GAZA LAND, APOCRYPHAL LEGENDS OF OUR TIME
Fady Joudah reads The Calm:
http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/podcast/fady_inthecalm.mp3
Now here is truly a laughable reveiw of Mr. Joudah's book:
http://www.barrelhousemag.com/growler/Reviews/The_Earth_In_The_Attic.htm
Chock full of platitudes such as "people's poet" and "seer". Bleck. With reviews of such ordinary bleckness, a poet doesn't need enemies.
Tell us about the exile of the hoopoe, the direction of the ants Mr. Rochkind. Just another day in Gazaland I suppose, for you and Mr. Joudah. As for Mr. Joudah's "there's enough to go around" well....as with all exiled poets and exiled Palestinian poets in particular, there is this cheesy type of 'oh, it's okay'. I have a feeling that the citizens of Gaza wouldn't agree with that point of view and prefer the resistance to the groveling. Achoo! Excuuse me.
And who am I to say that afterall? Ah well.....there is a difference between the exile who has a choice and has made that choice and those that haven't a hope of an iceberg in HELL of ever getting that choice. Amen.
There is GAZA and then there's GAZA. You have to be specific you know. And then there's this role playing that happens in poetry and in life itself. Me personally, I want to be a TV ANGEL. You know, like Landon running around the prairie solving murder mysteries and fighting spiritual demise and crime.
In life, I'm a muslim trying to solve the sexually transmitted disease problem in our county. It's a big problem you know and then I go to the funeral on Saturday afternoon of a young boy who committed suicide last week and meet the Nigerian priest who is governing the church where I was baptized. I promised to make him Potato Leaf Stew and this is one promise I hope to fufill. He said to us in the church basement (that I know like the back of my hand) "Look at all dees blessings this child had!" Indeed. What went wrong Father Godfrey?
Because it is important to know what is really going on and then, it is important to write about it. Not in the fluffy way that ignores the apocryphal literature of our times which is only apocryphal because knowledge of such things is at an all time low. Mr. Joudah's work is no doubt right up there with Naomi in terms of its flowery use of the Arab Metaphor (insert here: butterfly, eyelashes, birds) which is a very successful tactic. There is or rather, there ought not to be...any secret to the discussion of such work nor should there be such redundant criticism which isn't any better than the work it chooses to discuss. On all counts, I come away from such events as if I've just had too many genetically engineered olives. But have I? I wouldn't know the difference really unless of course I had met Mr. Joudah and offered the right greeting as he has mentioned in the event of his taxi driver exiling him or rather, excommunicating him from a certain strata of all people, not just Arabs. Then, I could tell you all about how a genetically engineered olive that one finds in Ms. Nye's work differs from the natural olive. The natural olive is picked and produced by natives only you see. It tastes different and is of a quality not bound for Trader Joe's. My favorite place to pick up a piece of something really TRUE. Trader Joe's is all about truth isn't it? Not really. It just smells better and the packaging is pleasing to the green in us, to that whole foods philosophy one finds at Teriyaki Bowl outlets throughout the land.
“And he sought among the birds and said: How is it that I see not the hoopoe, or is he among the absent?” Surah 27:20 (Verse)
“But the hoopoe tarried not far: he compassed (territory) which thou has not compassed and I have come to thee from Saba with tidings true.” Surah 27:22 (Verse)
30.3.09
28.3.09
Ode to a Savage Nation
(For J)
Tables and more tables
and on them books,
the right books near
coffee, the right coffee.
Poses, the right poses
for people who hate
the measles vaccine
who hate injustice
by playing the right music
at the right time
for their customers
of thought, painstaking
work though it is.
This is E flat, G sharp
right near the Brie,
drink the water
of lillies mixed with
the books on the tables.
But we just hate the measles vaccine!
Bully. My precious bully.
Where are you today?
Ah. The church is coming
on strong today
we can go in and out,
we can see how much
the windows matter
but we hate this measles vaccine.
Our name is Jenny, all our names
are Jenny and our boys
play tag all alone.
There is something wrong
with everything, this poet
states we hate photos
of beards because
it is wrong to use photos
of beards when using
bombs on the muslims
but she still says: beards.
She thinks the beards are bad
and hence, prefers photos
of muslims dying without
their beards on, just as juicy.
We hate the measles vaccine
and our name is Jenny.
We at Jenny like to be Jenny,
we have all sorts of lazy cats
that wander around our stone
houses, figure out the prize.
This call was about shingles.
Should we send a letter home
to the parents and tell them
about the shingles? Should we?
Come on huh huh, should we, should we?
Send the letter home, tell me,
should we tell the parents
about the truth?
And our boys play tag
all alone but we just hate
the shingles and the measles vaccine.
Beard.
1A beard should only be as long
as the fist.
2A beard should not be left
to dangle on the chest
to resemble beards of old men.
3The beard distinguishes
boys from women.
Does she really agree
that beards are impolite?
Poets. Real good poets.
And just real good poems,
like us, not the same
thing as Jenny is used to
and calls herself herself.
Talks to herself all the time.
She must be tired, real tired
of all those books, she must
have conversations with cats,
conversations with lemons,
play hackysack when the bell rings
and the announcer says:
Play hacky sack now.
Cut the tall trees.
I keep hearing Jenny
in my head, keep telling her
it isn't about the vaccines
darling, it's not about
the bones either.
I've had about enough
of those miracle workers
in the alleys now. Had enough
of that poisonous tea.
It isn't about the beards Jenny.
It's a bit more than that.
(For J)
Tables and more tables
and on them books,
the right books near
coffee, the right coffee.
Poses, the right poses
for people who hate
the measles vaccine
who hate injustice
by playing the right music
at the right time
for their customers
of thought, painstaking
work though it is.
This is E flat, G sharp
right near the Brie,
drink the water
of lillies mixed with
the books on the tables.
But we just hate the measles vaccine!
Bully. My precious bully.
Where are you today?
Ah. The church is coming
on strong today
we can go in and out,
we can see how much
the windows matter
but we hate this measles vaccine.
Our name is Jenny, all our names
are Jenny and our boys
play tag all alone.
There is something wrong
with everything, this poet
states we hate photos
of beards because
it is wrong to use photos
of beards when using
bombs on the muslims
but she still says: beards.
She thinks the beards are bad
and hence, prefers photos
of muslims dying without
their beards on, just as juicy.
We hate the measles vaccine
and our name is Jenny.
We at Jenny like to be Jenny,
we have all sorts of lazy cats
that wander around our stone
houses, figure out the prize.
This call was about shingles.
Should we send a letter home
to the parents and tell them
about the shingles? Should we?
Come on huh huh, should we, should we?
Send the letter home, tell me,
should we tell the parents
about the truth?
And our boys play tag
all alone but we just hate
the shingles and the measles vaccine.
Beard.
1A beard should only be as long
as the fist.
2A beard should not be left
to dangle on the chest
to resemble beards of old men.
3The beard distinguishes
boys from women.
Does she really agree
that beards are impolite?
Poets. Real good poets.
And just real good poems,
like us, not the same
thing as Jenny is used to
and calls herself herself.
Talks to herself all the time.
She must be tired, real tired
of all those books, she must
have conversations with cats,
conversations with lemons,
play hackysack when the bell rings
and the announcer says:
Play hacky sack now.
Cut the tall trees.
I keep hearing Jenny
in my head, keep telling her
it isn't about the vaccines
darling, it's not about
the bones either.
I've had about enough
of those miracle workers
in the alleys now. Had enough
of that poisonous tea.
It isn't about the beards Jenny.
It's a bit more than that.
19.3.09
Two Dramas
Last time doubt
remembers the old sinner,
he's already gone
and made up
his mind, done it anyway.
All over by the time
it's forgotten
in the good forest
of anticipation
close the river
of nerves and dread.
Just one more bite
after these feasts,
one more
small connotation,
another report
to abandon.
Odd thing about
this old sin
tries to manage
on its own
between common
sense and lie
for absolution,
heaven seems
heartbeats away.
The nafs at rest
never sleeps
or wanders,
keeps count
by twos and tens.
Yahya ibn Mu`adh al-Razi said: "Fight against your ego with the four swords of training: eat little, sleep little, speak little, and be patient when people harm you... Then the ego will walk the paths of obedience, like a fleeing horseman in the field of battle."
Last time doubt
remembers the old sinner,
he's already gone
and made up
his mind, done it anyway.
All over by the time
it's forgotten
in the good forest
of anticipation
close the river
of nerves and dread.
Just one more bite
after these feasts,
one more
small connotation,
another report
to abandon.
Odd thing about
this old sin
tries to manage
on its own
between common
sense and lie
for absolution,
heaven seems
heartbeats away.
The nafs at rest
never sleeps
or wanders,
keeps count
by twos and tens.
Yahya ibn Mu`adh al-Razi said: "Fight against your ego with the four swords of training: eat little, sleep little, speak little, and be patient when people harm you... Then the ego will walk the paths of obedience, like a fleeing horseman in the field of battle."
17.3.09
The Riddle of Two Other Things
Take this time of ours until
tomorrow, towards the sun
with that shadow of yours
that in the morning runs
towards the next morn.
What a noisy comet it is!
all of that finery
on her golden arms
to drag phantoms
behind without as much
as a bone to whisper into,
without their hearts to grieve.
The moon swears sweetly to Allah:
I am not your walking clock
or Qibla, there is no water
between my passes
and these rivers choke
on old, charry resin
midst wee jagged rocks,
all of it still there
stiff and familiar,
each piece and drawn-down atom.
The last day remembers
the depth of the first
newborn road,
its very first turn
was patient
between two other things.
In hot pursuit, the spies
arrived lighthearted and missed
the blowing and the rain,
returned from whence they came.
-what goes on in their heads bleaches hearts into stone, Darla Whitehead in Precious Memories
Take this time of ours until
tomorrow, towards the sun
with that shadow of yours
that in the morning runs
towards the next morn.
What a noisy comet it is!
all of that finery
on her golden arms
to drag phantoms
behind without as much
as a bone to whisper into,
without their hearts to grieve.
The moon swears sweetly to Allah:
I am not your walking clock
or Qibla, there is no water
between my passes
and these rivers choke
on old, charry resin
midst wee jagged rocks,
all of it still there
stiff and familiar,
each piece and drawn-down atom.
The last day remembers
the depth of the first
newborn road,
its very first turn
was patient
between two other things.
In hot pursuit, the spies
arrived lighthearted and missed
the blowing and the rain,
returned from whence they came.
15.3.09
How to Peek at Islam
Even I cringe when I read such outrageous claims to superiority. It must be pointed out because I would not want anyone to think that I do not see the conflict there. How can someone claim that they are right and deny others their right to be right? Isn't that a double standard?
Well no. Not if a person really is right and know that they are right. And only a person who knows they are right can do such an outrageous thing...with a straight face. The reason for this is because it is the case that I am not right....it is Allah that is right and who does not mislead or lie.
http://www.islamawazi.net/books/engilish-turkish-book/mubexxirat-islamiye.pdf
I've found an article at the American Thinker and really, it is like so many other Christian articles in which Christians feel that their DECLARATION of RIGHT is either threatened or being usurped. If you read it however, you will note that it is Christianity that is being threatened, not Allah. It is the concept of Christ as Supreme Leader that is being threatened, not Allah. You don't even find the word Allah/God mentioned except as an afterthought. Clearly, this is a team that is segregated from Allah/God and cannot see the forest because of the trees:
[9.31] They have taken their doctors of law and their monks for lords besides Allah, and (also) the Messiah son of Marium and they were enjoined that they should serve one God only, there is no god but He; far from His glory be what they set up (with Him).[9.32] They desire to put out the light of Allah with their mouths, and Allah will not consent save to perfect His light, though the unbelievers are averse.[9.33] He it is Who sent His Apostle with guidance and the religion of truth, that He might cause it to prevail over all religions, though the polytheists may be averse. -The Glorious Quran, The Immunity
In order to understand, to have a "peek" at the philosophical miracle of Islam, a person has to rid themselves of two primary biases. The first bias is Disbelief in Allah/God. If a person cannot get rid of that bias, it is doubtful that they can see anything at all. This article isn't for those types of people. This is for believers i.e. Jews, Christians, and others who believe in One Allah/God. Belief in two or more Gods...including belief in Jesus as God....will interfere and most likely obliterate your vision into the Quran and Allah's communications.
The second bias one has to consider is the bias against Mohammed, SA. It is unlikely a person can accept him as the last messenger until they see further evidence of that but at the very least, in order to begin to understand the Quran and Islam, a person has to accept that Mohamed is at least, a very important prophet leader. Afterall, he still leads nearly a fifth of the world's people(a number which is steadily increasing, not decreasing)....can't say that about Alexander the Great can you...or Napolean or Ghengis Khan. Just maintain a neutral status in regards to his position.
This is exactly the meaning/function of the Shehada..which..if uttered with INTENT makes a person a muslim. If it however is only being used to reconcile differences of opinion or to open up a pathway towards understanding....it will allow a person to read the Quran and begin to learn. It doesn't "make" a person a muslim necessarily...of course not. It makes a person into an agnostic (of Islam) who can then begin to question the Quran logically, systematically and go on a self guided tour. When it is recited with intent...it has to be followed by a variety of practices normally associated with Islam i.e. praying just like we do, fasting during Ramadan, Haj, Zakat (Charity). Still...those are "just" rituals that signify a person believes in something...they don't reflect what a person actually believes and perhaps more importantly, have no relationship with what a person KNOWS about Islam. There are many muslims in the world who pray in Arabic and have literally no idea what they are saying. It is just an action. It is required and all muslims know that...not all muslims do it. Anyone who does it however will receive a certain reward for it. A person then who recites Shehada "There is no god but God, and Muhammad is his prophet" gets credit for that regardless of their intent or lack of same. The reward depends on the intention. Full intent and pure, openmindedness...will be rewarded accordingly. Impure intent based on "finding what one likes" and "rejecting what one dislikes" will be answered accordingly. If a person enters into that agreement only wanting to understand...they'll understand. This last case of course causes fear for some people..the fear of "conversion". The Quran coupled with good people who have pure intentions...well. It is, as Allah suggests, irrisistable and hence...there are many people in the world today who would rather good people don't get together with good information.
If a person can do that (maintain a smidgeon of neutrality/agnosticism even), then a person can in fact achieve success if their intentions towards Allah/God are good enough. How else can you explain a muslim like me? The majority of my years as a muslim (I accepted over twenty five years ago) were spent as an agnostic muslim...many muslims are exactly that but you'd hardly know that from the press they receive. I can't tell you how many muslims I have met that don't pray, haven't read the Quran, assume equality and agree to sit in the back seat with their "ignorant" brethren (Christians, Jews, other Monotheistic types who deny Mohamed any respect whatsoever), reject the idea of Judgement Day, etc. etc. etc. They are agnostic muslims. They are still questioning their own religion, which is okay. Not to mention the fundamentalists who insist they are right (Sunni agnostics) and who are willing to ethnically cleanse those who are actually right and following the right policies and procedures (Shia). Man....what an incredible spectrum of muslims there are but most people think we come only in one color, model and make.
It used to be that I was living in a mindset that was created by being raised a "Sunday" Catholic (most people are Sunday Catholics nowdays), raised in the cultural milieu of the sixties and seventies (drugs, sex and rock and roll), raised by parents who knew almost nothing of Islam (highly normal back then and when my father met my husband he smiled, shook his right hand and told him that he knew his left hand was for wiping his arse). I did alot of things that now make me cringe. Thing is, they SHOULD HAVE MADE ME CRINGE THEN. My culture and education had more influence on me prior to reaching spiritual maturity and eventually I reached a plateau called "certainty" which is different from mere faith.
Oh well. All people of faith request forgiveness for things they do that are in error but...how do they know what is in error and what is not when in fact, their society (and church) tells them how to think and act? Sure, we all know certain things are off limits...like murder and rape and theft. But honestly, how about adultery, fornication and intoxication? How about consumption of pork? How about posing for nude pictures or looking at them? Sheesh....we have Girls Gone Wild on TV at six in the morning at AZ...right about when the youngins are up and about while their parents are sleeping in...if they are still married. How about spying? Is there a commandment in Christianity that guides a person in that realm? How about suspicion?
The biggest crime however...the only UNFORGIVABLE crime against Allah...because many things that we believe to be crimes may in fact have some justification and all of them are forgiveable....is failure to worship one Allah/God. Just one. Not three. Not even TWO. It is the basis of original sin. It is the only sin in reality and all other misbehaviors stem in one way or the other from it. Any Bible will tell you as much, as will any Torah. The Shehada addresses that by stating that a person holds that Allah doesn't have partners. In a nutshell, the idea that the Creator would either need or entertain the need for "help" is ludicrous to muslims and ought to be ludicrious to anyone who actually believes that the world was created, the universe created, and all the things in and outside of it were created by one Omnipotent Creator. It is an obvious or rather it ought to be an obvious FACT about God/Allah.
When a person insists however (as does the author of the article at American Thinker who holds a PhD and teaches introductory philosophy and world religion at a college in southern California) that they are right about something and hopes to advise others...what if they are wrong? Is that a punishable act? On the other hand, what if a person merely states the case and it is correct (no coercion except for human intellectual logic)? Is it rewardable? Maybe....but only if they are "nice" about it and do it logically and that is what Islam is all about...the logic of the case presented to all people in their own time frame and cultural setting, in terms they can understand.
But is bad advice punishable? You tell me. If a person advises another person to worship two Gods...and that is exactly what Jesus is to most Christians including Mr. Arlandson even though I am certain he would disagree......do you think they deserve reward or punishment? Should they also suffer the penalty that would necessarily belong to anyone who follows their advice? Are they responsible for creating polytheism in others?
The Quran answers an unequivocable YES. Knowledgeable people (includes popes, priests, bishops, imams, gurus, Kings/Queens in countries acknowledging a "state religion" (Morocco, Saudi Arabia, United Kingdom), and at the very bottom of the list...it includes people like me and Mr. Arlandson who know or at least think they know enough about the issue to talk about it and give advice. All of those roles have a responsibility to advise people well.
Don't give advice if you can't pay the price.
Jesus never said he was Allah. In fact, in the hadith (stories) about Jesus called the New Testament, Jesus forbade people from bowing to him. He never said he was the last messenger and prophet either....Mohamed did. How on earth that translates and how that sounds to those who cannot fathom that Mohamed was the last messenger and prophet, last apostle sent to mankind (because of course, Christians believe Jesus is not only the most important prophet but have even assigned him to be the human son of Allah and equal to Allah, capable of "forgiving" and capable of "judgement", his partner at the right hand side of Allah).....to if it can't be Jesus then it can't be anyone else because wha? Oh...right. False prophets. Without naming names of course, Christians rely on this premise to defend Jesus right to be the last one when in fact Jesus knew otherwise and informed his followers that there would be another following
him....otherwise....DUH...there would be no need for advice on how to know a false prophet from a real one. What those people SHOULD be surprised to know is that Jesus will also be JUDGED. How then..can they ask Jesus for forgiveness? God/Allah is judge, jury and executioner and "has no partners" in that endeavor. So. It is very logical granted a person has an orientation towards truth and really wants to know the truth. The problem with Christianic thinking is they believe (oftentimes) that muslims have substituted Mohamed into the spot formerly occupied by Jesus FOR them in their errant organizational process. In Mr. Arlandson's article, he literally states this out loud by asking, "Is Mohamed/Islam and Improvement on Christianity?" Mr. Arlandson ought to be told, perfection cannot be improved upon. His need to substantiate that case illuminates his errant philosophical viewpoint. Alas...we don't worship Mohamed and know for a fact that he is not Allah's partner, he is totally incapable of granting forgiveness and was "just" a human being albeit a very special one in a long line of very special men who were all descendents via the patriarchal DNA passed down from Adam through Noah, through Abraham and his son Ismael, right on up to the last living man in the direct line of prophets and their descendents who is known to muslims as The Mahdi. It is a family tree and the use of family tree is mentioned in Mr. Arlandson's Biblical quotes...right there in front of us yet he would hope people read it otherwise. Jesus on the other hand...was a very special man. He didn't have a father than linked him with the patriarchal lineage of all the other prophets. He is to be compared to Adam who is the only other prophet created without the addition of male sperm. But that doesn't make him a "son" of Allah. It merely makes him a challenge to our thinking...a challenge that has proved to be useful in more ways than one in determining who is on the right track.
Now. Hopefully this peak is helpful to those who think it is mighty audacious of me to make such a profound claim....I am right, we are right because Allah knows what he is doing and our instructions come directly from the source or as close as a person can get to "directly" i.e. the prophet's actual verbatim account of what the angel Gibril (on a directive from Allah) told him to recite. The Bible isn't such a thing, the Torah isn't such a thing and the Upanishads aren't such a thing...and to credit those books and philosophers who wrote them down....those books never CLAIMED SUCH A THING. They are all second, third, fourth, twentieth...you name it...generation information. Those books didn't claim what the people who read them and cite them claim.
People claim such things. Just like I am claiming right here. There is a huge difference however in a knowledgable person claiming such a thing and a person claiming such a thing out of ignorance. Big, big difference.
Why me? Well...it has intrigued me....yeah...why me? I wasn't a particularly good person....and I'm still not a particularly good person on a spectrum of AMAZINGLY OUTRAGEOUSLY GREAT people (like the Ahl Bayt's twelve members) to OUTRAGEOUSLY IGNORANT BUT CHARITABLE AND TOLERANT to the other end of EVIL. Why me then? Well...my husband postulates that maybe I needed it more than some other folks. I postulate that my intentions were always there...they just got all messed up because of my society and the inability of my parents to know about Islam in "that day and age". So Allah took pity on me...and boy did Allah take pity on me. Showed me some really incredible things and allowed me to be one of a tiny minority of people in the world today...and we are an incredibly small collective.....who actually have the ability to dive for pearls in the Quran. And yes....I do get that opportunity...not everyday...but it happens every so often. The last pearl I found in the deep sea of Quran is information about the Last Supper as it pertains to the Last Messenger and his Last Act. It was a doozy...afterall...I'd read the fifth Sura COUNTLESS times. At least five or six times but I'd never been able to put the entire point together until one day I just got it...went back to it and there it was. Not hidden but disguised by my own ignorance for a period of time. I can hardly imagine what GOOD SHIA MUSLIMS know...I'm just an average one or even below average.
Why not me? And by now....some souls will ask their owners...WHY NOT YOU?
Yes. Why not?
Even I cringe when I read such outrageous claims to superiority. It must be pointed out because I would not want anyone to think that I do not see the conflict there. How can someone claim that they are right and deny others their right to be right? Isn't that a double standard?
Well no. Not if a person really is right and know that they are right. And only a person who knows they are right can do such an outrageous thing...with a straight face. The reason for this is because it is the case that I am not right....it is Allah that is right and who does not mislead or lie.
http://www.islamawazi.net/books/engilish-turkish-book/mubexxirat-islamiye.pdf
I've found an article at the American Thinker and really, it is like so many other Christian articles in which Christians feel that their DECLARATION of RIGHT is either threatened or being usurped. If you read it however, you will note that it is Christianity that is being threatened, not Allah. It is the concept of Christ as Supreme Leader that is being threatened, not Allah. You don't even find the word Allah/God mentioned except as an afterthought. Clearly, this is a team that is segregated from Allah/God and cannot see the forest because of the trees:
"Since Muhammad lays down a serious challenge to Christ and Christianity, we Christians must answer him. What would Christ say? As it turns out, he has given us a clear teaching on how to evaluate a prophet who comes after him in history, especially if the later prophet asserts his superiority over Christ: call it fruit inspection. In the context of the Sermon on the Mount, Christ spoke to the multitudes, few of whom or none of whom were theologians, but simple agrarians. In Matt. 7:15—20, Christ uses unambiguous language about discerning the truthfulness of prophets":
7:15 Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. 16 By their fruit you shall know them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17 Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is thrown into the fire. 20 Thus, by their fruit you shall know them.
It helps one to know that one of the guiding principles at American Thinker is:
"There is no limit to the topics appearing on American Thinker. National security in all its dimensions, strategic, economic, diplomatic, and military is emphasized. The right to exist and the survival of the State of Israel are of great importance to us. Business, science, technology, medicine, management, and economics in their practical and ethical dimensions are also emphasized, as is the state of American culture."
Allah and his Apostles apparently aren't their concern so why on earth do they publish articles about such things is beyond me.
The Quran responds to this accordingly:[9.31] They have taken their doctors of law and their monks for lords besides Allah, and (also) the Messiah son of Marium and they were enjoined that they should serve one God only, there is no god but He; far from His glory be what they set up (with Him).[9.32] They desire to put out the light of Allah with their mouths, and Allah will not consent save to perfect His light, though the unbelievers are averse.[9.33] He it is Who sent His Apostle with guidance and the religion of truth, that He might cause it to prevail over all religions, though the polytheists may be averse. -The Glorious Quran, The Immunity
In order to understand, to have a "peek" at the philosophical miracle of Islam, a person has to rid themselves of two primary biases. The first bias is Disbelief in Allah/God. If a person cannot get rid of that bias, it is doubtful that they can see anything at all. This article isn't for those types of people. This is for believers i.e. Jews, Christians, and others who believe in One Allah/God. Belief in two or more Gods...including belief in Jesus as God....will interfere and most likely obliterate your vision into the Quran and Allah's communications.
The second bias one has to consider is the bias against Mohammed, SA. It is unlikely a person can accept him as the last messenger until they see further evidence of that but at the very least, in order to begin to understand the Quran and Islam, a person has to accept that Mohamed is at least, a very important prophet leader. Afterall, he still leads nearly a fifth of the world's people(a number which is steadily increasing, not decreasing)....can't say that about Alexander the Great can you...or Napolean or Ghengis Khan. Just maintain a neutral status in regards to his position.
This is exactly the meaning/function of the Shehada..which..if uttered with INTENT makes a person a muslim. If it however is only being used to reconcile differences of opinion or to open up a pathway towards understanding....it will allow a person to read the Quran and begin to learn. It doesn't "make" a person a muslim necessarily...of course not. It makes a person into an agnostic (of Islam) who can then begin to question the Quran logically, systematically and go on a self guided tour. When it is recited with intent...it has to be followed by a variety of practices normally associated with Islam i.e. praying just like we do, fasting during Ramadan, Haj, Zakat (Charity). Still...those are "just" rituals that signify a person believes in something...they don't reflect what a person actually believes and perhaps more importantly, have no relationship with what a person KNOWS about Islam. There are many muslims in the world who pray in Arabic and have literally no idea what they are saying. It is just an action. It is required and all muslims know that...not all muslims do it. Anyone who does it however will receive a certain reward for it. A person then who recites Shehada "There is no god but God, and Muhammad is his prophet" gets credit for that regardless of their intent or lack of same. The reward depends on the intention. Full intent and pure, openmindedness...will be rewarded accordingly. Impure intent based on "finding what one likes" and "rejecting what one dislikes" will be answered accordingly. If a person enters into that agreement only wanting to understand...they'll understand. This last case of course causes fear for some people..the fear of "conversion". The Quran coupled with good people who have pure intentions...well. It is, as Allah suggests, irrisistable and hence...there are many people in the world today who would rather good people don't get together with good information.
If a person can do that (maintain a smidgeon of neutrality/agnosticism even), then a person can in fact achieve success if their intentions towards Allah/God are good enough. How else can you explain a muslim like me? The majority of my years as a muslim (I accepted over twenty five years ago) were spent as an agnostic muslim...many muslims are exactly that but you'd hardly know that from the press they receive. I can't tell you how many muslims I have met that don't pray, haven't read the Quran, assume equality and agree to sit in the back seat with their "ignorant" brethren (Christians, Jews, other Monotheistic types who deny Mohamed any respect whatsoever), reject the idea of Judgement Day, etc. etc. etc. They are agnostic muslims. They are still questioning their own religion, which is okay. Not to mention the fundamentalists who insist they are right (Sunni agnostics) and who are willing to ethnically cleanse those who are actually right and following the right policies and procedures (Shia). Man....what an incredible spectrum of muslims there are but most people think we come only in one color, model and make.
It used to be that I was living in a mindset that was created by being raised a "Sunday" Catholic (most people are Sunday Catholics nowdays), raised in the cultural milieu of the sixties and seventies (drugs, sex and rock and roll), raised by parents who knew almost nothing of Islam (highly normal back then and when my father met my husband he smiled, shook his right hand and told him that he knew his left hand was for wiping his arse). I did alot of things that now make me cringe. Thing is, they SHOULD HAVE MADE ME CRINGE THEN. My culture and education had more influence on me prior to reaching spiritual maturity and eventually I reached a plateau called "certainty" which is different from mere faith.
Oh well. All people of faith request forgiveness for things they do that are in error but...how do they know what is in error and what is not when in fact, their society (and church) tells them how to think and act? Sure, we all know certain things are off limits...like murder and rape and theft. But honestly, how about adultery, fornication and intoxication? How about consumption of pork? How about posing for nude pictures or looking at them? Sheesh....we have Girls Gone Wild on TV at six in the morning at AZ...right about when the youngins are up and about while their parents are sleeping in...if they are still married. How about spying? Is there a commandment in Christianity that guides a person in that realm? How about suspicion?
The biggest crime however...the only UNFORGIVABLE crime against Allah...because many things that we believe to be crimes may in fact have some justification and all of them are forgiveable....is failure to worship one Allah/God. Just one. Not three. Not even TWO. It is the basis of original sin. It is the only sin in reality and all other misbehaviors stem in one way or the other from it. Any Bible will tell you as much, as will any Torah. The Shehada addresses that by stating that a person holds that Allah doesn't have partners. In a nutshell, the idea that the Creator would either need or entertain the need for "help" is ludicrous to muslims and ought to be ludicrious to anyone who actually believes that the world was created, the universe created, and all the things in and outside of it were created by one Omnipotent Creator. It is an obvious or rather it ought to be an obvious FACT about God/Allah.
When a person insists however (as does the author of the article at American Thinker who holds a PhD and teaches introductory philosophy and world religion at a college in southern California) that they are right about something and hopes to advise others...what if they are wrong? Is that a punishable act? On the other hand, what if a person merely states the case and it is correct (no coercion except for human intellectual logic)? Is it rewardable? Maybe....but only if they are "nice" about it and do it logically and that is what Islam is all about...the logic of the case presented to all people in their own time frame and cultural setting, in terms they can understand.
But is bad advice punishable? You tell me. If a person advises another person to worship two Gods...and that is exactly what Jesus is to most Christians including Mr. Arlandson even though I am certain he would disagree......do you think they deserve reward or punishment? Should they also suffer the penalty that would necessarily belong to anyone who follows their advice? Are they responsible for creating polytheism in others?
The Quran answers an unequivocable YES. Knowledgeable people (includes popes, priests, bishops, imams, gurus, Kings/Queens in countries acknowledging a "state religion" (Morocco, Saudi Arabia, United Kingdom), and at the very bottom of the list...it includes people like me and Mr. Arlandson who know or at least think they know enough about the issue to talk about it and give advice. All of those roles have a responsibility to advise people well.
Don't give advice if you can't pay the price.
Jesus never said he was Allah. In fact, in the hadith (stories) about Jesus called the New Testament, Jesus forbade people from bowing to him. He never said he was the last messenger and prophet either....Mohamed did. How on earth that translates and how that sounds to those who cannot fathom that Mohamed was the last messenger and prophet, last apostle sent to mankind (because of course, Christians believe Jesus is not only the most important prophet but have even assigned him to be the human son of Allah and equal to Allah, capable of "forgiving" and capable of "judgement", his partner at the right hand side of Allah).....to if it can't be Jesus then it can't be anyone else because wha? Oh...right. False prophets. Without naming names of course, Christians rely on this premise to defend Jesus right to be the last one when in fact Jesus knew otherwise and informed his followers that there would be another following
him....otherwise....DUH...there would be no need for advice on how to know a false prophet from a real one. What those people SHOULD be surprised to know is that Jesus will also be JUDGED. How then..can they ask Jesus for forgiveness? God/Allah is judge, jury and executioner and "has no partners" in that endeavor. So. It is very logical granted a person has an orientation towards truth and really wants to know the truth. The problem with Christianic thinking is they believe (oftentimes) that muslims have substituted Mohamed into the spot formerly occupied by Jesus FOR them in their errant organizational process. In Mr. Arlandson's article, he literally states this out loud by asking, "Is Mohamed/Islam and Improvement on Christianity?" Mr. Arlandson ought to be told, perfection cannot be improved upon. His need to substantiate that case illuminates his errant philosophical viewpoint. Alas...we don't worship Mohamed and know for a fact that he is not Allah's partner, he is totally incapable of granting forgiveness and was "just" a human being albeit a very special one in a long line of very special men who were all descendents via the patriarchal DNA passed down from Adam through Noah, through Abraham and his son Ismael, right on up to the last living man in the direct line of prophets and their descendents who is known to muslims as The Mahdi. It is a family tree and the use of family tree is mentioned in Mr. Arlandson's Biblical quotes...right there in front of us yet he would hope people read it otherwise. Jesus on the other hand...was a very special man. He didn't have a father than linked him with the patriarchal lineage of all the other prophets. He is to be compared to Adam who is the only other prophet created without the addition of male sperm. But that doesn't make him a "son" of Allah. It merely makes him a challenge to our thinking...a challenge that has proved to be useful in more ways than one in determining who is on the right track.
Now. Hopefully this peak is helpful to those who think it is mighty audacious of me to make such a profound claim....I am right, we are right because Allah knows what he is doing and our instructions come directly from the source or as close as a person can get to "directly" i.e. the prophet's actual verbatim account of what the angel Gibril (on a directive from Allah) told him to recite. The Bible isn't such a thing, the Torah isn't such a thing and the Upanishads aren't such a thing...and to credit those books and philosophers who wrote them down....those books never CLAIMED SUCH A THING. They are all second, third, fourth, twentieth...you name it...generation information. Those books didn't claim what the people who read them and cite them claim.
People claim such things. Just like I am claiming right here. There is a huge difference however in a knowledgable person claiming such a thing and a person claiming such a thing out of ignorance. Big, big difference.
Why me? Well...it has intrigued me....yeah...why me? I wasn't a particularly good person....and I'm still not a particularly good person on a spectrum of AMAZINGLY OUTRAGEOUSLY GREAT people (like the Ahl Bayt's twelve members) to OUTRAGEOUSLY IGNORANT BUT CHARITABLE AND TOLERANT to the other end of EVIL. Why me then? Well...my husband postulates that maybe I needed it more than some other folks. I postulate that my intentions were always there...they just got all messed up because of my society and the inability of my parents to know about Islam in "that day and age". So Allah took pity on me...and boy did Allah take pity on me. Showed me some really incredible things and allowed me to be one of a tiny minority of people in the world today...and we are an incredibly small collective.....who actually have the ability to dive for pearls in the Quran. And yes....I do get that opportunity...not everyday...but it happens every so often. The last pearl I found in the deep sea of Quran is information about the Last Supper as it pertains to the Last Messenger and his Last Act. It was a doozy...afterall...I'd read the fifth Sura COUNTLESS times. At least five or six times but I'd never been able to put the entire point together until one day I just got it...went back to it and there it was. Not hidden but disguised by my own ignorance for a period of time. I can hardly imagine what GOOD SHIA MUSLIMS know...I'm just an average one or even below average.
Why not me? And by now....some souls will ask their owners...WHY NOT YOU?
Yes. Why not?
14.3.09
CHICKEN LITTLES AT YOUR SERVICE
These are on a right course from their Lord and these it is that shall be successful. The Glorious Quran, Luqman (Aesop from Aesop's Fables...he was a black man.)
Morrocco Gets Mad http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/03/06/morocco-cuts-ties-with-ir_n_172615.html
and in a fit of jealous rage, cuts its nose despite its face.
The Moroccan press has repeatedly accused the Iranian Embassy of proselytism in recent years. The Iranian ambassador denied the charges as recently as last week.
There are officially no Shiite Muslims in this North African kingdom, which is more than 99 percent Sunni, with the remainder of the population Jewish or Christian.
King Mohamed VI is the "commander of the believers" in the country, and the Foreign Ministry's statement equated attacking Moroccan religious unity to challenging the monarch.
Millennialism, or something else?
What gets me....one of those posts about what gets me. Who cares really about what gets me except me, myself and I?
Well, Millennialism gets alot of people doesn't it? Here is a new term for "it" and that would be collapsitarianism. Over there at Wiki, you can find the scientific (what moderns call legitimate) view and that is labeled catestrophism. A derogatory term, besides millennialism is Dispensationalism which more or less is the framework for nearly all of the newly minted types (read: sects) of Christianity. Common to those is another way of looking at differences that have supposedly sprouted up is the term supersessionism. Supersessionism is denied by sects who would like to believe that the ancients didn't know what they were talking about but they i.e. those in denial...do know what they are talking about because of course, time has evolved them into better creatures more capable of understanding Allah's premises. You can lop most or all modern athiestic/agnostic ideologies into the idea of supersessionism. What has always bothered me about those conversations is the fact that what they are in denial of, is admitted to by the virtual claim of Allah's non existence. In other words, the conversation has to exist, does exist and no matter what kind of denial someone engages in (from Darwinism to Communism to Capitalism), Allah does exist...if only in their superficial terminology. The need for Allah to exist is part of the denial of Allah's existence. Somewhere in the Quran this is stated by Allah via Gibril and Mohamed but I'm not going to bother bringing it to you here..that's not my problem but I will paraphrase that verse by saying Allah is clear about his knowledge of the denial of some human beings and clear about the fact that he (Allah) will never be "out of the picture" of their silly debates and outrages.
"They are life for knowledge and death for ignorance. Their forbearance tells you of their knowledge, and their silence of the wisdom of their speaking. They do not go against right nor do they differ (among themselves) about it. They are the pillars of Islam and the asylums of (its) protection. With them right has returned to its position and wrong has left its place and its tongue is severed from its root. They have understood the religion attentively and carefully, not by mere heresy or from relaters, because the relaters of knowledge are many but its understanders are few. " Ali ibn Abi Taleb, pbuh
What gets me about all of this is being lopped into this egalitarian category merely be being part of the larger population of what we call "believers". You see, muslims aren't just any believers. We are a very, very special brand. Problem is, many of those involved in sects (Christianity to Judaism to Buddhism) believe that they are those special creatures. A few of them declare divine right to this with a good example being those who say that if you do not admit Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior...you will burn in hell. They are not only mistaken but it is the case that they have mistaken the right of a human to be RIGHT with the actual act of BEING RIGHT. It's a big boo boo. Not sure how big but from this high end view (Islam), I'd say.....uh oh. Mostly because those who confuse the two ideas (declaration of right and actual divine right) do not only misunderstand the laws of the Creator but they are bound to offend the Creator in all kinds of ways by failing to adhere to clear rules and regulations.
"The basis of the occurrence of evils are those desires which are acted upon and the orders that are innovated. They are against the Book of Allah. People co-operate with each other about them even though it is against the Religion of Allah. If wrong had been pure and unmixed it would not be hidden from those who are in search of it. And if right had been pure without admixture of wrong those who bear hatred towards it would have been silenced. What is, however, done is that something is taken from here and something from there and the two are mixed! At this stage Satan overpowers his friends and they alone escape for whom virtue has been apportioned by Allah from before."
No...muslims (and not all and not even most) are a different breed. While everyone else is on the same level...and most of them admit to being EQUAL and declaring it their best virtue i.e. "whatever goes as long as its nice and doesn't bother anyone too much or offend their human rights"....which is in my estimation absolute PROOF of their position....we muslims don't say that and more importantly, Shia muslims have an even larger claim WITHIN Islam itself. That claim is we got it right. And truth only has ONE side. Falsehood has several and some of those options include the very nice looking equalities of those who worship Allah on a lower level. We just don't believe in threatening others with that right except as advisers to those in need of assistance. We aren't in any position to tell anyone what their outcome will eventually be i.e. after Judgement Day. We believe in moderation and standing back a bit...letting people come to us rather than us seeking folks out like Jehovah's Witnesses do to an embarrassing degree. Nope. Not our style but we do believe in giving sage advice and comfort to the confused.
"Do not blame a man who delays in securing what are his just rights but blame lies on him who grasps the rights which do not belong to him." Ali ibn Abi Taleb, pbuh.
Does Allah mind? Well...I certainly couldn't tell you but I can tell you a little something about the whole crew of dispensationalists to Global Warming fanatics.
You've missed the point. The point was made and it was made in a clear fashion. Disbelief bars a person from understanding this...that is an innate characteristic of the argument. Belief (ANY type of belief in one Creator)on the other hand allows certain people a view into this muslim mind of ours....a wee peak. Not a whole peak as in you can join us easily. You can't. It isn't that simple. You can try of course but you can also end up mighty disappointed. But it never hurts to give it a shot if your intentions towards the Creator are proper.
I'm not going to go further into it except to quote a few incredibly important sayings from the first Imam of Islam after the prophet and to paraphrase it, it would be like "Shit or get off the pot." Some people do go to that extreme (extremists who are in error) but they shouldn't be confused with those who declare Divine Right, know what Divine Right is and know that it belongs to a certain set of rules and behaviors and say "shit or get off the pot" because I'm telling you, we understand this problem and anyone not in our group is doomed to failure if they continue to sit on this pot and that pot would be understanding the role of Creation, Allah, his books, his Messengers and Prophets, his warnings about the total finality (as opposed to these partial seemingly indiscriminate disasters) of the creation and ultimately, Judgement Day to which all people will be subjected with or without their consent and forebearance.
Some additional insights from the Head of State (Ali ibn Abi Taleb, pbuh) after the death of the world's last and final prophet, Mohamed (SA):
"Acquire wisdom and truth from whomever you can because even an apostate can have them but unless they are passed over to a faithful Muslim and become part of wisdom and truth that he possesses, they have a confused existence in the minds of apostates. "
We, Ahlul Bayt (chosen descendants of the Holy Prophet), hold such central and balancing position in religion that those who are deficient in understanding and acting upon its principles, will have to come to us for reformation, and those who are overdoing it have got to learn moderation from us.
An Angel announces daily: "Birth of more human beings means so many more will die, collection of more wealth means of much more will be destroyed, erection of more buildings means so many more ruins will come".
One who does not realize his own value is condemned to utter failure.
May Allah be pleased with all of them and hopefully, with me too for telling the truth to those who don't really like the idea at all. The world will end someday and that time is ALWAYS getting closer. We just don't know how close and neither do those infamous Aztecs who suffered the demise of their entire culture for doing things we all know aren't really right (sacrificing human lives for bad ideologies).
And you know.....this type of Will Power is something most non muslims completely fail to understand. Here's the problem for you ALL...no one reading this post will be alive in 100 years to know if my claim is right. Even I won't but all the same, I make it in a most confident position as one who knows that Allah wins. Allah didn't create this in vain and Allah never loses. If of course, you don't believe in Allah you won't fathom the disaster you have willed upon yourself. You are one of the losers and the Quran talks alot about you...that's why you don't like it. Don't like it at all.
My advice? Copy and paste this somewhere. Come back to this article in one year, in two years, in five and in twenty if you are still alive. Look around you. What do you see? Leave it as an inheritance for your children. I'm leaving it for mine.
Those to whom We have given the Book read it as it ought to be read. These believe in it; and whoever disbelieves in it, these it is that are the losers. 2:121
O you who believe! if you obey those who disbelieve they will turn you back upon your heels, so you will turn back losers. 3:149
They are losers indeed who reject the meeting of Allah; until when the hour comes upon them all of a sudden they shall say: O our grief for our neglecting it! and they shall bear their burdens on their backs; now surely evil is that which they bear. 6:31
And you should not be of those who reject the communications of Allah, (for) then you should be one of the losers. 10:95
These are on a right course from their Lord and these it is that shall be successful. The Glorious Quran, Luqman (Aesop from Aesop's Fables...he was a black man.)
Morrocco Gets Mad http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/03/06/morocco-cuts-ties-with-ir_n_172615.html
and in a fit of jealous rage, cuts its nose despite its face.
The Moroccan press has repeatedly accused the Iranian Embassy of proselytism in recent years. The Iranian ambassador denied the charges as recently as last week.
There are officially no Shiite Muslims in this North African kingdom, which is more than 99 percent Sunni, with the remainder of the population Jewish or Christian.
King Mohamed VI is the "commander of the believers" in the country, and the Foreign Ministry's statement equated attacking Moroccan religious unity to challenging the monarch.
The right to interpret the Word of God Numerous verses in the Holy Qur'an make it clear that an understanding of the inner-meaning (the implied) and in other words the true test of the Holy Book is specific to certain individuals and that the true status of the Qur'an and the hidden revelations therein will not be known to any but such special individuals whose characteristics include integrity. According to Ayah 80 of Surah Wa'qi'ah, these individuals are the ones who have the ability to come in contact with this fountain of knowledge in the Qur'an. Therefore, it can be concluded that the Ahlul-Bayt of the Prophet who are (according to Surah 33, Ayah 33), free of all ignominy, are the ones who shall witness the true status (meaning) of the Qur'an. It is important to mention here that according to the Holy Verses, the true standing of the Qur'an is the vastness of the knowledge within its revelations. The final meaning thereof, and that of the latent verses or the less than clear content, was to be clarified to become the guidance to mankind. Therefore, those who have access to the true status of the Qur'an, meaning the true knowledge of the firm and unmistakable (Muh'kam) and to the unspecified (Mu'tashaabah), no doubt have full command of the interpretation and allegoric explanation of the Holy Verses. The Qur'an calls the interpreters of the firm and unmistakable (Muh'kam) and the unspecified (Mu'tashaabah) verses as: Al-Rasikhoon fil I'lm. meaning the Deeply Versed in Divine Knowledge (of the Qur'an). From: http://www.hadith.net/english/prophet/household.htm
Millennialism, or something else?
What gets me....one of those posts about what gets me. Who cares really about what gets me except me, myself and I?
Well, Millennialism gets alot of people doesn't it? Here is a new term for "it" and that would be collapsitarianism. Over there at Wiki, you can find the scientific (what moderns call legitimate) view and that is labeled catestrophism. A derogatory term, besides millennialism is Dispensationalism which more or less is the framework for nearly all of the newly minted types (read: sects) of Christianity. Common to those is another way of looking at differences that have supposedly sprouted up is the term supersessionism. Supersessionism is denied by sects who would like to believe that the ancients didn't know what they were talking about but they i.e. those in denial...do know what they are talking about because of course, time has evolved them into better creatures more capable of understanding Allah's premises. You can lop most or all modern athiestic/agnostic ideologies into the idea of supersessionism. What has always bothered me about those conversations is the fact that what they are in denial of, is admitted to by the virtual claim of Allah's non existence. In other words, the conversation has to exist, does exist and no matter what kind of denial someone engages in (from Darwinism to Communism to Capitalism), Allah does exist...if only in their superficial terminology. The need for Allah to exist is part of the denial of Allah's existence. Somewhere in the Quran this is stated by Allah via Gibril and Mohamed but I'm not going to bother bringing it to you here..that's not my problem but I will paraphrase that verse by saying Allah is clear about his knowledge of the denial of some human beings and clear about the fact that he (Allah) will never be "out of the picture" of their silly debates and outrages.
"They are life for knowledge and death for ignorance. Their forbearance tells you of their knowledge, and their silence of the wisdom of their speaking. They do not go against right nor do they differ (among themselves) about it. They are the pillars of Islam and the asylums of (its) protection. With them right has returned to its position and wrong has left its place and its tongue is severed from its root. They have understood the religion attentively and carefully, not by mere heresy or from relaters, because the relaters of knowledge are many but its understanders are few. " Ali ibn Abi Taleb, pbuh
What gets me about all of this is being lopped into this egalitarian category merely be being part of the larger population of what we call "believers". You see, muslims aren't just any believers. We are a very, very special brand. Problem is, many of those involved in sects (Christianity to Judaism to Buddhism) believe that they are those special creatures. A few of them declare divine right to this with a good example being those who say that if you do not admit Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior...you will burn in hell. They are not only mistaken but it is the case that they have mistaken the right of a human to be RIGHT with the actual act of BEING RIGHT. It's a big boo boo. Not sure how big but from this high end view (Islam), I'd say.....uh oh. Mostly because those who confuse the two ideas (declaration of right and actual divine right) do not only misunderstand the laws of the Creator but they are bound to offend the Creator in all kinds of ways by failing to adhere to clear rules and regulations.
"The basis of the occurrence of evils are those desires which are acted upon and the orders that are innovated. They are against the Book of Allah. People co-operate with each other about them even though it is against the Religion of Allah. If wrong had been pure and unmixed it would not be hidden from those who are in search of it. And if right had been pure without admixture of wrong those who bear hatred towards it would have been silenced. What is, however, done is that something is taken from here and something from there and the two are mixed! At this stage Satan overpowers his friends and they alone escape for whom virtue has been apportioned by Allah from before."
No...muslims (and not all and not even most) are a different breed. While everyone else is on the same level...and most of them admit to being EQUAL and declaring it their best virtue i.e. "whatever goes as long as its nice and doesn't bother anyone too much or offend their human rights"....which is in my estimation absolute PROOF of their position....we muslims don't say that and more importantly, Shia muslims have an even larger claim WITHIN Islam itself. That claim is we got it right. And truth only has ONE side. Falsehood has several and some of those options include the very nice looking equalities of those who worship Allah on a lower level. We just don't believe in threatening others with that right except as advisers to those in need of assistance. We aren't in any position to tell anyone what their outcome will eventually be i.e. after Judgement Day. We believe in moderation and standing back a bit...letting people come to us rather than us seeking folks out like Jehovah's Witnesses do to an embarrassing degree. Nope. Not our style but we do believe in giving sage advice and comfort to the confused.
"Do not blame a man who delays in securing what are his just rights but blame lies on him who grasps the rights which do not belong to him." Ali ibn Abi Taleb, pbuh.
Does Allah mind? Well...I certainly couldn't tell you but I can tell you a little something about the whole crew of dispensationalists to Global Warming fanatics.
You've missed the point. The point was made and it was made in a clear fashion. Disbelief bars a person from understanding this...that is an innate characteristic of the argument. Belief (ANY type of belief in one Creator)on the other hand allows certain people a view into this muslim mind of ours....a wee peak. Not a whole peak as in you can join us easily. You can't. It isn't that simple. You can try of course but you can also end up mighty disappointed. But it never hurts to give it a shot if your intentions towards the Creator are proper.
I'm not going to go further into it except to quote a few incredibly important sayings from the first Imam of Islam after the prophet and to paraphrase it, it would be like "Shit or get off the pot." Some people do go to that extreme (extremists who are in error) but they shouldn't be confused with those who declare Divine Right, know what Divine Right is and know that it belongs to a certain set of rules and behaviors and say "shit or get off the pot" because I'm telling you, we understand this problem and anyone not in our group is doomed to failure if they continue to sit on this pot and that pot would be understanding the role of Creation, Allah, his books, his Messengers and Prophets, his warnings about the total finality (as opposed to these partial seemingly indiscriminate disasters) of the creation and ultimately, Judgement Day to which all people will be subjected with or without their consent and forebearance.
Some additional insights from the Head of State (Ali ibn Abi Taleb, pbuh) after the death of the world's last and final prophet, Mohamed (SA):
"Acquire wisdom and truth from whomever you can because even an apostate can have them but unless they are passed over to a faithful Muslim and become part of wisdom and truth that he possesses, they have a confused existence in the minds of apostates. "
We, Ahlul Bayt (chosen descendants of the Holy Prophet), hold such central and balancing position in religion that those who are deficient in understanding and acting upon its principles, will have to come to us for reformation, and those who are overdoing it have got to learn moderation from us.
An Angel announces daily: "Birth of more human beings means so many more will die, collection of more wealth means of much more will be destroyed, erection of more buildings means so many more ruins will come".
One who does not realize his own value is condemned to utter failure.
May Allah be pleased with all of them and hopefully, with me too for telling the truth to those who don't really like the idea at all. The world will end someday and that time is ALWAYS getting closer. We just don't know how close and neither do those infamous Aztecs who suffered the demise of their entire culture for doing things we all know aren't really right (sacrificing human lives for bad ideologies).
Points to ponder.....when Ahmadinijad tells everyone "There won't be a war with the United States." How does he know and apparently, he is right. Of course, the scholars who form the councils do warn that the corallary to this advice and it is advice...is that if you do make war on the Shia of the world...you'll fail and we'll bascially rip your teeth out of your gums...needs to be mentioned. It isn't an idle threat, I assure you.
Banks and who runs them? Why are they failing? You need to consider the ideology that is current and that is that the banking system that we used to have is the Jewish Banking System and that Madoff is a certain ethnicity as are his investors. Newspapers...ah..anyone who hasn't heard the familiar fable that Jews control the media...well...they're in the caca pile too. What's left? Oh...the Catholic Church...is on the rocks it seems and the Bishop in California who mediated and enabled a pedophile is now forbidding the entrance into ANY church in his diosese, of a priest who questions the reality of the Holocaust. OK...so hypocrisy all over the place and very easy to see including the utter hypocrisy of the United States of ZioChristianity trying to prevent Iran from making clean energy from nuclear power while they are harboring some of the most dangerous weaponry known to mankind. Alas. And Iran over there ignoring the whole thing and sending, for the very first time, a MUSLIM MADE satellite. You've got Morocco cutting off ties with Iran because....er....alot of Moroccans have joined the Divine Right Team. Of their own accord and in a spat of ignorant action, Moroccan High Priests think they can avoid this inevitable turn of historical events in mankind by taking its toys and going home. To make matters worse, CNN reported last week that not only is Islam increasing in membership in the United States but all other faiths are shrinking in membership so it is an increase not only in numbers but one of increasing by ratio and decrease. Dire situation for some and wonderful for others (me) who have known this all along. One hundred years from now...the United States will be a muslim country. Trust me. I'm just not prone to lying or making outrageous claims. Why bother? What would I gain if someone else knows what I know? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. I only get credit for my own deeds, no more and no less.
My oh my. You think I'm wrong? Well, it's everyone's right to be wrong and everyone's right to be right. Being right though...is another story.
"Hizbullah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah declared on Friday that in case Hizbullah wants to engage in a dialogue with the US, it will impose its own conditions. His eminence pointed out that the new US stance or "openness" was due to the failure of its regional plans, announcing that the US conditions for dialogue with Hizbullah were rejected since the Resistance party would never recognize ‘Israel'."
And you know.....this type of Will Power is something most non muslims completely fail to understand. Here's the problem for you ALL...no one reading this post will be alive in 100 years to know if my claim is right. Even I won't but all the same, I make it in a most confident position as one who knows that Allah wins. Allah didn't create this in vain and Allah never loses. If of course, you don't believe in Allah you won't fathom the disaster you have willed upon yourself. You are one of the losers and the Quran talks alot about you...that's why you don't like it. Don't like it at all.
My advice? Copy and paste this somewhere. Come back to this article in one year, in two years, in five and in twenty if you are still alive. Look around you. What do you see? Leave it as an inheritance for your children. I'm leaving it for mine.
Those to whom We have given the Book read it as it ought to be read. These believe in it; and whoever disbelieves in it, these it is that are the losers. 2:121
O you who believe! if you obey those who disbelieve they will turn you back upon your heels, so you will turn back losers. 3:149
They are losers indeed who reject the meeting of Allah; until when the hour comes upon them all of a sudden they shall say: O our grief for our neglecting it! and they shall bear their burdens on their backs; now surely evil is that which they bear. 6:31
And you should not be of those who reject the communications of Allah, (for) then you should be one of the losers. 10:95
13.3.09
Bismillah ir-Rahman ir-Rahim, In Chondra,
the Everyone Magazine of Purgatory
it's never too late to die, no one
was there they don't get it do they
the sun created after the shadow
the moon before the sun
Jupiter before the parts became
whole predicates on timelines
the world stops by at the bottom
one moving by in lindens
who is moving who is not
would you have stopped her
now you are mad that it matters
the squeaks permanently rigored
fixed to anchors dropping
everything blooms from exactly
one instant, the sound
of a last heartbeat last sorrow
cannot call you from her Milan
because she went in without notice.
If you could see what has been seen by those of you who have died, you would be puzzled and troubled. Then you would have listened and obeyed; but what they have seen is yet curtained off from you. Shortly, the curtain would be thrown off. You have been shown, provided you see and you have been made to listen provided you listen, and you have been guided if you accept guidance. I spoke unto you with truth. You have been called aloud by (instructive) examples and warned through items full of warnings. After the heavenly angels, only man can convey message from Allah. -Ali Ibn Abi Taleb, Chief of all believers.
Please, come sit here a while
refresh yourself by the banks of death
it will comfort you to know
about time and mankind
the big and small problems,
your typewriter is stuck man
on the word definition
of last supper not ghadr khum
stuck on infinity with no where
to go no eulogy can lull
old men to sleep better
than hajar o hadeeda, Qul:
last mysteries are here to haunt you,
to beg you out of your sleep.
My old man used to rip pages
from the Bible for Vietnam
liquored up torn outrageous
greetings to the graves
we send greetings to the graves
as we wait to go in to them
from Gaza to the Corinthians
the smiths go in the sowandis
go in the travoltas go in the savages
go in the wage earners go in Buddha
and the Buddha idea go in
the unable go in the upright go
in the flowers go in the elephants
go in the presidents go in
their babies go in don't you know
the mistakes go in the memories
go in the warnings go in
the echos go in and in
and in the breaths go in
the bernsteins go in the
dirt and prayers go in
the dirty pages go in the
fingerprints go in the typewriter
goes in the ashes go in the planets
and stars go in the bees go in.
Nevermind. You'll go in too.
the Everyone Magazine of Purgatory
it's never too late to die, no one
was there they don't get it do they
the sun created after the shadow
the moon before the sun
Jupiter before the parts became
whole predicates on timelines
the world stops by at the bottom
one moving by in lindens
who is moving who is not
would you have stopped her
now you are mad that it matters
the squeaks permanently rigored
fixed to anchors dropping
everything blooms from exactly
one instant, the sound
of a last heartbeat last sorrow
cannot call you from her Milan
because she went in without notice.
If you could see what has been seen by those of you who have died, you would be puzzled and troubled. Then you would have listened and obeyed; but what they have seen is yet curtained off from you. Shortly, the curtain would be thrown off. You have been shown, provided you see and you have been made to listen provided you listen, and you have been guided if you accept guidance. I spoke unto you with truth. You have been called aloud by (instructive) examples and warned through items full of warnings. After the heavenly angels, only man can convey message from Allah. -Ali Ibn Abi Taleb, Chief of all believers.
Please, come sit here a while
refresh yourself by the banks of death
it will comfort you to know
about time and mankind
the big and small problems,
your typewriter is stuck man
on the word definition
of last supper not ghadr khum
stuck on infinity with no where
to go no eulogy can lull
old men to sleep better
than hajar o hadeeda, Qul:
last mysteries are here to haunt you,
to beg you out of your sleep.
My old man used to rip pages
from the Bible for Vietnam
liquored up torn outrageous
greetings to the graves
we send greetings to the graves
as we wait to go in to them
from Gaza to the Corinthians
the smiths go in the sowandis
go in the travoltas go in the savages
go in the wage earners go in Buddha
and the Buddha idea go in
the unable go in the upright go
in the flowers go in the elephants
go in the presidents go in
their babies go in don't you know
the mistakes go in the memories
go in the warnings go in
the echos go in and in
and in the breaths go in
the bernsteins go in the
dirt and prayers go in
the dirty pages go in the
fingerprints go in the typewriter
goes in the ashes go in the planets
and stars go in the bees go in.
Nevermind. You'll go in too.
11.3.09
Blase Faire
TWINS, Deviance as the New Norm
Is it Flarf's fault?
Probably the most unsettling movie I have ever viewed is Dead Ringers. A review at the Unruly Servant goes on at length regarding the morbidity of twin poets Matthew and what's his name (Micheal) Dickman or rather, The Dickman Twins. Truly a case of art mirroring life and vice versa, the epitome of such things ala Diane Arbus. One thing I always have regretted as a photographer, is never having the opportunity to photograph twins. Alas....but who'd want to after Diane? Really now. The movie is based on the very true story of twin gynecologists who were found in their New York apartment dead from a barbituate induced coma. That is where the likeness ends however and the movie....ah...let me remember all the movies that literally scared me to death: No Country For Old Men with it's cliff hanger ending..the devil on the road and ready to ride....Crowhaven Farm, a seventies thriller in which I, Meg Porter (starring Hope Lang) get crushed by some crazy brick-wielding fundamentalists dressed up as pilgrims and who could forget Blue Velvet, an eighties weirdo based on inhalants (in this case, Blue Velvet the song and the fabric) that morphed into the fascinating series known as Twin Peaks. Series such as The X Files and CSI owe their morbid fixation on the fanciful but real Chronic Americana Psychobot Personality Disorder Complex (defined by symptoms that range from depression to shooting sprees in Amish school houses) to David Lynch and Cronenberg, the Cohen Brothers and just a little bit to Diane. Absolutely. I must mention the awful awful scary spooky and extremely Arbus-esque movie The Shining. Alas, redrum. Good ole redrum. Thanks Kubrick. We miss you.
Somehow though...I get the feeling that this is all above the heads of the Dickmans.
Which leads me to the sardonic nature of Flarf. Is it or isn't it and how does one know the difference without placing value on poems themselves without really placing too much value on them...afterall..like Nada Gordon is quoted, "They're just poems people."
How much value is the right amount? Where does it end? What does this bode for the future? The hit pop alternative song United States of Whatever....well...that says it all.
The antidote to too much muchness? Of course, the Numa Numa and gentle riots of the young.
TWINS, Deviance as the New Norm
Is it Flarf's fault?
Probably the most unsettling movie I have ever viewed is Dead Ringers. A review at the Unruly Servant goes on at length regarding the morbidity of twin poets Matthew and what's his name (Micheal) Dickman or rather, The Dickman Twins. Truly a case of art mirroring life and vice versa, the epitome of such things ala Diane Arbus. One thing I always have regretted as a photographer, is never having the opportunity to photograph twins. Alas....but who'd want to after Diane? Really now. The movie is based on the very true story of twin gynecologists who were found in their New York apartment dead from a barbituate induced coma. That is where the likeness ends however and the movie....ah...let me remember all the movies that literally scared me to death: No Country For Old Men with it's cliff hanger ending..the devil on the road and ready to ride....Crowhaven Farm, a seventies thriller in which I, Meg Porter (starring Hope Lang) get crushed by some crazy brick-wielding fundamentalists dressed up as pilgrims and who could forget Blue Velvet, an eighties weirdo based on inhalants (in this case, Blue Velvet the song and the fabric) that morphed into the fascinating series known as Twin Peaks. Series such as The X Files and CSI owe their morbid fixation on the fanciful but real Chronic Americana Psychobot Personality Disorder Complex (defined by symptoms that range from depression to shooting sprees in Amish school houses) to David Lynch and Cronenberg, the Cohen Brothers and just a little bit to Diane. Absolutely. I must mention the awful awful scary spooky and extremely Arbus-esque movie The Shining. Alas, redrum. Good ole redrum. Thanks Kubrick. We miss you.
Somehow though...I get the feeling that this is all above the heads of the Dickmans.
Which leads me to the sardonic nature of Flarf. Is it or isn't it and how does one know the difference without placing value on poems themselves without really placing too much value on them...afterall..like Nada Gordon is quoted, "They're just poems people."
How much value is the right amount? Where does it end? What does this bode for the future? The hit pop alternative song United States of Whatever....well...that says it all.
The antidote to too much muchness? Of course, the Numa Numa and gentle riots of the young.
10.3.09
Dear Longfellow,
Sweet it was when we were low
time was gentle and it was slow
and under that patriarchal tree
night understood and it did flee
to catch up with the yellow morn
where wind tossed seeds of corn
huddled under the dirty sea
more than enough for you and me.
That was then and this is now
let's take a look at exactly how
the angel of death pulled up our brow
and tossed the moribund modern beast
out of paradise, into the east
into the night and past the day
between the solved and unsolved fray.
Before I'd grown and got
the miserable amount within this plot,
a body a mind a soul a ransom
a price not unusually handsome,
for then it was me the child
dirty, precocious and especially wild.
Here is a case in point
there is no time to spare,
no water to spell anoint
and too much damage to repair.
The river appeals unto the city
runs amok near fear and pity,
while wind uproots the lesser trees
brings old and young onto their knees,
throws bodies into the deepest seas.
I see the storms like trains on track
hauling their load back and back
over my head, past my east
past the chalice of the priest.
Dear Longfellow inside your tomb
the clergy within your temple is shot
the shaitan has laid his eggs in men
and blood is flowing again and again,
this angel of death whom you describe
is working hard within this tribe
aware of plans and ridiculous notions
able to cause unreasonable motions.
Dear Longfellow the mistake is clear
even the shaitan follows with fear
and Dante your dear was entirely mistaken,
in his grave he is bruised and shaken.
Dear Longfellow did you know
about the dispensationalists?
When you were young, just a child
about the forest and oh so wild
without troubles even mild,
under the patriarchal tree of Adam,
alas. Darwin didn't know about genetics
nor Einstein have much regard for poetics.
Dear Longfellow, how could you have known
that with Christ their plan was blown?
Sweet it was when we were low
time was gentle and it was slow
and under that patriarchal tree
night understood and it did flee
to catch up with the yellow morn
where wind tossed seeds of corn
huddled under the dirty sea
more than enough for you and me.
That was then and this is now
let's take a look at exactly how
the angel of death pulled up our brow
and tossed the moribund modern beast
out of paradise, into the east
into the night and past the day
between the solved and unsolved fray.
Before I'd grown and got
the miserable amount within this plot,
a body a mind a soul a ransom
a price not unusually handsome,
for then it was me the child
dirty, precocious and especially wild.
Here is a case in point
there is no time to spare,
no water to spell anoint
and too much damage to repair.
The river appeals unto the city
runs amok near fear and pity,
while wind uproots the lesser trees
brings old and young onto their knees,
throws bodies into the deepest seas.
I see the storms like trains on track
hauling their load back and back
over my head, past my east
past the chalice of the priest.
Dear Longfellow inside your tomb
the clergy within your temple is shot
the shaitan has laid his eggs in men
and blood is flowing again and again,
this angel of death whom you describe
is working hard within this tribe
aware of plans and ridiculous notions
able to cause unreasonable motions.
Dear Longfellow the mistake is clear
even the shaitan follows with fear
and Dante your dear was entirely mistaken,
in his grave he is bruised and shaken.
Dear Longfellow did you know
about the dispensationalists?
When you were young, just a child
about the forest and oh so wild
without troubles even mild,
under the patriarchal tree of Adam,
alas. Darwin didn't know about genetics
nor Einstein have much regard for poetics.
Dear Longfellow, how could you have known
that with Christ their plan was blown?
6.3.09
The Ant
by Ogden Nash
The ant has made himself illustrious
Through constant industry industrious.
So what?
Would you be calm and placid
If you were full of formic acid?
How the Ants Got Famous
by Ogden Nash
The ant has made himself illustrious
Through constant industry industrious.
So what?
Would you be calm and placid
If you were full of formic acid?
How the Ants Got Famous
Morgellon's Disease....not heard of it? You will. You will.
DNA transmission capabilities of Agrobacterium have been extensively exploited by biotechnologists as a means for inserting foreign genes into plants. They discovered the gene transfer mechanism between Agrobacterium and plants, and developed methods to alter Agrobacterium into an efficient delivery system for gene engineering in plants. This is done by cloning the desired gene sequence into the transfer DNA (T-DNA) that will be inserted into the host DNA. Under laboratory conditions the T-DNA has also been transferred to human cells, demonstrating the diversity of insertion application. The mechanism through which Agrobacterium inserts materials into the host cell is very similar to mechanisms used by pathogens to insert materials (usually proteins) into human cells.
DNA transmission capabilities of Agrobacterium have been extensively exploited by biotechnologists as a means for inserting foreign genes into plants. They discovered the gene transfer mechanism between Agrobacterium and plants, and developed methods to alter Agrobacterium into an efficient delivery system for gene engineering in plants. This is done by cloning the desired gene sequence into the transfer DNA (T-DNA) that will be inserted into the host DNA. Under laboratory conditions the T-DNA has also been transferred to human cells, demonstrating the diversity of insertion application. The mechanism through which Agrobacterium inserts materials into the host cell is very similar to mechanisms used by pathogens to insert materials (usually proteins) into human cells.
5.3.09
How does she do it? Didi Menendez....man....someone with a dream and the ability to make everything happen and I mean everything. The slickest poetry mag on the internet...it's a joy to go there for a while and look at an actual poetry magazine online and for free by gum. Back when I used to read magazines...it was Vanity Fair for me. Nothing like a Vanity Fair and diet coke out by the defense contractor swimming pool at the compound in the wadi below the King's digs which was later attacked and made into rubble by Al Qaeda. Those were the days yessirree. I had to go to the American Community Services facility and borrow my stack of last year's Vanity Fairs and GQ (secret passion of mine back then) in order to know what was actually going on in the "world".
That's what Mipo means to me....it's a flashback and a flashforward to the way things go. It's so good you can almost smell the shiny pages.
MiPO Mag
Try it...you'll like it. Plan to spend some time there. Go to Oranges and Sardines...so, so slick.
That's what Mipo means to me....it's a flashback and a flashforward to the way things go. It's so good you can almost smell the shiny pages.
MiPO Mag
Try it...you'll like it. Plan to spend some time there. Go to Oranges and Sardines...so, so slick.
4.3.09
The poet Garmarudi
"Research scholar and literary critic Muhammadjon Shakuri Bukhara'i agrees with Baha al-Din Khurramshahi that Garmarudi belongs to the group of poets who create literature rather than merely employ poetic devices to create pieces that perish on the vine. Khurramshahi and Shakuri divide poetic forms into two groups: shi'ri amadeh (poetry that happens) and shi'ri avardeh (poetry that is brought in)."
"Research scholar and literary critic Muhammadjon Shakuri Bukhara'i agrees with Baha al-Din Khurramshahi that Garmarudi belongs to the group of poets who create literature rather than merely employ poetic devices to create pieces that perish on the vine. Khurramshahi and Shakuri divide poetic forms into two groups: shi'ri amadeh (poetry that happens) and shi'ri avardeh (poetry that is brought in)."
1.3.09
February 28
The Flock
-we keep asking the dead
all the wrong questions. -Darla Whitehead, The Long Storm
End too to end tends,
At you no end bends. -Musavi Garmarudi
9:00 a.m.
The tumour showed up
on the way to Oklahoma
about four years ago,
I believe in Jesus
she said to me
we're on our way
and can't take it
haggling over the price
of like new glass end tables
or sins, I don't know-
it's a yard sale,
I believe in Jesus
beet red, I must have turned
to look at the knick-knacks.
Her husband wants to be
a mortician she says,
in Oklahoma I believe in Jesus,
as if belief in lymphoma
makes it right.
Her wig band clearly visible
the sallow blend of skin
she was always brown
always believed in Jesus
though, amen, amen, amen.
5:45 p.m.
at Whitewater Draw
where the Sandhill Cranes
come and go on a yearly basis,
water table drops and leaves
cracky mud and gnats, the flock
mostly on the far banks
unwilling to move in a little
closer so that we might
hear them or feel their
territorial bicker.
Oh, last October there were 15,000
that left in March.
It's only February now
and the sun is setting down,
real fast, it is hopeless.
At the very last moment,
just like Firon when the sea
finally convinced him
one large group circled over
and the pattern
of wings as the sun
lit up the feathers
from underneath,
and the engine
of wings roaring
and the breeze
and yes,
the Good News
just before the Magrhib.
1:30 p.m.
The Jehovah's Witness
comes over about
once a month to bring
us the new Watchtower.
She is a real nice lady afterall.
I keep telling myself,
don't talk back, don't talk back.
http://lordsaveusthemovie.com/
The Flock
-we keep asking the dead
all the wrong questions. -Darla Whitehead, The Long Storm
Here the word ends,
End too to end tends,
At you no end bends. -Musavi Garmarudi
9:00 a.m.
The tumour showed up
on the way to Oklahoma
about four years ago,
I believe in Jesus
she said to me
we're on our way
and can't take it
haggling over the price
of like new glass end tables
or sins, I don't know-
it's a yard sale,
I believe in Jesus
beet red, I must have turned
to look at the knick-knacks.
Her husband wants to be
a mortician she says,
in Oklahoma I believe in Jesus,
as if belief in lymphoma
makes it right.
Her wig band clearly visible
the sallow blend of skin
she was always brown
always believed in Jesus
though, amen, amen, amen.
5:45 p.m.
at Whitewater Draw
where the Sandhill Cranes
come and go on a yearly basis,
water table drops and leaves
cracky mud and gnats, the flock
mostly on the far banks
unwilling to move in a little
closer so that we might
hear them or feel their
territorial bicker.
Oh, last October there were 15,000
that left in March.
It's only February now
and the sun is setting down,
real fast, it is hopeless.
At the very last moment,
just like Firon when the sea
finally convinced him
one large group circled over
and the pattern
of wings as the sun
lit up the feathers
from underneath,
and the engine
of wings roaring
and the breeze
and yes,
the Good News
just before the Magrhib.
1:30 p.m.
The Jehovah's Witness
comes over about
once a month to bring
us the new Watchtower.
She is a real nice lady afterall.
I keep telling myself,
don't talk back, don't talk back.
http://lordsaveusthemovie.com/
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