The Burdah – Chapter 5
October 20, 2009
[Credits to the one who shared this on FB]
York al-Jadiid, baby.
October 20, 2009
Sep 10, 2009 – Sep 11, 2009
92nd Street, New York City
Denny’s. Waitress (who is friendly to a degree that is higher than permissible in Muna’s Book of Permissibilities) . Crazy GPS. Courtyard. Iftar. Bakery. Dr Weil. Breathe. Turkish. Salt and pepper. Ice cream. Candy. Horns on the head.
~~~
October 1, 2009 – October 2, 2009
Sidney Center, New York
Super beautiful. Super sweet. Super cold. Super eye, mind and heart-opening. Lemang. Rendang. Baulu. Bahasa Melayu.
Super love…
♥
6 months and still falling . . .
October 13, 2009
Deeper than the deepest…
Stronger than the strongest…
~ a c c e p t o u r p r a i s e o L o r d ~
momma, your daughter is on cloud nine….ty-nine.
Disciplining the Self [Imam Ibn 'Ata'illah]
October 10, 2009
[Translated by Abu Hasan]
If you are asked: Who is a believer? Say: He who is informed about the flaws of his self; he, who cannot see flaws in others. If they ask you, who is the disgraced one? Say: He who finds flaws in others and considers himself free from fault.
Among the extreme lenience we see in the people of our age is that they are undisturbed, affable and amiable with those who sin [openly]. If they would have shown their displeasure and conveyed that they were offended, it would serve as a reprimand to the sinners.
If the door of excellence was really opened for you, you would not have repeatedly returned to despicable and odious deeds. Do you not see that someone who has been invited to a palace will not [wish to] return to the garbage dump? If the door of solace with Him was opened for you, you would not have asked for company and comfort [of others.] If He had chosen you, you would not be broken away from Him. If you were honored by Him, you would not be looking for honor elsewhere.
If the love of everyone in this world (makhluq) fades away from your heart, be happy.
Because this is a great boon granted to you. And do not sin, because only humiliation accompanies it – do you choose sin [and disgrace] after He has given you honor?
Never!
Certainly honor is linked with obedience and disgrace with sin. Obedience to Him is radiance and lifts the veils [between you and your Lord] and its opposite, sinning is darkness and humiliation and a great veil between you and your Lord. Nay, nothing prevents you from achieving the lofty state of witnessing your Lord, except your transgression and indulgence in this world.
If your son is disobedient, discipline him but do not disown him; just be stern with him so that he abstains from his bad ways. Among the many miseries a believer faces when he sins is that others may mock him or denigrate him. If they do so, they have surely lost their way! When a believer sins, he has fallen in a great quagmire. So you must treat him like you would do to your errant son – outwardly, you are displeased with him but you feel sorry for him and feel kindness in your heart. And you pray for him in his absence.
It is great ignorance to be jealous of people in this world upon that which they have been given [material pleasures]. And your craving for that which is not given to you is phenomenal callousness and outright stupidity. Because they are indulgent in that which they have been given, and you [poor soul!] indulge yourself in that which you have NOT been given!
If there is an inflammation in your eye, you try to cure it. This is because your eye has tasted the sweetness of this world, its beauty and you do not want to risk losing it. But your insight, your perspicacity has been suffering for forty years and you do not care for it?
Know that an early part of your life is already spent, and a very little of it now remains. Like a woman who has ten sons and nine of them have died; does she not pour all her attention and her love to this remaining one? Most of your life has been wasted, try to salvage what is left of it – and there is not much of it, though.
By Allah! Your life did not start when you were born. It began when you recognized Allah.
There is a great difference between the blessed ones and the wretched. When the blessed folk see a person caught in a vice, they reject it and reproach him outwardly; but privately they pray for his amendment, for his pardon. And the wretched reproach him to satisfy their own urges, to vent their frustration. Sometimes they go as far as to flay his honor.
A believer is he who advises his brother secretly, hiding his flaws from the public. And the wretched ones are the opposite. If they see a person caught in a sin or a vice, they close the doors on him and humiliate him because of his sin.
These are a people whose eyes are bereft of light, and are far away from the grace of Allah.
If you wish to estimate the intellect of a person, watch what he says when someone is mentioned. If he says, ‘Oh, him? He is such and such and he did such and such,’ so much that he keeps talking ill of him, then know that his inside is rotten. He has no knowledge. But, if he speaks good of him and if he finds an excuse for his vice saying: ‘probably he had forgotten’ or ‘he must have an excuse we do not know’ and so forth, then know that his inside is sturdy. A believer strives hard to safeguard the honor of his brother.
~~~
Royal road.
October 6, 2009
“People take different roads seeking fulfillment and happiness.
Just because they’re not on YOUR road doesn’t mean they’ve gotten lost.”
~~~
تبلغ بالقليل من القليل
September 29, 2009
It clicks.
September 28, 2009
It means so much you have no idea.
Thank you . . .
Devotion.
September 27, 2009
Protected: If you look deeper . . .
September 26, 2009
What Allah does on the last day of Ramadan.
September 19, 2009
Ibn ‘Abbas, radiyallahu ‘anhuma, relates that the Prophet, ‘alayhissalatu wassalam, said,
“Every night of Ramadan at the time of Iftar, Allah liberates a million people from the Hellfire.
When Jumu’ah arrives, hourly He liberates a million people from the Hellfire, all of them deserving to be punished therein.
When the last day of Ramadan comes, He liberates on that day alone, a number equal to the number that He liberated from the beginning of the month.”
(This Hadith is produced by Salamah bin Shabib and others. It is mentioned by Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali in Lata’if al-Ma’arif, p. 380.)
