Use Your Wings!

“You were born with wings. Why prefer to crawl through life?” 

 [Mevlana Jalaludding Rumi]

Now don't just read this beautiful verse and then forget it. Why not dwell on it a moment or two?

I personally take this literally. I just need to find my wings.

Kaise Paheli Hai Ye, Kaise Paheli Zindagani

Enjoy one of my favorite songs, this song is from the Hindi movie Parineeta, a classic.

What does it all really mean?

We find ourselves unconsciously and of course many times consciously judging others. 


Looking at someone not as well dressed as inferior, not as well learned as inferior, not as well mannered as inferior. You can take any singular quality of another, evaluate it and determine how they rank up to you, not how you rank up to them. This is me at least. I have recently become aware of this malady of mine. It's disturbing that it took so long, but I am grateful I have realized this at last.


Everything happens at its appropriate time and knowledge is bestowed upon one when they are able to comprehend and bare it.


Treat everyone you meet or see as your teacher, they have something to teach you whether you want to learn or not, the simple fact that we observe others makes this point inevitable.


The point and character trait I am trying to stress on myself is humbleness, God knows I really lack this quality.







This post is an incomplete conversation I had with myself, usually whilst riding the train to work, I guess that's when my mind is most active in thought not related to the monotonous routine that is life.


Whatever. Ponder as you wish.

Anyway, I find it really strange when people look at others and honest to God think

Mystical Musings on the Train Ride In

As of late, I have been reading a lot of poetry, mystical poetry to be exact, as I ride the "El" to work everyday. I have read through two books and have started my third in a matter of a week.


I don't know how many of you are familiar with mystical poetry, so I will give you a definition that I myself have applied to the term.


Let's break it down.


Mystic refers not to someone with magical powers and foresight into the beyond, necessarily. In my mind and in the classical Islamic view, mystic refers to someone with deep spiritual insight, often times a friend of God, which is a loose interpretation of the Arabic Awliya, or Evliya in Turkish, which is to mean "Intimate Friend of God", a more common term used as its synonym is the term "Saint". You Catholics might appreciate that >_<


To be mystical is to have the attributes of a mystic, that's somewhat of a bizarre tautology, but I think it gets the message across. What defines a mystical attribute? From the outwardly, as far as I can see and am aware, the following attributes seem almost necessary for any mystic:


Patience
Humbleness
Love
Respect
Piety (although one that is subtle and not obvious)
Self-Control
Self-Discipline
Generousness
Contentment


Mystics tend to always have their faces graced with a vibrant smile and as cliche as it may sound, a twinkle in their eyes.

However, the inwardly is not something I have experienced, but merely have read about, so what I can share is based on book knowledge and the experience of intimate friends.

Absolute Contentment
Divine Wisdom
Constant Smiles
Emanation of Light
Being in their presence removes doubt, pain and worries, and replaces them with happiness.
Extremely Compassionate
Loving and Generous


Ahhh.... words... why do you limit my intentions so much!? Honestly, words do no justice when describing saintly people. It's an experience each and every one of us should pray to have, it's beyond words and imagination, that's no exaggeration. Like Hamza Yusuf described it, looking at such a person is like watching the sun rise, he meant that literally.

Anyway...

My whole point of even writing this is that I went to my favorite bookstore a couple weeks ago and had the intention of buying mystical poetry by actual mystics, I bought three books and came home elated. It turned out that I know very little about mysticism, or at least, very little about its noted practitioners.

I bought a book by Khalil Gibran, entitled "The Prophet" it was an amazing book, an epic poem, it inspired and enlightened just as I anticipated it would, it turns out he wasn't Sufi at all, he was a Meronite Christian. Regardless, his words were beautiful. Then I began to read the second book, "The Kasidah" by haji Abdu Eydaz (I may have gotten his name wrong btw), and I read through it, and started get hints of something I am not used to when I read poets like Rumi and Hafez, and as I read I finished and read the notes, the notes on this poetry was half the length of the book. His dear friend, a Briton, Sir such and such (I will get the name for you once I can), gave his commentary on the man and his words and it was interesting to say the least.

I was surprised to see the contradictory-ness in the notes and what the poetry to me described. It seemed like the poet had a love-hate relationship with mysticism, but I think that may just be due to my ignorance on the subject. More research is necessary!

I finally came to my this and final book, "The Rubaiyaat of Omar Khayyam", written by Omar Khayyam of course, Rubaiyaat means Quartrains, or four-lined poems, I found it interesting how that translated because in Arabic Arba'a means four and you can also say Rabi'a, hence Rubaiyaat. In English, you have four and then a quarter which signifies something divided by four, hence Quartrains, it is just funny to me that essentially the way the words were coined came from two ends of the spectrum, Rabi'a meaning four and quarter meaning one-fourth, two ends making a whole, haha... anyway, apologies.

I read the whole Rabiyaat, it was wonderful to read yet it lacked a certain luster which I crave, and lo and behold as I read the narrative about the author I learned that he was directly opposed to Sufi thought and ideals and actually mocked them. This I would absurdly astounding. Yet, I believe Omar too requires further research, thank God for Wiki!

That's what I wanted to share, all three are still great books, but I think now is a good time to return to the classics, Hafez, Rumi, Attar, these giants and saintly men are keys to the divine.

Some Emily Wisdom

"Hope is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul, And sings the tune--without the words, And never stops at all, And sweetest in the gale is heard; And sore must be the storm That could abash the little bird. That kept so many warm. I've heard it in the chillest land, And on the strangest sea; Yet, never, in extremity, It asked a crumb of me" 

[Emily Dickinson]

Ye Hum Naheen

Finally, some anti-terrorism propaganda by Pakistanis


http://www.yehhumnaheen.org/


Please take a look at the following video:



http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=375957338053&ref=mf

Violence is ignorance.

Lefke and Istanbul

Thursday, March 3, 2010


Welcome back!


I would like to share my journey with you all. What a journey it was.


I just typed out 400+ picture captions, so I am going to take a break from typing right now. Considering the rest of my work day consists of typing numerous emails, I should save my fingers. Although, until I regain feeling in my hands, you can enjoy one of my favorite images from Istanbul!

The Sultan Ahmet Camii, also known as the Blue Mosque