Subscribe to RSSThe Morals of Dervishes
I saw a holy man on the seashore who had been wounded by a tiger. No medicine could relieve his pain; he suffered much but he nevertheless constantly thanked God the most high, saying: ‘Praise be to Allah that I have fallen into a calamity and not into sin.’
If that beloved Friend decrees me to be slain
I shall not say that moment that I grieve for life
Or say: What fault has thy slave committed?
My grief will be for having offended thee.
As found here.
Gratitude II
From other | matters, by baraka
The challenge - to consciously be full of gratitude in speech and thought for a week - reminds me of the day that Rabia al-Adawiyya saw a man passing with a large bandage around his forehead. When questioned about it, he replied that he was suffering from a headache.
“How old are you,” she asked.
He replied that he was thirty, so she asked, “Till today, how have you passed your life?”
He replied, “In perfect health”.
She said, “For thirty years the Lord kept you sound, and you did not fly any colors on your body to express your gratitude for His gift, so that people could ask you the reason for your joy and, then, learning of God’s blessings on you, praise Him! But today, at the first sign of illness, you have flown the colors of complaint for all to see!”
Struck by her words, from that day on the man was known to all as the one who never complained.
Beastie Boys - Gratitude
First of a series…
Good times gone, but you missed them
What’s gone wrong, in your system
Things they bounce, just like a spaulding
What’d you think, you miss your calling
It’s so free, this kind of feeling
It’s like life, it’s so appealing
When you got so much to say
It’s called gratitudeGood times gone, but you feed it
Hate’s grown strong, you feel you need it
Just one thing do you know
What you think that the world owes you
What’s gonna set you free
Look inside and you’ll see
When you got so much to say
It’s called gratitude
From the 1992 album Check Your Head released on Capitol/ Grand Royal.
A.J. Jacobs - The Year of Living Biblically
This really was one of the better books I’ve read in a while. Informative, entertaining and highly worth your time. I borrowed a copy from library (because buying books new is always a pricey proposition) but I’m considering buying one for myself in the future.
The interesting thing about this is that honestly, in New York, he’s not really that out of place.
Cowon D2
Cowon iAudio D2 Review - Anything But iPod
The video review is a little too slick and slavish for my tastes, but it does demonstrate why I think this is the right PMP for me. Long battery life, expandable memory, great sound quality all point to a thumbs up in my book. My only other choices right now are the 32GB Zen and the 60GB Zen Vision M from Creative. I’d considered the Samsung YP-P2, but the fact that the 16GB model is unavailable in Singapore and that there’s neither expandable memory nor TV-out, as well as limited video codec support don’t do it any favours. The 3″ touch screen is really cool though and supposedly has some of the best sound quality around, with solid firmware upgrades adding games, audio codec support and more.
There are of course more high tech models coming up soon ( as always), so I’ll probably wait awhile before putting any money down.
And I’ll form the head!
The new series of billboards promoting the new Singapore kit is quite impressive, featuring members of the Singapore team against a backdrop of fiery, Voltron-esque lions.
What would be even better would be if the jerseys themselves were to show a similar of level of imagination and creativity. Instead they’re a rather bland affair, looking like Nike had some red jerseys in their warehouses that nobody wanted and decided to sew the Singaporean flag onto them.
***
I’ve never been a huge football fan, but FC St. Pauli has me intrigued.
Invisibility
After ICT…
Nenek: Look, Farah Adibah. Uncle Zhak is so dark!
Farah: Yah! I can’t see him!
excerpt from Asad’s The Road to Mecca
“One day I asked a hajji, who understood a little English: ‘Do you really believe that God expects you to show Him your respect by repeated bowing and kneeling and prostration? Might it not be better only to look into oneself and to pray to Him in the stillness of one’s heart? Why all these movements of your body?’ As soon as I had uttered these words I felt remorse, for I had not intended to injure the old man’s religious feelings. But the hajji did not appear in the least offended. He smiled with his toothless mouth and replied:
‘How else then should we worship God? Did He not create both, soul and body, together? And this being so, should man not pray with his body as well as his soul? Listen, I will tell you why we Muslims pray as we pray. We turn toward the Kaaba, God’s holy temple in Mecca, knowing that the faces of all Muslims, wherever they may be, are turned to it in prayer, and that we are like one body, with Him as the centre of our thoughts.
First we stand upright and recite from the Holy Koran, remembering that it is His Word, given to man that he may be upright and steadfast in life. Then we say, God is the Greatest, reminding ourselves that no one deserves to be worshipped but Him; and bow down deep because we honour Him above all, and praise His power and glory.
Thereafter we prostrate ourselves on our foreheads because we feel that we are but dust and nothingness before Him, and that He is our Creator and Sustainer on high.Then we lift our faces from the ground and remain sitting, praying that He forgive us our sins and bestow His grace upon us, and guide us aright, and give us health and sustenance. Then we again prostrate ourselves on the ground and touch the dust with our foreheads before the might and the glory of the One.
After that, we remain sitting and pray that He bless the Prophet Muhammad who brought His message to us, just as He blessed the earlier Prophets; and that He bless us as well, and all those who follow the right guidance; we ask Him to give us of the good of this world and of the good of the world to come. In the end we turn our heads to the right and to the left, saying, Peace and grace of God be upon you and thus greet all who are righteous, wherever they may be.
It was thus that our Prophet used to pray and taught his followers to pray for all times, so that they might willingly surrender themselves to God which is what Islam means and so be at peace with Him and with their own destiny.
…
I began to feel an unwonted humility whenever I saw a man standing barefoot on his prayer rug, or on a straw mat, or on the bare earth, with his arms folded over his chest and his head lowered, entirely submerged within himself, oblivious of what was going on around him, whether it was in a mosque or on the sidewalk of a busy street: a man at peace with himself.”
From Muhammad Asad’s The Road to Mecca.
The Trouble with Nalgene
The news came out a while back that even reusable plastic water bottles posed a possible major health risk with Nalgene, one of the bigger names in the water bottle industry, being a particular major offender due to its inclusion of Bisphenol A in many of its products. I’ve been using Nalgene water bottles for awhile now, and it seems awfully wasteful for me to simply throw them out when they’re still in good condition. Regardless, I’ll probably use them for a few years more until they get banged up beyond repair and then I’ll probably make the switch to SIGG and/or Klean Kanteens.
Don’t Buy A Nalgene Water Bottle Until You Read This : TreeHugger
Canada Calls Bisphenol A “Dangerous” : TreeHugger
