An interesting article my friend sent me ...
Apparently this was originally printed in Forbes Magazine but has since been removed:

Commentary
Obama and Ahmadinejad
Amir Taheri 10.26.08, 1:33 PM ET

Is Barack Obama the "Promised Warrior" coming to help the Hidden Imam of Shiite Muslims conquer the world ???

The question has made the rounds in Iran since last month, when a pro-government Web site published a Hadith (or tradition) from a Shiite text of the 17th century. The tradition comes from Bahar al-Anvar (meaning Oceans of Light) by Mullah Majlisi, a magnum opus in 132 volumes and the basis of modern Shiite Islam.

According to the tradition, Imam Ali Ibn Abi-Talib (The Prophet's cousin and son-in-law) prophesied that at the End of Times and just before the return of the Mahdi, the Ultimate Saviour, a "tall black man will assume the reins of government in the West." Commanding "the strongest army on earth," the new ruler in the West will carry "a clear sign" from the third imam, whose name was Hussein Ibn Ali.

The tradition concludes: "Shiites should have no doubt that he is with us.
"In a curious coincidence Obama's first and second names, Barack Hussein, mean "the blessing of Hussein" in Arabic and Persian.

His family name, Obama, written in the Persian alphabet, reads O Ba Ma, which means "he is with us," the magic formula in Majlisi's tradition.

Mystical reasons aside, the Khomeinist establishment sees Obama's rise as another sign of the West's decline and the triumph of Islam.

Obama's promise to seek unconditional talks with the Islamic Republic is cited as a sign that the U.S. is ready to admit defeat. Obama's position could mean abandoning three resolutions passed by the United Nations Security Council setting conditions that Iran should meet to avoid sanctions.

Seeking unconditional talks with the Khomeinists also means an admission of moral equivalence between the U.S. and the Islamic Republic. It would imply an end to the description by the U.S. of the regime as a "systematic violator of human rights."

Obama has abandoned claims by all U.S. administrations in the past 30 years that Iran is "a state sponsor of terrorism." Instead, he uses the term "violent groups" to describe Iran-financed outfits such as Hamas and Hezbollah.

Obama has also promised to attend a summit of the Organization of the Islamic Conference within the first 100 days of his presidency.Such a move would please the mullahs, who have always demanded that Islam be treated differently, and that Muslim nations act as a bloc in dealings with Infidel nations.

Obama's election would boost President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's chances of winning a second term next June. Ahmadinejad's entourage claim that his "steadfastness in resisting the American Great Satan" was a factor in helping Obama defeat "hardliners" such as Hillary Clinton and, later, it hopes, John McCain.

"President Ahmadinejad has taught Americans a lesson," says Hassan Abbasi, a "strategic adviser" to the Iranian president.

"This is why they are now choosing someone who understands Iran 's power." The Iranian leader's entourage also point out that Obama copied his campaign slogan "Yes, We Can" from Ahmadinejad's "We Can," used four years ago.

A number of Khomeinist officials have indicated their preference for Obama over McCain, who is regarded as an "enemy of Islam." A Foreign Ministry spokesman says Iran does not wish to dictate the choice of the Americans but finds Obama "a better choice for everyone." Ali Larijani, Speaker of the Islamic Majlis, Iran 's ersatz parliament, has gone further by saying the Islamic Republic "prefers to see Barack Obama in the White House" next year.

Tehran 's penchant for Obama, reflected in the official media, increased when the Illinois senator chose Joseph Biden as his vice-presidential running mate. Biden was an early supporter of the Khomeinist revolution in 1978-1979 and, for the past 30 years, has been a consistent advocate of recognizing the Islamic Republic as a regional power.

He has close ties with Khomeinist lobbyists in the U.S. and has always voted against sanctions on Iran .

Ahmadinejad has described the U.S. as a "sunset" (ofuli) power as opposed to Islam, which he says is a "sunrise" (toluee) power.

Last summer, he inaugurated an international conference called World Without America--attended by anti-Americans from all over the world, including the U.S.

Seen from Tehran , Obama's election would demoralize the U.S. armed forces by casting doubt on their victories in Iraq and Afghanistan , if not actually transforming them into defeat.

American retreat from the Middle East under Obama would enable the Islamic Republic to pursue hegemony of the region.

Tehran is especially interested in dominating Iraq , thus consolidating a new position that extends its power to the Mediterranean through Syria and Lebanon .

During the World Without America conference, several speakers speculated that Obama would show "understanding of Muslim grievances" with regard to Palestine .

Ahmadinejad hopes to persuade a future President Obama to adopt the "Iranian solution for Palestine ," which aims at creating a single state in which Jews would quickly become a minority.

Judging by anecdotal evidence and the buzz among Iranian bloggers, while the ruling Khomeinists favor Obama, the mass of Iranians regard (and dislike) the Democrat candidate as an appeaser of the mullahs. Iran , along with Israel , is the only country in the Middle East where the United States remains popular. An Obama presidency, perceived as friendly to the oppressive regime in Tehran , may change that.

A man went to a barbershop to have his hair cut and his beard trimmed ... 
Barber began to work ... 
They began to have a good conversation ... 
They talked about many things and various subjects ... 
When they eventually touched on the subject of Allah, the barber said: 

“I don’t believe that Allah exists”

“Why do you say that?” asked the customer ... 

“Well, you just have to go out in the street to realise that Allah doesn’t exist. 
Tell me, if Allah exists, would there be so many sick people ??? 
Would there be abandoned children ??? 
If Allah existed, there would be neither suffering nor pain ... 
I can’t imagine a loving Allah who would allow all of these things”

The customer thought for a moment, but didn’t respond because he didn’t want to start an argument ... 

The barber finished his job and the customer left the shop ... 
Just after he left the barbers shop he saw a man in the street with 
Long 
Stringy 
Dirty hair 
And an untrimmed beard 
He looked dirty and unkempt ...

The customer turned back and entered the barbershop again and he said to the barber: 

“You know what ??? Barbers do not exist”

“How can you say that ???” asked the surprised barber ...

“I am here, and I am a barber ... And I just worked on you” 

“No!” the customer exclaimed ... 

“Barbers don’t exist because if they did, there would be no people with dirty long hair and untrimmed beards like that man outside” ... 

“Ah, but barbers do exist ... What happens is, people do not come to me” ...

“Exactly” affirmed the customer ... 
“That’s the point" ... 
"Allah, too, does exist" ... 
"What happens, is, people don’t go to Him" ... 
"And do not look for Him" ... 
"That’s why there’s so much pain and suffering in the world” ...

Jean Jacques Rosseau ...

A good man is one 

Who makes a woman submit to his will ...

A good woman is one 

Who makes a man will what she wants to submit to ...

"Be quick in the forgiveness from your Lord, and pardon (all) men - for Allah loves those who do good."

[Surah ali Imran; 3:133-134]

And Allah loves us to have hearts that are ready to forgive.

The Prophet (SAW) once asked his companions:

"Do you know what will cause you to have high walled palaces in Paradise (as a symbol of great reward) and will cause you to be raised by God?"

When they replied in the negative, he said,

"To be forgiving and to control yourself in the face of provocation, to give justice to the person who was unfair and unjust to you, to give to someone even though he did not give to you when you were in need and to keep connection with someone who may not have reciprocated your concern."

Similarly the Prophet (SAW) said that:

"The best of people are those who are slow to get angry and quick to forgive. On the other hand the worst of people are those, he said who get angry quickly but are slow to forgive".

The characteristic that makes a person most likely to forgive is the purity of his or her heart. Apologies must be accepted,

The Prophet (SAW) said that:

"Whoever apologises to his brother and that apology is not accepted, then the person who refuses to accept the apology bears the sin of one who takes the property of another unjustly."

"But indeed if any shows patience and forgives that would truly be an exercise of courageous will and resolution in the conduct of affairs."

[surah 42:43]

The Hikam Of Ibn Ata'llah ...

The Real is not veiled
It is you that are veiled from seeing Him ...

If there was anything veiling Him
What veiled Him would cover Him ...

If he was covered
His existence would be contained ...

If something contains something else
It overpowers it ...

But He is the Conqueror 
Overcoming His slaves ...

The Hikam Of Ibn Ata'llah ...

When He opens a way for you 
And makes Himself known to you
Then do not worry about your lack of deeds ...

He only opened the way for you
Because He desired to make Himself known to you ...

Do you not see 
That while He grants gnosis of Himself to you
You have only deeds to offer Him ???

What He brings you ...
What you bring Him ...

What a difference there is between them ...

Who is man ???

The reflection of the Eternal Light ...

What is the world ???

A wave on the Everlasting Sea ...

How could the reflection be cut off from the Light ???

How could the wave be separate from the Sea ???

Know that this reflection and this wave are that very Light and Sea ...

French Proverb ...

That day is lost ...
On which one has not laughed ...

Love is the reward of Love 

Khaqani Shirwani ...

The bird that sings pain's song
Is love

The messenger skilled in the language of the unseen world
Is love

It is love that speaks to you ...

Calling you beyond the limits of this created realm ...

That which frees you from your tiny self
Also is love

Some Words Of Wisdom ...

The wise man first thinks and then speaks ...
And a fool speaks and then thinks ...

-Imam Ali (ra)


There are many trees, not all of them bear fruits ...
There are many fruits, not all of them are edible ...
Many, too, are the kinds of knowledge ... 
Yet not all of them are of value to man ...

-Prophet Isa (as)


Do not hate what you don't know ... 
For the greater part of knowledge consists of what you don't know ...

- Imam Ali (ra)


The heart is the source of wisdom ... 
With the ears its channel ...

- Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)


Allah Has treasures beneath the Throne ...
The keys whereof are the tongues of poets ...

- Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)


The things are destructive in life:
Anger, Greed and Self Esteem ...

- Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)

Hafez ...

O Allah 
Forgive the quarrel of Seventy-two rites 
And religions
Not having known truth
They have followed
The path of illusion

I had the opportunity to speak to a very dear friend of mine today, who told me about their experience at a naturopathic clinic in Old town, Washington DC ... 
Not just any regular naturopathic clinic, this one had a zen touch to it ... 
With the use of meditation and breathing excercises, it takes the patient through a spiritual journey, that allows them to discover in the hollow depths of themsleves ... Allowing the individual to understand, that the problem they seek to find help for, is actually from within ... The same place, where the cure is waiting as well ... 
And so while listening to my friend, I remembered this poem by Rumi that I had read:


For ages you have come and gone
Courting this delusion

For ages you have run from the pain
and forfeited the ecstacy

So come, return to the root of the root
Of your your own soul

Although you appear in earthly form
Your essence is pure Conciousness

You are the fearless guardian
Of Divine Light

So come, return to the root of the root
Of you own soul

When you lose all sense of self
The bonds of a thousand chains will vanish

Lose yourself completely
Return to the root of the root
Of your own soul

You descended from Adam, by the Word of God
But you turned your sight
To the empty show of this world

Alas, how can you be satisfied with so little ???

So come, return to the root of the root
Of your own soul

Why are you so enchanted by this world
When a mine of gold lies within you ???

Open your eyes and come 

Return to the root of the root
Of your own soul

You were born from the rays of God's Majesty
When the stars were in their perfect place

How long will you suffer from the blows
Of a nonexistent hand ???

So come, return to the root of the root
Of your own soul

You are a ruby encased in granite
How long will you deceive Us with this outer show ???

O friend, We can see the truth in your eyes

So come, return to the root of the root
Of your own soul

After one moment with that glorious Friend
You became loving, radiant, and ecstatic

Your eyes were sweet and full of fire

Come, return to the root of the root
Of your own soul

Shams-e Tabriz, the King of the Tavern
Has handed you an eternal cup

And God in all His glory is pouring the wine

So come  
Drink

Return to the root of the root
Of your own soul

- Rumi


I went to the naturopathic clinic yesterday ... 
And this is what the sign beside the doctors office door read:

God cures every disease

And doctors collect all the fees :)

Peace and Blessings,
Jafar Alam

Rumi ...

One fingertip hides the moon 
The whole world may be hidden from view

By a single point

Rumi ...

Are you fleeing from Love because of a single humiliation ???

What do you know of Love except the name ???

Love has a hundred forms of pride and disdain ...

And is gained by a hundred means of persuasion ...

Since Love is loyal, it purchases one who is loyal ...

It has no interest in a disloyal companion ...

The human being resembles a tree ...

Its root is a covenant with God ...

That root must be cherished with all one's might ...

A weak covenant is a rotten root, without grace or fruit ...

Though the boughs and leaves of the date palm are green ...

Greenness brings no benefit if the root is corrupt ...

If a branch is without green leaves, yet has a good root ...

A hundred leaves will put forth their hands in the end ...

Qur'an 3:185 ...

The wordly life is nothing ...

But the comfort of illusion ...

In refutation to the accusations made towards A'isha (ra), the Prophet (SAW) wife ...

Umar said that A'isha was undoubtedly chaste and pure ... 
And that she had been slandered ... 

When asked how he knew, he replied:

O Messenger of Allah, once you were praying .... 
You stopped and explained that Archangel Gabriel had come and informed you that there was some dirt in your slippers ... 
If there were some impurity in A'isha, God certainly would have informed you ...

His every call was a breath of life for their souls ... 
A breath that could revive old, rotten bones ...


Imam Busiri says:

Were his value and greatness to be demonstrated by miracles ...

The bones that have rotted away were revived by calling his name ...

We are not composed only of our minds ... 

God has endowed us with many faculties ...

Each of which needs satisfaction ... 

So while feeding our minds with the Divine signs in the universe ... 

We seek to cleanse our hearts of sin ... 

We live a balanced life in awareness of Divine supervision ...

And continuously seek His forgiveness ... 

In this way, we eventually conquer our desire for forbidden things ... 

And through prayer, ask God to enable us to do good deeds ...

There are many paths leading to the Straight Path 
As the number of breaths drawn in creation ... 

Whoever strives for His cause is guided, by God 
To one of the paths and is save from going astray ... 

Whoever is guided to His Straight Path, by God 
Lives a balanced life ... 

They neither exceed the limits in their human needs and activities 
Or in their worship and other religious observances ... 

Such balance is the sign of true guidance ...

Ibn Ata'illah ...

With the first Allahu akbar 

They put the world and all of its inhabitants behind them

With the second Allahu akbar 

They forget the hereafter

With the third Allahu akbar 

They cast the very thought of anything other than God out of their heart

With the fourth Allahu akbar 

They forget even themselves

Ibn Ata'illah ...

Do not let the delay of what you are fervently praying for 

Discourage you

Or 

Dishearten you

  

For He has guaranteed you the answer 

In what He chooses for you

Not in what you choose for yourself

And when He wills 

Not when you do

Ibn Ata'illah ...

Nothing benefits the heart more than a spiritual seclusion ...

Whereby it enters the domain of true reflections ...

Prophet Muhammas (SAW) ...

Two friends are likened to a pair of hands ... 
One of which washes the other ...

The Mystery Of The Ka'ba ...

Likened to the believer's heart which he orbits constantly ...
Veiled from its interior ... 
The mystery continues to draw us like bees to nectar ...

Tariq ibn Suwayd ...

I used to suffer from an illness 
And took alcohol as a remedy ... 

When alcohol was banned 
I asked God's Messenger whether I could continue using this remedy ... 

He told me: 

No, for it is not a remedy ... Rather, it is the disease itself ... 

Scientists now agree that even a single drop of alcohol is harmful to one's physical and spiritual health ...

(Excerpt from "The Messenger of God: Muhammad" pg. 66 The Essential of Prophethood)

Almost nothing of this world has come unveiled or pure ...

But the words of the Messenger preserve their purity undefiled ...

And still wait to be understood fully ...

The death of God's Messenger touched Fatima so deeply that she gave voice to her grief in the following verses:

What else does the one 
Who has smelt the soil of Muhammad's tomb 
Need ???

Does one really need the smell of anything else ???

I have been struck by such misfortune 
That if they had fallen upon days

They would have changed into nights

Change will not come if we wait for some other person 

Or some other time ...

We are the ones we've been waiting for ...

We are the change that we seek ...

Pearls Of Wisdom From Fethullah Gulen ...

People usually view others through the mirror of their spirit and see them like themselves because of the stain and dirt on that mirror. Therefore, their judgement of others is completely wrong and unfair. Although such sinful ones with a foul spirit see others at loss, it is they who are really at a loss.

Those who do not increase in dedication to worship of God as they grow older, are really unfortunate because they are making a loss at a time when they could be making a profit. If those ones understood this, they would weep for what they find amusing today.

A women's inner depth, chastity, and dignity elevate her higher than angels and cause her to resemble an unmatched diamond. A disreputable woman is a false coin, an undignified woman is a puppet to be ridiculed. In the destructive atmosphere of such women, it is possible to find neither a healthy home nor a sound generation.

The happiest and most fortunate people are those who are always intoxicated with the ardent desire for the worlds beyond. Those who confine themselves within the narrow and suffocating limits of their bodily existence are really in prison, even though they may be living in palaces.

Love is one of the most subtle blessings that the Most Merciful One has bestowed upon humanity. It exists in everyone as a seed. This seed germinates under favourable circumstances and, growing like a tree, blossoms into a flower, and finally ripens, like a fruit, to unite the beginning with the end.

The true life is the one lived at the spiritual level. Those whose hearts are alive, conquering the past and the future, cannot be contained by time. Such people are never excessively distressed by sorrows of the past or anxieties of the future. Those who cannot experience full existence in their hearts, and thus lead banal, shallow lives, are always gloomy and inclined to hoplessness. They consider the past a horrifying grave, and the future an endless well. It is torment if they die, and it is torment if they survive.

Pablo Neruda ...

Here I came to the very edge
Where nothing at all needs saying ...

Everything is absorbed through weather and the sea
And the moon swam back
Its rays all silvered ...

And time and again the darkness would be broken
By the crash of a wave ...

And every day on the balcony of the sea
Wings open 

Fire is born

And everything is blue again like morning ...

Pablo Neruda ...

And it was at that age 
Poetry arrived in search of me 

I don't know 
I don't know where it came from
From winter or a river

I don't know how or when
No they were not voices 
They were not words
Nor silence

But from a street I was summoned
From the branches of night
Abruptly from the others
Among violent fires
Or returning alone
There I was without a face
And it touched me

I did not know what to say 
My mouth had no way with names
My eyes were blind
And something started in my soul
Fever or forgotten wings
And I made my own way
Deciphering that fire
And I wrote the first faint line

Faint
Without substance 
Pure nonsense
Pure wisdom
Of someone who knows nothing

And suddenly I saw the heavens unfastened
And open
Planets
Palpitating plantations
Shadow perforated
Riddled with arrows 
Fire and flowers
The winding night 
The universe

And I 
Infinitesimal being
Drunk with the great starry void
Likeness 
Image of mystery
Felt myself a pure part of the abyss

I wheeled with the stars
My heart broke loose on the wind

I Do Not Love You Except Because I Love You ... By Pablo Neruda ...

I do not love you except because I love you

I go from loving to not loving you
From waiting to not waiting for you
My heart moves from cold to fire

I love you only because it's you the one I love

I hate you deeply ... And hating you
Bend to you ... And the measure of my changing love for you
Is that I do not see you but love you blindly

Maybe January light will consume
My heart with its cruel ray 
Stealing my key to true calm 

In this part of the story I am the one who dies 
The only one 
And I will die of love because I love you

Because I love you
Love

In fire and blood