The Question...

Dear Friends

Where is the light?

Where is the guidance?

Where is hope?

Where is solace?

Where is refuge?

Where is meaning?

Where is the future?

Where am I?

Where is the truth?

The teacher called Love...

Dear Friends

Yes what is love..

Why all this pain and humiliation?

Why all these pointing fingers?

Why all these broken promises?

Give me the answers....

Well Rumi teaches me...

Let your teacher be LOVE itself
Love drives you mad
from revelation to revelation
through ordeal after ordeal
until humble and broken
you are carried tenderly
into the heart of the rose.

Spiritually homeless...

Dear Friends

Surrender to God / Islam is only actualized after you have become a spiritual orphan and the earth becomes your home. The signs / ayats are when beloveds question your devotion and friends leave your side...I am reminded of the Prophet Ayub whose wife left him but God did not...

The currency of the path is intensely bitter yet sweet pain...Even sweet smelling roses have thorns and bugs...

If we strive to become roses for God then I guess the thorns and bugs are part of the package...

Road to Medina...

Dear Friends

A good friend is making a road trip to Medina and this inspired me to pen the following....

On the road to Medina...

 

On the road to peace

Salvation and freedom

 

Full of hope

Expectation and awe

 

For the realisation

Of past dreams

 

Winning forgotten battles

Forgiving enemies

 

Giving thanks for friends

Praying for family

 

Above all meeting Muhammed (pbuh)

Silently sitting at his feet

Absorbing into his presence

 

Entering no time

No place and beyond...

 

The road to Medina

Welcome to all...

(The following is a celebrated medieval poem honouring Muhammed (pbuh) in 3 languages...)

Why Rumi....

Dear Friends

You will notice that Hazrat Mevlana Rumi is a constant touchstone on this blog. Since, towards the end of my stay in Turkey I made an emotional pilgrimage to Konya.

Words cannot describe the deep and healing love that Mevlana bestowed during those magical 4 days and 3 nights. There were no questions or justifications just pure spiritual hospitality of the highest order...Since, Rumi says:

“Come, come, whoever you are. Wanderer, worshiper, lover of leaving. It doesn't matter. Ours is not a caravan of despair. come, even if you have broken your vows a thousand times. Come, yet again , come , come.”

In Sha Allah I hope one day to write in detail about my Turkish sojourn...

Turkish tears...

Dear Friends

I lived and worked in Istanbul for 3 glorious months in late 2008. It was a cross roads in my life because I was working through a broken relationship, and, unknown to me at the time, I was being prepared for a new career; teaching...I used to listen to this track all the time...

Towards the end of my stay I discovered that Kazim had actually died...May Allah continue to bless his soul...Ameen...Suma Ameen...

Spiritual 'pick me up'...

Dear Friends

When you are down in the dumps or your soul is knotted or when the chips are down or things are going pear-shaped or when you just want a legal and instantaneous pick me up...Well wash your face with cold water and recite the following, Quranic verse, from the depths of your heart...

Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji'un

'Surely we belong to Allah and to Him shall we return'. (Surah 2: Verse156)

Since, Allah promises:

So remember Me; I will remember you. And be grateful to Me and do not deny Me. (Surah 2: Verse 152)