Ummi's Anecdotes: Why Read??? Revised a Little

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Why Read??? Revised a Little

In the name of Allah the Beneficent the Compassionate

My Dearest
Have you ever wondered why
On the first encounter HE gave instruction
To read
Isn't it peculiar for when we first met someone
We haven't met before
The first thing we do is to get acquainted
The logical consequence is
Reading must me vital, life-giving
Know that life begins after death
Death is not the end but the beginning of Real Life
The time to reap what we sow in the ephemeral world

My Dearest
Have you ever wondered
What is the meaning of reading
What should we read about
From which sources
And for what end
If we ponder deep enough, He may show us the light of comprehension
the meaning of reading is not pointing towards itself but to other than itself
the meaning of reading is in the purpose of reading
To read is not confined to reading written words but
To read is to understand the indications of Allah
In the form of written messages and symbolic messages present in the universe
Hence
Read all in the name of Allah
For the end of reading is to know HIM through contemplative intelligence
Hence, reading makes us understand the universe and its purposes for mankind
and most significantly reading makes us realize HIM and HIS beautiful attributes
(Don't you know that spirituality is realization of HIM)
The effects of which the edifice of formidable civilization can be built
on the foundation of metaphysical, epistemological and ethical TRUTH
(Don't you know that our forefathers had built this before)

My Dearest
Have you ever wondered
Only after asking us to read then He introduced HIMSELF as the creator
and we are HIS creations
The answer to the most fundamental metaphysical question of who are we and where are we from
can only be discovered through reading
When HE affirmed that HE is the Creator and We are the creations
It set dualism as reality of existence instead of monism
Dual existence, seen and the unseen
The corporeal and the incorporeal
The Creator and the creations
Dual life, here and hereafter
Which magnify HIS UNITY
Know that the multiplicity of His creations are the manifestations of HIS ONENESS
in all aspects

My Dearest
Have you ever wondered
Why HE says that HE is the Most Generous
for teaching us with the use of a pen
Have you ever wonder what is the meaning of teaching and pen
Why HE is generous for teaching us that which we knew not
Have your ever wondered
The significance of HIM declaring to HIS most beloved (pbuh) that HE is The Teacher
Know that the meaning of a pen can only be understood in relation to writing
Pen and writing is significant for their connection with knowledge and its dissemination
Ya Rabb...Read, Pen, Writing, Knowledge, and HE is the Teacher
For if HE does not give us understanding, we will be blinded by the light of TRUTH
Have you ever wondered
How HE teaches
Know that HE teaches through experiential learning
for how can we understand TRUTH if we never experienced TRUTH

My Dearest
Be thankful to HIM
for endowing us with the intellect
for reading requires understanding through contemplative intelligence
realizing that the end of reading is to know HIM
For how can we meet HIM in the next eternal world
If we do not know HIM in this evanescent world
didn't HE say that the best endowment to mankind is to behold HIS countenance

My Dearest children
Sharpen and purify your heart mind and HE may honor you
with comprehension and wisdom

MAY ALLAH BLESS US ALL AND ENDOW US WITH THE LIGHT OF COMPREHENSION

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SMS to Sir Muhammad Iqbal

O Iqbal!

The spring of 2002 beckoned my soul and body;
to witness the Muslim remains of Alhambra, Cordova and Sevilla,
to retrace your noble steps and feel the vibrations of your ectasy,
to feast my aging vision on the haunting grandeur of Alhambra and relish the marchless beauty of Moorish art…

I glided through the cold ruins,
searching for the secrets of the humiliating downfall of Al-Andalus…
The flowing fountains of Jannat’ul-Arif (Generalife) continue to narrate the melancholy of Muslim follies…
How, they succumbed to the same diseases which brought down the mighty Roman Empire
They wrote all over Al-Andalus “La-Ghaliba Illa’Llah”
(There is no vanquisher except Allah)
but they began to worship the mata ad-dunya (pleasures of the world)
and traded their souls for gold, glory, women and wine,
only to end like stray donkeys,
kicked around by the boots Ferdinand and Isabella
Today, pigeons nestle and make love in the ruins,
their droppings strewn all over the walls,
Western tourists pour out buses and planes,
frolicking in romance, obliterating all pains
while Muslim architectural glory continues to boost the coffers of Catholic Spain

I stood, O Iqbal,
on the hill of Alhambra,
“a stranger, gazing at things gone by, dreams of another age”.

O Iqbal!
Your dreams of Islamic renaissance are in tatters,
In your time the tyrant was Frankish colonization,
Today the Slave Master dons the cloak of globalization,
Piercing through the iron curtain, the bamboo curtain, the sahara and the tropical jungles carrying a civilization of McDonalds, KFC’s and Coca Colas,
While eight hundred million people languish in famine and squalor,
You predicted the collapse of godless and materialistic Europe,
But today she is more united and mightier than the Muslim world.

Today, O Iqbal!
The West is supreme and capitalism triumphantly arrogant,
Islam is the new enemy; in your time it was Bolshevism,
and today every Muslim is a potential terrorist,
You are either with the West or you are against it.
If you conform, the Slave Master’s mercy will descend upon you,
offering bread and dust and blankets
(lest you shiver in the thinderstorm of the New Alliance rage)
Today Musulman is languishing
in the trap of the New World Disorder,
a New Slavery in a Boardless Prison.

O Iqbal!
I wish you have heard the guns of Israel,
the cries from Deir Yassin, Shabra, Shatilla and Jenin,
the savage rimblings of Sharon’s tanks,
the merciless bull-dozers tearing into Palestinians homes,
the explosions of teenage suicide bombers,
the ruthless retaliations of Zionist terrorism
(no, no, no, you cannot call it a terrorist state!)

O Iqbal!
You would weep if you know that Pakistan is now bleeding,
Kashmir is bleeding, Chechnya is bleeding, Moroland is bleeding,
And Acheh is bleeding!
And Indian Muslims are burned alive!
A Muslim holocaust is in the making!
Do you know that you cannot call the Slave Master and his friends terrorists?
Only the victims who fight back are terrorists,
Never mind if the Zionist media terrorizes truth or Palestinians or Muslims.
Do you know that
Those who preach pluralism cannot give space to the Din of Islam?
Those who preach democracy in Europe cannot accomodate it in Indonesia, Algeria and Turkey lest would be liberated.

O Iqbal!
Do you know that Islam is to be tolerated by the New Slave Master only if it is Protestantized, Liberalized, Secularized or Westernized?
Only if it is confined to the mosque, to mysticism,
Only if it preaches that all religions are the same.

O Iqbal!
Have you heard what George Tenet said other day:
“The United States is mightier than the Roman Empire and Israel is our friend.”
If you want “peace” you have to lick our shoes,
or else you will be terrorized in the name of peace,
Or else, we will send the thugs and robbers to loot your banks
And they blame you
for “lack of transparency” and “poor corporate governance”.

O Iqbal!
Sixty four years after you returned to the mercy of Ar-Rahman
The world of the Musulman is still in disarray
As beggars, we wait for crumbs to fall from the Slave Master’s plate
Like hungry wolves, we bark and bite one another and plunge at one another’s throat in the name of Jihad
Killing more of our kind than the real enemy,
Kafirizing more than we can Islamize,
Monopolizing the Paradise of Al-Rahman to one’s own Jama’ah
While the Slave Master and his friends rejoice at the Muslim tragedy,acting their script.

O Iqbal!
Don’t turn in your grave if I tell you
that the Muslim world is the champion today in corruption and illiteracy
Or, that our rulers are among the smartest in deceiving the masses,
Having mastered the art from Machiavelli’s Prince.
Or, that some of our elites are the greatest drinkers of the wine of Kafirun,
intoxicated, they try to sell cheap versions of it in their stores,
beguiling the local youth as they deconstruct the blessed Zam-Zam to make it taste like beer and wine,
and succeeding in making the young worship celebrities as divine.
Or, that the Muslim Malay community excels in fitnah menfitnah
pouring the poison of hatred where love once stood.

O Iqbal!
Where is the ishq that used to drive you to divine ecstasy?
Where is the nur that illumines the heart and obliterates man’s egoism?
Where is the mahabbah and rahmah that forge the bonds of love and salam?
Where is the hidayah taht destroys insincerity, hypocrisy and greed?
Where is the ‘ilm that elevates the soul to its True Master?
Where is the taqwa that imbues thought and action with righteosness?
Where is the bal-i-jibrail that will deliver us from this earthly misery?…
Can the Khairu Ummatin ever emerge from robots, rubbles and bubbles?

O Iqbal!
Behind this veil of melancholy, I see an array of hope,
In the places of today’s Pharaoh, many Moses are being born,
Out of the gospel of Trinity into the glad of Tawhid,
Among the ruins of Cordoba, I met Sister Tamara,
a blend of the tulip of the Occident and the rose of the Orient.
Many more Tamaras are blossoming
in the wasteland of modernity and post-modernism,
lighting candles in the dungeons and hedonism.
Many more Bilals are growing up in Harlem
to proclaim the rise of Isa, son if Maryam.
From the minarets of New York, London and Paris,
He will preach the true meaning of “La ilaha illa’Llah, Muhammad Rasulu’Llah”.

Yes, O Iqbal, the sun will rise the West
As Musa (alaihi’s s-salam) rose in the palace of Firaun.

Muhammad Kamal Hassan
I.I.U.M. Gombak, 3rd July 2002.