Does this lake know
How beautiful it is ?
These trees, grass
The dirt road and
dried leaves
together,
All of them
making this
beautiful scene!
Do they know
their bigger
purpose?
Or they too are
in self doubt!
Are we too
like them?
insignificant,
small,
ordinary.
But together
a part of
Something
beautiful .
And someone
out there
Admiring it too
like we do
to these views!
I see the depart of great souls
From this world, one after the other.
people bereft , confused and sad
each one more than another.
Without leaders, without their guides.
Without beckons for the path to abide.
The intelligentsia getting replaced by fools
The just and kind, by the cruel and blinds.
The darkness is following,
The Candles blowing off quickly.
The sadness is following,
The happiness blowing off quickly.
Behold O dear heart, Beat slowly!
Hold on to the faith and walk steadfastly.
Hold on to the prayer and pray generously.
Hold on to this journey to pass it with ease.
( This poem is dedicated to all the great souls I have seen leaving us in last few months, especially the news from yesterday of Maulana Junaid Jamshed’s death has left me sad, May Allah grant him Jannah and his soul rest in Peace . Aameen )
For this week I have chosen a quote from Rumi based on theme Change .It is from the book ,The Diwan of Shams of Tabriz, by Jalaluddin Rumi.
The complete verse from which the quote is taken :
Those who don`t feel this Love
pulling them like a river,
those who don`t drink dawn
like a cup of spring water
or take in sunset like supper,
those who don`t want to change,let them sleep.
Love the beauty of this verse ! How poetically Rumi pointed at people who are reluctant to change to consider them as sleeping.What good for others is a sleeping man? What do he or she knows about the events happening around him when he is sleeping. So is the condition of a man who doesn’t want to change ! He just close his eyes to the truth. The acknowledgement of self and taking care of that inner self is often referred as Awakening where one wakes up to accept the change from this worldly aimless sleep.He observes the beauty in sunrise and sunset , pain becomes blessing and sharing a joy.You become a seeker of knowledge and truth.The more you experience real joy , less appealing appears to you this life’s distractions.The first step to the path of truth is willingness to Change and then imbibe the changes in our life to make it more meaningful.
Pingback->https://silverthreading.com/2016/05/11/writers-quote-wednesday-writing-challenge-change/
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 )
“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson
I dedicate the above quote to my pensive mood today , as you already know I am a self-obsessed person, why to be so harsh on self-judgment? Because I write everything related to the inner self, heart, soul and self-journey 🙂
Jokes apart I do admit sometimes I get lost in my own thoughts so much to the limit that another person might feel ignored or not cared. I am still learning to balance this Selfishness of mine.
Love this quote from Emerson. It is a great accomplishment indeed to be ‘Yourself’, but what is it, being myself ? , I am already adjusted twisted adapted so much, I hardly have any thought of being myself. Life is changing me everyday and I am constantly learning but what is it that resonates from inside with this quote? Perhaps I would see it as not giving in to the peer or social pressures to anything which doesn’t abide with my morals and principles.
If everyone is doing it, doesn’t mean you have to do it too or it is good for you as well, if you don’t like it, you don’t like it, that’s it .You just to need to say it. It all makes things so much easy instead of giving in to pressure of people and then regretting it from inside.
It is also a cultural issue in India where saying NO is almost a sin thus makes life more difficult, I am always struggling to find a way to politely refuse the answers of personal questions so normally asked or the favours asked which doesn’t fit into apt category or invitation for things I am not interested in or the talks that are of my least interest. I always try my best not to offend the other party but on other hand I see people doing all sort of weird stuff , also being rude to others and then labelling it with ‘Be Yourself ‘ and quoting with it such great quotes. I wonder what would be the reaction of Emersion to such misuse of his quote 🙂 or it might be other way round too if my interpretation is totally wrong! 😛
in Response to weekly Quotes Sharing at SilverThreading.com
http://silverthreading.com/2015/05/06/writers-quote-wednesday-the-buddha/
It is been another of hectic week at work and my brain is so drenched in coding that I do have hardly any thoughts for my blogs ( even in my dreams I am debugging my code ) but I am still trying to be regular with my Wednesday Quotes 🙂
For Writer’s Quote Wednesday , bringing you again from treasure of Rumi, I love reading his quotes and books whenever I get time, they are full of wisdom and resonate very well with my feelings,moods and thoughts, so sharing another of his wonderful gem.
( In response to WQW at SilverThreading.com
http://silverthreading.com/2015/11/11/mark-twain-quote-on-character/ )
Reason for sharing this quote , I personally feel very associated with this quote , and I have observed it to be so true with my life so far. There are difficult time in everyone’s life ,we all try to be strong but then there are those breaking moments when one realizes this is my threshold ,I cannot take it any further! Patience is running up , time is passing by and things are not getting any better. Then also come in self doubt , was it right decision I made ? or am I not good enough!
We are helplessly trying out all the options but nothing works! There is anger and frustration piling up each passing day and we start to lose our motivation,We get sad about our situation . Comparison to the happy lives of others bring us more pessimism.We all reach a point when we have thoughts of giving up on being strong and holding on , Everything is pulling us to give up but there is something inside, asking us not to give up and hold on ,telling us Everything will be fine! and we wonder when and how ?
So when you feel that iota of hope amidst everything going bad, Jump on it and grab it quickly , because it is then when you are so close to things getting done, finding solutions to your problem or the end of bad times.
It is alright to cry ,but not alright to give up!
You are just there at end of night, take a break from yourself ( from your bad mood), take time to think clearly, away from your problems ,say a silent prayer to your Lord for He knows what is inside every heart , just ask Him to ease your way and InshaAllah you will be soon out in the sun again !
( P .S : today again I have deja vu Murphy moment for the metro but I didn’t get pushed out this time , a bit of Indian style worked for me )
This is my yet another attempt to understand the mystic words by a great soul,Rumi(A.S), but today I feel it is more a futile effort! I have read this quote many times to understand what he really means by it! and I am still sure I don’t get it 100% ,but I will not give up!!
Pour in your ideas what you feel after reading this quote and it might help me to understand it better !
and this is what I feel for it until now:
By this quote I feel Rumi is asking us to be more warm in our hearts for others and for ourselves.Our hearts have become cold and hard like ice! We no longer feel the things as greatly as we did in our childhood.Those small little joys of life are no more joyful when we used to admire the beauty in the soap bubbles and wonder at our paper boats in the ripples of rain water! We miss our selfless self and great time called childhood.
Why don’t we let go of our pride for the things we would just leave here before our final departure ! We are all travelers in this world with limited provisions,the security will not allow anything to take with us except few! so before we board our final flight, Why can’t we let go of that extra baggage of false ego which stops us from so many good things in life and afterlife too.
Let us forgive someone today and ask forgiveness from someone, melt that ego and ‘wash off this false self from yourself’ ,
Be true as your soul deeply long for it to be, be good as you wish someone to be to you!
Let it all wash away that put burden on our souls and make our hearts heavy! Let the love flow and feelings flow out ! Let it keep us moving and this moving should be more in our minds and hearts .
( In response to Writer’s Quote Wednesday on Silver Threading )
Another wonderful quote from Rumi(A.S) that I want to share with you , I loved it absolutely when I read it for the first time, It is from the Book ‘Essential Rumi’ .
If we look at our lives today , What is it? For me, it is 5 days of doing some similar work and 2 days doing something which could not be done in those 5 days, then waiting for the weekend ,And my life goes on between the ’ week’ and ‘weekends’.
We are all stuck! Stuck in the circle, called routine! and there is no other way to live without this circle as well.
This routine has given us many things like getting worried for small little things about our work, home and elsewhere and building up stress .We manage to release some of it during weekends and get prepared for another week like a brave soldier. We crave for vacations and holidays , and dread to go back to our routine regardless it is a Sunday night or night before the end of vacation !
Coming back to the Quote, our minds are like empty pots, we are completely in power to choose what we fill it up with, most often we stuff it with too much worrying ! and we are so focussed while worrying that we hardly see the other good things in life. Worrying is nothing but a prison that confines us to think ,to see beyond , although the door is wide open.
Let’s empty our brains of worry and trust in Allah our creator, He is enough for all our problems,we cannot achieve anything by worrying . What we can do is be proactive and manage our lives better. Do the things that need to be done and wait and be patient. Be thankful to what we have, and fill our minds with good thoughts, gratitude and love for each other.
( In response to Writers Quote Wednesday on Silver Threadings)
Inspired by Writer’s Quote Wednesday from Silver Threading (link at bottom of post) , to write inspiring posts based on your favorite quotations .
One of my favorite writer, poet is Rumi( A.S) who was also a sufi saint .His writings are truly inspiring,They still hold true for anyone who is reading them and you can connect with him instantly .His works are still valid although he lived in 13th century.
Sometimes Rumi leave you in mystery with his words and you feel lost ,the more you try to understand,you end up in more confusion, so you just leave it there and move on in your life As life is full of unpredictable series of events,you then come across some incidents which make you realize what he was saying and the meaning behind those mysterious words.Well I can write on and on about him, no wonder students do their research on his work.
One of the quotations that actually helped me change and focus on myself, is the one above .We all want to change the world, we all have ideas about what others should do, what is wrong with them and the world , but we never look at our own selves! What is wrong with us ? What can I do about it? What should I change in myself that can benefit us both, me and the world? If everyone starts to change himself/herself ,Will not the world be a better place to live ?
I started my journey with many questions that keep outpouring and I am seeking their answers :
What is inside of me ? Am I just this flesh and bones or something more ? What is locked inside that speaks to me , sometimes in evil tones,sometimes in tones of Heaven, ?
What is it that makes me happy when I say happy from inside? What is it when I say you touched my soul , when physically you didn’t !
How do words influence us ? How can you say few words and just calm me down! How much deep is the depth of words and love,
What is it when I say my soul sister, what connection do I feel with you?
What strength is it in love that keeps us going through all times?
How does the hatred burns me from inside although nobody can touch it,
Where have we met before ,though I am meeting you first time , but I know I have known you for so long ,or may be always.
and so on 🙂
Well you see what Rumi did to me through his few words, something was already burning inside , he just confirmed it. Hope to share more of my reflections on his work and of other great writers/leaders who inspired me to ‘My Journey with Hijab’
(The Event is hosted every wednesday by Silver Threading ,you can check latest post
http://silverthreading.com/2015/09/30/writers-quote-wednesday-sue-vincent/
Btw I found about it through post of my blogger sister Ameena k.g you can check her blog ,She has nice poetry. , https://randomsbyarandom.wordpress.com/ )
As muslims around the world are celebrating Eid ul Adha/Eid ul Kabir/Bakra Eid ,(as is called in different countries). I wish you all a very Happy Eid , May Allah accept our sacrifices on this day and hope you enjoy with your loved ones!
Somebody asked me, so what do you do on this day , so I had my answer ready , We, as muslim women on this day wear new clothes, cook the best food and enjoy it with our families ! Men have another task apart from mass prayers, they have to take care of sacrificing the animal and then distributing the rightful shares to relatives and poor .
Why do you celebrate it ?? I know the symbolic story of Prophet Ibrahim (A.S) that he was asked to sacrifice his son who was replaced by a sheep by Allah so this is why all muslims sacrifice sheep/goats or other animals this day. I said yes, this is true, so after that person was gone, I thought ,what else do I know more than him/her as a muslim?May be nothing, the festival has become more as a ritual or tradition for us, we look forward to holidays,good food ,clothes and meeting our families and I think that is all, even the meat that we give to poor people,we are giving them as if we are doing charity , but actually it is not, it is their right from Allah, how many of us are offering them with all due respect and not as charity ??
Prophet Ibrahim (A.S) when asked for this sacrifice ,had only one son then and Ismail(A.S) was born when he was too old, how must have an old father felt putting a knife on his young son’s neck? but he did it with all his willingness and submission to Allah, what has been the level of love in his heart for Allah , his obedience ,that led him to overcome all his emotions. But he was not a common man , he was a prophet.Yes , we all have this in our minds, but even as common man what actually can we sacrifice today for Allah on this day, What can we let go? How much obedient we are to Him?
I do not intend to spoil your happy moods with my post, but just to make you a bit more thoughtful, more grateful for the blessings we have and more humble towards others , along with being joyful!
Have a blessed joyful Eid !!
( P.S : Do let me know if you can think of one thing that you can let go for sake of Allah )
A Day Dreamer's Diary 