Making Connections

Compassion is a peculiar teacher
Its lessons disguised in failure and trying
Yet advocating triumph
We see ourselves in the best possible light
Until our power cuts out
When we are powerless is when we learn to fight for others
If we decide to heed the message of struggle
It is to be above your own soul by silencing its desires
And only tending to its needs
Enabling it to see through its egocentric nature and find the core
The tears of humanity can fill oceans in their abundance
Where some drown and others sail, all once gazing upon an eternal horizon
We can start a revolution or better the one that has already begun
Everything is revolving just like everything is one
Circular and spherical is our life force
As we breathe corruption into it
As we inhale so-called progress, we exhale our own demise
I am sick of this phantom respiration
When will we show our form?
Compassion...
I had to dance with my ego to cripple it.

Her own brand of Freedom

Ink was pierced into her as she tattooed poetry on her veins
They told stories of blood loss
Mind envied heart for its freedom
As the intellect could never grow past reason

They told her her reasons were below theirs
And so she spilt ink of the floor and walked barefoot on it
So they could see the footsteps of her thinking
From mind to body the ink spilt
And all watched on as passion painted the floor a red liquid

Mind envied heart for its freedom
As the intellect could never grow past reason
Foot envied tongue for its speaking
And tongue envied eyes for its seeing

She being young could always tell
That cynicism was more a crutch than an excuse
Beauty came and went like change
Growing deeper and leaving evidence of life
Like wrinkles in space and time
But thoughts resisted aging to the body’s rhythm
They follow either mind or heart

The Fear of Failure

There are times when I don’t feel like writing. I have to understand these moments. I long to become who I’ve always wanted for myself—the best version of myself, but I feel a hindrance born from fear. Fear has become a crippling yet necessary emotion. It has taught me what I love and hate, but mostly what I love. We often fear the things we love (e.g. God, poetry, potential, the soul etc.). Therefore, I do not ever want to be fearless because the absence of fear mirrors the absence of passion and purpose. I fear poetry. Perhaps that’s why I am writing a letter/note instead. I fear poetry because it is my risk. Everyone has at least one chance at pursuing a potential risk that can change the course of their entire life and lead to immense happiness and self-fulfillment. Failure—a word I’ve been well acquainted with as of late—has become a great fear in my life, yet I have done everything to run into it. Perhaps my keeping in touch with failure has been therapeutic in ways in the sense that it has allowed me to purge and face my fear. The fear of failure has diminished more with each failure I have endured and survived. Falling doesn’t seem so scary any more...it is no longer a threat or obstacle, rather a prerequisite. I have to fall in order to get to know the ground and, thus, be able to stand firmly on it.

When the day presents a pause

Bismillah...

Autumn leaves gently glide above me,
Missioning to kiss pavement and soil,
As if to demonstrate the grace in change
when it welcomes new beginings

This tree will never be the same again,
but it will always remember...

It continues to hold firm to the earth
Rooted in it like thoughts to a mind
giving back to her what it takes
from weeping willow to pine

And so they exist in a tranquil marriage of truths:
that their creation was one of love from the One that created love
and their existence is one of transience from the Everlasting

(premature) Love Notes

Whether we meet Love in a sandbox, institution, website, coffeeshop
or anywhere 'cupid' dwells
its is always a familiar face (to the soul) and one we deserve

So, Love, if ever we drift apart from what we are today
it is not because I've fallen out of you or you of me
rather because you or I deserve better and we both deserve different

let not your heart play dress up and change ten thousand times
before finding the right suit
you might just wear it out before its time

Sincerely,
Love

For hearts and the stories they let circulate

In the name of the Creator....

There is so much to be said about the human heart
and the many ways it breaks
its naivities and intricacies
the many beats it takes from infancy

rthymically in the know; like time's apparatus
simultaneously exploring young and old
and the weaknesses inbetween
I long to know my own
and build immunity to heartache

but penetration is enevitable,
love is just that sharp
It's precision in the heart is narrated by incisions leaving scars,
markings of its presence connecting stories like loss, romance and hope.
like tears of the soul they symbolically linger in our being devoid mortal witness...

until we testify its truths
and believe in its authenticity

And so my story goes unnoticed
until ink breaths life to it (sometimes not even then)
it is between these breaths I regain my sanity
and during them that I live.

States

bismillah...

That which plauges our present is the future and its fears.
Its impending uncertainty...the nameless...mortally unnamed.
the unknown fortress; worldly portrait of forgetufullness
with humanity locked in it's frames.
This is what it inspires
but is it a death of aspirations,
or fabrication of the significance of this earthly station?
Does the clock not continue its rotation in tandem with the world?
How calculated we've become--
the globe pressed tightly under our thumbs
until the earth presses tightly under what's to come
Ribs fold, hearts drain, and in the mind is disturbance or peace
A dimension of anarchy
meets layers of dimensions built to explode the human intellect
in its mere infinite reality--
where ours is distorted and (soon to be) altered
but the spirit falters in flight
as the soul evolves past confinment,
or shrinks with it.
As the world revolves in alignment
just to communicate the secrets beneath its core..

Timaj (c)

Goodness

Via Shereeza Boodhs' facebook:

What makes a good Person*?

Based on a khutba (sermon) by Imam SlimiIt...

1. Exhibit Good Manners
2. Establish Justice
3. Encourage Good, Forbid Evil/Bad things
4. Restore Dignity to People
5. Work Towards Unity

*These qualities were presented in an islamic context and initally titled "what makes a good Muslim?" but are, of course, not only islamically relevant (also applicable to and inclusive of all people), thus, I decided to give it a more universal title for the purposes of this blog.

Special thanks to my good friend Shereeza for the piece of enlightenment!

What an artist must do...

"If you want a slice of life, look out the window. An artist has to look out that window, isolate one or two suggestive things, and embroider them together with poetry and fabrication, to create a revelation. If we can't, as artists, improve on real life, we should put down our pencils and go bake bread."

-Barbara Kingsolver (novelist)

Thoughts?

Relfections: combating mediocrity (phase 1)

I am faced with this challenged everyday. The challenge of rising above our ordinary selves in pursuit of achievment beyond ourselves and our expections. It is in everything we do--from the way we treat others to the relization of our greatest ambitions. It is hidden in seemingly insignificant acts that have the power to change us entirely. Recently I've been feeling this intensely. I am overwhelmed with ambition yet stagnant in accomplishment. I am not, however, hopeless. Just disappointed. My disappointment in myself has lead me to this conclusion...I need a spiritual makeover.

It brings me to the fundamental question that I ask and re-ask myself all the live-long day and am now asking you: what legacy do you want to leave? My answer has a dual-nature: one spiritual and hidden, one social and overt. It is this...I want to have been a service to God through worshipping Him and serving His creations to the best of my ability. I have relized that the majority of people just want to 'live their lives' and not be bothered by changing anyone elses, which is why people who dare to make a difference in the world are labelled 'extrodinary'.


Imagine for a second these extrodinary individuals (of those who are in a position to change someone else's condition) were the majority. Then humanitarianism would not be so extrodinary as almost every capable person would be investing their time, money and effort to a cause they feel passionate about. What if extrodinary became ordinary? Then I guess we'd all have to step up our philantropic game to be extrodinary. We would be full of beautiful legacies.

Now the challenge: daring to dedicate our lives (in some capacity) to changing lives. Giving back in some way. We have been given sustenence to share, not hoard. We have been given strength to strengthen others. Its a duty to reach out and share our provisions. Becoming giants in our communities takes what most people would call idealism because, as Eleanor Roosevelt once said, "you must do the thing you think you cannot do".

Often times people laugh, smirk, or look at me doubtfully when I tell them of my plans to change the world and I never understood why until I realized that most people that are at a position to change the condition of our world would trade in their legacies for a so-called comfortable life. May God save us from allowing the destruction of others and, in turn, that of our own souls.

Peace & love

Poetry and Promise

In the name of God...

Poetry and Promise
I write on it
with blood stained pens I write sonnets
ink diluted with tears
The brands of pens they fear, I use
ink of starvation and greed,
a fountain pen of abuse
I write as a witness to hurt,
jot down a heavy heart full of words,
A determined mind and restless spirit is what they nurse.
So charge me with a cause because im now willing to pay the cost
So
long
since
relief
How many lifetimes must we bleed?
Over-due
is
change
and over you and me is responsibility to make it happen
to save some part of humanity from collapsing
rescue some piece of our world
you chose the slice
then lets piece us back together for peace
and salvage our sleepless nights...
lets frame wrong and sentence it to right
lets rewrite our sentiments and fight
for solutions to our plight
compassion in place of the pollution of spite
in conclusion we might...
find a bigger part of ourselves
or in delusion regress to a love of wealth
a love of self is the catalyst of forgetfullness
Why must it take a tragedy to remedy our selfishness?
True courage is giving back to others until the self is spent
until you see through the lens of suffering
inspire those who hate...to love again.
Desire to feed every impoverished soul
make the unthinkable possible
its not only about leaving a legacy...
Its not to inspire vain applause and awe
but the ceasing of a moment of pause,
to reflect upon the glory of God
to see purpose in His cause
because we need to believe that we can redraw maps to freedom
and mark its destination in our hearts,
bleeding and beating like drums calling a revolution
I want to feel this more in my own soul's evolution
With poetry, I promise.

-Timaj (c)

Reverberations of late-night ponderings

bismillah,

For that which I haven't written,
those words that escape me...
is a home within my ribcage.
Stillness whispers to silence
and they understand a friendship deeper than rukus
I melt in their complexities
I am struck with awe at their dimensions and moments
revelations
that I wish we could hold on to long enough to cause a spiritual revolution
instead...pollution infects time and veins from the hypnotics of a spherical revolution,
delusion, subduing the pain with illusions we chose to sustain and we lose just to prove our disdain..
the situation paints cloudy skies
but the truth will soon reign (rain)
Hold this life in an hour glass
and the sand might shower fast
now we're cast into oblivion cause the power crashed
like stock markets in our hearts,
losing interest as our spiritual recession progresses
forgetfullness marks the paths that were stepping,
the waters that we're treading.
The earth cries for protection as we reck it
cries from justice as we paint its soil red with blood
as some walk on it barefoot and some with provision
some lay dead within it and some walk dead above it,
The sky cries firery sparks as rockets drop like tears
while we're clinically depressed from our psychological death
because we've pathologically slept on everyone but "self"
darkness has become our currency and we're currently in debt
In lands of the living-dead

-T

Urgency

bismillah...

I burn with the burden of billions of hunger pangs but know not how to cook relief
I yearn to be an opportunistic chef and whip up a digestible solution
I shiver with a chill born from broken shelter and exposure to our sweet "fresh air"
They yearn for the privilege of recycled air, and a mere blanket to cover adversity.

I run with the rage of ignited passion for reform, to inform of the worlds ways and the ways we can make way for world change
You run away from the pain of knowing pain, from feeling anything estranged from superficial pleasures in your day,
--you sweet escape into the so-called utopia invisible to eyes of the forgotten.

There is a secret choice we all make that is foreign to the knowledge of all other than two beings--God and our own souls...
It is the choice to carry the world on our backs.
I backpack the world and whenever I do not ache of it I wonder if I've dropped a piece of us, perhaps forgotten a piece of us to lighten my own load, to make it easier to bear.
...a convienece to my own soul.

Truth is, pieces of humanity have been dropped since the beginning of time.
You can find history on the floor beside the misery of suffering.
You can find it behind bars in a cell of innocent inmates.
Within wombs nursing a soon-to-be aborted child who could have changed the world.
We call these accidents, but truly they are turning points.
Choices...like the choice to be misinformed.

Education is the greatest gift to a nation for it breeds freedom.
Oppression only plagues a mind without the tools of independent thought,
A heart without the intentions of sacrifice for God,
A soul devoid understanding of its purpose.

So turn rage of injustice into action for a cause and its impact will first be seen in you.
I can bore you with numbers, urge you with shocking images but I won't because the need for this revolution cannot be calculated or viewed.
It must be felt within your being.

Ignite the world with philanthropic flame, then invite the world to your fiery passion.
Your mark on the world can be a mere ambiguous scratch inspiring nothing or a brilliant mural reminding the masses to recognize and preserve life

I refuse to be ambiguous in this world.
I refuse the ever-persistent offer of ignorance and oblivion and delve into peace and pavilions of thought where ideas are born and craddled to grow into hope
where action trumps distraction and conquers laziness of the soul

I pray to fight harder against myself for myself everyday
I'm grateful for the recognition that being a fighter is a part of what makes me human
It is an ancient struggle...
may generations live it better than generations before until the earth boils.

Hodan

Your presence in my life is like that of a birthmark
for I feel I've known you as long as I've known my skin.
Our bond transends memories,
It's like an imprint on the soul.
Distance seperates us only physically,
In spirit, we are roommates. <3

The Cure to Intellectual Arrogance

When asked by a man how he was able to attain such good character Imam Shafi'i (may God be pleased with him) said, "Whenever I would hear my critics I always used to take their criticism seriously...I never debated with anyone except that I would ask God to reveal the truth on that person's tounge so that my ego could submit to it".

Ramadan Resolutions

1. Forgive and ask for forgiveness

Forgiving: I want to forgive all who have wronged me and I mean truly forgive without being able to extract their wrongdoings in my mind whenever I feel disappointed or angry with them. I want to forgive myself for my own short-comings enough so that I can move forward.
Being forgiven: Yesterday I hurt someone that I love very much and have been tormented with the guilt and regret of my words. I only pray that this person finds it in their heart to accept my sincere apology. However, there is a lesson to be learned through all trials and tribulations—I have learned that the act of true forgiveness is one of the hardest human acts to follow through on and truly asking for it is the meaning of repentance. May God forgive us all. I want to write a note, a plea, rather to all those whom I’ve ever known asking them to forgive me for anything I’ve ever done.

2. To know what I know not from that which I am able to learn

I used to strive to be a polymath (someone who knows copious amounts of information from almost all disciplines—a true “know-it-all”) but now I simply want to quench my thirst for knowledge and to never experience the cessation of desire to absorb more about the world and beyond. I want to learn more about this beautiful way of life and how to please the Creator of it.

3. Patience

This requires inhibition—an inhibition of irrational action in the midst of a fury of emotion. One of my greatest struggles. Patience=peace of mind. It is a prerequisite for the resolution above (#2).

3. Control my senses

It is utterly difficult but not an impossibility to monitor what we let our senses taste of the world. Everything sensory affects us spiritualyl whether we are cognisant of it or not. If we allow ourselves to view, listen to, taste and feel what God has forbidden then our souls will morph into a product of those experiences and before we know it we become beings foreign to our own expectations of ourselves. The essence of fasting is to supress one of our base urges to teach our souls restraint. Therefore, we must fight our base urges that often times serve only as distractions from our greater purpose in life. The first step towards this sensory liberation for me personally is to eradicate television and music with negative/mind-numbing messages, God willing.

4. Move towards greater compassion

I say “move towards” because the heart’s maturation and evolutions occur with understanding, experience, and inspiration. Compassion is a quality that one must approach to possess. It is within you but seen outside of you. This is a personal goal of mine because I know I must work on my own character and become the example of my visions for the world before I can take on the world. As the late Michael Jackson (may God have mercy on his soul) said: “if you wanna make the world a better place than look in the mirror and make a change”

5. Achieve greater God conscientiousness

This is everything from greater concentration in prayer and supplication to greater contemplation about the Glory of God in day-to-day life. Above all, I want to have sincerity within my concentration-contemplation struggle. Because without sincerity all is lost on empty promises.

This list is not a very comprehensive one but it is a summary of my top resolutions. I would encourage anyone celebrating this blessed month to make their own Ramadan resolution list, put it in writing and review it at the end of the month to see how you've grown spiritually from this beautiful oppurtunity for self-improvement. May Allah increase us in understanding and draw us near to Him during this beautiful month and all the months that follow, ameen.

A noble message: We Are Lasers

Bismillah..

Lupe Fiasco--a critically acclaimed Chicago-based muslim emcee and humanitarian--recently updated his website with a beautiful message that I think we should all heed. Lupe has not only changed the face of hip-hop, but continues to be an inspiration through his efforts to awaken our collective conscience by raising awareness about crises around the world . He urges his listeners to take social responsibility for the human condition and to be courageous enough to take action against oppressive forces. Quite the revolutionary. Hats off to Mr. Fiasco. May Allah reward him for his efforts.

"We are not losers, we are lasers"...it's a movement.

http://www.wearenotlosers.com/

*peep the link above to see what I'm talking about*

Trees

A POEM BY JOYCE KILMER (1886-1918)

I think that I shall never see
A poem as lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth's sweet flowing breast;

A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

A tree that may in Summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.



-------
This is one of my favorite poems. Simple and beautiful, yet potent with meaning. Its a much needed reminder to never oversee simplicity because there is much profundity in it to the attentive heart. The observation is more one of the soul, than of the eyes. May we all love and fear the Creator of trees.

Side note:

This reminds me...

There are many instances where I am compelled to stop and ponder about a creation (non-human) of God that I would usually take for granted...my most recent pondering was that of my pen--a tool of expression and power. One of the earliest forms of documentation was through this simple utencil we often take for granted in this fast-paced technologically advanced zeitgeist. And yet possessing the ability to use it has given us so much freedom.

"freedom is between the page and the pen"-Amir Sulaiman

...this subtle obeservation made me grateful.

In light of these ponderings...I have a challenge for you beloved reader: think about the last time you stopped and marvelled at a creation of God found in nature or something manufactured by the hands of man through God's will (that you normally would not have noticed)...What thoughts did it inspire? how were you moved by it? Please share :)

Peace&love

A Beautiful Quote...

"I used to beg for divine justice when examing (the actions of) others. But then I looked at my own soul and started asking for mercy" -Anonymous

...SubhanAllah.

For starters.....

In the name of God

And so I re-enter the world of blogging...

After the death of my last blog I've been reluctant (i.e. lazy) to revive my cyber presence.I plan to, God willing, use this blog as a means to share thoughts, insights, writings, and anything I deem worthy of feeding your mind if you so chose to tune into what I have to say. I aspire to inspire and be inspired...

Hopefully I'll post my first official meaningful post in the near future (inshaAllah).

Peace!