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

I Will Be Anything For You - the universality of Muhammad's message and the course of true love

I will be anything for you

I will be a Persian orphan for you,

I will be an Indian merchant for you,

I will be a Victorian barrister for you,

I will be a Chilean miner for you,

I will be an American rapper for you,

I will be an African farmer for you,

I will be a German cellist for you,

I will be a Canadian lumberjack for you,

I will be an Ottoman soldier for you,

I will be a Japanese Samurai for you,

I will be a Brazilian dancer for you,

I will be an Irish Peer for you,

I will be a Welsh rugby player for you,

I will be a Chinese magistrate for you,

I will be a dervish beggar for you,

I will be an Eastern prince for you,

I will be a Swedish designer for you,

I will be a Scottish inventor for you,

However pleasing you want me to be,

From your most noble to the very dregs of your society,

I will be anything for you...

What will you be for me?

………………………..

Someone thoughtfully shared a BBC documentary with me entitled 'Great British Islam' covering three Victorian Muslims - Marmaduke Pickthall, Baron Headly (Irish Peer) and William Henry Quilliam (Liverpudian lawyer).

The first gentleman I am aware of, being in fact the first Muslim Englishman who translated the al-Quran into his native language (and indeed his version is the very first Quran I found in my home). His tale is covered in a small way earlier in a posting entitled Books connect us all - Lat, Marmaduke Pickthall and Yusuf Ali (Click Here to read).

Abdullah Quilliam and the mosque he built in Liverpool.

Baron Headley

But the other two Victorians were a complete mystery to me, so I found it a great joy to learn a bit about them from this thoughtful little documentary. As I watched it, I learned something - Sometimes what makes you special is the sincerity and earnestness that you exemplify by showing that really, when you cut through the veneer of class, nationality and creed, we are all just human beings driven with the very same ambitions, hopes, desires, fears and vulnerabilities. What is suppose to make Islam, and by default Muslims, special is their ability to blend and integrate into any nation and class. For people like Baron Headley and Quilliam did not try to propagate and defend Islam by demanding for special privileges and with fiery sermons from the pulpit. Instead through their meetings, gentile afternoon teas and publications, they spoke and wrote of poetry, literature, the aesthetics as well as science, business and industry - things which would appeal to the devout Christians of the Victorian era to help them see the Muslims in a different and better light.

For I think this is the universality of the Prophet's message (pbuh) which is often lost to our current generation. And I make this charge and challenge against the most 'fundamentalist' to the most 'liberal' amongst the Muslims - prove me wrong, please. 

Well, that was what I got from watching the video. It just struck a poignant chord in my heart, like how a true love story should. Why don't you watch it and decide for yourself? 

. Have a great Friday, sunshine. . wa min Allah at-taufiq .

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

Disco In The Sky, One Love & My Prophet

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52. Distant thunder
I hear the rumblings of a distant thunder
Light is veiled behind a plume of cloud.
But rain is come
The seeker is now the sought
The lover is now the loved
Woe that I was ever in doubt!
.

DISCO IN THE SKY. It was a crazy thunder and lighting show in the sky last night. While just finally dozing off at 3am I was awoken by the drums and cymbals of wild nature outside. With my window and balcony door open, the song of a storm trespassed into my room unabated. It was cold too, so me and Mika huddled closer together while outside God's angels were riding bolts of lightning aimed at the naughty Djinns. My only hope is that God's aim is straight and He doesn't send one to burn me to a crisp. I would be quite unhappy if that were to happen.

.

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I WANTED TO CHANGE MY RELIGION. In my earlier posting I mentioned that when I was younger, I was never a seeker. Implying that I was simply accepting the conventional and incomplete lore of my Islam. But I recall now, one day at the age of 10, I made a life-changing decision to convert to an new religion. Hehehe, well, I didn't actually think much about it, and very soon I forgot about the decision all together. Now I recall that the entire reason for my decision was that I felt that Islam was all about rules and regulations. The faith of the party-poopers and spoilsports. If Love and Joy was ever mentioned, it was normally commented in a very cursory and curt way. I didn't FEEL the Love.

.

UMMATI, UMMATI, UMMATI. I believe that the very first inkling I had that perhaps Islam is not entirely devoid of love and passion was from a book. It was a simple book written in Malay about some stories of the Prophet Muhammad. In the last chapter I read how the Prophet faced his very last moments on earth. Attended by the Angel of Death, the Prophet felt the painful throes of his passing, yet in his dying breath, in his last mortal thought, he was not thinking of himself. He was thinking of his nation who shall follow after him in death - worrying how they would face such test at the end of their lives. And the last gasping words that tumbled from his beautifully full and delicate lips were the word, "My people, my people, my people". How I cried like a fool recalling the scene. I was 18 years old. And I found beauty, love, passion and all that is wonderful and delicious in life in the Life of my Prophet.

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I cannot think nor write about this story without tears welling up in my soul. It is an emotion of love, passion, desire and yearning. It is both a joyful and sorrowful feeling. And this, I never asked nor sought. But here I am, with you in this life. Pleading that we all forget our differences and look to the common things that we share. Such as love for our Prophets and Saints, and ultimately love for all messengers of God in whatever disguise that they may be wearing. Just like what Bob Marley was singing about...

.

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THE PROPHETS ARE NOT AMUSED. If people think that whatever anger, mad violence, assasination and vengeance that they bear upon other people would make their Prophets and Saints smile, then they are just mad. Prophets and Saints are working on a different level and they would be ashamed by the misconducts of their so-called inheritors. They would simply look at the nuisance and terror of religious bigots saying, "I never taught you this. It is not I that is inspiring you, it is your own hubris and ego. Everytime you justify your insanity in God's name, you shame not God, you shame not I, you shame only foolish selves'

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Have a wonderful day, sunshine. For it is your attendance to our one Lord in whatever creed that you may wear, that is keeping me hopeful for all humanity.

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Pax Taufiqa.