divorces abound as much as unions. conversations that become bedroom talk, that lead to future plots coalescing, hands that find their way to a soft warm hideaway, autobiographies written together in the want, in the ache to be past the rigamarole of schedules.
they are fleeting, the brush of eyes and touch of lips. they last as long as daylight on a gotham 21 december. the nervous touch becomes stiff and rote, the anxious anticipation becomes a note on the table - dinner's ready, help yourself. the quiet is rough, crooked and yet functional, like nostrand ave. promises become plates crashing, walls caving in to a cell. movement becomes a pace in the prison wall that each other has formed into.
the beginning and end. hence al baqarah, hence rememberance of Essence in daily prayers, hence the reminder of signs and guidelines for man to live by.
al baqarah lays out the prescriptions for man to live by - the month of fasting, the times of fasting - from the string of night becoming day to the thread that lays conclusion to another 24 hours in this manifestation. al baqarah teaches us how to treat those below us, to move past a below us, to recall death and live like a soldier who bangs for the cause without fear, without a sense of loss, as we were dead before and were brought into life, so we have only permanence to look forward.
al baqarah is practical, the notions advanced consider deeply the human condition. human greed abounds throughout the ages. perhaps nothing close to now. perhaps the term greed is incomparable for the frankensteins we have become, rationalizing all our actions through the lens of me, myself, myself. my my my, i'm feeling fine...
be compassionate, wage love, but if war comes your way, if your homeboy is slain, then slay. do not slay someone's mother or child for the work of a man. do not take someone's eye for a finger. be even in your actions. understand that actions have consequences. that just as fracking will dry our earth to a desert, so will striking someone who is helpless dry you out. more than the glib conclusion that this passage of baqarah condones an eye for an eye, what is clear to me is that it reminds the human that we are part of a larger system of laws, beyond the ones we have come up with to empower exploitation, injustice. that actions have an effect. baqarah teaches us the laws and the laws of cause and effect. your willingness to die, to annihilate the fear that stems from ego will give you permanence. your striving towards Higher can be accomplished by following rules, that more than a matter of what feels good, which is fallible, there are rules.
moses and the betrayal of his people serve as an example to reflect on past events to grow in our present. the story of the israelites and their adherence to gold, and in turn their spurning the message of divinity, illustrates the importance of history, of learning from history and taking lessons to prevent and steer clear of those same mistakes. this can be in the form of being a witness to alcoholism, drugs, violence. take these lessons from those around you who engage in this way, to avoid destruction, to gain in your Love of worship by killing the nafs, the ego that easily grow weakened by the seduction of chocolate and candy corn soup, the switch of hips, and lick of lips.
focus, baqarah tells us, by recognizing that there are rules to living. these rules should be practiced with adherence, with faith, but more importantly, with humility, with a dissolution of ego. the punishment that is referred to, is to know that whether others can see your disguised actions or not, you will ultimately have to face your deeds, as the Essence "is Seer of what they do" (2:96). the condo, the dinners, late nights at the club, the suits, ties and phones will guarantee only a furthering from the path of soul, "such are those who buy the life of the world for the price of the hereafter" (2:86).
the laws of divorce, of battle, of servants, of curbing greed, of sharing and not hoarding, of worship and prayer, of sexual relations, of idol worship and the pilgrimage, of men and women and community, are laid out into a series of prescriptions, which at face value offer laws to live by, and on a deeper plane, prepare the traveler to go on the hajj of ascension.
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