what are you seeking protection from?
...for me, this desire to continue, to achieve, to manifest this purpose seems to be about a future and not in the now; the Doing seems to occur on the dimension of a future time...when?
the idea of purpose itself is just that, an idea. it is an aspiration, the happening occurs in the work, in the struggle, in the doing.
i have been casting a web of dreams, of a community that will arise. this purpose becomes shadowed by the web of future.
i've been placing great stakes in the future...when is it? how will it be? graduation, prom, birthdays...they all happen, happened...and passed. for some of you: you have had weddings, anniversaries, retirements. those moments came and left.
you were planning a huge picnic, trip, cross country, Europe, india. it happened. now what? a cooking retreat, an allbum, a camera, laptop you wanted to purchase, a nutriton program in the west coast. those great moments are everything that proceeds it. mother's day, father's day, valentines, illustrate this.
loving your amma abba, intimate other, is in the present. the love, the work in actualizing this love, are in the day to day, in the present, in the constant reminder, the dikr, the worship of All of ALLAH's creation, as ALLAH is all there is. the purpose you aspire to happens in being that aspiration, so there is a non-duality, and this happens in both the gravity you place and humility you work with in the worship...
the prophet reminded us that work is worship, to die before you die, this happens, he said, through associating with those you aspire to be like. the prophet laid forth the plan, the vision.
the prophet muhammad laid forth, built, sacred communities, centered around worship in food, in building families, in having families come together to bow down, to hold each other accountable, to seek and build on knowledge, as a process of growing in worship and the balance of health, and to be fearless in every step of the way. this seeking of knowledge will manifest as a myriad, a mosaic in a community of various spirits, in which each member's talents are deeply sought and part of a contribution to the whole: the painter, the welder, the architect, the builder, the imam, the medicine man...
29: do you think saying i believe is enough? ALLAH knows all.
there are many in the world, close to a fifth of the human population, who fall under the nomiker of muslim - surrenderer. there are many who carry this title and prostrate to capital, to profit, to greed. in that sense, they are surrenderers of hustle, of wants, of material, of complacency, of desire, of ego, of nafs. yet and still, somehow, and in some way, this path may help them. so, the name may help breed a consciousness. it may not.
seems like the spider lays out how there is more to a path than a name, then an outfit. back in the day, for me and some of my friends, being a revolutionary meant wearing fatigues, army jackets and checkered scarves that blended with crisp jeans and timberlands. our che and fidel and malcolm and subhash chandra bose, and mukti bahini, were a walk down the cat walk of the subways and blocks and meetings and parties and outdoor concerts we attended. there's more to revolution, to real transformation, be it polticial or spiritual, then a look.
this moving past maya, this going beyond a title, this practice of surrender beyond rote and evidence of tradition, is essential to our growth, because it serves us in a much deeper way.
29: whoever strives, strives for himself - ALLAH is independent of His Creation.
essential to the process of spirituality is struggle. the nominal, those on the surface, seek complacency. nothing is got so easily. health requires work. the work involves struggle. but neither are bad. neither are painful. they feel it because we like the remote control.
i'll tear the house upside down before i get up and physically change a channel. need that remote. we want what's easy. what's easy doesnt serve us. health requires movement, requires work, stretch, physical exercise of the body - this may happen through farming, building, creating, or it may happen through jogging, dance, etc.
work leads us to a deeper place, and the work never ends. at first, and every day there is that at first, there may be a sense of i'll just skip it today, there may be a dread, but that subsides during the course of practice, as the work deepens and the sweat oozes out in bursts, until a downour. the baptism happens in the finish. and then all over again. the end never ends.
ALLAH is that which cannot be created nor destoryed, no beginning no end. we are all a part of what comprises this infinite spirit...but if ALLAH is indpenedent of us, why would we need to strive? for who? for what? for the balance of life, for the next generation, for the reincarnation into and away from the karma that keeps us stuck in the whell of mundane existence.
29;10 some profess to believe in God, but when they suffer in the cause, they confuse the persectuion of man for the persectuion of God.
we are quick to say all praise is due - alhamdulillah - when things are good, when things work in our favor. but what if they are unfavorable? this is the true test. but: what if sweatshop? crazy boss, oppresive family relations, despotic disrespectfu neighbors? then all praise is due for the opp to get deeper, to go beyond the violence. this is observable.
the path of surrender is a science. it is a spiritual science. spirituality is a science. the truth is at once subjective and objective. it is where individual experience of a planet, is met with an elliptical orbit. destiny and volition.
because we are often in spaces of confusion, of lacking clarity on what to do, what we should do in different situations, we go with our senses, we go with repression, we go with indvidual desire. but truth is, there is a course to the orbit, and neither repression, nor individual desire, will get us there.
29:18 if you reject the truth, other communities before you have also rejected the truth. the messengers job is only to covey the message clearly.
the enlightened, those who've managed to completely surrender, who've given their soul body mind and heart over to the Essence, they have brought forth messages, prescriptions, of a course of action that is malleable, that exist like any scientific or mathematic rule. they are principles and these principles can be derived at after pages upon pages of problem solving, or after a couple lines....
you, my, our rejection, is nothing new. our forefathers have practiced rejection. we have examples in history. nothing new. we have examples throughout time of good and evil, of greed, lust for power, materialists, rationalizers, and conversely, also of Lovers, the humble, the diligent in building community, the caretakers...most of us exhibit tendencies of both, like colors - shades of grey. the goal is to reach, to aspire, through struggle, through not just the words of the messenger, but the dna of their actions, the example they've left behind.
29:20 tell them: roam the earth and see how ALLAH originated creation. Then ALLAH will bring into being your second life.
this is one of the secrets of the Qur'an. to me it is. the language is simple. the request is authentic. and the truth made clear: observe nature; spend time in nature.
29: abraham said: you have taken up the worship of idols instead of God to promote friendship amongst yourselves in the present life.
and, ALLAH reminds us, earlier in this passage: You have no friend or helper besides ALLAH
all will pass. all life comes to a pass, as part of the very definition of life as change.
is there anything you have ever seen that is not subject to change? these past 10 years i've seen many family friends pass on - aunties, uncles, cousins...tears were shed...with time they are a memory and a part of our fabric, but we continue. somehow.
i have seen able bodied become disabled, the strong become weak, with age, with the passing of time, with accidents, the accumulation of poor dietary choices, with the ptsd of institutional racism, xenophobia, islamophobia, third-class-citizenism.
in times of doubt, there will be times of doubt, use the prescriptions the great medicine man, the prophet.
29:45 recite what has been revealed to you and pray regularly. surely prayer protects one from indecency and evil, and rememberance of ALLAH is greater.
rememberance, humility, keeps us humble, keeps us constantly in a state of worship. the mevlevi order, the followers of sheik jallaluddin rumi, practice whirling. they become dervishes. what does it mean to whirl?
to whirl is to circumambulate the kaaba, the kaaba is the house of adam, it is is the atom, and we particiapte in becoming the parts of the atom during hajj...this process synchopates us with the divine energy...the dervishes whirl does the same.
the dervish whirls around the centerpiece, the heart, the heart is the only part of our body that is naturally in rhythmicity, in tune with the percussion of the Universe, and as a result, other parts of our body pulse. where does this rhythm come from? this percussion is in tune with the Great Harmony.
remember, fulfilling purpose is the act of falling into surrender, hence the prescriptions, lest we forget, lest we leave room for our egos to crawl forth like bacteria and colonize our minds...for it cannot colonize the soul...lest we grow distracted and head towards the path of attachments to that which isn't real...we are afterall running our hands through water....time and space...
to grow in the prescriptions, seek a teacher, a mentor, one who is humble, one who is a real doer, seek out the books, the sum total. read scripture.
scripture is a pre-requsiite to the practice of medicine in the tradition. my dada, the medicine man, like most of the medicine men i've come across in India, bangladesh, are versed in scripture.
29:46.Say: we believe in what has been revealed to you and what has been revealed to us. Our God and yours are one and the same
ALLAH requires us to go beyond even the names that we have for the One, they are unimportant. What is important is to worship. This happens through Love, humility, work.
work, be purposeful in the work. go beyond the emotion. witness the ego's repsonse to situations, to words, to acceptance, rejection, and go beyond it. go beyond by staying focused on Purpose. your purpose is why you are here. it is more than career, subsistence, babylon-status/success. work...the work happens through meditation, prayer, dikr...
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