Keepsakes from Jerusalem and Medina - Umrah Pilgrimage Part 29

Maqam of Muhammad, within the holy precinct of the Masjid Nabawi, Medina.

Before I left for my Umrah Pilgrimage in end March 2011, I collected the du'a (prayers) that my friends and family desired that I ask in the holy mosques of the Masjidil Haram (Mecca), Masjid Nabawi (Medina) and Masjidil al-Aqsa (Jerusalem). I wrote it all in a little black journal which accompanied me on that beautiful journey. Typically, my elder brother, Saiful, was the last to pass me his du'a, which he wrote on a rough paper. That too I inserted into my book and when the time finally arrived that I was in the precinct of the Prophet's Maqam (tomb), I recited his words -

Ya Rasulullah, Peace and Blessings be upon you, your family and upon your noble companions.

Ya Mustafa, the Chosen One, the Servant of Mercy, sent by the All-Merciful to guide us back to our Lord,we ask you for your succour and support for the Hour is drawing ever closer, lest we be the lost ones, denied the sight and presence of Saidina Mahdi and Saidina Isa, Peace be upon them both.

Forgive us, Allah, for the sake of Your Beloved who rests now here, grant us this honour for the sake of Your Chosen One, that he may greet us at the Pool of Khawtar with happiness, well-pleased with us, and You, ya Allah, well-pleased with us.

Amin

A beautiful prayer, yes? My brother writes quite well, I think. It is easy to write when you write with sincerity.

In between the pages I also came across this little olive branch which I stole from the olive tree that grows closest to the entrance of the Maqam of Rabia (the famous female Sufi saint) on top Mount Olive in Jerusalem. I am not sure what to do with it now. But it is a keepsake, like all the memories of a sinner in pilgrimage.

Thank you, sunshine, for allowing me to share these memories with you. God bless your warm fuzzy hearts.

wa min Allah at-taufiq.

Life is beautiful, and daily God answers our prayers - Learning to be grateful in the face of grace

1. My Lord has Answered me

In my daily toil,

In my sleep, and in my play,

My Lord has answered me.

In my smallest needs,

And caught unaware,

He has answered me.

And to this end

This prose be,

Has He not answered me?

I woke up this morning to droid babble and sounds of laser shots. Mikhail was up earlier and had left the Clone Wars dvd playing. *Urgh* That little Yoda.

Leeds, UK. 1992

I do not know what to write today, but as I looked through my old prose I found this little favourite. It is a simple little idea, but when you think about it, it can change the world entirely. Simply put, there is nothing that you do, which is not granted by God. You want to drink, so you raise the cup to your lips and drink - God gave you the water. You want to say something, and you said it (hopefully something good!), God allowed your lips to say those words. You have and itch on your neck, your hand move to scratch it, God allowed that to happen.

Sometimes, we forget that between us wanting to do something and actually doing it, there is a time lapse. It may be days, weeks or even years, like when you want to finish your University Degree. It is common for us when we succeed in such long-term endeavour to give thanks to God. It is however less common for us to consider our daily actions as prayers. Even if I want to look out of the kitchen door, there is a millisecond time lapse between that desire and my eyes actually turning slightly to look out into the bright beautiful morning. In that shortest of moments, God has answered me, you see. It is so short that my mind do not even notice it, but the truth of reality is that, had God not wanted me to look out of the door, all sorts of intervening action might have happened. I might have had a stroke and expired. Or the chair I am sitting on might have collapsed. Or the lamp up on the ceiling might have fallen and hit me on the head. All potentially occurring in that millisecond. But none of that happened. In fact, I got what I wanted, and I have God to thank for.

Moses, outside the Law Faculty, University of Leeds, UK, 1992.
I wonder whether he actually prayed to be blessed with 6 kids (so far now),
the last 3 of whom is from a set of triplets. Ah, that is the thing about God answering
your prayers. He answers even those prayers which you never knew you prayed for.

And just like this little posting, Now I am done writing I will be posting this up. And if you are able to read this, well we then know that as God has done countless times already in this sinner's life, He has answered my prayers. Again.

May God answer yours.

wa min Allah at-taufiq.

God, Children and the Golden Clouds

13. Let me know You

When I stepped into the house,

My son came running to me,

Face smiling, eyes shining,

Luminous with happiness

And expectations.

Oh Lord, if I have never ran to You,

If I have never sought to embrace You

With a love unconditional.

Give me the opportunity,

Make the signs clear,

With no ambiguity.

Let me know You,

Let me run to You,

As a child would.

Face smiling, eyes shining,

Luminous with happiness

And expectations.

FATHER & SON. The analogy between parenthood and Godhood is painfully sweet. It is sweet because it lays firm the foundation of love and affection between the Creator(God) and the Created(us). It is a little painful because it also reveals the innate imperfection of man, as our children grow older and discover that in spite of their earlier observations, perhaps Papa is not so perfect after all. In fact, Papa is such a dodo (as how Mikhail will imagine me to be, not in a too distant future).

GOLDEN CLOUDS. Yesterday I was not running, I was just walking after a rainstorm. My face was neither smiling nor my eyes shining. But as I was finishing my route I suddenly looked up and saw the sky, and somehow I thought that the clouds, golden in the evening sun was profoundly luminous. Was this a clear sign?

Have a lovely day, sunshine. Full of beautiful golden clouds.

wa min Allah at-taufiq.

Love is like Riding the Mechanical Bull. Turned On.

This is not love. This is what you call posing. Love begins
when you turn that bally thing on.

Heche tells me that I am opinionated and bitchy. She reckons that when me and my good buddy, King, get together, all that we do is bitch, bitch, bitch. She is of course wrong. Women bitch, men air out their views. Women are opinionated. Men are just passionate in what they believe. Honestly. You would think she can see the difference.

Heche says that if I was rich (am I not?), I would be absolutely unbearable and that she would probably not even go out with me. Well, I hope that won't be true. I always had this fanciful thought that God would only rain gold on me if I am able to bear the responsibility of money. Maybe one day. Right now, having ready cash is good, but I worry about the things I would get up to if I had loads of money. I am after all a sinner. Maybe I appear to be humble because I actually don't have the dosh to spend on cars, women and toys.

If you have not imagined the possibility, me and Heche were thrown together by circumstances, and more than two years ago, I cautioned her in a poem. I guess she didn't really know and I was just infatuated, but even so...

98. My life, my love, my kingdom!

Oh maiden!

Come not so close to me!

Don’t smile that smile of yours,

Nor let glitter that light in your eyes!

For my heart is not made of iron,

And if you continue to do these things you do,

I am afraid that one day I shall do it,

And offer you my life, my love, my kingdom.

Hehehe. I sound so pompous. But I was torn, you see, by the eternal riddle - Friendship? Love? BF? GF? I sighed, moaned and bitched internally for 6 months I reckon before something happened. Fate got tired waiting for me to make the first move and simply pushed me over the precipice.

Well, once over the precipice, there is nothing much to do but hold on. Love is like riding a mechanical bull. And love is about finding out that after so much of your romantic posing, there is really no life, no love and no kingdom of yours to offer her. For here, you will find that she is your life, she is your love and she is your kingdom. And I would not dare write these things, if God is not in the picture.

If you dislike the thought of humiliation, eating humble pie and
falling on your arse time and time again, then really...
take my advice and don't fall in love.

Just sharing, sunshine. Have a wonderful Friday.

wa min Allah at-taufiq.

God is in a hurry to give you gifts - Motherly Love and the Approved Channels

107. Yoga, Yoda, Mama and Such

In His Unstoppable Charity

God cannot wait to give stuffs

To these stupid humans,

So He sneaks them in

Through different packaging.

God doesn't wait for you to be ready for His gifts. The gifts (big and small), are coming as fast as the fastest arrow from an Angel's bow. Think about it -

Your Birth. God doesn't wait for you to be ready for birth. He knows you will not learn to appreciate it when you are 2 years or 20 years old. No, the awareness and understanding of the gift behind your creation will unfold like rose petals - one understanding after the other, day by day.

Your Mother's Love. And take my mother for instance (well, God did in fact take her... back in May 2002). Arbayah (for that was her name) was the sublime gift which I could not really comprehend. After years of being spoiled silly, taught, fed and disciplined(ish) - when my mother passed away, this sinner could still not grasp who 'mother' really was. No, it is taking almost a decade for me to relive the memories I have with my late mother, to slowly begin to understand what a mother's love is all about, and just how far does that light shines. So you see, there is no end in educating Taufiq about his mom, but that didn't stop God from giving my mother to me first. Sometimes you gain experience, and only much later do you learn the lesson and appreciation of such experiences. Sad, but true.

YOU ARE ALL APPROVED CHANNELS. In my short life, I have heard a politician speak the truth, I have heard a preacher lie and I have seen too many goodness flowing from people who carry a faith different from mine. So in God's hurry to give us goodies, He does not necessarily opt to use the 'approved channel'. And you know why? Because all good things which come through people, make such people an 'approved channel'. I truly believe this and I think that is simply awesome of God.

BACK TO MUMSIE. And how far does the light of a mother's love shine, you ask? Time cannot encompass it and no space can contain it. For it is a divine tributary from the Ocean of Love that is the Majesty of God, Most Compassionate and Most Merciful. You may call her Mummie, Mom, Mama, Mother, Mak, Mater, Bonda, Ibu or Ama, but to God and the Prophet, she is an embodiment of True Love.

So love your mothers, sunshine. And be open to people.

wa min Allah at-taufiq.

YOUR BLIND DATE WITH GOD - God loves you because of who you are and in spite of who you are.

25. My blind date with God

We all have a date with God,

A blind date, in a manner of speaking,

Though truth be told,

We are the one blind,

And not Him.

And is it not wonderful that

Though He sees you already,

He has not rejected you?

Oh, children of Adam,

Nation of Muhammad

How lucky are you

With your Date!

A BLIND DATE. We all have a date with Destiny. A blind date of sorts. One day we shall meet our Maker, a.k.a. God Himself. And He has ordained Prophets, Saints and the holy scriptures to give us hints and clues as to our Date's personality and attitude, His preferences and dislikes. But over and above that, God has also given us ourselves and this world as a go-between. God has asked us to look at the world around us, and within ourselves, and surely, He says, there are signs of Divine Unity that we may discern.

GOD ACCEPTS NO RAIN CHECKS. This soon-to-be and never-to-be-postponed date with God will come, and we cannot bring it forward or ask God to take a rain check. Yet we find people (please include me there) who live their lives as if that day shall never come. As if they shall live forever.

WHAT GOD IS LOOKING IN A DATE. If you read God's likes and dislikes, it is easy to see what He looks for in the perfect date - Nice. Friendly. Trustworthy. Honest. Compassionate. Fair. Patient. Humble. Courageous. Chivalrous. Now I am looking at myself in the mirror, and oh boy... am I in trouble! I am NOT gonna be this perfect date that God is waiting to meet.

Sigh. How will I look awesome for the Blind Date
when I have this freaking thing on my face? Help!

HOPE. But now we come to a happy and hopeful bit. God knows me already. God knows about all my mistakes and sins of the the past. He knows about the small pen knife I stole when I was 11 years old. He knows that I smoke and eat too much. He knows that I get angry-stupid easily. And not even my best friend will say that Taufiq is a very patient man. Yet God, in spite knowing all that, has not scratched me from His Divine Blind Date list. For I am still here. Breathing, living, kicking and eating. He has not rejected me, you see. Despite having all the reasons to do so.

And that is why I love this Blind Date best of all - God loves you because of who you are and in spite of who you are.

But if you have a blind date set up soon, don't be like me, sunshine. Make yourself pretty for him / her.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

The Prophet & the Apple Tree

THE APPLE TREE

Will they remember me, my friend?

When I am long buried in

The earth of my world,

Will they know that once

Walked a man in love with Muhammad?

Will the walls upon which

I cast my shadows remember

How I venerated the Prophet?

Will the sky bear witness to

My endless wandering seeking him?

Will the trees remember me

Touching their rough bark, 

Pleasantly Remembering Muhammad, 

Mercy to all the Worlds?

Will songwriters know how I stole

Their words and melodies to make

A whole new world in praise of the Prophet?

Will my son recall my words of praise,

Each trying to best the other in

Describing his sublime delicacy?

Will the night remember me falling tired,

Wearied by this world, and wishing another day

To manifest a greater love for Muhammad?

Will the earth speak of my aching feet

That carried my heart which was too infatuated

With the Universal Song for Muhammad,

Praised high by God Himself?

Will I be known as wise or foolish,

When all this while I desired neither,

Save only to be recalled home

To the feet of Muhammad?

- To the ocean and high mountain of Ahmad,

To the resonance of a truth witnessed

By every apple falling off an apple tree,

By every atom whirling in mystery.

A seeker permitted me to eavesdrop on his (typically) melancholic longing for Muhammad. It is almost painful to read the prose, as the seeker poured his heart out like melted butter. But the Lord and all His Angels praise the Prophet, thus however high you extol Muhammad's virtues, you will not come close to his essence, for the truth of his essence is something beyond words. So praise him, Muslims, something that even a Hindu poet encouraged in Annemarie Schimmel's book ' AND MUHAMMAD IS HIS MESSENGER - The Veneration of the Prophet in Islamic Piety'. This was what Shivprasad Dohi observed - 

"How should not men, angels, and djinn praise him

Since God Most High Himself has praised him?"

To which Annemarie adds that this same poet claimed that his soul was "a moth around the candle of meeting with Mustafa (another name of the Prophet, meaning the Chosen)"

Do not fear the true lovers of Muhammad, my brethren of another faith. For if someone is truly a lover of Muhammad, he is a lover of Mercy. And he would not do or say anything out of turn, and certainly not to harm any one. The religion of Muhammad is not defined in the terror, hateful action and propaganda of the bigoted and violent. Find a true lover of the Prophet, and verily, you will find in him/her a true friend. For those touched by the love of Muhammad extols the same love for all humanity. For you cannot be someone from the Nation of Muhammad if you are not a servant to humanity. That is the beautiful obligation you must carry if you desire to know God's Most Beloved. It is a heavy responsibility, yes? Are the Muslims ready to bear this?

wa min Allah at-taufiq