These two brothers spindly, asleep they remain
To wake for employment that comes with the rain;
Together they sleep and together they rise,
And all that they sweep expeditiously dries.
The Greater Struggle
As soon as you feel good about yourself, know that the devil has got you, because he is made from fire and he understands the nafs better than you.
When I read in the news last week about the inflammatory Defeat Jihad ad campaign hitting New York City buses, I couldn’t help marvel at how poorly Muslim thinking and preoccupation is represented in the media. It made me ponder the widely known story whereby the Prophet (peace and blessings of God be upon him) once welcomed home troops returning after an expedition. “You have returned from the lesser struggle to the greater struggle”, he is reported to have said to them. When the companions asked him what he meant by the “greater struggle”, he clarified: “the struggle against (the desires of) oneself”.
This story is so widespread and so well diffused into Muslim discourse that it could very well be one of the most cited traditions (hadith) in our times. It is all about the battle with the nafs, the “urging self”. Libraries of Islamic literature are filled with books written by masters of the subject such as Imam Ghazali, sermons abound with the idea, poets have wrought verse about it for centuries. Even I felt compelled to craft a riddle on it two weeks ago. (Seriously, take a look! 🙂
To better understand the idea of the greater jihad, I’d like to lean on what I think is one of the most beautiful modern day lyrical poems in the English language on the topic – Yusuf Islam’s Angel of War. Mr. Islam takes the idea of the greater jihad and embellishes it with the mundane vocabulary of warriors and warfare. But to the seasoned reader/listener, every verse has a remarkably subtle reference to the nafs.
The poem reads as a dialogue between a hypothetical angel of war and a young man who Mr. Islam aptly refers to as a soldier boy. That the poem was cast into song in the tune of his original number, My Lady D’arbanville, dating back to his days of rock-stardom, is no mere coincidence in my opinion, but certainly inconsequential.
Oh, angel of war, what am I fighting for?
If death comes tomorrow, inform me before
Inform me before
Oh, young soldier boy, I’ll tell you what I know
If peace is your wish, to battle you must go
To battle you must go
Oh, angel of war, please, make it clear to me
Which is my side and who is my enemy?
Who is my enemy?
Oh, angel of war, within myself I see
The battle has started, what will become of me?
What will become of me?
Oh, young soldier boy, you’re wiser than you seem
Look into your heart and keep your motives clean
And keep your motives clean
Oh, angel of war, what weapons do I need?
Lest I may perish, that I may succeed
That I may succeed
Oh, young soldier boy, if you protect the poor
Let truth be your armour and justice be your sword
And justice be your sword
Oh, young soldier boy, the war that you wage
If it’s for your ego, it will die in rage
It will die in rage
Oh, angel of war, how can I tell for sure
Pride’s not the reason that I’m fighting for
That I’m fighting for
Oh, angel of war, when I look at me
I’m fearful to confess, the enemy I see
The enemy I see
Oh, young soldier boy, now you can go to war
I’ll see you tomorrow and a boy you’ll be no more
A boy you’ll be no more
Here are a few insights I have gleaned from this poem.
- “O Young Soldier Boy” could be anyone, and is meant for the reader/listener to identify with. Its repetition in every verse is almost taunting, but is clarified in the closing couplets.
- “If peace is your wish, to battle you must go”. This is the overarching theme. If you seek peace then you must wage war. But as the following couplet goes, against who? “Who’s my enemy?” That does not come out until the penultimate couplet.
- Truth as an armor… for the soul. And justice as a sword… for how can justice smite unjustly.
- The closing couplets confirm that one remains a boy – a soldier boy – for as long as one has not recognized that one’s self, one’s nafs, is one’s greatest enemy.
Ali restrains his dagger, gets off the giant’s chest and steps back. When Amr asks him why he had not slain him, Ali responds that had he slain him then, it would have been out of an anger he felt towards Amr, and not out of love for and service to God.
Now that is the greater jihad. This of course upsets Amr even more, so he picks up his sword and attacks Ali again, and so the story goes. A poetic rendition of the entire incident is here if you like: https://khamuk.com/2012/11/blog-post.html
I’m fearful to confess, the enemy I see
The enemy I see.
There is a Face I Long to See
There is a face I long to see,
I pray that it will turn to me
The day I dread but hope to free
My lowly soul.
There is a voice I long to hear,
I pray that I will find it near
The day I lose my own to fear
I can’t control.
There is a hand I long to touch,
I long to touch it very much
To drink from it my fill as such;
And I’ll be whole.
There is a man I long to meet,
I long to sit beside his feet,
In timeless moments to repeat
For evermore.
SallAllahu ‘alayhi wa sallam.
Thursday Riddle (September 25, 2014)
A Simple Sermon
I made the Friday prayers today at the Rolling Meadows mosque, and I have to say it was an excellent experience. At a time when sound khutab are hard to come by, it was revealing to me that a Friday sermon can achieve its purpose on the back of either or both of two things:
- the merit of the message in the khutbah and/or
- the merit of the khateeb’s (sermon-giver’s) sincerity
I thought today’s sermon at the Rolling Meadows mosque was a glowing tribute to the latter. A brief explanation is due here.
When the unassuming Imam stood up and conveyed in the most mundane tones, a simple and mundane message, nobody knew ( I certainly did not know) how worthwhile the next few minutes of our lives would be.
“Remember Allah”, he said. And then a plethora of “the season of the Hajj is upon us”, and “men and women of every color and race and age and intellect will gather together in the worship of one Creator”, and such. Nothing earth-shattering for the regular listener, no hyperbole, the only semblance of any depth coming from a not-so-eloquent narration of a recorded conversation that occurred between a pilgrim and the esteemed Imam Junayd al-Baghdadi.
And that was it! So what am I raving about!?
I once heard Shaykh Amin say (and I paraphrase) that the whole point of the Jumuah khutbah is to take a break from the dunya and immerse oneself in Allah’s remembrance. That alone is the goal of a Friday sermon.
What made that happen today is a bit hard to explain, unless your imagination can fill in the gaps in my shoddy explanation here. At every mention of “Madinah”, “forgiveness”, “Hajj”, the khateeb choked up with tears. Tears. Now you know that nothing washes away dirt like tears, and if you don’t know that, you don’t know “dirt”.
So, if you do not possess the scholarship to break new ground in your khutbah, then please, please, do the next best thing (and may be you’ll even top the scholars). Pick the most simple reminders you can serve to Muslims, and (this is important) say it like you feel it. Mission accomplished in sha Allah. But then again, what do I know?
Oh, right! I know “dirt”.
——————————————————————————————————————–
They’re coming to you now, my Lord
Believers everywhere,
Responding to Ibrahim’s call
That once did pierce the air;
They’ve spent their wealth and shed the threads
That set themselves apart,
And donned the simple shroud that suits
A true believing heart,
They’ll watch their actions in these days,
To hurt no gnat or fly,
And let the dirt without erase
The dirt within must die.
And tears, Lord, the tears flow
Like rivers on a land
That’s parched and thirsting for a show
Of Mercy that is grand.
So take them all on Arafah
And let upon them rains
Of love to wash their sins away
Till none of sins remains.
And we afar, can only hope
The goodness of those slaves
Will bring us strength to grasp the rope
That lifts us from our graves
And huddles us in throngs behind
The man you hold so close:
It is a high we long to find
Upon a day of lows.
Thursday Riddle (September 18, 2014)
Taller than mountains and wider than skies,
Yet never been seen, well hidden from eyes,
Survives on appeasement and plentiful lies,
And all the corruption that it justifies;
It seldom obeys, most often defies,
Repressed by the best who inhibit it’s rise
Through stratagems wily and formulas wise,
A noisy companion that nags till it dies.
The Kindness of Zak Lombardi
Thursday Riddle (September 11, 2014)
Thursday Riddle (September 4, 2014)
Haytham’s Catch
A long time ago, before there were trains,
Before electricity or aeroplanes,
There lived at the top of a mountain along
The shores of an ocean, a family strong
Of eagles: a father, a mother and child,
Three proud and remarkable creatures of wild,
That well loved each other, lived happily on,
And so did it happen one morning at dawn.
You see, the young bird, Haytham was his name,
He’d learned how to fly, but didn’t know game,
And thus he set out with his father this day
To listen and learn and to follow his way.
They flapped and they glided away from the shore
To where little Haytham had not been before,
And when they looked down, they spotted a pod
Of dolphins that swam in formation unflawed.
“Will that be our meal?”, Haytham had to ask
So eager to start on his morning time task;
“Oh, no”, said his father, “That creature you spy
Is too large a beast to carry and fly.”
And so they turned shoreward and saw the sun fold
The waters in mantles of yellow
and gold,
Then dove down together and scouted the beach
And noticed a crab on a rock within reach.
Asked Haytham, “Will that be our meal?”, as he eyed
The two muddy pincers that opened up wide,
“Another day, Haytham”, his father explained,
“For more must be learned for more to be gained.”
So westward again they flew over sea
And slowly descended till Haytham could see
The sizable quarry his father had sighted
Oblivious to the attention invited.
And then in that moment, the two eagles parted
For Haytham remained while his father departed:
His young eagle senses had grown to such heights
That all he could think of was locked in his sights.
So down Haytham swooped with both wings upturned
Immersing his talons that swiftly returned
With halibut catch so patiently earned,
Then upward he soared with the knowledge he’d learned.
There is but a Haytham in every child
With body and strength that the Fashioner styled,
We only need guide them to where they may find
What tends to the spirit and waters the mind.
To lead is to follow; to follow the blind,
You follow in silence and lead from behind.