The question was asked: What would you change in your life if you could rewind and adjust?

Now is the time when I stop and look back at the leap of faith I made eight years ago when I walked into that boiler-room of a callcenter to sell English language newspaper subscriptions to the Chinese speaking residents of Toronto, and the equally uninterested high-octane Bay St. brokers who wouldnt even deign to use that rag to wipe themselves after finishing business in the men’s room.

Getting chewed up and spit out multiple times on an hourly basis became my life. Sworn at, threatened, scolded, verbally castrated, it seemed to never end. I was undergoing the trials of Sisyphus, but for what crime? I did not know. At times I felt like a deformed fetus, covered with amniotic fluid, left on cold hard asphalt of a darkened alleyway after an impromptu abortion, unfit even for canine consumption. I’d sit on the subways while going home, listless like a zombie, my ears still burning with the searing hot branding iron of rejection after rejection.

But I was just a poor college student, and I had bills to pay and hungry mouths to feed. Continuing along and going straight ahead seemed just as good (or as useless) as turning left or right – when all around you is nothing but a bleak and barren landscape, what do you do? You just keep trudging along.

The summers and winters came and went, as did new trials and challenges, delights and surprises. the ups and downs. The general trajectory, as upwards as it was, all became a blur. I didn’t know what the Higher plan was; after all, how can a simple needle possibly know or even begin to appreciate the master tailor’s beautiful, bespoke design? But I did begin to realize and accept that I was in capable, all-knowing Hands. God’s omniscient view of me was not linear or even dynamic. It was complete and all-surrounding in a way indescribable in any language known to mankind, because we have nothing to describe an external vantage point of the time and space continuum since we can only exist within it.

And so with that in mind as I race towards the next chasm, gone is the fear. There is no sweat on my palms. My legs and thighs know no hesitation. Every sinew and every synapse in my body is now powered by a monstrous V12 with all throttles wide open, sucking down that potent torrent of experience, understanding, conviction, and unbridled desire. The height of the precipice matters not to me, for it only amplifies my devastating impact with which I am loosened upon the challengers awaiting on the field below.

Like a tiny pin dropping and yet creating a paradoxical 120 decibel thunderclap, you understand that my answer is still … nothing.

Game on.

I wish there was more of me
What a killer pack we could be.

I wish there was more time on my plate
Ideas into reality I could translate.

I wish there was more fire and rain to call down
So I could take you out along with the town.

But damn! a beautiful and creative mind
Is what I’ve been blessed with by design.

You think I’m lost so deep in the fray
But rain or shine, I’mma win this play.

So with a twinkle in my eyes and a merc’s grin
I see the field open wide and you know I’m all in.

Today while driving to work, I was annoyed by this bumper sticker on a filthy Ford Focus in front of me. Despite all the grime, I could see that it read:

“If you don’t stand behind our troops, feel free to stand in front of them.”

Do these people even really know what the hell that means? What do you mean you STAND behind our troops? That you’re supporting them somehow? What a bunch of BS. Its not like they were conscripted young men forcibly marched off to their deaths on God-forsaken killing fields halfway around the world, and now they need your sympathy and token gestures. They all VOLUNTEERED to do this. No one held a gun to their head. And its you … you and your gluttonous consumerist culture is what got those kids sent off to foreign lands like Iraq and Afghanistan in the first place. These weren’t wars of a defensive stature you blubber-drinking obese ball of fat, they were wars of choice, engineered by your politicians who were being paid by the fats cats on Wall St., wars that were all about gaining control of resources in order to support the bottom lines of marauding gangs of pirates also known as multinationals, and the only reason these pirates and vampires are in business is because of YOUR greedy and malleable insignificant sorry asses which are so easily manipulated through concerted wars of PR and consumer-oriented media being waged here on Western soil.

Do you have any idea what our troops are doing? You stand behind them to what extent? Have you seen the faces of kids left orphaned, of widows and maimed and disabled people left in the rubble of their bombed out homes, wondering what crimie did they commit to deserve this? Do you support your troops when they kill, murder, rape, and pillage? DO YOU HAVE ANY GODDAMNED IDEA how much blood has been spilled to support your insatiable greed? Do you know how many farmers commit suicide every year in Latin America, Africa, and India just because they can no longer bear the slavery of the multinational elite, who are dedicated to nothing except the pursuit of self-preservation by stealing as much of your hard-earned disposable income as possible while paying the farmers and producers the equivalent of pennies per day?

Do you have any idea what you really are, you stupid clueless hick? You’re nothing. Nothing but a money-making enslaved zombie for these pirates. You’re cluelessly born into a life of servitude. From the very beginning your minds are whipped into shape so that you constantly pester your parents to buy you all sorts of toys and doodads that you’ll never get their money’s worth for. You’re sent off to school to be indoctrinated into their whitewashed version of history and their version of  “sound” economic theories. You’re then shunted further along the assembly line and bled dry by paying five or six-figure sums of borrowed money for a worthless education which they then turn around and blame for the ills of their own misadventures. And then you spend a significant portion of your life paying it all back, compounded with money on top of money that could have been put to better use. You run around prostituting yourself to HR managers so that you can be rewarded with prestigious entry into the corporate gulags and labor camps which are decorated with stunningly and unremarkably beautiful gray walls and cubicles, in an endless 9-to-5 rat race, all so that you can generate more profits for your employer who keeps you under his thumb because you’re being paid for your time, and not your efforts or leverage. You go home and you think you’re happy because you have three or four-figures worth of disposable income in your bank account (which MAGICALLY all of a sudden will cease to exist if God forbid you try to withdraw all your money at once), money which you’re gonna go blow it all on some sparkly glittery baubles and trinkets like a Sony TV or Iphone or your wife is gonna blow it on some over-priced cosmetics, the latest Manolo Blahnik heels, and Coach purses.

And that’s all if you’re lucky. Otherwise you’ll have to resort to the humiliating yet sweetly enticing candy cane called a credit card (with LOW INTRODUCTORY RATES!! OH MY!!), which you’ll be paying off at over 130% of your actual expenses on it, and yet again, another form of slavery designed to keep you tied down like that fat little hamster in his cage, constantly spinning the wheel and yet getting nowhere. Not even losing any weight while its at it.

You’re locked into a decades or even lifel-long struggle to pay off your mortgage – to what end? Your kids don’t want that house. They’ll sell it when you die and live elsewhere. You struggle to keep up your game face (and keep up with the Joneses’) so you can live the facade that is your double or triple-garage house with two or trhee cars parked out front which are in reality costing you a fortune to lease, maintain, service, fuel, and insure.

And if that’s not all bad enough – getting suckered to pay two or three times the total value of your assets – you’re bombarded with taxes and health bills which suck even more money out of you so that your politicians and their wealthy elite friends can continue living in the Hamptons while piling up their personal and corporate savings in offshore tax shelters.

Like Morpheus said, you’ve been reduced to just being a battery – an energy cell – to provide a constant and predictable stream of energy to your overlords while you lie blissfully unaware in a deep, artificially-induced state of sleep.

You think you’re alive, but you’re really already dead.

</rant>

“And is one who was dead and We gave him life and made for him light by which to walk among the people like one who is in darkness, never to emerge therefrom? Thus it has been made pleasing to the disbelievers that which they were doing.” (6:122)

- Unknown.

Make your plans carefully, ask God for aid, and then move ahead without looking back.

Play the hand you’ve been dealt and be patient, and trust that God never places any burden on your shoulders that you cannot bear.

“…BOOM BOOM BOOOM even brighter than the moon moon mooooonnn.”

That person you admire or respect so much, was once someone you would either despise or disregard. And that person you look down upon now, may one day become higher than you.

Every soul undertakes a journey to be what it could truly become, and not what it was created as. Some have shorter, easier sojourns while others have longer and harder ones.

And you, while you’re on your own journey, may come across one that has fallen by the roadside. If you’re not going to lend it a helping hand, then the least you can do is to refrain from heaping dirt and scorn on it because of its temporary weakness.

Because then you shall find that your own journey has become much shorter.

But of course the carpet maker, looking at it from above can see the patterns and the purpose of it, and can see that the whole thing is perfect.

And God is often like that. We often can’t make sense of the misfortunes because we are two dimensional, we are at ground level, we can’t see what it all means, but the servant of God knows (even if he can’t always see) that this is a manifestation of God’s will which is always perfect, always beautiful, and always with a purpose.

“Our Lord! You have not created (all) this without purpose, glory to You!” (3:191)

And just like that ant continues on to its destination even as it navigates this seemingly meaningless obstacle course, so too should you never take your eyes off the ultimate destination of Firdaus. Trust that the carpet maker has indeed made something so magnificent and beautiful that it might even take your life away if you were try to comprehend it – because either your brain would explode or your breath would leave and never retun because of the sheer beauty of the Creation would literally leave you breathless- so continue on in this world and bear the bumps, the strange colors and patterns with grace.

The bumps that come with hardships of your job, of personal relationships, of physical or mental stress, of temporary discomfort, the loss of loved ones, the thin and stretched bank accounts, the harsh weather patterns, and so on.

Take comfort where you can, stop and rest and enjoy the limited view – since you can’t see the whole carpet – be in the world but don’t lose yourself in it.

- John D. Rockefeller

A Dichotomy of Elements

By Youssuf el-Kalay

Fire
Ice
Two basic elements
Created to be
To serve
To yield
Fragments of a verbal ember
Dancing on the edge of a tongue
Warming, tingling, charming
Through the eyes and ears
Of a love long forgotten
Then cometh the bonds
Then cometh the stillness
Though it be still
It burns all
And does not relent
Yields not to its cousin
Of earth wind or space
Nor to its lover
Nay it is a constant force
Halting for none
Except for One

But I do know that he generally got the short end of things in life. Scruffy-looking in appearance, he tried his best to wear half-decent clothes. He was not of great means, nor was he of tall muscular stature, nor was he of noble lineage.

He joined a band of misfits that were often ridiculed by the society around them, and by the ruling class in particular, simply for the unpopular beliefs they held and their way of life.

The inevitable day came upon him even though he and his fellows weren’t looking for it – they found themselves in the middle of an empty field, hunted by an army three times their size, an army that now faced them with darkened and angry faces across the small expanse.

I can only imagine what went through his head as he stood there silently waiting for the unstoppable charge. Maybe he was thinking about his wife and kids, how they had no food and no money. Maybe he was thinking of fleeing; seeing as how brutally outclassed he and his band were. Very little or no armor, a handful of mounts, rusty and outdated street weapons, all of which were no match for the opposing pikemen and mounted cavalry, swathed in fine silks and metal armor plates, gleaming broadswords and thick helmets. Maybe he was calculating his odds. Maybe he was arranging a few knots of cloth to support his aching knees. Maybe he was wondering if could use anything to shade himself from the heat of the sun. Maybe he was wondering if this is how his pitiful life was to end – out in the middle of the desert with nothing to take cover behind. Nothing to leave behind for his family. Nothing to leave behind that would carry his name.

I don’t know.

But I do know this; I know he had a heart that was a mountain of gold. I know that he had complete confidence in the leader of his ragtag band of riff-raff, an orphan and a one-time shepherd. I know that when all around him was a torrential downpour of deadly shafts, and when all around him there was the heavy beat of hooves that could split his chest in two, and when razor sharp blades were dancing but a few inches above his scalp, I know that he stood his ground, he did not turn his back, his grip never loosened, and that his resolve never collapsed. I know he barely felt the hot edge of steel as it took his life, and that when he fell, he fell with a smile on his face and contentment in his heart.

Unknown and unsung was he among the countless men that have lived and died on this planet.

But in the annals of the history of all Creation, he was a bright shooting star streaking across the night sky, burning intensely and lighting the way for billions to follow after him.

Tonight after Isha, the imam was asking people to generously donate for the construction of the masjid. He appealed to some to donate on behalf of their children, or their departed parents or loved ones. Several people raised their hands and asked for the pledge forms. One man behind me raised his arm and said he would donate on behalf of these poor men who had fallen in battle so many centuries and hundreds of generations ago, so many thousands of miles away. I wanted to turn and look to see who it was but I could not because I knew what was coming – an unstoppable wave of jealousy and envy that consumed me as I looked down to the floor and closed my suddenly hot eyes.

Envy at the rank of such men that even the Prophets were desirous of. Envy that a poor man, over 1400 years ago, had made such a high-stakes investment with the only valuable asset he had, and to this day the compounded dividends were still accruing to his account. To this day, he and his band of brothers were so loved and remembered, that people continued to give their wealth in the name of these men.  In places that those poor souls had never heard of or dreamed of. Chicago? Toronto? Rio de Janeiro? Reykjavik? Tokyo? None of these cities existed back then, not even as villages or trading outposts.

Never have I felt such envy and jealousy for the Shuhadaa of Badr as I did this night.

Why? Because Americans are so advanced.

(All numbers expressed are percentages of Americans, unless indicated otherwise)

21: Believe President Obama is a Muslim.
47: Correctly identified him as a Christian.
39: Believe in Darwin’s theory of evolution.
25: Do not believe in the theory of evolution.
21: Believe in sorcerers, witches, and warlocks.
32: Believe in ghosts.
25: Believe in astrology.
40: Believe Obama instituted death panels.
41: Believe Saddam Hussein was involved with 9/11.
25: Percentage of Democrats who believe President Bush was involved with 9/11.
50: Believe Saddam had WMD.
20: Believe the sun revolves around the Earth.
49: Were able to correctly state that Judaism is older than Christianity and Islam.
41: Weren’t sure that Judaism was older than Christianity and Islam.
76: Could name at least two of the seven dwarfs from the Snow White story.
24: Could name at least two of the nine justices of the Supreme Court.
63: Young Americans who cannot find Iraq on a map.
90: Cannot find Afghanistan on a map.
35: Cannot identify on which continent the Amazon River is located.
75: Can correctly identify the Three Stooges – Larry, Curly, and Moe.
40: Can correctly identify the three branches of government – Executive, Legislative, and Judicial.

source: Newsweek

To the most verdant jungles,
and onto the most barren expanses

To the bustling metropolises
and past the sleepy villages

To the arctic circles
and around the belly of this rock

To the cozy hearths
and into cold black void

This banner of ahad must be taken.