That moment you sit down And draw out a plan In the manner and fashion That only you can And you set it in motion With every care While the horrors of poverty Hang in the air Then it all comes together In days, months or years As your furnace is fired by Blood, sweat and tears So you weather the skies Through the blue and the gray Till you taste from the fruit Of your labor one day It is here you must pause And consider my friend With the wealth you have earned From the start to the end All the plans, all the work All the sweat, all the tears All the pain and the sacrifice Over the years Yes ALL that's a transfer Of ownership from Al-Maalik ul-Mulk Testing if you become Worthy steward who spends From the wealth in your care Or a miser with only Destruction to spare
Archives for November 2023
On Cloudless Nights
The first 10 minutes of the concluding session of the Tafsir of Surah Al-Waqiah. Exhausting. My wonderment is captured in this sonnet.
On cloudless nights I look up at the sky
A satin canopy with diamonds spread
Magnificently to my untrained eye
While sailors survey every gem instead
As part of something far more beautiful
For every star aswim upon its way
Is placed to plot a map celestial
To make the night a compass for the day
Upon this wondrous placement comes an oath
A shining star each verse of Word Divine
And like a star each verse holds beauty both
For minds untrained and minds that diamonds mine
Imagine then how preciously they fell
Upon the heart of him who knew them well
Gallant and Victorious
Inspired by Shaykh Amin’s khutbah yesterday and Umar Shakur’s moving verse, O Gaza.
Here far away from burning Palestine
We find it all so inconvenient
To watch our words and walk the blurry line
Between the truth and counterfeit dissent
Just STOP! Return your gaze to Gaza now
That in the face of sure destruction they
Conduct a blessed masterclass in how
Believers hold their own when skies turn gray
The hamd upon their tongues and smiling faces
Their salawaat deodorizing fire
Janazah prayers in the unbombed spaces
The road of taqwa only takes them higher
The prophet dug the trench but stood up tall:
Believers do not give up when they fall
Palestinian Courage, Honestly
Palestinian courage is a gift A gift from God for the world to see A slice from the ummah of the last Nabi To show us how strong OUR faith could be Had he led us to the Red Sea Salaam upon Musa and the moments he Sought refuge from the ignorant patiently So watch them laugh Watch them cry Watch them live Watch them die Watch them very very closely And like any other gift We had better believe it Is best to feel unworthy As we receive it In the end it’s all a testament to their Nabi Our Nabi SallAllahu ‘alayhi wa Sallam