No Reward Do I Ask of You

Peace, one and all…

‘Say: “No reward do I ask of you for this except the love of those near of kin.” (al-Quran 42:23)

Ma’as salama,
Abdur Rahman

There is Nothing Heavier

Peace, one and all…

 

The Prophet (alaihi al-salatu wa al-salam) said: ‘There is nothing heavier than good character put in the scale of a believer on the Day of Resurrection’
(Abu Dawud, Book 41, Number 4781: Narrated AbudDarda’)

Ma’as salama,
Abdur Rahman

Help the Oppressed

Peace, one and all…

 

The Prophet (alaihi al-salatu wa al-salam) said: ‘Help the oppressed (sorrowful) and guide those who have lost their way’
(Abu Dawud, Book 41, Number 4799: Narrated Umar ibn al-Khattab)

Ma’as salama,
Abdur Rahman

Sailing the Seas of Blog, Again

Peace, one and all…

I’ve had a little more spare time than usual recently and so consequently, I’ve had the chance to read some very interesting blog articles. Here are links to some of my recent favourites:

• My Inner Adult: A Vulnerable God, and Surrender
• Darvish: The Purple Zebra and the Tired Mule
• The Tasneem Project: Art for Art’s Sake; The Moral and the Imaginitive
• Katib: The Celestial Sphere and the Human Soul
• One Word: Perfection; Truth
• Soul Sword: The Season of Peace

Enjoy!

Ma’as salama,
Abdur Rahman

Sandtracks

Peace, one and all…

I recently spent the £10 gift voucher that I was given for Eid al-Fitr!  I bought a copy of a band from Western Sahara, called Tiris.  The album is called Sandtracks and it’s a fusion of Berber, Maghrebi and Spanish music.  All in all, it’s a very hypnotic mix.

My favourite track at this moment in time is El Leil El Leil.  I am a Majnun to Layla.  I admit it freely!

Ma’as salama,
Abdur Rahman

Lift Up Your Eyes

Peace, one and all…

Lift Up Your Eyes

Lift up your eyes,
for every day is the Day of Arafat
and every place
is God’s blessed House.

Lift up your heart,
for the very ground beneath you
is love’s sacred temple,
standing radiant amidst the stars.

Lift up your soul,
for we are all connected:
a never-ending line
of hands clasped in sunlight.

(Abdur Rahman, 20th December 2007)

A Shop Called Addiction

Peace, one and all…

I enjoy riding on trains. There is something about them that makes me feel free, that makes me feel released from the pressures of life. Perhaps I associate trains with childhood holidays? At any rate, today found me on a London Underground train, bound for a central London library. The sky was bright, the sun was shining and beyond everything else, God’s eye was watching over me. Praise be to God, in every condition and state.

I enjoy getting out and about and seeing what crosses my path. Each passing moment is a sign, in its own fashion, so walking upon God’s good earth is always interesting. The first thing to catch my eye today was a shop called Addiction! Ai mere Allah! How many times I’ve strayed into that particular shop!

The 2nd sign of the morning? A church board advertising a special communion service! The only to avoid Addiction’s marketplace is to commune with God, with myself and with those around me in honesty and humility.

Al hamdu lillah for the blessing of trains!

Ma’as salama,
Abdur Rahman

Which Should Be Kept Hidden

Peace, one and all…

  The Prophet (alaihi al-salatu wa al-salam) said: ‘He who sees something which should be kept hidden and conceals it will be like one who has brought to life a girl buried alive’
(Abu Dawud, Book 41, Number 4873: Narrated Uqbah ibn Amir)

Ma’as salama,
Abdur Rahman

O God! Give Me Mystery

Peace, one and all…

Without a sense of mystery, life loses its beauty. Without a sense of beauty, life loses its mystery.  Without a sense of the numinous, the heart no longer beats in the presence of the spirit.

O God!  Give me mystery.  O God!  Give me beauty.  O God!  Let me always live in the presence of the numinous, that life-giving force of the soul.

Ma’as salama,
Abdur Rahman

This Grain of Sand that I Am

Peace, one and all…

We are our own wide countries. We are worlds. We are universes entire. But then, we are also atoms in a greater cosmos. We are grains of sand upon a mightier shore. We are motes of dust floating in the breeze.

We are small and by ourselves, insignificant. And yet, we are cogs in a greater wheel. We are strong where others are weak, and weak where others are strong. We fit together, hand in glove. We move together, like a giant heart beating as one.

Amidst this unity, we each serve our own distinct purpose; we each have our own individual place, our own individual function. And the trick, it seems, is to discover that purpose for ourselves. No one else can reveal that purpose for us. Only we can discern it for ourselves, as we move through (and with) life.

And, at my very end, when I lay down my life and return it to the One who gave it, I will know my purpose – for it will have been revealed to me as I look back down the skein of my vanishing life. But, I can discover it here and now – for although the future is an undiscovered country, the love of God transcends time utterly.

And what of this tiny mote, this grain of sand that I am? What is my purpose?  To serve love, and to love that service, wheresoever it shall take me.

And praise be to God who maketh it so…

Ma’as salama,
Abdur Rahman

No One Knows Us

Peace, one and all…

‘We are not slaves of Suleyman, nor the captives
of Selim
No one knows us, we are slaves of the shah
of generosity.

One who is the servant of love has never bowed
to the nobles of the world
We are the Sultans of another world -
Hey look, whose slaves are we?

Don’t think we thirst for the sweet water
of the rivers of Paradise
We eat sorrow and gulp blood continuously
at our places of suffering

Oh my sultan of love, don’t think we kneel
to the new beauty of youth
We are slaves of the ancient allure of your
radiant face

Oh Hayreti, we gave up the silken cloak,
we quit the dervish cap
We are only slaves of the coarse robes
of this world’
(Hayreti, d. 1535)

Ma’as salama,
Abdur Rahman

Remain Beneath a Veil

Peace, one and all…

‘Discuss not God openly in public; inside (your heart) pay obeisance and pray to God, and outside remain beneath a veil.  In no circumstances, should you sell your knowledge of the Divine, nor should you question anyone.  Fard!  The mighty, radiant and glorious God will take account’
(Fard Faqir)

Ma’as salama,
Abdur Rahman

Do Not Invoke God’s Curse

Peace, one and all…

The Prophet (alaihi al-salatu wa al-salam) said: ‘Do not invoke Allah’s curse, Allah’s anger, or Hell’
(Abu Dawud, Book 41, Number 4888: narrated Samurah ibn Jundub)

Ma’as salama,
Abdur Rahman

Our Children Are Our Teachers

Peace, one and all…

Selfless compassionate service to others is not an easy thing to do.  The daily business of life and other such matters, intrude, forcing their way into our attention and muddying the waters of our motivations.   Upon reflection, this is one reason why God offers many of us the joyous burden of parenthood.

As a parent, it is my duty to provide for and support my children, to serve them.  In raising our three children, my wife and I must put our own desires and wishes to one side, as we struggle to help them grow towards adulthood.  We must struggle to put our children first; their physical needs must come before ours; their emotional needs must come before ours; their spiritual needs must come before ours.  In short, our children are our masters, and we are both happy that it should be so.

If our children are our masters, then they are also our teachers (which is why I can relate to our worthy brother Yakoub’s description of his son as his Shaykh).  Our children teach us to be patient, to be forgiving, to be merciful.  Our children teach us to focus upon what is most essential.  Our children teach us to be always loving (or as loving as we can be).

These qualities, which we struggle to embody, are also deeply spiritual.  Compassion, mercy, service and selfless love are all essential aspects of a fully human being, and of a healthy relationship with God (the Blessed and Exalted).  This is why I find being a father so profound, and so inspiring.  It is why I am happy to be a servant to my three beautiful children (and to my wife of course, but that’s another story…)

Ma’as salama,
Abdur Rahman

And If You Survive Till The Morning

Peace, one and all…

”Abdullah bin ‘Umar said, “Allah’s Apostle took hold of my shoulder and said, ‘Be in this world as if you were a stranger or a traveler.” The sub-narrator added: Ibn ‘Umar used to say, “If you survive till the evening, do not expect to be alive in the morning, and if you survive till the morning, do not expect to be alive in the evening, and take from your health for your sickness, and (take) from your life for your death’
(Reported by Imam Bukhari, Volume 8, Book 76, Number 425: Narrated Mujahid)

Ma’as salama,
Abdur Rahman

Peace

Peace, one and all…

‘Peace is so much more than a state without a war. The peace is a trust that we’ve never had before’
Galliano, Prince of Peace

Update: see this interesting article.

Ma’as salama,
Abdur Rahman

Eid Mubarak, One and All…

Peace, one and all…

Al hamdu lillah, the term has finished at last!  And what a busy term it was too!

So, we’re off to London tomorrow evening, insha Allah, to spend Eid with our family.  Let me be the first to wish everyone Eid Mubarak.

Kullu aam wa antum bi khayr

Bajram sharif mubarak olsun

Ma’as salama,
Abdur Rahman

Finding

Peace, one and all…

Finding

Finding You in my heart
is like finding an overflowing river
amidst the dust,
in this desert of me.

Finding You before my eyes
is like opening into starlight
and the fragrance of jasmine,
in this darkness of now.

To find You I must throw
myself behind my self,
and become a garden
open to all who pass by.

(Abdur Rahman, 16th December 2007)