Saturday, December 04, 2004

Scattered Pearls

Scattered Pearls

So have ever looked at a strand of Pearls, how beautiful they look but that very strand of pearls when scattered everywhere looses its original beauty.. Sorta like noorified people, you can almost see the lack of noor or abundance at times on their faces. soo Maliha Balala my role model wrote this beautiful reply to a sister going through some very painful things in her life! May Allah(swt) keep our pearls intact.. ameen or grant us to be like those amazing strands of pearls.. God willing :)
Peace,
ayesha zafar

sigh...
i read this yesterday, and had to fight the tears that choked me...I came back today, hoping the story changed somewhat, maybe i read too much into it? surely this can't be? But then i thought back to the all the horrid stories i have heard growing up, all the not so nice things that adults like to cover, and we children somehow learn of. The perverted uncle, the alcoholic neighbor, the suicidal aunt, the molested cousins, the aborted baby... Somehow within the pristine outer appearances, we tend to hush these things (as a community)..maybe if we look away, they will dissappear, or atleast not haunt our dreams at night. A burden too heavy to share and seemingly too much to handle. But surely Allah is The All Merciful, All Compassionate? Surely He knows what you are going through and He who takes care of the minutest creatures, the most helpless of gnats and most vulnerable of ants...He who feeds the birds, He who causes the most beautiful heart rending of flowers to grow ever so slowly, ever so painfully, from a slab of concrete! In life we have two kindsa people, those who have been spoon fed, groomed, taken care of, those who have been given all the excesses of life...and on the outside they look sooo perrfect...sooo together...everyone wishes to have a bit of them..to just "be" them even for a second. Yet in the larger scheme of eternity only Allah knows where they truly stand, and just this morning i was thinking if Allah in His Wisdom and Mercy did not conceal our inner reality (and ugliness) then surely we would be running away from each other's grotesque-ness. I read in a poem, that the parable of these ever so perfect people are like the most beautiful and prim of roses, cut, preserved, and put in a gorgeous crystal vase. Everyone looks at it and gawks for a minute or longer....as it slowly whithers away. Then there is the majority of people. Those that grow up wondering what is the point of life? Those that never tasted a 7 course meal, or enjoyed the luxury of airconditioning and even a bed...the billions of people in third world countries whose needs are sooo basic and so mundane, it's enough to humble the most hardened of hearts. The people who have tasted true pain, the strugglers, the ones whose feet are sooo jagged, wounded, and cracked from the path that seems tooo sharp, too painful, the path that's enough to numb the tenderest of hearts. Yet amidst the ruins surrounding some of these people, amidst the concrete jungles, the slabs of rocky hearts, and dusty paths, emerges the most poignant, and heart shattering of the wildest and untamed roses. Those big, colorful petals that have tasted the incessant bitter salty breezes, those hardened thorns that grow out to spike all the dangerous envious ones threatening to cut them down, those hardened stems yet such supple inner sanctums they are yearning to burst forth with the Magnificence and sheer beauty of the One who Created them, and nurtured them sooo intimately and closely despite the madness without. You my dear are lucky to be amongs the wild sea roses of this dunya. You have tasted the bitterness, but deep within you know that light that shines ever so bright will never be dimmed. You know there is a way out and it's not Kufr (disbelief), it's not despair, it's not giving in to the madness but submitting to the Source of All Peace, All Love, All Happiness, and the Will of He who created you, and nurtured you and brought you to the fullness of the beauty and integrity of your being. Just keep turning to Him, even when you feel the ground burning into your forehead, keep your face down, begging pleading and in the most subtle of ways He will keep lightening your burdens, blowing those ever sooo healing of Breezes into the depths of your soul...as He gently draws you closer and closer all these fleeting trials will take wings like fluttering butterflies and glide away...as you gradually ascend into the realm of the Truely blessed and Blissful Ones.

May Allah illuminate your soul with His Ever Glowing Light and May He increase you in Patience, Compassion and integrity.. Please never let go..never give up..for shaytaan will forever try to distance you and draw you into the depths of misery and wretchedness.
Your sis in struggle,
Maliha B

Just empty...

Just empty…

I feel as if my faith is regressing after the month of Ramadan. The worst feeling is to feel as if you are slipping in a dark hole and no one can help you except your realization of this regression and Allah(swt). A believer always goes through these cycles of highs and lows, Eman (faith) is dynamic, its either increasing or decreasing. But what about those people who are always increasing in their faith. Do they really exist? Or does everyone go through these cycles, periods of being distant from our Rabb. Indeed, in these intense periods one realizes that nothing can fill the void except remembrance of God.
In reality, those people do exist and they’ve spent their lifetime polishing the hearts, they are in a state of fitrah and constant dhikr. People when you look at their faces, you remember God, you see signs of long prostrations and night vigils. The noor (light) emanates and you want to share it just for a moment but the light doesn’t reach you because of your sins. You feel helpless and plead to your Rabb that if you can feel that noor for a just an instant but your soul has wronged you. Your heart is full of riya, takabur, wantonness, anger, hate, rancor, iniquity, vanity, negative thoughts, heedlessness… how then can the light touch you? how then can u taste the sweetness of Eman (faith)? How then can you progress?

All the limbs have significant traits, and the trait of heart is that it is always in Love with someone or something. In order to taste the sweetness of Eman, one has to empty the heart and overwhelm it with the Love of Allah (Isqh-e-haqqiqi: True Love)…

May Allah(swt) burn the flame of love in all our hearts and guide us on the path of remembrance and reflection leading to HIS proximity. ameen

a lost soul,
ayesha zafar

Burdah

Burdah

Mawlaya salli wa sallim da-Iman abadan
‘Ala habibika khayril khalqi kullihimi
(Oh my Master, send Your salutations and blessings eternally
Upon Your Beloved – the best of creation)

Muhammadun sayyidul kawnayni wath-thaqalain
(Muhammad is the leader [as the Final Prophet and the best of creation]
Of the two worlds, and of Man and Jinn)
Wal fareeqaini min ‘urbin wa min ‘ajami
(Leader also of the Arabs and the non-Arabs and their kin)

Huwal habibul ladhi thurja shafa’athuhu
(Beloved by Allah is he, upon whose pleading we depend)
Likulli hawlin minal ahwali muq-thahami
(From the terrors of the Day of Judgement, which on us descend)


Thummar ridha ‘an Abi Bakrin wa ‘an ‘Umarin
(Then we ask You to be pleased with Abu Bakr and 'Umar Wa ‘an ‘Aliyyin wa ‘an ‘Uthmana dhil karami
(And ‘Ali and ‘Uthman – the generous one)


Ya Rabbi bil Mustafa balligh maqasidana
(Oh Lord, with the Chosen One, grant us our goals)
Waghfir-lana ma mada, Ya wasi’al karami
(And forgive us for what has already passed,
Oh Most Munificent One)

Lyrics: Imam Sharaf al-Deen al-Busairi (d.696/1296)

The beginning...Opening

12/4/04
The beginning.. Opening

I’ve often wondered and reflected upon the Opening Chapter of the “Quran”.. Al-Fatiha.
It’s an opener, a du’a to Allah(swt) if done with all consciousness, in the 5 daily prayers!
Some of the different name of the Surah, Umul Qur’an (Mother of the Qur’an), Ash-Shafia’ (The curer), Al-Wafia (Complete), Al-Kafiyah (Sufficient), Wal hamd, Saba-al-mithani.
Subhan’Alla in the seven ayahs lies so much, our aqeedah, ideology, our connection with the Rabb.
Alhamdullilah:Praise is more than Alham…
Rabil-Alaymeen : Rabb, Lord of the Universe..
Rabb: Controller, Master, Allah(swt) created us…

Wahadad-al-aqeedah (Basis of our Aqeedah)
*Allah(swt) is the Creator, Allah(swt) is ar-Rahman, ar-Raheem.. He(swt) deals with HIS creation with Rahmah.
Ar-Rahman: Utmost Mercy
Ar-Raheem: Continuity of Mercy

*Mercy upon HIS creation. Subhan’Allah, Mercy upon despicable souls like me…

When Reciting this beautiful Surah, make du’a (supplication), visualize the straight path and affirm your belief..


Surah al-Fatiha
In the name of God, The Beneficent, The Meriful

All praise is to Allah, Lord of the Universe
The Entirely Merciful, The Especially Meriful
Sovereign of the Day of Recompense
It is YOU we worship and YOU we ask for help
Guide us to the Straight path
The path of those upon whom YOU have bestowed favor, not of those who have evoked YOUR wrath or of those who are astray.
ameen