Friday, May 13, 2011

Wisdom

"For instance, if a man ceases to take any concern in worldly matters, conceives a distaste for common pleaures, and appears sunk in depression, the doctor will say, “This is a case of melancholy, and requires such and such prescription." 
The physicist will say, “This is a dryness of the brain caused by hot weather and cannot be relieved till the air becomes moist.” 
The astrologer will attribute it to some particular conjunction or opposition of plantes. 
Thus far their wisdom reaches,” says the Koran. 
It does not occur to them that what has really happened is this: that the Almighty has a concern for the welfare of that man, and has therefore commanded His servants, the planets or the elements, to produce such a condition in him that he may turn away from the world to his Maker.
The knowledge of this fact is a lustrous pearl from the ocean of inspirational knowledge, to which all other forms of knowledge are as islands in the sea.”
-The Alchemy of Happiness, Imam Al-Ghazali

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

A Moment

La vie est fragile.

So short that it is a momentary blink in time.

Consider that there is an adhaan for which there is no immediate salaat.  And that there is also a corresponding salaat which is not preambled with an adhaan. 

Except that the buffer between this adhaan and this salaat is the short moment that we call "life".

At your birth, the adhaan is called,

And in the next moment the salaat for your janazah is read.

SubhanAllah.  La vie est fragile.