Ulysses

Where was I? Oh, yes. The Flood. It was way back in late July or early August 2006 that my family found itself washed up on the banks of the mighty Zacatacas creek-bed. The Arizona monsoon had turned this old town into a river. The mighty, mighty Liffy of my imagination. Good ole James Joyce had a way with words didn't he?

On our way back to this melting town where only the pooches know the proper names, we passed through Ramstein Air Force base in Germany. By that time we had already spent a couple days either on boats or in shelters. I had only slept once since our departure nearly four days before. The story View From 16th is a short masterpiece if anyone is truly interested in the short story form or interested at all in the way butterflies manage to migrate.

In Ramstein, I slept once again. Military families had prepared a magnificent meatloaf for the refugees and I cannot commend their kindness well enough here. If meatloaf defines generosity then they truly made us wealthy, themselves poor and I can never eat another meatloaf again. It would ruin my memory of that delicious thing for all eternity.

Not to mention the sailors aboard the USS Trent. Those fellows worked tirelessly day and night to prepare meals for their boatload of refugees. The USS Trent was meant to carry around 600 troops but for us she opened her doors to more than 1800.

There were babies in bunks, women asleep on helipads and I noticed one sailor reaching down to peel a discarded piece of tissue off the bottom of my daughter's shoe as we were filing by in a long line to get something to eat on the mess deck. I said, "You don't have to do that." He replied that he was just so happy to be of service to someone in distress. A fine older man with a paunch. I wish I could honor him by remembering his name but I can't. I can see him as clearly as I see the young African American air force pilot who walked with me onto the tarmac as we got ready to board a C-130 for the second time in our lives. He shook my hand and asked me what the name of my book was so that he could buy it. He apparently was impressed with some of my views about the Israeli aggression and understood that I dreamed of being an author or a poet or some other recognizable person in this world.

It called to my mind the idea of being famous and how famous I already was for merely being a muslim. I had to wonder about our famous friend LeBron whom we had met somewhere between Beirut and Larnaca. I wondered yet again about the chances of touching the Dalai Lama. I wondered if Nelson Felix LeBron would remember that he met me as I remembered his wonderful line, "If you spin the Leatherman you can travel through time." I contemplated the messengers who had contacted me when I was just a child and as well, the man who had arrived ala Jorge Luis Borges in my flat in Riyadh to tell me about his very own death or maybe he meant my own. That guy knew information that no one could possibly know about me. He knew my deepest fears and those that accompany readers throughout so many strange Borgian tales. That silly bar of soap! The Zohar. The Shield in the lotus-eating world. How the sea looked from the deck of the vessel, turbulent and oily green. I know now. I know all kinds of things and to tell the truth, it hasn't eased the suffering but a bit. Hope is all there is.

These days I wonder so much less. It is all very clear and more certain every day. Allah chooses whom he wills. He chooses Nasrallah to lead the fight against the oppressors in this era, he chooses Bush to lead the oppressors to defeat. He chooses some of us to understand a few details and some of us a great deal more. Allah is the Best Knower after all.

and the night we missed the boat at Algeciras the watchman going about serene with his lamp and O that awful deepdown torrent O and the sea the sea crimson sometimes like fire and the glorious sunsets and the figtrees in the Alameda gardens yes and all the queer little streets and pink and blue and yellow houses and the rosegardens and the jessamine and geraniums and cactuses and Gibraltar as a girl where I was a Flower of the mountain yes when I put the rose in my hair like the Andalusian girls used or shall I wear a red yes and how he kissed me under the Moorish wall and I thought well as well him as another and then I asked him with my eyes to ask again yes and then he asked me would I yes to say yes my mountain flower and first I put my arms around him yes and drew him down to me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes. -Joyce

To The Israeli Soldiers Who Shat In My House And Left It

Ah, if only I could be
a dam I'd ask the water
how do you break me
or a rock, you move me
the bottom of the sea
you fill me a cloud
release me, a river
guide me or a storm
begin and end me
a flood. If only
the droughts weren't so long
such frozen lakes
parables of motion
persistent as flies,
thine aid do we seek,
flee then seek again.
The forgotten Jews,
the twelve springs of Abraham,
those Mary tears.
Birth waters preceed every soul.
The lacking planets dry as fists
arranged silently in rows
study it all in dreams,
these illusions are invitations
when moths gather light
among the particles of night.

In Zacatacas the floods
are very old and carry
the mountains away as if
to card seeds from wool,
the vibrations of thunder
asssistants of demise,
incalculable lines of light
choose, they choose
certain walkers and runners
and promise so many
such bitter escapes.
The furthest destinations
where miracles are light weight
passengers as feathery
as seeds, graceful, determined.
They don't look back.
They never return home and know
where they are going -
to that end in another country's grave.
Bint Jubail buries her shops
in mortars and C'naa remembers
the people twice, poor people
wearing plastic slippers,
not well-dressed and familiar with the rain.

Israeli soldier shoots blindfolded, unarmed youth. Inexcusable.



Israeli kid in training to murder Palestinian women and children:



Israeli army commits deplorable acts against EVERYONE, not just these 40+ "bystanders":

The Departure
July 21, 2006

The last day in our apartment in Beirut was harrowing to say the least. My very large extended family were all still trapped in the South and under heavy, heavy bombardment. Al'ham'dullilah for cell phones and Libancell who managed to keep the system working throughout the entire ordeal or we would have not known anything about them. My husband's sister Ghada was with me and my three children in our apartment in Khaldeh. Her husband (a member of the Shia Amal militia) was assigned the duty of traversing the abandoned streets of Beirut in order to bring us whatever we needed. Our neighborhood had mostly escaped the devastation that so many in the southern suburbs of Beirut had thus far endured. Dahyeh was already rubble and just that morning an incredibly large shell had hit Chamoun which was just above us, not more than a half mile away. An evening or two before, my son and I had gone up to the roof of our four story building to watch the tracers and to listen to the sound of the Israeli jets in the night skies of Beirut. We noticed several bright objects floating down in the air above the southern end of the Hariri International tarmac. I thought they were remnants of fireworks. The Lebanese are odd people and manage to maintain a sense of celebration even through the darkest of tribulations. My son and I laughed a bit.

They weren't fireworks however. Not at all. There were twenty or twenty five Israeli mortars, the type that float (with little parachutes) slowly to the ground. They landed inside of their target. Their target was the airport jet fuel depot tanks. As they landed the explosion rocked the entire building and then, it just kept exploding and exploding and exploding. Huge plumes of smoke were visible for thousands of meters into the sky. It was simply unbelievable. My son asked me about death and if he would go to paradise. He was afraid that he wouldn't because he didn't know how to pray to Allah in the proper fashion. He thought he had committed sins in his past that he would be punished for. I asked him what those things might be and I had to laugh at his pure innocence of the sins that people commit that actually get them into Hell. Not turning in one's homework isn't one of them.

The night before we were to begin our journey across Beirut to camp at the house of a friend before we would make the early morning dash to the port in East Beirut, I had finally managed to fall asleep for an hour or two when suddenly at dawn my bedroom lit up like a roman candle. The sound of that shell was enormous, deafening. I shot up in bed and it was the last sleep I had. The next four days I'd not sleep a wink because I had accepted the decision of my husband's mother who wanted us to evacuate. I realized that if I stayed in Lebanon she would have the added burden of worrying about her American daughter-in-law....besides her usual role of Commander in Chief of the rest of the Sweid clan. Although she was under the heaviest bombardment the South has ever known, she managed to keep things in order down there but just barely. Our home there had already been without any electricity for several days and there was no way to extract water from our internal well. She was managing a household full of her son's wives and their children, a total of around 30 people in all. I could tell by the strain in her voice when she said to me, "If I fall apart then everyone will." I knew that I just could not add to her numerous concerns and I'd have to leave. It would give her some peace of mind.

This is the last post from my home in Khaldeh and I am including the comments made by an Israeli soldier. The statistics regarding the support of the Israeli people for this War Crime were taken directly from the Jerusalem Post that day:


This is where this story ends for now. I hope all who get a chance to really read through some of the essays here will understand some of the big picture of Islam now. That it was never ever about Osama. You were just ignorant of it...too busy with the vanities in life to take the time to read what it says and connect the dots to history and the books of other religions. My work here is really all I have now save for a few bits and bobs.

Nevermind....poetry is temporary. This life is only a vanity.

What is more important is that I am now separated from my truly wonderful family in south Lebanon who are only a km or less away from the battles (in Bint Jubail). All of them TRAPPED in a house...thirty or forty of them, mostly children with no escape. Israel occupied our home for two years in 1982 but things were different then. There were still a few REAL believing Jews in their armies. What they now have in Israel as reported in the newspapers today is this:

85% Israelis AGREE WITH THIS ACTION
15% JUST SORT OF DISLIKE IT.

Wow. You've got to wonder what that old Jewish tradition is and what is WAS and what it is supposed to be. I'm relatively sure it isn't to murder and maim people who are simply fighting for their lives, their fellow muslims and truth.

Well, when I am asked about my bitter battles with the Silliman racist blog and with my own good friends who failed to be able to look up a word or two on their own (ZIONISM) by Allah...then this will be documented as well.

85% of all Israelis believe in SERIAL KILLING.

Posted by Meg at 3:17 AM

2 comments:
y360 said...

I'm an Israeli soldier. You obviously posses intellect (and beauty if I may say so) but your hatred is frightning.
I'd like to remind you that we have left Lebanon in 2000, never to return.
We are not willing to have rockets massed against us and fired at our cities.
We are not willing to be attacked and destroyed, have our existence questioned by Iran or Syria or anyone else here.
I'm sorry for the loss of innocent life, it is not our intent. It is clearly the intent of those firing rockets in our cities.
What 85% of the Israeli public say to you is that any Arab organization that attacks our country will pay a dear price.
Maybe in the end you will learn to accept us in the Middle East.
Maybe you will be able to see us as fellow humans who deserve to have our own independent nation state in this region.
If not, suffering is our shared destiny on both sides of the border.

4:12 AM
Lady Jane said...

Like I said, 85% of Israelis believe in the brutal torture of those whose only crime is to cry FOUL. Here, we have an example of one who is not only wearing the uniform of the murderer but telling me I haven't the right to even cry FOUL.

Well, let me tell you this....everyone and everything returns to the creator. You too and now you've gone on record as agreeing with war crimes.

Good luck on Judgement Day. You'll need it.

I refer you to Sura 109 which will inform you of my feelings. Go your way and I go mine. You've got your beliefs and I've got mine and clearly, they are not the same. I'm willing to be accountable for my thoughts and accusals and you should be too.

And remember pal, no one touched you especially me. You just feel guilty. I know how it is...I'd feel pretty bad too if I was backing a holocaust.

BTW, when they eradicated 6 million Jews in that holocaust, they basically got rid of the best ones leaving few behind who actually follow the Torah. I'd wager you don't follow it nor have you read it. That much I'm certain of and am also certain that the Torah does not condone disproportionate violence. Eye for an eye....remember that one?

We all know it.

Peace on those that deserve it.

I have to wonder where that guy is now?

I know where I am. I remain with the success and the successful.

The Israeli Aggression, July 16, 2006
Hezbollah Victory, July 16, 2008

photo of Bint Jubail in South Lebanon

Dear One and All:

Well redacted is already registered with the US State Department today. My friend, well, haha my friend is the warden for the south and she has no news about evactuations. Although I do not want to go out I guess I have to if the opportunity presents itself...to get Lyn's kids out (maybe) and my own.

(Redacted) is happy now that I have agreed to go so that much is good. If I die tonight then at least he would have won his last battle. :)

Thank you for doing this for us...no one has a sister like you :)

Right now they are threatening all the villages in the south. No roads to leave on so I guess they think they want people to walk out in the dead of night while they shoot them in the back. Just like they did to the Palestinians when they were stealing Palestine. They destroyed and exiled over 400 villages to create their "utopia". You know, the literal meaning of Zion is Utopia. Wow.

I think they have flown a team in to 'work' on the evacuation of over 25,000 citizens trapped here...many of them actually Lebanese US citizens so does that tell you anything about the rush they are in to do this? Oh sure, there are a few crackers like me but not 25,000. :) So don't hold your breath and I've been in line with Lebanese at the bank and know that I'll probably wait until the closing credits to hop aboard the "air bridge" they are supposedly building. Meanwhile, the Aussies and French and Italians ALREADY EVACUATED. Oh funny isn't it?

I'm laughing sort of.

Redacted's sister finally took me up on the offer and now she is with me with her two daughters. The neighborhoods around her are pretty much leveled. The Ouzai was hit this afternoon and on the tellie here they were dragging small children out of the debris. So the body count is very inaccurate right now.

This is another Jenin lie in the making you know. Israel twisting all the rhetoric and trying to brainwash people into believing they are the good guys here.

Go to hell all of them and all who support their vile deeds against humanity. Send this letter to everyone and let them send it on and on and on.

All my love

Salaam wa alaikum and hope to write to you again in the a.m.

Addendum: Those were bleak moments for sure. The road to victory is arduous you know. As it turned out, the Israelis basically bombed their way in and destroyed their own roads to retreat. Literally, painted themselves into a corner.

Yesterday, Hezbollah claimed the final defeat of the Zionist Oppressors in the most important prisoner swap in written history.

"When we freed most Lebanese prisoners in 2004, we told the Israelis that you will regret keeping Kontar and today they are regretting it."

"Had their fates been revealed in a tactical error, the negotiations would have taken a different course," he said.

Nasrallah said that main factor that had helped Hizbullah achieve the prisoner swap was the "victory of 2006 and the effects that if left on Israel," referring to the 34-day conflict with Israel in July-August 2006.

"Had we lost the war, Samir and his comrades would not have returned to us," he said, in reference to Samir Kontar, who along with four Hizbullah fighters was freed as part of the swap.


http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=94210

Well...I was whining alot during the aggression you know. Pitiful creature but I wasn't whining about the things people usually whine about "over here". I was whining about INJUSTICE. Real injustice not the fake kind that makes people say stupid things that lead me to believe that the average American human being thinks that the resources of other people belong to them! Or the notion that they support the idea that Iran doesn't have the right to produce their own nuclear fuel to combat not only global climate change but the upcoming shortages of fuel especially to developing nations. Developing nations which are ideologically "beholden" to foreign powers.

America doesn't control the world and neither does Israel. Neither does Hezbollah for that matter.

Allah has power over all things, large and small. All these victories belong to Allah and they are indeed, Divine and yes....George Bush WAS selected by Allah himself to lead a false nation into ruin and hopefully one day, redemption.

Is America a Nation of Whiners?

War, July 15, 2006
Beirut, Lebanon
Three days into the Aggression:

Well, war is weird. Second time around is even more weird. You somehow think you never will do "that again" but there you go again. Bound to Happen is a poem about exactly that sort of thing and it can be found on this blog. Shadenfreude in the City is also here on this blog as are many of the all time greatest hits of my little war zone.

I was up at the store a little while ago, listening as I walked with my great big beautiful speckled German pointer dog, to Joni Mitchell's California on my wonderful little iPod that is quite useful to filter out the sounds of pounding Israeli missiles. And let's get this straight, Israel doesn't give a rat's arse about those two POWs we have. As is their usual, they were looking for an opportunity and baiting all the time. Over the past several months they have killed innocent people in the south who were out in their fields culling tobacco and recently abducted a Lebanese citizen. This has been going on for an ever you know (besides the CONSTANT violations of our airspace) but because you don't see pictures of Lebanese children laying in nicely appointed bomb shelters (like the ones you are seeing hopefully on CNN depicting the poor Israelis who are just "quaking" in their little boots) YOU just don't pay attention! The reason you don't see that is because the Lebanese are too poor to build bomb shelters. Their country is literally too poor to clean up its trash properly. Children here are often barefoot and hungry. While Israeli girls and boys sleep.

You people just don't care. That is obvious. America is one sad place if you ask me. New Orleans...to think I wanted to DONATE money to that disaster. And exactly what has New Orleans done for us over here?***

Anyway, just rambling and thinking I best roll down the aluminum covers on the windows so they don't shatter. They've been pummelling the hell out of us this afternoon. Everything is on fire and the whole city smells as if it were a burnt match. So I went up to the store and saw this man that sells us "power" in the form of 10 amps/$50/month. It was so nice to have his services a few weeks back when the fourth motor I've had in a year bit the dust. I was SO relieved. He was just standing there at the little dekhena (tienda en espanol) and leaning on something, looking very Bogart like.

After he left, the shop keeper looked at me with her weary old eyes and said "50!" And I said, "Yes, and it will 'go up'" (of course I used the word 'itla' which is 'go up' instead of inflation since I don't know the word for inflation or the word for the black markets of war).

I just wanted to keep this as a note to remind myself to write his story and of listening to California....all the streets are filled with strangers....la dee da dee da...boom boom boom.

Israel. Horrible people who live there, work there and sleep there all nervous about the things they've done to others.

I hardly blame them.

***I really regretted that comment about the victims of Katrina. After having lived in the United States of America for almost two years now, I realize that those people in Louisiana are as much victims of the "West" and "Israel" as are the muslims who live "over there". But I also know for a fact that Americans have no real idea how suffering really works. This week the buzz is all about a Nation of Whiners and here is the blog called The Nation of Whiners Debating Society.




Former US Ambassador on effect of Hezbollah's Divine Victory against Israel.



Want to get Rich? Here is my advice and it comes from a very high place where advice is Golden.

Economy getting you down? No it isn't! This is the Great American Buyback. Form collectives in your towns and cities. BUY STOCK NOW. This is the time in which Civilization turns a complete 180 degrees and allows the Oppressed to get together and demand their rights back from their rich oppressors. Yup.

Are you poor and out of work? Save a dollar and get with someone else who has saved a dollar. Buy ONE stock. Sell that stock and buy another and another. Whole towns need to do this. Their city councils need to put their resources together.

Want to get out of debt quick? Well..forget it. But you can get out of this hole by retrieving what was stolen from you and preventing those who stole from you from doing it again.

My best advice and although I do not gamble in the stock market, it is the case that ownership of land, finite resources and the means of production is all very halal. Very halal indeed.

Blog of Note posted from Bint Jubeil, South Lebanon.

http://jnoubiyeh.blogspot.com/

It is the two year anniversary of the beginning of the Israeli Agression against the people of South Lebanon. Time flies on the way to victory you know. Time just flies.

On 12 September, former defense minister Moshe Arens spoke of "the defeat of Israel" in calling for a state committee of inquiry. He said that Israel had lost "to a very small group of people, 5000 Hezbollah fighters, which should have been no match at all for the IDF". Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah

Qul hajar o hadeeda!

Yep. Everything fossilizes and deteriorates into iron compounds eventually. And yes, the Quran says so.

"Qul hajar o hadeeda" means literally: Become stones or iron. It was stated in the Sura known as Israel and in reference to the fact that Allah will resurrect folks no matter how long they've been in the ground i.e. even if they are merely fossilized carbon atoms or those which have finally turned into iron compounds.

A great article about the role of iron in carbon dating:

http://www.tms.org/pubs/journals/JOM...Cook-0305.html

The present paper deals with an issue of great interest to materials scientists and archeologists—the dating of iron-based materials that contain carbon. The phrase “iron-based materials” is used to cover the three common groups of irons and steels: wrought irons, which are typically low carbon (e.g., less than about 0.05% carbon), steels (up to 2.1% carbon), and cast irons (over 2.1% carbon). In addition, however, the corrosion products or rust from these materials is included since they can also be used for dating in some cases. For the case of iron-based materials, the time span of interest is from the start of the Iron Age in the regions of interest (about 2000 B.C. or earlier) to several hundred years ago. The most appropriate method for this time span and group of materials is 14C dating. It is key to point out that the usefulness of the method of dating carbon in iron-based materials relies on the source of the carbon found in the materials.

A second interesting area concerns the use of rust for dating. If rust can be dated reliably, it opens up a large number of possibilities for dating iron artifacts. Investigators will not need to cut into valuable artifacts for clean metal, but will be able to use surface corrosion products. This potentially opens the way for dating precious samples such as the iron plate found in the Great Pyramid at Gizeh,10,11 now at the British Museum. It may also be possible to date completely rusted artifacts, commonly found in waterlogged early Iron-Age sites in Europe and in underwater shipwrecks. Previous investigators had been careful to remove rust from iron prior to dating for fear that it adds contamination. A key issue though, is whether any of the original carbon remains within the matrix of rust and other corrosion products. If not, rust and similar materials are clearly of no interest for radiocarbon dating and should probably be removed since, at best, they can do no good. However, if original carbon is present, the corrosion products themselves may be appropriate targets for dating, subject to solving the potential contamination problems.

New findings solve human origins mystery
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-10/plos-nfs100907.php

The Expansion

In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful.

Have We not expanded for you your breast, And taken off from you your burden Which pressed heavily upon your back, And exalted for you your self esteem?Surely with difficulty is ease. With difficulty is surely ease.So when you are free, nominate. And make your Lord your exclusive object. Sura 94, The Glorious Quran

Los Angeles, California – An extraordinary advance in human origins research reveals evidence of the emergence of the upright human body plan over 15 million years earlier than most experts have believed. More dramatically, the study confirms preliminary evidence that many early hominoid apes were most likely upright bipedal walkers sharing the basic body form of modern humans. On October 10th, online, open-access journal PLoS ONE will publish the report based on research from Harvard University’s Museum of Comparative Zoology and from the Cedars Sinai Institute for Spinal Disorders that connects several recent fossil discoveries to older fossils finds that have eluded adequate explanation in the past.

Recent advances in the field of homeotic genetics together with a series of discoveries of hominoid fossils vertebrae now strongly suggest that a specific genetic change that generated the upright bipedal human body form may soon be identified. The various upright “hominiform” hominoids appear to share this morphogenetic innovation with modern humans. Homeotics concerns the embryological assembly program for midline repeating structures such as the human vertebral column and the insect body segments.

The report analyses changes in homeotic embryological assembly of the spine in more than 200 mammalian species across a 250 million year time scale. It identifies a series of modular changes in genetic assembly program that have taken place at the origin point of several major groups of mammals including the newly designated ‘hominiform’ hominoids that share the modern human body plan.

The critical event involves a dramatic embryological change unique to the human lineage that was not previously understood because the unusual human condition was viewed as “normal.”

“From an embryological point of view, what took place is literally breathtaking,” says Dr. Aaron Filler, a Harvard trained evolutionary biologist and a medical director at Cedars Sinai Medical Center’s Institute for Spinal Disorders. Dr. Filler is an expert in spinal biology and the author of three books about the spine – “Axial Character Seriation in Mammals” (BrownWalker 2007), “The Upright Ape” (New Page Books 2007), and “Do You Really Need Back Surgery” (Oxford University Press 2007).

In most vertebrates (including most mammals), he explains, the dividing plane between the front (ventral) part of the body and the back (dorsal) part is a “horizontal septum” that runs in front of the spinal canal. This is a fundamental aspect of animal architecture. A bizarre birth defect in what may have been the first direct human ancestor led to the “transposition” of the septum to a position behind the spinal cord in the lumbar region. Oddly enough, this configuration is more typical of invertebrates.

The mechanical effect of the transposition was to make horizontal or quadrupedal stance inefficient. “Any mammal with this set of changes would only be comfortable standing upright. I would envision this malformed young hominiform – the first true ancestral human – as standing upright from a young age while its siblings walked around on all fours.”

The earliest example of the transformed hominiform type of lumbar spine is found in Morotopithecus bishopi an extinct hominoid species that lived in Uganda more than 21 million years ago. “From a number of points of view,” Filler says, “humanity can be redefined as having its origin with Morotopithecus. This greatly demotes the importance of the bipedalism of Australopithecus species such as Lucy (Australopithecus afarensis) since we now know of four upright bipedal species that precede her, found from various time periods on out to Morotopithecus in the Early Miocene.”

Time to Donate to Smile Train. Walter Cronkite video:



TO DONATE:

http://www.smiletrain.org/site/PageServer?pagename=donate_splash

Smile Train co founder in Afghanistan. Smile Train is not affiliated with any religious organization and treats children of all races, religious affiliations and gender around the world.

Evolution in the Quran



The Expansion


In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful.Have We not expanded for you your breast, And taken off from you your burden,Which pressed heavily upon your back,And exalted for you your esteem?Surely with difficulty is ease. With difficulty is surely ease.So when you are free, nominate.And make your Lord your exclusive object.

Fetal Circulation/Expansion of Lung Capacity as it relates to Establishing Oxygen exchange in the Newborn

"Since oxygen is supplied by the mother, the fetus does not use lungs to breathe. Only a small amount of blood flows to the fetus's lungs. After birth, blood must flow to the baby's lungs. The mother's liver removes waste products for the fetus before birth; therefore, less blood flows through the fetus's liver. Blood flows around the fetus's lungs and liver by going through an opening in the heart and through two extra blood vessels. This opening and the extra blood vessels normally close after birth."



http://www.uprightape.net/Homeotic_Evolution.pdf

(1)–quantitative changes of primary segmental identity
pattern that appeared at the origin of the tetrapods ;

(2)–frame shift relation of costal and vertebral identity which diversifies
from the time of amniote origins;

(3)–duplication, mirroring, splitting and diversification of the neomorphic laminar process
first commencing at the dawn of mammals;

(4)–emergence of homologically variable lumbar lateral processes upon
commencement of the radiation of therian mammals and ;

(5)–inflexions and transpositions of the relative position of the
horizontal septum of the body and the neuraxis at the emergence of various orders of therian mammals. Convergent functional changes under homeotic control include laminar articular engagement with septo-neural transposition and ventrally arrayed lumbar transverse process support systems.

All About My Pious

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 examples and warned through items full of warnings. After the heavenly messengers , only man can convey message from Allah. - Emir Ali ibn Abi Taleb, Commander of the Faithful, Lion of Allah, May Allah be pleased with his Ahl Bayt.

If a prayer could bring
you back to me, it
would be that one
you know, yes.
The empty cups for tea,
at least some sugar
for the flies,
the ones familiar
with it all.
Let's go back
in the shade,
to the peasants
who turn pots of wheat,
try something on.
What kind of novelty
is this ornery tale?

Blessed be the wars.

Your Amo Sol would mix
tree sap to catch
a thousand birds, Jafar
would break his arm

for you, as would
several believing men.

Amti Lena would sell
all of her dishes
and your grandmother
if she knew
would tear her heart
out, split and lay it
inside your high-heeled shoes.

How to Exchange Lies With Falsehoods
...the law of non contradiction (Aristotlean dynamics)

http://jollyblogger.typepad.com/jollyblogger/2005/01/jesus_and_the_l.html?cid=121373642#comment-121373642

This fellow known as the Jolly Blogger asks the important question, Does Allah violate his own Laws?

Well of course not.

But human beings are busy at work falsifying September 11th in elementary schools by fashioning a "version" of it after a well known model for indoctrination in New Jersey schools for a curriculum on the Holocaust. Hmm.

http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1214973442150410.xml&coll=1

The ultimate report will be modeled off New Jersey's successful Holocaust curriculum*, which is not specifically mandated by the state but has provided background and lesson plans for teachers.

*Heh, and not specifically true either! The six million theory was first mentioned before WWII was even half over in an article in the Reader's Digest which was written by a Jewish script writer.

If only the Jolly Blogger knew what muslims know and that is, Allah says Be! and it is and Allah does what he pleases:

[3.129] And whatever is in the heavens and whatever is in the earth is Allah's; He forgives whom He pleases and chastises whom He pleases; and Allah is Forgiving, Merciful.

It is literally part of the law and perhaps the part of the law that many people like the least. Why do they not like it?

Because they like the lie better.

You know sister, I just cannot bring myself to take down that mighty, mighty picture of the Passiflora Incarnata. It is mesmerizing me, dammit.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passion_flower

Allahu'ahkbar. Allah is the Mighty, the Wise.

First we take Manhattan,
Then we take Berlin.




A senior Iranian commander says the country is digging some '320,000 graves' in its bordering provinces for future slain invaders.


Abd el-Hadi Fights a Superpower

In his life
he neither wrote nor read.
In his life he
didn't cut down a single tree,
didn't slit the throat
of a single calf.
In his life he did not speak
of the New York Times
behind its back,
didn't raise
his voice to a soul
except in his saying:
"Come in, please,
by God you can't refuse."

Nevertheless -
his case is hopeless,
his situation
desperate.
His God-given rights are a grain of salt
tossed into the sea.

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury:
about his enemies
my client knows not a thing
and I can assure you
were he to encounter
the entire crew
of the aircraft carrier Enterprise,
he'd serve them eggs
sunny-side up,
and labneh
fresh from the bag.

-Taha Mohamed Ali, So What

On the Mark
..or On the incredible belligerency of the Hebrew genetic line i.e. House of David (Whose real name was Dawood and no, Jesus didn't have friends named Jim (James). May Allah be pleased with his servants.

Interesting article about "Priesthood" from the evidences in Taurat (Torah/Old Testament) and seemingly, exercised by The Church of the Latter Day Saints (Mormons).

http://www.greatlakesrestorationbranches.org/newpage36.htm

Within that text is, as I have often cited, NOVA transcripts about the consistency of gene markers on the Y chromosome. The Hebrews carried it up until the time of Jesus (Isa, May Allah be pleased with him) who was created without any sperm whatsoever and hence, the gene marker was not to be found among the high priests of the Hebrew orders. This same genetic marker was carried from the beginning (Adam, pbuh) to the middle (Ibrahim, pbuh) where it dissected into two distinct family groups. The first group are those who descend from Ibrahim's first born son Ismael, pbuh (from Sarah's maidservant Hagar, pbut) and the Hebrew line consisting of those descended from Isaq and Yaqoob (pbut, Jacob and Isaac) who were products of the uterus of Sarah, pbuh. Therefore, when Isa left this situation (material world) for other locales, the Hebrew line of prophethood was entirely cut off. This is obvious as there is absolutely no claim, even by the modern day Jews that any other prophet after Isa exists noting of course that they refused the prophethood of Mohamed (May Allah bless the seal of the prophets) as did the Christian sects. The twelve apostles were not blood relatives in the sense of sharing a common father with Isa as Isa had no sperm donor, pbuh:

[3.59] Surely the likeness of Isa is with Allah as the likeness of Adam; He created him from dust, then said to him, Be, and he was. -Family of Imran in The Glorious Quran

It is unclear what or who the apostles actually were and if any of them were designated as special teachers/priests entrusted with what is known as the Injeel:

[57.27] Then We made Our apostles to follow in their footsteps, and We sent Isa son of Marium afterwards, and We gave him the Injeel, and We put in the hearts of those who followed him kindness and mercy; and (as for) monkery*, they innovated it-- We did not prescribe it to them-- only to seek Allah's pleasure, but they did not observe it with its due observance; so We gave to those of them who believed their reward, and most of them are transgressors. - Iron in The Glorious Quran

NOVA on male genetic chromosome markers:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/transcripts/2706israel.html

Inside every human cell are 23 pairs of chromosomes, made up of DNA. One half of
each pair comes from the mother, the other half from the father. One of those
pairs determines a person's sex. Women generally have a pair of similar
chromosomes called XX, men have XY. If the father contributes his X to the
offspring, it will be a girl. If he contributes his Y, it'll be a boy. It's the
Y chromosome that determines maleness. And the Y doesn't exchange much genetic
material with its partner X, so a father passes his Y chromosome on to his son
virtually unchanged.

The Quran on these same genetic markers which, if Allah chose he could have made "obvious" but instead, Allah conceals this (for various reasons) but it is the case that you can know these people by their "speech". Like Nasrallah for instance, who, everyone knows...never LIES. Never. Even the modern Israeli cabinet members admit and know this is an absolute fact.

[47.30] And if We please We would have made you know them so that you would certainly have recognized them by their marks and most certainly you can recognize them by the intent of (their) speech; and Allah knows your deeds. -Mohamed in The Glorious Quran.

*Monkery is described as a priesthood in which monastic celibacy differentiates one type of person (common) from the higher order (priests). It is called in Islam, "innovation".

San Juan, the Conspicuous

When someone says Life!
I cringe and creep behind
the curtains once more.
What do they know afterall?

Each of these eyes
is a blind circuit,
each cherished rose
blends into it again.
Where did the wind
come from this time?
If only this one didn't
try to go missing,
if only this one
didn't pretend to be dead.


*A little about San Juan Day

Taliban Towers Resort

This is unbelievable.

The Power of Prayer and the Multi-tasking of the Magnificent



I turned on the tv this morning and found my favorite tv doctor discussing the "Power of Prayer". I thought it delightful as I have just had several prayers answered and each one of them was answered appropriately. Perhaps not the way I wanted them answered but reflecting on what those prayers actually were leads me to know that they were answered.



Dr. Sanjay Gupta as he is known, CNN's "On Call" chief resident really does reflect the face of American medicine today. Down here in the southwest, I'd guess that at least one out of three doctors is either foreign born or muslim or both. Of course, Sanjay Gupta is the dream boy of the illusory American media i.e. just "foreign enough" to be believable and just "white enough" to not threaten all the usual biases that are so obvious and so unbelievably 'acceptable' in many conversational circles of which I've been witness to. I hear all sorts of things out of the mouths of white people. All the more shocking because some of the deeply prejudiced things that people utter come from the mouths of educated professionals. But anyway, Sanjay is a dream boy doctor.



His little bit about the power of prayer was interesting. The poll that he presented showed that 3/4 of all Americans pray once a week. Not bad I'd say but honestly, once a week? Another large group "meditates" once a week...whatever that means.



First, how do people pray if they don't even know what a real prayer situation is made out of?

Obviously, if people think that once a week is good enough, well...there you go. They are way short of actually maintaining a psychological connection to their prayers. Most would not remember what they ate for breakfast let alone what it was they prayed for a whole week before.

During the little sweet and innocuous vignette called the Power of Prayer, Dr. Gupta shows a little film strip that shows several types of people praying and meditating. The meditating part really was only some isometric gym exercises on exercise mats. Hardly constitutes prayer where I come from. The very last image however was a group of Shia muslims. They were the only group who actually looked like they knew what they were doing. Dressed right, everyone in unison. And I assure you, we do it a little more often than once a week. Three times a day actually and in that, there are five total cycles of prayer involved. Each cycle is complete and entails the washing of body parts prior to the prayer, the call to the prayer which is basically a public service announcement that it is time to drop what one is doing and pray in a timely fashion and finally there is the intention to pray the exact prayer that is being offered i.e. fajr, dhur, asr, magrhib or isha.

Then one sets about to actually "Pray".

I won't go into the details of that because it wouldn't mean much to non muslims.

My point is only this, in order to benefit from praying, a person has to be consistent in offering prayers. That way and only in that way can a person actually remember what it is they prayed for and know in what fashion the prayer was answered. The key to prayer in that sense is that a person prays for the correct thing. Then, the answer to the prayer is really quite easy to perceive. Praying for the wrong thing...well.....it just doesn't work.

And why doesn't it work?

Because, it doesn't fit into the natural law of the Creator who created everything and legislated about it's operation and published a highly recognized book of religious law called The Glorious Quran. Praying for that which is prohibited would self-violate the law of Allah and everyone should know the obvious i.e. that Allah does not violate his own creed.

And how might a person understand the idea that Allah answers all these squillions and squillions of prayers each and every day? Well, Allah doesn't have to answer because he created the system and the system works. It simply functions of its own accord.

The problem with that notion in the minds of the wicked and unsuccessful people of course is that they assume that Allah isn't able to do such multi-tasking.

Wrong. Allah is the greatest multi-tasker because the job gets done without any effort whatsoever. It is elegant, it is true. It is so, so elegant that it fills my heart with love and joy for Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful and the Best of All Planners.

Do you not know that Allah knows what is in the heaven and the earth? Surely this is in a book; surely this is easy to Allah. -The proof called The Pilgrimage from the Glorious Quran.

A generic guide to Islamic Monotheistic Prayer:

http://www.howmuslimspray.com/

"That's a nice portion" on the koshometer. Heh.

Kemper Marley, Budweisser and John McCain

In 1948 fifty two employees of Kemper Marley's Arizona liquor monopoly, UNITED LIQUOR, went to prison on federal liquor violations, including Jim Hensley, the father-in-law of Senator John McCain. Hensley was the General Manager of UNITED LIQUOR. On the basis of this, some people might feel UNITED LIQUOR could be described as organized crime. The slick attorney who kept Marley out of this trial and out of prison and sent McCain's father-in-law to prison in his place was William Rendquist ----currently the Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court!


It was the judgement of this court that Jim Hensley would be prohibited from working in the liquor industry from then on. Of course such judgments meant nothing to Marley. After Jim Hensley got out of prison, Marley arranged a BUDWIESSER distributorship for Hensley which is now in the hands of Senator John McCain and reported to be worth $200 million.

The Don Bolles Murder in the era of John McCain's rise to power

http://jeff.scott.tripod.com/donbolles.html

Don Bolles was an investigative reporter for the Arizona Republic. He knew just about everything their was to know about the mob in Phoenix. During his career as a reporter he crossed many corrupt officials and gangsters. The one that would end his life was Kemper Marley. Don Bolles reporting exposed Kemper Marley's connection with the mob, forcing him to resign as a member of the State Board Racing Commission. As a result of this, Marley had Bolles killed. Here is an excerpt from C.D. Stelzer's Urban Guerilla Journal which was very thorough about the entire affair. You can look at the whole article on Don Bolles through his website below.
"Beginning in 1946, Licavoli, the Arizona mob boss, operated an illegal gambling wire service with Kemper Marley Sr., the wealthiest liquor distributor in the state. Later, Marley's United Liquor Co. supplied Emprise dog tracks with 10 percent of their alcoholic beverages. During the 1974 Arizona gubernatorial race, Marley was the biggest contributor to Gov. Raul Castro's campaign. After the election, the Castro administration appointed Marley to the state racing commission, but he was forced to resign because of adverse publicity from stories written by Bolles. The Phoenix police theorized that Marley wanting revenge enlisted the help of local contractor Max Dunlap. Dunlap then allegedly hired Adamson to carry out the bombing. Adamson claimed that plumber James Robison assisted him."

(*Don Bolles aunt Deedee was my Aunt Marian's next door neighbor and hence, I've never forgotten that miserable tale of woe.)



Songbird McCain, the rogue killer of his own pals

http://www.wclt.com/news/articledetail.cfm?articleid=23261

McCain's adulterous affair with Hemsley Mafia Debutante Cindy who later turned to stealing prescription medications from underpriveledged children:

When McCain returned to the United States in 1973 after more than five years as a prisoner of war, he found his wife was a different person. Carol McCain, once a model, had been badly injured in a car wreck in 1969. The accident "left her 4 inches shorter and on crutches, and she gained a good deal of weight." Despite her injures, she had refused to allow her POW husband to be notified about her condition, fearing that such news would not be good for him while he was being held prisoner.

But, just a couple years later, McCain, while pondering a future in politics, met Cindy Hensley, an attractive 25-year-old woman from a very wealthy politically-connected Arizona family. While still married to Carol, McCain began an adulterous relationship with Cindy. He married Cindy in May 1980 -- just a month after dumping his crippled wife and securing a divorce.

The famous imbroglio of Liars of a Feather who flock together. The notorious Duke Tully - McCain affair. Duke Tully was publisher of the Arizona Republic (from the same link as the above)

Tully appeared to have a lot in common with his close friend, former Navy combat pilot and war hero McCain. Tully boasted of his 100 missions over Vietnam, retiring from the Air Force as a lieutenant-colonel. Tully's military service, according to Tully, included air combat in Korea, where he once was forced to crash land his P-51 Mustang fighter and spent time in a hospital as a result--so he said. His smashed front teeth were replaced with stainless steel, he also said.
Tully, just like his friend McCain, claimed he had received the Purple Heart, Distinguished Flying Cross and the Vietnam Cross of Gallantry.

Tully painstaking groomed McCain for public office. He introduced him to the influential and gave him guest column space in The Arizona Republic. He manipulated endless favorable references from the paper's other columnists. McCain, in turn, honored Tully by asking him to be godfather of one of his children

However, the day after Christmas 1985, it was revealed in the Chicago Tribune, that McCain's close friend Duke Tully had "an imagination as big as his ego."

Tully had never even been in the military.

The cold case:

http://crimemagazine.com/bobcrane.htm

And certainly We sent Nuh to his people, so he remained among them a thousand years save fifty years. And the deluge overtook them, while they were unjust.

The Flood

How is it one waits
in the womb sublime
for birth, a mere
forty weeks time,
and so long to die?
Is it really so?
Or is it that the earth
waits with me and you
for either one, of the two
through falls and springs,
past temples and kings,
the atoms and strings.
Such strong forces
and weak forces,
the catastrophes of horses,
treaties and divorces?

These upswept mountains
and overswept seas,
we slept also through these.
The sands that were rocks,
eggs became flocks
and the dust in the clocks,
among these, our sweetest talks

and our boldest lies
take measure of those kinds of cries.
The poet earns a living
from such conscientious giving,
as if to say
we were waiting just for that
one to come,
the last poem,
the final diagram.
Or, the steady beat of the oldest drum.

What happens at the door
between its opening and closing,
a particular history
full of dystrophy,
that thing called decadence,
a bit of tungsten evidence,
rising shining and parting,
forever moments starting.
Without a past or prediction
or any map in this local jurisdiction.
How can anyone go on!
Who decides which blip
charts this lonesome trip
called life, this one,
this only one and you're gone?

A shadow never stays long,
its death never wrong
nor its life very strong,
the short, the long,
the phantom song.
At noon, under the feet,
or near night and so fleet.

Poor wise old shadow,
mark this grave, this body.
You are a wise old shadow,
a terrible reflection
escaping detection
changing direction,
a slight thin projection.

Do you see me too?

Can you write a memory,
weather a storm?
Will you wake up
when I do not?
Or are you just a dream
of a thing designed
a breath of time?
Were you an afterthought?
Which apparition do you look like?
Could you be just the sketch?
An anomaly of light?

A shadow only proves
one thing as it moves,
I am here and tremendously small,
as thin as a ghost
full of vapoury boasts,
the arrogant din
of land-locked men
made of red-brown clay
who are born and die
day to day.
Our shadows explain in words
as they force us to exhume
joy and doom,
the perpetual flux,
skies filled with ducks
and freeways with trucks,
does and bucks,
all of the crux
of an abacas,
the tractatus mathematicus.

The Bull of Heaven dies too.
His shadow leaves.
His parable lives on.
The children in Ceylon
want pencils to draw
everything they saw.
They know as well as us.

Cleaning up the streets of Iraq. Very unusual video.



Time is soon...very, very soon.

The Chargers from The Glorious Quran:

I swear by the runners breathing pantingly,
Then those that produce fire striking,
Then those that make raids at morn,
Then thereby raise dust,
Then rush thereby upon an assembly:
Most surely man is ungrateful to his Lord.
And most surely he is a witness of that.
And most surely he is tenacious in the love of wealth.
Does he not then know when what is in the graves is raised,
And what is in the breasts is made.apparent?
Most surely their Lord that day shall be fully aware of them.

The Sandstorm as Divine Victory against the US over a quarter century ago:

Thousands of religious hardliners chanting "Death to America" gathered in Iran's central desert on Tuesday to celebrate a failed US hostage rescue mission 26 years ago.

The anniversary of the US military debacle came amid a mounting war of words with Washington, reported to be mulling the use of force to rein in the Islamic republic's disputed nuclear programme.

Iranian officials used the occasion to tell US leaders that they risked yet more "divine intervention" if they dared to again set foot on Iranian soil.

...many people do not know that episode in US history...it isn't a story oft repeated in the press here in the "so called" free world.

This years anniversary of the Divine Intervention:

http://www.denverpost.com/war/ci_9042287

"Hundreds at the ceremony kneeled in the midday heat, remembering the day 28 years ago when U.S. helicopters on the hostage rescue mission were caught in a vicious sandstorm that led to the collision. Iranian clerical leaders have credited divine intervention for the incident.

"The sandstorm was God's miracle that protected the revolutionary Iran at that time from a foreign attack it was not militarily capable of dealing with," said Abdolrahim Rahimi, a cultural official in Tabas.

He said the gathering thanked God for "nullifying the conspiracy of the U.S. against the newly established Islamic republic." "

Ahmadinijad, "The nuclear bomb (America's) did not prevent the US from failing in Iraq." Therefore, why on earth would Iran fall prey to the idea that nuclear bombs are where national victories emanate? ALL victories are from Allah and as well, all defeats are from Allah too.



"Those who wait for some misfortune to befall you, then if you have a victory from Allah they say: Were we not with you? And if there is a chance for the unbelievers, they say: Did we not acquire the mastery over you and defend you from the believers? So Allah shall Judge between you on the day of resurrection, and Allah will by no means give the unbelievers a way against the believers." Imran, The Glorious Quran

"Dios no tienen fronteras"



Minute Man Militia "Ear of the Pollo" starring Tata and Flor

This Particular Sea

There are so many lights
in the windows, the stars,
so many openings and silence
reveals the movement of night
creatures in the dust
through the leaves
what are they and where?
There are so many secrets
in these places of mine
so many left over pieces
to talk about
and I do.
The dog doesn't really care
but he stays until I am done.
He stays a bit longer
to examine something
in the night, some noise.
A rustle in the bushes -
a traitor it seems
is on the loose again.
This particular sea
is mighty, it is deep.
There is so much drowning there,
so many broken bones.

...somehow related to ....

The Divers, the Drowned, the Delivered

We landed on the beach in Bahia Kino
with our best memories and war stories,
monitoring time by watching shadows.

Simplicity is complex nowdays, so many gadgets.

There was a fire ring for instance,
and burning lanterns but no candles.
And diving birds,
there were three kinds and their bones.

An old friend caught trigger and hoped for flounder.

After he had too much to drink
he resembled a demon but his hands trembled.
Near the fire at night his eyes glistened.

Don's wife likes Miami, she drinks there.

In the morning there was contrition
and there were flies to spread contagion
by thieving sugar and contempt, a diligent crew.

How many times have I seen this before?

Insects and yeasts take people apart
one piece at a time. We collect wood
to burn, it holds us together as it consumes.

Tayammum, sand ablutions are called Tayammum.

At dawn the sea leaves her glass behind,
ceramic prisons free for the taking.
I couldn't get enough, the sea is so generous.

I was questioned thoroughly,
my fingerprints in sand are still there.

Don left so early Sunday, he left cans
and rope, he left precious amounts
of bile in shade trees, he left our rake unattended.

We come from a family of campers,
we are honor bound.

Ours tell quiet stories of blindness all the time,
we frequent several places, the animals know
when we are there. Lizards aren't so cautious.

Aztec traders brought handmade
trinkets on the last day.

Grandfather, father and two boys. Bedou salesmen
from the pagan interior. His son told me this,
he knew why I asked.
He had assimilated over time
with a small TV. His eyes said so.

There are rituals and there are habits. These are facts.

Yes I said, yes, there is only one.
He nodded when I spoke of the Arabs.
Vaya con Dios I said. He liked that. He smiled.

Islam is not only a journey but it is a race.

Ali Mu'mineen (May Allah be pleased with the itrah of the Last Prophet, SA) often used the metaphor of a race towards death:

Praise be to Allah who established Islam and made it easy for those who approach it and gave strength to its columns against any one who tries to overpower it. So Allah made it (a source of) peace for him who clings to it, safety for him who enters it, argument for him who speaks about it, witness for him who fights with its help, light for him who seeks light from it, understanding for him who provides it, sagacity for him who exerts, a sign (of guidance) for him who perceives, sight for him who resolves, lesson for him who seeks advice, salvation for him who testifies, confidence for him who trusts, pleasure for him who entrusts, and shield for him who endures.

It is the most bright of all paths, the clearest of all passages. It has dignified minarets, bright highways, burning lamps, prestigious field of activity, and high objectives. It has a collection of race horses. It is approached eagerly. Its riders are honourable. Testimony (of Allah, Prophet etc.) is its way, good deeds are its minarets, death is its extremity, this world is its race-course, the Day of Judgement is its horses and Paradise is its point of approach.

Sermon 38, The Peak of Eloquence

Ali ibn Abi Taleb related:

"Doubt is named doubt because it resembles truth. As for lovers of Allah, their conviction serves them as light and the direction of the right path (itself) serves as their guide; while the enemies of Allah, in time of doubt call to misguidance in the darkness of doubt and their guide is blindness (of intelligence). One who fears death cannot escape it nor can one who fears for eternal life secure it."

May Allah be pleased with his Ahl Bayt

Why Do Poets Lie So Much? regarding the knowledges of the poet/philosopher known as Fredrick Nietzsche and billed often as Zarathustra. Nice try it was but no cigar. A mere attempt at the challenge posed in the Quran. And that is all it ever was. It is all anything really is and the knowledge of the superiority of the Communications of Allah given to us in Poetic Form as a Poetic Grand Masterpiece beyond any masterpiece known to human kind is key to knowing anything at all really about anything at all. From the sciences to literature to mathematics to the human heart. Knowing that allows poets to elicit better work, work worthy enough to be presented to Allah in a state of abject humbleness.

On Poetry, Poets and the Abuse
of Knowledge
and Power
Or rather, the expertise and lack of same

Over it are nineteen.

And We have not made the wardens of the fire others than angels, and We have not made their number but as a trial for those who disbelieve, that those who have been given the book may be certain and those who believe may increase in faith, and those who have been given the book and the believers may not doubt, and that those in whose hearts is a disease and the unbelievers may say: What does Allah mean by this parable? Thus does Allah make err whom He pleases, and He guides whom He pleases, and none knows the hosts of your Lord but He Himself; and this is naught but a reminder to the mortals. - The Cloathed One (or hidden secret) from the Glorious Quran. This is the sura for the non muslims who languish in the land of their own ignorance. It is the proof to the physicists, Darwinists, numerologists and those of whom have in their "books" the symbol still existant in their knowledges. It is the coup d'etat.


Who cares really? What I think about poets and poetry can be found here. That is a poem titled The Flood and it covers what I think about that issue.

Truth. How does one explain to someone who doesn't understand it, the notion that there is an ultimate truth? It is the case that only those who have knowledge understand it and until a person has that knowledge a person will invent a tremendous number of theories regarding the constitution of truth. They will go to many extremes in order to demonstrate to others that they do indeed possess this thing called (interchangably) truth, knowledge, certitude. Certitude being the best descriptor for that exceptionally valuable characteristic which is in fact, the thing that poets ought to possess, seek and how to say it? Win. Yes. Win. Certitude comes from being on the right side of the collective argument. Certitude is also a function of time and the hewing of the soul in the same manner that precious metal is smelted from the combination of basic elements that constitute reality.

The delivery of that certitude to a person is seemingly an arbitrary thing. It is extraneous to the actual job of getting it i.e. by studying, acquiring, purchasing, etc. I imagine that those who are hell bent on the process (like this very entertaining example suggests) like to refer to it as intellectual property. Those in fact believe that there is an actual commerce to be had in it. Some people on this planet literally possess it as a birthright. That is, I imagine, the hardest pill to swallow for those without that precious birthright.

In some ways, the actual possession of certitude is akin to the act of lapping up the water in a mirage, it is that delicate. Now, think about it. If a person is able to drink from that mirage and they know that they are quenching their thirst from such a thing, how likely is it that that same person might surrender their right to that well? Not very likely but even so, it is the case that a person sipping or gulping from the edge of such a tremendously fragile thing must forever be on their guard for tricksters who present a variety of other types of illusions as was the case with the famous pair, Harut and Marut.... "evil was the price for which they sold their souls, had they but known this."

So, what then, is the job of poetry and the measure of poets?

You tell me Mr. Silliman. You are the expert. Sadly enough, the polluted well you drink from is nearly dry. What then?

In what is widely cited as the "17th" sermon of Ali ibn Abi Taleb (May Allah be pleased with him and his Ahl Bayt), the four types of experts in the world are described and hence, I liken you to at least one type in there:


About those who sit for dispensation of justice among people but are not fit for it.

Among(1) all the people the most detested before Allah are two persons. One is he who is devoted to his self. So he is deviated from the true path and loves speaking about (foul) innovations and inviting towards wrong path. He is therefore a nuisance for those who are enamoured of him, is himself misled from the guidance of those preceding him, misleads those who follow him in his life or after his death, carries the weight of others' sins and is entangled in his own misdeeds.

The other man is he who has picked up ignorance. He moves among the ignorant, is senseless in the thick of mischief and is blind to the advantages of peace. Those resembling like men have named him scholar but he is not so. He goes out early morning to collect things whose deficiency is better than plenty, till when he has quenched his thirst from polluted water and acquired meaningless things.

He sits among the people as a judge responsible for solving whatever is confusing to the others. If an ambiguous problem is presented before him he manages shabby argument about it of his own accord and passes judgement on its basis. In this way he is entangled in the confusion of doubts as in the spider's web, not knowing whether he was right or wrong. If he is right he fears lest he erred, while if he is wrong he hopes he is right. He is ignorant, wandering astray in ignorance and riding on carriages aimlessly moving in darkness. He did not try to find reality of knowledge. He scatters the traditions as the wind scatters the dry leaves.

By Allah, he is not capable of solving the problems that come to him nor is fit for the position assigned to him. Whatever he does not know he does not regard it worth knowing. He does not realise that what is beyond his reach is within the reach of others. If anything is not clear to him he keeps quiet over it because he knows his own ignorance. Lost lives are crying against his unjust verdicts, and properties (that have been wrongly disposed of) are grumbling against him.

I complain to Allah about persons who live ignorant and die misguided. For them nothing is more worthless than Qur'an if it is recited as it should be recited, nor anything more valuable than the Qur'an if its verses are removed from their places, nor anything more vicious than virtue nor more virtuous than vice.

Why would I bother with such a thing? Well, because I can. Because yes indeed, I'm one of those who is blessed with this commodity called certitude and in that I can discriminate about those that do not possess it nor can they nor do they claim to possess it. It is the one characteristic that is best in people like you i.e. this mandatory piousness of the ignorant although I'm relatively sure that some like you literally bite off the ends of their fingers in rage at us Shia Muslims (Glen Beck comes to mind). It is truly a brave assertion we Shia make and it is ours to make. No....I do not have the Y chromosome (like Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah or Sayyed Sistani or the Grand Ayatollah Khomeini (May Allah be pleased with all of them)) but for whatever reason, I was arbitrarily selected by Allah to have this precious commodity that is (in the words of the Quran) a mighty good fortune.

And of course, I know this about you. You will not assert that you have this certitude. The great thing about certitude is that we are allowed to know this about those who lack it. But go ahead...claim it if you believe it to be your right. In the meantime, continue showing how your ignorance plays such a vital role in this vanity known as poetry. It's awfully entertaining sometimes. And I mean, awfully.

I cannot assert that you do not possess faith in something because obviously you do. If it was the case however that you possessed faith in the right thing, then...it would be obvious not only to me but to the thousand or so readers you have every day. The great thing about certitude is this power of recognition.

Surely the (true) religion with Allah is Islam, and those to whom the Book had been given did not show opposition but after knowledge had come to them, out of envy among themselves; and whoever disbelieves in the communications of Allah then surely Allah is quick in reckoning. - Imran, The Glorious Quran*.

*Not the "almost great" Quran mind you. The Glorious Quran. Imran (pbuh) was the father of the most holy of women, the mother of the prophet Isa (pbut) whose name was Miriam and whose noble sura is in the most special of numerical/gematric positions of "19".

Go figure. I study the most perfect long poem of them all Mr. Silliman. What would a stupid person like me know about this thing called poetry! Heh. I know more than Nietzsche ever could have imagined. All things considered however, this doesn't make me a better muslim or a better person. It simply means I know the power of knowledge, the effect it has on others and the manner in which to use it to elicit a variety of responses from a variety of people. I must always be careful not to abuse it but in this case, you asked for it. Therefore, the blame rests solely on you Ron Silliman. Don't ask questions that you do not really want the answers to.