Spilling Cups of Tea - Love the Eternal Opposites and God The Eternal Assurance

The Eternal Opposites

& The Eternal Assurance

Love is easy

And Love is not,

Love is Mercy

And Love is God!

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

As a vessel of very human emotions and peccadilloes, we often make life difficult for ourselves. Love is easy, but this certain condition of the human species makes it hard for us sometimes to assimilate love in our daily life - If a friend betrays your confidence, do you still feel the love? If your mate makes a cutting remark about your family, do you still feel the love? If your employer says that he has to cut overtime this month, do you still feel the love? If a policeman pulls you over for talking on your cellphone while driving, do you still feel the love? If a waiter accidentally spills a cup of tea on your nice clean shirt, do you still feel the love?

Ah, such is life, that our cup of love often spills just as the cup of tea did, and we feel irritated and angry. No love there, just a predominant thought running through our ruffled soul, "I want to speak to the manager now!"

But thankfully, to my heart, the highest manifestation of Love is Mercy. And Mercy by any other name is ar-Rahman and ar-Rahim, being God's most beloved names (He admits it!) and divine attributes as the Most Compassionate and Most Merciful. Call unto Me by My Beautiful Names, Call unto Me for support, guidance and reward, God said. Call unto Me, for verily, I made thee of a weak nation and often vacillating between good and evil, right and wrong. Call unto My forgiveness, for I want to forgive thee. That is God to me. The Eternal Assurance.

I write nothing new really. I just kinda rehash the same ol' kindergarten truths passed down through the ages by your own ancestors. But I guess I need to remind myself of such blessings, each and every day. Lest I forget that even if Life and Love can at times be tough, God is Most Merciful and His crowning glory of mercy in all Creation is His most Beloved, our Prophet Muhammad Habibullah(pbuh).

There. A happy ending for a posting. I leave you now to continue your journey to your own happy ending.

Take care, sunshine. Have mercy - don't call the manager and overlook other people's errors, that God might show you forgiveness too and overlook your own habits of spilling cups of tea. He he he. 

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

And the Way is Mercy

If Love is Trying To Drown You, Why Struggle? - the challenging quest of comprehending God and Love

94. I heard this somewhere, I read this somewhere

You say you love God,

Say instead that you love

The idea of God,

For if God has wrecked

Your ship on the rocks

Of fate, why then are you

Still holding on to

Floating planks?

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

I am guilty of speaking easily about love, that four letter word that has conquered hate and hubris, been the fountain of many happy marriages, a constant inspiration for poets, singers and songwriters and has brought evil empires and tyrants down to heel. Love, simple to comprehend, is difficult to master for sinners like myself, who is still here in the kindergarten of Love, the biggest 'little boy' in the playground.

I don't know about you, but I am in love with the idea of God most of the time, and actually loving God during brief storms of clarity that has dashed my ship against the rocks that surround the shores of my soul. And even then, I am afraid that I often gasp for air and cling to the row or any other floating plank close at hand. For you see, I am not really very good with this love malarkey.

The angels often comment that it was my weight that ultimately sank my boat, and not love. But what do angels know?

Thus I am, my friend. Weak and prone to selfishness, conceited and often ruled by a hot temper. It is just my luck that God and the Prophet(pbuh) has populated my corner of the Mercy Ocean with saintly friends, family and sainted masters that would come to my rescue and heave my soaking wet self on board. But perhaps I was always destined to be a stowaway on someone else's ship. For I know that left to myself, I shall never be able to venture far into the beautiful blue waters of God's Mercy Ocean. Oh no, now that I think about it, I am not complaining at all. But before I conclude, I must ask you this -

The Question

If you are about to journey across God's Mercy Ocean,

Why are you wearing a life-jacket?
And if Love is trying 
To drown you,
Why struggle?

Hehehe.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

Mohamet and the Saracens - facing up to an ancient prejudice

If you recall, while I was in Singapore I purchased Karen Armstrong's book entitled 'Muhammad - A Biography of the Prophet'. The book was originally written by her as a personal quest to challenge the general Western mass media sentiment vilifying Islam because of the Ayatollah's 1990 'fatwa' calling for the death of Salman Rushdie. The sudden clarion call to defend Western civilization, liberty and freedom became an overwhelming denunciation of almost all things Islam, reigniting ancient European prejudices against those savage Saracens and their false prophet Mohamet, but now dressed less as a Christian response but more as a secular post-Age of Enlightenment indignation.

Within a month after the controversial fatwa, the Islamic Congress of 45 Islamic states voted and resolved by a majority of 44-1 that the fatwa was unIslamic, the one single state alienated being the origin of the ruling itself, Iran. But Armstrong noted that nobody(and I mean nobody) in European politics or media was willing to entertain and air this important decision adopted by the vast majority of Muslim countries. Because, as we shall find in the course of time, the general attitude of the mainstream media is to blame terror and extremism of Muslims as being caused by their religion, and praise Muslim's moderation and tolerance as arising in spite of their religion - fuel for the fire that has been burning in the breast of the West for more than 1,000 years since the founding of Islam.

I am up to page 39 of the first chapter entitled 'Muhammad the Enemy' as Armstrong seeks to put the reaction of the West towards the Ayatollah's fatwa and the more recent 9/11 horror within the context of an ancient and almost tribal vendetta against Islam and its Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). I do not know about anyone else, but I was profoundly disturbed as she reeled out examples after examples of European church, Kings and intellectual denunciations and insults being rained on the 'Arabians', 'Saracens', savages of the desert and the heretical teachings of the imposter, the Antichrist Mohamet. And alas, such perception arose from misinformation and a skewered worldview that firstly, sees the Western civilization as the highest pinnacle of human endeavour and secondly, that nothing of worth can ever come out of the savages and primitive cultures that lie outside the boundaries of Europe. Again, it is the hubris and the racial-driven convenience to divide the world between the 'us' and 'them'.

The old world view is coming back with a vengeance.

It is neither anger nor indignation that wells up in my heart reading Armstrong's exposition of this Mohamet as an enemy. It is a profound sense of sadness and realization that there is a great wall of hate and hubris that stands between nations and religions. How internalized prejudices and bigotry can misguide the most rationale or the most religious of peoples.

I know that some of my readers are non-Muslims. If you sympathise with my writing, I thank you. Thank you for not believing the hate-filled news reports and comments in the mainstream AND in the alternative mass and social medias. Thank you for giving me a little corner of your conscience and allowing me a little time to share with you stories and prose about Islam and the Prophet(pbuh). In whatever creed you may be dressed in, surely God is looking and smiling at the empathy and tolerance that you are showing us. Bless you, sunshine.

wa min Allah at-taufiq.

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

Salman and the Best Mirror in all Creation - song and hymn writing in different languages

1. Find a Native Speaker

There is simply no way

For you to write nasyids

And mauluds in another

Language. The best you

Can and ought to do,

Is to find a native speaker

And share a mirror

Together. There is really

No other way to grasp

The nuances and inflection

Of a different nation.

Salman al Farsi knew this,

But he was blessed to find

The Best Mirror of Hijaz

And the Best Mirror of all Creation!

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

I wish I could understand Arabic, both modern and ancient. Perhaps I shall find time to study, but oh boy, nowadays I am in such a hurry.

Amongst the earlier Grand Shaykhs of the Naqshbandi Order is Salman al Farsi (Salman the Persian), and I am fond of him because he was a non-Arab. When some of the naughtier Companions raised issue that he(Salman) did not belong to any renowned Arab family or clan, the Prophet heard of this and said, "Salman is of my House..."

Thus he was fortunate to find a sympathetic heart, a heart most renowned in kindness, not only in Hijaz, but indeed in all of creation - Muhammad Habibullah(pbuh). Now I am wondering if Salman ever wrote any Arab hymns and songs (nasyid and mawluds) in praise of God and in praise of the Prophet(pbuh)... Or perhaps in his native Persian?

If you know, sunshine... do share with me!

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

The Djinn Battles above Kuala Lumpur, circa early 1970s - the Djinns, the Caliph and the coming melee

The sky seems empty but for the gorgeous sunset. But what is
going on up there that we do not see?

Sunday ended beautifully with a dimming sunset in red and golden hue. But it was under this same sky, some 40 years ago that a young Mr. Ikhlas (see below on my earlier postings about Mr.Ikhlas) was driving to Kuala Lumpur one auspicious night. He was travelling along one of the main tributaries into the capital city, Jalan Kuching, which was then a single lane trunk road winding its way through a quiet and very much rural scene when he suddenly notice something very strange overhead. Very strange indeed. He stopped the car by the side of the road and came out to have a better look.

The Djinns were in a pitch battle with each other above the skies of Kuala Lumpur. "It was a pitiless fight, a very bloody battle. No quarter was given and none was expected...", said Mr. Ikhlas.

It is funny that coincidentally I am informed that there is a right ruckus now in the Djinn nations. With the advent of the new Caliph of Islam, King Abdullah II of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, the ancient veteran Djinn soldiers of the Caliphs are mobilising in battle orders for yet another upcoming melee against their old adversaries, the evil Djinns.

Fascinating stuffs. These are interesting times that we live in, sunshine. And just when you think that the sinner is only writing about love, mercy and beauty. But such events are occurring even as I am writing this. Just as the saints and angels go about their business often unseen, so too do the Djinns, and belief in their existence is an implicit part of our faith. Not many people are given (I shall not say blessed, because it is a burden) the third eye to see the Djinns, but for some, like Mr.Ikhlas and others, it is already a part of their life.

It is only with the grace of God and the guidance of the Prophet(pbuh) and the saints that such men are able to carry the weight of their responsibility with a light heart but a determined will. For contacts between mankind and djinnkind is always fraught with dangers, both physical and spiritual. And some men and djinns, alas, have fallen very low indeed. May God have mercy on them.

Contacts with Djinns is like climbing a mountain.
You get to see interesting things but lo, if you misstep
and lose your foothold and slip!

My prayers and thoughts today go to Mr.Ikhlas and such men who unbeknownst to the rest of mankind have toiled hard in the dark spaces between our reality and the Djinn's world to keep at bay the hounds of hate that ever seek to possess and misguide the human spirit.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Earlier Postings on Mr.Ikhlas -
*The Holy Quran, Mr. Ikhlas and Katmir the Dog - Man's Best Friend
*Mr. Ikhlas, Black Magic and The Divine Shyness in the Presence of Villainy

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

Pearls from the Ahad Ocean and Stars plucked from the Ahmad Skies - and cats too...

Pearls from the Ahad Ocean, and Stars plucked from the Ahmad Skies

I have called you here, my sons and daughters,

To give you pearls from the Ahad Ocean

And stars plucked from the Ahmad Skies,

Yet, instead of offering your hand

To take what I am offering

You bring to me plastic trinkets and broken toys

Asking, “Ya Sayeedi! Help me fix them!”

O’ my son and daughters, I shall grasp your hand

And shake your spirit, for it is not these trivial things

That require remedy, but your will and spirit

That are fixated to them.

O’ my sons and daughters, there is a universe to be conquered and surrended,

A Throne to be erected and mirrors to be polished,

Great chivalrous deeds await to be done

By one who would deign to wear

The servant’s sandals,

So help me help you!

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

I was at the office today (yes, on a Sunday) clearing up seven years of clutter. There is perhaps no profession that collects so much clutter than a solicitor. But as I was tidying up, I was about to chuck an old notebook of mine into the garbage bag when instinctively I decided to flip through the notebook. There, in between pages and pages of notes, minutes, schedules, legal workflows, dry comments and random doodling were some old forgotten prose. Two poems in fact, recorded on 27th December 2004. Above is the first one.

I guess I must smile and chuckle a little reading this prose again. But I remember those days when I was a little more uptight and censorious. I am quite relaxed now (well, at least on most days). If you are in the company of a Shaykh, it really doesn't matter whether the problems you bring to the Shaykh is big or small, trivial or of cosmic significance. For he will treat you kindly, and attend to such things as that matter dearly to you. I have heard a Shaykh even commiserate and pray over a mureed's (student's) sick tabby cat. He he he.

Cats or NOT trivial things. In ancient Egypt we were worshiped as gods!

Thank you for coming by today, sunshine.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

We are not seeking knowledge, we are seeking to remove the barriers to knowledge - dear old Rumi

"Is that the Quran you are reading, little boy?" asked the Angel.

The Holy Quran is also known as the Holy Furqan, meaning the Criterion or the Standard by which one judges right and wrong, and what deeds that God prohibits, discourages, recommends or makes compulsory upon Muslims .

In the old days, when I used to think about the hukums (rules / laws), I get blurry-eyed and bored, thinking, “Rules, rules and more rules! Is God only God of Rules?!” Well, God is still the God of Rules (the Sharia), and obedience is frankly, the best and straightest path to happiness and grace. But, as others have informed me much to my happy delight, God is also the God of the Tariqa (the spiritual path/journey), a God of the Haqiqa (the Absolute Reality), and God of the Maqrifa (gnosis or direct spiritual knowledge of God).

Rumi always had a lot of things to
share with us. He was like a stream,
pouring forth love and wisdom.

All these technical terms sound terribly complicated, but as dear old Rumi once said, “We are not seeking knowledge, we are seeking to remove the barriers to knowledge.” And really that makes all the sense in the world, for God is not putting an ardous quest for you. For where is knowledge if it is not with God in the divine presence, and where is God if He is not closer to you that your jugular(vein)? - there is a veil cast over your eyes that you do not see Him. So to paraphrase Rumi, “We are not seeking God. We are seeking to remove the barriers to God.” And indeed as one Indonesian analogy once described, the sought end that is the Maqrifa is the ability to see the true God from the false gods manufactured by our own egos, Nafs (base desires) and the whisperings of the Devil. Perhaps you may think that all these fine subtle differences are a waste of time, but God is not anything if not God the Most Fine and the Most Subtle One. For verily, the meaning of al-Furqan goes deeper than only 'the Criterion' or 'the Standard' by which we may evaluate and improve our individual lives. At a more intricate and intimate level, al-Furqan suggests discernment. 

I would like to end this posting on this lovely Sunday morning in reference to the Godly bit about the jugular vein as mentioned in the Holy Quran (50:16) –

We verily created man and We know what his soul whispereth to him, 

and We are nearer to him than his jugular vein. (Marmaduke Pickthall)

Have a lovely day, sunshine.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way