Brother and Sister ...

Sometimes we forget that absence

is just as difficult and meaningful a choice as presence

Love seeks one thing only: the good of the loved one.
It leaves all other secondary effects to take care of themselves



- Thomas Merton

"We have what we seek,

it is there all the time,

and if we give it time,

it will make itself known to us"

- Thomas Merton -

Your soul does not live in poverty,

it grows from all your experiences

and will flower in the season of enlightenment ...

"I don't like what you are doing, but I respect who you are.
You know why?
Because maybe who you are tomorrow,
will be better than who I am today"



- Tariq Ramadan

Your belittling of an act of sunnah

is but the belittling of the guardian

of the sunnah (pbuh)

There is nothing

between the soul and the hereafter

but one moment

Lovers share a sacred
decree to seek the
Beloved.

They roll head over
heels, rushing toward the
Beautiful One
like a torrent of water.


- Rumi (One Whisper of the Beloved)

"If you want to turn your life around, try thankfulness.
It will change your life mightily."


- Gerald Good

Cradle ... By Anis Mojgani ...

Set the warriors to sea in a ship stacked with shields, layers of swords, mountains of gold.
Lay them out with their wife. With their child. Lay them out with their livestock, with the whole farm.
The rain is not coming here.
Not today.
For today the gods welcome one of their own back home.
So set the hero out on the soft waves that will carry him to the other side of the pink ether where he will float on fire until the ash consumes him like the mighty warrior he once was and like the legend he will become.
The flames will dance over his possessions, his goblets and arrows, his blankets, his paintings, his passions. The flames will dance across his flesh like the soft fingers of the soft lover he left, and as he sleeps this last sleep, the fires will eat him away, the heat will write his skin across the night sky to join the constellations that will guide the sailors at storm, the herders lost in the clouds, they will all come home by facing the direction his eyes are facing.
The heavens are filled with smoke.
This is history this is legend this is what we once were.
Where the stories come from, what we are.
When you fall in battle, they will take your body with the life you made in this world and set it off to sail behind you into the next, so that you will stay a king, remain forever the golden being you breathed as on this side of the mountain.
When you pass, may your life follow you like a shadow into the light.
When I go, bury me with nothing but my own skin.
I spent far too many days trying to outrun this thing called mine, so if I set myself into your arms would you hold me like the earth, quietly?
I am yours. Give me a field, give me a big sky. A mountain. Give me your mouth.
I’m just looking for a quiet place that I could die inside of. (c)

Human Nature ...

Looking out across the night-time

The city winks a sleepless eye

Hear her voice shake my window

Sweet seducing sighs

Get me out into the night-time

Four walls won't hold me tonight

If this town is just an apple

Then let me take a bite

If they say, why, why? Tell 'em that is human nature

Why, why does he do me that way?

If they say, why, why? Tell 'em that is human nature

Why, why does he do me that way?

Reaching out to touch a stranger

Electric eyes are everywhere

See that girl, she knows I'm watching

She likes the way I stare

If they say, why, why? Tell 'em that is human nature

Why, why does he do me that way?

If they say, why, why? Tell 'em that is human nature

Why, why does he do me that way?

I like livin' this way, I like lovin' this way

Looking out across the morning

The city's heart begins to beat

Reaching out, I touch her shoulder

I'm dreaming of the street

If they say, why, why? Tell 'em that is human nature

Why, why does he do me that way?

If they say, why, why? Ooh, tell 'em

Why, why does he do me that way?

If they say, why, why? Cha cha cha

Why, why does he do me that way?

If they say why, why, why? Ooh, tell 'em

Why, why does he do me that way?

If they say, why, why? Ooh, tell 'em

Why, why does he do me that way?

If they say, why, why? Da da da

Why, why does he do me that way?

I like livin' this way

- ( Michael Jackson ... Songwriters: Bettis, John;Porcaro, Steve ) -

Oh My Lord

What has he found who has lost You

And what has he lost who has found You ?

- ibn Ata'illah -

"Oh most precious of nations,

one that is ever elevated by its virtue,

tread forward with aspiration, and strive!

Our worth is only by beautiful character,

and that enough is light for the darkness."

(One of my friends took this picture from last year)

Sh. Hamza explaining to Sh. Abdullah the nature of Halloween as he listens in amazement ... lol ...

Gotta LOVE the innocence and wisdom ... mashaAllah ...

Courage does not always roar
Sometimes courage is the quiet voice
At the end of the day saying
“I will try again tomorrow”



- Mary Anne Radmacher

“Given enough time, any man may master the physical.
With enough knowledge, any man may become wise.
It is the true warrior who can master both…and surpass the result.”


– Tien T’ai

"I know that God doesn't lie and I know that He knows how to talk to the hearts of people better than anybody else. So, I don't worry about that."

-Lauryn Hill

Understanding the Prophet's Life ...

Entertainment

Entertainment is indeed an important dimension of life, but it should constitute "a pause" between two more important things: its function is primarily to give rest to the mind, heart, and being, to divert them in Pascal's usage, so as to enable people to return to more important things, to their responsibilities regarding life, society, work, justice, and death. This is exactly the meaning the Prophet of Islam had given it when he had been questioned by his Companion Handhalah who, on the contrary, saw in entertainment evidence of his hypocritical disposition before God (since it led him to forget). The Prophet, peace be upon him, answered him: "By He who holds my soul in His hands, if you were able to remain in the [spiritual] state in which you are in my company and in permanent remembrance of God, angels would shake hands with you in your beds and along paths. But it is not so, Handhalah, there is a time for this [devotion, remembrance] and a time for that [rest, distraction, entertainment]." [ Bukhari, Muslim]

Compiled From:
Radical Reform: Islamic Ethics and Liberation - By Tariq Ramadan, pg. 196