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| poets, lions & rabbits |
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| se7en |
| 12/11/03 at 18:18:14 |
as salaamu alaykum wa rahmatullah, Yesterday, I got the chance to watch a lecture by Sh. Hamza Yusuf called "What Happened to Poetry?" I just wanted to share with you all some of the things he said that I found to be really interesting and penetrating. He started by talking about classes in highschool or college we've taken in which we've learned about poetry and words, and the power of words. He said, "Most of us have had to suffer the mediocrity of passionless people teaching words that emanated from the hearts of deeply passionate people -- because poetry is about passion, and what is forbidden in the modern world is passion." He went on to say that what we see in the world today is not true passion, but melodrama, nourished and cultivated by people who want us to see the world in this black and white, good vs. bad schema -- and not take the time to *think*, reflect, and contemplate about things. He quoted, "The world is divided into two people - those who divide the world into two people, and everybody else." :P Sh. Hamza then mentioned the Surah in the Qu'ran ash-Shu'ara, The Poets, and how in it, Allah [swt] said that there are different kinds of poets. He describes the type of poet who misleads people, who says with their mouth that which they do not do. He said that, in our modern day, this type are the advertisers. They use our love of words and rhythm to mislead us and speak falsehood. Take the time to listen to any advertisement, or look carefully through a magazine, and this will be evident. He said that most advertisements are actually written in metre, some obvious and others more subtle. And even in music, we can see that people have a love for rhythm and verse and poetic language (even if the words themselves are meaningless) and this is being exploited to sell CD's. The second type of poet is the truthful poet - "one who feels God's infinite on his finite soul" - who uses words to speak truth and to cause people to think and feel and gain an awareness of themselves and their purpose. He mentioned a really amazing poet that was a teacher of his father, Mark Van Doren. Sh. Hamza was actually named after him :) I've never heard of this poet before, so I did some surfing and came across some very nice stuff he wrote. I've attached them below for those of you who are interested. He concluded with an awesome poem of Rumi on the Prophet Muhammad [saw], in which he said: 'Without your light [oh Muhammad] a great lion is held captive by a rabbit. Be the captain of the ship, my Mustafa, my chosen one Look how the caravan of civilization has been ambushed Fools are everywhere in charge' He said that the Muslim community is in the condition it's in because it is like the lion faced by the rabbit in darkness. It is not the strength of the rabbit, but the blindness of the lion that keeps it weak. May Allah cleanse our hearts to receive the light of His guidance, keep us constant on His path, and protect us from evil people with eloquent tongues. wasalaamu alaykum wa rahmatullah -------------------------------- al Muzzamil - the one who wraps himself God called the prophet Muhammad [saw] 'the one who wraps himself' and said, come out from under your cloak you so fond of concealment and fleeing don't cover your face the world is a reeling, drunken body and you are its intelligent head don't hide the candle of your clarity stand up and burn through the night without your light a great lion is held captive by a rabbit be the captain of the ship my mustafa, my chosen one look how the caravan of civilization has been ambushed fools are everywhere in charge do not practice solitude like jesus be in the assembly and take charge of it you should live most naturally in public and be a communal teacher of souls -- rumi "It is by our weakness Troy stands, not by their strength." Sonnets by Mark Van Doren He Loves Me That God should love me is more wonderful Than that I so imperfectly love him. My reason is mortality, and dim Senses; his--oh, insupportable-- Is that he sees me. Even when I pull Dark thoughts about my head, each vein and limb Loves him, though remembrance in him, grim With my worst crimes, should prove me horrible. And he has terrors that he can release. But when he looks he loves me; which is why I wonder; and my wonder must increase Till more of it shall slay me. Yet I live, I live; and he has never ceased to give This glance at me that sweetens the whole sky. |
| Re: poets, lions & rabbits |
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| Maliha |
| 12/11/03 at 19:25:33 |
| [slm] Mashaallah awesome ;D Thanks for sharing sis :-* May Allah make us amongst the truthful, those who are impassioned by Truth and speak accordingly or die silently. (Amin). Man, the point about the lion and rabbit in the darkness is soooo deep! Subhana Allah. If only we would take our blinders off... What is the solution though? How do we imprint this love, this passion, this profundity of Truth into people's hearts? How do we imprint it into *our* own hearts??? sigh..Jazaki Allahu khayran my dear sis, my Allah reward you madly for sharing... [wlm] |
| Re: poets, lions & rabbits |
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| momineqbal |
| 12/11/03 at 20:44:12 |
| [slm], I held myself back for quite a bit, but then couldn't keep myself from responding to this line... Nothing personal on anyone. I mean I might be starting to use such expressions myself after spending all that time with the youth here... ;-) [quote]sigh..Jazaki Allahu khayran my dear sis, my Allah reward you madly for sharing... [/quote] Madly??? Why does this not go down my throat at all. Maybe my background as an FOB? That english isn't my mother tongue so I mentally translate this into other languages? During ramadan on one of the last 10 days tahajjud, the imam had a long and beautiful dua, and I am standing in line for suhoor after that and this brother says "That was a crazy dua maan..". I had to kill my nafs to not say anything to him and I only love him inshaAllah because what he actually meant was something like, the dua had "spiritually levitating" effect on him. So why don't we just say what we mean simply? Many a times I have learnt new things by asking some questions, so maybe I will learn something with this one inshaAllah. Any comments? Wassalam, Eqbal |
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| Maliha |
| 12/11/03 at 21:18:56 |
| [slm] hahahaha... :-/ :-/ thanks for the laughter man...that's soo funny:) This should actually go under the thread with the heading "FOB stories" :) just kidding bro, i am a FOB-urban-wanna-be (which is like the group that totally overkills the whole concept of slang :) ) Good point you made and Inshaallah I will keep that in mind. It's just when you spend a lot of time w/ other FOB-urban-wanna-be's or the youth (my 12-13 yr olds at sunday school) it totally necessitates this "i'm so cool type lingo" which is irresistably a creative dabbling of random words to create different meanings :) so yeah..my point is? i don't know...go w/ the flow i guess...and also I used it, in this context especially to my dear Shaykhul Slang sis Se7en :-), who I knew would totally "feel me" on this one.... 8) aight, i'm out...peace:) [wlm] |
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| se7en |
| 12/12/03 at 04:03:50 |
| as salaamu alaykum, ahem slang 101 class in order :) mad = very, a lot, a great deal. Ex. "se7en is MAD cool" this can also be replaced with the word "type" which I believe is more common in the Mid-West United States, or "hella"/"hecka" which is definitely common on the West Coast. anywho = a silly way of saying 'anyhow'. the only person I know besides Nur al Layl that actually says that was my American History teacher in high school.. hehehe.. he said other silly things like "there were more soldiers than you could shake a stick at!" hehehe :) oh since we're on the slang bit, a word common in the DC/MD/NJ area is 'gangsta' for something cool/nice/good.. I think you all would probably cringe at some of the phrases that I've heard used.. "yo that was a gangsta hadeeth.." and for you desis - I have learned recently that "420" means something to the effect of 'I was only kidding' among desi's.. but be careful.. in the US, at least where I grew up, 420 is a pretty common way to refer to using marijuana.. it comes from the police code for catching someone in possession of the drug. anyway, alhamdulillah glad y'all benefitted from the notes.. wasalaamu alaykum :-) |
| 12/12/03 at 04:07:38 |
| se7en |
| Re: poets, lions & rabbits |
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| Nomi |
| 12/12/03 at 04:39:37 |
| [slm] Okay for all ABCDs on here, 420 among us 99.99% pure desis doesn't mean "i was just kidding" (maybe urdu-speaking ppl use it that way :P). 420 to us urdu speakers but punjabis (infact to majority of us) means... "hayra phayree" "do ka charr" (2 ka 4) "edhar ka udher" in simple words... fraud [slm] [s]840[/s] |
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| momineqbal |
| 12/12/03 at 13:16:28 |
| [slm], 420 or "char sau bees" in the Indian penal code is the section on the crime of fraud. Thats how it originated. |
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| Tesseract |
| 12/12/03 at 13:30:45 |
| [slm] [quote]and for you desis - I have learned recently that "420" means something to the effect of 'I was only kidding' among desi's.. but be careful.. in the US, at least where I grew up, 420 is a pretty common way to refer to using marijuana.. it comes from the police code for catching someone in possession of the drug. [/quote] [url]http://parentingteens.about.com/library/weekly/aa032102a.htm[/url] A recent discussion on our Parenting Advice and Support Forum, had this Guide in puzzlement. I had reported years ago that the term 420(pronounced four twenty, not four hundred and twenty), was police code for smoking marijuana in a feature on pager codes that teenagers use to "talk" to each other. I began researching the number again and it seems I was wrong. Read on to learn the myths, the truth about the origin and what this term means for parents. Known Myths Police dispatch code for smoking pot is 420. The number 420 is not police radio code for anything, anywhere. Checks of criminal codes suggest that the origin is neither Californian nor federal. For instance, California Penal Code 420 defines as a misdemeanor the hindrance of use of public lands. There are approximately 420 active chemicals in marijuana. Actually, there are approximately 315 active chemicals in marijuana. This number goes up and down depending on which plant is used. April 20th is National Pot Smokers Day. Well, it is now; but that wasn't the origin. April 20th is Hitler's birthday. Yes, it is his birthday. But, as 420 started out as a time, not a date, his birthday had nothing to do with it. The date of the Columbine school shootings. This happened after the term was already in use. 4:20 is tea time for pot-smokers in Holland. Tea time in Holland is at 5:30 pm, or is it 2:30 pm? Seems no one is quite sure when the wonderful people of Holland drink their tea. The Origin Revealed According to Steven Hager, editor of High Times, the term 420 originated at San Rafael High School, in 1971, among a group of about a dozen pot-smoking wiseacres who called themselves the Waldos, who are now pushing 50. The term was shorthand for the time of day the group would meet, at the campus statue of Louis Pasteur, to smoke pot. Intent on developing their own discreet language, they made 420 code for a time to get high, and its use spread among members of an entire generation. While our teens feel that they know something we don't, you can let them in on the fact that it was your generation that came up with the numbers. A quote from one of the Waldos in the High Times article states, "We did discover we could talk about getting high in front of our parents without them knowing by using the phrase 420." Fortunately, your teenagers will not have that same option. Whatever! Simply put, 420 is a symbol of cannabis and its culture. Today, April 20th events are international, and 4:20 pm has become sort of a world wide "burn time". It certainly doesn't matter too much where the term came from because for us parents, it's a flag, a warning sign that our teenagers may be into something that could harm their future. When you see the symbol 420, be aware of what it represents. [quote]420 or "char sau bees" in the Indian penal code is the section on the crime of fraud. Thats how it originated. [/quote] Its a part of Pakistan penal code too, I guess, taken as it is from Indian penal code since independence. Did some quick research on it, and came across this: [url]http://www.lhc.gov.pk/rulesorder/vol_3/v3ch11-g.htm[/url] Chapter XVII Sections 379 to 382 - Thefts of all kinds. Sections 384,386 to 389 - Extortion of all kinds except section 385. Sections 392 to 394, 397 & 398 - Robbery of all kinds. Sections 395,396,399,402. - Dacoity of all kinds. Sections 400 and 401. - Belonging to a gang of thieves, dacoits. Section 404. - Dishonest misappropriation of property belonging to a deceased person. Sections 406 to 408. - Criminal breach of trust. Section 409. - Criminal breach of trust by public servants. Sections 411 to 414 - Receiving stolen property. Sections 418 to 420 - Cheating of all kinds, except simple cheating, section 417. Sections 429 to 433 and 435 to 440. - Serious mischief. Sections 449 to 452 - House-trespass in order to commit an offence. Sections 454 to 458 - Lurking house-trespass or house breaking other than simple, section 453. Sections 459 and 460 - Grievous hurt or death caused in house-breaking. Section 461. - Dishonestly breaking open a closed receptacle. Section 462. - Fraudulently opening a closed receptacle held in trust. Sections 465 to 469 - Forgery. What is interesting is the thing they don't have "simple cheating - 417" defined there. What would constitute simple cheating? Wassalam. |
| Re: poets, lions & rabbits |
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| Maliha |
| 12/12/03 at 15:04:36 |
| [slm] ahem...first of all I picked the habit of sayin' anywho from some *other* people on the board..[s] J/O and Ummwafi[/s]....I think the only *real* person I have heard use it in a conversation is Barrella :-* She is soo cute.."Any-How" w/ her half brit accent :P hey! I am in the DC metro area and never heard Gangsta??? everytime i think i just caught up ::) sigh...once a FOB always a Fob :'( yeah...there's also Tight (is this how you spell it???)..which i think is not "in" anymore..i still use it tho, like "Maliha's flow is *Tight* yo!!!!" hahahaha..just wanted to say that 8) [wlm] |
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| tahirah |
| 01/22/04 at 17:27:17 |
| salaamz y'all (southern slang for "as salaamu 'alaikum everyone") :) I believe "tight" is often spelled "tyte" depending on the person. another slang word: jazaks = Jazakum Allahu khair |
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| timbuktu |
| 01/22/04 at 18:21:48 |
| [slm] interesting in the Indian (and Pakistani) Penal Code, number 420 is indeed for for fraud :) |
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| theOriginal |
| 01/22/04 at 23:32:47 |
| [slm] lol sis Maliha... Trying really hard to cut the slang, but so far it's been a tough habit to jack. Once during a presentation I gave in my Entrepreneurship class, I made a friend count the number of times I said "so like" and "umm"... Shocking magnitude, I assure you, but I've curbed it since then. btw, the new one nowadays (or so my brother tells me) is "sick". I feel so out of it...I must make younger friends :) Wasalaam. |
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