FOR MY DEAREST DAUGHTER ON HER BIRTHDAY……..A DUA

My dearest child,
Asalaamoalaikum,

At this important milestone in your life, it is a time to rejoice that you have remained in Allah SWT’s perfect protection in all forms and ways starting with your health, beauty and intellect and ending with the days he has allotted you unhampered by crippling disease and or lack or loss of intelligence.
I am so happy to see you entering the next stage of your life and I pray that you will before making every decision big or small make a prayer to ask Allah for His guidance, help and blessings.
I pray that you ask Allah SWT to give you at all times guidance, the ability and desire to follow His guidance (The Quran), wisdom to understand its beauty and its markers, Afiyah which is an all enveloping protection from Him both in this world and the next.
I grew up knowing that I have to respect and obey my parents. It is only recently that I have been able to actually ascertain where in the Quran does it actually command me to do so. I hope you will not delay your education and reflection on the Quran as I did.
You have many gifts, some you are aware of some you will become aware of as they unfold. Do remember that they are all from Allah and use them in the path of Allah.
I pray for your health, your protection, for your happiness, for a loving, caring, appreciative muslim spouse, someone who makes your journey towards Allah happier and easier.
I pray for Allah to give in your hands His Shifa (ability to heal) as true healing comes from Him, we as physicians just deliver it with His grace. I pray that your patients may benefit from that gift.
I pray that you have normal children and that you may never be challenged in your life with the sadness of death or loss of deen in them.
I am here to love you and support you in your journey. I am told that a mother’s love has no comparison on earth, but that it comprises only one percent of the Love that Allah has for us.
May you always feel the gentle cloak of His Love and Rahma on your shoulders, along with mine.
Love and prayers for you always!

Mom

ONE HUNDRED THINGS ABOUT DHIKR (75-100)

Continuing from: What is Dhikr to me?

75. Shukr Alhamdollillah at the opportunity to pray jamaat at the Masjid e Quba equivalent to an Ummrah (Hadith)

76. Subhanallah watching the sunset on the ocean
77. Subhanallah watching the sunrise on the ocean
78. Subhanallah …when flying over the rocky mountains
79. Subhanallah ……being able to pray in the masjid on the plane
80. Alhamdollilah when sitting with the lion cubs in Safari
81. Alhamdollillah when greeted by our generous friends in South Africa
82. Subhanallah when a young Hindu boy takes shahada in the mosque.
83. Subhanallah when a family of five takes shahada in our mosque.
84. Meditating at the river with the evening adkaars

85. Shutting out dunya in Itikaaf by using the ipod with Sheikh Al Afasy’s recitation
86. Shukr Alhamdollillah eating the best rice pudding in Mecca
87. Shukr Alhamdollillah…… being able to pray in front of the Kaaba
88. Finding the supplications on Huzn or grief and reading them repeatedly
89. Reading the adkaars till the feeling of acceptance comes into me.
90. Shukr Alhamdollillah when hurtling down the interstate free of all cares.
91. Shukr Alhamdollillah…..drinking cold zamzam after tawaf in 110 degrees
92. Making dua while taking exams to remember the correct answer.
93. Reading ‘Accepted Whispers’ while waiting for the maghrib prayer in the Haram
94. Reading a sipara because a fellow muslim needs support in grief.
95. Allahhumma……….for a good day to follow.
96. Allahhumma……..while waiting for the teacher to begin the talk
97. Listening to the Inner dimensions of salah

98. Trying to remember a dua for salvation and ending up with Rabbana atayna……..
99. Being speechless and searching for a dua when looking upon my child’s dead body
100. Asking for Allah’s forgiveness in my own language and my own words…again and again……….. till I feel He (SWT) hears and accepts.

THE SUPPLICATION FOR FEAR!

I am calmly swimming off the coral reef, when my hand goes to my waist and I panic, I am not wearing my life jacket, I have never swum this far without a life jacket. I can see where the wall of the reef begins and the depth of the ocean becomes immeasurable. As my panic rises I remember the dua that I often have to read from my piece of paper after the Dhuhr prayer but whose meaning I know well:

اللّهُـمَّ لا مانِعَ لِما أَعْطَـيْت، وَلا مُعْطِـيَ لِما مَنَـعْت، وَلا يَنْفَـعُ ذا الجَـدِّ مِنْـكَ الجَـد .

“Allaahumma laa maani‘a limaa a‘tayt, wa laa mu‘tiya limaa mana‘t. Wa laa yanfa‘u dhal-jaddi minkal-jadd.”

“Ô Allah, none can prevent what You have willed to bestow. And none can bestow what You have willed to prevent. And no wealth or majesty can benefit anyone, as from You is all wealth and majesty.”

My heart rate normalizes, I submit to the fact that I am in His (SWT) hands. I once again begin to enjoy Allah SWT’s beautiful ornamentation underwater, and forget how deep I have come.

It is early midday we are leaving the mosque. I ask her how her son did on his interview for his job. She tells me that her son has applied in a position where they usually do not take children of immigrants and he has told her that there may be some racial prejudice involved.

I am listening attentively, “so what did you advise him?” I ask. “I gave him this dua.” And she recites the dua given above, “No one can take away from him what Allah has willed….” She says, “Alhamdollillah!” I say visibly respectful at such a level of submission to Allah. The next day she tells me that her son was accepted for the job.

Dr. M sends an SOS from Gaza, she was here in the United States and came to our little town and presented her research and field work. She and her team of young people are working to improve the lives of those children who have lost their parents or their home to the bombing or sniper fire from the Israeli soldiers. She has created a small sanctuary for these children with severe post traumatic stress syndrome who in the confines of these walls can make pictures and sing songs as if there are no soldiers waiting to kill them or destroy their homes, and pretend as if life is normal.

Dr. M’s young assistant writes about the little Hospital she works in, and the news validates, and I paraphrase……….Please help, no food, no medicine, no electricity, respirators in danger of being shut off. The fuel for the generators is running out, electricity has already been turned off by the Israelis.

In other words the respirators will soon come to a grinding halt and all the babies and children on respirators in Gaza will die or be damaged irrevocably.

I read the email and a sense of frustration and anger rises in me. What have these sick children done to deserve this type of treatment?

The next day a young lady who has been to the Berlin Wall tells me” They blew a three mile hole in the Wall between Gaza and Egypt and people are spilling over to buy groceries, in Egypt. Reports say that the food stores in the little border village in Egypt are empty and the gunshop has not sold a single gun” I have been out of the political loop since my child died. Why is there a wall between Eygpt and Gaza? I wonder.

 

 

 

 

I am stupefied……….. Allah SWT has willed to bestow food and fuel to those innocents in the Hospital, who the humans were depriving………He (SWT) is giving respite to the opressed and desperately needy, those whose middle name is “collateral”. He (SWT) is pausing to see the reaction of the fellow human beings as to what do they do next to their own kind?

Pictures roll in of the desperate shopping for fuel, food and bedding and animals. People climbing up the shards of the broken wall, and walking several miles to the border Egyptian village and then walking back stooped down with the groceries to last ………how long? Till the wall comes up again with the American taxpayers money?

May Allah put mercy in the hearts of the ones who have no mercy in them at this time.

ONE HUNDRED THINGS ABOUT DHIKR (50-74)

What is Dhikr to me?
51. The four quls before sleep envelopes me.
52. Allahummaa ahdani fiman hadayt…when the Ummah is suffering.
53. Listening to Surah Kahf enroute to Juma and feeling the words rolling off my lips as if I know the surah by heart
54. Listening to Surah Al-Insaan again and again in Itikaaf
55. Trying to memorize, surah Inshirah and stumbling on the last ayah repeatedly
56. Memorizing the last two ayahs of Sura Baqara & forgetting them through disuse.
57. Listening to an ayah being recited by someone else and knowing its source.
58. Listening to the juma khutba and making dua when the Imam sits down
59. Making dua after adhaan
60. Making dua after iqama
61. Repeating the adhaan after the muezzin
62. Listening to Imam Jouhani and wanting the taraweh to go on and on.
63. Turning up the volume and listening to Sheikh AlAfasy in the car.
64. Listening to Surah Yaseen and seeing my mother lying helplessly ill.
65. Listening to Surah Yaseen and watching with amazement my great Aunt(Khalaji) wake up from a coma and ask me “where is your mother?”
66. Listening to Allah huma labaik on youtube and crying with nostalgia
67. Reciting Allah huma labaik going to Mecca and visualizing Ibrahim AS calling the believers.
68. Feeling the power of the Ummah as they recite the duas in tawaf

69. Humbled and thankful when someone next to me recites Surah Tariq in tawaf
70. Standing in Qiyam al Layl waiting to hear Surah Tariq from the lips of Imam Sudais
71. Standing in front of the Kaaba speechless.
72. Repeating durood at the rowda of RasoolAllah (peace and blessing upon him)

73. Subhanallah when watching the sun set on the road to Medina
74. Bismillah on opening our fast on the road to Medina with Laban

road-to-medinah.jpg

ONE HUNDRED THINGS ABOUT DHIKR (27-50)

Continued from:

What is Dhikr to me?

27. Subhanallah when I am faced with beauty
28. Subhanallah when I am faced with something unsual
29. Subhanallah when I am faced with someone amazing
30. Alhamdollillah when I think of the Naimahs given to me
31. Alhamdollillah when I think of what I did not get
32. Ayat el kursi after fard prayer
33. Ayat el Kursi when I see a dark figure following me in the parking garage
34. Ayat el Kursi when I have to take a cab in an unknown city
35. Shukr Alhamdollillah when I can walk along the river.
36. Shukr Alhamdollillah when I sleep soundly through the night
37. Aaoodubillahi minish shaytan nir rajeem when I don’t feel like getting up for fajr
38. Bismillah when I start my car
39. Ashadu an lailaha illallah when I complete my wudu.
40. Astigfirullah when I complete my salaat
41. Allah o Akbar when the mosque kids put on an Eid program
42. Allah o Akbar when Zidane made a goal in soccer.
43. Shukr Alhamdollillah when I see my face in the morning
44. Mashallah when I am informed of two muslims getting engaged

45. Subhanallah when I see a dedicated prayer room in someones house

46. Alhamdollillah when my husband shares some good news.
47. Durood and Astighfirullah when the tide of grief rises.
48. Asma e husna when the sun is setting on a sad evening
49. Bismillah when I start Farhat Hashmi’s tafseer with breakfast
50. Rabannas…when I think of my friends and family.

To be continued inshallah………………

ONE HUNDRED THINGS ABOUT DHIKR (1-26)

What is Dhikr to me?
1. Waking up and saying SubhanAllah e WabeHamdeh “how perfect Allah is and I praise Him”
2. Remaining on the musallah after salaat and reading the morning supplications
3. Shukr Alhamdollillah when the warm water touches my face on a frosty morning
4. Subhanallah when my car starts on a dark night on the Interstate
5. Astigfirullah wa atubualaik, when I am at the red stop light
6. La tek na tu mer Rahmatullah when all gates of hope appear to be closing

7. La illaha illala when I cannot recall something
8. La illa ha illalla when anger sweeps within me and I buy time and sanity before responding.
9. Bismillah when I raise my hand for my food
10. Shukr Alhamdolillah when I can enjoy my egg & toast breakfast knowing that I can afford it both in cost to the pocket and to my arteries.
11. Subhanallah when I see the fishes swimming around me while snorkeling

12. Allah ho Akbar as my plane takes off and ascends into the skies

13. Subhanallah as I descend the stairs towards the Kaaba
14. Mashallah when my five year old niece recites the surah fatiha perfectly
15. Astighfirullah when I remember my mistakes
16. Inna lil lahi wa inna elayhe rajaeown when I read or hear of someone passing away
17. Rabannas…..when I visit my mothers grave
18. Rabannas…when I visit my son’s grave.
19. Rabannas as I perform tawaf

20. Repeating the Asma’al Husna as I circumbulate around the Kaaba
21. Durood Sharieef as Iook for a lost valuable.
22. Rabannas as I cry enroute to the cemetery trying to forget “what if…”
23. Allahhumma…..when I think of all the duas my great Aunt made for me
24. Allahumma…when I enter the doors of the masjid.
25. Allahumma when I am faced with a tough decision.
26. Allahumma when I am faced with a simple decision.

To be continued inshallah……….

HOW TO HELP YOURSELF?2:45

The Ayah on how to get help.

At the women’s afternoon meeting today we reviewed this ayah with Farhat Hashmi’s tafseer. When I got into the car to go back to work, I turned on Mokhtar Magroubi’s CD on “the inner dimensions of salah” and the first words I heard were this ayah.
It also is the ayah that I repeated to myself in English many many times after Tariq died and found solace in Allah’s promise in it. Though I was neither well versed in the ramifications of the tafseer, not had I paid much attention to the second part of the ayah. Patience and Prayer was my mantra when the clouds of desperate grief would begin to gather.
I am grateful to Allah SWT that he threw me a lifeline in my storm of grief and that I am coherent enough to share a succinct explanation of this ayah as I understand it now, after some more review. I have read different sources and distilled it down to the basic essentials, though to best understand its relationshsip to the preceding and suceeding ayahs should also be examined. However here I only present Surah 2:45:

Quran: 2.045: Three translations in English, none capturing the heart of the essence of the ayah. The tafseer and explanations that follow are from Farhat Hashmi and Sheikh Mokhtar Magroubi.

YUSUFALI: Nay, seek (Allah’s) help with patient perseverance and prayer: It is indeed hard, except to those who bring a lowly spirit.

PICKTHAL: Seek help in patience and prayer; and truly it is hard save for the humble-minded

SHAKIR: And seek assistance through patience and prayer, and most surely it is a hard thing except for the humble ones.

The method outlined in this ayah for people like me who are laden with grief and other challenges is as follows:
The first step is:
To help yourself!
How?
With Allah’s help!
How?
Through patience & prayer

What are the prerequisites for the kind of prayer that will support patience and help me?

It is the prayer of the khashieen i.e. the people with ‘Khushu’ which is translated by the above three authors in English as pertaining to humility, lowly spirit, & humble minded, none of which really define the essential essence of the word ‘khushu’

Khushu is something on which reams of literature is available, it is easy to read about but elusive to practice.
Farhat Hashmi defines’ Khushu’ in the tafseer of this ayah as:
“Inner peace leading to outer peace”
How to step into khushu?
Step one: Prepare the ambience to step into it, with a mindset of shutting out all else, taking care of all emergencies, eating enough so that you don’t think of food, but not enough to make you sleepy, turning off all electronic devices, pretending that you are suspended in the third dimension where you have no access to any one except Allah.

Step two: Perform a beautiful wudu with external silence starting with ‘Bismillah’ and ending with Ashadu an La illaha illal lah………put on blinders over your eyes (look down), don’t talk and focus on your upcoming dialogue with Allah (SWT), while proceeding to the musallah.

Step three:
When you enter into salaat, i.e. when you say “Allah o Akbar” you are negating and demoting all others to a lesser importance verbally and in your heart and mind.
When you say Allah O Akbar, you are seeking sanctuary into Allah’s presence, thus all else has to be left behind, mental, physical and emotional, and all other doors to the heart are to be closed behind us leaving us alone in the sanctuary with Allah SWT

An Example:
We enter into khushu with himaat (focus) the example given by Sheikh Magroubi is that of a group of students taking an examination. No matter what the disturbance, their attention is not deviated from their examination paper. Their aim is to do the best on their examination in the time allotted to them. Their ultimate goal is to pass the examination with flying colors and get their degree to step into the real world.
We have a similar goal to step into the Hereafter if we want to pass our test in this world with flying colors we have to focus. An essential part of that test is our intensity of focus while connecting with our Lord, while we are on this earth.

What if we dont have khushu when we seek prayer?

The last option given in the ayah is the option of those who do not have khushu…….for them Allah SWT states that the prayer is very large, heavy (kabeera) and difficult.
What I understand is that if the prayer is not in Khushu then it is like something large (kabeera) weighing you down, instead of something light and beautiful lifting you up.

Prayer is practice for standing in front of our Lord and khushu is doing it with pleasure, the correct etiquette, dress and demeanor.

It is best to practice Standing in front of Allah in this world as we will be standing in front of him on the Day of Judgment. It is best to learn the protocol now than to appear gauche, uncouth and disrespectful on the Day of Judgment when we stand before Him for a very important interview. (Farhat Hashmi).

In the final analysis, we must help ourselves by asking for help from Allah through patience and prayer and to perform that prayer with Khushu, otherwise that prayer will be like a very large and heavy weight on us and difficult and thus will not benefit us in our primary goal of seeking His (SWT) help.

My personal take is that ‘khushu’ does not come all the time and every time. One has to persevere patiently in prayer and focus with the intense desire for khushu and then you are lifted.

Like a lock with a combination code, all the right actions have to be lined up for the door to swing open to give entry to the sanctuary of Allah wherein lies HELP.

May Allah forgive me for any mistakes that I may have made in understanding or presenting the explanation of this ayah.

WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU RETURN FROM HAJJ?

Adapted from: Back from Hajj…. back to the old routine??
By Asma bint Shameem

This is a reminder for all those people who did Hajj…. whether you did it this year or many years ago…
And even for those who didn’t…YET.

You can’t go back to the same old you. You promised Allah you will change… you will improve for the better…you will do all you can to be a better Muslim, to be a stronger believer.

1. Remember how you felt when you were there
Remember how you felt when you saw the Magnificent Kaaba for the first time with all its glory and splendor…you were awed….speechless, tears silently rolling down without you even realizing. You trembled….and you promised….

Remember how you cried in Arafah, how you beseeched Allah, spreading out your hands in utter humility, begging Him and imploring Him to forgive you…. to give you just one more chance…

Remember the strength and resolve with which you threw the pebbles at the Jamaraat, determined to give up all your bad habits, resolute to do all good…staying firm on the Straight path?

Remember the beautiful days in Mina, the peaceful night in Muzdalifa….all the Ibadaat, the Tawaafs, the duas and supplications, the tears, the Tauba and repentance.

Therefore:
Do not let the pomp and glitter of this Dunya take you away from all that. Don’t let the hustle bustle of every day routine make you forget your promises and resolve.

2. Why did you go to Hajj and not the others?
Remember that out of six billion people Allah invited you…yes YOU… to His Glorious House and honored YOU and blessed YOU with Hajj.

And it was only because of His Mercy that He enabled you to go. For Wallaahi, if it were not His Will, you would never be able to go.

3. Be thankful and grateful

Be a thankful slave of His

Spend the rest of your life in His (SWT) submission, surrendering to Him (SWT), obeying His (SWY) commandments and staying away from His (SWT) prohibitions?

4, Show your gratefulness in your resolve:

Fear Allah in all that you do and always be mindful of Him.

Do not let the Shaytaan weaken your resolve.

Say NO to those temptations, turn down chances of all that’s Haraam.

Stay away from all your old bad habits and build on your good ones.

Be upright in your character, resist the urge to cheat, lie and backbite.

Spend in the path of Allah

Continue with the daily recitation of the Qur’aan, reflecting over the meanings and use those Words of Allah to improve yourself

And no matter what you do…… do not let the snooze button keep you away from Salaah.

Hold your head up high, wearing that Hijaab or Jilbaab….or sporting that beard…. proud to be a Muslim, Alhamdulillaah. Remember, it’s the mark of a believer.

Don’t let people or so-called ‘friends’ talk you out of it.

And if they object, look them straight in the eye and say, “It’s the command of Allah.”

5. How to use this second chance in life?
Allah Subhaanahu wa Ta’ala gave you another chance….just like you asked Him to. You begged for forgiveness and He forgave you and purified like the day you were born. So be thankful and make the most of it.

Your life from now is like a blank piece of paper, with nothing written on it. And the pen that you would use to write on it is in your hands.

So be careful of what you write.

Because….you never know…..

You might never have the chance to have your piece of paper of your life blank again…

“Therefore, race for forgiveness from your Lord, and for a Garden as wide as heaven and earth, prepared for those who believe in Allah and His Messengers. Such is the Favor of Allah; He gives it to whom He wills. Allah is the Owner of great favor.” (Al-Hadeed: 21)

Jazaaik Allah hu Khairan, May Allah continue to guide and help you in your post- Hajj era to remain spiritual and help others taste the beauty of ibadah at the House of Allah.

WHAT HAPPENED TO OUR DISOBEDIENT ANCESTORS……….

Allah Subhanawataala gives us examples of people who disobeyed Him and His messengers.

Aaood u Billahi Minish Shaitan nir rajeem, Bismillah hir Rahman nir Raheem

The Quran: Surah 69 Al Haqqaa

069.001: The Sure Reality!

* تفسير Tafsir al-Jalalayn
{ ٱلْحَاقَّةُ }

The Reality, the Resurrection in which is realized [the truth of] all that was rejected in the way of the raising [from the graves], the reckoning and the requital, or [it means the Resurrection] which will manifest all of that.

069.002
 What is the Sure Reality?

* تفسير Tafsir al-Jalalayn
{ مَا ٱلْحَآقَّةُ }

What is the Reality? (ma’l-hāqqa: [an interrogative] to emphasise its enormity; this is the subject as well as the predicate of [the previous] al-hāqqa, ‘the Reality’).
069. 003: And what will make thee realize what the Sure Reality is?

* تفسير Tafsir al-Jalalayn
{ وَمَآ أَدْرَاكَ مَا ٱلْحَاقَّةُ }

And how would you know what the Reality is? ([repeated as] an extra emphasis of its enormity; the first mā [of the previous verse] is the subject, the second one, its predicate; the second mā and its predicate also function as the second direct object of [the verb] ‘knowing’).
069.004 : The Thamud and the ‘Ad People (branded) as false the Stunning Calamity!

* تفسير Tafsir al-Jalalayn
{ كَذَّبَتْ ثَمُودُ وَعَادٌ بِٱلْقَارِعَةِ }

Thamūd and ‘Ād denied the Clatterer, the Resurrection, because its terrors cause the hearts to clatter.

069.005 
: But the Thamud, – they were destroyed by a terrible Storm of thunder and lightning!

* تفسير Tafsir al-Jalalayn
{ فَأَمَّا ثَمُودُ فَأُهْلِكُواْ بِٱلطَّاغِيَةِ }

As for Thamūd, they were destroyed by the [overwhelming] Roar, an excessively severe cry.

069.006 
: And the ‘Ad, they were destroyed by a furious Wind, exceedingly violent;
Tafseer:
{ وَأَمَا عَادٌ فَأُهْلِكُواْ بِرِيحٍ صَرْصَرٍ عَاتِيَةٍ }
And as for ‘Ād, they were destroyed by a deafening, intensely clamorous, violent wind, [that was] powerful and severe [in its assault] upon ‘Ād, despite their power and might.

069.007 
: He made it rage against them seven nights and eight days in succession: so that thou couldst see the (whole) people lying prostrate in its (path), as they had been roots of hollow palm-trees tumbled down!

* تفسير Tafsir al-Jalalayn
{ سَخَّرَهَا عَلَيْهِمْ سَبْعَ لَيَالٍ وَثَمَانِيَةَ أَيَّامٍ حُسُوماً فَتَرَى ٱلْقَوْمَ فِيهَا صَرْعَىٰ كَأَنَّهُمْ أَعْجَازُ نَخْلٍ خَاوِيَةٍ }

He forced it upon them for seven nights and eight days, the first of which was the morning of Wednesday, eight days before the end of [the month of] Shawwāl, and this was at the height of winter, successively, one after the next (husūman: it [the action of the wind] is likened to the repeated actions of a hāsim, ‘one cauterizing a wound’, time and again until it [the blood] has been cut off, inhsama) so that you might have seen the people therein lying prostrate, lying dead on the ground, as if they were the hollow, collapsed, trunks of palm-trees.

069.008 
: Then seest thou any of them left surviving?

* تفسير Tafsir al-Jalalayn
{ فَهَلْ تَرَىٰ لَهُم مِّن بَاقِيَةٍ }

So do you see any remnant of them? (min bāqiyatin: this is either the adjectival qualification of an implicit nafs, ‘soul’, or the [final suffixed] tā’ is for hyperbole, in other words [understand it as fa-hal tarā lahum] min bāqin, ‘any one remaining?’ No!).

Translation by Yusuf Ali

Note: pictures (Courtesy of Haifa) : The city of Ad (ruins) (probably close to Yemen.
Tafseer

THE BRANCH………..

It is an unusually cold and bitter evening. I am walking along the embankment of the river, the sun has passed Asr and its heat is weakening. I am mesmerized by the determined though continuous pattern of the flow of the water….except in one part.
I see a branch reaching out into the river, and diverting the determined flow of the river, and in its protection are a few twigs hanging on to its side. Besides them is the churning water, whipped into a frenzy of froth threatening to dislodge them.
I am rooted to the spot. I see myself……. I am that twig hanging on to the protection of the branch that has been extended to me from the shore, firmly grounded with its roots in the soil. Besides me churning are the waters of grief, confusion and loss of direction.
I am in a temporary sanctuary provided by the branch. What is the branch that is anchoring me? What is it… but the Dhikr of Allah cupping me to its bosom, buffering me from the churning froth of grief, confusion and the aimless pursuits of life around me.
The rest of the river flows gracefully while I hang on to the branch for life, unnoticed by the general populace, awaiting direction and courage to continue my life journey in the treacherously fast waters of the river of life.