced from my original writing entitled ‘the Dam.SunSun.Ana’, a continuing collection of prose and verse first recorded in April 2004. The writing occurs in the background of these terrible days when good manners are forgotten, old friends and old lessons ignored, new enemies made, and ‘Islam’ has become synonymous with angry disenfranchised men and women, blowing themselves (and others) up for God knows what. I write against this tide of despair and darkness.
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| Mika and my Auntie |
The Writing - The writing is deeply personal. It touches on the economic order, the false jihad, the unity of humanity, dogs, pigs, camels, the Pen, the hidden and apparent worlds, the self-obsessed theocracy of religions, terrorism, food, the nature of Muhammad and Love, God’s recipe to make a soul, sex, good food, women, angels and devils, and all such things that I found interesting enough to write about. The book is also part-biographical, and follows my life, my sins, my lovers, my friends, my mistakes, my marriage, my divorce, my son and my new lease of love long sought but never expected.
The Sufis - I have a smattering of association with the Sufis. In moments of pathetic groveling, I sometimes find my way to the local zawiya of a Sufi Tariqah. And there I listen a little, eat and talk a lot, while blissfully ignoring the proper manners (Adab) normally associated with a murid of the Tariqah. If any credit is deserved, it is to them I owe everything. If there is any error here, it is happily, my own.
After all, I am just a sinner. And this is my Almanac.
