LEAP OF FAITH - releasing the power of the spirit through gaining mastery over our ego..

"Why does one pass away the instant someone shoots a bullet through them? Who takes that secret away?Why does someone pass away when they are fatally ill? The spirit is always trying to run away and break free from the cage of the body. When it find a way it will run away and go back to its origin. When you yourself, through your power over your own ego, free your spirit, at that time you can control the power of the spirit and it cannot run away. At that time you can do miraculous powers through your spirit."

From Mercy Oceans Secrets of the Heart, Rajab & Ramadan Lectures by

Sheikh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani

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

I sketched the above picture not knowing what I actually wanted to say with the drawing. But yesterday I found a beautiful part of Sheikh Hisham's book (one of the older ones, published circa 1992) which I feel compliments the sentiment of the picture. I hope you enjoyed them both!

Have a blessed Friday, sunshine. And a wonderful weekend...

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

BEAUTY . MUSIC . GENEROSITY OF SPIRIT - following the Scent of the Sunnah

What Innovation?

There is no innovation in worship,

There is no innovation in music,

So sing!

Dance!

Jump!

Move you hands!

Move your legs!

Sway and whirl!

Do not let polite society

Writhing in some obscure regret

For some ancient sin not of their making

Dampen your expressions of love

In the prison of their posturing!

.................................   

I am getting old. Too old of a dog to be chained to pretensions and acquired postures of piety. Let me free, and let me sniff out the trail through the witch's forest and find the Divine Presence. Tucked away in some sinner's covert sorrow or a street-walker's hidden tears. 

I love beauty. And I love beautiful things. The high minarets and the palatial domes draws our eyes up, higher and higher to the sky and beyond. "Look unto us, o' Man!", the celestial heavens seem to speak to us at night... "How small and petty you appear to be." , they abjure us. "But remember your smallness, for therein is the sign of your nobility.", as they point us towards submission and total servanthood to God, our common Creator. 

I love music. And I am taught by a gentle, sensitive spirit to love music. And once there was a time, when saintly speech, beauty and music seem to work hand in hand. Connecting humanity, through all shades of creed, race, nationality and colour.

Music. Beauty. Generosity of Spirit. These are the virtues that give me the greatest succour in these strange days of ours where wealth, hubris and hate has possessed a large swath of mankind. So if you find me with my eyes closed during the daytime, do not think I am asleep. I am listening to the symphony of love, I am walking through the temples of beauty, following an enchanting scent. The scent that is the words, the life and the wisdom of Allah's (swt) Mercy to all the Worlds, Muhammad Sayyidina Miftahul Jannat (saws) . 

You have been there, sunshine. I have seen you. 

Hey! Hey! Let me in! You are my heart and I demand to be let in!
Key? What key? What in God's name are you talking about!?

We are taught that to gain entry into our own hearts, and into the heart of our heart, we shall need a key. The Sayyidina Miftahul Jannat, the Key to the Garden, that being none other than the one most honoured, yet most humble of all His Creation, the Prophet Muhammad Habibullah (saws).

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place

Love will show the Way

A Ship of Salawat on the Sea of Dzikr - thoughts and musings under the emerald eaves...

Strange thoughts may come to you, walking under the emerald eaves...

I went walking yesterday afternoon. In between preparing a due diligence report for a solicitor friend and a billion Euro deal, I sneaked out for a walk. Don't worry about the billion Euro thingy, for it is my experience that the bigger the value of a contract, the lesser the likelihood that it will actually succeed. But you never know, I guess.

It is important to walk away sometimes. Even for only 30 minutes. Away from the laptop, the phone calls, the sms-es and the WhatsApp. Away from the newspapers, away from the office. As I strolled under the emerald eaves of the park, I would listen to my Ipod. Although I sing terribly, I love songs. And in the Ipod is a playlist of songs I named 'The Red Rose'. It is a compilation of rock love ballads, pop love songs, folksy music and mawlud songs venerating and praising the Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.). Of course, perhaps the songwriters never originally intended the songs to speak of the love of Muhammad and God, but I have an ear for such things. He he he.

Salawat for the Prophet (giving worthy greetings and calling upon blessings of God for the Prophet), which is the fundamental basis of mawlud songs, is important to Muslims. It is the necessary accompaniment to the Dzikr (remembrance of God). It is like a ship traversing calmly across a sea. It is like a stroll in a park, when all animate and inanimate things just feels good.

I soon finished my walk and returned, alas too soon, to the mundane stuff of billion Euro deals.

Have a lovely day, sunshine. A billion Euro here or there means nothings if you are not happy. So look for happiness.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

Khidr and the Seal of the Prophets - in the Muhammadan Glow

' ilVerde / Alkhidr ' by Cristina Colombo

The Prophet Khidr & The Seal of the Prophets

He is a man unlike any other,

He is a world changer,

And while I attend to matters

That is beyond normal men's

Ability to comprehend in the beginning,

He is the Master in the beginning and the end,

And nothing is hidden from him...

He is a Prophet unlike any other,

And lo now I do remember

My little time with Moses the firebrand,

Who stayed by me till my deeds

His heart could not withstand...

But this man? This Muhammad Habibullah?

His many layers of good manners

Would confound even me

Who is wont to confound others...

He is a world changer

By changing the state of a man's heart,

And even I, Khidr will be exposed

And melting like the morning snow

Before the Ahmad of Ahad

In his Muhammadan Glow..

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

Khidr (a.s.) is a Prophet of God and he appears in many pages in the history of mankind. Famously he had a brief interlude with Moses, who accompanied him until Moses Kalimullah could not stand Khidr's deeds which appeared to be against the Law (sharia) and just plain wrong. Against his own promise, Moses  (a.s.)ultimately ended up questioning Khidr (a.s.) too many times, and there ends the short commune of two illustrious Prophets of God. 

Khidr (a.s.) also made a showing in the Hikayat Hang Tuah, an ancient fable of the mighty Admiral Hang Tuah of the old Melakan sultanate. Hang Tuah was on a mission to the Caliph of Islam and resolved along the way to perform pilgrimage to Mecca. Just before arriving in Mecca, he met someone among the Arabian sand dunes...

"Thereupon, the Laksamana walked towards a secluded place to relieve himself. And along the way he saw an old man sitting upon a white rock ( that is as white) like washed cotton. And when the old man saw the Laksamana coming near, immediately the old man came down and walked towards the Laksamana, with greetings of salam (peace) upon the Laksamana. And verily did the Laksamana return the courteous salutations of the old man. "O' Laksamana (said the old man), please lend me a silver tale, for I am a hungry poor dervish (darwish) unable to buy even bread.

Looking at the old man closer, the Laksamana felt, "This is no dervish, to my mind, this is either a Prophet or a Saint of God." The Laksamana then took two to three silver riyal from his pocket and offered them to the old man. But the old man only took one riyal and thereafter he embraced the Laksamana and kissed his head while saying, "My son Laksamana, please take this chembul (a pot or small receptacle to keep liquid) and when you are unable to speak the language of the people (that you will meet), pour out some of the water in this chembul and wipe it on your lips and your ears, that you may converse with them." Then just before the old man suddenly disappeared into thin air he said this to the Laksmana, "(oh, by the way) I am the Prophet Khidr".

I do not recall an encounter between the Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.) and the Prophet Khidr(a.s.). If someone has any such tale, I would love to hear about it. But it is my reckoning that what had astonished Moses (a.s.) would probably not have the same effect upon Muhammad (s.a.w.). In all probability it would be Khidr (a.s.) who would come away from a meeting with Muhammad, Seal of the Prophets somehow changed.

Because love changes people, you see. Especially Prophets...

Maybe yes. Maybe no. Whatever the case may be, thank God for God, and thank God for his Prophets Moses and Khidr, and the Master of the Prophets, Muhammad Habibullah... 

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Have a beautiful day...

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

A Pebble of Love in the Nation of Muhammad - a little Italian Project

by Cristina Colombo

A Pebble of Love in the Nation of Muhammad 

Such is the nature of the Prophet, 

That if he would pick up a pebble, 

The pebble would begin chanting, 

Oh Love! Oh Love! Oh Love! 

Undone, unbroken, unmade, 

Drifting before finally the tide 

Of my desired fate brings 

Me forth upon this shore... 

Where I find artisans and princes, 

Peasants, the rich and the poor 

Of his nation crying out, 

Oh Love! Oh Love! Oh Love! 

................ 

The lesson of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) is not monopolized by any single class in the Nation of Muhammad, not the preachers in the mosque nor the politicians in their parliaments, not the kings in their palaces nor the poor in the gutter, not by the businessmen nor the housewives, not by the poets nor the writers, not by the gardeners nor the fishermen of the rivers, not by any race or nationality.. none can claim to have the sole right to speak of or for God.

Everyone, every man, woman and child, by virtue of being a Muhammaden and a Muslim, has an avenue towards the manifest mercy and love of the Lord, by any other name we call him Muhammad ibn Abdullah (pbuh). 

And such is the Lord's affection for His Prophet that for those who seek Muhammad and inevitably comes to adore Muhammad (pbuh), success is given both in this world and in the next. There is no waiting for reward only in the afterlife. For if you have fallen in love with Muhammad (pbuh), Mercy to all the Worlds, you have already died to this world, and though people will still see you working hard, living and loving, striving to attain your ambitions, in truth, you have become like the pebble, made heart-shaped by the loving hand of Muhammad, and chanting that most eternal of dzikr, "ya-Wadud! ya-Wadud! ya-Wadud!" (one of the Lord's name to mean the Most Loving One) 

Cristina Colombo is an Italian artist residing in Milan. The hearts depicted in this posting is all hers. She has a talent (as these Italians do) of turning her passion into a work of sublime, provoking art (You cannot mention an Italian without working in the word 'passion' somewhere in your description. He he he). She has permitted me the privilege to unite some of her 'hearts' to my inchoate stumbling verses. You may visit her works at her Facebook page by Clicking Here.

Have a bright and lovely day,sunshine.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no Place in Islam 

Love will show the Way

BEAUTY IN ART AND MUSIC - no one made this, the One (God) made this...

An artist at the door of his famous studio in Lefke, Cyprus.

I am Owned, so No Ownership Here

In my courtship of Muhammad, Prophet of God

I wish I could claim authorship of all this prose,

But truth be told, how can I claim to write

Something that is already written ... 

In his beautiful grace,

In his benevolent demeanour,

In his loving gaze,

In his patience,

In his devotion to duty,

In his tender ministration,

In his generous mercy,

And in his enduring mission

To heal our heart and raise us

From the ignominy

Of our sins and folly,

By asking, again and again…

“Look at me! Follow me!”

So how can I claim ownership?

Owned as I am already

By the Prophet Muhammad

Who is unto the worlds ordained

As God’s Sweetness of Mercy.

……………………….

The Blue Mosque, Istanbul.

God the Artist. Poets who write prose, writers who write books, architects who raise mighty minaret-ed mosques in glory of the Lord and the Lord's Beloved (pbuh), artists who carve or draw ornate pictures and designs, dervish dancers and singers for the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) all must ultimately resign themselves to this state of confession that verily, they cannot claim authorship of what they do in their chosen fields. For it would be akin to a traveler walking through a meadow of unsurpassed beauty and purity and then declaring, "I made this!"

No, no one made this. Only the One (God) made this and the artists and builders are simply bearing witness unto His heart-breaking Love and Beauty, and mind-breaking Creativity and Power. It is this intimacy that all artists and builders desire to provoke in the hearts of those who may read, listen, watch or contemplate over their labours of love.

And foremost in their labour of love is their untiring courtship of Muhammad Habibullah (pbuh), yearning above all else to be guided by the Most Beloved to the All-Loving. For it is the lore that when God first created the NurMuhammad (Light of Muhammad), He was Most Pleased by what He saw, and thereupon issued forth all of creation, from the Pen and the Tablet and the Throne, to the Angels and the Heavens and Hells, to the Djinns of the smokeless fire and to Man of clay and water, and all creatures and spirits both seen and unseen of all the world(s).

Love makes the world go round? Without love, sunshine, no world would have ever existed.

Life in the Artists' Commune: A bunch of artists and their Mentor and Grand Muse. Alas, one of the artists (al-marhum Shaykh Raja Ashman) has passed on, and like many artists before him, his work is now greatly prized and sought. They are hanging in the antechamber of his mureed's hearts. But I don' t think any of his mureed would part with his work for all the jewel and gold of this world.
al fatiha

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

A Goat Jealous of God's Talents - physical beauty, spiritual beauty and the science of capturing both manifestations on paper...

I sketched this. Weird. 

Sketch and Draw, Sketch and Draw

I look at my mother,

I look at my father,

At my son and my Master,

I look at all whom I have loved

And all whom that I will love,

I look out of the window at the sky,

I look at the kitten that just passed me by,

I look at the trees and the flowers

At the butterflies and the bees,

I look at the sea and at the running brook,

I look and look and look,

Until from the sky fell a chalk, a pen and a pencil,

And someone said, “Sketch and draw, sketch and draw,

But ask ye not, for whom you are doing this for..."

……………………………….

A Goat Jealous of God's Talents. When someone commented in an earlier posting that Mika (my son) looked rather good in a picture, an unworthy thought grazed awhile in the pastures of my thoughts, "Oh yeah? But what about the picture I sketched?"

But the goat soon left and of course I know... how can i ever compete against God? It was He who sketched Mikhail when He dipped His pen into the Ocean of the Light of Muhammad and started to create. In fact God sketched and created us all... In wonderous and truly unimaginable physical and spiritual beauty. Wonderful stuff.

Art entitled 'Emina'. All rights reserved with the Artist Always known as Almighty God.

To Heck with Spiritual Beauty! But of course not everyone is doled out with the same amount of physical beauty. Someone has said that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but you cannot beat history. And history has shown that time and again, there are some very clear and distinctive criteria by which people generally judge a woman (or a man) as physically beautiful. Skin, height, weight, eyes, nose, moles, hair, etc... all these conditions contribute to one's good looks. Spiritual  beauty is however less obvious. It is an inner glow that is not necessarily visible to everyone. Thus many people are saying "To heck with spiritual beauty! I will make do with physical beauty!"

To such discontented souls I can only repeat this advice of Saidina Ali (4th Caliph of Islam) that a friend posted on the Facebook wall - "Beautiful people are not always good. But good people are always beautiful."

And I cannot put it any better than that.

Have a beautiful day, sunshine.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

Teacher's Day, Mika & Money, Adam & Art - collecting history to make history

Yesterday was Hari Guru / Cikgu (Teacher's Day) here in Malaysia. Mikhail bought 3 chocolates for his three favourite teachers, one of which is called Cikgu Shakira. I bet that all the fathers would like to meet Cikgu Shakira. "Maybe I should meet this err... Cikgu Shakira and give it to her personally?" I furtively inquired. Mikhail vehemently said, "No, Papa!"

Mikhail said that he wanted to sleep in money last night. He is a spiritual boy and materialism and money have no sway over him.

Ku Ash? Din Saigon?

My nephew Adam is enrolled in One Academy, and one of his courses is illustration. He has really improved and he promised to do a picture of al Marhum Shaykh Raja Ashman Shah ibni Sultan Azlan Shah (Ku Ash). And after two weeks of nervous wait, here it is. Not bad, Adam. But my brother, who is his art mentor (and just about everything-in-the-world mentor) commented, "I don't know la, Peq. He looks more like Din Saigon!" Din Saigon is a legend of sorts in the Naqshbandi Tariqa in Kuala Lumpur. He is often around, drifting in the peripherals, a quiet and ever slightly disheveled dervish. We know not where he comes from... Perhaps another planet.

My grand-aunt, Mak Kechik, wife to my grand uncle, Tok Kechik,
youngest brother to my grandfather, Tok Wan.

We have been busy here preparing for my late mother's 10th anniversary of her passing this coming Sunday. She passed away on 21st May 2002. There will be Tahlil (a short prayer traditionally done for the dearly departed) for my Mom and 15 other close kin who have already gone to meet our Maker. We have been making our rounds inviting our senior family members, the number of which, sadly, has been slowly depreciating. Following my mother, I guess.

I am in fact making a short trip to the paddy fields of Tanjung Karang this morning to pick up my Kak Mutiah. She used to work with us for over 20 years and was a daily and important part of my mother's home life. Slowly, we are collecting history, to make history.

Nothing Sufi-esque today, sunshine. Just children, teachers and family. And of course...

Cikgu Shakira?

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

The Angels, The Emerald Sea and The New Voice

When Angels cry out, "do you not see us?"

1. Emerald Sea

I wish I could share with you all that l have seen,

All that l have felt, all that l have touched and tasted.

Not from a distant but in the intimate moments that I have experienced.

When a voice whispered 'glorify the Lord this way'

When angels cry out 'do you not see us?'

When my heart confides 'I am so happy!...'

And the Prophet enjoins '...because you have not forgotten me!'

Can you believe me?

Ah… Had you been there! Had you only been there!

But do not worry o’ desiring soul!

For the moments l have passed through are the moments ahead for you.

And l say this as one soulbird to another....

Set free by the Creating Heart

To sing His Glory

High above the green waves

Of His Emerald Sea.

I have posted this prose earlier. But I picked up a pair of chinese paint brushes yesterday and I figured that the angel picture I painted kinda suits the prose. Especially the quoted caption.

As I have said before, I have never ever seen an Angel of God. It is all impressionism, and one based not on sight (obviously) but emotion. I have never painted with a chinese paint brush before and I kinda like experimenting with the strokes, the ink and its weight. I normally sketch using calligraphy pens. The great thing about working with a new medium of art is I never know what is actually gonna happen. Much like life, you know?

It is like finding a new voice. At the age of 41, this makes me exceedingly happy.

Have a beautiful day, soulbird. Join me in my happiness. Find yourself a new voice too.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

The Big Bad Wolf and the Two Dragons - Pictures tell Stories

Last Saturday morning, we visited the Big Bad Wolf Book Sale, which is an annual
event here in Kuala Lumpur. But this time it was held outside town in a huge conference
hall in Universiti Putra Malaysia. It was very well organised considering the numbers that
the organizers had to contend with. There was even a paramedic unit on stand-by just in case
someone in that loooong queue decides to faint out of exhaustion. Luckily the weather was not
too hot and the hall was air-conditioned. Inside it was orderly chaos, as I like to call it.
But once every ten minutes there would be an announcement over the public address system -
Will Mr. Nathan see his wife at the cashier. Lina, your mother is waiting for you here, near the
DJ stand. If anyone finds a identity card bearing the name of .... please bring it to the information
counter. People were going nuts with the books. The book prices were greatly discounted. I think this is
a fine example of Malaysian's love for books and most importantly, a good bargain. For a good bargain
we Malaysians are prepared to do almost anything, face any difficulty.

While we are talking about books, some time back Mikhail had a book about dragons.
He decided to draw them, with a few customizations. He was not happy with a one-headed dragon,
so drew his dragon with three heads. One of the heads was devouring stickmen ("Papa, I can draw only stickmen")
who were crying out (rather mutedly) "Uh oh!" and "What's up?" . Near this scene of terrible calamity
was a bottle of magic potion, the label read "This will make your dragon (into a) tiny dragon". 
Oh no! What is gonna happen next?!

Yikes! Mika's dragon drank the magic potion and shrank himself. And now another
dragon pops into the picture, with jagged fins running down its spine. In its claws it appears
to be carrying a cat (a pet? Or lunch?). From its fiery maw the dragon said to its miniscule
brethren, "Hi tiny dragon." The dragon's wing appear to sprout beneath its belly because
my son forgot to draw the wings earlier ("Oh no! I forgot his wings papa!").

Nothing poetic today, sunshine. Just life. Life, books and Mikhail.

Pax Taufiqa.

A Cup of Truth with Bono, U2 and Tolkien - Prose of Ramadhan Part 41

Bono and gang, probably in the mid 1980s.

U2 - FOUR YOUNG IRISH LADS. Bono is a bit old now. He cannot sing as well, his voice less sharp, his breath shorter. He cannot prance on stage as well as he used to, and given a choice between a world concert tour and staying home with his family, he would probably choose to laze about at home. 

An older unshaved Bono.

So if you have a song for God, if you have a poem for the Prophet, if you have written a chapter about humanity and the Lord’s mercy, then by God, sing it now, recite the poem and publish the book. Do not wait!

In 19/20th December 1987 U2 played at Sun Devil Stadium, Arizona their seminal song ‘Where the Streets have no Name” filled with gospel inspiration and passion (Click Here). I often watch the video, again and again. For although Bono is now contemplating mortality, and the Edge is admiring his guitar collection rather than playing them, back then… they rocked the world.

Do you think they rocked it alone and without help?

Tolkien in the Western Front, 1916.

TOLKIEN. I am an avid Tolkien fan, and I remember reading a book containing his letters, mostly to his publishers Unwin. If my memory is fine, Tolkien wrote one letter in which he recalled the difficulty he faced in finishing the Lord of the Rings trilogy. In the letter he said he spoke to his uncle (If I am not mistaken) about the hardship of authorship, to which the uncle poignantly commented, “John, do you think you did it all by yourself?”

Tolkien was a Roman Catholic. I am not sure what Bono's or the Edge's beliefs are. But whoever they may be in the cloak of religion, they, and you, are my brothers and sisters, united in the worship of the One God.

A CUP OF TRUTH. Dispel the confusion wrought by preachers and demagogues who are only concerned with dividing the Lord’s sheep. Look to your conscience and heart, for therein lies the truth. Dip your life in the Sea of Mercy, and take a cup of truth from whence all directors, writers, songwriters, singers, poets and all artistic performers take their own manifestation of Love, Truth and Compassion. If my writing is not to your taste, find your own but remember whence all mortal beauty comes from – the All Infinite Sea of Divine Beauty.

It is something to think about, yes? But don’t take too long. You have a life to live and to compose a beautiful harmony in tune to God’s harmonies of love. And no, you don’t need to be able to read musical sheets to do so. Just learn to interpret your conscience and live by it. I have tried in my own way, but I often falter. I know you can do better...

Have a lovely Sunday, sunshine.

Pax Taufiqa.