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بسم الله الرحمان الرحيم



بسم الله الرحمان الرحيم

مرحبا بكم

Meditations

May 29, 2011

Monna Innominata [I loved you first]



I loved you first: but afterwards your love,
Outsoaring mine, sang such a loftier song
As drowned the friendly cooings of my dove.
Which owes the other most? My love was long,
And yours one moment seemed to wax more strong;
I loved and guessed at you, you contrued me
And loved me for what might or might not be—
Nay, weights and measures do us both a wrong.
For verily love knows not 'mine' or 'thine';
With separate 'I' and 'thou' free love has done,
For one is both and both are one in love:
Rich love knows nought of 'thine that is not mine';
Both have the strength and both the length thereof,
Both of us, of the love which makes us one.

by Christina Rossetti


As I Walked Out One Evening




As I walked out one evening,
Walking down Bristol Street,
The crowds upon the pavement
Were fields of harvest wheat.

And down by the brimming river
I heard a lover sing
Under an arch of the railway:
'Love has no ending.

'I'll love you, dear, I'll love you
Till China and Africa meet,
And the river jumps over the mountain
And the salmon sing in the street,

'I'll love you till the ocean
Is folded and hung up to dry
And the seven stars go squawking
Like geese about the sky.

'The years shall run like rabbits,
For in my arms I hold
The Flower of the Ages,
And the first love of the world.'

But all the clocks in the city
Began to whirr and chime:
'O let not Time deceive you,
You cannot conquer Time.

'In the burrows of the Nightmare
Where Justice naked is,
Time watches from the shadow
And coughs when you would kiss.

'In headaches and in worry
Vaguely life leaks away,
And Time will have his fancy
To-morrow or to-day.

'Into many a green valley
Drifts the appalling snow;
Time breaks the threaded dances
And the diver's brilliant bow.

'O plunge your hands in water,
Plunge them in up to the wrist;
Stare, stare in the basin
And wonder what you've missed.

'The glacier knocks in the cupboard,
The desert sighs in the bed,
And the crack in the tea-cup opens
A lane to the land of the dead.

'Where the beggars raffle the banknotes
And the Giant is enchanting to Jack,
And the Lily-white Boy is a Roarer,
And Jill goes down on her back.

'O look, look in the mirror,
O look in your distress:
Life remains a blessing
Although you cannot bless.

'O stand, stand at the window
As the tears scald and start;
You shall love your crooked neighbour
With your crooked heart.'

It was late, late in the evening,
The lovers they were gone;
The clocks had ceased their chiming,
And the deep river ran on.

by W. H. Auden



http://flickrhivemind.net/Tags/bayangan/Interesting

A Line-storm Song by Robert Frost



The line-storm clouds fly tattered and swift,
The road is forlorn all day,
Where a myriad snowy quartz stones lift,
And the hoof-prints vanish away.
The roadside flowers, too wet for the bee,
Expend their bloom in vain.
Come over the hills and far with me,
And be my love in the rain.

The birds have less to say for themselves
In the wood-world’s torn despair
Than now these numberless years the elves,
Although they are no less there:
All song of the woods is crushed like some
Wild, easily shattered rose.
Come, be my love in the wet woods; come,
Where the boughs rain when it blows.

There is the gale to urge behind
And bruit our singing down,
And the shallow waters aflutter with wind
From which to gather your gown.
What matter if we go clear to the west,
And come not through dry-shod?
For wilding brooch shall wet your breast
The rain-fresh goldenrod.

Oh, never this whelming east wind swells
But it seems like the sea’s return
To the ancient lands where it left the shells
Before the age of the fern;
And it seems like the time when after doubt
Our love came back amain.
Oh, come forth into the storm and rout
And be my love in the rain.


May 23, 2011

Thinking For Oneself


Never have things become as much clear and apprehensible to us as they are today. Everything is blatant today. What belongs to the individual does neither necessarily belong to society and nor should it be. Never should it have been an obligation for us, lovers of Truth, Beauty and Freedom, to buy everything society is selling. For society, be it the family, the community or the people appropriated, seems, I believe, to have taken everything from us including our dreams and ambitions and left nothing to us except the words we are writing. Society has confiscated our dreams. Society has confiscated our ambitions. Everything is clear today. It is certainly clear because even those whom we have thought are sharing our dreams and ambitions have lost them and then painfully said that he who thinks differently is wrong and good for nothing.

True, we are wrong and good for nothing. For if we are not, what meaning is there or will be out of protesting against something called society while, at the same time, we are waiting for it to hold us by the arms and then, as time goes on, we, ourselves, forget about our dreams and our ambitions? For, again, if we are not, what meaning is there or will be of thinking about home, innocence and place? I am afraid that if I go on this way, I will be plunged into an endless desert of questions and nothing will quench our thirst for true answers except the One who is above (greatest and exalted be He). But so long as questioning is a key to knowledge, I will go on asking questions and hence, in so doing, I will be thinking for myself. No human being will ever think for me and pretend to offer me answers to my questions.

And if it will happen, as it does now, that my questions are bad ones, it will also happen, at least, that my answers, however futile or successful they can be, will serve the quest for a meaningful way out and offer me, in this respect, the platform I need to go on thinking for myself and asking more questions. And we have the courage and agathy to think for ourselves and follow our ambitions and dreams to their quixotic and, maybe, tragic endings. For to make an end, T. S. Eliot rightly said, is to make a beginning. Here is Plato in his Allegory of the Cave without critical intervention afterwards:


"And if they were in the habit of conferring honors among themselves on those who were quickest to observe the passing shadows and to remark which of them went before, and which followed after, and which were together; and who were therefore best able to draw conclusions as to the future, do you think that he would care for such honors and glories, or envy the possessors of them? Would he not say with Homer,

Better to be the poor servant of a poor master,

And to endure anything, rather than think as they do and live after their manner?"


Let me close up this space of thought only to open it up again with this poem I entitle Ode to Love and Beauty. For life is a mystery. It goes on despite the enemies of it: the enemies of Truth. And if nobody holds the truth, they do not seem to understand. I will therefore continue to write for life and say that:


Having said what I said,

Having done what I did,

I will never keep my head

short of spirit or down with regret.



Alone in my agony, alone in

my dynasty, I will stand still

and dig and have things to hammer out.

Shall I stop? Shall I thus wait and weep?



I weep but not at this time

in this place when my words

have turned without sense

without platform to feel pride

and swing aimlessly like birds.





O brothers and sisters of shared

Love and Beauty, keep working

keep living keep soaring in silence.


Chokri Omri
Tunis, le 23-05-2011

Photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/rowdey/


May 18, 2011

MEDITATIONS (a novel by Chokri Omri)

Dua Before Studying:

“Allahumma infa’nii bimaa ‘allamtanii wa’allimnii maa yanfa’uunii. Allahumma inii as’aluka fahmal-nabiyyen wa hifzal mursaleen al-muqarrabeen. Allahumma ijal leesanee ‘aiman bi dhikrika wa qalbi bi khashyatika. Innaka ‘ala ma-tasha’u qadeer wa anta hasbun-allahu wa na’mal wakeel.”

“Oh Allah! Make useful for me what you have taught me and teach me knowledge that will be useful to me. Oh Allah! I ask you for the understanding of the prophets and the memory of the messengers, and those nearest to you. Oh Allah! Make my tongue full of your remembrance and my heart with consciousness of you. Oh Allah! You do whatever you wish, and you are my availer and protector and best of aid.”

Dua After Studying

“Allahumma inni astaodeeka ma qara’tu wama hafaz-tu. Farudduhu ‘allaya inda hajati elahi. Innaka ‘ala ma-tasha’-u qadeer wa anta hasbeeya wa na’mal wakeel”

“Oh Allah! I entrust you with what I have read and I have studied. Oh Allah! Bring it back to me when I am in need of it. Oh Allah! You do whatever you wish, you are my availer and protector and the best of aid.”

Dua While Studying Something Difficult

“Allahumma la sahla illama ja-‘altahu sahla anta taj ‘alu al hazana eza ma shi’ta sahal.”

“Oh Allah! Nothing is easy except what you have made easy. If you wish, you can make the difficult easy.”

Dua For Concentration

“Salla-l-laahu alaa Muhammad wa aal-e Muhammad. Allahumma inni as’aluka yaa mudhakkira-l khayr wa faa’ilahu wa-l-aamimira bihi dhakir-ni maa ansaani-hi-shaytan.”

“Blessings of god be upon Muhammad and his progeny. O god, I ask you, the one who mentions goodness and actualizes it and commands it, remind me of that which the shaytan makes me forget.”

Recite This Dua Everyday For Victory And Prosperity

“Ya sayyedas-sada-te, ya mojeebad-da’vate, ya rafe’ad-darajate, ya vali-yal hasanate, ya ghaferal-khati’ate, ya mo’ti-yal mas’alate, ya qabi-lat-tavbate, ya same’al-asvate, ya ‘alemal-khafiyate, ya dafe’al bali yate.”

“O’ the chief of all chiefs! O’ the acceptor of prayers! O’ the elevator of ranks! O’ the master of virtues! O’ the forgiver of sins! O’ the granter of requests! O’ the excerptor of penance! O’ the hearer of all voices! O’ the one who knows all mysteries! O’ the remover of calamities!”

Dua Before Exams:

The Prophet (sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam) told the following dua to be recited in stress, studies, exams and trials

“O Allaah, there is no ease except what You make easy. And if You wish, You make the difficult easy.” [recorded in Hisnul-Muslim]

Tips for Exams And Students

The Muslim student puts his trust in Allaah when facing the tests of this world, and he seeks His help whilst following the prescribed means, in accordance with the words of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him):

“The strong believer is better and is more beloved to Allaah than the weak believer, although both are good. Strive to attain that which will benefit you and seek the help of Allaah, and do not feel helpless.” (Saheeh Muslim, hadeeth no. 2664)

Among those means are the following:

Turning to Allaah by making du’aa’ in any way that is prescribed in Islam, such as saying, “Rabbiy ishrah li sadri wa yassir li amri (O my Lord, expand my chest and make things easy for me).”

Getting used to sleeping early and going to exams on time.

Preparing all required or permitted equipment such as pens, rulers and setsquares, calculators and watches, because being well prepared helps one to answer questions.

Reciting the du’aa’ for leaving the house: “Bismillaah, tawakkaltu ‘ala Allaah, wa laa hawla wa laa quwwata illa Billaah. Allaahumma inni a’oodhu bika an adilla aw udalla, aw azilla aw uzalla, aw azlima aw uzlama, aw ajhala aw yujhala ‘alayya (In the name of Allaah, I put my trust in Allaah, and there is no strength and no power except with Allaah. O Allaah, I seek refuge with You lest I should stray or be led astray, lest I slip (commit a sin unintentionally) or be tripped, lest I oppress or be oppressed, lest I behave foolishly or be treated foolishly).”Do not forget to seek your parents’ approval, for their du’aa’ for you will be answered.

Mention the name of Allaah before you start, for mentioning the name of Allaah is prescribed when beginning any permissible action; this brings blessing, and seeking the help of Allaah is one of the means of strength.

Fear Allaah with regard to your classmates, and do not be affected by their anxiety or fear just before the exam, for anxiety is a contagious disease. Instead, make them feel optimistic by saying good words as prescribed in Islam. The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) was optimistic when he heard the name of Suhayl (which means “easy”) and he said: “Things have been made easy for you.” He used to like to hear the words ‘Yaa Raashid, when he went out for any purpose. So be optimistic that you and your brothers will pass this exam.

Remembering Allaah (dhikr) dispels anxiety and tension. If something is too difficult for you, then pray to Allaah to make it easy for you. Whenever Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyah (may Allaah have mercy on him) found something too difficult to understand, he would say, “O You Who taught Ibraaheem, teach me; O You Who caused Sulaymaan to understand, cause me to understand.”

Choose a good place to sit during the exam, if you can. Keep your back straight, and sit on the chair in a healthy manner.

Look over the exam first. Studies advise spending 10% of the exam time in reading the questions carefully, noting the important words and dividing one’s time between the questions.

Plan to answer the easy questions first, then the difficult ones. Whilst reading the questions, write notes and ideas which you can use in your answers later.

Answer questions according to importance.

Start by answering the easy questions which you know. Then move on to the questions which carry high marks, and leave till the end the questions to which you do not know the answers, or which you think will take a long time to produce an answer or which do not carry such high marks.

Take your time to answer, for the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “Deliberation is from Allaah and haste is from the Shaytaan.” (A hasan hadeeth. Saheeh al-Jaami, 3011).

Think carefully about the answer and choose the right answer when answering multiple-choice questions. Deal with them in the following manner. If you are sure that you have chosen the right answer, then beware of waswasah (insinuating whispers from the Shaytaan). If you are not sure, then start by eliminating the wrong or unlikely answers, then choose the correct answer based on what you think is most likely to be correct. If you guessed at a correct answer then do not change it unless you are sure that it is wrong – especially if you will lose marks for a wrong answer. Research indicates that the correct answer is usually that which the student thinks of first.

In written exams, collect your thoughts before you start to answer.Write an outline for your answer with some words which will indicate the ideas which you want to discuss. Then number the ideas in the sequence in which you want to present them.

Write the main points of your answer at the beginning of the line, because this is what the examiner is looking for, and he may not see what he is looking for if it is in the middle of the page and he is in a hurry.

Devote 10% of the time for reviewing your answers. Take your time in reviewing, especially in mathematical problems and writing numbers. Resist the desire to hand in the exam papers quickly, and do not let the fact that some people are leaving early bother you. They may be among the people who have handed in their papers too early.

If you discover after the exam that you answered some questions incorrectly, then take that as a lesson in the importance of being well prepared in the future, and not rushing to answer questions. Accept the will and decree of Allaah and do not fall prey to frustration and despair. Remember the hadeeth of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him), “If anything befalls you, do not say, ‘If only I had done such and such.’ Rather say, ‘Qadar Allaah wa maa sha’a kaan (the decree of Allaah and what He wills happened),’ for saying ‘if only’ opens the door for the Shaytaan.” (Saheeh Muslim, and the first part of this hadeeth was mentioned above).

Note that cheating is haraam whether it is in foreign language tests or any other tests. The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said, “Whoever cheats is not one of us.” It is wrongdoing and it is a haraam means of attaining a degree or certificate, etc., that you have no right to. The consensus is that cheating is a kind of cooperation in sin and transgression. So do without that which is haraam, and Allaah will suffice you from His bounty. Reject all offers of haraam things that come to you from others. Whoever gives up a thing for the sake of Allaah, Allaah will compensate him with something better. You have to denounce and resist evil, and tell the authorities about any such thing that you see during the exam, or before or after it. This is not the forbidden kind of slander rather it is denouncing evil which is obligatory.

Advise those who buy or sell questions or post them on the Internet etc., or who prepare cheat notes. Tell them to fear Allaah, and tell them of the ruling on what they are doing and on the money they earn from that. Tell them that the time they are spending in preparing these haraam things, if they spent it in studying, or answering previous exams, or helping one another to understand the subject before the exam, that would be better for them than doing these haraam things.

- Remember what you have prepared for the Hereafter, and the questions of the examination in the grave, and how to be saved on the Day of Resurrection. Whoever is saved from the Fire and admitted to Paradise will indeed have succeeded.

We ask Allaah to make us succeed in this world and cause us to be among those who are victorious and saved in the Hereafter, for He is the All-Hearing Who answers prayer.




Wheather Widget


bloguez.com

May 17, 2011

Hymns of Life

I have once listened to hymns of life sung by birds of Freedom in sacred woods. So what? What I am trying to say is that such hymns sung by such birds, albeit few and rare, have been faithful to the promise they gave and now continue to hail. One of the hymns they celebrate is "Sapere aude" which basically means this: "have the courage to use your own understanding."
What reasons have we for hoping against emotionally atavistic stances ironically targeted towards the future? The idea is this: when the past calls for a meeting with the future in the province of the present, the future seems to be arrogant and boastful in character and looks at the past call, accordingly, with exaspiration. The present, not able to understand what is happening because of politicians, nevertheless purports to reconciliate between them, moves back and forth, taps out insightful elements from the past, brings them up to theory and practice, studies the expediency, and imparts the results obtained thus far to the future.
The future refrains for a moment from its pride and prejiduce and gets to know how unity, not division, between past and present has managed to deliver a present perfect beyond the simple.
Now, by virtue of the present, the future changes and takes towards the past so modest, sincere and negotiated a stance. Unity, not division, will make the difference now towards a future perfect that will have obtained by the time unity becomes not a means to an end but a spirit persistently calling for a proper meeting of past, present and future in the making in the present progressive now safely geared towards the future.

Here, thus, are the questions:

What is Freedom?
What is Love?
In the questions
There is the answer.
But is it safe to say
they now belong to this part
of the world: TUNISIA?
But see, can Freedom come about
without Love?
Can Love obtain and entertain
without Freedom?
Can paths of Life cross again
without decoded signs of Love
encoded in signs of hatred?
Seekers of Truth,
The Freedom we seek to seize
is Freedom with Love.
Neither more nor less.
For never has darkness
concealed sparkling stars above.
And Flowers have never come
and gone without a promise of spring.
Brothers of Truth,
Enough is enough of fearing.
Enough is enough of tearing.
Keep the Love of Truth.
Keep the Freedom of souls.
Keep the beautiful Revolution
Of Hearts against the scams
of tamed minds and have
The courage to use your own
Understanding: "Sapere aude".

Chokri Omri

It is worth pointing out, by way of elucidation and explanation, that the dictum “Have the courage to use your own reason!”, used above, (in Latin sapere aude!), is the battle cry of the Enlightenment. It was articulated by Immanuel Kant in his famous article ‘What is Enlightenment?’ (1784). Obstacles that can stand in our way in achieving ‘maturity’, i.e. thinking for ourselves, are manifold and have to do with: the self, politics and society, as well as culture. These are problems that concern academics as much as anyone else: In a letter to his sovereign Kant declared freely that he believed Rousseau to be correct in saying that rulers only tolerate those intellectuals who are happy to simply “adorn our chains with flowers” – as many do. The greatest difficulty lies in motivating people to shake off immaturity: “It is so easy not to be of age. If I have a book which understands for me, a pastor who has a conscience for me, a physician who decides my diet, and so forth, I need not trouble myself. I need not think, if only I can pay – others will easily undertake the irksome work for me.” Immanuel Kant writes:
"Enlightenment is Man's emergence from self-imposed tutelage, that is to say, from the inability to use the intellect without guidance by another. It is self-imposed if its cause does not lie in a deficiency of the intellect but of the courage and determination to use it autonomously. Sapere aude! Have the courage to think!" (I. Kant, Was ist Aufklärung?).

Pablo Neruda and The Art of Poetry

“I have never thought of my life as divided between poetry and politics,” Pablo Neruda said in his September 30, 1969, acceptance speech as the Chilean Communist Party candidate for the presidency. “I am a Chilean who for decades has known the misfortunes and difficulties of our national existence and who has taken part in each sorrow and joy of the people. I am not a stranger to them, I come from them, I am part of the people. I come from a working-class family … I have never been in with those in power and have always felt that my vocation and my duty was to serve the Chilean people in my actions and with my poetry. I have lived singing and defending them.”

Now Let's look for birds! The tall iron branches in the forest, The dense fertility on the ground. The world is wet. A dewdrop or raindrop shines, a diminutive star among the leaves. The morning time mother earth is cool. The air is like a river which shakes the silence. It smells of rosemary, of space and roots. Overhead, a crazy song. It's a bird. How out of its throat smaller than a finger can there fall the waters of its song? Luminous ease! Invisible power torrent of music in the leaves. Sacred conversations! Clean and fresh washed is this day resounding like a green dulcimer. I bury my shoes in the mud, jump over rivulets. A thorn bites me and a gust of air like a crystal wave splits up inside my chest. Where are the birds? Maybe it was that rustling in the foliage or that fleeting pellet of brown velvet or that displaced perfume? That leaf that let loose cinnamon smell - was that a bird? That dust from an irritated magnolia or that fruit which fell with a thump - was that a flight? Oh, invisible little critters birds of the devil with their ringing with their useless feathers. I only want to caress them, to see them resplendent. I don't want to see under glass the embalmed lightning. I want to see them living. I want to touch their gloves of real hide, which they never forget in the branches and to converse with them sitting on my shoulders although they may leave me like certain statues undeservedly whitewashed. Impossible. You can't touch them. You can hear them like a heavenly rustle or movement. They converse with precision. They repeat their observations. They brag of how much they do. They comment on everything that exists. They learn certain sciences like hydrography. and by a sure science they know where there are harvests of grain.

- Pablo Neruda
- Translated by Jodey Bateman

Lost In Heaven

The clouds, the source of rain, one stormy night

Offered an opening to the source of dew;

Which I accepted with impatient sight,

Looking for my old sky-marks in the blue.



But stars were scarce in that part of the sky,

And no two were of the same constellation-

No one was bright enough to identify;

So ‘twas with not ungrateful consternation,



Seeing myself well lost once more, I sighed,

‘Where, where in heaven am I? But don’t tell me!

O opening clouds, by opening on me wide.



Let’s let my heavenly lostness overwhelm me.



Robert Frost

EYES FOR EARTH AND EDEN: Marwan Khoury Law feyi

EYES FOR EARTH AND EDEN: Marwan Khoury Law feyi

May 10, 2011

THE RELIGION OF ISLAM

The first thing that one should know and clearly understand about Islam is what the word "Islam" itself means. The religion of Islam is not named after a person as in the case of Christianity which was named after Jesus Christ, Buddhism after Gotama Buddha, Confucianism after Confucius, and Marxism after Karl Marx. Nor was it named after a tribe like Judaism after the tribe of Judah and Hinduism after the Hindus. Islam is the true religion of "Allah" and as such, its name represents the central principle of Allah's "God's" religion; the total submission to the will of Allah "God". The Arabic word "Islam" means the submission or surrender of one's will to the only true god worthy of worship "Allah" and anyone who does so is termed a "Muslim", The word also implies "peace" which is the natural consequence of total submission to the will of Allah. Hence, it was not a new religion brought by Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) I in Arabia in the seventh century, but only the true religion of Allah re-expressed in its final form.

Islam is the religion which was given to Adam, the first man and the first prophet of Allah, and it was the religion of all the prophets sent by Allah to mankind. The name of God's religion lslam was not decided upon by later generations of man. It was chosen by Allah Himself and clearly mentioned in His final revelation to man. In the final book of divine revelation, the Qur'aan, Allah states the following:


"This day have I perfected your religion for you, completed My favour upon you, and have chosen for you Islam as your religion". (Soorah Al-Maa'idah 5:3)

"If anyone desires a religion other than Islam (submission to Allah (God) never will It be accepted of Him" (Soorah Aal'imraan 3:85)

"Abraham was not a Jew nor Christian; but an upright Muslim."(Soorah Aal'imraan 3:67)



Nowhere in the Bible will you find Allah saying to Prophet Moses' people or their descendants that their religion is Judaism, nor to the followers of Christ that their religion is Christianity. In fact, Christ was not even his name, nor was it Jesus! The name "Christ" comes from the Greek word Christos which means the annointed. That is, Christ is a Greek translation of the Hebrew title "Messiah". The name "Jesus" on the other hand, is a latinized version of the Hebrew name Esau.

For simplicity's sake, I will however continue to refer to Prophet Esau (PBUH) as Jesus. As for his religion, it was what he called his followers to. Like the prophets before him, he called the people to surrender their will to the will of Allah; (which is Islam) and he warned them to stay away from the false gods of human imagination.

According to the New Testament, he taught his followers to pray as follows: "Yours will be done on earth as it is in Heaven".



THE MESSAGE OF ISLAM

Since the total submission of one's will to Allah represents the essence of worship, the basic message of Allah's divine religion, Islam is the worship of Allah alone and the avoidance of worship directed to any person, place or thing other than Allah.Since everything other than Allah, the Creator of all things, is Allah's creation; it may be said that Islam, in essence calls man away from the worship of creation and invites him to worship only its Creator. He is the only one deserving man's worship as it is only by His will that prayers are answered. If man prays to a tree and his prayers are answered, it was not the tree which answered his prayers but Allah who allowed the circumstances prayed for to take place. One might say, "That is obvious," however, to tree-worshippers it might not be. Similarly, prayers to Jesus, Buddha, or Krishna, to Saint Christopher, or Saint Jude or even to Muhammad, are not answered by them but are answered by Allah. Jesus did nottell his followers to worship him but to worship Allah. As the Qur'aan states:



"And behold Allah will say: "O Jesus the son of Mary Did you say to men, Worship me and my mother as gods besides Allah He will say-"Glory to you I could never say what I had no right (to say')" (Soorah Al-Maa'idah- 5:116)



Nor did he worship himself when he worshipped but rather he worshipped Allah. This basic principle is enshrined in the opening chapter of the Qur'aan, known as Soorah Al-Faatihah, verse 4:

"You alone do we worship and from you alone do we seek help".



Elsewhere, in the final book of revelation, the Qur'aan, Allah also said:



"And your Lord says:"Call on Me and I will answer your(prayer)."(Soorsh Mu'min 40:60)



it is worth noting that the basic message of Islam is that Allah and His creation are distinctly different entities. Neither is Allah His creation or a part of it, nor is His creation Him or a part of Him.



This might seem obvious, but, man's worship of creation instead of the Creator is to a large degree based on ignorance of this concept. It is the belief that the essence of Allah is everywhere in His creation or that His divine being is or was present in some aspects of His creation, which has provided justification for the worship of creation though such worship maybecalled the worship of Allah through his creation. How ever, the message of Islam as brought by the prophets of Allah is to worship only Allah and to avoid the worship of his creation either directly or indirectly. In the Our'aan Allah clearlystates:



"For We assuredly sent amongst every people a prophet,(with the command) worship meand avoid false gods " (Soorah Al-Nahl 16:36)



When the idol worshipper is questioned as to why he or she bows down to idols created by men, the invariable reply is that they are not actually worshipping the stone image, but Allah who is present within it. They claim that the stone idol is only a focal point for Allah's essence and is not in itself Allah! One who has accepted the concept of the presence of God's being within His creation in any way will be obliged to accept this argument of idolatry. Whereas, one who understands the basic message of Islam and its implications would never concede to idolatry no matter how it is rationalized. Those who have claimed divinity for themselves down through the ages have often based their claims on the mistaken belief that Allah is present in man. They merely had to assert that although Allah according to their false beliefs, is in all of us, He is more present in them than in the rest of us. Hence, they claim, we should submit our will to them and worship them as they are either God in person or God concentrated within the person.



Similarly, those who have asserted the godhood of others after their passing have found fertile ground among those who accept the false belief of God's presence in man. One who has grasped the basic message of Islam and its implications could never agree to worship another human being under any circumstances. God's religion in essence is a clear call to the worship of the Creator and the rejection of creation-worship in any form. This is the meaning of the motto of Islam:

"Laa Elaaha lllallaah" (There is no god but Allah)



Its repetition automatically brings one within the fold of Islam and sincere belief in it guarantees one Paradise.



Thus, the final Prophet of Islam is reported to have said, "Any one who says: There is no god but Allah and dies holding that (belief) will enter paradise".(Reported by Abu Dharr and collected by Al-Bukhaaree and Muslim).

It consists in the submission to Allah as one God, yielding to Him by obeying His commandments, and the denial of polytheism and polytheists.

THE MESSAGE OF FALSE RELIGION

There are so many sects, cults, religions, philosophies, and movements in the world, all of which claim to be the right way or the only true path to Allah. How can one determine which one is correct or if, in fact, all are correct? The method by which the answer can be found is to clear away the superficial differences in the teachings of the various claimants to the ultimate truth, and identify the central object of worship to which they call, directly or indirectly. False religions all have in common one basic concept with regards to Allah. They either claim that all men are gods or that specific men were Allah or that nature is Allah or that Allah is a figment of man's imagination. Thus, it may be stated that the basic message of false religion is that Allah may be worshipped in the form of His creation. False religion invites man to the worship of creation by calling the creation or some aspect of it God. For example, prophet Jesus invited his followers to worship Allah but those who claim to be his followers today call people to worship Jesus, claiming that he was Allah! Buddha was a reformer who introduced a number of humanistic principles to the religion of India. He did not claim to be God nor did he suggest to his followers that he be an object of worship. Yet, today most Buddhists who are to be found outside of India have taken him to be God and prostrate to idols made in their perception of his likeness. By using the principle of identifying the object of worship, false religion becomes very obvious and the contrived nature of their origin clear. As God said in the Our'aan:
That which you worship besides Him are only names you and your forefathers have invented for which Allah has sent down no authority: The command belongs only to Allah: He has commanded that you only worship Him; that is the right religion, but most men do not understand ". (Soorah Yoosuf 12:40)

It may be argued that all religions teach good things so why should it matter which one we follow. The reply is that all false religions teach the greatest evil, the worship of creation. Creation-worship is the greatest sin that man can commit because it contradicts the very purpose of his creation. Man was created to worship Allah alone as Allah has explicitly stated in the Our'aan:

"I have only created Jlnns and men, that they may worship me"(Soorah Zaareeyaat 51:56)

Consequently, the worship of creation, which is the essence of idolatry, is the only unforgivable sin. One who dies in this state of idolatry has sealed his fate in the next life. This is not an opinion, but a revealed fact stated by Allah in his final revelation to man:

"Verily Allah will not forgive the joining of partners with Him, but He may forgive (sins) less than that for whom so ever He wishes"(Soorah An- Nisaa 4:48 and 116)

THE UNIVERSALITY OF ISLAM

Since the consequences of false religion are so grave, the true religion of Allah must be universally understandable and attainable, not confined to any people, place or time. There can not be conditions like baptism, belief in a man, as a saviour etc., for a believer to enter paradise. Within the central principle of Islam and in its definition, (the surrender of one's will to God) lies the roots of lslam's universality. Whenever man comes to the realization that Allah is one and distinct from His creation, and submits himself to Allah, he becomes a Muslim in body and spirit and is eligible for paradise. Thus, anyone at anytime in the most remote region of the world can become a Muslim, a follower of God's religion, Islam, by merely rejecting the worship of creation and by turning to Allah (God) alone-It should be noted however, that the recognition of and submission to Allah requires that one chooses between right and wrong and such a choice implies accountability. Man will be held responsible for his choices, and, as such, he should try his utmost to do good and avoid evil. The ultimate good being the worship of Allah alone and the ultimate evil being the worship of His creation along with or instead of Allah. This fact is expressed in the final revelation as follows:

"Verily those who believe, those who follow the Jewish (Scriptures), the Christians and the Sabians any who believe In Allah and the last day, and work righteousness *hall have their reward with their Lord;They will not be overcome by fear nor grief (Soorah Al-Baqarah 2:62).

If only they had stood by the law, the Gospel, and all the revelation that was sent to them from their Lord, they would have enjoyed happiness from every side. There Is from among them a party on the right course; but many of them follow a course that Is evil.". (Soorah Al-.Maa'idah 5:66)



RECOGNITION OF ALLAH

The question which arises here is, "How can all people be expected to believe in Allah given their varying- backgrounds, societies and cultures? For people to be responsible for worshipping Allah they all have to have access to knowledge of Allah. The final revelation teaches that all mankind have the recognition of Allah imprinted on their souls, a part of their very nature with which they are created. In Soorah Al-A'raaf, Verses 172-173; Allah explained that when He created Adam, He caused all of Adam's descendants to come into existence and took a pledge from them saying, Am I not your Lord? To which they all replied, " Yes, we testify to It:' Allah then explained why He had all of mankind bear witness that He is their creator and only true God worthy of worship. He said, "That was In case you (mankind) should say on the day of Resurrection, "Verily we were unaware of all this." That is to say, we had no idea that You Allah, were our God. No one told us that we were only supposed to worship You alone. Allah went on to explain That it was also In case you should say, "Certainly It was our ancestors who made partners (With Allah) and we are only their descendants; will You then destroy us for what those liars did?" Thus, every child is born with a natural belief in Allah and an inborn inclination to worship Him alone called in Arabic the "Fitrah".

If the child were left alone, he would worship Allah in his own way, but all children are affected by those things around them, seen or unseen.

The Prophet (PBUH) reported that Allah said, "I created my servants in the right religion but devils made them go astray". The Prophet (PBUH) also said, "Each child is born in a state of "Fitrah", then his parents make him a Jew, Christian or a Zoroastrian, the way an animal gives birth to a normal offspring. Have you noticed any that were born mutilated?" (Collected by Al-Bukhaaree and Muslim).

So, just as the child submits to the physical laws which Allah has put in nature, his soul also submits naturally to the fact that Allah is his Lord and Creator. But, his parents try to make him follow their own way and the child is not strong enough in the early stages of his life to resist or oppose the will of his parents. The religion which the child follows at this stage is one of custom and upbringing and Allah does not hold him to account or punish him for this religion.

Throughout people's lives from childhood until the time they die, signs are shown to them in all regions of the earth and in their own souls, until it becomes clear that there is only one true God (Allah). If the people are honest with themselves, reject their false gods and seek Allah, the way will be made easy for them but if they continually reject Allah's signs and continue to worship creation, the more difficult it will be for them to escape. For example, in the South Eastern region of the Amazon jungle in Brazil, South America, a primitive tribe erected a new hut to house their main idol Skwatch, representing the supreme God of all creation. The homage to the God, and while he was in prostration to what he had been taught was his Creator and Sustainer, a mangy old flea-ridden dog walked into the hut, The young man looked up in time to see the dog lift its hind leg and pass urine on the idol. Outraged, the youth chased the dog out of the temple, but when his rage died down he realized that the idol could not be the Lordof the universe. Allah must be elsewhere. he now had a choice to act on his knowledge and seek Allah, or to dishonestly go along with the false beliefs of his tribe. As strange as it may seem, that was a sign from Allah for that young man. It contained within it divine guidance that what he was worshipping was false. Prophets were sent, as was earlier mentioned, to every nation and tribe to support man's natural belief in Allah and man's inborn inclination to worship Him as well as to reinforce the divine truth in the daily signs revealed by Allah. Although, in most cases, much of the prophets' teachings became distorted, portions remained which point out right and wrong. For example, the ten commandments of the Torah, their confirmation in the Gospels and the existence of laws against murder, stealing and adultery in most societies. Consequently, every soul will be held to account for its belief in Allah and its acceptance of the religion of Islam; the total submission to the will of Allah.

We pray to Allah, the exalted, to keep us on the right path to which He has guided us, and to bestow on us a blessing from Him, He is indeed the Most Merciful. Praise and gratitude be to Allah,the Lord of the worlds, and peace and blessings be on prophet Muhammed, his Family, his companions, and those who rightly follow them.




By Abu Ameenah Bilal Philips



Maher Zain - Open Your Eye with Lyrics

May 5, 2011

Paradise Lost Revisited

Paradise Lost Revisited




When I think about the reasons behind this all embracing futility informing our lives, I immediately find myself plunged into a kind of dwelling which is strange through and through. This all encompassing aimlessness is, I am of a firm and strong belief, the result of human sterility and incapacity for action. It is the outcome of human stagnation and inertia. Each one fixed his eyes before his feet and no attention, no awareness, no point of reference has been assigned to the future. Our lives are measured by the material as well as the sensual but never by the spiritual. There is this painful paucity of any guiding moral principles. There is this utterly disappointing absence from our lives of any spiritual values. There is no need then, to doubt the fact that we are living in an overwhelming desolation. People have become incessantly curious to know everything except what is worth knowing. They know the price of everything but the value of nothing. They are impatiently longing for possessing what is ephemeral. They are ready to invest every effort for the sake of pleasure.

What if we take love? Do people love one another? Perhaps they were right in putting love into books. Faulkner proclaimed somewhere. Perhaps it could not live anywhere else. Do they believe in lofty and noble feelings? La vie se presse dans les coeurs. C’est certain. L’amour fait oublier tout ce qui n’est pas divin comme lui, et l’on vit plus en quelques instants que pendant de longues periods. Mais ou’ est, pour l’amour de Dieu, ou’ est l’amour ? There are only some big words in their mouths. It is increasingly clear that there is only futility and faked emotions. We live in an age of futility when what is essential is made trivial and what is trivial is made essential. We are living in an age, one of them made it this way for some reason, where all the unnecessary things are our only necessities. Nothing seems to be in its place. Everything is at sea. Everything seems to be going through the wrong way. Everything is going badly everywhere.
Were anyone to ask me today my opinion about our age, i would take it to be the age of the transience of experience and the aimlessness and senslessness of life.

Dust I am, to dust am bending,
From the final doom impending.
Je ne suis rien comme ça, sinon cendre et poussière.
Je ne suis rien comme ça, sinon cendre et poussière.


With these awkward ideas warring in my mind, with these strange impulses struggling in my heart, i really find it extremely difficult for me not to remember someone who, albeit his blindness, saw things invisible to mortal sight. I find it definitely difficult for me not to remember him because the things he voiced and confessed are far and far beyond the slutishness of forgetfulness and oblivion. The things he managed to lay bare were not to emanate from scratch or ex nihilo. They were not going to accept being gleaned out of nothing as many would take them to be. There is something then truer and more real than what we can see with the eyes and touch with the finger to deploy, in a way, some authoritarian Hawthornian words. Indeed, this man is absolutely suggestive of many things we, modern men, find past comprehension and at the same time past apprehension. To prove this, let us first have a first glance of perusal at what kind of things he, the man of his age and all the ages that went and still to come, might say:


Thus they in Heav’n, above the starry sphere,
Their happy hours in joy and hymning spent.
Meanwhile upon the firm opacous ° Globe
Of this round world, ° whose first convex ° divides
The luminous inferior Orbs, ° enclosed
From Chaos and th’inroad of Darkness old,
Satan alighted works: a Globe far off
It seem’d, now seems a boundless Continent
Dark, waste, and wild, under the frown of night
Starless expos’d, and ever-threat’ning storms
Of Chaos blust’ring round, inclement sky;
Save on that side which from the wall of Heav’n
Though distant far some small reflection gains
Of glimmering air less vext with tempest loud:
Here walk’d the Fiend at large in spacious field.


These lines, pour donner à César ce qui appartient à César, are remarkably evocative of an outstanding and penetrating frame of mind this man seems to have kept and cherished. It is not within the borders of possibility for us to read them without being touched by their extreme profundity both in form and meaning. What is happening, one should ask now, above the starry sphere? Here there is only the frown of night starless exposed, and ever threatening storms of chaos blustering round the inclement sky. Here walked the fiend (meaning a cruel or evil person) at large in spacious field up and down bending on his preys and fearing from no one whomsoever. Is there nobody here to stand against him? Is there no one to prevent him from doing the harm he has and still continues to engender in the human race? Why isn’t there somebody here to stop him? Where is every body? Don’t they try to stop him at all?

In order to be generous and provide an answer to the question I of recently have come to mention above (What is happening above the starry sphere? As with regard to the last set of questions, suffice it to point out that one had better have some sort of dependency upon himself and never wait for others to mend the rip), I will say right from the onset that this question is, at its best, badly formulated and posed. Where upon, just by way of consequence, it should never be asked or even speculated upon. My reason for that is the fact that we are Humans with so many ambitions and so few conditions. It is not really up to us nor for us either to ask questions to which there are no convincing answers, let alone practical ones. What is happening above the starry sphere is beyond our knowledge (see the Koran, surat Elanbiae, Aya 22 but also Aya 23). In so saying, I wish I would not be accused of being negativistic or pessimistic. For there does not really seem to be much point in being or trying to be like that. I wish I would not end up by falling in that kind of slippery slope fallacy which stands against things of the future without satisfactory reasons. In the mean time, I have said that because I did not want to dwell on abstract things whose applicability and expediency in our empirical world is most of the time depressing and heartbreaking. Then, in attempting to back up my stance and hence make up for the question I tried to exclude, I would rather have a preference to come up with which is an other question serving the same purpose. What is happening down this round earth?
Let us try to settle it and ask then whatever question we might ask.

In an answer to the latter question, again that man will be found of great service and assistance to us not because he produced one but rather because he produced , and to put it in a sophisticated way, none, and yet was very close to it. His poem is highly descriptive of what is happening down this round earth. He had been aware of the fact that, as I said in the beginning, the task of real intellectuals (not those who pretend, for the examples are thick on the ground as a matter of fact.) consists chiefly and paramountly in analyzing the illusions present in this world in order to discover their causes. He, in this respect wrote:


So on this windy Sea of land, the fiend
Walked up and down alone bent on his prey,
Alone, for other creature in this place
Living or liveless to be found was none,
None yet, but store° hereafter from the earth
Up hither like Aerial vapours flew
Of all things transitory and vain, when sin
With vanity had fill’d the works of men:
Both all things vain, and all who in vain things
Built their fond hopes of Glory or lasting fame,
Or happiness in this or th’other life;


This is exactly what is happening down this round earth. The fiend is doing very well in his job. He confirmed himself in evil and felt how awful goodness is, and then started at once performing his task through the various exercises and drills he set forth for himself and which he incessantly confers on the human race. He was determined to take one way in life and so he opted for the wrong one and yet excelled in it. He excelled in it because he was alone (not now to tell the truth !) and so he took advantage of the entire land where both living and liveless creatures are past everything due to their ignorance and from which most of them refuse and rebuff to escape. He succeeded in playing his hoax and scam upon them when they invested their energies and efforts in things which are transient, passing and worthless. The long series of trivial, clumsy vain efforts born out of frustration and fumbling and dumb instinct. They are playing with sin not in the secret house of shame but rather in public. (See the Koran; Sura 6; Aya 128). Not only sin but also vanity, these are the ideals they imbued their works with. But the most dismal of all according to my perspective
( to analyse the illusions in order to detect their causes) is that they still do not know how to prune themselves. Now, they expectingly want their works to be geared towards Glory and lasting fame. They expectingly long for happiness. Mais la gloire et le Bonheur, comme on le sait, ne s’achètent pas par la vanité. Their reward on Earth, John Milton tells us, is the fruits of painful superstition and blind Zeal. They would find fit retribution empty as their deeds.

They would find fit retribution just as empty as their deeds. For their works are filled with sin and vanity. From this and as Milton expressed it later, what must be worse; Of worse deeds sufferings must ensue with no regard or account whatever to what Hypocrites austerely talk of purity and place and innocence. (See again the Koran; Sura 6; Aya 112 but equally Aya 113). There is no reason for hope in this respect. What is hope in short? It is an unpatterned process of living in life while cleaving to a good prospect of faith. It is the process of living along with an aim of achieving what one thinks he deserves to achieve. There is no reason then at all for them to hope for Glory and lasting fame because what is wrong is always wrong even if the world in its entirety is defending it. (See again the Koran; Sura 6; Aya 116-117). Their final hope is, as Milton had shown in Paradise Lost, nothing but flat despair. It is not easy to think of it otherwise. There is actually no point, there is no good, there is no way of righteousness to come out of things which are transitory and vain. This is perhaps why John Milton takes this round earth to be no more than a windy sea of land dark, waste, and wild under the frown of night starless exposed and ever threatening storms of chaos blustering round the inclement sky.

Save on that side which from the wall of Heav’n
Though distant far some small reflection gains
Of glimmering air less vext with tempest loud.


Of this, one needs to talk at length because it seems that even Milton himself did not find much to say about Heaven. “When we have offended against Heaven,” A Chinese good man rightly said, “ there is nowhere we can turn to in our prayers”.(See for instance the Koran ; Sura 6 ; aya 104). Milton did not find much to say about it. Only a small reflection has escaped the ever threatening storms of chaos. A small reflection but an extremely pertinent one without which there can really be no talk of anything worth mentioning or dwelling upon. Milton, I must say again, found it at stake for himself to talk about Heaven except perhaps when he, by way of need and desire alike, attempted to strike a balance between the starry sphere and the firm opacous Globe of this round world. But in truth, Milton desperately failed in so doing and this should come as no surprise to us because Milton is in the midst of life and what is more than this, he did not make a radical choice whether to take this way or the other. He could by no means hope to give a full account of something in which he himself is immersed, plunged and submerged. He must have been greatly affected by both ways which means that he is incipiently victim of division. Milton in his “Paradise Lost” allowed the devil to have his say. The devil, however, was trying to prevent Milton from having his say. Milton failed as a consequence which means that he succeeded. The devil succeeded which means that he failed. The very paradigm of success and failure is not a successful one for those who are reading my paper without enough attention. I said above that I am a master of disappointing and I care very little for that. My brothers and sisters will not be disappointed. I am certain about it. It is as if then that Milton, to go back to him, were saying in the words of Shelley in his essay (On Love): “Ask him who lives what is life; ask him who adores what is God”.

Why does everything around us seem to be at sea except on that side which from the wall of Heaven? What makes, let us ask out of curiosity and inquisitiveness, the glimmering air less vext with tempest loud? So long as questioning is a key to knowledge, we all need to inquire about things before accepting to refuse or refusing to accept them. It is not difficult to ask questions but it is rather difficult to provide answers to them. Everything seems to be at sea because almost everybody lost faith in goodness. But why? It is because goodness is simple and badness manifold. Everything seems to be at sea, i think, because no attention is rightly called to the dreadful deeds human beings are doing. Everything seems to be at sea because instead of fighting against Fiends, we are fighting against one another. Everything seems to be at sea because we are suffering from the lack of direction and conduct and Kant is giving a pretty decent espousal of obedience and its positive harvest. Everything seems to be at sea because we are reprimanding external things quite oblivious to ourselves. What is happening above the starry sphere is absolutely none of our business. What is happening down this round earth, however, is our business. Everything seems to be at sea because instead of having ourselves occupied with our business, we are wasting so much time in things that are far from being our business. Take this earth. It is running to its own destruction, isn’t it? Let us explore just for one moment along with John Milton the precious nature men’s vicious hands have spoiled and sullied for no good reason. Thanks poor Tom, thanks indeed. You have at least come to find out what has long been past finding out. Our lives would not come to an end if we did not end the lives of others. Have we lost sight of what is happening down this earth? Many are those who will say it is not any concern of theirs. Many are those who will let things take place and then start asking: Why aren’t they done the other way round? Many are those who will lose the battle of life from the first encounter. They are those on whom it is said that the bravest men among them is afraid of himself and from whom nothing is to be achieved axcept sheer disappointment. Indeed, there is really nothing to be expected from those who expect nothing from themselves. There is really nothing to come out of nothing. De rien, rient ne sort. Je vois quelque chose de plus faux dans leur position, à eux et surtout à moi.

I have said let us explore along with Milton the precious nature, mother nature men’s ferocious and brutal hands have blemished and tainted for no good reason.

All th’unaccomplisht works of Nature’s hand,
Abortive, ° monstrous, or unkindly° mixt,
Dissolv’d on earth, fleet hither, and in vain, °
Till final dissolution, wander here,
Not in the neighbouring Moon, as some have dream’d;

I can hardly have one single reason for hoping to express in prose what Milton have done in verse but still, I want to express even this inexpressibility which grabs hold of me each time I feel like expressing my self. My reason soon becomes shrivelled up in the fire of emotion and I accordingly wonder why is it that our lives are handled this way and not another way more promising and rewarding. Milton’s lines, to thrust back to our context, depict the kind of conduct human beings are following in their tussle with nature. It is a misconduct through and through. They unreasonably and at times unconsciously destroy the elements of nature and hope then to see and live in a better place in this world. Nature, as Defoe rightly said, appears to be stripped of all the additional Glories, which it derives from religion. It is destroyed instead of being preserved. They, by means of ignorance, fall preys to counterproductiveness because they failed to make a simple distinction between the means and the end, the process and the objective. All the unaccomplished works of Nature, human beings do not seem to know, will melt and break up on this earth. They will dissolve in vain till final dissolution becomes altogether apparent to everyone of them not in the neighbouring Moon as many might have wished and dreamed but rather in this round earth. Human beings with all their trumpery will come to terms with “Vain hopes, vain aims, inordinate desires blown up with high conceits engendering pride”.

Heaven, What is happening above the starry sphere? Is there no way out of this round Earth towards Heaven? I am sure there is a way without disavowal and xenophobic rejection. There is a way in which the fiend will flee along with his shades of night.( Sura 6 ; Aya 126). But who will take this way? Let us face it. Who will take this way? Those who believe in Heaven and work on earth or those who neither believe in Heaven nor work on earth. As with regard to those who believe in Heaven and do not work on earth or those who do not believe in Heaven and work on earth, they are not at all to be taken into account. The space of this paper allows no room for me to talk about them. We have to do everything ourselves if we want to know anything about Heaven. We have to do everything ourselves without waiting for others to show us the directions and instructions. Nobody knows what sort of thing Heaven is. Nobody knows what kind of things which might be found in Heaven. We have to do everything ourselves in order to know real things. Haven’t we had enough of betrayals and things that are transitory and vain. No matter how much pain being alive will necessitate, we have to be alive. No matter how much trouble this will take. This is the whole point. It is better than being dead to all things central and vital in our lives. Il n’y a pas de temps mort, pour ainsi dire, dans cette vie. La vie, Aziza Lounis a dit, doit etre une chasse perpétuelle vers le Bonheur. Mais quel bonheur ? Il faut également accepter et considèrer le caractère éphémère du Bonheur et le pousuivre pour toujours. We have to be alive in everything around us because life is devoid of meaning otherwise. Let us live with the spiritual because it is, indeed, the spirit that matters most. The material and the sensual will bring nothing constructive with them. For as Friedrich Holderlin articulated it somewhere, who cares for things that will die the earth will have them? Who cares for things ephemeral and passing?



“Nobody thinks, nobody cares, no beliefs, no convictions, and no enthusiasms”. This is really more than one can bear. This is too much for humanity. We are living at a juncture of history when things are starting to portend and bode with nothingness and dissolution. What consolations are there for us mortals who saw and witnessed things unbearable? We are living with so many fiends and so few friends. It is unreservedly pitiable and disheartening to go on living this way without ruminating another way out of this vision of Hell on earth. It is really painful to live in these bleak times when people appear to have forgotten entirely about the reason behind their existence on this round Earth. Work and life should be part of one existence. Most people have curtailed their principles because of the pressures they incessantly exercise upon one another. A group together, depending on each other, knowing what they want, knowing how to get it, this is something like a dream never supported by reality. A unified group of people is all we need in order to stand firmly against degeneration. Nous voulons un tout organisé tendant vers un but unique. The individual toppling is the outcome of the social toppling. It is tremendously important to have our minds completely made up to things essential and fundamental in our lives rather than to get them worked up to and have them set up upon things transitory and vain. Life is not as complex and problematic as many have said and thought. It is not a play of passion. It is not to be arrested through a few organized words heated with emotion after all. We live it and that is it.

To live life the way we set down for our selves without allowing any kind of external imposition to be conferred upon us is the highest aspiration we have both at the individual and social level. It is, in fact, of no use to keep on reiterating the fact that to live is to make things happen and push them to come about. To live is to create and invent. Il faut toujours, Guy de Maupassant a dit, chercher, trouver, inventer, tout comprendre, tout prévoir, tout combiner, tous oser. The purport, in much simpler terms, is to be awake, to be alive. “Arise, awake, or be forever fallen” John Milton would say.

We have everything in our hands in order to look for a way out of this extremely desolating dispensation. One never can tell what will be from what is. Courage and fortitude reside in our hearts. When we are confronted with what is right, to leave it undone shows a lack of courage. A’ quoi bon avoir la lacheté? A’ quoi bon ? je voudrais savoir. Seuls les làches, pour une fois pour toutes, se cachent derrière le silence. Courage and fortitude represent then, certainly, fundamental attributes of humanity. Nothing precious and valuable has ever been achieved without their intervention. They are of a great reward to us upon one pertinent ground; They are things of the spirit. When the spirit matters again in our lives, we know how much meaning they add up and generate to us. We have got to settle it from the start in order to see and guess how far we are going to move through life. These are not things we are waiting to be imbued with. These are things of foundation and background. If we do not keep up with them, there will be no use of them. Let us not forget that spiritual values once kept they are inalterable. They never accept, God how repellent this word is to me !, compromises. It is better to have no spirit, as I have argued in the beginning, than to have a compromising one especially as far as moral and spiritual standards are concerned. He who has an uncompromising spirit has the Earth and everything that is in it and what is more, he is a man. The Chinese master said: “Look at the means a man employs, observe the path he takes and examine where he feels at home. In what way is a man’s true character hidden from view? In what way is a man’s character hidden from view?” A man’s character will never be concealed from our sight. What we eat in private, so to speak, will be shown in public. Let us, for God’s sake, face it without wearing masks or painted faces. Have we not seen what kind of life hypocrites are handling? Have we not seen what kind of end many of them have reached? In what way is a man’s character hidden from view?

Prostrated are those who prostrate without ever knowing what it means or what it entails. One needs to be better equipped with knowledge before taking any move forward or backward. But most important of all, we all need to stop looking backward. Can any sense be made out of those who move through life while latching on to ignorance? Nonsense, nonsense, nonsense. There are many people who are not only ignorant but also inflexible and egotistical. Can anything be made out of what they do or say? Nothing, nothing, nothing. Au fond, comme dit STENDHAL, Vous et moi, nous ne voulons certainement pas vivre avec ces gens-là; mais sur beaucoup de questionsn nous pensons comme eux… Nous ne sommes de ce parti que pour en partager les malheurs. The best thing we can do, I am more than obliged and bound to say it, in order to stop catering for this, is to let them be what they are, stay where they are, have what they have and go where they want to go. Not very far will they be able to go. Not very far will they really be able to go. Why then? It is because they are not Jacks of all trades, Are they? Ils savent tout, il font tout. Mais, as they say in French, c’est pas à eux que je dois ma taille. They do not know how to change for the proper benefit of their own selves. They do not know how to make themselves at once useful for themselves and then for others. Not very far will they be able to go if they do not change. Only the fools will not change. Only the dead will not change.








This is by no means the substance of my predicament. This is the very start of it
as a very long journey I want to take in this life that is mine and not theirs. For as the bird flies away after flapping its wings, I, too, yearn and look towards a similar kind of thing. To fly away high up and up and never go down. To fly away like the eagle whose own flesh, read this, as well as space is still a cage. We do have time to look about things and manage our plans. Do we need to forget that Carthage is our country of origin? Do we need to forget that our task is to protect and fortify Carthage and that we are its eagles? People abroad know Carthage better than we do and know as well that we are the eagles. But again, if one seems to find it incumbent upon him to say it without reservations, isn’t life too short to be wasted on things transitory and vain? Isn’t life too short, my brothers? Day unto day, we see, life wastes and wanes like a candle burning its oils away till nothing but charred wick remains. Isn’t it too short, my brothers? Let us strive, dans un moment de répit, to figure it out. Life is a course and passage. It is unclear for me to take it to mean something besides. From this it will surely ensue the fact that we need to be very careful about it. One needs to be very careful about his life lest it should turn out so unconstructively. And if of life we keep a care, let us shake off our slumber and beware in order to voice it in the words of william Shakespeare.

Why is it that we are always held blameable for things we have not done ourselves? Why is it that we are always admonished for others’ deeds and not ours? Il me semble après tout que nous somme pas de ceux qui posent les questions jusqu’au bout. Let us then flap our wings and fly away high up and up and never go down. Let us try to forget this way of life and work very hard upon obtaining our freedom. Freedom is so much needed and wanted if we are now to be very careful about our lives. More importantly, let us set ourselves free from those habits that we are very fond of calling ours. Always when anything gets to be a habit, it also manages to get a right good distance from truth and fact. We have so many bad habits. If only we could get them out of our lives with a view of living differently but also of evaluating differently. This is, as a matter of fact, to be made and become possible only after learning how to think differently. Some drastic and radical changes are more than important to be implemented. Our lives will never but fall into tedium and monotony if we are to do and act otherwise. Impossible de prendre ce chemin. Mais pourquoi? Is it not possible to change and reconstruct ? L’homme a besoin de ce qu’il y a de pire en lui pour atteindre ce qu’il y a de meilleur en lui. Il y a toujours, mon Dieu , quelque chose à faire. Alors, pourquoi rester dans les ténèbres ? Il y a toujours quelque chose à faire sur cette terre. Soyons comme la revière qui déborde et non pas comme (l’étang ??? what a shame !) qui contient toujours la même eau.

Chokri Omri



Maher Zain - Thank You Allah with Lyrics

Discord in Tunisia




Martyrs did not want to die and part for nothing.
They did not come to life and go without blessing.
Why, then, are those who killed them still walking?
Till when, Oh God, they will live and keep hiding?
Do they live to make others die? Are they humans?

Chokri Omri

Maher Zain - Thank You Allah with Lyrics

Maher Zain - Allahi Allah Kiya Karo [Lyrics are in description box]

Maher Zain - Awaken

hold my hand-maher zein-with lyrics