Someone else is happy ... 
With less than what you have ...

New experiences trigger change, only if they cause us to question our beliefs ... Remember, whenever we believe something, we no longer question it in any way ... The moment we begin to honestly question our beliefs, we no longer feel absolutely certain about them ... We are beginning to shake the reference legs of our cognitive tables, and as a result start to lose our feeling of absolute certainty ... Have you ever doubted your ability to do something ??? ... How did you do it ??? ... You probably asked yourself some poor questions like "What if I screw up???" "What if it doesn't work???" "What if they don't like me???" ... But questions can obviously be tremendously empowering if we use them to examine the validity of beliefs we may have just blindly accepted ... In fact, many of our beliefs are supported by information we've received from others that we failed to question at the time ... If we scrutinize them, we may find that what we've unconciously believed for years may be based on a false set of presuppositions ...

Freedom ...

Love poems are quicksand #JafarAlamPoetry

Hafiz ...

    

Illusion fled from all my ecstasy ...

It is no small thing to be loved by God #JafarAlamPoetry

Reason and Revelation ...

TIME ...

Time is the twine to tie our lives into parcels of years and months ... Or a rubber band stretched to suit our fancy ... Time can be the pretty ribbon in a little girl's hair ... Or the lines in your face, stealing your youthful color and your hair ... 


He sighed and smiled sadly "but in the end, time is a noose around the neck, strangling it slowly" ...

An underwater sculpture off the shore of Grenada, West Indies ... 
In Honor of the African Ancestors at the Bottom of the Atlantic ...

Before I die ... I really want to tell someone how I feel about her #JafarAlamPoetry

I had her at "oh hell no" #JafarAlamPoetry

A heart, my love, is a bloody organ ... But maaaaan, the music it plays #JafarAlamPoetry

It was the potential of everything we could be ... And won't be ... That broke me #JafarAlamPoetry

Be mindful of how you release your negativity ...
So that it does not reflect back into your reality ...

The script to my love for you starts with the worshipful heart of Rumi ... And ends with every line he ever wrote #JafarAlamPoetry

Afghan Box Camera ... Kamra - E- Faoree ...

Mining for Gold in the Qur’an ... By Naima Alam

This is a short speech my sister gave at this past weekend's Richmond Hill Muslim Association (RHMA) seminar ... 

RHMA Seminar: Mining for Gold in the Qur’an

(May 5, 2012)

Salaam Alaikum,

My journey with the Qur’an began in University, but RHMA’s Sunday classes and seminars have encouraged me to become a student of the Qur’an.  I had often asked God to bless me with the proper understanding of His Deen, and with the knowledge I’ve gained through the classes I realize I had very shallow, doubtful understandings of very immense life lessons and that Divine Guidance never leaves room for doubt. Contrary to popular belief, a new analysis of the Qur’an has taught me that God is not arbitrarily good or mean, because every action we take, every event, has a good as well as an evil aspect to it, and every result happens according to established universal laws. Namely the Law of Compensation: we get what we give. 

The Qur’an tells us that it already contains everything we ever have to know or ask about anything, and that’s because it’s a book of self-actualization and action. In other words, if we proactively cultivate the enhancing characteristics outlined in it, we’ll achieve success, as this is God’s way of giving us everything we could ever ask for within our selves so long as we allow these innate but sometimes dormant capabilities to surface. As Galileo once said, you cannot teach a man anything; you can only help him to find it within himself. As I skimmed the fifteen lessons in a book called The Law of Success by Napoleon Hill, I realized that they were essentially everything the Qur’an comprises: having a definite purpose and clear definite plans to achieve the purpose, cultivating self-confidence and a spirit of fearlessness, taking initiative and leadership, avoiding words and deeds that antagonize others and oneself, practicing sound judgment based on all facts connected to any problem at hand, developing self-discipline and freeing oneself of greed, selfishness, avarice and egotism, analyzing people accurately instead of what we wish to see in them, ridding ourselves of pessimism, doubt, fear, cynicism, and procrastination, being firm in our decisions, deductive and inductive reasoning, willingness to work and take action, being enthusiastic, cooperating with others without friction, turning our desires into reality regardless of the time or effort required, performing more unselfish service for the benefit of others based on generosity, having attractive personalities which includes good health, neatness of appearance, fluent speech, tactfulness, having an open mind and never being closed to logic or Truth, seeking general and specialized knowledge, freeing ourselves from bias and prejudice, meditation and seeking God’s assistance and Divine Guidance, being tolerant and forbearing with those who hold different views, having a sense of justice and sympathy, having a thirst for truth regardless of its source or the subsequent changes one will have to make to one’s life or views, having an ability to analyze things in retrospect, studying cause and effect, understanding the law of growth, understanding economics, and of course the Golden Rule which entails honesty, love for humanity, willingness to forgive, and a recognition of the interdependency of men. 

In RHMA’s Sunday Qur’an classes we’ve truly mined for this gold; with our shallow pans of understanding we’ve delved into our stagnant, murky waters of culture and tradition, which typically encourage wishful thinking and not enough personal accomplishment, and through our class discussions we’ve been able to shake away the dirt and rubble of centuries’ worth of superstition, nonsense, and unsound beliefs to separate them from better, authentic meanings that radiate with rationale, motivation, scientific facts, and logic. Because this gold is denser than all the other things we’ve been brought up with, it quickly settles into our hearts and minds when we swap our numerous untruths for One Truth.

If you truly love a person, you would want the whole world to know that you love that person #JafarAlamPoetry

I love singing to my food ... But only when it sings to me first #JafarAlamPoetry

I am unashamed, unafraid and unapologetic for my belief in God #JafarAlamPoetry

God can do far more with the broken, than we could ever do with the functional #JafarAlamPoetry

Fair Trade ... Beautiful Gems ...

We seem increasingly drawn to technologies that provide the illusion of companionship ... Without the demands of relationship ... 

Caine's Arcade ...

Remember This ...

15 Things You Should Give Up To Be Happy ...

Here is a list of 15 things which, if you give up on them, will make your life a lot easier and much, much happier. We hold on to so many things that cause us a great deal of pain, stress and suffering – and instead of letting them all go, instead of allowing ourselves to be stress free and happy – we cling on to them. Not anymore. Starting today we will give up on all those things that no longer serve us, and we will embrace change. Ready? Here we go:

1. Give up your need to always be right. There are so many of us who can’t stand the idea of being wrong – wanting to always be right – even at the risk of ending great relationships or causing a great deal of stress and pain, for us and for others. It’s just not worth it. Whenever you feel the ‘urgent’ need to jump into a fight over who is right and who is wrong, ask yourself this question: “Would I rather be right, or would I rather be kind?” Wayne Dyer. What difference will that make? Is your ego really that big?


2. Give up your need for control. Be willing to give up your need to always control everything that happens to you and around you – situations, events, people, etc. Whether they are loved ones, coworkers, or just strangers you meet on the street – just allow them to be. Allow everything and everyone to be just as they are and you will see how much better will that make you feel.

“By letting it go it all gets done. The world is won by those who let it go. But when you try and try. The world is beyond winning.” Lao Tzu

3. Give up on blame. Give up on your need to blame others for what you have or don’t have, for what you feel or don’t feel. Stop giving your powers away and start taking responsibility for your life.

4. Give up your self-defeating self-talk. Oh my. How many people are hurting themselves because of their negative, polluted and repetitive self-defeating mindset? Don’t believe everything that your mind is telling you – especially if it’s negative and self-defeating. You are better than that.

“The mind is a superb instrument if used rightly. Used wrongly, however, it becomes very destructive.” Eckhart Tolle

5. Give up your limiting beliefs about what you can or cannot do, about what is possible or impossible. From now on, you are no longer going to allow your limiting beliefs to keep you stuck in the wrong place. Spread your wings and fly!

“A belief is not an idea held by the mind, it is an idea that holds the mind” Elly Roselle

6. Give up complaining. Give up your constant need to complain about those many, many, maaany things – people, situations, events that make you unhappy, sad and depressed. Nobody can make you unhappy, no situation can make you sad or miserable unless you allow it to. It’s not the situation that triggers those feelings in you, but how you choose to look at it. Never underestimate the power of positive thinking.

7. Give up the luxury of criticism. Give up your need to criticize things, events or people that are different than you. We are all different, yet we are all the same. We all want to be happy, we all want to love and be loved and we all want to be understood. We all want something, and something is wished by us all.

8. Give up your need to impress others. Stop trying so hard to be something that you’re not just to make others like you. It doesn’t work this way. The moment you stop trying so hard to be something that you’re not, the moment you take of all your masks, the moment you accept and embrace the real you, you will find people will be drawn to you, effortlessly.

9. Give up your resistance to change. Change is good. Change will help you move from A to B. Change will help you make improvements in your life and also the lives of those around you. Follow your bliss, embrace change – don’t resist it.
“Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors for you where there were only walls” Joseph Campbell

10. Give up labels. Stop labeling those things, people or events that you don’t understand as being weird or different and try opening your mind, little by little. Minds only work when open. “The highest form of ignorance is when you reject something you don’t know anything about.” Wayne Dyer

11. Give up on your fears. Fear is just an illusion, it doesn’t exist – you created it. It’s all in your mind. Correct the inside and the outside will fall into place.
“The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself.” Franklin D. Roosevelt

12. Give up your excuses. Send them packing and tell them they’re fired. You no longer need them. A lot of times we limit ourselves because of the many excuses we use. Instead of growing and working on improving ourselves and our lives, we get stuck, lying to ourselves, using all kind of excuses – excuses that 99.9% of the time are not even real.

13. Give up the past. I know, I know. It’s hard. Especially when the past looks so much better than the present and the future looks so frightening, but you have to take into consideration the fact that the present moment is all you have and all you will ever have. The past you are now longing for – the past that you are now dreaming about – was ignored by you when it was present. Stop deluding yourself. Be present in everything you do and enjoy life. After all life is a journey not a destination. Have a clear vision for the future, prepare yourself, but always be present in the now.

14. Give up attachment. This is a concept that, for most of us is so hard to grasp and I have to tell you that it was for me too, (it still is) but it’s not something impossible. You get better and better at with time and practice. The moment you detach yourself from all things, (and that doesn’t mean you give up your love for them – because love and attachment have nothing to do with one another, attachment comes from a place of fear, while love… well, real love is pure, kind, and self less, where there is love there can’t be fear, and because of that, attachment and love cannot coexist) you become so peaceful, so tolerant, so kind, and so serene. You will get to a place where you will be able to understand all things without even trying. A state beyond words.

15. Give up living your life to other people’s expectations. Way too many people are living a life that is not theirs to live. They live their lives according to what others think is best for them, they live their lives according to what their parents think is best for them, to what their friends, their enemies and their teachers, their government and the media think is best for them. They ignore their inner voice, that inner calling. They are so busy with pleasing everybody, with living up to other people’s expectations, that they lose control over their lives. They forget what makes them happy, what they want, what they need….and eventually they forget about themselves. You have one life – this one right now – you must live it, own it, and especially don’t let other people’s opinions distract you from your path.

My friend Anis Mojgani ...

The Bruce Lee Influence On Modern MMA ...

The Fortune Teller ... Nizar Qabbani

She sat with fear in her eyes
Contemplating the upturned cup
She said "Do not be sad, my son
You are destined to fall in love"
My son, Who sacrifices himself for his beloved,
Is a martyr

For long have I studied fortune-telling
But never have I read a cup similar to yours
For long have I studied fortune-telling
But never have I seen sorrows similar to yours
You are predestined to sail forever
Sail-less, on the sea of love
Your life is forever destined
To be a book of tears
And be imprisoned
Between water and fire

But despite all its pains,
Despite the sadness
That is with us day and night
Despite the wind
The rainy weather
And the cyclone
It is love, my son
That will be forever the best of fates

There is a woman in your life, my son
Her eyes are so beautiful
Glory to God
Her mouth and her laughter
Are full of roses and melodies
And her gypsy and crazy love of life
Travels the world
The woman you love
May be your whole world
But your sky will be rain-filled
Your road blocked, blocked, my son
Your beloved, my son, is sleeping
In a guarded palace
He who approaches her garden wall
Who enters her room
And who proposes to her
Or tries to unite her plaits
Will cause her to be lost, my son...lost

You will seek her everywhere, my son
You will ask the waves of the sea about her
You will ask the shores of the seas
You will travel the oceans
And your tears will flow like a river
And at the close of your life
You will find that since your beloved
Has no land, no home, no address
You have been pursuing only a trace of smoke
How difficult it is, my son
To love a woman
Who has neither land, nor a home

LOOOVE Maradona !!!

Hafiz ...

What
Do sad people have in
Common ???

It seems
They have all built a shrine
To the past
And often go there
And do a strange wail and
Worship ...

What is the beginning of
Happiness ???

It is to stop being
So religious
Like that ...

Ethiopian Proverb ...

When one is in love ... 
A cliff becomes a meadow ...

Miranda July ...

Look at the sky ... That is for you ...

Look at each person’s face as you pass on the street ... Those faces are for you ...

And the street itself ... And the ground under the street ...

And the ball of fire underneath the ground ... All these things are for you ...

They are as much for you as they are for other people ...

Remember this when you wake up in the morning and think you have nothing ...

Afghanistan ...

I can lay no claim to Afghanistan through right of blood or right of soil ... But what about right of heart ??? ... I keep you in my heart #JafarAlamPoetry

Cesare Pavese ...

Traveling forces you to trust strangers and to lose sight of all that familiar comfort of home and friends ... You are constantly off balance ... Nothing is yours except the essential things: air, sleep, dreams, the sea, the sky ... All things tending towards the eternal or what we imagine of it ...

I love. I loved. I was in love. I am loving. I am in love. I still love. I am not in love. There was love. I will love #JafarAlamPoetry

Morihei Ueshiba ...

Budo is not a means of felling the opponent by force or by lethal weapons ... Neither is it intended to lead the world to destruction by arms and other illegitimate means ... True Budo calls for bringing the inner energy of the universe in order, protecting the peace of the world , as well as preserving, everything in nature in its right form ...

Splitscreen: A Love Story ...

Splitscreen: A Love Story from James W Griffiths on Vimeo.

WOW ... Just WOW ...

WE MISS YOU from fireapple films on Vimeo.

Love(ly) ...

The more one learns ...

The less one knows ...

Lauryn Hill ...

You make my desire pure ...

Shabistari ...

Know that the whole world is a mirror ...

In each atom are found a hundred blazing suns ...

If you split the center of a single drop of water

A hundred pure oceans spring forth ...

If you examine each particle of dust

A thousand Adams can be seen ...

A universe lies hidden in a grain of millet

Everything is brought together at the point of the present ...

From each point along that circle

Thousands of forms are drawn ...

Each point, as it revolves in a circle, is at times a circle ...

At others, a turning circumference ...

Kickflips in Kabul ...

SKATEISTAN: TO LIVE AND SKATE KABUL from Diesel New Voices on Vimeo.

Hafez ...

Your love should never be offered to the mouth of a stranger ...
Only to someone who has the valor ...

And daring to cut pieces of their soul off with a knife ...
Then weave them into a blanket ...
To protect you ...

Proverb ...

At the feast of ego ...

Everyone leaves hungry ...

First love heartbreak is capable of numerous kinds of destruction #JafarAlamPoetry

You've been silent in me for so long #JafarAlamPoetry

You have the face that men would go to war for #JafarAlamPoetry

The beauty of potential ... The allure of maturity #JafarAlamPoetry

Eckhart Tolle ...

Unease, Anxiety, Tension, Stress, Worry — all forms of fear — are caused by too much future, and not enough presence ...

Guilt, Regret, Resentment, Grievances, Sadness, Bitterness, and all forms of non-forgiveness are caused by too much past, and not enough presence ...

There are some things more painful than watching someone you love, love someone else ... Like you not loving yourself …

Rumi ...

My Soul spills into yours and is blended ...

People who are meant to be together ...

Will always find their way back to each other ...

They may take detours in life ...

But they’re never lost ...

Rumi ...

Study me as much as you like, you will not know me ...
For I differ in a hundred ways, from what you see me to be ...

Put yourself behind my eyes and see me as I see myself ...
For I have chosen to dwell in a place you cannot see ...

Rumi ...

A description of the heart is impossible with words ...

Even if every cell of your body had a tongue ...

Rumi ...

Wear GRATITUDE like a cloak ...

And it will feed every corner of your life ...

Hard Times ...

Lovesong ... Adele

A woman is not written in braille ...

You don’t have to touch her to know her ...

Is This Love ... Mara Hruby

Beauty Part 3 ...

Swim Good ...

Bangladesh ...

Letter Written By A Former Slave To His Old Master ...

Fascinating letter from 1865 written by a former slave to his old master ...

To My Old Master

In August of 1865, a Colonel P.H. Anderson of Big Spring, Tennessee, wrote to his former slave, Jourdan Anderson, and requested that he come back to work on his farm. Jourdan — who, since being emancipated, had moved to Ohio, found paid work, and was now supporting his family — responded spectacularly by way of the letter seen below (a letter which, according to newspapers at the time, he dictated).

Rather than quote the numerous highlights in this letter, I'll simply leave you to enjoy it. Do make sure you read to the end.
(Source: The Freedmen's Book; Image: A group of escaped slaves in Virginia in 1862, courtesy of the Library of Congress.)
Dayton, Ohio

August 7, 1865

To My Old Master, Colonel P.H. Anderson, Big Spring, Tennessee

Sir: I got your letter, and was glad to find that you had not forgotten Jourdon, and that you wanted me to come back and live with you again, promising to do better for me than anybody else can. I have often felt uneasy about you. I thought the Yankees would have hung you long before this, for harboring Rebs they found at your house. I suppose they never heard about your going to Colonel Martin's to kill the Union soldier that was left by his company in their stable. Although you shot at me twice before I left you, I did not want to hear of your being hurt, and am glad you are still living. It would do me good to go back to the dear old home again, and see Miss Mary and Miss Martha and Allen, Esther, Green, and Lee. Give my love to them all, and tell them I hope we will meet in the better world, if not in this. I would have gone back to see you all when I was working in the Nashville Hospital, but one of the neighbors told me that Henry intended to shoot me if he ever got a chance.

I want to know particularly what the good chance is you propose to give me. I am doing tolerably well here. I get twenty-five dollars a month, with victuals and clothing; have a comfortable home for Mandy,—the folks call her Mrs. Anderson,—and the children—Milly, Jane, and Grundy—go to school and are learning well. The teacher says Grundy has a head for a preacher. They go to Sunday school, and Mandy and me attend church regularly. We are kindly treated. Sometimes we overhear others saying, "Them colored people were slaves" down in Tennessee. The children feel hurt when they hear such remarks; but I tell them it was no disgrace in Tennessee to belong to Colonel Anderson. Many darkeys would have been proud, as I used to be, to call you master. Now if you will write and say what wages you will give me, I will be better able to decide whether it would be to my advantage to move back again.

As to my freedom, which you say I can have, there is nothing to be gained on that score, as I got my free papers in 1864 from the Provost-Marshal-General of the Department of Nashville. Mandy says she would be afraid to go back without some proof that you were disposed to treat us justly and kindly; and we have concluded to test your sincerity by asking you to send us our wages for the time we served you. This will make us forget and forgive old scores, and rely on your justice and friendship in the future. I served you faithfully for thirty-two years, and Mandy twenty years. At twenty-five dollars a month for me, and two dollars a week for Mandy, our earnings would amount to eleven thousand six hundred and eighty dollars. Add to this the interest for the time our wages have been kept back, and deduct what you paid for our clothing, and three doctor's visits to me, and pulling a tooth for Mandy, and the balance will show what we are in justice entitled to. Please send the money by Adams's Express, in care of V. Winters, Esq., Dayton, Ohio. If you fail to pay us for faithful labors in the past, we can have little faith in your promises in the future. We trust the good Maker has opened your eyes to the wrongs which you and your fathers have done to me and my fathers, in making us toil for you for generations without recompense. Here I draw my wages every Saturday night; but in Tennessee there was never any pay-day for the negroes any more than for the horses and cows. Surely there will be a day of reckoning for those who defraud the laborer of his hire.

In answering this letter, please state if there would be any safety for my Milly and Jane, who are now grown up, and both good-looking girls. You know how it was with poor Matilda and Catherine. I would rather stay here and starve—and die, if it come to that—than have my girls brought to shame by the violence and wickedness of their young masters. You will also please state if there has been any schools opened for the colored children in your neighborhood. The great desire of my life now is to give my children an education, and have them form virtuous habits.

Say howdy to George Carter, and thank him for taking the pistol from you when you were shooting at me.

From your old servant,

Jourdon Anderson.

Don Miguel Ruiz ...

The only way to master love is to practice love ...

You don’t need to justify your love ...

You don’t need to explain your love ...

You just need to practice your love ...

Practice creates the master ...

Sherrilyn Kenyon ...

It’s easy to look at people and make quick judgments about them ... 
Their present and their past ... 
But you’d be amazed at the pain and tears a single smile hides ... 

What a person shows to the world ...
Is only one tiny facet of the iceberg hidden from sight ... 

And more often then not ...
It’s lined with cracks and scars ...
That go all the way to the foundation of their soul ...

Jafar Alam Poetry

Buy more experiences and less things #JafarAlamPoetry

Buddhist Monk ...

Buddhist Monk prays for dead man at train station ...

The love, compassion and burden of the faithful ...

Happy Birthday Muhammad Ali ...

Happy 70th Birthday Muhammad Ali ...

Champion ...

Lyricist ...

Redeemer ...

The Greatest ...

Too Afraid To Love You ...

Bruce Lee ...

Put every great teacher together in a room ...

And they'd agree about everything ...

Put their disciples in there ...

And they'd argue about everything ...