The Unknowable ... Mahmud Shabistari ...

Ponder on God's Mercies ... 

But not on His essence ...

For His works come forth from His essence ... 

Not His essence from His works ... 

His light shines on the whole universe ...

Yet He Himself is hidden from the universe ...

What is seen is not the truth ... Kabir ...

What is seen is not the Truth

What *is* cannot be said

Trust comes not without seeing

Nor understanding without words

The wise comprehends with knowledge

To the ignorant it is but a wonder

Some worship the formless God

Some worship His various forms

In what way He is beyond these attributes

Only the Knower knows

That music cannot be written

How can then be the notes

Says Kabir, awareness alone will overcome illusion

This verse of Kabir deals with the concept of Illusion and
Reality ... 

A lot has been written on this issue, yet an average person 
is trapped in the conflict of illusion and reality ... 
The only Truth, the One Inexpressible God, is obviously beyond expression ... 

In simple words, illusion is something that is mutable or changeable ... 
And, ignorance is to believe this illusion to be true.

Kabir in this verse affirms that only when one becomes aware and regulates
one's affairs with awareness ... Only then one can be free from the pitfalls of
illusion – (Rajender Krishan)

Che Guevara ...

The road is long and full of difficulties ... 

At times we wander from the path and must turn back ... 

At other times we go too fast and separate ourselves from the masses ... 

On occasions we go too slow and feel the hot breath of those treading on our heels ... 

In our zeal as revolutionists we try to move ahead as fast as possible ... 

Clearing the way, but knowing we must draw our sustenance from the mass ... 

And that it can advance more rapidly only if we inspire it by our example ...

Dont ask God to reduce your problems ... 
But ask Him to strengthen your back ...

Tupac ...

We wouldn't ask why a rose that grew from the concrete for having damaged petals .. 

In turn, we would all celebrate its tenacity ... 

We would all love its will to reach the sun ... 

Well ... 

We are the roses ... 

This is the concrete ... 

And these are my damaged petals ... 

Dont ask me why ... 

Thank God ...

And ask me how ...

Tupac ...

"Only God can judge me"

"Let the Lord judge the criminals"

"Everybody's at war with different things...I'm at war with my own heart sometimes"

"They got money for wars but they can't feed the poor"

"The only thing that comes to a sleeping man is dreams"

"I believe that everything you do bad comes back to you. So everything that I do that's bad, I'm going to suffer for it. But in my heart, I believe what I'm doing... is right. So I feel like I 'm going to heaven. I think heaven is just when you sleep, you sleep with a good conscience, you don't have nightmares. Hell is when you sleep, the last thing you see is all the f*cked up things you did in your life and you just see it over and over again, cause you don't burn. If that's the case, it's hell on earth cause bullets burn"

"My mama used to tell me if u can't find somethin to live for, you best find somethin to die for"

"If we really are saying that rap is an art form, then we got to be more responsible for our lyrics. If you see everybody dying because of what you're saying, it don't matter that you didn't make them die, it just matters that you didn't save them"

“During your life, never stop dreaming. No one can take away your dreams”

“Why am I fighting to live, if I'm just living to fight

Why am I trying to see, when there aint nothing in sight

Why am I trying to give, when no one gives me a try

Why am I dying to live, if I'm just living to die?

Someone tell me why?”

“I'd rather die like a man, than live like a coward”

“When I was alone, and had nothing

I asked for a friend to help me bear the pain

No one came, except God

When I needed a breath to rise, from my sleep

No one could help me.. except God

When all I saw was sadness, and I needed answers

No one heard me, except God

So when I'm asked.. who I give my unconditional love to?

I look for no other name, except God”

Tupac ...

Strength is overcome by weakness ...

Joy is overcome by sorrow ...

Night is overcome by brightness ...

And LOVE stays the same ...

Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)

Women are not created weaker but more generous than men ... 

They are created more beautiful and less fierce ... 

As beauty hates to hurt and harm others ... 

That is why they seem weak to people ... 

But in reality they are not ... 

Angels are the strongest of created beings ... 

And women are closer to the angelic nature than men ... 

As they are readier than men to carry angelic light ... 

It is the good manners and ethics of spirituality which they carry ... 

Which makes them less forceful than men ... 

Even physically, however, they are extremely strong ... 

They undergo great upheavals in their body ... 

Without flinching, for the sake of childbirth ... 

And face the direst physical conditions more successfully than men ... 

Because God has enabled them to insure the survival of generations ...

In every life there is a season for love ...

Sometimes it dawns early and ends before the stars shine ... 

Sometimes it takes its time to come into full bloom ... 

For me, that season has not yet arrived ... 

But I wait patiently gazing into the infinite night sky ... 

Knowing that when it does ... 

It will be amazingly beautiful ... 

And it will last forever ...

Paulo Coelho ...

We can never judge the lives of others ... 

Because each person knows only their own pain and renunciation ... 

It's one thing to feel that you are on the right path ... 

But it's another to think that yours is the only path ...

Assuming Formlessness ... Napolean Bonaparte ...

You must not fight too often with one enemy ...

Or you will teach him all your art of war ...

Napolean Bonaparte ...

A man will fight harder for his interests ... 

Than for his rights ...

Half of Your Faith ...

How many men and women prepare themselves to live as a couple, as a family?

Some think about it, others are already committed to it. We hear of stories... and one is sometimes moved by the expectations and hopes of some, and sometimes saddened by the painful life experiences of others. Perhaps you are also, sisters and brothers, preparing yourselves to engage in this life experience of marriage, known as half of your faith. Or perhaps you have already started sharing your life with someone. In this, your expectations, thank God, were more than met but sometimes doubts have emerged. This... is not what you had expected.

Brothers and sisters, nothing should be idealized.

The perfect husband or the perfect wife only exists in your dreams. God has given you, as He has given others, noble qualities and intelligence. God has given you, as He has given others, faults and deficiencies. Perfection is not given to you or any human being.

It is not enough to share the same faith, the same principles and the same hopes to make an ideal couple. How many young couples have been under the illusion that their future life will be harmonious as if being Muslim was enough for a successful marriage? As if their union was based solely on the meeting of two worlds founded on the same principles that one respects or on the rules which one applies.

This illusion, which yesterday promised a small earthly paradise, today makes life a difficult struggle How many speak about "the principles of marriage in Islam" and actually live the reality of a torn, ravaged and frustrated existence?

Today, more than ever, living as a married couple has become a real challenge. Around us, men and women meet and leave each other in a modern society in which they confuse freedom and the absence of accountability as love and flexibility.
Living as a couple is not without its challenges - preparing yourself, learning and constantly trying to reach out to the other with patience, depth and tenderness. Although it is true that the principles of Islam bring you together, or will bring you together, you must remember each day that the person with whom you share your life comes with his or her own history, wounds, sensitivities and hopes. Learn to listen, to understand, to observe, to accompany.

Living as a couple is the greatest of tests: a test of patience, of attention, of the ability to listen for unspoken words, of self-control, of mending one’s faults, of healing the wounds. In each of these tests, there are two parties. It isn’t easy. A meaningful effort has to be grounded in the deepest sense of spirituality, a jihad, in the most intense meaning of the term. The jihad of love which reminds that feelings have to be taken care of. They are maintained, deepened, rooted through your shared challenges and your patience.

Patience and attention to the hearts, in a couple, will lead them towards the light, God willing. Remember, brothers and sisters, the last of the Prophets (peace be on him), an example for eternity, so attentive, so tender, and so patient. He did not only remind the Umma of principles, he enlightened with his presence, his listening, and his love.

Before being the mother of his children, his wife was a woman, his spouse, a person he discovered each day, a person whom he accompanied and who accompanied him; subject of his attention, a testimony of his love. He knew the meaning of silence, the power of a touch, the complicity of a shared glance, the pleasure in a smile, and the kindness found in being attentive.

There are those who idealize the other so much they never really see their partners and those who leave each other too quickly without taking the time to know each other. We are reminded of the principles Islam, its depth, its spirituality, its essence. Living as a couple, forming a relationship, being patient in adversity, loving to the extent of enduring, grounding by way of reforming is an initiation to spirituality. Knowing how to be one with God assures greater comfort in being together as two. A challenge, a test, far from the ideal, close to reality.

Sisters and brothers, you must prepare yourselves to live one of the most beautiful tests of life. It requires all from you, your heart, your conscience, and your efforts. The road is long. One must learn to demand, to share, and to forgive...indefinitely.

Of the things permitted by God, divorce is the most detested. Living as a couple is difficult: remember that your wife is woman before being the mother of your children; remember that your husband is a man before being the father of your children. Know how to live as a couple, within your family...in front of God and in front of your children.

This meeting place, these efforts will result in a sense of protection: They are your garments and you are their garments. Know how to be patient, learn how to be affectionate, offer forgiveness, and you will attain the spirituality of the protected, the proximity of the ones that are close. Faith then becomes your source of light and "his or her" presence, becomes your source of protection; the test of your heart, the energy of your love, half of your faith.

I pray to God that this love be the school of your efforts and the light of your patience.

Rumi ...

From the beginning of my life

I have been looking for your face ...

But today I have seen it ...

Today I have seen

The charm ... 

The beauty ...

The unfathomable grace of the face

That I was looking for ...

Today I have found you ...

And those who laughed

And scorned me yesterday

Are sorry that they were not looking

As I did ...

I am bewildered by the magnificence

Of your beauty and wish to see you

With a hundred eyes ...

My heart has burned with passion

And has searched forever

For this wondrous beauty

That I now behold ...

I am ashamed

To call this love human

And afraid of God

To call it divine ...

Your fragrant breath

Like the morning breeze

Has come to the stillness of the garden ...

You have breathed new life into me

I have become your sunshine

And also your shadow ...

My soul is screaming in ecstacy

Every fiber of my being

Is in love with you ...

Your efflugence

Has lit a fire in my heart ...

For me

The Earth and Sky

My arrow of love

Has arrived at the target ...

I am in the house of mercy ...

And my heart

Is a place of prayer ...

Hamza Yusuf ...

This world was designed to break your heart ...

If you find Me not within ...
You will never find Me ...

For I have been with You from the Beginning ...

Excerpt from Yemen Times Newspaper ... Interview with Habib al-Jifri

Question: 

What’s your message to all the people out there who are angered by what is happening to the Muslims ???

Answer: 

It is difficult for people who are angry to listen to a message ... 
Our message is for people of understanding who live amongst the angry masses ... 
Remind people about the root of the problem … 

And the root is our turning away from Allah ... 

The enemies of truth have been allowed to overpower us because of our sins and vices ... We have to remind ourselves that with the deep pain which tightens our breasts because of the suffering of our fellow Muslims ... 

We should feel an even greater pain for those who are being sacrificed on the knife edge of sins and disobedience of Allah's commands ... 

We need to shed even more tears for the Muslims who go to bed drunk and those who fill the dance floors ... 

As long as our community feels more pained by these fatalities than it does by these sins ... It will lag behind and not progress ... 

In our golden era the community feared falling into sin more than it did being killed in a conflict ... For a Muslim to die when he stands for the truth, is martyrdom and an honour by which he can draw near to Allah ...

What is more painful to my heart ??? 
Seeing a Muslim killed inside a mosque, hit by a missile, causing him to fall as a martyr ... Or seeing a Muslim male or female betray one another or their community ... People who bear false witness ... Or take or accept bribes ... Or cheat ... Or spend the night dancing in a night club and consuming alcohol ... 

I am not trying to belittle the magnitude of the disasters we are facing ...
But we need to look at the reasons that have put us in this position ...

A woman's heart should be so lost in God ... 
That a man must seek Him in order to find her ...

Rumi ...

God made the illusion look real ...

And the real an illusion ...

He concealed the sea

And made the foam visible ...

The wind visible

And the dust manifest ...

You see the dust whirling

But how can the dust rise by itself ???

You see the foam ...
But not the ocean ...

Invoke Him with deeds ...
Not words ...

For deeds are real

And will save you in the infinite life ...

Rumi ...

This world is full of remedies ...

But you have no remedy until God opens a window for you ...

You may not be aware of the remedy just now ...

In the hour of need it will be made clear to you ...

The Prophet (PBUH) said God made a remedy for every pain ...

Split Open ... Bawa Muhaiyaddeen ...

Bawa Muhaiyaddeen said: 

We must split open the love we have for each thing in our life and examine what is inside ... 

We must open each tree ...

Fruit ... 

Flower ...

Our lives ...

Our sexual pleasures ...

Gold ...

Our wealth ...

Our houses ...

Everything we look at with our eyes and our minds ... 

If we dissect them all and look inside ... 

We will eventually realize that there is only one kind of love ... 

And that is not something we see externally ...

When we truly perceive that wonder we will exclaim: "My God" ... 

That love is "My God" that wonder ... 

That love which is at the core of everything we see is God ... 

As we dissect everything ... 

What we ultimately see is "My God"... 

This is love ... 

Whatever it may be that we want to study or examine ... 

If we cut it open ... 

What we ultimately experience is the fragrance and the light which is "My God" ...

When we split open everything seen in life ... 

Finally we recognize that one thing which permeates all lives ... 

God who appears as a ray ... 

As the point ... 

As the center of everything ... 

That point is love ... 

And when we perceive that love present within all lives ... 

We have to love that love ... 

We exclaim: 

Oh My God, this is Your creation, how wonderful ... 

This is Your fruit, how wonderful ...

When we dissect anything, we see only His wonder inside ... 

When we look at love, we see only His love ... 

When we examine wisdom, we see only His wisdom ... 

When we study beauty, we see His beauty ... 

When we analyze compassion, we see His compassion ... 

When we observe any actions, we see His actions ... 

When we see a miracle, we see Him as the miracle ... 

When we perceive radiance, it is His radiance ... 

The love we should have ...

Is the love which looks at everything through Him ...

Who Says Words With My Mouth ??? ... Rumi ...

All day I think about it ... 
Then at night I say it ...

Where did I come from ... 
And what am I supposed to be doing ???

I have no idea ...

My soul is from elsewhere ... 
I’m sure of that ...

And I intend to end up there ...

God Came To My House ... St. Francis of Assisi ...

God came to my house and asked for charity ...

And I fell on my knees and cried: 

Beloved, what may I give ???

“Just love” He said ...

“Just love” ...

Sayings of Imam Hussein bin Ali ibn Abi Talib (ra) ...

• Endure difficulties when you walk on a divine path , and resist the temptation of worldly pleasures


• Nothing is more disgraceful for old people than being slaves to their worldly desires


• One who pursues a goal through sinful ways , will ironically distance himself from that goal , and will approach what he was afraid of


• If the world is counted valuable; surely the house of God's rewards is higher and more worthy. If bodies were created for death; surely being killed with swords in the way of God is a more honorable death. If the share of daily sustenance, of each creature is provided by the Creator, surely it is not decent for man to be greedy for gaining and eating too much. If wealth is amassed for one day to be left, then why does a free man become such a miser on something he has to leave?


• If you don't believe in any religion and don't fear the Resurrection Day, at least be free in this world


• Those who worship God for the hope of gaining , they're not real worshippers ,they're merchants. Those who worship God out of fear ( of punishment ) , they're slaves. And those who worship God to be grateful towards their Creator , they are the free people , and their worship is a real one.


• One who reveals your faults to you like a mirror is your true friend, and one who flatters you and covers up your faults is your enemy


• Associating with corrupt people makes you subject to suspicion.


• Avoid doing what makes you obliged to apologize for it. True believers never do anything for which they have to apologize. Fake believers , on the contrary , keep doing wrong and say they are sorry in the aftermath


• The most merciful person is the one who forgives when he is able to revenge.


• Your best relation is the one who comes to you and helps you when you have severed relations with him


• Do not expect to be rewarded more than you deserve


• People's secrets are properties held in trust with you


• Good manner is (counted as) a worship


• O son of Adam ! Your life comprises of passing days , with each day passing , a part of you goes away for good

Lies ... Rumi ...

They say

The King of Love will turn from His lovers ... 
Lies !!!

They say 
The darkness will never turn to dawn ...
Lies !!!

They say 
Do not sacrifice your life for love's sake

When the body dies, you will die ... 
Lies !!!

They say 
The tears you shed in love are worthless

They block your eyes and hold you from the truth

Lies !!!

They say
You can go beyond the cycle of time

But your soul can travel no further
Lies !!!

People who have lost their way say

The servant can never reach God 
Lies !!!

They say

The Knower of Secrets does not tell His servants all the mysteries of the Unseen ... 
Lies !!!

They say

He does not reveal the heart's innermost secrets

He does not lift His servants up to heaven ... 
Lies !!!

They say
One who is born of Earth

Will never join the angels of heaven
Lies !!!

They say
The Sun of God does not fill this whole world

He misses a few atoms
Lies !!!

Now go to that inner stillness ...

Some say
You will not hear the voice of God there ...

Lies !!!

There is a place where words are born of silence ...

A place where the whispers of the heart arise ...

There is a place where voices sing your beauty ...

A place where every breeath carves your image in my soul ...

Rumi ...

If we come to ignorance ... That is His prison ...

And if we come to knowledge ... That is His balcony ...

If we come to sleep ... We are His drowzy drunken ones ...

And if we come to wakeful alertness ... We are in His Hands ...

If we come to weeping ... We are His cloud full of rain drops ...

And if we come to laughing ... We are His lightning in that moment ...

If we come to anger and battle ... It is a reflection of His wrath ...

And if we come to peace and pardon ... It is the reflection of His Love ...

He whose intellect overcomes his lust is higher than the angels ...
He whose lust overcomes his intelligence is less than an animal ...

The angel is free because of his knowledge ...

The beast because of his ignorance ...

Between the two remains the son of man to struggle ...