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The month of the Quran

Glory to God, to be alive to witness another Ramadan inshaAllah! My heart is overjoyed and at the same time bathed in an ocean of great peace. This month is the blessed month, I am humbled to enter it again. The month of the Quran, when it was first revealed and when it is celebrated. So here, to herald Ramadan, leaving you with the recitation of Surah Maryam (the chapter entitled ‘Mary’). This recitation is especial to me, listening to the words kept me going through a very dark half an hour. May it illuminate and pacify your heart as well.

Peace to you all and Ramadan Mubarak (May you have a blessed Ramadan!)

Can’t stop

I’ve often said over the years that the only thing certain about life is death. And it is true. So I wonder, why are so many people afraid of what is inevitable? And knowing this, why then worry about all the pettiness in the world when time is short and there is eternity to prepare for. It may sound a morbid statement, but the truth above is a great release and brings about true perspective to one’s life.

 

Today, I drove past a graveyard where a dear friend is buried among many other souls. And as we Muslims do, I greeted those souls with the greeting we have been taught by our beloved prophet (Allah bless and elevate him) ‘Assalamu alaikum ya ahlul kabr’  =  ‘peace be upon you, o people of the grave’ and added the prayer ‘May Allah grant you are in ease’ and also ‘one day I will join you if Allah wills (not knowing in exactly which graveyard in what part of the world my end will come)’

May God bless us all with ease in our graves and an expansion, with peace in our present and joy in our hereafter and that we use this precious time on earth wisely and well. And may He, almightly, the Subtle, the Near, the Watchful, the Witness, the Clement, the Turner, the Loving, the Forgiver, turn to us in His benevolent loving kindness and forgive our countless sins. Ameen

 

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Jewels of the Quran

Assalamu alaikum (peace be with you)

Here is a talk well worth listening to. It is by Sr. Yasmin Mogahed, a noted scolar and speaker with a deep insight and wisdom. It was given at the Being ME conference in Malaysia I believe. the ‘ME’ standing for ‘Muslimah empowered’. Muslimah is the feminine form of Muslim. This conference is about us Muslim women further developing as the type of women the prophet (peace be upon him) developed. Strong, equal, beautiful and with strengths unique to being female. The conference is coming to Vancouver and I am so looking forward to going inshaAllah (God willing). Ustadha Yasmin (ustadha being a title of respect, meaning female teacher basically) explains stories of the prophets (peace be upon them all) in the Quran in profound ways. I hope you get to listen. And if you are in Vancouver, I hope you get to attend and I meet you there! Here is a link to the event.

Between two books of signs

 

Between the two books

 

Ayaat*, signs, envelope me

Stars and planets, earth and sky

Every drop of water in every great river

Flowing to meet the sea

Every cell in every body

Pulsating to some internal decree

DNA is a wonder

Mathematical modeling encoding life

Music, numbers in motion

All bound by the time-space continuum

All knowledge spiraling upward, upward

Like some unrelenting stream

Taking the disciple to an eternal ocean

Of oneness, one to one

You to your Creator

Me to the same

You and me and all that exists and ever did exist

All to Allah

Transcending time.

So these signs in the book

Rain from the sky

Verdant tree, bury your head in the ground

To stand tall. Sujood*

Roots connected to the earth

Your Lord will teach you.

Between two books of signs

The one you hold in your hand, you recite, you read, you revere

The other all around you, birds and trees, mountains and seas

All within you, your every cell and sinew, proclaim

God is one, God is one, God is one

You are a living proof, you cannot escape

One day I will join you, our streams joining to one ocean

Before the Creator, realization

Signs brought to final fruition

 

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***

Copyright Joymanifest 2013

 

*ayaath = plural of ‘ayah’, meaning a sign. see below

*sujood = arabic word meaning ‘prostration’. The pose within the prayer, when we put our forehead to the ground. We say the slave is closest to the Lord during this pose in the prayer. We also believe that all of creation, whether animate or inanimate is in a constant state of worship to God. Not to be fluffy, rather theologians say this as all of creation is obeying natural laws; of physics, chemistry etc. and to obey these laws is to be in a state of worship. Some scholars say that trees manifest their constant worship simply by the way they exist..likening their root system to the human brain synapses…the roots buried in the ground are the trees in ‘sujood’ :). So then when your head is in the ground, is when you find most peace. Muslim theologians go on to say that as mankind has free-will, man is given the choice of whether to worship or not..whether to be in tune with the signs or not…and when he is in tune, he finds complete peace (as he is fulfilling his purpose) and if not, finds discord in his soul.

 

This poem is inspired in part by the arabic word for the verses in the Quran, each verse is called an ‘ayah’ which literally means a ‘sign’, and the commonly used English translation ‘verse’ is really a misnomer. However it was likely used as it is easier for people to understand ‘verses’ in a book rather than ‘signs’ making up a book :). Peace to you all, Assalamu alaikum

The wind

The Wind

Time has broken down

and the memory that remains is in the windsong

flowing through eons

it touches my face

And I remember the way I used to be

Linking my past to my present to my future

I know not where I’ll be

That sweet day the wind will

herald my long sleep.

***

Copyright joymanifest 2013

Wal-laahul Musta’aan

This is an amazing and deep reminder. May God bless the writer thereof. And thanks to God to stumble upon it.

MuQeet's avatarYasSarNalQuR'aN

Dear brothers/sisters, Assalamu Alaikum. I was thinking of writing on this inspiring topic since a long time and today, alhamdulillah, I am able to make it. Please read on, Inshaa’Allah.

Can there be any Salah (prayer) without the recitation of Surah al Fatihah? NO, right?

Do you know that every time we recite Surah al Fatihah, we Muslims make a commitment to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala: That we worship Him Alone and we seek help from Him Alone! 

View original post 1,228 more words

Al- Qayyum

 

Light follows darkness

and day follows night.

Ease follows hardship

And there is sweetness in grief.

The slave has lost herself and come to the Master

In depravity, the needing peels away the veil of ego;

so as to know

the slave is not the possessor of self-sufficiency

Al – Qayyum* is only the Master.

 

*The above short piece refers to one of the ‘names’ of Allah, ‘al-qayyum’ which means the one who is utterly and absolutely self-sufficient. In no need of any and thereby also beyond the need or confines of time-space. Muslim theologians say this is the defining quality of the God-head as we understand it, rather than saying for example that God is immortal or eternal as a  ‘defining quality’, though of course we do say God is immortal and eternal. Rather, we say He has ‘sempre-eternity’, i.e., beyond time and therefore beyond ‘eternity’ which is a concept rooted in time. Peace be with you all.

***

Copyright Joymanifest 2013

‘Rida’ = ‘contentment’

Assalamu alaikum (peace be with you)

I wanted to share this talk with you all, my dear readers. It is a deep and wise teaching from the core of Islamic theology…which seems sadly lost among much of our nation today (as the speaker observes at the outset). By God’s grace I have listened to it over the years a few time and each time it like a soothing balm from an enlightened soul. And indeed this feeling is one of the meanings of the famous hadith (sayings of Muhammed);

Abu Huraira reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “Whoever travels a path in search of knowledge, Allah makes easy for him a path to Paradise.”

Source: Sunan At-Tirmidhi 2646

For indeed true knowledge is a waft of the fragrance of paradise.

Allah bless you all. I hope you get to listen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qN0_WD-fpEQ

Tawhid -‘one-ness’

A dear sister sent me this email, with a reflection on the verse below I believe from a weekly Quran reminder page on FB that she found;

Allah, the Most High, says:
“… and among them is he who is foremost in good deeds by permission of
Allah.” [Surat Fatir: 32]

A Reflection: Reading this verse should cause any form of conceit or arrogance to die off in your heart. No matter how great your good deed is, all praise is for Allah as He granted you permission to do it and facilitated it to be done.

 

Receiving this it seems this is one of the essences of tawhid (unity). The true one-ness of the God-head. He is above and beyond, supreme beyond all else, transcendent and at the same time utterly imminent, utterly near, utterly present, utterly All.

And so this truth; you are one and you will return to the One.

 

***

And indeed all good in me is from God and God alone.

Joymanifest

The spider’s house

*** Reflections on the passages below***

How often we build our houses upon flimsy foundations and how often they are torn down by the wind or some stray occurrence. Yet we build our house again on a flimsy foundation. Jesus (peace be upon him) is reported to have said, ‘this world is like a bridge, do not build you house upon it. Reading the verses below, it was brought home to me once more and once more and once more that the only house we should be building is in the kingdom of heaven. Both metaphorically; in how we conduct our affairs in this life and God willing physically in what we put toward the foundation and walls of our eternal home being constructed beyond that time-space continuum that limits our vision.

May God bless and protect you all. Assalamu alaikum (peace be with you).

29:41

The parable of those who take protectors other than Allah is that of the spider, who builds (to itself) a house; but truly the flimsiest of houses is the spider’s house;- if they but knew.

29:42

Verily Allah doth know of (every thing) whatever that they call upon besides Him: and He is Exalted (in power), Wise.

29:43

And such are the Parables We set forth for mankind, but only those understand them who have knowledge.

29:44

Allah created the heavens and the earth in true (proportions): verily in that is a Sign for those who believe.

Verses 41-44 of Surah ‘Ankabut’ (The Spider). Holy Quran. Yusuf Ali interpretation to the English

-The spider’s web; so beautiful but so fragile, an apt simile of the ‘world’ – captivating but oh so flimsy. How gloriously the Creator teaches through His creation. Subhahanallahi wa bihamdihi! (pure glorification to God and all praise and thanks)

Spider_web_with_dew_drops