The Wrappings of Gratitude

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ

In the Name of Allah Most-Compassionate, Most-Merciful

The land of Chinguett, more commonly known to the English-speaking world as Mauritania, is renowned for producing great scholars, saints, and erudite women of note. Scholars traveling to Mauritania have observed that “even their women memorize vast amounts of literature.” Mauritanian women have traditionally excelled in poetry, seerah, and genealogy, but some who mastered the traditional sciences were considered scholars in their own right.

Maryam Bint Bwayba, who memorized the entire Qur’an and the basic Maliki texts, was one such Mauritanian woman worthy of note. I had the honor of knowing Maryam, a selfless and caring woman, and the noble wife of Shaykh Murabit al-Hajj, having first met both of them twenty-five years ago in a small tent in the remote spiritual community of Tuwamirat in Mauritania. Read the rest of this entry »

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ

In the Name of Allah Most-Compassionate, Most-Merciful

For what price do we sell ourselves for this dunya? This was a question that I became intensely interested in increasingly, particularly as I witnessed more and more people becoming occupied with the dunya and its acquisition. Allah subhanhu wa ta’ala asks the same question in the Qur’an, but is also unequivocal about the position of those who sell their lives for the sake of the dunya:

بِئْسَمَا اشْتَرَوْاْ بِهِ أَنفُسَهُمْ أَن يَكْفُرُواْ بِمَا أنَزَلَ اللّهُ بَغْياً أَن يُنَزِّلُ اللّهُ مِن فَضْلِهِ عَلَى مَن يَشَاء مِنْ عِبَادِهِ فَبَآؤُواْ بِغَضَبٍ عَلَى غَضَبٍ وَلِلْكَافِرِينَ عَذَابٌ مُّهِينٌ

“Miserable is the price for which they have sold their souls, in that they deny (the revelation) which Allah has sent down, in insolent envy that Allah of His Grace should send it to any of His servants He pleases: Thus have they drawn on themselves Wrath upon Wrath. And humiliating is the punishment of those who reject Faith”. (Qur’an, Al-Baqarah 2:90)

Miserable indeed is the price for more than one reason. Read the rest of this entry »

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ

In the Name of Allah Most-Compassionate, Most-Merciful

Amazing Grace,
Thou art most elusive,
The shiest of God’s blessings,
But sought you we did…

In knowledge and in understanding,
in happiness and in success,
in courage and in compassion.
We sought you in love, and in the pursuit of justice,
in expression, and in allieviating human suffering,
in serving the poor, and in protecting  their rights.
We sought you in peace.

In the pursuit of all these things,
came finally the end of the journey.
The end of all those journies was the same.
That end was Grace.

Shores unimaginable to the heart and mind.
To which ones does not bring oneself, but is brought,
for the journey is too long and ardous,
beyond ones capacity to achieve.

The success of all successes,
the joy of all joys we found Grace,
but not before finding fear and hope,
courage and determination,
faith and longing.

Our companions through those tribulations,
Through whom one understood,
why the journey might be as it is,
for the end is quite humbling, ’tis Grace.

Grace is but the embodiment,
of all those journies mentioned afore,
a place born in ones heart,
before ones heart was yet born.

Grace is love, Grace is peace,
Grace is goodwill towards all people,
Grace is elegance, Grace is beauty,
Grace is beautiful, Grace is fragrance,
Grace is knowledge,
Grace is free, Grace is freedom.

Grace is air, Grace is high,
Grace is elevated, Grace is dignity,
Grace is our gracefulness towards God’s creation,
Grace is the Gracefulness of our Lord to us.

Through all that,
Grace is our longing and our yearning,
for our Lord Most-High.
Grace is our Lord reaching down to comfort us,
to lift us upon plains high,
noble and esteemed.

Grace is ones heart’s eternal longing for its eternal love,
Grace is Grace – is no less than the blessing of ones Lord.
The Light of His guidance,
contained in the submission to His Will.

Grace is what we seek to attain,
to be granted that place,
that beautiful home,
in this life and in the next,
that we might all one day come to know Grace,
And with one voice, one day say,
what we were taught, when we first read,
Grace is but our Lord, One God,
“La Illaha Ill Allah”.

___________________________

Amazing Grace
by John Newton (1725-1807)

“Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me….
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now, I see.

T’was Grace that taught…
my heart to fear.
And Grace, my fears relieved.
How precious did that Grace appear…
the hour I first believed.

Through many dangers, toils and snares…
we have already come.
T’was Grace that brought us safe thus far…
and Grace will lead us home.

The Lord has promised good to me…
His word my hope secures.
He will my shield and portion be…
as long as life endures.

When we’ve been here ten thousand years…
bright shining as the sun.
We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise…
then when we’ve first begun”.