1. What do you propose to do? [20 words]
Build ILLUME’s technology and staffing infrastructure and implement a social currency model that rewards readers for engagement.
2. Is anyone doing something like this now and how is your project different? [30 words]
ILLUME is the first…
(Source: newschallenge1)
#muhammad #rasulullah #mawlid #rabialawwal (Taken with instagram)
I think this is the first year where I actively felt engaged in mujahada, that I was fighting against the shayateen in my own mind.
Some people may take this to be a sign of maturity or something, and to an extent they’re right I suppose. I would always rather feel more angelic presences instead…
And perhaps it is that He has decreed some shayateen to be your constant partners, never fully vanquished from your soul - just locked in cages that you painstakingly build for them.
So that whenever you hear them rattling at the bars, or enticing you to unlock the door, you shake yourself out of your daze, reject their siren song, and crush them twice as hard with dhikr.
بلغ العلى بكماله
كشف الدجى بجماله
حسنت جميع خصاله
صلوا عليه و آله
By his perfection, He attained the highest of heights,
Dispelled darkness by being the most beautiful of sights,
Each and every one of his qualities embodied sublimity,
Benediction and blessings be upon on him and his family!
— by Shaykh Sa’di رحمه الله translation my own (iA you guys like it, it’s hard to capture the rhyme and beauty of the original arabic!)
— from a forum poster at deenport.com
Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible without surrender
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.
Avoid loud and…
Yuna || Someone Out Of Town.
“Who is this stranger. I should be scared, could be dangerous.”
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
I think the majority of people I’ve met spend their entire lives wondering what the point of it all is. While I’m not trying to deny one’s right to search for meaning, a crystallization of sorts seems to have taken place.
What I mean by this is that a particular attitude has more or less become cemented in society’s collective consciousness, and can be characterized thusly: when people find meaning and stability, a sense of anxiety of all things creeps in at having finally “found it” - almost as if to say that the only acceptable long-term sort of stability is none at all.
What does that say about how people think, and how they view themselves? I feel it means that most people aren’t allowing themselves to be truly happy, and that furthermore, they themselves don’t feel worthy of long-term happiness. Or perhaps like a fairy tale told to children, not many people believe in such a whimsical thing any longer.
Noting this, it occurred to me that, alhamdulillah, I don’t need to spend my whole life like so many do: running around back and forth, wondering which path to take, or doubling back, trying others, and so on. On my path, Islam is the steed, and Allah is the destination. I know this now, I’ve felt it in my soul.
And what a blessing it is to realize that your path suffices in every way! Does that mean there won’t be bumpy parts? Of course not. But the imperfections of the path are precisely what make it tailor-made for you. They by no means warrant a u-turn.
Most of all, I’m excited to see where the path takes me. Forward!
As part of an essay I’m writing, I translated this poem by Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last Mughal Emperor of India. He lived a very….harsh life, and that’s putting it nicely.
Some background info: after successfully suppressing the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857, the British moved to consolidate power once and for all.
According to Parwaiz Khan:
The last Mughal Emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar, was captured. The British were desperate for his endorsement. To persuade him, [the] British beheaded his sons one by one - and presented [to] him their heads on [a] breakfast tray - Very civilized, indeed. Bahadur Shah refused to submit, and was sent to die in a prison in Burma.
By the end of his life, Bahadur Shah Zafar’s face, a face of royalty, had been reduced to this:
As it turns out, Bahadur Shah was quite the accomplished poet. One of his poems really struck me for a number of reasons that I may choose to elaborate on in another post. Suffice it to say for now that I believe this poem really captures the effect that colonization had on the souls of those forced to live under it. The best way for a colonist (both those in the past and those that exist today…) to accomplish their draconian project is to crush each and every atom of dignity and self-worth the colonized might have the audacity to possess. Bahadur Shah Zafar’s poem represents this quite vividly, and it offers real insights the state of the ummah today, and all those souls bearing the brunt of oppression around the world. Think about the effects this complete and total abortion of agency has on the world we live in today. What kinds of people would such treatment produce?
Here’s the poem:
na kisii kii aa.Nkh kaa nuur huu.N
na kisii ke dil kaa qaraar huu.N
jo kisii ke kaam na aa sakaa
mai.n vo ek musht-e-gubaar huu.N
Not the light of any one’s eye, I am
Nor solace for any one’s heart.
Of no use to anybody,
I am a fistful of dust.
na to mai.n kisii kaa habiib huu.N
na to mai.n kisii kaa raqiib huu.N
jo biga.D gayaa vo nasiib huu.N
jo uja.D gayaa vo dayaar huu.N
Not any one’s beloved, I am
Nor any one’s enemy.
That which has become spoiled, rotten…such is my fate.
That which has become numb, impotent…such is my land.
meraa ra.ng-ruup biga.D gayaa
meraa yaar mujhase bichha.D gayaa
jo chaman khazaa.n se uja.D gayaa
mai.n usii kii fasl-e-bahaar huu.N
Faded from me, my color and complexion has,
Parted from me, my friend has.
Each garden ruined since autumn…
…I am the crop of its spring.
aiy faatiha koi aaye kyun,
koi chaar phool cha-ra ye kun
koi aake shamma jalaye kui-n
mein wo be-kasee-ka mazar hun
Why would anyone recite al-Fatiha here?
Why would anyone visit with a bouquet of flowers?
Why would anyone even come and light a candle here?
The tomb of such destitution, I am.
— Hamid Dabashi, Islamic Liberation Theory
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
الحمد لله رب العالمين
وصلى الله على سيدنا محمد وعلى آله وصحبه وسلم
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Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as...
“Be, and it is.” — Qur’an 36:82
A poem by Imam al-Haddad recited by Omar Mahmood.
قـــــد اسـتـعـنـتـك ربــــــي عــلـــى مـــــداواة قـلــبــي
وحـــــل عــقـــدة كــربـــي...
Takbir al-Eid from Morocco. Eid Mubarak everybody :)
