Theophany of perfection – Ibn El-Arabi

Hey Everyone,

One of the most amazing pieces of spiritual writings I’ve ever read or heard for Ibn El-Arabi:

Listen, O dearly beloved! 
I am the reality of the world, the centre of the circumference, 
I am the parts and the whole.
I am the will established between heaven and Earth,
I have created perception in you only in order to be the object of my perception.
If then you perceive Me, you perceive yourself.
But you cannot perceive Me through yourself,
It is through my eyes that you see Me and see yourself,
Through your eyes you cannot see Me.

Dearly beloved!
I have called you so often and you have not heard Me.
I have shown myself to you so often and you have not seen Me.
I have made myself fragrance so often, and you have not smelled Me,
Savorous food, and you have not tasted Me.
Why can you not reach Me through the object you touch
Or breathe Me through the sweet perfumes?
Why do you not see Me? Why do you not hear Me?
Why? Why? Why?

For you my delights surpass all other delights,
And the pleasure I procure you surpass all other pleasures.
For you I am preferable to all other good things,
I am Beauty, I am Grace.
Love Me, love Me alone.
Love yourself in Me, in Me alone.
Attach yourself to Me,
No one is more inward that I.
Others love you for their own sakes,
I love you for yourself.
And you, you flee from Me.

Dearly beloved!
You cannot treat Me fairly,
For if you approach Me, It is because I have approached you.

I am nearer to you than yourself,
Than your soul, than your breath.
Who among creatures
Would treat you as I do?
I am jealous of you over you,
I want you to belong to no other,
Not even to yourself.
Be mine, be for Me as you are in Me,
Though you are not even aware of it.

Dearly beloved!
Let us go toward Union
And if we find the road
That leads to separation,
We will destroy separation.
Let us go hand in hand.
Let us enter the presence of Truth.
Let it be our judge
And imprint its seal upon our union
Forever.

View on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVqLShfyrzc

Sharing: http://abdo.me/kvfba3

Leadership – Long Before We Know Ourselves!

I loved these words:

Long before we know ourselves,
Our paths are already set in stone.
Some may never figure out their purpose in life,
And some will.
There are a lot of us who are caught up in this hell we all live in,
Content with being blinded by rules and judgment.
We live in a world where it’s more okay to follow than to lead.
In this world being a leader is trouble for the system we are all accustomed to.
Being a leader in this day and age is being a threat.
Not many people stood up against the system we all call life,
But toward the end of our first ten years into the millennium we heard a voice.
A voice who was speaking to us from the underground for some time.
A voice who spoke of vulnerabilities and other human emotions and issues never before heard so vividly and honest.
This is the story of a young man who not only believed in himself,
But his dreams too.
This is the story of The Man On The Moon.

-KiD CuDi,

Life: Mistakes, Lessons or Fate?

Hi All,

That had been a comment on  a blog I’ve wrote recently on Dina‘s blog Chosen Odyssey.

Take your time to believe that which you are conventionally expected to believe. We are not expected to make any mistakes, but are there any absolute mistakes in Life’s lessons?

Well Dina, to respond to the question we had to define 2 words “perception” and “mistake”.

Going back to the concept of paradigm shifting, and the fact that the image formed in our minds about a certain issue is nothing more than a formation from our past experiences and what we grew up believing from the our community and that image will, accordingly, differ between people, as they have different experiences and may be, cultural or religious background.

So, the perception of a “mistake” will differ widely between people.

In Engineering when someone ask for “the best” solution, he shouldn’t be given an answer till he defines all the variables associated with his problem. For example: What’s the best programming language to learn. the response had to be it depends! What applications are you going to develop, what’s your background in the topic, how much time you can dedicate for that .etc

When you go for a competition, you might be the most experienced or most knowledgeable among the competitors but you might not win! Why, they’re mostly judging based on a set of variables that might not be set the right way, they might be judging your technical writing skills and you’re the most qualified craftswoman .etc

So, when I say, I made a mistake or someone made a mistake, I defined some variables that I saw fit in that situation, and judged that based on my previous experience or background. And surely there is something I didn’t take into consideration when doing so, especially if we’re talking about life events.

But there is still things that’s considered to be mistakes by everyone, for example cheating on partners, is that a mistake or not? everyone knows that it’s a mistake.

So, everyone will pick a set of variables to judge actions, these variables might be coming from his own experience, the perception of his community, or religious teachings.

As believers, we’re supposed to believe in Al-Qadr or the Fate. As it’s among the 6 articles of faith for Muslims. That what happened, god wanted it to happen, and it’s the absolute good for us.

That concept might be hard to understand and believe, but much harder to practice while we’re in the acme of troubles.

That article will communicate what I want to say better, when it comes to perceiving actions as god’s will and as a result, it might be “wrong” or “mistakes” according to a certain standard, but for us it’s god’s will.

Attributes of Allah “The all Wise” check that article:
http://www.nabulsi.com/english-nab/ideology/names/names-24.php

We as humans aren’t knowledgeable enough to find out all the variables associated with our life problems or situations, and as a result, while we do our best to approach the solution based on the variables we’re able to define, we should trust the ultimate knowledgeable entity which is aware of all the variables, and whether what we wanted worked or not, that was our fate, and god’s will.

We haven’t done a mistake, if we do that, even if we didn’t reach what we wanted.

You know, that’s the core belief of being a Muslim. Islam means submission to God. Which means accepting god as the all knowledgeable and submitting our will to him as he only knows the best for us.

- Abdo

Sharing Link: http://abdo.me/cp685n

Keeping Humble, the Egyptian way

flying bird

Hi,

Just a Facebook status inspired me to post that blog, while developing the WordPress theme I’ll use for that blog and planning my online activities generally.

A piece from Egyptian popular poetry calling people to keep humble regardless of the position they attained in their temporary life ..

يا طير يا عالي في السما .. طظ فيك
ما تفتكرشي ربنا مصطفيك
برضك بتاكل دود .. وللطين تعود
تمص فيه يا حلو .. ويمص فيك
عجبي

Oh there! you bird, flying high in the sky .. (Tozz) damn you!
Don’t just think that .. god has chosen you …
You still eat worms, and to the mud you’ll return (i.e. when you die) …
You suck it now, sweet .. and it’ll suck you soon (i.e. after your death) …
My Exclamations!
bird in mud

**** ‘Tozz’ is an Egyptian word illustrate being not interest in something and/or induce disrespect to it, don’t know a polite translation to it.

Have fun & keep humble!

Regards,
Abdo

—–

Photos credit goes to:

1) Vicky Frank

2) Dave Hamster