A R C H I V E S
Madinat al-Muslimeen Islamic Message Board
| A Night Among the Stars |
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| UmmWafi |
| 09/27/03 at 17:52:36 |
| [slm][i] Tonite is a night, like almost every other night. With stars in the sky and restless disquiet in my heart. My unbroken solitude and clamouring stillness propel my mind backwards. In time. To a night where God Summoned a man to Him upon His Throne. A treat never before Bestowed upon any other known person, past or present. A night where an illiterate man undertook a travel that changed everything. What must he have felt ? To meet a God he loves with every fibre of his being. To meet the Creator to Whom one owes one's very breath. To travel distances impossible to mankind, either due to time constraints or the condition of being alive. Yet, Muhammad The Chosen One, proved his Prophethood with magical journeys one beautiful night. Like tonite. The concept of isra' and mi'raj has always been a vague idea to me, enthralling me only with the stories of what and who the Prophet [saw] met and did. I remember thanking the Prophet Musa AS for insisting the Prophet [saw] go back and forth to reduce the number of times we have to pray in a day. I remember the old wrinkled woman who claimed she was Dunya. I remember the men the Prophet [saw] met when he travelled to Jerusalem. Like a child, my understanding of that night is filled with external wonders, adding to my collection of awe for the life of the Prophet [saw]. The Prophetic journeys now hold a deeper meaning for me, no longer just some miracles that Prophets were known to be blessed with, impossibilities for us mere mortals who can only be painfully aware of how ordinary we are. Isra' and mi'raj represent profound journeys that we as ordinary humans undertake too, in order for us to be closer to the state of piety that the Prophets were in, Inshaa Allah. Granted, we none of us can ever claim to reach Jerusalem in a twinkle of a moment nor can we ever claim to be lifted to the Heavens on a stone. However, our journeys are no less profound to us, for they are journeys that are also fraught with uncertainties and undertaken only with a huge helping of faith. The Beloved Prophet Muhammad [saw] travelled over a great distance and ascended to great heights and in the process enhanced his state of Nubuwiyyah. For me, the past month or so have seen me travelled great distances and ascended to some heights and in the process enhanced my relationship with my inner self and my Creator, Inshaa Allah. I have travelled far in the sense of understanding the essence of my existence. I have covered great distances in the sense of building up my knowledge of who I am and what I am capable of. I have laboured over the roads of life to reach where I am now. Estranged from my destructive desires motivated by jaheel. Maybe where I am now is lonely, with not much company except the whisperings of my conscience. Maybe where I am now is devoid of the different feelings and dreams I used to nurture and cherish, thinking that they were such essential elements of who I was as a person. I hope that I have travelled far in removing my ignorance and replacing it with 'ilm. I hope I have moved. The Prophet [saw] ascended to the peak of his faith, the actual meeting with al-Khaleeq. My meeting with my Creator will take place, as everybody else's, when my soul detach itself from its earthly and fleshly habitat to make its way to an eternal reality. In the meantime, I am preparing myself. Trying to make myself worthy of that meeting. Yet knowing that nothing I do would be good enough to present to the Lord who Has Provided every single reality about me. It has not been an easy task. I too feel as if I am in some sense making and ascending movement. Ascending the steep and slippery mountain of spiritual enlightenment. Sometimes, I feel as if my treacherous steps would not allow me to move forward and upwards, allowing the environment to either embed me into paralysis or to even regress. What an awfully difficult struggle...knowing that there is no way to go except upwards and yet subjected to the constant pulling and pushing downwards to a place far removed from His Kursiy. As with all travels, I experienced too much to ever do justice with carvings on paper for indeed my journeys have left indelible marks in my heart. I am not who I am and yet I am no different from who I was. A dichotomy of existence and yet a harmonious chain of realities. I am content. I am blessed. Where do I go from here ? Suddenly, I feel no undirected angst. No pangs of slithering souls, writhing in imposed confusion. I have done with searching myself, an expedition of the tangled mind, not the guided exploration of the guided soul. My path lies clear before me and my destination is no longer a vision. The world is not Utopia so I have no illusions about my future challenges and difficulties. Yet, I am excited because I cannot wait till my journey's end. My anticipation is spiraling in a whirlpool of love for my Creator, longing to be with my beloved Prophet [saw] and desperate need for rest, for this traveller is indeed weary. If my feet have wings to fly me, then indeed, I would be soaring to where I will finally end all that has not ended. I will reach my final destiny. I will be going back to my true fitrah. A completion of the process of returning to my essence, returning myself to the state of the soul when I made my Convenance with Allah SWT. I will be me. It was a night like tonight. A night where the stars were no longer so far away. A night where the Prophet [saw] was amongst the stars, shining the brightest in this whole constellation of Creation. The beautiful array of sparkling jewels adorning night's dark mysteries is a representation of how everything should be in it's proper place in the order of Creation. Inshaa Allah, I am ready to take mine. Ya Rabbiy....give me the strength and the knowledge and the imaan to be your true servant, in the state which You have Created me. Where I can finally taste true happiness, where my soul is finally able to have the freedom to enslave itself to its true fitrah. Rabbanaa aatinaa fi al-dunyaa hasanah wa fi al-aakhirah hasanah, wa kinaa 'adzaab an-naar, Amin wa thumma amin wa thumma amin. Wassalam. [/i] |
| 09/27/03 at 18:07:46 |
| UmmWafi |
Madinat al-Muslimeen Islamic Message Board |