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Madinat al-Muslimeen Islamic Message Board
| reflections from solitude |
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| Anonymous |
| 06/22/03 at 08:10:47 |
| Free Rabih Haddad Committee P.O. Box 131092 Ann Arbor, Michigan 48113-1092 mail@freerabih.org Reflections from Solitude By Rabih Haddad*, 6/15/2003 Have you ever tried listening to your heart? I mean literally tried to hear your heartbeat. If you close your ears with the palms of your hands and position them just right, then be totally still and concentrate somewhere deep within you. Beating, working, pumping life into your veins and into your existence. Never tiring, never resting, irrespective of your will, yet having an assigned finite number of beats. It will not stop short of that number and will not go a single beat beyond it. Most of us fully understand and accept this, but only a select blessed few act upon this knowledge. We take many things for granted; among them, our heart’s continuous beating. This in turn has caused our standards and values to deviate from the example set by our Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and followed by his companions, may Allah be pleased with them. “Be in this life like a stranger, or a mere passerby,” he said. When a person is a stranger in a strange land, all his relationships and dealings become temporary, his possessions and wealth minimal. Just enough to get him where he is going. A mere passerby doesn’t buy real estate and acquire great wealth in a place he knows he will not return to once he leaves. If anything, he will try to make deals that will benefit him at his final destination. Abdullah ibn Umar, may Allah be pheased with him, used to add, whenever he recited the aforementioned hadith, “When you wake in the morning, do not expect to live until nightfall. And if you’re still alive at night, do not expect to see morning.” In other words, make haste! Do all your good deeds now, today! Tomorrow may be too late. Did anyone give you a contract on life? Or whisper in your ear the exact number of times your heart will beat? Thump, thump, thump…it’s a countdown and you’ve just lost three beats. *Rabih Haddad, the founder of the Global Relief Foundation, has been jailed, without criminal charge, in solitary confinement for fifteen of the past 18 months. The US government refuses to release him, claiming he is a “national security risk.” |
| Re: reflections from solitude |
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| Kathy |
| 06/22/03 at 09:41:05 |
| [slm] Scary story a couple of years ago. I was swimming with my son in a secluded pool. There were no sounds or noises. I was floating on my back, with my ears submerged. In the past I found this to be a very theraputic excercise. I could only hear the deafening silence with my heartbeat. All I could think of was the grave. I was so uneasy with this realization and it scared me. Subhanna Allah, just another sign, when you least expect it, to prepare ones self. |
| Re: reflections from solitude |
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| little._.sister |
| 06/22/03 at 18:31:25 |
| [quote author=Anonymous link=board=madrasa;num=1056280247;start=0#0 date=06/22/03 at 08:10:47] *Rabih Haddad, the founder of the Global Relief Foundation, has been jailed, without criminal charge, in solitary confinement for fifteen of the past 18 months. The US government refuses to release him, claiming he is a “national security risk.” [/quote] why? |
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