RUMI ...

Love is the order of the universe and we are its atoms
It is the ocean and we are its drops

Through love the heavens are brilliant
Without love even suns and moons are eclipsed

Today is beautiful. The sun is out the air is warm. I have an Oreo cookie and a cozy room to sit and type inside of. Today is a good day. I can hear the birds outside talking back to the clouds ...

Red Dawn ...

"I can't remember what it was to be warm. It seems a thousand years since I was a small boy in the sun. How did I come to this high, desolate place where there is nothing but loneliness? So much is lost. I want to look into your eyes and forget. It all seems so far away: a warm house where my shadow never falls; your long, black hair in my hands. There is no more revolution, only you to come back."


-Colonel Ernesto Bella

RUMI ...

As a lovesick nightingale,

you flew among the owls

Then came the scent of the rose garden
and you flew off to meet the Rose

Fall of Rain ...

Killing Me Softly ... The Fugees ...

I think every girl would want a love like this ...

Zora Neal Hurston ...

Love makes your soul crawl out from its hiding place

Egyptian Proverb ...

He who chatters with you

Will chatter about you

And what is man other than a comet

that flashes brilliant light for a moment

only to be reduced to ashes?

RUMI ...

A soul which is not clothed with the inner garment of Love

Should be ashamed of its existence

" Nature never did betray the heart that loved her"

(William Wordsworth)

Conference of the Birds ...

The Last Poets ...

"Here we are the employers of all love

but yet we are working overtime to cover up our loneliness"

My friend Anis performing his poetry ...

Parting ...

Who knows when meeting shall ever be.
It might be for years or
It might be forever

Let us then take a lump of clay,
Wet it, pat it,
And make an image of you
And an image of me.
Then smash them, crash them,
And, with a little water,
Knead them together.

And out of the clay we'll remake
An image of you, and an image of me.
Thus in my clay, there's a little of you,
And in your clay, there's a little of me.
And nothing will ever set us apart.

Living, we'll be forever in each other's heart,
And dead, we'll be buried together.






( This is an untitled poem by Madame Kuan, that was translated by Bruce Lee. Madam Kuan was the wife of the great Yuan Chao Mengfu and was herself a painter who taught for a time at the Imperial Court. Tradition has it that when in middle age, Chao considered taking a mistress, Madam Kuan wrote her husband this poem, which touched his heart and changed his mind.)

Love Is Like A Friendship Caught On Fire ...

Love is like a friendship caught on fire.

In the beginning a flame,

Very pretty, often hot and fierce

But still only light and flickering

As love grows older, our hearts mature

And our love becomes as coals,

Deep-burning and unquenchable.

(A poem of Bruce Lee's that he recited to Linda Lee Cadwell)

The first step is admitting you have a problem ... lol ...

To you

All you who are dreamers, too

Help me to make

Our world anew

I reach out my dreams to you

(Langston Hughes)

Reflection ...

Rumi ...

"LOVE IS A STRANGER AND SPEAKS A STRANGE LANGUAGE"

" And the servants of (Allah) the Most Gracious are those who walk upon the earth in humility, and when the ignorant address them, they reply: 'Peace'."






-The Qur'an [Chapter 25:63 - The Criterion]

"Places come to life with knowledge, because it brings our hearts to life. Ask Allah to always show us the truth and allow us to follow it, the greatest truth being La ilaha illa Allah"

-Yahya Rhodus

A poem begins with a lump in the throat;

a homesickness or a lovesickness.
It is a reaching-out toward expression ...

- Robert Frost -

DHIKR

MECCA

CHANGE

Take the love of a woman

Take her tears and run for miles

Til all she's left with is scar tissue and smiles

You weaponize

All that we are

Then you cry that love is war

(Halal Meat)

La ilaha illa Allah as much as there are nights and times that pass
La ilaha illa Allah as much as there are days and months

La ilaha illa Allah as much as there are waves in the seas

La ilaha illa Allah as much as rewards are multiplied

Habib Ali Al-Jifri ...

"My Lord, beautify for us our character.

For only by his manners does the slave prevail"

Pablo Neruda ...

And one by one

the nights between our seperated cities

are joined to the night that unites us

"It is our fitrah to praise greatness.

We stand in ovation five times a day.

And we ask "Encore!"

And our encore is the afterlife"

- Hamza Yusuf -

"When the applause ends and you return home,

it's just you and God again"

- Hamza Yusuf-

God heals everything ...

Envy is a waste of time...

You already have all you need ...

Don't compare your life to others'...

You have no idea what their journey is all about ...

I loooove it ... There's a lil' MJ in all of us ...

“People are like stained-glass windows.

They sparkle and shine when the sun is out,

but when the darkness sets in,

their true beauty is revealed

only if there is a light from within.”

- Elisabeth Kubler-Ross -

"Take away love and our earth is a tomb"

(Robert Browning)

I never smelled a rose except that it increased me in longing for You

And never did I see a tree sway except I felt it yearning for You

Beauty is what attracts your soul

and that which loves to give and not to receive

- Kahlil Gibran -

Charity is a virtue of the heart,

and not of the hands

- Joseph Addison -

"Every great dream begins with a dreamer"

- Harriet Tubman -

"How can I lose faith in the justice of life, when the dreams of those who sleep upon feathers are not more beautiful than the dreams of those who sleep upon the earth?"

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

When there is freedom from mechanical conditioning, there is simplicity.

The classical man is just a bundle of routine, ideas and tradition. If you follow the classical pattern, you are understanding the routine, the tradition, the shadow — you are not understanding yourself.

- Bruce Lee

Don't get set into one form, adapt it and build your own, and let it grow, be like water. Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless — like water. Now you put water in a cup, it becomes the cup; You put water into a bottle it becomes the bottle; You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.

- Bruce Lee

Acquire knowledge It enables its possessor to distinguish right from wrong
It lights the way to Heaven
It is our friend in the desert
Our society in solitude
Our companion when friendless
It guides us to happiness
It sustains us in misery
It is an ornament among friends,
And an armour against enemies







- Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) -

Medina is Love

The first of knowledge is realizing that,

"What is with you perishes,

and what is with Allah remains."

[Qur'an]

Wherever I shine the lamplight of Divine breath,
there the difficulties of a whole world are resolved.
The darkness which the earthly sun did not remove,
becomes through My breath a bright morning.


- Rumi

I think I'm in love with Egypt ...

The door is panting ... looool ...

No comment ...

Ya'neeee ...

As if Tang wasn't bootleg enough ... lol ...

Yes, we can see that ...

Asalaam alaikum ...

Hello Sunday, you look nice

Just wanted to wish everyone a beautiful day :)

Alhumdulillah, we are in a blessing ...

That's all ... For now ...


- Jafar out

The Messenger of God (pbuh) said:

"Remember often the Ender of Pleasures"

When he (saw) was asked who the intelligent were he replied:

"Those who remember death most often, and prepare for it best.

They are the intelligent ones, who have gained

the honour of this world and a noble rank in the Hereafter."

And he (saw) said:

"Death is the most imminent of all hidden things lying in wait."

Now, if death is the nearest of the hidden things lying in wait,

then one must prepare for it through being decisive and taking

the greatest precautions in every condition in which it may come.

And this could be any time and under any circumstance.

Imam Ali (ra) said:

"Whenever a believer dies

the place where he used to pray weeps for him,

and so does the place from which his deeds

used to ascend to Heaven."

Then he recited:


The heaven and earth wept not for them (44:29)

Know that a long life in God's obedience is greatly to be desired

"The best among you are those
whose lives are long and whose works are good."

And:

"Let none of you wish for death,
(for you are) either doing well and thus may increase,
or doing evil and thus enjoying the chance to make amends."


- (Hadith)