I often wonder
what would I do
If i can see my soul.
Like I see myself
in the mirror whole.
Could I also paint
like I do to my face .
hiding all its scars
and ugliness
under the base ?
Could it be ugly and poor
starved ,weak and old ?
With torn clothes ,
and skin with folds.
sobbing for help!
Often a thought
passes my mind
What if this existence
is not real?
This body, this breath
and touch is nothing
but what I see in a dream.
And I will wake up
Somewhere as oblivious
as I am now of
where I am sleeping.
A rich man waking up poor
And the poor will be rich.
Some will thank for
The dream is over
While others will cry
for their dream is wasted
in chasing a mirage.
Inspired by Rumi’s Masnawi , was reading his famous quote while this poem happened in my mind .
This place is a dream. Only a sleeper considers it real. Then death comes like dawn, and you wake up laughing at what you thought was your grief.
I was thinking you were just here
and I was told it was last year,
you will be here soon .
worried I was , how would I fast
With my ailments year past.
And then you arrived with a smile
The first day I struggled hard
I felt weak, sluggish and tired.
And with each passing day
I started to feel more healed.
to my surprise this body survived
long hours without food and water.
my soul fed , nourished and better.
thoughts clearer , with a smile on my face
I could work normal and sometimes aced.
A better person I strived to be
and a better Muslim all these days.
when I now felt completely
absorbed ,Only to know
you are to be leaving soon!
I wish when you arrive next year
O my Dearest Ramadan I hope
You will find me the way
you are leaving me today .
Insha Allah.
This is the third week of Ramadan ,which is also almost over and I hope all of you are doing great with packing up your energy buffers for the rest of the year, to be more precise spiritual buffers .Ramadan is not only about fasting and praying but a time to reflect upon our lives and how we can make it better both physically and spiritually.Ramadan comes as a mirror for who we are and what we are capable of doing. We pray five times diligently ,give alms to poor, fast from sunrise to sunset refrain from bad things like lying ,backbiting , hurting others, cheating etc ,this is a reflection of who we can be when we truly want and also of what we are not everyday when it is not Ramadan !!
Recently I was reading Volume 1 of Masnavi and came across the wonderful story about Yusuf A.S and his friend who gifted him a mirror. the conversation between them is beautiful , what I liked most are the lines below :
“I brought you a mirror, O light (of my eyes), so that when you
look at your face you may remember me.”
then Rumi(A.S) goes on to explain the deeper aspect of reflection.
What is the mirror of existence? Non-existence.(So) take
non-existence (as a gift), if you aren’t foolish
The existence of anything can really be felt by its non existence. While we are fasting and we feel the pain of hunger , we are nothing but reflection of food. May be that is why we go on cooking all the delicacies for our iftaar and infact we could hardly eat much after breaking the fast. What is the worth of rich man’s wealth if he hasn’t suffered or realized the pain of poverty. A mere good reflection could be helping the poor. The life of duniya (world) is nothing but to give what you have be it a smile, a helping hand or a shoulder to cry upon. Give what you have to those who don’t and you will receive what you have not. Look out where you are needed , improvise solutions of problem you have, maybe you will discover a way and help others too.
Will be back soon with more of my such reflections, do tell me if you like it or want to add your thoughts.
For this week, I bring you this verse from Rumi’s Masnavi Volume 6 . The chapter is called Peace with in the Heart. Translated from Persian by Ibrahim Gamard (with gratitude for R. A. Nicholson’s 1934 British translation) .
The original verse in Persian :
az ko-jâ jôy-êm `ilm? az tark-é `ilm
az ko-jâ jôy-êm silm? az tark-é silm
If you read the above lines, the flow in couplet is flawless and rhythm perfect. The original verse didn’t even have the brackets of true and false, they were added while translating for ease of readers to differentiate between the two.
The words of Rumi are always soul deep, playing with few words and putting reader into utter confusion is his best game and he is not even willing to teach you wisdom so easily, Right? You need to sit back and keep wondering what he meant by his words, like a tricky homework from teacher.
Although one thing is always certain; he definitely meant something beyond our normal routine life offers to teach us.
How can we search true knowledge? : By abandoning false knowledge! But what is false knowledge? It could mean different things to different people, in world of information where we live today; we are blasted with data and information every microsecond of every minute of the events happening around the world and now it has become our habit to stay connected and keep checking.
If I talk about updates from Newspapers that I have subscribed to (unfortunately no better options available), some example of News:
A celebrity is getting divorced, or another is caught dating with someone! How a cruel murder was plotted, a minister slammed another minister on twitter? How an ex-wife avenged her ex-husband?
Do we need to know all of it? May be 1 % is the useful information and rest is all just crap.
Knowledge is awareness of facts; or possession of some skill .What could be false awareness and false skills? May be something which is not useful for us or others, abandoning such knowledge would magnify our view on more useful facts and skills that will benefit us and others. Instead of wasting our time on something insignificant, learning or acquiring a useful skill will give us true knowledge.
With the first jargon a bit solved, second one seems easy.
How can we seek true peace? : By abandoning false peace.
Peace is a quiet state or state with no conflicts, or absence of war between any two parties.
Let us take an example: There is a cruel king and his subjects. The subjects never protested to King for his ways of treating them but they are not happy, this is also a state of no conflict, there is no war, the King might think his kingdom is in peace, but we can easily say it is false peace. Both the parties are not happy and there is also a presence of fear in one of them. This could not continue for long, one day they will protest and yearn for true peace.
I feel it similarly, we are all cruel kings that don’t listen to our inner selves, we keep indulging in our desires that give us pleasures but momentarily, we are happy for some time but then unhappiness returns; we then chase for our next desire and so on! The conflict keeps rising until one of the self gives up. Which one gives up depends on what we choose! We become a seeker of true peace or a follower of false peace.
True peace for me is a state of no conflict between my outer and inner self. The moments of quietness of mind, tranquillity in heart and absence of fear from it are the moments of peace for me.
Ping back ->http://silverthreading.com/2016/02/03/writers-quote-wednesday-bewow-c-s-lewis/
The soul is quiet today and the heart is heavy
A bit sad ,a bit tired or perhaps both.
My heart’s eye blinks a silent tear,
Its heaviness weighs me down.
Restlessness has engulfed
my heart from every corner.
Locked inside the cage of flesh and bones
my soul flutters to break free.
While my body devours
soft morsels of worldly food.
My soul famished and my heart cringed.
Lost and numb , with a body
weighing so heavy I stood to pray .
I put my head on the ground
in sujood and in submission.
Few moments of quietness and
Restlessness was disarming
chains were removed.
My heart felt at peace
and my soul free again.
( Another day when you feel low and only praying/meditation helps( at least for my case) . I strongly believe that our soul needs to be fed , nourished and taken care of similarly like our bodies. Good deeds, good thoughts ,remembrance of God ,being grateful and prayers are its food .
This picture was taken an year before in port of Barcelona with seagulls enjoying the sun )
