Sonnet

I wanted to surprise my family
So up and to Jerusalem I went
I touched down when the soldiers came for me
It seemed as if the questions wouldn’t end
They didn’t Every checkpoint was the same
Until I reached the room where I would stay
I rested first then went in Allah’s name
To Masjid Al-Aqsa in time to pray
Salaam in every corner of that space
Is this the spot my nabi was Imam
To lead a congregation cast in grace
Unmatched from its takbir to its salaam
  The love I found on faces there eclipsed
  Their grief that never passed through grateful lips

We give and often think we love to give
But hear the warner school us about giving
How can we be called altruistic if
Our contributions barely dent our living
Our paragons they come from two: one glad
To leave behind their home and wealth and kin
The other hosting them with all they had
Despite the difficulty they were in
Such was their love for him who bound their hearts
In sweet eternal brotherhood that when
He called for contributions to the cause
One gave one half, the other, everything
    So khalid, swipe your card and puff and preen
    You’re all the altruism you have seen

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Inspired by a portion of this Tafsir session delivered by Shaykh Amin on May 5.

It's chilly, must be time to pay my taxes
To fund the schools to do their saintly deeds
Get roads repaired and trains back on their tracks: Is
The park in need of shears to trim the weeds
Help libraries build wings so patrons fly
And help the good police have stronger knees
Give judges seats to let them ponder why
That billionaire needs help to crush his lease
I'm good with all this goodness every year
Though half the good I pay for I don't use
But that should never bother me my dear
And here's three dollars so the man don't lose
    The shredded children dangling from a pole
    Less hideous than our collective soul

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 

Some days it feels the journey isn’t worth it
Those are the days to dig your heels in deep
And if you need a sign look to the earth, it
Keeps going while the going’s there to keep
So take a breath my Qasimi sojourner
And give your weary eye a little rest
Seek out your willow that will shade a learner
Whose body mind and soul are in the quest
Think to when he the best of all creation
Reclined against that old devoted tree
His face supplying all the recreation
That his companions would ever need
    May leisure quench your spirit yielding strength
    To grow and serve throughout the journey’s length

Why so much love for them that part from you
They give no thought to how they’ve grieved your mind
Such love for things that leave the way they do
But not for them that choose to stay behind
Don’t shun the shine upon your blessed bean
God’s plan is in all things that shed and fall
Be hair or fur or leaves that once were green
They all submit obeying nature’s call
So why so sad my khalid at this loss
When all it really is, is wholesome gain
You know that your beloved won’t be cross
If you yourself have chosen to remain
  Some surfaces are meant to be some day
  A field of cranium for children’s play

Despair comes knocking often in these times
Its droll and dreary beat upon your door
Conjuring up images of your crimes
Until your shattered heart can take no more
khalid acknowledge your deficiencies
While there’s no good in lying to yourself
Your mad frustrations only serve to please
The demons wishing ill upon your health
But sit upon a rock and let the air
Remind you of the one who’s heart was filled
With grief that his beloved wasn’t there
To nurse him when a rain of stones had stilled
  The heavens sending prayers upon a man
  Content revived and pleased with Allah’s plan

Some days when grief arrives in all its grays
When every flower in your garden dries
When laughter doesn’t burst with golden rays
And all the rains seem dammed up in your eyes
Go find yourself a rock to sit upon
To let your worries float upon a breeze
(If you can do this near the break of dawn
Around when dew has washed the tops of leaves)
Then coax your heart to journey back instead
To when a sad unbroken man sat down
To cleanse his sandals overcome with red
Derided, scorned and driven out of town
    Take heart from him and dry your tears friend.
    He is a rahmah to you till the end

There’s a pumpkin seed here in my mouth
And it has been all over I tell you
To the west and the east and the south
But it can't 'scape the brace of its shell. You
Can unleash the precision of teeth
You can buffer the motions of tongue
You can coax it to submit beneath
All the pressure from traps that you’ve sprung
Till the hull comes apart at the seam
And the kernel slips out in the open
As unbroken and green as a dream
(If you like pumpkin seeds I am hopin’)
    Ask the folks of the kernel about
    Their reflections on getting it out