dhul-qarnayn

[dhul-qarnayn]

When Night Comes

(more gifs here)

[dhul-qarnayn]

mama Buddha

I nicknamed the change --around Ruben's and Next-- 'little times square" when the giant billboards began to emerge with the new arrivals

In this soon to be place with a name of the often discounted tomato sauce from the local market- - - I remembered, walking by today, the many open spaces, quiet places affordable-- all my friend visiting would like for our dinner.

So brought her to meet him here. [They had some things in common only children, IQ, legacies .. a rare/odd devotion to an abandoned alien ]

I didn't desire what was on the menu as much as I did what I saw the workers eating outside --lined up in a row along the edge in the cold --white rice steaming off paper plates.

Giant Prawns, shitake --- some green things.

I dislike water chestnuts with a passion.

photo taken today - experience Yesterday

thank you marker for your comments on the visual nuisance it reads "this is not time square"

#flashinglights not welcomed in this district and there is a racoon that lives near there too, he doesn't like it either!

[dhul-qarnayn]

chacun a son gout

Intentions are the first hadith we learn as students. The heart accumulates rust like everything else and is something that requires constant polishing. The mind's awareness is one method of cleaning it, which is why we are required on many occasions to recite intentions (why do you do what you do etc.) out loud

[dhul-qarnayn]

Deep Sea Creatures

Its only after you do the [controversial action] then leave it for the sake of ---- that I interpret as being used for purposes of encouragement to seek out that which could substitute for what was perceived as a loss

but what about if you don't participate in the controversial action in the first place, for that same reason, is that of value to the humans? It is of value to the Creator we are told in the Qur'an the reward for leaving off . I believe it of more value for the person and maybe that person alone.

to speak about things that might encourage man to forgo x for a greater purpose. - in certain cases a spiritual gratification and connection beyond this world. Could also be Out of Love --so not exactly a "giving up" …It hurts to write a word I do not vocalize.

There are those special humans who through intellectual and heart discovery --find it on their own..and others who watch what the well known do in relation to what they now leave off… I'm not able to conclude that sharing what one leaves off is encouraging to others on a general level.

I experienced derision from both genders at a certain stage of life though nothing physically, I could tell, changed, an opportunity arose decades later that would have been a public response to those insults. It ended up answering something of much more value.

When I signed my K, I added 3 no clauses ---all 3 were of which I would be best suited [lol] for. Butt, "accidents" got through to me.

What is encouraging to me as a Believer, is that I was at Major crossroads - at that time, there was no excitement even when I accepted work, for this, I knew immediately what I wanted for my life when the opportunity came.

we have a prayer - what I received was beyond tailored to what I needed to know about myself and what I needed to do.

Focusing in on one aspect of this is difficult.

What was it?

Before it went diverse, pre-"inclusion" - a sports publication features a once a year edition for swim- made an offer.

I had purchased this 1x many years ago because of a basketball edition and was vaguely aware that this aspect of edition even existed as I was being offered, if you asked me prior - in my mind, this feature was throwing a bone to the ladies in the form of a "sales catalog?" ( i never opened one) that featured women aspiring to be athletic in some way. I would not be able to reconcile if asked why a woman would purchase it and never considered men did.

Oddly enough the model --around a decade prior, invited me to a celebration of her being on the cover. I was sad to miss out on her friendship --I was just coming off the most challenging year of my life. I hadn't even made the connection 1. what her celebration was for or 2. that when my time came-years later... it would be at the second most challenging time---how interesting-- at that 2nd low pt, where no person 'of regard' or invitation to - came but I was frozen, I was floored and busted.

Praise the Lord, Those times are over.

What prompted me to recall this {screen shot souvenirs of it occasionally circulate my home screen --hard copy is probably headed to the dungeon/scrapbooked which is no longer needed) is I noticed there was some discussion of what else is being uncovered now in terms of conversion - an exploration of what makes someone so steadfast and committed in times of disaster.

There are lots of conversions being featured now, celebrities, other faiths, in what they fully participated in but THEN left off...and that interesting case of those researching it for fact, then being subsumed. Probably not unlike those during 9 eleven. As Muslims - nothing to be happy about because those best situated should be generating more invitation person to person rather than making it difficult for those but who possess rare faculties and blessings to reach it on their own ---only after such tragedy.

So it seems like a search for the truth is uncovered during pain not during joy. One is not prompted to know oneself during periods of ease. I feel that derivation fully enhances moments of joy when they do happen and in fact sustain them for longer periods with a longer history of "pain" if properly directed.

It helped with the derision… Next year will be a decade later and it is a case where I know and experience my inner world with something else …all that was the generosity of time and pain.

even getting me into a position to hear such words…

would be impossible for most.

There are many things between us that gives me quiet amusement --even what happened today. I don't even recognize x until someone points it out.

I feel almost guilty in experiencing. It try not to get off on it - at all.

I want to add about who else I did it for but I can't.

I want to scream it -

[dhul-qarnayn]

Palestine will rise again

[dhul-qarnayn]

[dhul-qarnayn]

No Answers

Here are some words from my friend/teacher: NO ANSWERS.October 09, 2023Assalamu Alaykum Dear Students,Students have been contacting me for my take on Hamas Israel Palestine Netanyahu and beyond. On the surface, they are asking for my assessment. Deeper, they are asking for hope. Thus, on the surface, it is easy to say that Islam does not support the killing of civilians. It is likewise easy to…

[dhul-qarnayn]

Age is all the same

This beautiful reminder was on the top of my feed today. In sha Allah I hope when I look back on it this time next year, I will see all the Mercy shown to me during this time. 

“It doesn’t matter if someone lived to 10 or 100, life will feel like a single day when we look back at it on judgment day. One single day. A day on which Allah says we can speak no wrong we will be convinced with certainty that life was one sunrise and one sunset. When I try to put that into perspective, these days, months and years I’m living through amount to nothing more than moments. Whether each one of those  moments is filled with joy or pain, it is nothing more than a moment. It will pass and when it does, the feelings I experienced in that moment won’t be crystallized into eternity but rather what I did with those feelings will. Did I process my rage, understand it and not allow it to make me an aggressor? Did I process my joy and turn it into gratitude as opposed to heedlessness? Did I take despair and run with it to Allah or find comfort from it in what I thought was refuge but was nothing more than a mirage?You and I are here for a day. If we can just manage to spend it inside His boundaries and not cause each other hurt, we will have succeeded. And if you and I haven’t fared too well so far, just know that it’s beginning or middle won’t determine it’s final score, it’s the end. I hope you have a beautiful day.”

[dhul-qarnayn]

Muslims personalize many things - like a month. 

Even our deeds will appear to us. Our good deeds will be personified and befriend us in our grave time. 

Ramadan is Forgiveness and Mercy. 

This year I find it difficult to forgive myself. 

Teacher told us Sabr, translated as Patience, is to keep looking ahead stay focused and move forward. 

I don’t use good bye. I prefer to leave it open to  - in sha Allah, until next time.

[dhul-qarnayn]

The Last to Leave ---  The First to Rise

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“ When completing the Qur’an, proper etiquette according to the tradition of the Qurrā’ is not to stop at the end of al-Nās, but to restart with al-Fātiḥa and recite until the word al-mufliḥūn in al-Baqara. This practice is known among the Qurrā’ as al-ḥāll al-murtaḥil. “

The moment the reciter circles back, but forward --to Al Baqarah, feels both brand new and so familiar.

[dhul-qarnayn]

“There’s a hidden sweetness in the stomach’s emptiness. We are lutes, no more, no less. If the sound box is stuffed full of anything, no music. If the brain and the belly are burning clean with fasting, every moment a new song comes out of the fire. The fog clears, and a new energy makes you run up the steps in front of you….” ~Rumi

soul in #happiness #bliss #devotion #surrender to #God  | may my fasting touch the lives family, humanity, animals, earth unseen and universe #world - in my prayers #ameen

—

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And an astronomer said, Master, what of Time?     And he answered:     You would measure time the measureless and the immeasurable.     You would adjust your conduct and even direct the course of your spirit according to hours and seasons.     Of time you would make a stream upon whose bank you would sit and watch its flowing.

    Yet the timeless in you is aware of life’s timelessness,

    And knows that yesterday is but today’s memory and tomorrow is today’s dream.     And that that which sings and contemplates in you is still dwelling within the bounds of that first moment which scattered the stars into space.

    Who among you does not feel that his power to love is boundless?

    And yet who does not feel that very love, though boundless, encompassed within the centre of his being, and moving not from love thought to love thought, nor from love deeds to other love deeds?

    And is not time even as love is, undivided and spaceless?

    But if in your thought you must measure time into seasons, let each season encircle all the other seasons,     And let today embrace the past with remembrance and the future with longing.

[dhul-qarnayn]

”Just you and I

You know I need your love...”

[dhul-qarnayn]

45 NOTES

“The temple of love is not love itself; (abstraction)

True love is the treasure, (agree but define)

Not the walls about it (tell that to everyone else )

Do not admire the decoration, (I wish someone would)

But involve yourself in the essence, (ditto)

The perfume that invades and touches you- (I want all of it)

The beginning and the end. Discovered, this replace all else, (striving)

The apparent and the unknowable. (accept, might never know but don’t accept)

(yes, I love secrets, complicity, talk more to me about this)

Time and space are slaves to this presence. 

(I love being a slave - tell me what to do)

— Rumi

Notes:

I like to think someone bought this for someone. 

I can’t resist giant red hearts

- still. 

Sold 23,561,000 USD

BIDDING IS CLOSED (open to the highest heart)

[dhul-qarnayn]

“… they found him prostrating himself on the ground in sajda, tears streaming from his eyes” Tonight we enter the Three Full Moon Nights of Shaban. May Allah the Beloved grant us our prayers on these nights of mercy and forgiveness. #laylatulbaraat #jannatalbaqi

[dhul-qarnayn]

Moon-Lover" (Excerpt) by Robert William Service “To know the Moon as few men may, One must be just a little fey; And for our friendship’s sake I’m glad That I am just a trifle mad. And one with all the wild, wise things, The furtive folk of fur and wings, That hold the Moon within their eyes, And make it nightly sacrifice. O I will watch the maiden Moon Dance on the sea with silver shoon; But with the Queen Moon I will keep My tryst when all the world’s asleep. As I have kept by land and sea That tryst for half a century; Entranced in sibylline suspense Beyond a world of common-sense. Until one night the Moon alone Will look upon a graven stone… . I wonder will it miss me then, Its lover more than other men? Or will my wistful ghost be there, Down ages dim to stare and stare, On silver nights without a stir– The Moon’s Eternal Worshipper?