surah xiii: thunder

surah xiii: thunder - illustrates the omnipotence/omnipresence, all-ness of ALLAH. surah xiii recalls the song of lovers of old, in tales throughout history.

thunder only happens when it's raining, players only love you when they're playing, they say women, they will come and they will go, when the rain washes you clean, you'll know. you will know - fleetwood mac.

players. krsna was a player. 16,660 concubines. but radha was his main squeeze. radha didn't mind. she loved the harmonics of krsna's flute, she is often portrayed smiling, looking nervously at him like a lover in want. i am more aware of their differences than they seem to be. radha's fair skin and dark large eyes, long eyelashes and quintessential geometric features in contrast to the blue skin of krsna, to the bubbly cheeks and his lipstick red lips.

krsna and radha are eternal lovers, beyond a moment, beyond till death do us pardon. their Love lies in an eternal submission to the frequency of timelessness. radha and krsna represent for each other, the deeper I, so when the rain washes away the others, it is only them. so come with a thousand lovers, radha seems to speak in the words of pablo neruda to the woman he loved, the one who in her polyamory fleeted. but neruda wasn't worried. he had faith. he knew.

the tale of lovers throughout history seems to be more than just a relationship between man and woman. sanu ek pa chan na we... nusrat fateh ali khan sang, first in a deep lulling melancholy and then as the song continues, as his devotion grows, his voice becomes a shouting demand that reaches to the heavens. sanu ek pa chan na we - not a moments rest without You - a song about the surrenderer's (=muslim - one who surrenders to the One) undying, restless love for his Love, ALLAH.

there are those in your life who will keep you apart, who will make attempts to wedge daggers between you and your love, plant seeds of doubt, cause dissension - even your very best friend tried to warn me on the low, beyonce lamented in her song - me, myself and i. even your intimate others may be the harbingers of walls, of separation. but you know: "ALLAH, and whosoever hath true knowledge of the Scripture, is sufficient witness between me and you" (xiii: 43).

your Love gives you glimpses, but your doubts are strong. who is this force that you only feel in trepid moments in chaos, in near death? surah xiii explains: "ALLAH it is who raised up the heavens without visible supports, then mounted the Throne, and compelled the sun and the moon to be of service, each runneth unto an appointed term; He ordereth the course; He detaileth the revelations, that haply ye may be certain of the meeting with your Lord" (xiii: 3).

ALL - ALLAH is ALL. everything. you ever call someone up, and in a love brimming so high you are drowned, and you can't say a word, and there is silence on the phone?
hello?
silence.
baby?
silence.
you there?
everything.
what? 
everything.

everything is all you can say, because that is the only word that comes close to that feeling. because in that moment you experience more than the mortal shell you are in, in your love you get a glimpse of something even more than that person "...and they rejoice in the life of the world, whereas the life of the world is but brief comfort compared with the Hereafter (xiii: 26) "

over time, over and through the loves of your life, family, friends, special friends, you begin to note a pattern, a Higherness in the Love that you thought was that one person. you notice that there is a One - "He is the Knower of the invisible and the visible, the Great, the High Exalted" (xiii:9).

whether you choose to Love or to hate, whether you decide how to engage with this reality, you Realize that your Love is ALL - "And unto Allah falleth prostrate whosoever is in the heavens and the earth, willingly or unwillingly, as do their shadows in the morning and the evening hours" (xiii: 15)