16 Wednesday May 2012
Posted in Abdur Rahman's Poetry, gratitude and patience, Hope
Peace, one and all…
Beloved, resentment is a poison.
Why waste my life drinking poison?
Why not bless everything
that comes from Your hand,
and let that poison
become a full cup
from Your Ocean of Love?
03 Thursday May 2012
Peace, one and all…
You are not really a hunter, seeking Me,
instead you are My slave and lie at My feet.
You devise means to attain to My presence
but you are helpless either to leave or to seek Me.
The search for Me causes you anguish;
last night I heard your heavy sighs.
It is within My power to end your waiting,
to show you the Way and grant access.
So that you may be released from this whirlpool of time,
and may at last set foot on the treasure of union with Me,
but the sweetness and delights of the resting-place
are in proportion to the pain endured on the journey.
Only when you suffer the pangs and tribulations of exile
will you truly enjoy the homecoming.
Masnavi 3.4152-4158
03 Friday Feb 2012
Peace, one and all…
These sayings of mine are really a prayer to God,
words to lure the breath of that sweet One.
If you seek an answer from God,
how then can you fail to pray?
How can you be silent, knowing He always replies to
your, ‘O Lord?’ with, ‘I am here’.
His answer is silent but you can feel it from head to toe.
Masnavi 2.1189-1191
24 Tuesday Jan 2012
Peace, one and all…
He is the aim, the sought after, the begged and hoped for.
His name is the cure for the love-struck.
He is the soother of the anxious and the treasure of hope.
From Him the love-struck obtains what he yearns for.
Isma`il Anqarawi
15 Sunday Jan 2012
Peace, one and all…
We are the places where God hides
and sometimes shows Himself
in a glance
or a whisper,
a belly laugh
or a cry from the heart
which says
‘do not leave me too long out here
in case I lose You’
But you will never ever lose Him.
You are the fish in His sea,
the Sea of Him.
And when He wishes
He will pull you in.
Rahmani Christopher Ryan
05 Thursday Jan 2012
Peace, one and all…
Whether you are fast or slow, eventually
you will find what you are seeking.
Always devote yourself wholeheartedly to your search.
Even though you may limp or be bent double,
do not abandon your search,
but drag yourself ever towards Him.
Masnavi 3.978-980
04 Wednesday Jan 2012
Peace, one and all…
‘Indeed, we offered the Trust to the heavens and the earth and the mountains, and they declined to bear it and feared it; but man [undertook to] bear it. Indeed, he was unjust and ignorant’ (Quran 33:72)
15 Thursday Dec 2011
Peace, one and all…
What wisdom was this, that the Object of all desire
caused me to leave my home joyously on a fool’s errand,
so that I was actually rushing to lose the way
and at each moment being taken farther from what I sought -
and then God in His beneficence made that very wandering
the means of my reaching the right road and finding wealth!
He makes losing the way a way of true faith;
He makes going astray a field for the harvest of righteousness,
so that no righteous one may be without fear
and no traitor may be without hope.
The Gracious One has put the antidote in the poison
so that they may say He is the Lord of hidden grace.
(Masnavi 6.4339-4344)
14 Wednesday Dec 2011
Peace, one and all…
God made the earth and celestial sphere
in six days of deliberate work,
even though He could bring forth a hundred earths and heavens
with the words: ‘Be, and it is’
Little by little until forty years of age
He raises the human being to completion,
although in a single moment He was able
to send fifty flying out of nothing.
Jesus by means of one prayer could make the dead spring to life:
Is the Creator of Jesus unable
to suddenly bring full-grown human beings
fold by fold into existence?
This deliberation is for the purpose of teaching you
that you must seek God slowly, without any break.
A little which moves continually
doesn’t become tainted or foul.
From this deliberation are born felicity and joy:
Deliberation is the egg,
Good luck is the fledgling that hatches.
(Masnavi 3.3500 – 3508)
11 Sunday Dec 2011
Peace, one and all…
‘I am your slave, your slave, your slave.
And I am the slave of that smiling mercy of yours.
O Water of Eternal Life! That one never thinks about death
who became alive by you, like Khizr!’
Mevlana, Quatrain 1080
10 Saturday Dec 2011
Posted in al-Quran al-Karim, Contemplating death, Hope, Joy and Sorrow, Life & Death, Love
Peace, one and all…
‘The Angel of Death, who is set over you, will take your souls. Then to your Lord will you be returned’ (32:11)
08 Tuesday Nov 2011
Peace, one and all…
‘When God desires to give us His assistance,
He moves our tendency to lamentation.
O happy are the eyes lamenting Him!
How blessed are the hearts that burn for Him!
When weeping ends there is a smile at last.
How happy is the man who is far-sighted!
Wherever water’s flowing, flowers grow,
and mercy flows wherever tears are flowing.
Groan like the water-wheel and be moist-eyed
that green may grow the meadows of your soul.
If you want tears, show mercy to the tearful;
if you want mercy, show the weak your mercy’
(Masnavi 1.821-826)
04 Friday Nov 2011
Peace, one and all…
‘Flee to the God of Moses and to Moses;
don’t pour away faith’s water like the Pharaoh.
Join hands with God the One and with Mohammed,
escape the Bu Jahl of the body, brother!’
(Masnavi 1.785-786)
02 Wednesday Nov 2011
Peace, one and all…
‘Everyone in the world, whether man or woman,
is dying and continually passing through the
agony of death.
Regard their words as the final injunctions
which a father gives his son. In this way
consideration and compassion may grow in your heart,
and the root of hatred and jealousy may be cut away.
Look upon your kinsman with that intention,
that your heart may burn with pity for his death agony.
Everything that is coming will come:
consider it to have already arrived;
consider your friend to be already
in the throes of death, losing his life.
If selfish motives prevent you from this insight,
cast them from your heart;
and if you cannot cast them out, don’t stand
inertly in incapacity:
know that with everyone who feels incapable,
there is a goodly Incapacitator.
Incapacity is a chain laid upon you:
you must open your eye to behold the One who
lays the chain’
(Masnavi 6.761-768)
02 Wednesday Nov 2011
Posted in al-Quran al-Karim, Friendship and Relationship, Hope, Love
23 Tuesday Aug 2011
Posted in Hope, Islamic Music, Music, Our Spiritual Heritage, Ramadan Diary 2011
Peace, one and all…
Here is some beautiful healing music from Turkey. God knows we could all do with love’s tranquil healing these days. Enjoy, and may love be with all who pass by.
31 Sunday Jul 2011
Posted in Hope, Love, Moments from My Life, Music, Ramadan Diary 2011
Peace, one and all…
Welcome O Month of Fasting! Welcome O Month of Mercy! Welcome O Bright Moon of Ramadan! Welcome, welcome, welcome…
Here are some beautiful ilahis to enjoy, as a welcome song for this blessed month. May all who pass by be blessed with God’s mercy.
Bismillah
Merhaba
Gönül Ayinesin Sufi
Ya Mevlana
Sem-i Ruhuna
Chaap Tilak: Jafar Husein Khan Badayuni
Ma’as salama,
Abdur Rahman
07 Tuesday Jun 2011
Peace, one and all…
As I walked through a small shopping mall this morning, on my way to work, I found myself standing behind an old couple. The woman laid her had upon her husband’s shoulder, patting it gently in a simple, time-honoured gesture of affection and love. It was such a simple and yet heartfelt gesture that I felt it lift me from myself for a moment.
Seeing this, I realised jusy how much love passes between and among us, almost unnoticed. ‘A blessing!’, I heard a voice within me say. And, as I looked around me, in the light of this new moment, I could see all manner of such small gestures, like tiny bearers of fragile love-gifts. An old woman talked warmly with her friend. A mother and father gently pushed their child’s pram. Two security guards stood together in the sunshine, quietly building a friendship together. As I contemplated this moment, these words of Mevlana came to me:
‘The gifts of lovers to one another are,
in respect to love, nothing but forms;
yet, they testify to an invisible love’
(1.2625-27)
As I write these words I am left with a feeling of peace and of hope. The world we all live in turns slowly towards its own moment of decision, and yet…
And yet, quietly, unobstrusively, just beneath the visible horizon, love is moving, breathing, living. The light of love is leaping silently from heart to heart, and dancing invisibly from eye to eye. Love is stealthily going about its business, like a thief in the night. And, where love goes, there too goes hope, and peace and a blessing – a blessing of possibility, that we do have a chance to turn this world around.
Wa akhiru da`wana an il hamdu lillahi rabbil alameen…
Ma’as salama,
Abdur Rahman
