IN THE WINDOW-SHOP OF THE WORLD, THE ONLY ITEM FOR SALE IS MADNESS - MH17, rejecting despair, embracing hope and the real struggle within us all...

Our Struggle

Today I declare my struggle against hubris,

Against hatred and bigotry,

Against the warmongers and the war profiteers,

Against the hidden hands and their well-dressed murderers,

Today I declare my struggle against the ignorance of Man and their arrogance,

Against their petty quarrels and pious slights,

Against the venom of the backbiters,

Against the whispers of the whisperers in the night

Taunting Man to fight and kill for his 'rights',

Today I declare my struggle against all these vices,

But above all else, I declare my struggle against these vices in me,

Shadowing my waking and sleeping hour

Giving my heart no rest till

My very soul tremble and cower,

Today I seek the Light upon Light, to guide and save me

Lest I be yet another slave to 

The One-eyed King in 

His Golden Tower.

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

Don't despair, sunshine. Do not be too worried about the theatre playing in the world stage. Attend to the present, to yourself and to those closest to you.

The world may attempt to bring its conflicts, its wars, its greed, inhumanity and hate to our very doorsteps. But it is forbidden to enter. Not unless you permit it to enter.

MH17. Yesterday, being a Friday, the whole nation of Malaysia mourned for the loss of innocent lives onboard MH17. A day of mourning was declared as the remains of our fellow citizens were brought home with honour and solemnity. But the question remains - someone shot it down, and I used to wonder aloud, "If we found out who really did it, whom should we invade? Russia or Ukraine?"

Russia or Ukraine? But truth be told, I am not wanting to declare jihad (struggle) on anyone really. For at the moment they are like little dusts messing the threshold of my soul. And I want nothing of the madness that appears to be the only item for sale in the window-shop of this world.

The real struggle. You and I, we are concerned with the inestimable infinity. What is a few days, years or centuries in our heart? For we are busy making our heart presentable for the Light of Muhammad (saws), and everything else are false and worthless distractions, pretentious facsimile to the True Reality of God Almighty. That is the struggle we are endeavouring to win, a struggle from the moment our conscience understands right and wrong, until we are returned to the bosom of the earth, back to Allah (swt).

So I will see you there, yes? In the antechamber of the heart, where secrets are revealed again and again and again. Hold my hand, sunshine. For I am always in need of guidance and encouragement. And that fact, alas, is no secret at all!

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Notrumi Embun, 23rd August 2014

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

IN THE COURT OF THE KING

In the Court of the King

Every day has its night,

Every night has its dawn,

Every thing that is physical

Has its spiritual mirror,

Every effort has its end,

Every end has a beginning,

Every moth has its moment,

Prostrating like a servant

In the Court of the King.

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

The firmness of your stance is important in archery. A certain rigidity is required from your torso down to your waist to the soles of your feet. There is no good aiming and adjusting your aim with your eyes and your arms and hands when you are swaying about like a willow in the wind. So be firm in your footing on this precarious world.

In life however, in the pursuit of truth, a certain flexibility is required. In the opening of the book of the day, in which you will write who and what you are for the next 24 hours, a little fluidity will go a long way to make your story a beautiful one. So be fluid in your reflections.

And if the day is wearing you down, do not be afraid to pause. It is no loss to you if you do so. Speak to your God and tell him your worries and care. Unburden unto Him and let go of your troubles. So be gentle and kind to yourself as God is to you.

There is much sorrow and confusion in the world simply because Mankind often limits God's love, mercy and compassion to what they can themselves conceive in their small and often damaged hearts. So do not put limits to His all-encompassing Mercy and Compassion, and try as best as you can to put none on your own.

Have a lovely Sabbath, sunshine. 

-Notrumi Embun, 9th August 2014

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

TRUE REALITY OF LOVE, FAITH & HOPE - where hearts asunder are made whole once again...

Somewhere... not far from us, I am sure Poone is waiting. Al-fatiha...

He Never Left, We Have Yet to Arrive.

What is "not here"

When "here" is not really here?

What is "has passed on"

When he has passed on

From the transient to the permanent?

What is death but a door,

To a promised meeting

Foretold long, long ago.

So what is the truth of our present condition?

Our departed friends and kin never really left us,

And we...?

We are the ones yet to arrive.

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

A Happy Gift on an Anniversary. I have been thinking a lot of my late brother, Saiful Bahri a.k.a. Abang Chik to me and Poone to his many devoted friends. A couple of days ago, on the Gregorian calendar date that marks the passing of almarhum Shaykh Raja Ashman Shah ibn Sultan Raja Azlan Muhibuddin Shah, I received an anonymous Whatsapp message. As it turned out, it was Pian, my friend and younger brother to my spirit brother, Ariffin, who also happens to be my partner in our law firm. Pian said that while browsing pictures in his phone, he happened to come across some pictures of Poone (I will refer to my brother that way, as most people reading this will most likely call him by the same traditional Malay nickname for Saiful. Yeah... don't ask me how "Saiful" becomes "Poone". It's a Malay thing) taken during their trip to the international horseback archery competition held in Amman, Jordan in 2012.

Poone standing on the far right, with my beloved Sarawakian companions of Umrah 2011
who are coincidentally my brother's companions for his Jordanian 2012 trip.
On the far left is Moses, completing the fellowship.

Poone with his namesake, Saiful Bahri and Ijan, with a couple of the
Royal Jordanian Calvary soldiers. My brother makes friends easily, just like
our late mother. I wish I have such a talent. 

Poone, resplendent in traditional Malay attire, the Baju Melayu. And there sitting
close to him is Ariffin. 

The Third Eye. I am tired of using my physical eyes. They often mislead me, making me see what I want to see, hiding many, many beautiful secrets and signs that Allah (swt) has left for us here, still stuck in this world. With three of the most gentlest people (My late mother, Ku Ash and Poone) I know now not visible to my eyes, I have acquired a habit of looking with my other eye. The third eye that is the spiritual heart which we all own. It is not out of faith or religion that I do so. I do it because I am yearning for something that is not available directly and physically in our plane of reality. Selfishly, I am yearning for those whom I have been separated from, wanting to feel their presence, thirsty for their kind words, their gentle smile and assuring embrace.

So I ask God Almighty, and His Beloved Muhammad (saws). I ask that my third eye may be opened for me to see, and to feel their presence. And sometimes, I do. In the dead of night all alone, or even in a crowded place. Their faces, their presence grow within me while this world and all its distractions recede into the background, barely a murmur in the true reality of Love, Faith and Hope.  

So you see... the prose is right all along. The deceased never really left us, we are the ones still yet to arrive.

The Boss... al fatiha...

May Allah bless our journey home. May His Muhammad Habibullah (saws) be our captain and master, and guide us safely to the Divine Presence where hearts asunder are made whole once again.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

WELL... WOULDN'T YOU? - Divine assurance, sunnah archery lesson No.1 and the delinquent arrow

I Know Nothin' about Nothin'

I don't know the time exactly,

I am not aware of the state of my body,

I do not hold in my head the entire corpus

Of physics, biology, chemistry and all other sciences,

Nor do I have at my fingertips all the laws of the land,

So I try to get help where I can,

And I try to get help from the One who knows it all,

Who I ask to cover my decisions in all that I do,

Knowing fully well how little I know about anything at all,

Well, if you are as empty-headed as me,

Wouldn't you?

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

Moses and Mustard Seeds. I spent some time with my friend Moses a couple of days ago. And he shared with me his attempts at making mustard from mustard seeds (makes sense). It was delicious. He also made a very good attempt at a Malaysian version of the Tabasco sauce, which was different but also very delicious. I neither had the vision nor the wit to try either. So I know... I don't know anything about most things.

Divine Assurance. I pity Atheists (may God bless their hearts) because they don't have the Divine assurance. That special mercy from Allah (swt) that covers all our acts and omissions, simply because our Creator knows fully well our limitations, and  as God as made unto Himself forbidden the nature of being unfair or oppressive, He guarantees His help to us poor sinners and malcontents - 

Thinking of Him

...think of Him and call unto Him by His many names, 

and He shall mention you in a company 

Infinitely greater!

Ask for His aid and His aid shall come to you, 

And none better! 

His divine plans cover all eventualities of our daily life... our happiness and sadness, our successes and failures. Thus, blessed are the believers who believe in God of Infinite Wisdom, Love and Mercy.

The Delinquent Arrow. I know I am posting a lot about archery. But in archery, my master teaches me to contemplate my form and the result of my form - my few successes and my many, many failures. And we are taught to try and maintain a peaceful contentment, the Qalban Salima (contented heart) that is the cherished aim of all men, women and children... An inner peace to be gained regardless whether we succeed or fail - no matter whether your arrow flies straight to the bulls eye or wanders off to have coffee at Starbucks. 

Sunnah Archery Lesson No.1
Wherever the arrow goes, that is where the Lord wills it to go.

He he he.

May God bless you this wonderful Monday, sunshine.  

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

THE JAILED HEART OR THE SUBSERVIENT REASON? ...where is our faith?

Be! Awake!

I am a nobody,

You are a nobody,

But God said "Be!"

And we were thus done.

How many days have we lost,

Going to sleep as weary sinners,

But in the morning God said "Awake!",

And as believers we greeted the sun.

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

I spent some time with an old friend earlier this week. And he said "Don't allow your iman (faith) to enter your mind-ego." Do not be confused between the calculations of your ego, subtly disguised as moral or theological judgments to sway you from the true centre of your iman. The true core of your spirit and wherein sits the Throne of God."

"And where is that?" I asked.

"Your heart, of course. So think, but let your reason be subservient to your heart! For ultimately, there is where your iman resides."

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

...And how many times have I allowed my heart to be jailed by my mind and ego... My conscience silenced by calculative self interest and hubris? As many nights as I have slept, perhaps? 

Pray for me, sunshine, that I might wake up a believer.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

GOD MOST FAIR, FAIR EVEN UNTO THE DEVIL - the Power of Remembrance and the Gift of Forgetfulness

The Devil

I don't hate the Devil,

But I hate what he does.

I hate his conspiracies to spread

The corruption, the oppression,

The lies, the violence, the selfishness,

The exploitation, the wars, the genocides,

The murders, the rapes, the insults and jibes,

The confusion, the hubris and the ignorance of mankind,

Seeding in our society envy and anarchy,

But most of all, I hate what he does

Because he makes me hate me...

And makes me despair of my own humanity.

So this begs another question...

Why do I listen to him?

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

The Devil is real. I think we should be very clear about this. He is not some intangible malevolent force in the human consciousness, like a typhoon blazing destruction across the plains of your soul. Mr. D has a personality, he is intelligent, belligerent and has amassed countless years of experience to hone his skill in his job description - which is to morally corrupt all children of Adam and Eve, and lead them to utter spiritual and physical annihilation. 

But we are also not stupid. God All Wise, in His wisdom has given us akal, the cerebral faculty to reason things out, to weigh the pros and cons of our actions (or inactions), to judge which is the best path to take, and to learn from our own history, the History of Man that is often bloodied with wars, oppression, xenophobia, hubris, ignorance and hate, but are also shining with beautiful examples of messengers, prophets, saints and everyday simple people who were hardworking and intelligent, grateful and worshipful to their Maker, aka God Almighty. Surely, with such knowledge of our shared past, we would not fall to the deceit and dark whispering of Beelzebub.

Old Tricks New Suckers. But we do fall for his tricks, again and again. On a daily basis. Perhaps not murdering, pillaging or robbing a bank... but small 'white sins' that this sinner himself must admit to. I leave it to your imagination to contemplate this.

The Power of Remembrance. Which goes back to our enemy. If only we can always remember... remember God, remember our beloved Prophet, remember the kindness of our parents and siblings, the tolerance of our friends... remember the common history shared by all humanity... and learn from the lessons that our past can teach us...  how would the Devil fool us?

He won't be able to. 

But this would not fit God's plan for us.

The Gift of Forgetfulness. So I guess that is why we are also built with the capacity to forget. To give the Devil the opportunity to fool us and to corrupt us. So you see, God has leveled the playing field between Adam's Children and the Devil to give the Devil an even chance defeat mankind. Which goes without saying that Allah (swt), aka God Almighty is the fairest of them all... fair even unto the Devil himself.

And this also speaks of another thing... God's belief in us and in our inherent courage and goodness, that  mercy-rich fitra (essence) of Muhammad (saws) that is in all humanity (not just them Muslims).  

So perhaps we should remember all this and believe in God too.

I am trying. In my inevitably bumbling and clownish way. 

Some Shaykh: "O' Taufiq. If you clown around too much, you will always
risk dropping and shattering your heart. I am here to help you, but
what if I am not? What then?
The Clown: You will always be here, wherever you may be...

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

NO FAITH WITHOUT WONDER

The Created and the Uncreated

The perfume cannot comprehend the perfumer,

The arrow cannot comprehend the archer, 

The created cannot comprehend the uncreated,

Yet the scent of the perfume excites the maiden, you can smell it!

And the arrow is flying on its trajectory towards the deer, you can see it!

Thus all of God's creatures sense their own created beings,

But what lies beyond our physical senses...?

Oh Wonder! You are a wondrous thing!

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

Physical Senses. If you stop wondering, you stop living. Oh, you can live physically, since all of our senses are geared towards the purpose of continuing our own life and existence - Hungry? Eat. Thirsty? Drink. Horny? Procreate. 

Inner Senses. But the problem with physical senses is that  they act at a very basic animal instinct. And unless we are prepared to live as animals, we must address the substrata of our conscious existence, that is our emotions and thoughts that is beyond our base desires. And once we explore our inner consciousness, we are in a different world altogether, a world of flux often pulled by opposing forces of love and hate, generosity and greed, attachment and detachment, companionship and loneliness, humility and hubris. 

Such things we 'sense' within ourselves according to our mind and our heart. And it is in this horizon of intangible feelings, that we find the need for assurance, hope, redemption, knowledge and contentment. This is the hidden form of this world, and the door of exploration that God has laid in the well of our conscience. 

The Outer World and the Inner World. For however wondrous is a storm at sea. However mysterious and beguiling is a night sky full of stars, however maddening is the beauty of a human child, it is our inner understanding, our inner self that is reacting to all these physical expressions of this world and giving meaning to them.

And so religious faith is all about that really. It is our natural inclination towards the inner uncreated reality that is God, helping us towards finding the true meaning of our deeds, our emotions and ultimately, this world and our purpose in life. This is the basic tenets of all religion whatever faith you may be dressed in.

The Inner Uncreated Reality is More Real Than Our Physical Created Reality,

Giving understanding and meaning to it all.

And though meanings find their expression through our actions (and omissions), it is essentially our inner reflections through which we may find our happiness  and success in this life and in the next, towards that One uncreated Being, the incomparable Absoluteness, that is God the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate, the Lord of Mercy and the Giver of Mercy...

All about You

When I contemplate life, 

When I listen to you,

When I consider myself,

When I read the books of the wise,

When I look at the world,

The birds flying in the sky,

When I listen to the world,

The dogs barking in the night,

When I dip my feet in a cool forest stream,

When I see a candle light 

And the near wandering moth,

In truth,

It is God that 

I wonder of.  

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

So you see. If you have stopped wondering, where is your faith? For faith is not about the certainty by which you judge yourself or other people. It is faith in the certainty that God Almighty does not discriminate between one person to another save by our good deeds, good thoughts and helpfulness to others. 

God. The True Wonder of all, beyond wonder, beyond all!

Don't you agree, sunshine? Even if I do tend to ramble on? I wonder...

He he he.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

My Heart is Not Mine

Careless Heart

I am careless with my heart,

And often I have been scolded

For leaving it all over the place,

I left it in the hands of my departed mother,

I left it in the hands of my living father,

I left it in the hands of my brothers,

I left it in the hands of my friends and strangers,

I have lost my heart so often that I cannot recall

Whether my heart has ever belonged to me at all,

For my heart rose from a golden ocean

And Your winds carried me over the world,

Till the coolness of the high places turned me

Into white water clouds over the land of Man

Until like the rain, my heart fell, 

Again and again...

In love with Love,

In love with You.

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

It is a stormy wet evening here in Kuala Lumpur. And for me, this weather is perfect for recalling and writing the romance between Man and God Almighty and between Man and the Prophet (s.a.w.s.) - like the blip of a beating heart drawn between Ahad (God) and Ahmad (Prophet of God s.a.w.s.).

Cristina Colombo has let her hearts be stolen and spirited away by all sorts of people and hung on the walls of the strangest and most magical of homes. Though I make no hearts and have only one to give, alas, I too must confess my carelessness, forever losing it to my loving friends and family, to strangers looking for aid, to benefactors showing me mercy and kindness, to the beautiful dawn each morning I awake, and to the sounds of the rain outside, and the thunder high in the stormy sky.

But sky or man, rain or strangers, dogs or a cat named Moses, to whomever or to whatever I lose my heart to, in truth don't we all lose our heart to Him? Allah s.w.t., Creator of Creation, Knower of all things known and unknown, Most Compassionate, Most Merciful unto His creation - ergo, you and me and everyone else in between.

And that God has bestowed upon all humanity, the best of humanity and the best of Creation in the person of Muhammad ibn Abdullah (s.a.w.s) is the ultimate divine assurance of love. And that however you may lose your heart, it is always in the keeping of God Himself. If we would only remember and recall.

So I guess all of our hearts, yours and mine - its not ours really, but belong to the Master of the Universe, Muhammad Prophet of God (s.a.w.s), under the care of the Companions of the Prophet and the Saints assigned unto us, for our guidance, protection and happiness.

*Sigh*

Rain makes me soppy this way. But can you really blame me? My heart is not mine, I am sorry.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

Mercy Ocean, Sea of Compassion - The Prince Part 29

al-fatiha

Mercy Ocean, Sea of Compassion

Some men are born high in the mountains,

Kissed by the clouds that loom far above,

Some men are born near the ocean,

To the sounds of the surf and sea

That they all come to love,

Some men are born in the plains and the tundra

In the sweeping vistas of pasture, desert and ice,

While others are born close to the river,

Learning to hunt in the forest and the jungle

With a spear, arrow and quiver,

But however and whenever they are born,

To God's Mercy Ocean they shall all return,

Save for those blessed few,

Whom, though walking amongst us,

Never seemed to have left the Ocean,

Spreading the good word with kindness,

A stranger, beloved to me and you,

With gentle eyes, floating in a Sea of Compassion,
A prince, beloved to me and you.

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

Hi, sunshine. It is Monday morning. After an active weekend, it is back to work again. I am tired and a little heart-broken, but otherwise good! For I cannot complain when my life is complete with the saints, the saintly and us sinners!

The door of Fajr prayers (dawn) beckons. I can hear the voice of the muezzin, breaking the morning quiet, amid the familiar morning chorus of birds outside.  

Hope springs anew this morning. May God bless you and forgive me.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

I am a Sign of the End of Time - prose from Singapore

The Sign of the End of Time

The man makes his way to the mosque,

And says, "The Key to my Heart is Morning Prayers at the Mosque..."

The traveler turns away from the world and the crowd

And says, "O' Lord, while I was all alone you kept me company,

But now that I am not alone, I seek your Divine Assurance still..."

The traveler makes his way out of the mosque,

And he hears a preacher man speak, "Now, let me tell you

About the Signs of the End of Time"

The man smiles hearing this and says to no one in particular,

"I am a Sign of the End of Time..."

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

Good morning, sunshine. I am back, arriving in Kuala Lumpur International Airport just a hair before 11pm. How have you been keeping in my absence? I trust all is well, insyaAllah...

The trip was good for me, work-wise as well as attending to matters that I have delayed to do in Singapore. The prose recorded above are the nuggets I have found trawling through the sleepiness of the soul, across the plain of reflection, alone and away from friends and family. And since this is Sunday and is a good day, I leave you, my beautiful spirit, with a lasting and difficult contemplation, but one worthy of your best effort - 

Patient Will

Patience is the unveiling of the Will,

All conquering over the arbitrary

And whimsical nature of

This world.

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

Have a lovely day, sunshine. Rest and relax...

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

NOISY CREATURES IN A NOISY WORLD - death before dying and the silence of the grave

Noise and the Silence of the Grave

I am a noisy man,

I need not speak for you to know that,

You can see it in the expression of my face,

In my colour, in the clothes I wear,

In how I walk, sit or stand

Any where, any place.

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

Noisy Creatures. Mankind tend to be noisy. Within ourselves, even in silence, we are confronted with our hopes and dreams, our fears, ambitions and guilt, our uncertainty and our passion, our worry for tomorrow, and our regrets for yesterday - Amid this relentless internal din we let the present go by unattended by our focus and attention.  

Noisy World. To make matters worse, this personal cacophony of emotion throws a veil across our perception of the world, making the world also a right hellish racket to bear sometimes.

Silence of the Grave. So I am on a quest for a quieter world. I am not going to change the world itself, but I will try to do what I can with myself. The Sufis and other mystics of the world have elucidated about the concept of death before dying. And I wanna try that and receive the benefit that comes with death without actually being buried. What benefit, you ask? Why, the silence of the grave of course.

Grace and Grave. For I reckon that once you are along this path, you will get to hear and see the more important things in life - the Grace of God in everything that we are granted, the Wisdom of God in every tribulation that we may face, and the Beauty of God in the smiles, the laughter and the gentleness of our family and friends, and even from the acts and words of strangers. And of course, the Power of God in the thunder storms at sea, the high mountains in the clouds and the vastness of the oceans.

So I am intent on reducing the noise in my life. And as a Muslim, I am asking God for the intercession of the Prophet Muhammad's (s.a.w.s.) hand to reach into me, and turn down the volume dial within me.

Ahh. Lovely. Outside I can already hear the birds singing their hearts out on this peaceful overcast Wednesday morning.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

FAITH HAS NO WEIGHT, LOVE HAS NO MASS - tea and the divine parables and metaphors

Faith Has No Weight, Love Has No Mass

Heavy books with heavy phrases,

Heavy looks on heavy faces,

Heavy thoughts in heavy hearts,

O’ scholars, what are you teaching yourselves!?

Heavy tents and heavy politics,

Heavy plans and heavy tricks,

Heavy words and heavy hubris,

O’ scholars, what are you teaching yourselves!?

Heavy pride and heavy fences,

Heavy fears and heavy defenses,

Heavy deeds and heavy offences,

O’ scholars! What are you teaching yourselves!?

In truth, faith has no weight

And love has no mass,

And the only thing heavy

Is a heart of both bereft.

…………………. 

A good heart gives the fortunate owner a nimbleness in his thinking, his work, his play and his loving. A good heart does not see the world in the material and spiritual sense, knowing as he does, that there is in truth only one reality. Only that such reality can be read and understood in two aspects, like two sides of the same coin.

Tea and the Divine Parables and Metaphors. In the holy Quran, we are informed that God talks to us in parables and metaphors. And so He does, while we work out what He is saying to us through our physical and spiritual interpretation of the world. So, when you drink tea, it is not merely a temporal  action, but also a spiritual action. It's the same whether you are asleep or awake, working, playing or praying. 

And good heart is important for this sorta thing.

So I hope to one day gain a good heart. It is not a complicated concept. Just do more good than bad. But for myself, this has been the most challenging ambition of all. But I still have hope, and I pray. To gain that nimbleness of footing upon the mountain.

'Tis Friday. Have a lovely weekend, sunshine.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam 

Love will show the Way 

Following the Wisest Path - the heart and the ego

The Wisest

Last night God made me blush,

And a couple of days ago

He made me feel like I could die,

An hour ago God made me hungry,

And five minutes later He fed me.

No doubt later this evening

He will give me a reason to laugh,

And a reason to smile,

He will give me a reason to cry

And a reason to love,

I reckon that not a moment of my life

Has God left me to my own devices,

And thus I know that those

Who know themselves, know their Maker

And amongst such wise men, I consider them wisest.

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

Inward with God, outward with men - such is the nature of the Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.s), and to some degree, that of his Companions and the Saints. 

Know yourself / self-discovery - what a beautiful, profound and slightly fuzzy-wuzzy hippie goal to have. "Oh, she is taking a year away. To look for herself..." But the journey towards self-discovery is also a journey away from the ego, that malevolently cunning alternate personality that is joined to our body and often deceives us to think that it is us. But my ego is not me. Yet, if you find me in a foul temper, bitter or despairing, selfish, self-consumed and wasteful... I would not blame you if you think that my ego is me after all.

Thus, to reject the ego, to control and bridle it to your heart and your conscience is the way forward. I will not lie, it has not (it is not) easy for me, being a sinner and all, to quell the rampant rebellion of my own ego.

So the journey continues. It is a new morning here in Kuala Lumpur. One more step in the path of eternity, with God, the Prophet, you and me, sunshine.

*all pictures are from my recent trip with Mikhail
to Kuala Kangsar. Didn't want to waste them. He he he.

Have a beautiful day. Have a wise day.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way