desertwhisperings - Tumblr blog

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Peace and glory to the thousand martyrs of blessed Palestine.

إِنَّا لِلَّهِ وَإِنَّآ إِلَيْهِ رَٰجِعُونَ

We belong to God and to Him we shall return (2:156)

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While others sacrifice dignity for the sake of life, the Palestinians sacrifice life for the sake of dignity

What is happening in Gaza is a bloodbath, the Palestinian people are being killed in their hundreds every single day, children murdered, familiies destroyed and entire communities devastated. There is no justification whatsovever for what is being done to the people of Gaza.

What the Zionist occupiers hate so much is that the Palestinians will not willingly give up one iota of their lands or rights. Unlike other colonised indigenous groups they will not be quietly relegated into the history books. However hopeless their cause, they will continue to resist.

From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.

Free Palestine. End the Occupation. Lift the Siege.

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"To have great pain is to have certainty. To hear that another person has pain is to have doubt"

-- Elaine Scarry

It can be difficult to understand and imagine others complexly, to view their experiences and suffering to be as real and undeniable as our own. True empathy requires accepting the pain and suffering of others without doubt or hesitation.

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"Just as good iron is not beaten into nails; a good man is not made into a soldier."

A traditional chinese saying that reflects a cultural attitude opposed to wasting young lives full of potential on fruitless and endless war, conflict and bloodshed. Too often tyrants, demagogues and war-hawks trade away the lives of other people's children on pointless  acts of national muscle-flexing.

Entire generations of youth are lost in conflicts that are unnecessary, poorly planned and badly executed. We can see the latest example of this taking place currently on the eastern borders of Ukraine, where after a year long war neither side has anything to show for it.

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“Those who are able to see beyond the shadows and lies of their culture will never be understood let alone believed by the masses”

- Plato

Every culture has its own collection of myths and mistruths, it’s own biases and particular myopic outlooks. Very few people in any given society are brave enough to see beyond these limitations, to approach their own culture and society with any modicum of objectivity and to call out overlooked injustices, hypocrisy and double standards. These clear-sighted indivduals are often met with public hatred and are persecuted by the elites of their socities.

One only need examine the stories of the prophets in Abrahmic scripture to see how such individuals were treated by their people and the hardships they faced when delivering unwanted truths to their leaders and compatriots. Most failed and many faced death or exile by their own people, few truly succeeded in reforming their societies. Such problems persist today, where non-conformist voices who dare challenge the modern monoculture are drowned out or face public humiliation and persecution.

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"Praise be to God, who with death did break the necks of tyrants, shattering with it the backs of Persia's kings, cutting short the aspirations of the Caesars, whose hearts were long averse to recalling death, until the true promise came to them and cast them into the pit."

Abu Hamid Al-Ghazali - Revival of the Religious Sciences

All the wealth, stations and achievements of Dunya are temporary and subject to decay, loss and collapse.

The Shahanshah (King of Kings) of Persia and the Caesars of Imperial Rome and Byzantium believed themselves, their dynasties and their empires to be eternal and everlasting. Though they built and fought, killed and conquered over the centuries, they could not escape death. Now their cities and monuments lay in ruins, and few can recall their names or deeds or lineages. They forgot death but the Lord of death forgot them not, just as He will not forget any of us.

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"Knowledge is better than wealth, for you have to protect your wealth whereas knowledge protects you."

- Ali ibn Abi Talib

Always key to remember that ideas and knowledge will outlive people and things.

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Ad-Dukhan (Arabic: الدخان, ad-dukhān; meaning: Smoke) is the 44th chapter (surah) of the Quran with 59 verses (ayat). The word dukhan, meaning 'smoke', is mentioned in verse 10.  حم ۝  The first verse is one of Quran's Muqatta'at, the letter combinations that appear in the beginning of some chapters. Verse 37 mentions the people of Tubba, interpreters explain that this refers to the people of Sheba. [Wikipedia]

Al Quran was revealed in the glorious language of Arabic and many of us read it in that language yet don't understand it, listen to the Quran and its meaning in English recited by Sheikh Mishary Rashid Al Afasy. English translation is from the Sahih International.

Ad Dukhan - The Smoke

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The nafs, what we would call the ‘lower self’ or the id - some would refer to it as our animal self. It’s the part of ourselves that is least rational, logical or moral and the most emotional and aggressive. Our nafs encourages us to think only of the here and now and to only think of ourselves, it seeks quick gratification and pushes us to make morally questionable choices for selfish reasons; it’s the part of ourselves that we’re ashamed of the most and seek to repress or master as best we can.

The sufi poet Abū Ḥamīd bin Abū Bakr Ibrāhīm, better known as Attar of Nishapur, reminds us that the nafs is something wild and potentially dangerous, it needs to be managed and controlled, not pampered or pandered to. An animal it is, but its not a cute and furry pet, but rather a stealthy and opportunistic predator that must be watched and caged at all times.

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'The imminent Hour draws near, and only God can disclose it. Do you [people] marvel at this? Why do you laugh instead of weeping? Why do you pay no heed? Bow down before God and worship.'  - Surah An Najm 53 : 57-62

The transitory nature of this world is inescapable - and no material achievements will prevent the inevitable. God warns us of the imminent inevitability; our own inevitable demise and the inevitable demise of all created things. There is no avoiding it and no escaping it. Every soul shall taste death (Quran 3:185), all things shall come to an end, and ultimate justice shall be delivered.

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The Kneeling, (Arabic: الجاثية, al-jāthiyah; meaning: "Upon Their Knees", "Crouching") is the 45th chapter (surah) of the Qur'an with 37 verses (ayat). It is a Meccan chapter, believed revealed according to the Islamic tradition during the Meccan phase of Muhammad's prophethood. This is one of the seven chapters in the Qur'an that start with the Muqattaʿat Hāʼ Mīm. It contains discussions of "signs of God" for humankind to reflect on, and describes punishments for those who deny God despite the signs. It also contains the only Quranic verse mentioning sharia, a term which Muslims later use to refer to the Islamic law. [Wikipedia]

Al Quran was revealed in the glorious language of Arabic and many of us read it in that language yet don't understand it, listen to the Quran and its meaning in English recited by Sheikh Mishary Rashid Al Afasy. English translation is from the Sahih International.

Al Jathiya - The Kneeling

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"They slaughtered us, our women and children were killed, our mosques were burned, but we will not kill women and children, we will not burn churches. Because the book we respect forbids Us to do that."

Izet Nanić

Even in the midst of the horrors of the Bosnian Genocide, the last genocide in Europe, the Bosnian resistance fighters remembered their religion and remained true to the tenets of Islam. May God bless the martyrs of Bosnia and accept their sacrifices, including that of Brigadier General Izet Nanic, who gave his life in defence of his people.

 Verily we belong to God and verily to him do we return (2:56) - إِنَّا لِلَّٰهِ وَإِنَّا إِلَيْهِ رَاجِعُونَ

Credit: Image [Michael Büker CC BY-SA 3.0]

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Al-Ahqaf (Arabic: الأحقاف‎, al-aḥqāf; meaning: "the sand dunes" or "the winding sand tracts") is the 46th chapter (surah) of the Qur'an with 35 verses (ayat). This is the seventh and last chapter starting with the Muqattaʿat letters Hāʼ Mīm. Regarding the timing and contextual background of the believed revelation (asbāb al-nuzūl), it is one of the late Meccan chapters, except for verse 10 and possibly a few others which Muslims believe were revealed in Medina. [Wikipedia]

Al Quran was revealed in the glorious language of Arabic and many of us read it in that language yet don't understand it, listen to the Quran and its meaning in English recited by Sheikh Mishary Rashid Al Afasy. English translation is from the Sahih International.

Al Ahqaf - The Sand Dunes

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‘Truly it is in the remembrance of Allah that hearts find peace.’ - Quran 13:28

The Qur’an calls on us to remember God often, to consider the purpose of our lives and the temporary nature of this world. It is only through remembrance, acceptance and a sense of detachment that we might find moments of peace and contentment in this trying and distracted reality.

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"Blindly following ancient customs and traditions doesn't mean that the dead are alive. But that the living are dead." - Ibn Khaldun

To blindly follow and mindlessly imitate is behaviour associated with herd animals - creatures of limited intelligence who find security in numbers. For human beings, there is no ultimate security to be found in numbers, each of us is uniquely and personally accountable to God. To follow and imitate blindly, without thought and consideration, will not protect us - nor will it preserve the traditions of the past, rather it dishonours the dead. To truly honour our predecessors we must seek to understand why they did what they did, to know their motivations and to seek what they sought - to focus on the why rather than to lose ourselves in the how. The means will change with time but the motivations will remain preserved.

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Muhammad (Arabic: محمد, Muḥammad; "Chapter of Muhammad") is the 47th chapter (surah) of the Quran with 38 verses (ayat). The title is derived from the direct mentioning of the Islamic prophet Muhammad in 47:2. It also has the name of Al-Qiṫāl (Arabic: القتال), which translates to fighting due to the context of the sura. This sura pertains to a specific conflict that arose from people prohibiting the acceptance and spread of Islam. It refers to the Battle of Badr, where an army was being gathered to attack Medina. The Battle of Badr took place during Ramadan, in year 2 of the Islamic calendar. [Wikipedia]

Al Quran was revealed in the glorious language of Arabic and many of us read it in that language yet don't understand it, listen to the Quran and its meaning in English recited by Sheikh Mishary Rashid Al Afasy. English translation is from the Sahih International.

Surah Muhammad 

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Al-Fath (Arabic: الفتح, al-fatḥ; meaning: "Victory" , "Triumph") is the 48th chapter (surah) of the Qur'an with 29 verses (ayat). The surah was revealed in Madinah in the sixth year of the Hijrah, on the occasion of the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah between the Muslim city-state of Madinah and Makkan polytheists. It mentions this victory, then criticizes the attitudes of the hypocrites, continues with further promises to the Muslims, and ends by mentioning certain important virtues of the Muslim community. [Wikipedia]

Al Quran was revealed in the glorious language of Arabic and many of us read it in that language yet don't understand it, listen to the Quran and its meaning in English recited by Sheikh Mishary Rashid Al Afasy. English translation is from the Sahih International.

Al Fath - The Victory