Khalid Mukhtar

Word, like wind, cuts through you / Withers all but true you

Like An Airplane

· ·

‘Eid Mubarak to children far and wide. Let your imagination be your favorite toy, and your conscience be your guide.

I can be almost anything

I want to be, that’s right:
A lion in the jungle with
A very frightful bite,
A tae-kwon-doh destroyer with
A roundhouse kick to match,
A gourmet chef of soups delish
Who makes a world class batch,
An airplane soaring in the sky
That even knows to land,
I can be almost anything 
That I can understand,
In fact I can be more than all
Those things that I have said
Because I always have a toy
Idea in my head.
The sky above, my trusted friend,
The earth beneath my feet
Is but my heart’s companion
That never skips a beat.
I’ll tread upon it gently as 
My prophet said I should,
It’s why airplanes up in the sky,
I think, are very good,
If they land the way they should.

The Last Ten Days Of Ramadan

· ·

Seek the night of power,
Search until you find
That barakah-filled hour
To leave your past behind;

Deliverance from the fire
Descending from the Throne:
Is there a mercy higher
Than standing up alone

These last ten nights of Ramadan,
The even and the odd,
When in the peace before the dawn
Goes forth the Will of God.

The Second Ten Days Of Ramadan

· ·

Has come the second third now forth:
The moon shall wax before it wanes,
Dissolving mountain sins of earth
In merciful forgiveness rains.
So make the night your begging bowl
And fill it with your burning tears
To beg redemption for your soul
In freedom from despair and fears,
That He who loves forgiving may
Forgive you just as you forgive;
For every self that dies by day
Shall neath the white of badr live.

Ramadan Ajr

· ·

An ajr every fast you keep,
An ajr every prayer;
In alms you give, and even sleep,
There’s ajr everywhere:

For all your pleas and tears at night,
Your constancy at day,
To hear no evil, see no sight,
To go no wayward way;

Yes, every deed attracts reward,
A measure of what’s sown;
All but the fast, for that the Lord
Will make His pleasure known.

The First Ten Days Of Ramadan

· ·

It’s that time of year again
When the nights are filled with light
Penetrating hearts of men
Standing up to pray at night.

As the crescent waxes, so
Do the mercies from above
In their unabated flow:
Every mercy steeped in  love.

Seek all mercies undeterred,
But the greatest mercy might
Be a supplicating word
In the silence of the night.

Mother And Child – Part 2

· ·

Will you be the very one
Who will turn away from me
When the resurrection’s done,
Is that just the way we’ll be?

Will we both await our turns
On the plains of reckoning
While the temperature, it burns
All delusion that we bring?

Will the passing of that grief
Both our memories renew?
Will I savor the relief
At the fountain next to you?

All of thirst quenched at the hands
Of the one we longed to meet,
Will I recognize the lands
That you tread beneath your feet

As the peace I once had known
Back when you and I were one
Fore the swell of time had grown
Neath the blaze of newborn sun?

Mother And Child – Part 1

· ·

It’s hard to see you weep
When you’re crying in the rain;
It’s hard to hear your voice
In the rattle of a train;

It’s hard to hold a candle
To the splendor in the sky,
And hard to see the light
When the sun is in my eye;

So I can’t know the pains
You knew when we were one,
Like tears in the rains,
And a candle in the sun;

You kept a pieace of me
From our separation sweet,
I’ll know it when I see
Paradise beneath your feet.

Revelation

· ·

There is a peace one never knows
If one does not believe,
A peace that comes to only those
Who masterfully weave

A tapestry so intricate
And rich in every strand
That’s dyed with every hue of faith
By a sincere hand;

It is the peace that came upon
A meditating man,
A visit from a stranger by
A sempiternal plan;

The angel held him in embrace
As was the task assigned,
Compressed his heart, a thing of grace
And piety combined.

And thus the being heavenly
Commanded him recite,
But how could he comply when he
Could neither read nor write;

And so the man declined despite
The vastness in his breast
Again, the angel held him tight,
Again his heart compressed.

And when the angel pressed his will,
The man was filled with fear,
And feeling quite incapable,
He sensed his end was near;

But angel actions waver not,
As does not falter plan
That hones the intellect of what
Is ordinary man.

Embracing him again so tight,
Expelling all his breath,
Compressing heart with bonds of light,
The man was near death;

And then release, expanding breast
So wide and so sublime,
Exploding spirit long suppressed,
Transcending space and time.

A wave of light that filled the sea,
A blast that filled the air,
A shock that spanned the universe
And all within its care;

Then rose up, through the firmaments
The news of what occurred:
The last and final messenger
Had borne the Mighty Word.

Love and Fresh Air

· ·

You can’t see the air, but you know that it’s there,
It stirs up the sand, and it blows through your hair,
It flushes your blood as you breathe everywhere,
You can’t see the air, but you know that it’s there;

You can’t see a love, but you know of its bliss
That brings you a peace and it makes you to kiss,
Reminds you of times and of people you miss,
You can’t see a love, but you know of its bliss;

You can’t see your Lord for an eye cannot bear
What minds cannot measure though hearts may declare,
Like air ever trapped in a medium rare
And love ever blind to the sight of despair.

Pleas

· ·

If your Lord loves a thing unto which you incline
In the hope that the Lord will be pleased,
Then His pleasure with you is a promise divine
With no part of it ever decreased.

But if He is displeased with a thing you adore,
And it grieves you that He is displeased,
It may please Him to see you get down on the floor
To take stock of a heart that’s diseased.

With a heart that is flushed and abluted with tears,
Let the earth take your brow and your knees,
And when grief, like the dew in the sun, disappears,
Do get up and get on with it, please.