Let God.

The baraka(blessing) in breath

Someone’s dying breath that they weakly parted with as they passed from this world could be a newborn’s first inhale.

The one who glances upon the face of a person they love, takes a prolonged inhale, then holds it somewhere suspended in space and time, and then is gently forced into a slow release- all the energy packed into that breath becomes yours or mine. 

In the same way the Prophet breathed, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. He and his companions, they breathed together. The companions and their followers, they breathed together. The followers and their disciples, they breathed together. We have a community of breaths. Joining with those who are active, conscious participants in this community connects one to the master of breaths, our Prophet.

The word for breath is Arabic is so closely connected to the word for self and the meaning of a thing cherished and precious. Not only because breath, in all its subtlety, is the cycle that keeps us alive, but also because breath carries precious secrets like the breath we trace back to the Prophet. The word for childbed, the condition of a woman in the process of giving birth, also derives from the word for breath. The mother and her child also form their own small community of breath- passing inconspicuous love notes to each other. 

In English we find a similar efficiency of the word meaning breath from the Latin root SPIR-. Respire, inspire, aspire, conspire, spirit, spiritual; meaning the process of breath, the bestowal of breath, the ascent of breath, breathing together, the essential breath, the nature and affectation of the breath, respectively. 

This is old wisdom.

Faatimah,

God is Greater

Original Post (http://faatimahtheknight.tumblr.com/post/21518171904)

Breaking the Chains of Modernity

poem by Max Erhmann “Desiderate” the desired things

Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.

As far as possible without surrender
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons,
they are vexatious to the spirit.

If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain or bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.

Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs;
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals;
and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself.
Especially, do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment
it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be,
and whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.