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There are eighteen tenses of God
gleaned from the slap of his palm
She got to know father from the cracked
and rusted hinges
swinging outways, dry in anger
or contempt, or crazed with longing -
no one knows for sure -
Her feet like mustard, slipping yellow
across the floor,
Until one day he came to crash and broke,
she slid out the side door forever
A girl loosed free as would-be woman
Scraping at the bits world love could find
And pleading for depth and mystery,
even when her jaw ground on the words Heavenly
Father,
Eyes closed for years
Turned inward with patient listening
She became
The heart of God
Getting caught up
in remembering that old way of being with you
quiet, in the shade
grown over the wall
vines like long threads still whisper of
what it was like to be new and fragile
always on the precipice of ending
how we loved each other fiercely
and kindly against the wall
of our secret together garden
now I sit up top the stones
playing sudoku and solitaire
keeping an eye out for you
like waiting for spring to return
Parts I & II
Islam is generally understood to mean peace, purity, submission, obedience. I like to add ’surrender’, as a way to sum up the concepts of submission and obedience.
One God
La illaha illa Allah – There is only one God
This is the first concept we discover at the head of Islam.
The Arabic statement of faith is perfect in its articulation and generally simple to grasp. There is only one God is a unifying statement. That means that when I say that I worship God and you say you worship God we are talking about the same One. Even if you never heard of Muhammed, Yeshua (Isa, Jesus) or any of the other prophets of the Abrahamic faiths, you may be one who has faith and desire to know the One God who Created all.
Now the primary prophet of Islam was a man chosen by the One God to bring the age old message of God’s mercy to a people who had lost their way. Like the prophets before him he brought the message of enlightenment that can set us free. He taught his followers how to live simply and from the heart. He demonstrated that while we walk in the world our actions should reflect the grace of God. He showed us the path to enlightenment. Muhammed was a prophet and a teacher. And unfortunately, like the teachings of other prophets, his simple message has been distorted, fractured, skewed, reworked, and generally misunderstood.
Prophecy
Muhammedan rasulullah
Was Muhammed the last prophet? This question seems to matter very much to most Muslims. It seems blasphemous to dispute it. However, Christians assert that none followed Jesus (that he essentially said all that needed to be said) .
I humbly suggest that Muhammed may or may not have been the last prophet of God. I do not follow any others, but I would not say it is beyond God’s ability to send messengers when and where they are needed. It is not for me to know the will of God, or to set limits on the mystery of Allah Subhana wa’tallah. I believe there certainly are other works of literature inspired by the Creator through the experience of creation. I mean there may be countless such texts. My favorite writings are Rumi’s – certainly he was a man with a heart turned toward God and a gift for revealing the path to unity.
Distractions
As a revert to Islam I seek every day to live a simple life moving in the direction of deeper understanding and relationship with our Creator through the experience of this life on earth.
My goal at this point is to with compassion point out what I see as the flaws in understanding Islam that are common among Muslims. Not a word here comes from a position of authority or scholarship. In fact, I am only a simple poet digging out hope and moving with naked intent to the root of reality.
1) “The two accounts” - When we believe that God sits up in the sky, far away from us, watching our every action in order to determine if we are good enough to get into paradise or so bad that we must suffer hell we are getting caught up in simplistic nonsense. The whole of creation is too vast and the nature of the Creator a mystery ever unfolding as we move to grasp it. God is merciful, forgiving in a way that we as humans can only try to attain. We are a loved creation.
When we take action because we seek reward, or we do not act because we fear retribution we are self-seeking and unenlightened. When we act rightly because we are seeking with our hearts to be the loving fulfillment of our own nature – that great cosmic consciousness dwelling inside flesh - we are moving closer to our true creation purpose.
2) Strict Observance – There really is no requirement or compulsion in religion. If we seek God then we will find God, or God will find us – revealed within the context of life. We get it slowly, inshAllah, according to the will of God for only God knows what is unseen.
So now I want touch on the matter of strict observance as to ritual and conduct. As there is no compulsion and the manners of the Prophet Muhammed, peace be upon him, were unknown and not generally practiced before him, there is no sense in fearing retribution for failing to follow orthodox guidelines.
I see it this way and it is simple. If you act out of love for God, and you choose to take up practices of the prophets for sake of pleasing the Creator, then you have the right attitude. If however, you do something year after year and gain no spiritual insights from it, and have no momentum to deeper compassion and surrender then what is the purpose? Ritual can become a distraction from your purpose in life.
Here are two tangents on the matter, which deal with thoughts on observancy:
Following his example vs. Stalking the Prophet (pbuh)
Everywhere there are people trapped by the belief in inherited assumptions. The interpretations of the words of the Prophets as passed down by those who, though they followed them, may have severely misunderstood them.
May we agree to open our hearts once more and push out all the thoughts and obligations that stop up the natural God-gifted divinity within that moves in love, compassion, forgiveness and peace. If you find yourself doing deeds because you are hoping for a reward of a future paradise, or you find yourself abstaining from action in fear that you be punished with hellfire – then where is your faith in the Creator of all matter?
The mystics urged us to reject self-interest and turn to the center of being and call from inside to the place where the One God dwells. When I began the practice of Islam, as it was shown to us by the Prophet Muhammed, peace be upon him, I found the doorway God intended for me to reach through to the mystery of life and the home of radical love.
Where are you my brothers and sisters who want to throw off, as the prophets and mystics did, the sticky soul case of illusion and ask for Allah to create in us a clean, rebirthed spirit self – learning and growing through the experience of life!
It is time for the believers to look up from the dirt, and remember the truth – there is One God. It is time for believers to acknowledge that many are true believers who do not call themselves Muslims. The tragedy of history is the destruction of a simple truth. The prophets never cease to come – but have we stopped listening? So many washing first the right then the left three times, do not really know what it means to follow the example of the Prophet – offering pieces, when a sacrifice of ego, of desire, of illusion is demanded.
Видно уже что завтра больше не было. Я постараюсь писать что-то сегодня после работы.
Спасибо за ожидание.
Может быть я найду себя в потёмках, скрытая под домом. Услуг постоянно явление на улгу. Около форточки у входа парень там названием Вик – не мой. Я сама его не знаю, только так как все знали бы
о характере у такого во всяком городе.
Через линию неформального запросов, используя своего рода пробный шарик, я проверила что у него дочь в школе где сестра моя работала три года до времени смерти. От этого факта другой целый мир создал. Я поняла от более раннего сообщения с сестрой что она в кого-либо влюблённа. В том времени я же дура не хотела узнать с кем у неё роман. Мне всё равно. Между нами так великий различие был.
А к чёрту история. Я боюсь что мне уже пора, а не счастливо.
(завтра будет побольше)
The lure of the Sylar (Gabriel) and Elle relationship on Heroes caught me off guard as I spent this weekend with my browser parked on the series’ Hulu page.
It’s the ultimate metaphore for the addict/codependent love catastrophe that is sadly all too familiar to me.
Elle represents the underdeveloped self who rebels like a spoiled child. Having no secure sense of identity other than what she gleans from her oppressive father, she naturally gravitates toward cruel, powerful men. What she was unable to do with her father, she attempts with Sylar. Her natural desire for love unnaturally mutates into the controlling, consuming behavior of a codependent.
Sylar, formerly Gabriel Grey, has mommy issues. A domineering female figure is where he finds comfort, safety and solace. With a personality split by addiction (to killing we realize, not just power) he is haunted no matter which way he turns. Gabriel – the original self that lies beneath the influence – is like the beautiful but corruped soul we codependents see in all addicts.
The two personalities are irresistibly drawn together but eventually fall short of finding their deeper needs met. The codependent Elle sacrifices everything – even her life – to try to change the monster into a man who can love her – into someone who will change for her. At first the addict Gabriel delights in the adoration and infatuation he receives. He feels the power and the draw as if he could overcome his disease through her – as if she was a catalyst. Soon however, he discovers that his true love is the rush of his drug of choice – and he relapses.
Elle is my character, my identity. I am the woman who would let, even encourage the destruction of self within the fire of the mad heat love of a man possessed. Thinking myself as willful and powerful as God, drawing a delusional framework for healing and manifestation I caste myself into the devil’s mouth.
And in that perpetual realization I hear the rage of a woman whose worth is lost by her own addiction to love.
The prophets have tried to keep our idol obsessed brains in check by reminding us -
There is no religion
There is only God
and this is to say not gods – but a great universal force that creates and destroys – and in what manner and for what purpose we may only attempt a guess
so whatever religion you claim is right is wrong
because Allah is too great to be contained
there is no gender in Spirit until you begin to anthropomorphise
there is no son, no daughter except for every one of us in a sense – and that there are countless expressions and moods and temperaments of the One
I am – and this is how we know that I wasn’t and I won’t be – except for how It wills me
Gender neutral pronouns seem insincere but I’m just trying to keep it real and remind you that Jesus, peace be upon him, was not a Christian but a Jew and a Muslim
But not in the sense of worshiping a religion – but in seeking the path of unity
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