If it’s one of those days you reach for a clothes hanger and it breaks as you fetch it and you think to yourself: “I didn’t do anything” Banish it with a thought heeding it as a sign maybe it’s one of those days when you break a thing though you don’t mean to
Poetry
Stumbling
Look to the trembling baby bird afraid though freshly fledged that when the twig gives under it relies on foot and wing and wit to get back up again
Friday Waves
Let your tears wash the gravel In the barren river bed Of a heart given to travel Where deceptions court the dead Bend your knees to earnest pleading Beg forgiveness like a child For the waters are receding From a Friday reconciled Salawaat a gentle humming Salawaat in even tones Salawaat resounding drumming Salwaat in all your bones
Tyrant
Sometimes you find the perfect word To utter something cold It comes to show you who you’d be Had you discovered gold
Encrusted
My heart is caked with many layers Of this filth and grime It’s dripping with the sins that I have Gathered over time
Driftwood
Hold on to your driftwood faith As the skies turn gray Let the tide of Allah’s Name Wash every doubt away On to sandy shores again You’re returning to Tolerate your driftwood friend Or is it biding you
Hard To Find
If you still haven’t found What you’re looking for Then sit down, close your eyes Helps to shut the door Turn your heart to the Light Whence comes everything Take a breath and believe In the hope of spring Start afresh on your quest Leave it all behind It may be you’re the one That is hard to find
Grateful
It’s only a blessing if you’re grateful for it If you’re grateful for it it’s a blessing
Unwilling
Has a greater calamity been sent Than the unwillingness to find A reason to repent
Renewal
To have the comfort of knowing that Allah knows is the point. Ishq!
– Shaykh Amin Kholwadia, Tafsir Surah Qāf
These six stanzas inspired by Shaykh Amins’s tafsīr of Surah Qāf, Session 2.
Send prayers and send blessings on his name Before you heed this message Qasimiyy Renewal is a constant in this game Of time that guarantees the loss of me This love for newness is an endless song We long for change until the day we die Proclaiming hope in God with every dawn And crescent moons that sickle days gone by What’s more: the kalimah renews our faith Like rain that falls upon the barren earth Salaah renews our time and blesses space Zakaah renews our wealth and checks our worth And Ramadan renews our lifelong goal When we obsess to find that night of Power And Hajj recasts the pilgrim’s weary soul As new born child's that lives its foremost hour Now khalid mourn the arrogance of man With empty claim I am with Allah Let’s Return to the beginning of Ihsān: Allah knows me better than I myself Ishq! The stilling comfort when you know That Allah knows and that’s the point my friend To make yourself a cushion from each woe And say Allah is with me in the end