Fishing for Happiness where the Bounty is Richest

Ripples in Creation

God made the light of Muhammad and it was still as a calm sea,

Beautiful in its infinite hue.

Then He made Adam and later Eve,

From whence through many seasons of love passing came me and you.

Making ripples in the Sea of Mercy,

We fished for happiness where the bounty was richest,

.
And Gladness filled the Lord's ocean

As He contemplated you, me 
and the cat called Moses
With Infinite Affection

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

We came from one place, and we shall return to the same place. In between the beginning and the infinite end, we make friends and sometimes we adopt a cat, whose name may be Moses. Or is it Moses who actually adopt us? You know how cats are...

Love is true, highest and mighty in the Lord's infinite sea of banners that magnify and glorify His Attributes. If you have found Love, or Love has found you, do not let go and hold on to your God with all your latent passion and talent for affection.

I was away because of work, but now I am home. And I am so pleased to find you here, sunshine.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

A Mirror of God Looking at another Mirror of God - in the journey to nothingness

1. All Ours

All things invented and made,

All things written and read,

All things of beautiful birth

Are in truth, ours.

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

An ancient friend shared with me, "Old chum, if you think you are something, you will have nothing but shadows and illusions of this world - money, power, men and women. If you have achieved nothingness, then everything is yours for the taking, and it will be everything in its essences and hidden meaning!"

The meanings are all behind that door only. Don't go looking for meanings
through any other door, however inviting it may look to you.

He paused, and smiled. "You are confused? Let me elaborate. It is important to gain something in its essence and hidden meaning because the outward shapes and forms are merely that - shapes and forms that we perceive by our senses. Your face and limbs hide your heart, brain and other organs that make you function. And when you pierce through the skin and look at the organs themselves, they too are only shapes and forms of the minute cells that make them. And then you go down to the level of cells, molecules, atoms, sub-atomic particles and etc, etc, etc... There is no end to the essences and hidden meanings of this physical reality. And beyond that there is of course the spiritual dimension of things created by God. Which in itself is a whole other world for you to explore and gain entry into. But it is invisible to the human eye. To attain such vision you must learn too see this world beyond its forms, to make the forms invisible and transparent, that you might see the beautiful working order in this wonderous machine which God has created and Man call the Universe. Really, to trade for petty baubles and trinkets of this world is a waste of your energy..."

Then he got up and walked away. I was left alone nursing my cup of coffee, after which I also left to continue my journey to nothingness. InsyaAllah, you shall errr... not see me there at all! And I shall not see you there also, transparent as you have become to me and I have become to you - a Mirror of God looking at another Mirror of God.

Hehehe. This is what they call an overbearing ambition. But why covet the Sultan's Palace when you can have the Sultan Himself?

Sufi Travel Advice: Pack light when you are embarking
on the journey to nothingness. You will have to discard all
of them anyways - all our masks and deceptions, all our attachments
and pretension - all to be left behind approaching the
Divine Presence of God and His Prophet...

Have a perfectly happy day, sunshine.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way.

Everything is relative, so don't worry!

1. All are relative

Sadness and joy,

Determination and timidity,

Wisdom and folly,

Success and regret,

Love and hate,

Fear and courage,

Are all relative concepts.

So float,

My happy blossom,

Between the Sun of Ahad,

The Moon of Ahmad,

And the Stars of the Sahabat*.

(*Sahabat - Companions)

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

Had an interesting work day with an astoundingly rude clientele. I didn't feel like writing at all. Then I bumped across this old prose, and I figure, what the heck... We gotta float, don't we? ...Just like a butterly, and doth do we stingeth away like the proverbial bee.

Hehehe.

Forget it, sunshine, tuck your stinger back in... Whatever irritation that bothered you today, it is simply not worth it. You who are kept in good company of good people, under God and His Beloved Prophet. What have you to worry? Keep steady and seek your support from God and the Prophet, from the Saints and the Angels who shall never (ever) let you down...

Ahh. I feel better already.

Thank you, sunshine, for keeping me company.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

Mikhail's Top 5 Singers in the World! (or maybe for today only)

"No, no, no... Not Pitbull. He's just creepy." says Mikhail.

Last night I interrogated my 8-year old son, Mikhail. It was about music.

It was pitch black as I was actually tucking him to bed. But you don't need light to make small talk, so I asked him, "Mikhail, who's your favourite singer?"

"I liked Justin Beiber 2 years ago. But not anymore."

Before I could comment, Mika went on to confess a dreadful secret. "Papa, do you know that Justin Beiber Baby video is the most disliked video on Youtube? And it's all my doing!"

I asked for an explanation. "How is that possible?"

Sniggering on his pillow, he said, "Yes, Papa. I opened up lots and lots of Youtube accounts so I can dislike the video many times over. I am the cause of his 'disliked fame'!"

Almost 750 million hits(!!!!) for JB's Baby music video on Youtube. With  1.2 million likes
but 2.6 million dislikes. So Mika was not kidding...  And it's all thanks to him. But I don't
blame him for not liking JB anymore. At 6 years old you can forgive anything, but at 8 years
old you have started to acquire some fashion taste, and wearing a baseball cap sideways
is simply unacceptable. These are important things to learn on the Path. 

Err. Alright. "Well, if it's not him anymore, who is it? I bet it's me!" I replied.

"Noooo, Papa. Wait, let me swing the Wheel of Singers, my 5 favourite singers!.... Swing, swing, swing, swing the Wheel..." And so he went until, "Okay! Alright, here it is... Hey Papa, No. 5 is you...!

"Alright!" I exclaimed, but knowing that my son is giving me the token last place. So sweetot.

"Hmm... alright. No. 4 is Bruno Mars. Err... No. 3 is Katy Perry. No wait! No...No, It's Chris Brown (Mika will never put a MERE girl on his top list of anything because we all know that girls are yucky.). Alright... No.2 is... hmmm." Then Mika continued in a whisper, as if thinking aloud, "Hmmm... No... No, not Pitbull. He's just creepy. Oh yes, I got it! No. 2 is Red Foo and Sky Blu!

I actually like some of her songs. But even if Katy Perry can win the MTV Awards,
she will never ever get into Mikhail's Top 5 Singers. She's the wrong gender, you see.

I did not know them so I asked, "Who the heck is RedPoo and Skyblue? Are they a band?"

Mika laughed at my ignorance and answered, "Papaaa... it's Red FOO not RedPoo! LOL, Papa, LOL! (Yes, he actually says LOL instead of laughing) You know them, it's the two guys who sings 'Party Rock'!"

The members of LMFAO, RedFoo(left) and SkyBlu. RedFoo is actually SkyBlu's uncle.
RedFoo's father is the music mogul Berry Gordy (Founder of Motown Records),
who's Sky Blu's grandfather. The silsilah (historical precedences) of people
are important to know. This is also some of the stuff you learn on the Path.

Oh I see. Or in Mika's abbreviated grammar... o i c.

"Okay, Papa... my No.1 singer is someone who was born black but died white! He's name starts with err... M! It's Micheal Jackson!" Then he asked me, "How is that possible, Papa? How could he be black then die white?"

"Gee, I don't know, Mika. But I never knew you loved Micheal Jackson."

"I do, Papa. Even when I was 3 I already liked him." Mika said before wistfully concluding, "I was very sad, you know, when he died. Very sad."

r.i.p.

Yes, indeed. Life is often full of poignant sadness, sunshine. But it is also full of joyous and downright hilarious 'Mika' moments. And of course the singers... wonderful singers.

God bless the singers.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

Love Already Told Me, But I Disbelieved - Religion, Sufism, Escapism and Our Bold Presumptuous Promises

Love Already Told Me, But I Disbelieved

Love told me, "Be patient..."

Love told me, "Persevere..."

Love told me, "Eat healthy..."

Love told me, "Go to the gym..."

Love told me this and Love

Told me so many other things,

But did I listen?

Never...

So I was brought down,

My stature lowered,

My station left down low,

My wealth and my health

Waiting for a better tomorrow,

And then Love came to me in the night

And said, "Will you NOW then listen to me?"

Thus I replied, "Give me my pen that I might write 'Yes',

Give me my face that I might prostrate before Thee,

Give me my hands that I might do charity,

Give me the Sun that I might know where is West,

Give me my veil that I might hide my piety,

Give me my health that I might do all this

When now I know that all that

You've ever wished for me

Was for my best.

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

TWO AIMS. The spiritual path of the Sufis has two aims, to address our heavenly endeavours and our worldly enterprises. Because you know, unless you are packing it in, and retiring from your job to become a full-time paid-up member of the Path, you still gotta eat, sleep and work to provide a living for those whom you are responsible for.

What is the point if you are learned in the transcendental truths and knowledgeable in the history of the Saints when you are not well? You have to take care of yourself, sunshine - in all aspects of your life, health, wealth and worldly knowledge, that you might contribute to society as an upstanding citizen, and nevermind your most Sufi-esque pretension.

Otherwise, for all these 'meaningful' and 'profound' expositions on love, truths and mercies, your faith and your 'sufism' would become nothing but a form of escapism. And I know, masyaAllah, how I know that there is so much promise in you.

Believe me. For I am not lying. For I too was there on the Day of Promises when we each made our bold presumptuous promises to our One Loving God. And we promised each other before Him that we shall look out for one another, and to remind one another. So here I am, reminding you. And reminding myself too. God bless.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

Certainty is with God, in most other things doubt has a role to play...

1. Doubt as a blessing

If there is no doubt,

There would be no

Tales to tell,

Nothing to learn.

Within measure,

Even doubt,

While troubling,

Is a blessing.

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

It is okay to be doubtful about most things, my friend says - Politicians, currency exchange, price of oil, the weather, politico-preachers, the England football team (soccer they call it in America), the traffic congestion today, inflation, the ozone layer, the giant multinationals, the too-big-too-fail banks, the Rating agencies, the pharmaceutical companies, genetically modified food, etc. Really, the list can go on and on. We have this list because mankind and their agencies have proven time and again to have feet of clay - promising the world to us, but failing to deliver...

So my friend said that we should strive for certainty in our relationship with God instead. It is called 'yakin' and when all else fails, it is this certainty that will pull us through. We cannot all be saints or even saintly after all, nor geniuses or wise scholars. Most of us are really just trying to get through life without hurting (too many) people. I am fond of what the Prophet(pbuh) once said - "My follower is he whose hand and mouth no man or woman need fear of."

Thanks for driving in today, sunshine.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

What Stylish Gentlemen Are Wearing to Go Clubbing Nowadays - the Mosque and the Sufis(that's you, sunshine)

Well... you cannot blame me for sketching these two particular attires because of my
woolly-headed admiration for the Naqshbandi and Mehlevi Sufi Tariqas.
But you know... to each his/her own. Wear whatever you want, sunshine
so long as it has style and is cool. Even if nobody else does,
I am sure that God and the Prophet appreciates your effort
to look good and smell nice. Hehehe.

The Mosque. 

It makes sense you know... what I am suggesting. Well, it makes sense in the olden golden days of Islam. If going clubbing is essentially going to a place that leaves you feeling breathlessly happy and enraptured, then to the mosque we shall go for the heart-beating Mawluds (salawat and songs in praise of God and the Prophet). And if you want to witness two fantastic teams in the context of two grand masters of the Tariqa discoursing (that's debating politely) on transcendental truths, then to the mosque we shall again go, like football fans going to a Wembley Stadium finals. And if you want intellectual and spiritual gratification, again you go to the mosque to listen to and read about the advances in the sciences of astronomy, physics, biology, chemistry, medicine, psychology and the arts. And if you are looking for the best food, why visit restaurants when the richest philanthropists and the best cooks are donating their money and talents at the mosque? And if you are severely depressed and needing counsel, which Befrienders are better than the open-minded and tolerant wise men that habitually visit the mosque?

A big mosque in Kuala Lumpur.

Where is the Beauty? Where is the Love? Where is the Mercy?

Or is your mosque not like this at all? Is your mosque boring? Full of hide-bound rules-bound stony-hearted men (and women)? Is your mosque totally bereft of music and Mawlud? Is it just full of posters tacked up on the walls telling you what you are prohibited from doing (or dressing)? And really, is the young absent from the congregation? Where are the young teens and professionals? Of course, they are out at the clubs, the restaurants and the sport stadiums... because what is beautiful in the mosque does not exist there at this point in time.

If it is boring in the mosque, then un-boring it. But to do that, you gotta be there.

It is up to us. 

Whose fault is it? The mosque committee? The Wahabbis / Salafis or the Political-Islam reformists that fill up the Saf (row of prayers)? If we think that we are not represented, then surely it is beholden upon us to represent ourselves. So go to the mosque today, sunshine, and share the Love, without judgment on anyone.

Mikhail, in his constant struggle to remain awake during the Friday sermon. Poor kid.
But I don't blame him really. 

Have an awesome possum day. And bring some of your smiles and sunlight into the mosque...

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way