surah xix: maryam

bismillahirahmaniraheem.

audzu billahe minash shaitanur-rajeem.

dedicated to maryam reborn in queens, ny. all praise is due. prayers for your grandmother.

for the past month i have been listening to surah maryam, as recited by saad al gahmdi, on spins. all praise is due for his gorgeous voice, in complete surrender. i have been sitting with my legs crossed, eyes closed, back aligned with obtuse triangles, mind drifting behind into the One.

this brother i met the other day from washington heights, told me that in his work as a personal athletic trainer, he noticed that much of our movement was focused on forward motion. very little involved backward strokes. this accumulated injury into our health, one that we our only now understanding.

the manas (mind/inellect) connects with the indriyas (senses) in forward motion, but has the capability to connect us beyond the senses to the atman (the One). the manas can place us in a balance between this realm and the infinite, which is the essence of yoga - yuj - union. each asana sequence has to be balance - both sides - a complete whole number of surya namaskar is when both body sides are extended. the completion of our manas, our mind, is only possible if we reach back, above, beyond, into the Great Consciousness, which is ALLAH. all praise is due.

surah xix reminds us of the importance of reaching back, of training the mind to sear beyond the stimulation of the present sense of gratification, of withdrawing attachment from the satiation in the ephemeral.

surah xix accomplishes this message of connecting with the Higher by way of letting go, by way of the story of zacchariah. zacchariah, desperate and distraught, pleaded in his prayers for the Essence to provide for him and his barren wife. zacchariah prayed, received message from the One to move beyond a sense of helplessness, beyond the ridicule he and his wife faced in their community. when zacchariah established communication with the One, he received word: "thy token is that thou, with no bodily defect, shalt not speak unto mankind three nights" (xix:10)

we are reminded of the need to seek, to listen beyond the frequency of z100 and hot 97 and the iblis-frequency of clear channel, of the disease we have become, that we bop to in creating and recreating a spectacle of worship to the gold calf of babylon.

the baggy track pants that squeeze on the bottom will pass. it's a trend. the army green jackets with the thin black leather arms will pass. its a trend. there are companies fishing for your prostration. you want to be a part of something. of course. you want to belong. of course. i understand beautiful diamond in the dust. i know. i am you. i know. but it's not real. what is real though is the trend will pass and the hurt will already be exacted on mother earth, the precious resources exploited for your submission to babylon. this and the system that structures sweatshop work to allow for this consumption, just as these same structures incarcerate 100000 cattle chained to wooden gates, sinking in their own feces, so you can have meat everyday. slow down homie. whatever your religious/spiritual/nonreligious background. slow down for science.

i can't say that i read the surahs and feel greater in my conviction of difference, of a religiosity in separation, in the need to convert anyone into anything other than Higher. as one on the path of Surrender, of letting go of this ego, of shedding this prisoners uniform that has a color, an ethnicity, a name, a swag, i understand and have witnessed how this happens in the way it happens.

surah xix tells us the importance of shedding from the iblis frequency by way of Mary, of how in her trials of rigamarole and tribulations of health and destitution, "she had withdrawn from her people to a chamber looking East" (xix: 16).

maryam resolved to move beyond the material fabric of what laid before her eyes - the maya that seemed so real that she needed to physically divorce into the womb of the Essence - nature. in her seclusion, in her meditation, she encountered a spirit. "she said: lo! i seek refuge in the Beneficient One from thee, if thou art God-fearing" (xix: 18).

i understand the word fear to mean awe, as i experience a nervousness from the awe of being before the ocean during sunsets - an awe at the beauty and thee expansiveness and the science that i have no words for.

maryam qualifies her ability to place faith in someone else, in receiving spiritual truth and guidance from them, so long as they share this awe in the One-ness. this is an important distinction, as for many of us, we immediately may prostrate to the spirit and not the One that the spirit belongs to. this fascination with difference in being, which in babylon are celebrities, lends itself to idol worship. herein lies the constancy of One-ness, in the path of surrender. maryam never bows to the spirit, but sees her potential connection to him by way of a shared path in the Oneness. deep. this opens up doors to the questions of dimensions beyond the three we walk through.

surah xix goes deeper, asks us to go deeper in our Quietude as we seek guidance by way of tuning in beyond this moment of maya. even after maraym gives birth to isa, inside the trunk of a palm tree (which signifies the motherliness of trees, of earth, and in turn the sacred alignment necessary in our shared existence), baby jesus says to Maryam: "if thou meetest any mortal, say: lo! i have vowed a fast unto the Beneficient, and may not speak this day to any mortal" (xix: 26).

it is the Quiet that allows maryam to work, to produce, to bear fruits, to make sense of what seems senseless, to grow in strength. only after this does she come forth to her people.

this meditation beyond maya if done right, will reveal the transience of much that we place importance in - clothes, adventures, clubbing, drinking, sweets and steaks. the meditation of maryam will humble you into the realization that there is more to you than this body, and the desires of flesh. that the Universe, this Great Mystery "will inherit the earth and all who are thereon, and unto Us they are returned" (xix: 40).

in the process of seeking, of being/becoming a seeker: "ALLAH increaseth in right Guidance those who walk aright, and the good deeds which endure are better in thy Lord's sight for reward, and better for resort" (xix: 76).

walk, strive, put in the work. go hard. all praise is due...