Tag: Sri Lanka

Welcoming the month of months…Ramadan Mubarak!

Assalamu alaikum wa rahma Allah wa barakatuh!

O my dear brothers and sisters fortunate enough to witness another Ramadan, I greet you with joy and hope and pray that the light of Allah shines upon you and your loved ones this blessed month.

This is an image of the moon of sha’ban 2012. May the new moon of Ramadan be as beautiful and may we get to see it. Remember to make the prayer our beloved messenger did when he beheld the moon; ‘O moon, as thou dost worship my Lord, so do I’! – I love this du’a 🙂

I have been meaning to write a long while, first to share all the beautiful events that I was a part of since my last posting. Not all pleasant mind you, but full of the teaching of Allah, as I journeyed through hurdle upon hurdle and learned much along the way. It is not easy to summarize and indeed I began this post to share some of the joy and pleasure of knowing it is once more, ramadan. But shortly put, as we continued upon our journey through the countryside of Sri Lanka, we came across many interesting and diverse scenes that spoke to much. A sad visit through what used to be a pristine mountain village by a famous waterfall now full of a type of tourism that unnerved me much…it was tourism for drugs it looked like. All these people in the middle of nowhere looking drugged and senseless…the local women staying off the streets and simple village men now stoned and with blood-shot eyes. It was telling, this never existed a few years ago. I guess when the war was on, this type of tourists did not visit the island. Now we hear, coccaine is grown in the jungles and it has become a hotspot. Or so the driver of our vehicle informed us later on as he reported being solicited by locals to bring more of the ‘right type’ of people through. Thankfully we were not the right type, and we were pretty quick to exit the place. There were other things that happened to us along the way, including a rather bizarre and incredibly memorable encounter with a wild elephant! MashaAllah Sri Lanka really is an incredible country.

Then that night we were staying a small guesthouse, with rooms by a paddy-field…mashaallah it was very pretty, when we heard that my beloved grandmother had suffered a bad fall. Alhamdulillah for the salah and the comfort of putting one’s trust in God. May it always be so for all of us! So then in the morning we rushed back to the city and it took us the day to get there. Thereafter began some good work, as that was the main reason I was in the island. MashaAllah we visited many a social service organization and medical center and learned a lot about what is needed and what needs to be done. Allah bless the brave and tireless people working to help all who need help. I have forgotten much about service, now living in this affluent western world removed from the constant reminder of need. I miss this, for in it there is a great healing and great blessing. There is a reason for suffering and want…I believe it brings us closer to being good people and open our hearts to be merciful…this when one is a sincere seeker or truth or a humble human being. These are some brief thoughts I am sharing, there is of course much more to be said. I pray that these experiences stay cemented in me and I am able to contribute in whatever way God wills. Please include me in your prayers too.

Then it was about leave-taking and coming back home again. Then about settling in and preparing for the month of months just around the corner, and now so swiftly upon us all. I am wordlessly happy! I will end with sharing a lovely youtube time-lapse video featuring one of my favourite anasheed, and this du’a

‘O Allah, please remove oppression from all those oppresed in the world and ensure a peace based on justice and mercy to everyone in the world. Bless us, forgive us and increase us in your light upon light. And bless and elevate our beloved Muhammed, the chosen one’

Sunrise on the mountain

MashaAllah (by God’s grace) here I am seated on the balcony of our little guest house and sipping green tea a little after six in the morning of a beautiful day. We are in ‘little England’, a hill-station located in the tea growing heart of my beautiful Island home, Sri Lanka. I arrived here a few days ago and have had much to do. But just yesterday we were able to put all that aside and take one our ‘good old fashioned’ road trips, Sri Lankan style.
Being in the mountains again was the ‘coolness of my eyes’ as the arabs say, a beautiful phrase denoting the peace entering one’s heart when re-witnessing one’s beloved. It is a beautiful phrase and indeed the way God chooses to describe how one’s spouse and children should be in the Quran! May God grant all of us spouses and children who are just this and may we also be just this to the nes who love us.
Last night we did the climb from Pusselawa to Nuwara-Eliya (the real name of this place we affectionately term ‘little England’) in the evening. It was a mad two hours of twisty-windy roads and some haphazard Sri Lankan driving. But oh so beautiful to see the sunset over the mountains, and the landscape of tea plantations, flowers, little village houses and peaceful villagers walking on the street, bathed in a soft golden-mauve light particular to my country I believe. I have not found a word to describe it yet.
Then before that we visited the Pinnewala Elephant orphanage, a first for me and mashaAllah suhch an educational time. Being close to those majestic creatures, their peace and wisdom apparent in their every step. Oh Subhahanallah! what a precious world we live in. There was a blind bull tusker there, and I got to touch a bullet lodged under his tough hide..more bullet marks were visible on the surface of the skin. It was a sad thing, the poachers had blinded him, I guess the only bullet that did it’s work was the one aimed at the eyes. Ah, what a sorry species Homo sapiens sapiens is! How short sighted and blinded by the non-essential. And how much we have, as a race, to answer for! God forgive us all.
As I speak, the mists are coming down the mountain and pass me by in cold fast waves…I am enveloped in cloud. Subhahanallah!
InshaAllah (God willing) today to continue our road trip and see more of the development in the Island that has taken place after the war ended, often spoken of. So hoping to visit many more regions, probably leaving the ‘upcountry’ and going down again to the ‘low country’.
Well, my companions on this journey of life, I hope you enjoyed this post. I will try to attach pictures. God is great and life is beautiful, so much to learn and see…may we wander well and learn quickly. Peace to all, Assalaamu alaikum!