"this is a scripture which we have revealed unto thee that thereby thou mayst bring forth mankind from the darkness unto the light, by the permission of the Lord, unto the path of the Mighty, the Owner of Praise"
(xiv:1). over time, i've found school teachers, workshop presenters, panelists, and ultimately, even myself. regurgitate the frustration with there being no guide to life - "there's no guidebook to life", i 'd hear, say.
the qur'an serves as a guidebook, as a blueprint to live righteously, and over and over again, the repetition in the message lies in belief, in the Oneness, and doing this by way of living within limits, what gandhiji phrased as: live simply so that others may simply live.
gotham has been wearing the garb of glum again. it is snowing, raining, sleeting at once. slick streets deride slick talkers selling stocks and bonds from wall street to retail outfits and spirit stores. such is the frequency of babylon - everything is for sale from paper and trees, to canaries and iguanas, to breasts and kidneys, to water and air. this is the darkness.
in the ancient world, of jahillya middle east, the practice of infanticide, of women barred from even the right of inheritance, far from divorce, far from dignity, of the enslavement of wayfarers (whether they be from asia, europe or africa - dis-similar from the understanding of slavery in the modern context which synonymizes african/.black with slave/slavery/slave-trade)
we are arguably in a greater darkness then at any other point in human history. with the advent of the internet, we have grown lazy beyond what my elders can recognize, let alone stomach. we are in greater need of Spirit then ever. but how does this happen? does it happen by us just picking and choosing rules that work for us. this is a fallacy of logic according to Plato, in his polemic - euthyphro. you don't just pick and choose the laws of a state, he argued. so, how do we know?
the first act, may be meditation, may be a daily practice - 10 minutes, 20 minutes... 1 hour. the meditation should allow you to silence your wandering by focusing on breath and in doing so, moving beyond your ego, your sense of being an idol, of a subject of worship in yoga, in teaching, in dance, in music, in film making, in money making, in fashion, in being hot. this process is essential according to surah xiv: "those who love the life of the world more than the hereafter, and debar men from the way of ALLAH and would have it crooked, such are far astray" (xiv: 3)
once you have meditated, once you realize you may be off, you are having great challenges quieting your loquacious mind, that you're not really sure what you are doing, seek out a teacher. the teacher of spirit lives by example.
in the babylon frequency, the teacher of spirit is recognized as all things in babylon are recognized - appearances - dress (shawls, head-wraps, indigenous patterns on clothes...), accessories (beads, moon rings, piercings, bracelets with ancient looking script), hair style (long hair, dred locks, shaved head...), and words (language and tonalities that sound like ancient knowledge - embrace the now, be present, let go, you are the power...).
proceed with caution, steer clear of the babylon gurus. Real recognize Real. so arrive into a place of Real and search from Real. "and we never sent a messenger save with the language of his folk that he might make clear for them" (xiv: 4).
there are guru's among you, people who know the teachings of the sacred, who may be gone now, whose lives exist in the stories of your grandparents. they are what the qur'an refers to as prophets, messengers. they know your landscape and context, they are of your tribe. find their teachings. seek them out. they have tread on the very road you walk on.
the messengers arrived as "mortals like us" (xiv: 10). they came with the same message of moving their people away from "serving idols" (xiv: 35), as Abraham prayed for in striving instead for an understanding of the One-ness, that - "ALLAH verily is Absolute" (xiv: 8)
abraham, the father of ishmael and isaac (xiv: 39), prayed, praised and like the messengers before and after him, was persecuted. his faith in the One-ness was resilient. why? why such a deep concern? why were the messengers, so concerned with everyone else? what did it matter if the rest of us practiced in what they deemed as righteously, or not? why couldn't they just mind their neck and do their own thing, as we have been deeply ingrained with in contemporary culture?
abraham, like moses, like noah, like a'ad, (xiv: 9), were mailmen delivering a message that needed delivery over and again, because their lives were inherently tied into that of their community, and their community was their people, the people of the bordering regions and in turn the people who bordered the bordering nations, ad infinite. but the community, the messengers understanding of community, as expressed by abraham's prayers in surah xiv, was also the land, was also the plants and the water and time and space - "nothing in the earth or in heaven is hidden from ALLAH" (xiv: 38).
the message of the messenger, as expressed through abraham in surah iv is one of community, which is essential for the collective worship in forging the Oneness - in the great convergence of yin, yang in wujing - the great nothingness. the nourishment and growth of community is deeply tied into this spiritual well being, "as a goodly tree, its root set firm, its branches reaching into the heaven" (xiv: 24).
if one of us is in practice of drone bombs, of opening up sweatshops for purposes of our fashion line, of trashing the earth with device after gadget after thing, because our wants are insatiable, then all of us suffer. all of us. the messengers knew this. shaitan (the devil) knows this - "ALLAH promised you a promise of truth; and i promised you then failed you. and i had no power save that i called unto ye and ye obeyed me" (xiv: 22).
just as we have the beauty within, the devil (=laziness, hatreds, misery, fear... it all really boils down to fear - racism, sexism, xenophobia, work-o-phobia...) is within. worship, true worship, surah xiv suggests, is in the work, is in focusing on what will grow you Higher, and working like it was your last day on earth to ensure that, working like the banished prophets who continued their path with the understanding of consequence, of retaliation.
"this is a clear message for mankind in order that they may be warned thereby, and that they may know that He is only One God, and that men of understanding may take heed" (xiv: 52)
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