FRIENDSHIP OF THE COLLECTOR & THE COMPANION - The Ramadan Story, Part 19

The Collector & the Companion

Mr. A: Who are you?

Mr. B: I am a collector.

Mr. A: What do you collect?

Mr. B: I collect stories and traditions of the Prophet Muhammad.

Mr. A: Where did you come from?

Mr. B: I am from the future.

Mr. A: How did you get here?

Mr. B: I neither walked nor strayed here,

It is you who have come to me from the past.

Mr. A: I have? Well, Alhamdulillah!

Mr. B: Indeed... Alhamdulillah!

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

A Rose of Infinite Petals. I spent some time after iftar this evening with an old, old friend. He isn't actually very old, but whenever I talk to him, he makes me feel young again, because almost inevitably without fail, he would trot out a story of the Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.s.) that I have not heard before. I would just sit there contented as his words fall over me like a refreshing spring water, as the story of Muhammad (s.a.w.s.) unfolds yet again like a rose of infinite petals, told with the passion of an enthusiastic storyteller...

46. The Turban and the Nightingales

There are folds in the Prophet’s turban

Like unto petals of a fragrant rose

Before any nightingale sang in heaven

Muhammad was Allah’s first prose.

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

Falling for a Friend (again). It has been perhaps more than one decade since I first met my old friend. And even then, I found him brilliant, beautiful and with a wonderful sense of irony. Not for him was the same old script of theology and religion. He is one who has helped to shape my life with love and companionship, enriching my understanding of Muhammad and His Islam. and the serious and often hilarious tales of the Companions and the Saints, making them more human and approachable, yet even more divine and lovely. It would not be overestimating our chance meet tonight to say that I have fallen in love with my friend all over again, and with his Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.s.). Of course, my friend did not time-travel from the past, but his words are weighed with centuries of contemplation of Muhammad. Perhaps, it is not his centuries we are talking about, but then again, there is nothing really new under the Sun, and there is nothing wrong in borrowed wisdom.

207. The Waiting II

Muhammad is waiting under the Lote Tree,

Sitting under the shade of My Mercy,

Resting his back on the trunk of My Support,

Tasting the fruits of My Generosity,

Taking delight in the manifestation of My Beauty.

Attended to by the Best of Hosts,

He is already in the Best of Company,

Yet his gaze returns to thee,

Asking, “Join me! Join me!”

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

And yes, it is his Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.s.), as I have my Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.s.), our idea and concept of the Beloved of God being absolutely personal and distinct to ourselves, according to our milestone in our individual lives. What ties us in common is our love for the Prophet (s.a.w.s.), and the only difference being the eagerness by which we race to learn more about Muhammad's (s.a.w.s.) Prophetic mission, and how better to please the Prophet (s.a.w.s.). And by 'eagerness' I mean his eagerness and my woeful blundering journey.

24. For you, For Muhammad.

I have given you the most beautiful dress that is your skin

For you to wear,

I have placed in you two revolving sapphire moons,

So that you might see,

I have plucked from My Garden two rose petals as your lips,

For you to kiss your lover with.

But for Muhammad, and no one else,

I have erected My Throne in your heart.

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

My friend though is a class act all by himself, and as I watched his retreating back after our all too short meeting, I hope and pray for the next encounter with him to come real soon. 

For I know my Muhammadan muse has many, many more stories to share.

May God bless his furry little heart (He is furry, Shahzad is. He is my friend, but I shan't lie). I guess I shall never be like him, for I have made myself to be a mistake that needs constant reference to His Mercy and His Compassion. Nonetheless I am happy to bask (however intermittently) in the warmth of his knowledge, and most importantly, sincere friendship.

In this world, what more can one ask, sunshine?

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way 

OUR EXISTENCE ANCIENT - the beautiful nature of time... and of our cousins and mothers.

Our Existence Ancient

Age is just a means by which we mark

Our time in this world,

For however our body may age,

It shall never exceed the measure of our soul,

Our existence ancient beyond its mortal cage.

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

DAY OF COUSINS. Today is a day of cousins for me. I met a 51 year old Shan bin Sulaiman for breakfast (he promised me a local delicacy called popiah basah to lure me to his neighbourhood). And awhile back tonight I attended the wedding of my cousin's son, Aiman. Sitting at my table were two of my beautiful cousins, Kak Nani and Kak Lah, who is 61 and 63 years old respectively. I myself am going to be 43 years old this year, so to count the number of years between us four cousins it is 218 years. If we add my father's time, which is just one year short of 80, it would be 297 years - almost 3 centuries. Hehehe. Makes me ponder, this number does. 

I was thus pondering when suddenly the song A Thousand Years wafted through the wedding hall and I was almost overcome with a profound melancholic feeling. And in that brief moment I recall the history of my Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.s), my Prophet Jesus (a.s.) and the retinue of Muhammad's Companions known as the Sahabat, and the golden chain of forty Grand Shaykhs and many more Shaykhs and Saints, all of whom I have been introduced to. And thus also in that moment, the face of my late mother came to me, who introduced me to this world. 

So you see, more than a thousand years can pass within a solitary moment, though you are in a crowded wedding reception, with happy smiling people and their happy smiling faces. This thought made me paused  in my contemplation, as I too smiled back at my cousins. Alhamdulillah.

Have a lovely Sabbath, sunshine.

See you soon.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

Flowing to the Ocean of Light, following the Way of Muhammad - man and the siren call of God's Ocean

Like a River exiled from some Heavenly Picture

Ten thousand hearts ago I was different,

Ten thousand days ago I sang a different song,

Ten thousand nights ago I lived a different world,

Ten thousand thoughts ago I was a collector of words,

Having no time for the trees, no time for the whispering breeze,

No time for the flowers, the birds nor the honey bees.

Ten thousand lies ago I was young and rich,

Ten thousand truths ago I was stumbling like a clown,

Today, tonight with you, my love, I stumble still,

But I stumble with grace, with a pen in my hand

A beggar of words, the towncrier of a deserted town.

My past often catches up and ask me,

“Ho! Where am I? Who are you!

Where are you taking us all!

To which, I only reply that,

“I am me! I was you! And I am paying heed

To the truth in the trees, Moses on the Mountain,

And the sonnets of love sung by the stars in the night sky!

What you do not remember, I have already forgotten,

What you cherish, I am now tasting, what you have left behind

For me to follow, now I am following, taking you and me

To the us in the future,

To the Ocean of Light we flow,
Like a river exiled from
Some heavenly picture.

To the Ocean of Light that we yearn,
Following the Way of Muhammad,
Our Master and Teacher!
………………………….

Imagination or Yearning of the Ocean?

What is life but a journey to the Ocean? A sometimes winding path that takes us from childhood, to manhood, then mid-life contentment to old grey dotage. I am only 42 years this year, but sometimes the Ocean sounds so close by... And I can hear the melodious surf, the seagulls and the peal of a ship's bell in the harbour. It sounds like it just over this dune... but when I arrive atop the sandy peak, I see no Sea, no seagulls, no shore, no ship. Just miles and miles of life still waiting for me to walk.

Was it just my imagination that I heard? Or my yearning?

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

Returning to the Ocean of Mercy and Divine Presence is a parable about life often used by Sufis and other mystics. And death is the consummation of this ardent desire - to return home to God. To be by His side in eternal bliss. But what is eternal bliss? It is just a word used to describe the indescribable, and really, it says nothing of what could be.

But what is, and what is here now is our life and this reality. And I think we have a lot to give thanks for... for this world that our Creator has given us, the beauty within us and the beauty displayed in nature. And always, that inner yearning... that unending siren call beckoning us to the Ocean of God, to the Sea of Mercy, to Love and Bliss aplenty...

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

Past, Present, Future - praying for a better past?

Praying for a Better Past

Most people pray for

The present and future,

And very few pray

For the past,

Since many think

That the past is well… past.

We do not think that the past is gone,

We do not think that history is

Done and over.

The past is breathing down our neck,

The reflection on the mirror,

The wrinkles on our faces,

A breath away from

The present,

Leaving everlasting traces,

Yesterday is as real as today,

Playing over and over again,

Following God’s own holy script,

So over and over and over

We pray for a better past,

Over and over and over

Across God’s own storyboard…

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

Someone once told me this. Just as you pray for a better future, you should also pray for a better past. Because although the past is done and over for you in the present, it is still playing over and over again across God's own storyboard. And if God's perception can jump around from the beginning to the end and right back to the middle before going back to the beginning, who's to say that our prayers cannot? After all, a prayer is a direct congress with God in His Infinite Powers, one of which is Power over time and space.

So pray for the past, sunshine. Pray over the good days and the bad days that dot across your personal history. Pray over the good you and the bad you, over the happy coincidences and sad happenstances of your yesterdays, over your old friends, your family and your ancestors. Because somewhere in that distant past, especially over some difficult phase in your life, your past self may hear your prayer, and is at least assured, "... my future is praying over me, that I might get through this difficulty..."

It is not impossible. Indeed, even now I can hear my future praying over me...

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

Nashua, the Angel with a Long Train and a German Rock Ballad

I am here because you called me, Nashua. 

An Angel with a Long Train and the Scorpion’s Love Lullaby

An angel robed with a long train
Walked past a mingling crowd of working mothers,
Sitting, standing waiting in a row
With their noisy, clapping, laughing children.
One girl, with curly locks over her brown eyes
Noticed the angel and said, “Hey! What are you?”
“I am an Angel.” Replied the Herald.
“Why are you here?”
“I am here because you called me, Nashua.”
She made a face and denied, “No. I didn’t.”
The Angel then explained.

“Yes, you did. Or rather, you will. 23 years in the future. You were heartbroken by a man (that scoundrel), and you were listening to radio pathetico. Then the German rock band, Scorpions came on air with their song ‘Send me an Angel’. When you heard it, you cried even more, and you whispered along with the song, “Here I am, send me an Angel…” So here I am, an Angel.”

“I do not understand. Then, why are you here NOW?” Said Nashua.

“Because at 31 years old, you have grown up, Nashua. And you have forgotten and unlearnt the innocence and wisdom of children. I cannot appear to you in the future. But I am touched by your sadness. So I have travelled to the past to see you. You must keep this memory so that you know that however ill-used you will become, your Guardian Angel and our Lord God is never far. “

She then ventured a question, “Will I remember this? To which the Angel said, “No. but perhaps the love of our connection will remain. So that at the very least, you will remember to call unto God and His Angels, however much you despair of your life.

Then, the Angel smiled. “For that is why, I am here, you see. You remembered me still. As an echo of a Love Lullaby. Even if it took the Scorpions to trigger your subconscious. To be perfectly honest, they are not exactly in Heaven’s Top 100, being you know... a little naff*. But we Angels have learnt to adapt to humanity’s strange caprice.”

Nashua did not fully understand the Angel’s extended monologue, but her wise 8 year old heart understood enough. “Well, I guess I must thank you, Mr. Angel.” With great dignity, the Angel bowed before Nashua, “You are most welcome, o’ daughter of Eve.”

The little girl blushed looking pleased, and said,

Okay, so now what?”

The Angel stood up to his full height and extended his hand, “Why, now we have a little time before I leave. Hop on my train, and I will take you for a ride.”

Nashua smiled, crying, “Yeah!” But then she paused, and asked, "Wait. What is naff?"

Footnote: Courtesy of the BBC website – meaning of ‘Naff’. N-A-F-F. British slang. It means worthless, tacky, unfashionable - 'that's naff', 'the party was naff', 'those clothes are naff' - unenjoyable, of poor quality. 'Uncool', I suppose people would say these days - 'that décor is naff', 'that software is naff', 'that pub is naff'. In other words, it's used in a huge variety of circumstances as a general dismissive term…

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

Truth be told, I am actually fond of the song by The Scorpions, being kinda naff myself. Anyway, if you would like to see the music video, Click Here.

Hope you enjoyed the story, sunshine. You may have noticed that time appears to be circular in the tale, begging the question, which actually happened first - the past or the future?    

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

Love, the Higher Purpose - Barging through Rumi's Door in 2008

HAVE I DISAPPOINTED YOU? I started writing about the rumours of love some three years ago, when Heche was still oblivious of the tremors that affected me in her presence. So she asked me yesterday whether after all my sonnets and prose, that surely by now she must have already disappointed my high hopes and ill-conceived poems about love.

I must have had some dejavu about this question, because in February 2010 I already wrote for her a reply…

A spectacle in 2008 but recorded in February 2010.
A sinner  barges through Rumi's door.

1. By all accounts!
I told my love that she,
Is not the answer
To my prayers.

How can she be, when
By all accounts, she
Is so much more
Than my feeble
Heart could ever
Imagine and
Pray for?

There is nothing to make,
There is nothing to unmake,

She simply is
As she is, as
I found her, when
I barged in
Through
Rumi's door.

MANY TIME-SCAPES. I think it is funny that we think we are living only one single life, one daily caption at a time. I suspect that the real truth is that we living several moments at a time, splitting our existence like the splitting of the atom, immeasurable times across many time-scapes. And sometimes, we have already pre-planned our answers years ahead of time, though we did so without knowing.

THE HIGHER PURPOSE. This is not surprising, because really… when it comes to Love, God bends all the rules. Because simply put, the higher purpose is love.

Have a happy day with your beloved, sunshine. Make a cup of tea and spend time staring into each other’s eyes.

wa min Allah at-taufiq.

I met the Sun, the Sea but the Moon spoke for all three - An Ancient Promise

"We have grown old, you and I." said the Sun.

The Sun, the Sea and the Moon
I live untold lives,
Living a particular way
That is all my own.

"Marry me." said the Sea.

But I have grown old,
I have fallen into the sea,
I cannot deny the day its due,
Nor can I resist the night.

The sun says to me
while I shelter under
the shade of a tree,
"Yes, we have grown old, you and I."

I walked by the sea,
And when she saw me,
she said, "I know you. Marry me."

I braced my heart walking
Under a full moon,
She called me a familiar soul,
And a tear fell from my eye.

"A familiar soul!" exclaimed the Moon.

I did not ask for all this...
To which the moon replied,
"Yes, you did. But you do not remember.

... Before we three ever came to be
You were here already,
In the promises that God gave to us -
That there will come a time in our age,
When a creature will be born, created, made
Of sublime nature and sorrowful beauty.
Called Adam and Eve, they will walk upon the Earth,
Giving us some strange thoughts and calling us
The Moon, the Sun and the Sea."
...............

I do believe we should take some comfort, some level of assurance, that however low we fall, and indeed, however high we deemed we have climbed, we are still just part of an ancient promise. A story long ago wrought by God, before we ever felt our first tinge of sorrow, before we ever tasted our first cup of love, before we ever grew in stature to understand the pleasure of success, the anguish of failure and the strength of hope.

May you have a wonderful day, sunshine.

wa min Allah at-taufiq.

Happiness is a reflection away, and nearer to you than your jugular - Prose of Ramadhan Part 60

The Clown, the Prophet and the Celestial Pool

(Ramadhan Verses 33)

I was alone,

Adrift in the sky,

Then in my teary clown’s eye

I saw the Pool.

I came unto the Pool,

Or perhaps the Pool

Came unto me, whatever…

I cannot really remember.

But in a moment,

I was looking into

The water.

I saw a reflection of myself

And I felt sad and alone.

I closed my eyes,

Refusing to accept

The truth of my own solitude.

Then I opened my eyes,

And I beheld in the still water of the Pool,

The sight of my Prophet,

And he was smiling at me

And through the depth of time,

I heard these words,

“How can I forget you, Clown…

For you are mine…”

Without realizing it,

My hand on is own accord

Tried to touch the image

And my finger lingered

Upon the surface of the water,

Causing a ripple,

The ripple soon subsided

But by then my Prophet’s face

Also disappeared.

Leaving me once again,

Looking at my own reflection

In the still water of the Pool.

But this time,

My reflection is smiling back at me.

We Get You Connected - Prose of Ramadhan Part 59

10. God’s Answering Machine

God answers all calls,

And has no need for an answering machine.

If you think that He did not pick up the phone,

Or if you hear only static at the other end,

It is because you are not ready to listen and accept,

The answers are all there,

Preserved in your memory,

To be retrieved by pressing ‘Accept Message’.

This public info has been brought to you

By the Prophetic Telephone Company Ltd.

The Movie 300, History and the Freaky Nature of Time - Prose of Ramadhan Part 12

In '300' there is a lot of screaming half-naked men. It makes up for the nauseating 'message' of the movie.

24. For freedom or for the King?

Historians are prone

To garnish history

With the trends

Of today.

Imputing alien ideas

And foreign motivation

To those who cannot,

Alas, respond.

We too,

Could be labeled the same,

Save that the subjects

Of our constant study,

Do react,

Most passionately.

Hahaha!

Our predecessors are reacting now.

And they are telling us,

"We studied you

Before you studied us."

RATIONALISM AND FREEDOM? REALLY? The prose above was recorded soon after watching the movie '300' some years back. My pet peeve about the movie is essentially the gross misrepresentation of history. In those feudal days, really, let's be sensible, nobody fought wars for 'rationalism' or 'freedom'. They fought because they had to. They fought because if they didn't, their kings, barons and warlords would probably decapitate them in a show of royal displeasure. They fought as part of an ancient contract between the ruler and the ruled based essentially on loyalty and servitude from the peasants, in payment for some protection and benefits from their masters.

A POTTER? HAHAHA! In one famous scene, the Spartans met a bunch of Arcadians who came to join them in trying to defend Greece from the Persian King Xerxes. Oh, how they mocked their fellow Greeks who admitted that they were essentially part-time warriors drafted for the butchery. All the Arcadians had proper day jobs like a porter or a farmer, which I thought was an admirable notion. Yet for the Spartan King Leonidas, it was something to look down upon, because in Sparta, the only honourable job (it seems) was to be a soldier. What the good King forgot to mention was that this was only possible because Sparta used to raid its neighbours for slaves to farm their land and perform all those sort of menial chores unbecoming of a true Spartan. Oh God... what a bunch egoistical wombats.

No, he ain't Spartan. He's Australian. I like him because
unlike Spartan Kings, he doesn't go about screaming at people.

And of course the opening scene where the Spartans dumped the less than perfect babies into a ravine did not actually ingratiate me to them. So through out the entire movie, I was willing Leonidas to lose, and really the whole of Sparta to be consumed in a Persian conquest. Of course, it wasn't so. But that is what happens when you disconnect facts from history.

TIME IS NOT LINEAR. I do not think that time is linear. I do not think that the moment that just passed merely went kaput and stop existing, having no further effect on the present and future. I think that the entire TimeScape is like the cartoon centrespread of a Sunday newspaper. I do believe that the past continues to exist even as time moves inexorably forward. And I do believe that the ancient (well, perhaps not all, but the more thoughtful ones) have already read about us, their descendants, long before we ever made our first appearance in the delivery room of the hospital. I can imagine it now... one of my ancestors reading about me, some thousand years ago...

Oh boy... Why do I always get the hopeless cases?

Have a wonderful day, sunshine. This day has been prepared for you an eternity ago. So enjoy it while it lasts!

Pax Taufiqa.

Poem Fodder and the Ducks in the Pastures of UnTime

1. The Pastures of UnTime
I died a little,
And my son died a little,
As I waved him goodbye,
On his short trip to visit
His kin in Melaka.

It is good to die a little,
I doth think.
If not for anything but to learn
To yearn, and hopefully
Remember just how
Precious time is.

For of this reality,
Little can encompass
The gift of time,
For while the sorrowful
Despair of time, in their
Mistaken desire for death,
We are tasked to learn
And appreciate time,
And though we too
Desire a death (hehehe, having no choice really),
We wish it would be a goodly death,
And the end of a rich and gratifying
Journey in time, and with
Grateful expectations,
O’ Lord and Creator of Time,
If these are the pleasures of Time,
What honey and wine awaits us
In the pastures of UnTime?

POEM FODDER. I wrote this prose a couple of years ago. I think it was the second time Mika left with his mother and her family for a one day trip to her hometown. The annual occasion was the Eidul Fitri celebrations which marked the end of the Muslims' one month of fasting during holy Ramadhan. I remember feeling melancholic as I watched him wave goodbye from the car as it headed to the North-South Highway. These heart-yearning stuffs are what poets use as fodder for their writing, but on that day, poems were the last thing on my mind.

DUCKS IN THE PASTURES OF UNTIME. Well... who's to say that there won't be ducks in the Hereafter? I think the possibility of ducks inhabiting heaven and its numerous free parks cannot be discounted. I have no complains of this world, which I think is simply perfect. But such is its perfection, I am twitching with anticipation of what the Lord has in store in the Pastures of UnTime. I will see you there, sunshine... And If you find me absent, then for Goodness Sake's, look for me and get me there!

Pax Taufiqa.

Sound and the Nature of Memory with the Lord of Time

SOUND WAVES CANCELLATION. An anonymous pigeon in Jesus, Rabia, Moses and the Pigeons - Umrah Pilgrimage Part 14 suggested that I google 'How sound cancels other sound'. I was curious whether my snoring and Arjuna's could have cancelled each other's nocturnal orchestra, and if so how. The answer is yes, but it is possible only if the two sound waves are exactly opposite each other. In other words the cancelling wave (my snoring) needs to be of equal and opposite amplitude or magnitude of the original wave (Arjuna's snoring). Now, who says you don't learn anything in this blog.

MEMORIES CANCELLATION. I don't exactly know why, but this got me thinking about memories, and how we are able to cherish and keep them alive, and how we are able to crush and destroy our memories. Of course there are some memories we wish to forget, while others we wish to cling to. I do believe that memory cancellation is just like sound cancellation.

In other words, we cancel (or at least damage our memory recall) of some memories by doing the exact opposite of what those particular memories embody. So, if we have some beautiful memories of a time spent say... with our auntie, then our hold to those memories become weak each time we say or do something bad to our aunties, or if they are not around anymore, when we fail to love what or whom our auntie once loved or adored. It can be all sorts of memories, really...

It may be the memory of the simple pleasure when a butterfly perched on your hand, or...

...the pleasure of leaning against a one thousand year old column in Angkor Wat, or...

... just parleying with your son at your friendly neighbourhood paediatrician, or...

...being hugged by your youngest grand auntie.

As a sinner, I sin. I mean its what I am really good at. So maybe that's why I cannot recall any memories before birth. You know, those happy care free days in heaven before the angel tapped my shoulders and said, "Hey, Taufiq, time for you to meet your parents..." and I was flung (ever so gently, I am sure) from heaven into my mother's waiting womb.

I guess this blog is one of my attempts to remember. To write about what is good and beautiful in this world. To remember those people who deserves to be remembered, and of whom many, sadly, I have already forgotten.

Well, at least God remembers. And I do believe that the rules of Time becomes a plaything in the hands of the Lord of Time. And when it comes to memories, good or bad, God will bend the rules and twist the clock to make it good and better for us. Of this I am certain...

129. Love Of The Lord Of Time

The Lord of Time whispers,

“My servant. Long have you been troubled

By your misdeeds.

Yet you seek Me in such a state.

Know therefore that

It is not My Will to permit entry into My Presence

The distracted and the grief-stricken.

So this day, I have brought the past to the present,

That you might right your old wrongs

And set your anxious heart to ease.

It is My Desire that those who do come to Me,

Come crying tears of happiness in meeting their Lord,

Who would bear witness upon My Name,

To the dwellers of heaven and earth

That Their Lord,

Would bend time and space,

And Lo! Break all the laws of nature that He alone has created,

For the sake of His servants.

Have a great day, pet.

Pax Taufiqa.

THE DAY OF PROMISES - It happened just yesterday

177. The Day of Promises I

I created chiseled mountains

To peg the earth upon an ocean of fire.

But I created and tasked you

With a Trust far heavier.

And lo! Hotter and deeper is the sea of fire

That would ring your deeds.

And you accepted the Trust!

178. The Day of Promises II

Your ego never tires in cursing and blaming you,

For the covenant that you swore upon,

On the Day of Promises.

179. The Day of Promises III

Know that on that Day,

You were made well aware of His Love and Mercy,

And that you made your choices accordingly.

So have faith in your Lord,

And what He has bequeathed as your fate,

And regret not the promises you have made.

For on that Day, He too made promises,

And your Lord is not wont to make them lightly.

180. The Day of Promises IV

Your ego is a donkey,

Deceived into thinking it has choices,

But a wise traveler will hold the reins,

Seeing only one path

And one road

Home.

181. The Day of Promises V

O’ My Lord, have I ever left You?

Did I take leave after the Day of Promises?

If You are the Irresistible and Compelling,

Where did I ever find the will to bear

Even a moment’s parting?

These are some searching questions

I must ask my soul

When we meet!

205. The Waiting

O’ Lord,

In Thy Hand I place trust in Thy choice of time

To draw back each veil,

To pry open each petal,

To unlock each door.

It’s just that, often, the waiting is painful,

When no prose is inspiring,

Sinning is almost comforting…

O’ Lord, reawaken my senses!

O’ Lord, reawaken my senses!

As they felt, on the Day of Promises,

When You held me,

In Your Utterly Compelling Gaze.

7 YEARS AGO, I recorded the first chapter of the Dam.SunSun.Ana. And one of the matter of interest which was disclosed was the Day of Promises, which essentially was the day when we and God made our promises to one another. It was also the day when we undertook 'the Trust' which nothing and no one else in all of Creation was willing to take - The Trust of Choice - to choose between right and wrong, good and evil. I wonder what I myself was thinking when I agreed "Yeah, God! Sure, why not!", I felt I must have said when God offered this responsibility to me.

7 YEARS ON, the feeling and emotion which prevailed upon me when I wrote the prose above remains the same. In fact it is burning brighter as each day you, yes, you sunshine(!), reveal unto me the beauty and nobility in which God has made you. For it is the company of one such as you which makes each day worth living, and each breath worth breathing. I am nothing, just a sinner who hides his mistakes while writing this blog. I am certainly not good, but I have enough brains (just about enough) to recognise true goodness which I find in you.

I DON'T KNOW YOU? We have not met? We are living on different continents? - So what, sunshine? Such immaterial things like physical distance and personal commune doesn't stand in the way of the truth - that all of mankind are brothers and sisters ennobled by the love and worship of our One Creator. And I shall strive, though I have bad habits and eat too much, to hold unto that simple truth which God has always wanted us to comprehend - that we all one family from our grandfather Adam and grandmother Eve.

May our days be blessed and graced in the memory and love of Adam and Eve. It was only just recently that Eve was created and Adam was besotted by the divine beauty that God has breathed into Eve. For you see, anything in the past, however far into the distant memory it happened, well... well, it really just happened yesterday. Even the Day of Promises - which occured in the unTime before time and the concept of a mortal day was ever created. Even that actually happened just yesterday...

Pax Taufiqa