November 2006
Monthly Archive
November 30, 2006
November 30, 2006
Alhamdullilah, I had some very interesting conversation this evening.. in the course of which, I realizes something:
The worst thing in life is not that you should be forgotten, whether during your lifetime or after your death: man is forgetful by nature. How many greater than ourselves have passed before us and left no trace for posterity. And so we’re all likely to be neglected in this life: we were unknown before birth, most are unknown during life, and most will be unknown after death.
” HAS THERE not been an endless span of time before man appeared – a time when he was not yet a thing to be thought of?”
[76: 1-2]
Rather, the worst thing that can befall one is that they should forget their Lord in this life, and in so doing forget themselves, their true identity and place, and forget their destiny, and be forgotten in the life to come.
“But as for he who turns away from My remembrance, his existence will be confined, and on the Day of Resurrection We shall raise him in a state of blindness. [And so he will ask] ‘Oh my Sustainer, why have you raised me blind, when in the world I could see?’ [God will reply]: ‘ Even so did Our signs come to you, and you neglected them, and so on this Day you shall be forgotten.’ ”
[20: 124-126]
November 26, 2006
I have a question for all the evolutionary theorists out there. This is a picture of a tree fr. an IR camera. If we evolved, why don’t we see the world this way? Now, some might say that it’s because there probably were some humans who did see this way, but they died out because it wasn’t favourable for their existence – where is the proof thereof? Why wouldn’t it be favourable?
Imagine we saw the world like this. SubahanAllah.
November 26, 2006
The blog of a lady living with schizophrenia:
http://www.schizophrenia.com/pam/
She has an interesting post: a poem from the point of view of the mother of a Palestinian suicide bomber.
November 22, 2006
This did a lot to change me today:
” You have to work hard in everything you do. Beacuse that is what drives
your context. See, if you decide that I’m going to work hard at the
deen but I’m going to be a lazy person at work – then what’s going to
happen is that you will always be a lazy person in everything you do.
The thing that I’ve noticed about those people who succeed, is that
they recognize their time as valuable – in every realm in which they
apply it.”
- Shaykh Husain (whoever that is.)
November 22, 2006
fr. Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions, John Donne.
“… all mankind is of one author and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated.
God employs several translators; some pieces are translated by age, some by sickness, some by war, some by justice; but God’s hand is in every translation, and his hand shall bind up all our scattered leaves again for that library where every book shall lie open to one another.
As therefore the bell that rings a sermon calls not upon the preacher
only, but upon the congregation to come, so this bell calls us all; but
how much more me, who am brought so near the door by this sickness.
There was a contention as far as a suit (in which piety and dignity, religion and estimation, were mingled) which of the religious orders should ring to prayers first in the morning; and it was determined that they should ring first that rose earliest.
If we understand aright the dignity of this bell that tolls for our evening prayer, we would be glad to make it ours by rising early, in that application, that it might be ours as well as his whose indeed it is.
The bell doth toll for him that thinks it doth; and though it intermit again, yet from that minute that that occasion wrought upon him, he is united to God.
Who casts not up his eye to the sun when it rises? but who takes off his eye from a comet when that breaks out?
Who bends not his ear to any bell which upon any occasion rings? but who can remove it from that bell which is passing a piece of himself out of this world?
No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend’s or of thine own were.
Any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.
Neither can we call this a begging of misery or a borrowing of misery, as though we are not miserable enough of ourselves but must fetch in
more from the next house, in taking upon us the misery of our neighbors.
Truly it were an excusable covetousness if we did; for affliction is a treasure, and scarce any man hath enough of it.
No man hath affliction enough that is not matured and ripened by it, and made fit for God by that affliction.
If a man carry treasure in bullion, or in a wedge of gold, and have none coined into current moneys, his treasure will not defray him as he travels. Tribulation is treasure in the nature of it, but it is not current money in the use of it, except we get nearer and nearer our home, heaven, by it. Another man may be sick too, and sick to death, and this affliction may lie in his bowels as gold in a mine and be of no use to him; but this bell that tells me of his affliction digs out and applies that gold to me, if by this consideration of another’s dangers I take mine own into contemplation and so secure myself by making my recourse to my God, who is our only security.”
November 19, 2006
All Praise is Due to Allah, Lord of All the Worlds, yo.
Posted by zalkhatib under UncategorizedLeave a Comment
Apparently an evangelical group has published a Hip-Hop Prayer Book. Featuring such eloquent devotions as this revision of Psalm 23 (normal version here)
Psalm 23 as adapted by Ryan Kearse
The Lord is all that, I need for nothing.
He allows me to chill.
He keeps me from being heated
and allows me to breathe easy.
He guides my life so that
I can represent and give
shouts out in his Name.
And even though I walk through
the Hood of death,
I don’t back down
for You have my back.
The fact that you have me covered
allows me to chill.
He provides me with back-up
in front of my player-haters
and I know that I am a baller
and life will be phat.
I fall back in the Lord’s crib
November 16, 2006
What separates intense discussion from argument?
I was sitting and “discussing” or perhaps arguing an issue, and mash’Allah I remembered all of the hadith related to the things about which we spoke –
except for the most important one, which I remembered right after leaving:
The Prophet, peace be upon him, said that “I promise a house in the middle of paradise to the one who leaves argumentation and he is correct, and a house on the edge of paradise to the one who leaves argumentation though he is wrong.”
November 14, 2006
“All professions are conspiracies against the laity”
- George Bernard Shaw (1906)
November 11, 2006
The Stranger
Zayn al Abidin, Ali, ibn Husayn, ibn Ali ibn Abi Talib, may Allah be pleased with them
The stranger is not the foreigner from Syria or Yemen;
Rather, the stranger is the one foreign to the shroud and the coffin.
For even the foreigner from afar has rights due to him
From the people of the nations and towns through which he travels.
So chide not this foreigner about his condition -
For Time already chides him with troubles and humiliation:
**
My journey is far and my provisions will not suffice me;
My strength has been sapped, and Death calls out to me.
And yet I have a surplus of sins that I have overlooked -
But Allah knows of them, those done in secret and openly.
How forbearing has Allah been to me! Granting me respite
Though I persisted in sin, He veiled me.
And so the hours of my life passed without regret
With neither tears, nor fear, nor sadness – but blissfully;
For I was the one who secured the doors vigorously
Seeking refuge from the world while behaving sinfully;
Heedless that the Eye of God
Was always watching over me.
Oh! The mistakes that have been inscribed for me,
Performed in a time of heedlessness, come fleetingly,
Now passed, so only regret remains in my heart, consuming me.
Leave me to weep for my soul and to wail
To spend the time that remains in mourning and misery.
Leave, oh you who seeks to comfort me;
If you but knew why I grieve you too would fear the fate destined for me.
Leave me to weep these tears unceasingly –
Perhaps by this exertion I will attain purity.
**
It is as if I am lying prostrate, amongst my family
Upon the bed, as their hands turn me over repeatedly;
Gathered around me are those concerned for me,
They wail, and grieve, and mourn for me.
They come now with a doctor, seeking some remedy –
But I know that today no doctor can be of benefit to me.
And now it comes – the tearing out of my living entity –
From every vein. The harshness! The cruelty!
My soul rushes from me, escaping this earthly body –
I taste the bitterness of my death, as it pushes past my throat and out of me.
They close my eyes, and all of them have left me
Having lost hope in my life, they seek now to bury me.
Quickly rises he who had been most beloved to me
For my burial, seeking to find someone to wash me.
He cries out “Oh people, we seek one who can wash him,
Properly, expertly, respectfully…”
Thereupon a man from amongst them came –
He removed my clothes, exposing me, as they all left individually.
He lay me prostrate upon a tablet,
And a stream of water descended, cleansing me;
He poured the water, washing me
Three times, before calling the people
to enter with the shroud for me.
In a garment with no sleeves, they dressed me
And the perfume between my lips
Became the only provision for me.
Then they took me from this world – ah, woe upon me!
Who was forced from the world,
Without provisions sufficient for this journey.
Four men upon their shoulders carry me
Those who have come to bid farewell trail behind respectfully.
They carry me to the mosque, before retreating hastily
Behind the Imam to pray, bidding farewell to me.
They pray a prayer with neither bowings nor prostrations
That perhaps my Lord will grant to me his Infinite Mercy.
Then they lower me into the grave, carefully:
A friend descends to lay me down properly.
He removes the cloth from my face, that he might look once more;
Tears fall from his eyes, drowning me.
Then a man rises and begins, expertly
To construct my tomb, isolating me.
“Cover him!” He calls, as they pour the earth over me,
“And receive the best of rewards, from He of Greatest Mercy!”
**
There, in the darkness of the grave, no mother is to be found,
Nor a merciful father, nor a brother to give me company;
And now I grow terrified, as sight returns to me,
And an image forms, petrifying me –
Of Munkar and Nakir –
What can I say to them?
I am alone, frightened to rigidity.
They come to question me, staunchly, harshly –
Oh God, None but you can protect me!
So please, my Only Hope! bless me with forgiveness from Thee,
For indeed, my sins are as shackles, subduing me.
**
My family, returning home, splits my wealth evenly,
They take the spoils while I carry the burden solitarily.
My wife replaces me with another
Granting him authority over my wealth and property.
My child becomes as a servant to him,
And they spend of my earnings freely.
**
So do not be deceived by this material life and its beauty
But look instead to what it has wrought
Upon the family and country.
And look also to those who have conquered it in its entirety –
Did they leave with more than soil in their mouths,
And a memory for posterity?
Be satisfied with your material wealth, and worship thankfully
Though you may have nothing more than health and a sound body.
You who sow good, know this! You shall reap your reward happily;
You who sow evil, know this! You shall stand in weakness and misery.
Oh my soul! Cease your evil inclinations and work acts of beauty
Acts of good and righteousness, that Allah might show you mercy!
Woe to you, my soul! Repent, and do good,
That you may be rewarded in kind after death has taken thee.
**
Peace be upon The Chosen, our Esteemed Prophet Muhammad
Who illuminated all that was between East and West equally;
All thanks are due to Allah, who lets us rise and retire peacefully,
With goodness, forgiveness, and blessings, with grace and equity.
***
- trans. Zacharia al Khatib,
9 May 2006.
Much thanks to Basit Iqbal and Mehreen Rashid, great poets in their own right, for their insightful comments and help with the translation. I hope that Allah spreads this poem wide and allows many to benefit from it.
