The Quest :: for Verity, true Love, true Peace

Manora

2011-03-03T14:27:00.000Z

The sky mellows its eyes above me,
Endeared letters inscribed in divine ink
Tips of fallen feathers,
Angels that soar within,
Melding the doors of my heart
Writing your name on its handles
Knocking, that perchance it will open
Torrents of enchantment,
Love, my entrapment
Concealing life's scars,
The scent of peace,
As your presence passes by,
Put me to sleep, oh Lord,
But have me by your side,
Let fate light my manora
In the confines of your heart,
How few my candles
But how close are love
Entwines.
Lighting the darkness of
my prison,
my heart.

Destiny, I've been told

2010-06-06T21:58:00.002+01:00

Destiny, I've been told,
favors the brave and the bold--

Our self-will steering the course of our ship
in a sea immersed in Gods waves'

The wind would seem to betray you, as you drift into forlorn Islands, only to find his treasure',

The waves, ferocious, as ever
I tremor, the thought of salvation
Keeps me a float

In a world, heavy as sin, you'd think
It won't be long, before i drown, i sink

But Desinty, i've been told,
Favors the brave and the bold--

How many men have drowned in waters,
Where the torrents of evil neither soften nor quell,
Their vigor as merciless as eternal hell.

But, the Lord watches over the Sea,
Most Sublime and Glorious is He,
Who knows the folly of man?

And knows the reaches of their souls
Casualties of self-love, buried in hearts of coal
in its bottomless pits, lightless, dark, and cold

Destiny, I've been told,
Favours the brave and the bold--

How many a man, Seized by divine light
Martyrs of the soul, Victors of life's fight

Their compasses set toward God,
And so too the course of their flight
Servants of the Most High

The Ever-Living, Ever-Present, Lord of Limitless Might
Their wings, strands, of divine Glory and Praise

Subhanallah as their hearts sore and raise

Destiny, they've been told,
Favors the brave and the bold--

They have recognized the heavens
Are at the core, the nexus of their soul
Nearer indeed, then the blood that pours
Through their veins,
The rise is imminent, for all that does not conform to his will, will ebb and wane

Let all bear witness,
Let the revolution unfold

Destiny you've been told,
Favours the brave and the bold.

[Abbreviated version, of the Spoken Word recording]

Break and Fall

2009-10-01T05:31:00.002+01:00

Love, like the reins of virulent breeze,
An infectious melody that summons all that its eyes seize,
Racing through the valleys of our hearts
Would that it would never end, nay
Would that it would never start,
Torturous serenity, in the hollows of my soul,
Fuming fragrances, in my heart, consuming all
Love,
Peace,
As all except the beloved,
Break and
Fall.
Into pieces,
Break and
Fall.

She Still Smiles

2009-07-30T07:50:00.012+01:00

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What is it all worth? Cyclical suffering, it seems since our very birth-
we enter this world in pain, tears of a newborn soul--
an introduction to sorrow--the happiness that life stole.
She was told of her impending death, adding more to life's gloom--
still I'd see her smile, even as death would loom.
She'd cook, she'd eat, she'd love, she'd sleep,
she'd even play a game or two--
to the point that I'd wonder if she forgot what death would do--
like what's the point in living if you were told death is coming, and knew

Its indeterminate the doctor said, cancer, and were' not quite sure when you'll be dead.It could be sooner or later, we can't cure you, it will surely grow in size,
till it leads to your demise--I'm sorry Eve, as he stares into her eyes,
three kind words but its as if the doctor lies.

How could he be sorry--he has no idea perhaps he means pity.

You see she is no different than you and i, except that she now stares at death right in the eye, while we blink and cower, even though death is promised to us all, and may come at any hour.

Her eyes betray her sombre reality. We spoke, we laughed, we lived and I could never so much as glean past the glee before me. What it is to live life knowing? Would the candles of our life still flicker?

Her candle is still alight.

She smiles still, even as death looms. Even as death is in plain sight.

Rest in God's peace.

(P.S. please recite the opening chapter of the Quran (fatiha) for her soul)

An Unruly Heart

2009-07-23T06:34:00.001+01:00

Dark tears,
Revelations of an unruly heart,
The seamstress
who's seams have strewn apart
Revelations of an unruly heart,
I am your ego, cast in cast Iron,
Savoured by itself, by it's Self.
Truth, sounding my Inner Siren
A vestige of divine promises.
Revelations of an unruly heart,
A casualty to self-Love
An unfeathered dove,
Crying livid tears,
Revelations of an unruly heart,
Heaven hold me at my temple,
How i long to be free,
Spiritual serendipity,
For even your favoured children
were orphans,
Reared by divinity.
Revelations of an unruly heart,
Favour my orphaned soul
whose crevices have hardened
into sullen scabs of ember and coal,
Crying dark tears
Revelations of an unruly heart,

Smile

2009-05-07T07:41:00.003+01:00

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Smile,

i wish you'd take a moment and smile,
life is less than a frown and more than a smile,
its a short journey, an hour perhaps a mile---
It feels like forever but really it only lasts a while,
so look forward to tomorrow, with glee,
a world of happiness and experience waiting to be---

so smile,

i wish you'd just take a moment to just smile,

I know God has great intentions and that no life is in vain, like the beauty of birth beyond the pain,

Smile, i wish you'd smile,

I know yesterday has its regrets but remember its just history,
and tomorrow, is never set, it will always be a mystery,

so don't fret, just smile, happiness is in you, look no further than within, and go further when within

And smile.

Old Lady

2009-04-18T06:32:00.005+01:00

She taught me with her abysmal eyes,
Of lessons, painfully, in time, learnt
Arcane truths etched into the mounds of her furrowed skin,
Assorted wrinkles, of life's wounds, thick and thin,
Teach me, i pled, for my heart yearns to see,
Past life's pain and pleasure,
What life means to be.

Is happiness a rumour tattled between divine ears?
Is man's ego an inversion of his greatest fears?
What lies beyond the orchard of life? Death?
Brute cessation or a lasting breathe?

Why do you smile old lady, in the midst of life's troubles and toil?

She sunk to the ground beneath her, saying
hither i came, and I will return to this very soil

Happiness is a state, not a smile, pleasure, or a laugh for a while
Surely, life is a stranger to stillness, so do not exhaust your hearts hope, sadness will leave just as it comes, and it is meaning that will help you cope.

I smile for a thousand meanings.

I smile for a thousand reasons.

I smile, said the old lady.

I smile.

Jasmine Weaves

2009-01-04T08:34:00.001Z

So much that I could say or do
to show that I love you
I'd paint the night's sky, white and blue,
Just to brighten up your day,
I'd write a language, letters and words too
Just to express what my heart has to say,
I love you, more than the words that I speak,
I love you, more than the letters that i seek,
I love you, beyond what you could ever conceive
Coils of fragrant love, jasmines strewn into a weave
I love you, more than you would ever believe.

Karbala CD

2009-01-04T08:32:00.004Z

Salams, just letting you know :) some of poetry of yours truly, is on a Spoken Word Album-- http://www.onthed.com

The cd is called Karbala: The Unspoken Word

just making it known,
much love

Miracles

2008-12-26T06:07:00.005Z

I'm looking into his eyes,
the
miracle
of
birth,
the
width, of which is unsurmountable
girth, a product of where we are going and where we came,
earth, I pray and hope it blossoms, a life full of piety, and
mirth, even when lifes sadness takes its sway, I hope you still recognize its
worth, despite its transcience and spiritual
dearth, I pray you find it at last

peace, for the next miracle comes racing fast

the miracle of death

Tribute to words of wisdom gleaned from Islam (the person). We were discussing the miracle of birth, the journey of innocence into this world, and the miracle of death; the inscrutable journey, that we shall all traverse--allowing the prospect of life to cycle through generations to come, for innocence to find its way. Death is a matter of Life. Birth and Death, both thought provoking 'miracles' that enrich our sense of being and ground us back into the grips of reality.

Fragile Future

2008-12-04T13:57:00.002Z

I will take you there,
I will
Hold you by your hand
Our fragile earth shakes now,
But trust in Him,
Tomorrow we will stand
What is this world,
But breaths and dust,
Rustling in the wind
And live we must.
I will take you there.
I may not know the future,
But it will sure come to know me.

Greater

2008-11-17T01:23:00.002Z

oh help me God,
look past my unfaithful love,
look past my pride, oh how it
blinds my sight
look past my faults, oh
how engulfing they are

it is your hand i seek,
in the profundities of my heart,
how many a beloved loved
but so few in love,
so i make no claims to love,
you, as you love me, for in all loftiness
your Love of all things great is
greater.

I wish...

2008-11-16T00:00:00.001Z

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Wish you were mine from the start,
Like heaven wrote our names on the
Throne but time wrote us apart,
I wish you were there with me,
When my heart began to echo your name
So I could, feel your warmth, and wonder,
perhaps your heart echoed the same

I wish I knew your name from before,
I'd whisper it under my breaths again
and again, I wouldn't tire or bore,
I wish I had known your visage, your face
I would imagine it in all that I see,
Like the world was to be found in one place

I wish but i wish no longer,
Your heart's now nestled in mine
And everyday its love grows stronger
Lord, I wish you'd keep this love flowing,
I'd rather live and love than die not knowing
Remembering your name, as the
The kernel of my soul remains forever glowing

Lord, light the candles of my heart,
For of what value is life, i ask
If you are not by my side,
If I am not by yours, our hearts unallied
And what of love? Bewitched by its snares
Raptly staring into its eyes, as it stares

I would envisage all that is you in me,
In everything that I see around,
echoes of your name,
permeations of your sound
In search of true love,
I would cleave our hearts open,
Cleave to your love hoping

It would never end.

Words

2008-11-09T19:22:00.000Z

it's not what was said, but who said it

it's not what was said, but who said it,
how sweet it is to be murdered by the
poisonous dagger of your enemy
than to be wounded by the one to
whom your heart harbours love
frail strikes and lasting wounds,

words

what then of actions and feelings?

If it wasn't for the likes of you

2008-10-23T04:54:00.001+01:00

If it wasn't for the likes of you

Lovely thoughts caress my heart
As i recall the one about you
A thought so vivid, I would tear apart
And I am sure the world would too

About love, how might i begin,
As I was certain of its death,
And speechless I lay therein,
Trying to catch my breath

I pay no heed to my lonesome years,
Which yearned for someone like you
I count not anymore my withered tears,
Which all droughts wished they knew,

And feel I, always, regret and remorse
That if only this happiness was forever
And that you were its eternal source
And now I will write, and no word shall sever

For if the seas were like paper to pen,
And oceans, books wherein i may write at ease
Then marvel at my words oh men,
That no ocean or sea could ever endure
And if this love be like a fatal disease
Then i have truly died and there is no cure.

I am that fountain of love,
And you are its gushing water,
I am that tranquil dove,
And you are what lets it fly further

And the words are endless you see,
But what the soul aspires is true
And no second would i ever be,
If it wasn't for the likes of you

4/14/2002
----
One of my earliest poems (surviving poems hahah, one i realy worked hard on..lol at that time it was a feat)

Stranger

2008-10-17T16:57:00.001+01:00

Would you wait for me
even as time forgets my name,
would you forget me in time,
just the same,
would you look at me as a distant stranger
you once knew, after all we've been through,
what would you?

Another World

2008-10-11T22:54:00.002+01:00

In another world, where our two fates meet,
Our hearts, together beat, in another world,
Where I am forever yours and you mine
Our dreams, submerged in infinite time
Waking up to your love, in a world
Where our two horizons share the same Sun,
And the Moon, brilliant, together as one
I wait, by the orchard trees,
Fingers twiddling righteous beads,
Whispering devout deeds,
Remembering your name,
Waiting for the day we meet
In Eden,
Where our hearts, together, beat
again.

On Friends

2008-10-11T22:49:00.002+01:00

"Friends are a single soul divided between different bodies."~Imam Ali (Ghurar al-Hikam, no. 2059)

"Souls are of different kinds. Those that resemble each other are in harmony, and people are more attracted towards those they resemble."~Imam Ali (Bihar al-Anwar, v. 78, p. 92)

(watch this space..more to be added)

Autumn Leaves

2008-10-10T16:36:00.002+01:00

leaves swaying as they fall,
from gallant trees that still stand tall,
colouring the earth with their presence,
steadily nourishing its very essence,
the array of life sustained through death,
i marvel at your world,
Oh lord
how glorious your ways,
still catching my breath as i gaze,
counting my fleeting days,
teach me to love, live, and die,
in your name,
for all else pales
yes all else pales,
and lays no claim

Voice of Time

2008-10-05T23:40:00.008+01:00

you loved me but now the tide subsided
was once a soul you adored and confided
what happens to the voice of time,
as it whispers its solemn secrets
past my senile ears,

saying cherish the ones you love
for I will take them away,
and love the ones He treasures
for it is they who I cannot slay,

everything in time will pass,
you were not meant to stay,
and never say love's sacred words,
if they were not meant forever,

for love is not love, truly, if in time,
it too shall pass and severe,

listen to the murmurs of your heart
tis a language known to all,
but know no sooner do you ignore its voice
the louder it shall call,

louder and louder,

till its listener hears no longer,
deaf, to love and life, dead
even as the voice of truth grows stronger.
deaf, to love and life.

Naivety

2008-09-23T15:58:00.000+01:00

naivety
so is the adversary of man
how lightly this life we take,
the short-sightedness of man
transfixed upon the womb of this world
infants
still hoarding our mothers
noxious milk.

The Banes of Life

2008-09-23T01:07:00.003+01:00

"The bane of humour is lack of shame; the bane of courage is aggression; the bane of generosity is mentioning one's favours to others; the bane of beauty is arrogance; the bane of worship is abeyance; the bane of speech is lying; the bane of knowledge is forgetfulness; the bane of wisdom is foolishness; the bane of good lineage is pride; and the bane of liberality is wastefulness." ~The Prophet

Hadith: #44091, Kanz al-Ummal, by al-Muttaqi al-Hindi

I'm a Box

2008-09-04T21:34:00.005+01:00

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I'm a Box,

I'm a box of contradictions, inconsistencies,
four-sided triangles and satanic inscriptions,
psychological tsunami's,
I'm a haven for prescriptions,
prozac, promap, procrap,
you name it, i took it, still take it,
still suffering but they say i'll make it,

so they say,
who cares, especially today, where there are no sides
and some say there never were
sometimes the words stream off my mind and my soul
and sometimes they just slur, a lyrical cerebral blur,
a reflection of Babylon as it locks its shackles in place,
constricting my potential but nonetheless smiling in my face,
giving me a glass of water
assuring me that i'm more than just material cannon fotter
but i'm unconvinced, cause its
like we are lined up for the slaughter,

makes you wonder what the heavens were thinking,
did someone miscalculate or have we pierced our own boat
and now we are sitting there sinking,
thinking, why is the water so cold,
no one ever taught us to swim,
why is the world so brute and the world so grim,

So we are there sinking, thinking
rotting like so many nations before us,
nations that bore us,
I watched a mother carry her infant child,
innocent grace, untainted face,
exponential potential, all in one place
looking into its eyes, i see hope in a child,
willfully naive,
i'm no stranger to this world, and i'm not easily beguiled
but who knows

who knows what the future will hold,
will its heart remain tender, human, or will it selfishly run cold,
a box of inconsistencies, contradistinctions, and contradictions?
i'll let God worry about the statistics for now,
I am hopeful with every soul that is born
and with every soul that passes my heart is torn

In The Darkness

2008-08-02T02:42:00.003+01:00

She cries in the dark

Whimpered tears
Hiding behind her bright eyes,
Dormant fears,
They do not see her pain
or imagine her anguish,
Feigned happiness,
Plastered smiles,
They cannot hear her muffled cries,
In the darkness
Where her true self lies,

Pitted in utter agony

As her soul silently passes
Mourning her own funeral,
Unbeknownst to the masses
She will not live,
Spiritual suicide,
Her love she will not give,
Her self, only lies in illusions
Insecure intrusions
Gnawing at her soul,
In the darkness,

Where broken hearts
lie.

The Truth - They Say

2008-07-29T00:38:00.012+01:00

Download

[2nd update]

The Truth - They Say

They say the truth knows no name,
It journeys from stranger to stranger, land to land,
Till its lost in distant valleys, and it's not known from where it came

It's softly uttered by the masses,
Whispered between their souls,
Till a time passes --where it is shouted
Across canyons and rooftops and the
Truth is told

It's like a gentle scent,
That has just eased out of a crimson rose
The scent is guarded by humble servants
Who chose God, and whom God chose

They treasure it, vigilantly watching where it goes,
lest its whiff is smelt by Foul souls--
For God knows, they cannot fathom its beauty
For them the truth is foul, putrid,
With no semblance to a rose,

They cannot bear its pleasant fragrance
And are quick to mask its horrid scent
They cringe their faces in disgust
and are doubtful of what is scent
They are doubtful of the truth,
Who sent it, and its scent

But every so often,
Every so often, their comes a dove,
Whose graceful wings smell of the rose,
Where so ever the dove flies so too its scent goes,
But the hunters spot it and its scent,
And so they line up in uneven rows,
Casting their bows, toward the dove
And its not long before it is met with arrows,

Soon the earth is drenched in red,
And it is not long before it is said
Why haven't the heavens sent their scent
And man searches, to and fro, in distant valleys
Wondering where the truth went

Tomorrow

2008-07-12T10:26:00.000+01:00

Tomorrow when the leafs fall,
Tomorrow when I cannot feel the rain,
Tomorrow when I lose you,
When I won't see you again,

Tomorrow when the world is still,
And our hearts bleed in silence,
Wounds deeper than the love
That pours from them.

Tomorrow, would that you never come,
Tomorrow
When I lose you
And all that is left is pain

Like The Wind

2008-06-30T15:53:00.002+01:00

Be like the wind as it
Flutters past my ears,
It is not the wind i desire
Nor the wind i fear
Be like the wind
A messenger that whispers your tears,
as they trickle over our hearts
Like the world that is born anew,
Your rains waters all.
Even the deserts covet your mercy.
Moist hope,
Buried beneath our parched hearts.
Be like the wind
And free us from our bondage.

Fallen Doves

2008-06-20T13:45:00.002+01:00

Awash amid a sea of peace,
Bathe me in your Love--
Drown me in its depths or cease
The wings of this fallen dove
to which heights shall it soar?
In search of your face
For whence it looks
It sees you there

It finds love in its place

Time and Tears

2008-06-10T22:05:00.001+01:00

The nights I can no longer sleep
For your love grips me to fear
I cannot bear to lose you
for the heavens would weep
And my eyes their tears too
I have loved so vividly life,
for even its pain softly whispers your name
And in death too, for life would never be the same.
As heaven would have it, and earth, gripped by your love
Only time and tears, until we unite again.
Only time and tears

In the Language of My Heart

2008-06-05T10:35:00.000+01:00

In the language of my heart,
How could you ever understand?

The world that brews within me
Of feelings sublime and grand

How when you have yet to smell your hearts jasmine
Or watch the summer part its solemn peace?

How could you ever understand?

The melody that plays within,
Strumming the harp of my heart
Silhouettes of tender memories
Racing past my breathes,
Forever singing our words,

In the language of my heart.

Slain

2008-06-03T16:13:00.002+01:00

I love you but how quickly i betray
Don't look into my eyes--Oh Lord
There is much that they say,
Of infidelity, shame and dismay
So foul is the heart of man,
When the reigns of love
Are forsaken
And in our hearts the beloved lies
Slain.

From A Distance

2008-05-23T00:44:00.002+01:00

From a distance

I peer into the shrivelled pages of my past
The viscous ink still sodden as it bleeds on to the present,
Fragile papyrus, neatly resting under my fettered fingers,
Cursively writing my fate,
As Providence writes it for me

From a distance

Life is coloured sweetness
Morning air, warm rain, and citrus scents
Plush red, pond lily's, angelic aroma's
Yet to flee our guileless senses
Ephemeral love, felt

From a distance

Hectic, frenetic, tremors of unease
Coarse, maroon, threads of suffering,
Sons of Cain, tangled in limp weaves of pain,
Stitching the last crevices of our hardened hearts
How I long to feel,

Even if from a distance.

Remind me

2008-05-19T00:37:00.003+01:00

I can feel it, like a trickle at the chamber of my heart,
A distant, but ever familiar feeling, gently stroking the mane of my consciousness, whispering what my senses cannot bear to withstand, teaching me that there is more.

I can see you, I can feel you.
Snippets of your being, a whiff of your soul, slighting past mine.

Reminding me of your presence.

The eyes I have forgotten.

The voice I used to hear.

Remind me

Of Love and Life

2008-05-11T14:16:00.003+01:00

I can only feel
My heart wince in sorrow,
Coloured worlds around me,
Apparitions of love and life
As if but pale and hollow
Here today, forgotten tomorrow

Mine, forever, pleasure and pain
To see your treasured soul waver
Between your eyes again, and again,
Your precious iris,
Peering through mine
Only to find yours

It is we who colour this
Bleak world,
And it is we who strip
Our hearts of its edenic fragrance
And wear its luminous lustre

Don't look away, Forever seek.
Until time's gentle fingers
Pass over our tired eyes
And all that remains of love and life is
You.

For Now, Forever

2008-03-10T23:56:00.002Z

Water of my eyes
Pour over our sorrow
Ease our pain, she cries
No longer than tomorrow

For

Should it pass without me
Know no struggle is in vain
Like fruits of fallen trees
Planting hope amid the pain

Now

Rest your heart against my soul
Let my eyes share your tears
As soft words mend your hearts wounds
Torn by our lies and fears

Forever

Breathing your redolent love
Even as you gasp for air
Even when you go and pass
By your side until the end
For Now, Forever.

Our Quest

2008-01-13T01:36:00.000Z

The ripples of action
The depredations of time,
The ravages of my soul
The acrid whispers of whimsy
Reeling in my passion
Muting the sensation
Corporeal entrapment
Spiritual cessation

Corroding my identity
Fleeting feelings of serenity
Masking the numbness of
My soul, the spiritual paralysis
Plaguing us all

As we veer off into forlorn forests
Trees born of our action,
Bearing but putrid fruit
Wading through the Labyrinth of
Life

In our Quest for Verity,
Love,
Peace

-------
Thought i should share sometihng while i can, my laptop died recently, please give a moment of silence and recite something for it -- it had a stroke today, and the motherboard is completley fried :P Alhamduillah i recovered my files, so first thing that came to mind, was let me share what i have while i can. Much Love and Peace.

Too Late

2007-12-18T11:55:00.000Z

Frantic, Frustrated, Perturbed,
His soul yearns for peace, for stability,
A world enshrouded in tumult,
Enthralling the compass of his soul
Steadily steering the helm of his ship,
To desolate islands, Degradation,
Shipwrecked at its squalid shores,
Laden with tattered bones,
And hopes,
Remnants of his sons and daughters,
My fate for treading these lifeless waters,
Seas of infinite, tears and agony,
Submerging me beneath my breaths,
The muffled cries
of despair,
Tear
after
Tear,
Bereft of hope,
The water is still,
Lifeless,
Too late to say
Forgive me,
Forgive me...

Decorated Thoughts

2007-10-09T01:33:00.001+01:00

Our pens oft bleed our souls tears on tattered parchment
Embalming our fleeting anguish to vent even the flux of time,
The fragrance of her heart still so lingers, beneath the quiet breaths of
my soul-I often see her whispers kneading the tempered clay of my affection,
Enchanting the passion as it drums within me,
Oh don't tempt me with love,
No,
It is not easily dispensable
And once appropriated, not easily dispensed with
No,
Don't decorate your thoughts with hope,
Life does not shy in teaching its morbid message,
Nor does this wretched world scruple as it fans our folly
We are mortals and time will inform us of this,
Let us not imagine of life what will come only in passing,
Time shouldn't entertain itself with your pretenses,
How can I begin to offer that which I've yet to possess
Nor does fantasy beget reality...
No,
Don't decorate your thoughts with sordid hope,
Instead lather them with at least piecemeal affection
It is this that fathers love,
And steals the rhapsody of
Our hearts...

Robert Fisk: Even I question the 'truth' about 9/11

2007-08-26T17:27:00.000+01:00

Published: 25 August 2007

Each time I lecture abroad on the Middle East, there is always someone in the audience – just one – whom I call the "raver". Apologies here to all the men and women who come to my talks with bright and pertinent questions – often quite humbling ones for me as a journalist – and which show that they understand the Middle East tragedy a lot better than the journalists who report it. But the "raver" is real. He has turned up in corporeal form in Stockholm and in Oxford, in Sao Paulo and in Yerevan, in Cairo, in Los Angeles and, in female form, in Barcelona. No matter the country, there will always be a "raver".

His – or her – question goes like this. Why, if you believe you're a free journalist, don't you report what you really know about 9/11? Why don't you tell the truth – that the Bush administration (or the CIA or Mossad, you name it) blew up the twin towers? Why don't you reveal the secrets behind 9/11? The assumption in each case is that Fisk knows – that Fisk has an absolute concrete, copper-bottomed fact-filled desk containing final proof of what "all the world knows" (that usually is the phrase) – who destroyed the twin towers. Sometimes the "raver" is clearly distressed. One man in Cork screamed his question at me, and then – the moment I suggested that his version of the plot was a bit odd – left the hall, shouting abuse and kicking over chairs.

Usually, I have tried to tell the "truth"; that while there are unanswered questions about 9/11, I am the Middle East correspondent of The Independent, not the conspiracy correspondent; that I have quite enough real plots on my hands in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, Iran, the Gulf, etc, to worry about imaginary ones in Manhattan. My final argument – a clincher, in my view – is that the Bush administration has screwed up everything – militarily, politically diplomatically – it has tried to do in the Middle East; so how on earth could it successfully bring off the international crimes against humanity in the United States on 11 September 2001?

Well, I still hold to that view. Any military which can claim – as the Americans did two days ago – that al-Qa'ida is on the run is not capable of carrying out anything on the scale of 9/11. "We disrupted al-Qa'ida, causing them to run," Colonel David Sutherland said of the preposterously code-named "Operation Lightning Hammer" in Iraq's Diyala province. "Their fear of facing our forces proves the terrorists know there is no safe haven for them." And more of the same, all of it untrue.

Within hours, al-Qa'ida attacked Baquba in battalion strength and slaughtered all the local sheikhs who had thrown in their hand with the Americans. It reminds me of Vietnam, the war which George Bush watched from the skies over Texas – which may account for why he this week mixed up the end of the Vietnam war with the genocide in a different country called Cambodia, whose population was eventually rescued by the same Vietnamese whom Mr Bush's more courageous colleagues had been fighting all along.

But – here we go. I am increasingly troubled at the inconsistencies in the official narrative of 9/11. It's not just the obvious non sequiturs: where are the aircraft parts (engines, etc) from the attack on the Pentagon? Why have the officials involved in the United 93 flight (which crashed in Pennsylvania) been muzzled? Why did flight 93's debris spread over miles when it was supposed to have crashed in one piece in a field? Again, I'm not talking about the crazed "research" of David Icke's Alice in Wonderland and the World Trade Center Disaster – which should send any sane man back to reading the telephone directory.

I am talking about scientific issues. If it is true, for example, that kerosene burns at 820C under optimum conditions, how come the steel beams of the twin towers – whose melting point is supposed to be about 1,480C – would snap through at the same time? (They collapsed in 8.1 and 10 seconds.) What about the third tower – the so-called World Trade Centre Building 7 (or the Salmon Brothers Building) – which collapsed in 6.6 seconds in its own footprint at 5.20pm on 11 September? Why did it so neatly fall to the ground when no aircraft had hit it? The American National Institute of Standards and Technology was instructed to analyse the cause of the destruction of all three buildings. They have not yet reported on WTC 7. Two prominent American professors of mechanical engineering – very definitely not in the "raver" bracket – are now legally challenging the terms of reference of this final report on the grounds that it could be "fraudulent or deceptive".

Journalistically, there were many odd things about 9/11. Initial reports of reporters that they heard "explosions" in the towers – which could well have been the beams cracking – are easy to dismiss. Less so the report that the body of a female air crew member was found in a Manhattan street with her hands bound. OK, so let's claim that was just hearsay reporting at the time, just as the CIA's list of Arab suicide-hijackers, which included three men who were – and still are – very much alive and living in the Middle East, was an initial intelligence error.

But what about the weird letter allegedly written by Mohamed Atta, the Egyptian hijacker-murderer with the spooky face, whose "Islamic" advice to his gruesome comrades – released by the CIA – mystified every Muslim friend I know in the Middle East? Atta mentioned his family – which no Muslim, however ill-taught, would be likely to include in such a prayer. He reminds his comrades-in-murder to say the first Muslim prayer of the day and then goes on to quote from it. But no Muslim would need such a reminder – let alone expect the text of the "Fajr" prayer to be included in Atta's letter.

Let me repeat. I am not a conspiracy theorist. Spare me the ravers. Spare me the plots. But like everyone else, I would like to know the full story of 9/11, not least because it was the trigger for the whole lunatic, meretricious "war on terror" which has led us to disaster in Iraq and Afghanistan and in much of the Middle East. Bush's happily departed adviser Karl Rove once said that "we're an empire now – we create our own reality". True? At least tell us. It would stop people kicking over chairs.

http://news.independent.co.uk/fisk/article2893860.ece

Hate

2007-08-14T04:34:00.002+01:00

This is something a friend shared with me sometime ago :) Thought i should share it -- its really charged with emotion and passion -- how is it we, rather i, get inured to other people's suffering? Palestine, Darfur..the list goes on...if only we, rather i, weren't so self-absorbed, sigh...

The Radiant

2007-08-07T23:05:00.000+01:00

Let all cease, for no longer can I see
Through the wayward world I gaze
For not all is to be seen
Agog, yearning, beyond the haze
Fixating, my heart's eyes
On
The Radiant
The light that pervades,
For all else isn't.
Only darkness
Hues of recycled existence
Fluttering
As the hourglass passes,
As everything evanescences
Fading into the light
The Radiance, I can't help but see
Let all cease.

Back in Canada

2007-08-07T22:42:00.000+01:00

Hey all - many apologies for the lack of posts, i know your missin the words but i've gone through a hell of a lot lately, and alhamduillah things are settling, back in O-town Kanada-- i'm not comfortable divulging everything online, but what is relevant to this blog is that a series of events led to my luggage being lost or stolen (they both sort of overlap in my situation) and as a result i've lost a lot of my work--alot of writings that i had written and some research... It's beyond annoying and frustrating to loose what you've poured your heart into but then what can be said or what would give solace except that All praise is to God, for creating this world, the good of it and the bad, what 'he' gives and what 'he' takes, and ultimately for giving us a chance to deserve (if we can ever really deserve it) the ultimate experience of existence creation could ever hope for. :) Everything is a reminder of the path one must tread, the only path to progression -- for all else is still and lifeless.

That said, i've recovered some of my recent writings that i haven't posted, so stay tuned.

Peace

Hope and Fear

2007-05-18T19:13:00.000+01:00

He hopes big things from Allah and small things from men but he gives to man (such consideration as) he does not give to Allah. What is the matter with Allah, glorified be His praise? He is accorded less (consideration) than what is given to His creatures. Do you ever fear to be false in your hope in Allah? Or do you not regard Him the centre of your hope?

Similarly, if a man fears man he gives him (such consideration) out of his fear which he does not give to Allah. Thus, he has made his fear for men ready currency while his fear from the Creator is mere deferment or promise. This is the case of every one in whose eye this world appears big (and important) and in whose heart its position is great. He prefers it over Allah, so he inclines towards it, and becomes its devotee.

-Sermon 158 Nahj al-Balaqah (The Peak of Eloquence)

Crac des Chevaliers - (Husn Citidal )

2007-05-02T13:40:00.000+01:00

Crac des Chevaliers - (Husn Citidal )

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krak_des_Chevaliers

So Listen

2007-05-02T12:30:00.000+01:00

I'm writing to you. So listen. You know the way, you've known for quite sometime. Forget the others, they will remember themselves or else forget, your duty is to remember. Tomorrow is approaching and today has already left. Procrastination and lethargy equate to a craven form of cowardice toward life and its inborn difficulties. Struggle. Sacrifice. To truly live is not to succumb to folly, to drag along the measured timeline of one's life, a sloth tottering from millimeter to lifetime, till he like all things before him timely returns to his source.

"We are God's and to Him We Return"

Listen, if your ears are still capable. Do not become a burden to the Advisors as Jesus (p) says: "How long will you be advised without taking any advice? Certainly you have become a burden to the advisors." (Adab al-nafs, vol.1, 175)

Listen, to the inner divining of your soul, its aspirations, its desires, its vision for comfort. If you must let up, then do so, give it what it truly desires. If its power and greatness that it seeks, then know that will be granted to tomorrow, to the meek today. If it is wealth and opulence, then know it will be granted tomorrow, to those who gave it away today. If it is comfort and pleasure, then know that, it will be granted tomorrow, for those who regulated it today.

You want it tomorrow but you won't work for it today. You want it today, but it won't be there tomorrow.

Rebel

2007-04-04T20:13:00.000+01:00

Oh how easy it is to rebel. How so free man feels. The Master who set his slave free, now nothing but a slave who set his master free! Shackled to the reigns of his ego, a prisoner of his very will, fleeing from his Master to his master; a slave yet to understand the value of his freedom.

Life.®

2007-03-18T14:01:00.000Z

There are far too many battles to fight, and those who don't recognize the war have already been defeated, and those still fighting have already won. Keep fighting. Live it right.

This ain't no nike commercial.

It's life. Don't just do it. ®

Raqqah and Halab March 2007!

2007-03-16T09:28:00.000Z

Just when you thought it was over, lol, more pics, we went on a surprise trip to halab and Raqqah (pronounced ra'aa in syrian, thought you might want to know, knowledge is power…ooh digression digression…. -- yeah wasn't much of a surprise really -- but I found out at the last second so after pullin a couple of strings got to go, alhamduilalh…was an experience, one I really thank God for. Just a day or two earlier I had my second, third molar taken out! PAAAAIN, I've never felt but this time it was much better then the first time, so I decided to go despite the pain (yes, I'm very proud of my strength and bravery as well :P )--- I reiterate it was awesooome…two day trip! It takes about 4-5hrs to halab and then another 3-4 to Raqqah, give or take an hour. Speaking of raqqah, my Grandfather from my mothers side is married to a syrian from raqqah, his fifth wife, but whose coutin…haha

Anyway, I'll comment on the trip through the pictures…

enjoooy
getting nauseous from all the pics?
gonna try this Picasa mikasaa shukasa web albums things

Raqqah and Halab March 2007

Make sure the captions options is showing, if not click on Hide captions, then show captions....

drop a line

Houmus is delicious..

2007-03-05T16:42:00.000Z

Salaaams…more pictures :P this time from Homs, one of Syria's popular cities -- a very good friend of mine, is joining the notorious Syrian Army (one of the most powerful in the world, no exaggeration..really :P) yeah, so he invited me over to his village called 'al-qhur al-qarbiya' a village at the outskirts of what used to be old roman fortress/castle. It was soooo beautiful and refreshing, a long ways from the desert like weather of Damascus…. It luscious green pastures, not to mention its pure and unsullied air, arg…beautiful, especially since I've been living in the city for soo long, and the city is anything but green and luscious, and don't even get me started about the air.

lol hussien is a blackbelt in Karate, Homs is Syria's Karate capital they say, with most of its fighters winning championships..heh, so you can guess how we became good friends, lol wer'e both martial art freaks lol, so we naturally had quite a few sparing matches :P

So without further ado :P

like to start off with the worlds most prized animal...the sacred hemaar
yup, sooo many of donkeys, i had to take pictures... lol, this is Ahmed Kazim and Hussien.... my karate friend is the guy with the black jacket :)
bigfoot in syria...just when you thought it wasn't possible :P

the marvelous olive treee...

now i know i've seen this somewhere, zainab (hussiens little sis) ....
yeah its nabi' Jesus's famous stance :P lol u know some peeps think he was black :P haha (no i'm not one of em)
this is a sort of remix..
more scenic pics..
more donkeys...

we're on top of the old castle ruins...

group pic....
just another hemar!
now this is just mesmerising,...its gotta be the coolest donkey you've ever seen..
this is a grave of some martyr at their local village...victim to sectarian violence
gotta love the scenery
we've made fire...wooohoo
His home....
This zainab, hussien, and shukry

traditional house in the village, its abandoned of course, they no longer live in houses like these but it was interesting to see..
this is some of the village from atop...

Pictures of Canada in Syria!

2007-02-28T11:29:00.000Z

Cheaaaaaaay khabar?! Shakooo makooooo….! All the usual…these are just some pics from last week, some of mah thai brothers invited me to go on a trip with them to the Bloudan area, near the Lebanese borders….to feel the stupendous thrill of lush white snooooooow! Snow which I've had enough of in Canada, but what am I kiddin it was nice having an occasional snow ball fight ad not to mention Syrian snow is soooooo different from Canadian snow! Really…it is, its got this thing aobut it, I can't really put my finger on it (maybe cause its too cold..but anyway) …yeah, there is something about snow being in a desert that makes it thrilling….well ok no there isn't? but wouldn't be cool if there was? Confused? I certainly am. It was all fun, except that I had a dentist appointment earlier that day, and the dentists maliciously toook my third molar(wisdom tooth, yup, no wisdom here) out, it was huuuuuugee….and it was painful! So between the pain and the occasional coconsciousness, I managed to have a little fun...

Well here check em out, … for those of u sick of seein me (don't blame you, I'm sick of me tooo :P) there are several scenic pics there too…enjoy….

piece

These are the bros, I know you'll have a hard time spotting me in the pic so I'll help u out..from the left Shukree, Hussien, Adam, Baqir, moi, and Dhakir

Notice how the snow is actually white??? Fascinatin isn't it?!

A deleted scene from War of the Worlds! Don't know whats into me here, could be the toooth pain again? ..Me and Hussien doing some serious meditation at the top of the mount, that said there a lot of biblical mountains around here, well purportedly biblical, I don't know how true the reports are…. The grave of Abel amongst others!...
Dis man is the artist, you'll get to see one of his creations soon in the next pic.
LoL sittin in front of the idol they created!, I told em it was harram! But them fellas just wouldn't listen! I think idol worship is hereditary! Bah… lol, we actually had people climb up the mountain to take a picture with the idol! Hahah my lordy! It was toooo funnnny its gonna be a popular tourist halmark soon..give it some time...well untill the snow melts...

That’s it….. Hope ya enjoyed it…

She sings...

2007-02-08T11:21:00.000Z

The music that resonates, caressing the fortress of my heart
the crimson citadel, guarding the adversary, from its chambers,
her voice is ever so beautiful, melting, mesmerizing, the cold bricks
quiver-- her tempo crescendos -- heaving the sirens of my spiteful soul
It can't take clamour, it squirms in desperation, the relief of denial
If only I were deaf, it would desperately cry, for she sings and I can't help but listen,
I love her,
the hymns of truth she sings, scathing the callous skin that drapes my heart
reminding me of what I have spent this life forgetting,
and eternity regretting.
So she sings and I can't help but listen
to her songs of truth.
Her songs of truth.

In Time

2007-01-04T15:35:00.000Z

The darkness that encloses,
hoping for a glimmer of light,
mourning the abyss of my soul,
Pleading for our Mother;
the coldness of this night

In time,

only colder, the blood no longer
gushes in these pallid veins,
cold, how can i describe this granite
heart, if i but possessed one

In time,

blame me not for the inequity,
wrought by your own hands
your fate twined,

In time,

With the flickers of righteousness
Shuddering the chambers of your nafs,

In time,

If you listen. You will be lead.

You

2006-12-19T19:32:00.000Z

You grant him life and he complains of death. You assure him of an eternity – he says he’d rather enjoy the moment. You give him death, he whines about folly of life. You tell him how it is and how its supposed to – but he’s far more concerned with what he wants it to be. You warn him of himself – he warns you. It’s for your own good you say, but he’s more convinced of his supposedly far-reaching foresight. You tell him there is a time and season for everything, a time for perfection and peace but sadly none is hastier then him, determined to find it here and now. He struggles, sweats and bleeds. He cannot find it and the emptiness begins to consume him. He feels hopeless and dejected, raises his fist to the heavens and scorns you!

Why have you forsaken me he says!

You assure him of your unwavering love, of the nature of this world – that man’s quasi-divinity comes at hefty price! “You are a traveller” you tell him, but he says he’d like to stay and reside. “Plant your seeds” you tell him, but he says he is happier consuming. You remind him that you and you alone gave him life, but sadly he takes it for granted, as if he inherently has the right to live. In his most dire frustration, he demands knowing why you’ve brought him into existence—that he’d be better off in naught. He wonders why you didn’t ask ‘him’ first? Lest he enjoys non-existence and finds it far more comfortable and promising… You remind him of his dependence, of his ‘borrowed’ volition, of his pseudo-identity—but alas he just won’t listen, so intoxicated in the wine of life, the cup he was forbidden from drinking; the vinous fruit he should have never ate.

How do you teach a man what he does not wish to learn?

Oh man… Oh God.

Destiny

2006-11-21T11:39:00.000Z

Let life teach you,
For it’s teeming with instruction,
Etched into every facet of its being,
Seething through all its dimensions
Amid the apparent decay and destruction
A lesson, present, for those seeing

Life is pleading; deliverance
For what you desire is before you
If only you’d seize it,
You are drifting between your destiny,
And your fate
You plea, that if only the two would meet

Forever merging, as they should,
resonating with the Grandeur,
the Splendour, the infinite lyrics
Written into the heart of matter
Sung by the soul of man

This, the Fallen Angel understood,
But failed to see, that in Adam’s weakness,
lay his strength
In his struggle,
In his choice,

A chance at eternity,
a taste of divinity,
a lasting serenity!

Know ye of anything more honoured?
Of anything more frail?

It is before you oh Children of God
Oh Sons of Adam,
Perchance you’d seize it,
Perchance you’d seize it,
Before it seizes you,
D e s t i n y

More pics from Souriyya!

2006-11-21T10:21:00.000Z

Me and mah boy Aaron (harun) -- its gonna be the cover of our soon to be released gospel-jazz-hop cd -- entitled ''Smoke Sheesha or Die Trying" -- its to encourage the youth, at least the ones who listen to our unique gospel-jazz-hop, to smoke and reach enlightenment :P ehee heheh okay well no.. twisted humour? yes, it happens eheh
- Some snapshots of Lady Zaineb (pbuh)'s shrine
- Some more snapshots of Lady Zaineb (pbuh)'s shrine area
Inside the Ummayyad mosque...ancient isnt it? so much Roman influence in its architecture...
Pictures at a different hammam (public baths), called Malik al-Thaher,
arguably one of the oldest in damascus, at least a melenium -- with Ibrahim and Aaron
really beautiful, honestly...nothing could be more relaxing! it was nice way to end the bday :) you really feel like your in a different era hahah, you start speaking classical arabic like you mean it heheheh --- gotta love the hammam experience...you gotta try it :P eheh it sunnah too :P the Imams used to go as well (well, anyway..its more complicated than that isn't it) ...they have a day for women as well...
Some of Ibrahim's boys -- really cool fellas
more pics of the Ummayyad mosque..pics are pretty dark though...
Ibrahim and i blazing it up :P --- okay...just so you don't get any far-streatched ideas, the sheesha thing only rarely happens, maybe once a month or something lol -- after much deliberation its not something to get used to or do on a regular basis...you should listen to our soon to be released cd..

some more pics...Good Sheesha and Zuhorat (flower-tea) -- ah reminds me of the
sheesha controversy in Iran, lol ahah

more...........okay you've had enough lol there are plenty more but these are the more settled ones :P

Old city in Damascus, Hamediya
Aaron ibn Farouqiyo and Ibrahim al-Afghani from the tribes of bani mansour :P
yup....
Old hammam pic....
Our good ol'pal Salah-ed-Din, well not so good really, a great
conqueror but then he has a lot of blood on his hands, he didn't have a
problem slaughtering shia' dissidents (among others), humm and he's
certainly not alone in that today – some things never change?
Souq al-Hamediya - well at least its ceiling
Mr. Salah-e-dins many castles...
more pics of the old city...
ahem..
yup this is syria :) hope you enjoyed em

The Widow's Tears

2006-10-22T08:36:00.000+01:00

Behind me the widow sits at the corner-stall, her family awash in the sea of fate, their memories ebbing with her sighs…their solemn silhouettes caressing her grief-stricken heart, but to what avail?

Do not recount their names before her, for they but bring a wicked sorrow that would but gash away at a heart whose numbered beats have become faint and senile. Watch as her parched tears etch the arid sands below her -- carving her anguish -- jagged letters of agony...

Let the torrent of her tears cascade and the soil imbibe her sorrow, let the letters become words, for perhaps now the heavens would lend their catholic ears and listen.

She says nothing, but of course she needn't say -- everything around her has so gravely spoken.
The maroon blood stains blotch her noticeably tattered clothes; it’s a sight no less grim then the ravaged streets that surround around her. No less dire than the innominate children across from her, scavenging through carrion waste, sullying their once innocent hearts. Another sigh escapes the grip of her crippling grief, consoling briefly her heart with an ever so distant hope, reminding her that ‘His’ vital spirit still surges within her. That it is not death that encircles her but the verve of life coiled in the pangs of her suffering.

Trying her—painfully chiseling the breadth of her vision; shattering the shackles of this noxious love. Like a mother disciplining her insolent child, that perhaps beyond the tears and grief, she might listen. That she might learn.

I wipe her tears with my fleeting thoughts, still damp from life’s somber lessons. For if she has yet to learn, she has at least taught me a lesson.

Boohaaa

2006-10-07T09:40:00.000+01:00

Just some words…to those of you who haven’t found out personally, alhamdulillah, Damascus University accepted me into their program and i’m really enjoying the studies – its such a diverse environment, its really cool, i’ve got a class with about four Korean girls who don’t cease to amaze me with their advanced arabic, especially when they throw a specific word my way, that I have no idea about in arabic…and that happens quite often actually.. and we’ve got a really cool American (I know it’s rarity, but nothings impossible in this world :P) whose arabic is impeccable. It’s really interesting, we have all sorts of interesting discussions of course all in classical arabic (which I completely suck at) about terrorism (all eyes on me, nah just kidding :P, but can’t help but feel people are always trying to gauge if you’re the terr0rist muslim or not so soo as they hear/see you are muslim but, can’t blame em can i?) the only terror coming out of my mouth is when i try to speak in classical arabic and butcher it with lengthy stutters and stammers ... but all in all, i am improving alhamdulillah.. ah and go figure, the marriage topic doesn’t seem to want to leave me in this university! lol, first someone asked if I was married because I was wearing a religious ring :P muhahah to which I answered with a very inviting, no :P and then we had an entire lesson where we discussed the topic, …of men and women today, nature of relationships, promiscuity and of course marriage…

Anyway whats important is,

Fursa sa’eeeda to you all aahah

the crib here is really cool too alhamdulillah, very clean, somewhat spacious, and very hommy (that’s right homie), all in all, its all going pretty well, with exception to some really painful, possible food-poisoning episodes (couldn’t say I wasn’t warned about it though) …it’s all good alhamdulillah. I’m back to my training routine as well, haha, its sooo built into me, I feel something is lacking unless I’m throwing punches and kicks and picking up metal :P i’ve added swimming to the tab as well … but that all depends on how much of the much desired time i’ll have left to do all this.

But man, things run so differently here hahah, but lol, I’ll leave that for another post…

As much as I hate –me me me- posts, i thought id let yall know how its all coming..

Peace

Word from the Levant!

2006-09-26T15:45:00.000+01:00

Today’s my third day in Damascus, one of the few archaic cities still inhabited by the treacherous, all-consuming race of homosapiens. As some of you may have known earlier, the lovely, gracious Syrian Government (haha, can anyone smell taqiyya, or at least a dash of sarcasm :P), God protect and lengthen their freedom loving (copyright bush?) country. Anyway, i now officially have TWO of the three axis of evil countries on my passport, and in all likelihood, and as logical induction would suggest, North Korea is the next stop :P Haha gotta love bush’s star-wars speeches, and they say t.v. doesn’t fry your minds!

Ooo, I need all your prayers right now. So far things, after seemingly funnelling down a hopeless streak of failed and unexpected series of events, like the rejection of my groups student visas by Syria –which now that we’re here we’re being told was as a result of certain terrorist incidents that occurred by a certain Turkish (saif, you around?) student who was studying as a foreign student so apparently there was a lot of hesitation on the governments parts to admit any foreign students, particularly those of some Islamic affiliation! But alas, like many countries they don’t distinguish between the myriad of Islamic strands of thoughts and instead, when a so called ‘Muslim’ does something horrific it seems to stain and taint the integrity of every ACTUAL Muslim irrespectively. Shame…

R>Anyway, so far so good, but I could still use your prayers. Whether or not we wish to acknowledge it, prayers do have a viable sway in the grandeur hierarchy of causes and destinies; this we have been repeatedly assured by scripture, and as some would adduce, by sheer experience. Certainly, what will be will be, but a prayer might certainly steer the direction of even the seemingly inevitable, perhaps not always in an exceptional, miraculous type of way, but many a times through casual means. That said, please pray for me, especially the prayer of the pure-hearted and the believers (who are supposed to be pure-hearted anyway :P) toward whom God is especially attentive.

Status: Damascus University seems to have accepted my application, they are waiting for one more document which should be ready tomorrow from the Canadian embassy :) other than that all is great alhamduillah. Next obstacle is getting my visa status changed from tourist to student, haha, we were rejected before i pray that that won’t happen again. Damascus Uni seems to really have a thorough, intensive Arabic program. I hope it works out. They have interesting requirements too, lol, like an AIDS test for forigen students (which i tested positive for! Well positive, here means negative lol thank God they had brackets explaining what they ment—i.e. positive for not having Aids). Haha at the placement test (where they decided which level they should PLACE me in) which took several hours, it got really interesting, the last part of the test was a live interview with one of the teachers and they would access your ability to communicate in fushah (traditional arabic). I’m sloppy at my colloquial Arabic let alone my traditional Arabic, anyway, the lady that was examining me seemed to really have a go at me with the best of questions! Could it get any better than this?(in Arabic of course, interviewer in plain text, thoughts delineated by asterisks)

Are you married?
Err noo I am not married.
Why aren’t you married?
Humm, *looks for quick excuse* the time isn’t suitable for me yet *as if it will ever be*.
Why would anyone want to get married anyway?
*hunh? Is she serious! Drop the freaking topic lol!* oh well, *again looks for a quick excuse after a long pause and a perhaps an invisible blush* for love, for… *as she cuts me off, oo good I hope she’s leaving the topic* …

What do you think of the events in Iraq and across the arab world in the name of Islam?
*ooo, interesting topic, but sadly, I can barely speak in such terms in Arabic… and begins another struggle* :P

Pictures from the Levant!!

2006-09-26T15:05:00.000+01:00

This is lady Ruqiyya's shrine at the Umayyad mosque..ah, this please is so laden of unspeakable sadness...what to say, to a five year old martyr who died seeing her fathers beheaded head before her.!
Lady Ruqiyya's shrine from distance
This is the grave of Prophet Yahya (john the baptist), ah, it was so beautiful to be in his midst, alhamduillah! It really felt like something around his tomb! err despite the fact that he's sadly in the heart of the Ummayyad mosque, where the tyrant yazid would issue his oppressive edicts, the worst of which was to murder the grandson of the Prophets and his family! aww how can such beauty as Yahya's grave stands poised besides such nefarious filth!
This is the podium, awwh man the anger that surges through the heart knowing what evil used to sit on that podium and wreak oppression in the name of natures religion! err..sigh our history is sadly so dark.

leave the most important pictures for last of course :P lol in case ya'll forgotten me already haha, mind the sleepy eyes haha, its Ramadhan tooo, and God err, crazy dogs wouldn't stop barking last night!! so annoying they seem to mysteriously decide to bark just as i'm going to sleep haha, those of u know who know me well enough, know that i'm a poooor sleeper, i'd do good as a security guard of some sort, you can count on my not sleeping on the job... anyway... nuff rambling... peace to yall, and Blessed month of Ramadhan to all the believers!

Video :: Dispatches: The Killing Zone

2006-09-09T23:44:00.000+01:00

A friend of mine forwarded this video to me...Its one of those few video's that really move you and break your heart as well as your tears; its extremely saddening and it takes a direct look into daily Palestinian life as well as aggressions committed by the so-called State of isFake against peaceful protesters from around the globe (such as the International Solidarity Movement). It delves right into the middle of it all and lets you see and judge for yourself...

Disturbingly real and extremely deplorable, but a reality that we must nonetheless recognize, at least that's the first step.

A caution however, some of the video scenes are quite graphic--but that said, sometimes you need to see something to fully appreciate its magnitude.

Here is its description on google-videos:

British report on Israeli violence in Gaza against not only Palestinian civilians, but international aid volunteers and foreign reporters as well.

Just another stranger...

2006-09-06T20:27:00.000+01:00

Estranged in its toils and miseries, you are a stranger wandering its jagged, soiled streets, longing for a home you’ve yet to reside and a peace you’ve yet to encounter. The cold winter night clothes you with its harrowing comfort—sheltering you from the sun’s searing heat. Alas, it is the sun you truly seek, or so your heart assuredly whispers, but much to your dismay, your body can only take so much of the sun’s heat.

You realise you are weak.

After further deliberation you recognize there are untapped reserves of inner strength, dormant, lurking behind your simple, and yet most difficult of choices. That said, you realise in whose merciful hands you subsist, and in whose eyes your penitence will be readily valued—suddenly, the prospect of self-revolution dawns on you, for there is no alternative. No alternative but to stop the lie and stop trusting the illusion.

Is it your indecisiveness that torments you?
Could change be so simple? Choice.

Could there really be solace in the cold? If anything, you’ve been in the cold, perhaps far too long—you’ve felt its callous touch, stared deep into its deafening eyes, and swallowed its riddled promises. You can’t take it any longer, how can you? As you watch yourself butcher the few meagre remnants of your humanity—the spiritual guillotine you’ve submissively offered your neck to.

Others too, weren’t as foreseeing, they too readily forwent their souls, sparing it of life’s most prized choices, as though infants suckling the illusion, embracing the wretched mother that has no mercy over her child.

You are surrounded by such gruelling martyrs—they clutter its streets—theirs stories all so similar, of far-flung expectations and mundane dreams. They are strangers too, their eyes laden with regret as they mourn their failures. If you listen closely you can hear their faint, brittle cries, echoing past the ruptured chambers of their now hollow hearts. Peer then, into their furrowed desolate eyes, for past the dreary void you will find the root of their desperation, the least of which is a looming fate, a fate ever so crimson.

They chose to be strangers, not to this world, but the other.

Choice; a liability ardently sought by those who lack it, a gruelling burden to those who exploit and abuse it, and a lasting tribute to those who honour its temperament.

Now choose.

Set it Free

2006-08-26T12:13:00.000+01:00

Rest between mine heart and soul
Oh whose love I keenly desire
Tis my divining, through love, you stole
and lit the niche of my heavenly fire

Engulf me in your flames of Lord
And purge, that love, from that heart thither.
For only through Your Love it soared
And through that Love, dissolve and wither

The fire within one, burns, within all
For the potter, of the same clay created
Oh Son of Adam, let your self fall!
For in falling, it is truly elevated

What ailleth man? So arrogant and tall
For yesterday he was meagre clot,
Tomorrow, as if passing in naught
and yet today, he imagines he is all

Let your self fall, oh Son of Eve,
For the fate of all things await you,
Set it free, you must, before you leave,

Oh Son of Adam and Eve

Set it free and let ‘His’ love engulf you

Video :: The New Rulers of The World

2006-08-15T23:31:00.000+01:00

This is a video a friend forwarded to me, i've watched it, and although it is not really new knowledge as per the gist of it--it still struck me. Slavery as much as we have been assured otherwise, has NOT magically disappeared as some would have us believe, rather it has taken a new tone. It's saddening really, how far these multinational businesses and organizations are willing to go to exploit other human beings, profiting from their misfortune and cheap slave-labour. This video will likely kindle if not a flicker of the conscience many of us have inured to evil and intensify our compunctions for what ever designer clothing we've purchased in the past and dissuade us from purchasing any in the future--so long as the situation remains as foul as it is.

I just wish we can make an immediate change, and sadly that's not the case, but the first step towards any problem is first identifying it to begin with... so its a start in the right direction. May the Merciful help us end this suffering.

Life, Death, Old Age

2006-08-09T16:25:00.001+01:00

I was having a really interesting convo with my dad on msn, and yes, I CHAT with my dad on msn, we are several thousand miles away from each other and after all it’s the 21st century innit (spoken with a makeshift Canadio-British™ accent)? Anyway, it was quite an interesting confabulation (muhahaha had to use this con-fabulous word!, okay sorry enough cheese); we spoke about many things, first about a life-long friend he’d just reunited with and with whom he shared nearly everything—literally, carbon copies of each other, the poetry, the art, the same blood type… errmm things which I also have completely in common with my dad, …err hate to say it, but its nearly like father like son in many cases. And as my high-school teacher Mr. Laggis used to say, more often then some of his students liked … “I digress”.

The colloquy (ooo another one, muhahah) took its pace as we ventured into the morbid realms of death and old age…both of which we agreed weren’t always passages of life the children of Adam wanted to pass through…And why should we long to pass through them, even amid the worst of quagmires, we love life. We really do, and we love it with a sort of insatiable passion. We savour it and eagerly hanker for more of it, through money, power, pleasure; what ever strokes and seemingly intensifies our existence. As for those of us who’ve contemplated the abominable; suicidally ‘taking’ our lives—cowering and relinquishing our life in an inner crescendo of frustration. To be sure, many of us have been there, some more critically than others and as wrong as it is, it’s never committed because we truly loath the prospect of life.

No.

Rather, we do it because we love life so much that we cannot bear to see it deficient and seemingly absent of all that of which we deeply desire of life, be it love, power, worldly success; the desires are apparently many, but they are really one. We desire life, in the richest of its forms; a life of lasting peace and of contentment. That’s what rabidly resonates in our soul—the money, the power, the pleasure are no more then transient tastes of what we truly desire. A few dollars might lend a few moments of fleeting peace but just as those dollars are spent so too are those few moments of peace—lasting far less then what we truly desire.

Despite the daunting spectre of death and old age, are they not passages toward that greater life—the one we so fervently desire? For our desires are clearly ‘not of this world’ since this world defiantly betrays our desires time and time again—as it banters our unquenchable thirst for life. So if our scales are fair why not long for that eternal abode? And if they are weighty what else is there but to seek redemption and turn in penitence. A kind of tender irony, as God further directs us toward that which we desire; since death becomes an inescapable misfortune, life an endless pit of self-ruin and penitence the only retreat from our misery. And of old-age what more of an invitation to repentance can one ask for?

“What is the life of this world but amusement and play? but verily the abode of the Hereafter,- that is life indeed, if they but knew.” The Quran (29:64)

Video :: Goerge does it again!

2006-08-08T23:45:00.000+01:00

If you havn't seen it you have to see this video! ahah, i watched it a dozen times lol, the man is a riot! lol, it baffles me how he is an MP :P lol he's awesome (at least when he is championing the truth). Its refershing to see British MP speaking so passionately for the right reasons.

check it out...

Video :: Peace, Propaganda & The Promised Land

2006-08-06T22:40:00.000+01:00

okay, enough... stop watchin Lost or whatever t.v. series you folks are addicted to (okay, fine, im the one addicted to it :P) and watch something beneficial (not that Lost is time lost, hah, but ..err anyway) yah, this is really good, exposes a lot of the misrepresentation of the facts we continually see our media engaging in...

Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land provides a striking comparison of U.S. and international media coverage of the crisis in the Middle ... East, zeroing in on how structural distortions in U.S. coverage have reinforced false perceptions of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This pivotal documentary exposes how the foreign policy interests of American political elites--oil, and a need to have a secure military base in the region, among others--work in combination with Israeli public relations strategies to exercise a powerful influence over how news from the region is reported. Through the voices of scholars, media critics, peace activists, religious figures, and Middle East experts, Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land carefully analyzes and explains how--through the use of language, framing and context--the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza remains hidden in the news media, and Israeli colonization of the occupied terrorities appears to be a defensive move rather than an offensive one. The documentary also explores the ways that U.S. journalists, for reasons ranging from intimidation to a lack of thorough investigation, have become complicit in carrying out Israel's PR campaign. At its core, the documentary raises questions about the ethics and role of journalism, and the relationship between media and politics.

Eve lives in theory

2006-08-06T00:04:00.000+01:00

Eve lives in theory,
i know her only by name,
she is a mirage, a possibility,
a distant claim

i’ve heard of her appeal,
of how her beauty is real
a whiff of divinity
a source of serenity

her descriptions are plenty,
and the words always seem to fail
for many have searched
painstakingly,

but Eve leaves no trail

she is as Adam’s Holy Grail

lurking only in his fancy,
a visage of all that is perfection
leaving men to and fro
folly to their own deception

for Eve lives only in theory

they will soon come to know

A Crooked Lie

2006-08-02T12:23:00.000+01:00

She lives a crooked lie,
Covering her perception
Till her demise,
Since her inception
Offering excuses,
Backing her desperation
Into his eyes, peering
Yearning, for inspiration
But he is not as she sees,
And she is not as she seems,
To God she prays and pleas,
To foster her reality
To colour her dreams,
But ‘He’ is more aware
Of what is, and ought be,
She lives a crooked lie,
That’s true,
I just wish she could see
I just wish he could see

She lives a crooked lie
but, so does he.
----------
just another moh/moe/mohammad/hadi/ailan (depending on which section of the globe you are in) poem, haha, humm, i'll leave this one without any tafseer (exegesis) :P i'll leave it to my occasionally avid readership (if any :P)

The Angels wondered...

2006-07-31T22:12:00.000+01:00

You know, heh, i empathize more and more with the Mal’akhim as they exclaimed their astonishment at the Lord’s will not long ago; their astonishment goes without saying. Really, one needn’t even look; you can very well hear the corruption and bloodshed the Angels knew would so easily ensue as the children of Adam began their reign on earth.

It makes a man wonder, and it makes a wonder of a man; what destiny underlies his anguish? What purpose did the Heavens have in mind as they let Adam loose and what have they now, as they watch the dreadful turmoil unfold?

I wonder still, and empathize even more…and yet i am realising, quite simply, that in a grandeur sense, what is, is what must be. This is in some sense how the Merciful responded to the innocent bewilderment of the Angels, assuring them that, beyond all, there is more to man then what meets the eye. There lies a purpose and destiny that even a high arch-Angel Azazeel turned Shaytan, could not stomach with ease, and in many senses, neither can i. Man’s ultimate purpose and destiny will remain, in much in the same way as it began, contentious and difficult to grasp. The difference however, is where Satan turned away in rebellion, masking his ignorance with denial; the Angels harkened in submission, accepting their ignorance in the face of what Providence ultimately had in store. This too, is required of Adam’s children, as they wonder over their plight—for they are expected to wonder, but lest their wonder turn to frustration with the Divine, and worse yet, lest their frustration turn into denial.

What is clear is that the Lord is incomprehensible and evidently how can the musings of a limited and obtuse creation ever encompass the unparalleled ‘thoughts’ and ‘intentions’ of his creator? Never mind his ability to encompass ‘him’; he can barely articulate his thoughts of him, for what combination of letters can describe his sublimity and what imageries can capture his majesty?

How then does he seriously expect to fathom the Lords intentions for bani-Adam and the ultimate purpose and destiny that underlie his creation; one that supersedes and overbears the clearly inexcusable corruption and bloodshed we see everyday?

This may very well fall on deaf ears, considering we live in a world where man’s ability to discern is seriously overrated—he naively feels he can understand anything, and anything that can’t be understood is better off deemed as non-existent, at least that would somehow afford him some comfort (or so he thinks).Ultimately though, it is God and God alone, who can divulge perhaps a morsel, a meagre fragment of such purpose to our feeble minds—and even that would be a bargain.

So when i open the shaitan-box and bustle (noo not busal, whoever you are you must be Arab and hungry) to see the news, and all that’s seen is suffering, I empathize with the Angels and wonder what is to become of man in this epic we call life.

"When your Lord said to the Angels, 'Ineed I am going to set a viceroy on the earth,' they said, 'Will You set in it someone who will cause corruption in it, and shed blood?! while we celebrate Your praise and proclaim Your sanctity?' He said, 'Indeed I know what you do not know'." Quran 2:30

It goes on

2006-06-30T01:41:00.000+01:00

life goes on, its tragic melody still ringing in my ears,
the pretensions, the impasses', the fears--
the roses are no longer as red, their scent no longer fragrant,
it’s only a matter of time,
never wanted the wealth, the fame or the riches
opulence is in the soul, in your aroma
your thoughts, your aspirations
the deepest of your dreams
it’s in your foresight
in your vibe,
in what you strive,
what you would sweat for and die,
what touches you at the core,
beyond the mere lure,
the pain or the pleasure,
it’s what defines you,
what strips you of that letter,
i,
it’s that breath before the next,
the one that you live for
it’s what you wake up to
it’s what wakes you
what inspires and takes you
it’s purpose
------------

Sadly so many live lives without purpose, if at all living--purposelessly, letting life live them, and so it does, and it goes on...and they don't.

Help us keep sight of our purpose, Lord, and let us live life with it in mind, and thereby die with purpose. For such as it began with purpose so too should it end ...Let it be the true purpose, for as it is, is as you say. All is in your hands, Amen.

The insight of an 'Amir

2006-06-20T19:26:00.000+01:00

this is some raw poetry from an artist i revere and hold with much esteem--unlike a lot of what i come across, these words aren't regurgitated thoughts and feelings being spewed unto a page...its not poetry for the sake of poetry, letters for words, or words for sentences...its more than that, it speaks what all letters n words should, and that’s truth--the type of truth that resonates in your ear when you hear it and continues to do so, it doesn't wear out or grow old, an invigorating fragrance that neither wanes or diminishes in time!

By: Amir Sulaiman (http://www.amirsulaiman.com)

---------
For a dirty old man

he was rather composed

he turned towards me

and casually walked into my personal space

so close I could feel his breath on my face

all the things in me telling me to back away

were not as strong as my desire to hear what he had to say

then he spoke and said...

I heard a woman sing a song today.

You’ll never guess what she said.

That woman told me that the best things in life are free.

She must use the word “free” only as monetarily

not free like it didn’t cost anything

and anyways who is she to sing

about the best things in life?

ya know?

what are the best things in life...

is it love

is it happiness

is it a good husband a good wife

is it fame and fortune

is it seeing your name in lights

is it honor

is it freedom

is it knowledge and wisdom

is it charity

is it mercy, peace

is it loyalty

is it appreciation

is it salvation

is it satisfaction

is it self realization

Now, I want you to tell me

which one of these things you gonna get for free

It may not cost you a dime

but it may cost you a lifetime

With these old eyes

I’ve seen a grown man hold his head and cry