The Family Tree in the Forest of Promises - Prose of Ramadhan Part 72

God will NEVER find me in here. *chuckle*

The Family Tree (Ramadhan Verses 37)
“Let’ play hide and seek,” God said.
“I will close my eyes and count to ten.”

“Yeah! Don’t peek!” I remember yelling out to God
As I scurried about in the Forest of Promises.

I looked all around until I found a beautiful tree which had a hollow in it. There was a sign at the base which read ‘Mummy + Daddy’. “Whatever that means?” I remember thinking. Anyway, I managed to climb up, crept into the hole and was chuckling to myself in the cosy darkness, “God will NEVER find me in here.”

Then I fell asleep. I don’t know for how long.

When I woke up, I was in the embrace of a beautiful woman. And I saw a man wearing spectacles looking over her. “Hi, Taufiq.” She said. This was clearly not heaven, but boy, did they look heavenly.

I have been here for 41 years now. Is God still looking for me?

I kinda miss Him.

And that beautiful woman passed away in 2002. So I kinda miss her too.

.....The End...


Have a beautiful Friday, my friends. Love your fathers and mothers.

wa min Allah at-taufiq.

I am you, the Complete Soul - Prose of Ramadhan Part 71

I am the complete soul (Ramadhan Verses 36)

I am my flames of punishment,

I am my rivers of paradise,

I am the candle,

I am me.

I am the laughter of little babies,

I am the stolen kisses,

I am the grass 

I am the trees,

I am the shattered heart,

I am the complete soul,

I never age,

I never

Grow

Old.

I do not exist

Save as a divine metaphor,

You were born, you live,

Then you die.

But I? I never passed

Through that

Door.

I am you

In the Divine Presence

You may not remember me,

But I certainly

Remember

You.

I am informed by reliable sources that the soul which inhabit our bodies is but a small fragment of our original soul, which continues to abide in the Divine Presence. So we are here in our skins, exiled from a place which is greater than heaven. While we loiter around on earth, our complete soul, though captivated in a sublime pleasure which cannot be described, awaits our homecoming to the Divine.

Our soul in the Divine Presence is happy, but incomplete - As we often sense ourselves here in the mortal realm, even in our most ecstatic of experiences.

Something to ponder over, dear old soul.

wa min Allah at-taufiq.

If God is Best, why settle for less? - Prose of Ramadhan Part 70

Why settle for less?
(Ramadhan Verses 35)
O' little man,
O' slave of your passion,
Do not choose in haste,
Whether in a state of delight
Or cold sorrow.

Pause and stay your choice,
Wait until tomorrow.

Give your most passionate deeds
For God, the only safe host
Of passion.

Do not burden people
With your undying, 
Give your yearning
To the Only True Undying.

Do not give your heart away
That most priceless treasure,
Give your heart unto Him
Who will give you more
Than your fair measure.

If God is Best,
Why settle for less?

If you love someone, let him/her be. If you love somebody, set them free - Sting had something to sing about that... (Click Here)

It is the able lover who will set his lover free. It is the able friend who will have the conviction of purpose, the certainty bordering madness who will set his friend free. Free from the chains of his words and actions, free from the tyranny of his cutting words. For a true friend will not feel hurt at all, he will feel love, and look beyond the words, seeing with the keen sight of a believer. Beware if you have such a friend or a lover. For he or she will see beyond your hurtful words and protestation. You shall not understand him or her fully, but you are blessed to have their company. For it is only with God are they truly happy, and they do not place the burden of their undying (fill in here... love / hope / trust / belief) in you. To them, you are always a reflection of God, however awful you can be. I am speaking as one who can be truly awful (just ask anybody) to his closest and dearest.

In any relationship between one person and another, God is not just a helpful third, God is, in truth, the One and Only, and we are naught but mirrors. Or so I am told.

Have a joyful Thursday night, my Mirror, my Trinity, my Love.

wa min Allah at-taufiq.

A Wedding Day for a Poem and a Picture - Prose of Ramadhan Part 69

4. It is He
It is my Love that sends me
Pearls from His Ocean,
Saying, “Whither will you get pearls
If not from Me?”

It is my Love that sends me
Trials and loneliness,
Saying, “Whither will you find happiness
If not with Me?”

It is my Love that wraps His secrets
In veils and green ribbons,
Saying, “No love is greater than My Love,
No better place than being my servants.”

It is my Love that leaves me a beggar,
It is He that brings me closer,
The Wind in my sail, the Wave on my bow,
From stormy sea to gentle harbour.
It is He, my Love, and no other.

This prose is a very old prose and was posted earlier, but I just sketched the picture today - so today is the blessed day of union for the two lovebirds. Did I know that the picture would be wedded with this particular poem? Of course not! Love just happens, like in real life. 

Anyway, thank you for coming, for I have been frantically worrying about where to hold the wedding reception. The churches, mosques, temples and synagogues are all fully booked. But now that you are here, might I borrow a little corner of your heart for a ceremony of love? That is why you are here, right?

God bless you! Thank you, sunshine   ;)

wa min Allah at-taufiq.

Let's not monopolise God. He's not ours. We are His - Prose of Ramadhan Part 68

19. New Religion

When kindness, love and mercy

Become alien to faith,

They will come unto you and ask,

Is this a new religion of which you speak?

(note; poem was also referred in other earlier posting)

You speak of the non-Muslims as if it doesn't matter at all that they are not Muslims - Perhaps it is because I myself am fearful to claim that I am a Muslim. For I leave that for God to consider. In any event, I too would like to be judged by my actions and not by the religion that I claim to believe in. Especially when there are some who would be doing bad things in the name of the same religion. If we abhor profiling of Muslims, we must also abhor profiling of non-Muslims. Make sense, right?

You speak as if all the traditions of the non-Muslims are worthy as Muslim traditions - More often that not, those traditions came into existence for a reason. Some are good reasons and others may be not so good reason. But traditionally (and no puns intended here), traditions of people, especially when it comes to the family unit is absolutely essential to maintain a harmonious balance. And things like telling the truth, not stealing, being charitable are all traditional values of all races and religion. Because such sentiments arise from the human soul, and not the trappings of your religion or race. Religion merely augments them. In any event we must remember that even if some traditions are national, racial or regional in nature, growing parallel with the religious background, this doesn't however mean that such traditions are wrong. Indeed, it is my firm belief that if you are a Muslim, you must be a multiculturalist, if there is such a word. Hehehe.

If you are a Christian, Jew, Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim or Trekkie, you must... let's be honest here, admit that there may be a couple of your practices which appear alien and strange to others. Perhaps even abhorrent. Yet, if you believe in God, and that He encourages good deeds and discourages bad ones, how are you different from any other who believes the same? The only problem arises when people are interested to augment their lack of faith by denigrating others, by pointing out other people's weaknesses and differences. They may say they are Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims or Trekkies, but in truth they worship at the altar of the Religion of Hubris.

We are all resting under the shade of the Tree of God. You are looking up and seeing the different colours of the leaves and flowers in bloom as compared to me, and also different from the view perceived by Moses the cat. But what of it? It is still the life, love and shelter given by the same One God.

We cannot monopolise God. Indeed, when we do monopolise 'God', it is not God that we monopolise, but the idols that our own ego cradles in the spur of our most selfish and arrogant thoughts, words and action. And I know that you are so much better than that.

Thank you, sunshine, for reading the almanac today.

Have a wonderful Thursday.

Pax Taufiqa.

Just another Love Letter to God - Prose of Ramadhan Part 67

My Lord is Love (Ramadhan Verses 34)
My Lord is Love,
And He has many lovers,
Not a moment does He tire
In His Loving Labour.

My Lord is Love,
And He has infinite hands,
Not a moment does He waver
In His Divine Plan.

My Lord is Love,
And everything is His dominion,
Not a moment does He dither
In attending to His creation.

My Lord is Love,
And He is the Constant Friend,
Not a moment is He deaf
To His lovers’ lament.

My Lord is Love
And He is Most Pleasing,
Not a moment does He tire
Of His lovers’ flirting.

My Lord is Love
And there is nothing to fear
But losing His Love,

Yet His Love is forever…

So now is the clincher - 
Is your love for Him as enduring
And as sincere?

Of course the answer is no (for a lot of people). We are like little grains of sand blown by the upheavals of our conscience in our never-ending struggle with our ego. We don't always think of God. We are busy with living and breathing. Chasing datelines, getting married, waiting for a Big Mac at the neighbourhood MacD. I don't blame you. I too often forget God. When I get mad at people and inanimate things (I am a specialist at that last bit, ask Heche). When I despair of my fortune. When I come across re-runs of Barney the Dinasour.

I sit still a lot nowadays. When sorrow or anger is washing across my subconsciousness, I try not to react ('try' being the definitive word here). It is easiest when I am alone. Then I would just wait for the flood to abate. And then, just like right now, I would write.

Since I cannot be right all the time, I write. It's a form of free-therapy, I guess. So thank you for being my unpaid psychiatrist. Hehehe. At the end of the day, we may not be 100% sincere, and we are a handful for God to handle. But as the prose above goes, God's hands are infinite... so it is only right that we are a handful!

May God bless you, sunshine. And may God bless this wonderful world He has created with Love.

wa min Allah at-taufiq.

VICTORY FOR THE US of A. The New Jersey Governor and the Muslim Judge - Prose of Ramadhan Part 66

I like American politics. It is just like Malaysian politics - bipartisan, mad and full of interesting characters. I have been following American politics since 2008 and am full of admiration for the good people (and even some politicians) who are fighting the good fight and trying their level best to keep America in her best traditions of multiculturalism, enterprise, freedom of religion, free speech and secular form of governance. So in the course of my understudy, I therefore have very little nice things to say about the Republican Party, and the right wing nuts that appear to infest its hive.

So today I was happy to bump into Chris Christie, the current incumbent Governor of New Jersey. Christopher James "Chris" Christie was born in Newark in 1962, a lawyer, a lobbyist, a former District Attorney and clearly in the Bush team for the duration of the former President’s tenure in the White House (he was a top fundraiser for Bush’s 2000 presidential election). He was a pal of Carl Rove and a mover and shaker in the rarified heights of Republican party organisation. So there is (normally) no reason why I should sing his praise. Until I watched this YouTube video …

He looks like a cast member in the Sopranos, don’t you think? So now I have two things I admire coming out of New Jersey - the Sopranos and Governor Chris Christie. You see, the Governor earned the ire of the right wing fundo-nuts when he appointed Sohail Muhammed, an American of Indian Muslim descent, as a Superior Court judge in New Jersey. By defending Sohail Muhammed and speaking so candidly against the ‘crazies’ in his own party and the right-wing movement, he has painted a political bull’s eye on his back. But by God, how I admire his courage. I don’t care what his antecedents are, but for this brief moment in time, he is one of the stars that are shining brightly in these dark nights that we are living in.

Another fine New Jersey export.

I have been preparing this posting the whole day. And each time I get back to it (I do actually work, you know) I ask myself this question, - Am I being overly enthusiastic about this little piece of American drama? But when I re-watch the video, my sentiment about this story is still the same. There are just so few good stories coming out of American politics that it affects me in places only goodness and love can reach - Chris’s constituency is not just New Jersey anymore, it is now the world. Simply because he decided to speak from his conscience.

God bless his Christian heart.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Please do a good job, Mr. Sohail. You will be judged
even though you are the judge now. God bless you...

After this, I don't know how his political career will develop,
But boy, I wish the Governor the very best...

This is a victory for the US of A. I hope the Americans
will realise this.