Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Rumi ... Mathnawi I (3605-3607)



Whatever it is you wish to marry
Go, absorb yourself in that beloved
Assume its shape and qualities
If you wish for the light, prepare yourself to receive it 
If you wish to be far from God, nourish your egoism and drive yourself away
If you wish to find a way out of this ruined prison
Don't turn your head away from the Beloved
But bow in worship and draw near

Rumi ...




If in thirst you drink water from a cup ... 
You see God in it ...

Those who are not in love with God ... 
Will see only their own faces in it ...


Rumi ...



Till the cloud weeps
How should the garden smile ???


The weeping of the cloud and the burning of the Sun 
Are the pillars of this world ...

Twist these two strands together ...

Since the searing heat of the Sun and the moisture of the clouds 
Keep the Sun of your intelligence burning bright ... 

And your eyes glistening with tears ...

Rumi ... Mathnawi ...


Love of the dead does not last 
Because the dead will not return ...

But love of the living
Is in every moment fresher than a bud ...

Both to the inward and the outward eye
Choose the love of that Living One 

Who is everlasting ...
Who offers you the wine that increases life ...

Do not say: We have no entrance to that King

Dealings with the generous are not difficult ...

Un-Invited ... By Jafar Alam ...




I look out at the dark sky
waiting for the sun to embrace this beautiful day ...
My heart beats slowly
To my souls dismay ...

Battling my nafs, trying to contain this desire ...
The desire is not of this world
But for something much Higher ...

My emptiness I cannot speak of,
It's something that I feel ...
The remedy for this
iIs closeness to The Real ...

He gave me this feeling
Filling it to the brim ...
How can I complain
When this longing is from Him ???

He does this to me often
That I may turn and come back ...
When I start to stray away
And faith is what I lack ...

Now the birds start chirping
And quickly fly by ...
Taking in what they can
Of the cold gray sky ...

I lay here hungry and cold
Trying to fill this void ...
When close to Him
I'm filled and overjoyed ...

So I lay here waiting
For I will not fight it ...
Love and death, both come
Un-Invited (c)



A Word To The Heart ... Rumi



That which God said to the rose
And caused it to laugh in full blown beauty ...

He said to my heart
And made it a hundred times more beautiful ...

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Abd Allah bin Mas'ud ...


You are only guests in this world ... 
And what you own is only a borrowed trust ... 
Eventually the guest will depart ... 
And the borrowed trust must be returned to its rightful Owner ...


Sunday, December 9, 2007

Choosing to Love ...

You don't choose whom you love ... 
He chooses them ... 
If you had that choice to choose; then the road would be simple ... 

Whom he puts in your life, is part of your test: 
To bear with them ... 
To accept them ...
And most of all to love them despite all that they may agitate you with ...

After all, they come from Him and they return to Him ...
Just like you did and will do ... 


And We have made some of you as a trial for others ... Will you have patience ??? 
And your Lord is Ever All-Seer - (Surah al-Furqan:20)

Rumi ...

If you never searched for truth
Come with us
And you will become a seeker ...


If you were never a musician
Come with us
And you will find your voice ...


You may posses immense wealth
Come with us
And you will become love's beggar ...


You may think yourself a master
Come with us
And love will turn you into a slave ...

If you've lost your spirit
Come with us ...

Take off your silk coverings
Put on our rough cloak
And we will bring you back to life ...





Depression is when you don't see the ocean behind the door ... 
Depression is when the planet is a vast prison ... 

You are depressed when you don't see solutions ... 

Depression is when you see yourself as a problem ... 
Depression is when self-worth vanishes ... 
Depression is when you feel useless ... 

When you see your power again ...
You are out of depression ...

Ibn Arabi ...



The movement which is the existence of the universe ...
Is the movement of love ...




The only love thats unchanging ...
Is the love of Allah ...


Friday, December 7, 2007

The Radical Middle Way Part One ... By Moez Masud

Love is difficult to fake, you can't imitate true love ...
If your love were sincere then you wouldn't disobey the one you love ...

We are given the ability to love 
By the One who gave us the ability to love ... Allah ...
Grief isn't the absence of happiness ... 

But the absence of Allah in your life, that is true grief ...
Harun Rashid said on his deathbed,
"Oh how we have been deceived by the world and what an awful abode"
(Don't worship for pleasure ... Worship for Allah ... Fulfill His rights)

Feel the value of your guidance
Say Subhnallah and experience the pleasure
Be grateful to Allah for all our blessings ... 

The love of the world must leave us ... We must remove it from ourselves.

We pray in order to get closer to Allah ...
The lost person has five traits:


1. They hate death
2. Heedless
3. They don't want to meet Allah
4. Content with being lost
5. They can't see the signs

Allah guides who He wills ...

Meet people in such a manner ... 
That if you die they should weep for you ... 
And if you live they should long for you ...

The tongue of the wiseman is behind his heart ... 
And the heart of the fool is behind his tongue ...


The people of the world are like travellers who are being carried while asleep ...

Beware of disobeying Allah in solitude ... 
For the witness is also the judge ...


The Cry Of The Soul ...


In the West we are conditioned to believe that at the beginning of every journey we should know where we are going and how to get there ... 

Caught in this conditioning, we apply it to spiritual life: 
What is the goal we seek and what are the practices that will take us there ??? 

But the real journey of the soul is not of our own choosing ... 
Nor can we find our own way ... 

We are responding to a call that will take us beyond the known into the unknown ... Beyond the world of forms into the formless ...

The spiritual journey is the most difficult undertaking ... 
It is a voluntary crucifixion in which we die to the ego ... 

Of our own accord we would never turn away from the world with its many attractions and illusions and begin this painful, lonely quest ... 

It is only because He calls us, because He attracts our attention with His love ... 
That we set out upon the path of no return ... 

Like a magnet He draws us to Him with love ... 

For, in the words of the Sufi poet Nizami: 

If the magnet were not loving ... How could it attract the iron with such longing ???

Divine Discontentment ...


In the innermost chamber of the heart we have seen His face ... 
But this is hidden from consciousness ... 

The heart speaks a language so different from that of the mind and the ego ... 
That we are not directly aware of what has happened ... 

Instead we are left with a feeling of the emptiness of our ordinary life ... 
The painful side of spiritual awakening is that the world becomes desolate ... 

We may try to improve our outer situation ...
Work harder ... 
Make money ... 
Or take a vacation ... 

But we soon find that this is no answer ... 

What is it that we really want ??? 
Why is the outer world losing its attraction ??? 

Friends and interests that used to be fulfilling can seem empty ... 
And we are left only with a discontent that we cannot satisfy ...

We long for what our heart knows to be real ... 

For love's union which is hidden beneath the surface of our lives ... 

When we are awakened to this real love we can never be satisfied by anything else ... 

This is why the world begins to lose its attraction ... 
Why we become discontented ... 

We have been given a glimpse of something else ...
The real substance of our own self ... 

Longing is both a blessing and a curse ... 

A blessing because it takes us home ... 
And a curse because of the pain it brings ... 

Nothing can satisfy us but union with God ... 


Rabi'a, who knew the deepest meaning of love's pain, expresses this in her usual straightforward way:

The source of my grief and loneliness is deep in my breast ...
This is a disease no doctor can cure ...
Only union with the Friend can cure it ...

In The Shade Of The Quran - (Sayyid Qutb)


A man's beliefs are meaningless ... 
Unless his actions and behaviour become a practical translation of those beliefs ...


When a man's conduct reflects his words, no matter how plain and ordinary these words are, people will trust him and take him seriously ... 

His words draw their power and effect from the sincerity and honesty with which they are being uttered ... 

Not from the rhetoric or eloquence in which they are delivered ... 
They assume a force of their own ...



Thursday, November 29, 2007

Lost Ones ... Lauryn Hill

Now
Now 
How come your talk turn cold
Gained the whole world for the price of your soul
Tryin' to grab hold of what you can't control
Now you're all floss ??? 
What a sight to behold
Wisdom is better than silver and gold
I was hopeless now I'm on Hope road
Every man wanna act like he's exempt
Need to get down on his knees and repent
Kyaan slick talk on the Day of Judgment
Your movement similar to a serpent
Tried to play straight, had yo' whole style bent
Consequence is no coincidence
Hypocrites always wanna play innocent
Always wanna take it to the full out extent
Always wanna make it seem like good intent
Never wanna face it when it time for punishment
I know you don't wanna hear my opinion
There come many paths and you must choose one
And if you don't change then the rain soon come
See you might win some, but you just lost one

You might win some, but you really lost one
You just lost one, it's so silly how come
When it's all done, did you really gain from
What you'd undone, it's so silly how come
You just lost one

Now don't you understand man universal law ???
What you throw out come back to you star
Never under estimate those who you scar
Cause, Karma Karma Karma come back to you hard
You kyaan hold God people back that long
The chain of Shaytaan wasn't made that strong
Tryin' to pretend like your word is your bond
But until you do right, all ya do will go wrong
Now some might mistake this for just a simple song
And some don't know what they have till it's gone
Now even when you gone you can still be reborn
And from the night can arrive the sweet dawn
Now some might listen and some might shun
And some may think that they reached perfection
If you look closely you'll see what you become
Cause you might win some, but you just lost one




How many people I have known ... 
If I wished, I could name them ... 
Who surrendered themselves to their desires and became prisoners of their lusts ... 
And forgot about death and their reckoning ...

Abdullah Ibn Abbas (ra) ...


You who commit a sin, do not feel secure about the results ... 
For what goes along with the sin is more serious than the sin itself ... 

Your lack of shame before the angels, who witness you when you committ the sin ... 
Is more serious than the sin itself ...



Your laughter when you sin, as you forget the punishment of Allah ... 
Is more seirous than the sin itself ...


Your delight if you get a chance to sin ... 

Is more serious than the sin itself ...


Even your disappointment, if you miss a chance to sin ... 

Is more serious than the sin itself ...

Aisha (ra) said ...



Aisha (ra), she said: The Prophet (pbuh), was sitting on the floor fixing his shoes ... It was very warm, and I looked at his blessed forehead, (pbuh) and I noticed that there were beads of sweat on it ... I was working with something in my hand, and I became overwhelmed by the majesty of that sight ... I stopped what I was doing long enough until the Prophet (pbuh), noticed that I was actually staring at him, and he (pbuh) said: What's the matter [Aisha] ???

She (ra) said: If Abu Bukair Al-Huthali, the poet, saw you, he would know that his poem was written for you" ...

And ofcourse the Prophet (pbuh), was not a poet and he said: What did he say ???

She (ra) said: Abu Bukair said that if you looked to the majesty of the moon, it twinkles and lights up the world for everybody to see ...

"So the Prophet (pbuh) got up," she said, "and walked to me and kissed me between the eyes, and he said: Wallahi ya Aisha, you are like that to me and more ...


It's not what we eat but what we digest that makes us strong ...
Not what we gain but what we save that makes us rich ...
Not what we read but what we remember that makes us learned ...
And not what we profess but what we practice that gives us integrity ... 

Sun & Moon ... By Abdullah Adhami ...



The word a-shams (the sun) is feminine ...
And qamar (moon) is masculine ...

The sun burns itself to give light and life to
everything around ...

And the moon is muneer, meaning it reflects the light ...

Within itself it has no light ... It radiates the brilliance of the sun ...

So when we shine as men,
the implication is that we are reflecting
the glorious light of our women ...



Thursday, November 22, 2007

A Sufi Saying ...

Your remedy is within you
But you do not sense it ...

Your illness is from you
But you do not perceive it ...

You presume you are an insignificant entity
But within you is enfolded the entire universe ...

Thus, you have no need to look beyond yourself ...

What you seek is within you ...

If only you reflect ...

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Friendship Brings Beauty Into Your Life ... Bahauddin ...



It is the depth and vibrancy of friendship that brings beauty to your life ... 
Friendship is the ground you plant your tree in, the fertile basis of your flourishing ... Friendship creates a continuous vitality around you, and in you ... 
The friend may be a bird, or a cat, or a frail person who is dying ... 
Still, if the friendship is strong, it will purify the circle of your living as a drop of the prophet's (pbuh) blood does the ground it falls on ...

True friends sacrifice wealth and reputation, everything, for each other ... 
When asked why, they say I wish I had more to give ... 
Abu Bakr and the other companions of Muhammad (pbuh) lived in such a friendship ...

Jafar Alam ...

Whatever we love in this visible world, we are sure to discover its flaws ... Though I feel that I struggle more when I follow Allah's way, I feel more lonely and empty when I don't follow Allah's way ... I feel like a prisoner trapped in this cage of illusions, that keeps promising me happiness, but leaving me miserable and lost inside ... The world keeps teasing me ... Drawing me in like bait, then throwing me right back in the ocean of passion and desire ... Ignorance is bliss ... The after effect is regret, discontentment and hollowness ... Short term pain for the long term pleasure is much better than short term temporary pleasures that do nothing but feed my lonely, empty self ... I'm struggling to fit into a world that doesn't even care about me ... Why am I trying so hard to get comfortable and even attached to a place that I know I won't be staying for too long in? ... The happiness I KNOW I want to feel, lays in my avoidance of things I THINK will bring me happiness ... I want to shut my eyes and heart to the world now, so that I can see and feel the things worth seeing and feeling ...



"And that is the secret of this world. If you remove love of dunya from your heart, the dunya is yours for the taking ... You can have the dunya because it's in your hand and not in your heart" - (Hamza Yusuf)



I pray that everyone feels or at least gets to experience once in their lifetime, the feeling of happiness ... The feeling of love, of fulfillment and joy ... To feel free without any limitations ... To experience the feeling felt by experiencing God ... To feel hopeful instead of hopeless ... I pray everyone finds in their lifetime, that one soul that gives them a feel of purpose, and companionship ... I pray that people will taste the sweetness and peace, of tranquility found in prayer ... Ameen ...

- Jafar Alam

Saturday, November 17, 2007

Albert Einstein ...



Each of us is here for a brief sojourn ... For what purpose he knows not ... Though he sometimes thinks he senses it ...But without deeper reflection ... One knows from daily life that one exists for other people ... First of all, for those upon whose smiles and well-being our own happiness is wholly dependent, and then for the many, unknown to us, to whose destinies we are bound by the ties of sympathy ... A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men ... Living and dead ... And that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving ...



Friday, November 16, 2007

Describing A Taste ... Bahauddin (The father of Rumi)




Someone asked me what is the knowing I speak of ... 
And how does the love I mention feel ... 
I said if you don't know, what can I say ??? 
And if you do know, what can I say ???
The taste of knowinglove has no explanation ...
And no account of it will ever give anyone that taste ...




The things that will destroy us are: 

Politics without principle ...
Pleasure without conscience ...
Wealth without work ...
Knowledge without character ...
Business without morality ...
Science without humanity ...
And worship without sacrifice ...

al Jami (The Gatherer)


Your preoccupation with this world ... 


Eating ... Drinking ... Seeking more and more to eat ... To have ... To enjoy ...


Your slavery at the hands of your flesh and your ego have made you inattentive to everything else ... 


Only when the bird of your soul flies from the cage of the flesh will this dream evaporate ... And you will find yourself alone with your deeds ... 


Then you see that single companion whom you hug and press to your chest ... 


Is it something warm and friendly ... Or is it full of snakes and scorpions and poisonous thorns ??? 


Then you will know what you presumed to be good was Hell ... 


And what you thought was suffering was Paradise.




All the wise have said the same ...

The one who knows God
Is God's mercy to His creatures ...

Don't give your heart to anything
But the love of those whose hearts are glad ...

Don't go to the neighborhood of despair
There is hope ...

Don't go in the direction of darkness
Suns exist ...

Rumi ...


You keep complaining about others
And all they owe you ???

Well, forget about them
Just be in the presence ...

When the earth is this wide
Why are you asleep in a prison ???

Think of nothing but the source of thought ...

Feed the soul ... Let the body fast ...

Avoid knotted ideas
Untie yourself in a higher world ...

Limit your talk
For the sake of timeless communion ...

Abandon life and the world
And find the life of the world ...


The longer a relationship is alive, the longer it takes to get over its death ... 
But for all things, there is a time ... 
And sometimes, when we lose one love, we are really losing two ... 
And self-love can be the hardest of all to win back ...

Moroccan Proverb ...


Never mock any creature of God ...
For it might be beloved to He who ceated it ...


Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Only You ... Rumi


Only you
I choose among the entire world
Is it fair of you
letting me be unhappy ???

My heart is a pen in your hand
It is all up to you
To write me happy or sad ...


I see only what you reveal
And live as you say.
All my feelings have the colour
You desire to paint ...

From the beginning to the end
No one but you ...

Please make my future
Better than the past ...

When you hide I change
To a Godless person
And when you appear
I find my faith ...

Don't expect to find
Any more in me
Than what you give ...

Don't search for
Hidden pockets because
I've shown you that
All I have is all you gave ...