The Return

This thing He made
The breath He measured
He awaits the return of
This being He created bare and alone.

@Safi Abdi

Mother

Love shone her rays
The deserved enhances
In her warmth embraced.

I searched her eyes
To partake of her light
I am all she’d born
But so many she serves
Their wishes she indulges.

I searched her soul
To partake of her light;
Keep not for self, I learned

Be a vehicle for God;
What He gives, I learned
Love commands...
To the next, to the next.
The self serve least.

C)Safi abdi

Why shouldn't I cling to You?

Why shouldn't I cling
To you?

I was nothing
And
You made me.

A being
Of little substance
I am in earthly eyes...
By all accounts
A nothingness...
Miraculous then how
I am mentioned
In heaven!

I was alone,
Wandering in the dark
And in a raiment
Of sparkling light
You bathed me.

The human in me
Desired an exemplar
And Muhammed,
the ideal being
Into my life came.

I falter
By the second...
Need constant telling
So you speak to me.

I stumble again
Then there You are
To the rescue!

To my clumsy babble
I hear You listen...as if they
Were bejeweled with wisdom...
How you relish the
Screechy whimpering
Mixed with the salt
Of my myriad flaws!

And when sadness disrupts...
Amazing how gratitude
Fills the void;
Why shouldn't I cling
To you?

@ Safi Abdi, all rights reserved.

Between me and my Lord

Between death and I a breath
Between pain and I a needle
Pray tell,
Where am I between me and my Lord?

@ Safi Abdi, all rights reserved.

Save your tears, dear

Save your tears, dear
Worlds a place of fear
You were not born in heaven
Travel back in time, regain your sight
Its crucial that you keep sanity intact.
Lament not your case, or mine
Lest the ignorant we cheer
In this parched land of ours
You’re a lone breeze my dear
What rain-drop, in her right mind,
Would mingle with a roaring ocean?

Save your tears, dear
In these dark days of ours
Keep your lids arid, waterless
like the cliffs of this house divided.
But then there is a weapon in Patience
Never has Hope ever lost a soul
And none has monopoly over Air.

@ Safi Abdi, all rights reserved.

The love for Somalia

The love for Somalia
like a downpour of
sweet fresh water
off the ground
the ills of this nation sweeps.
The newly born bonding
with the plaintiff
resuscitates the forgotten
Saint.
Dare to love
and you shall be
in the rush
to come home.
Cool Southerly breeze
and a North cheerful
are a unit in the Attar.
A body a plane boards;
Somalia is my sanctuary.
@ Safi Abdi

By the Wailing Wall

By the wailing wall
Palestine is butchered
by the wailing wall
Even though it’s only a wall
It’s the wailing wall
And by the wailing wall
It’s laughter time.

Beneath this wailing wall,
A child of the soil
By the scent of heaven I hang;
But how many were the prophets that wailed
Because of this wall?

By the wailing wall it was laughter time then
And by the wailing wall it is laughter time now.

By the scent of heaven
Hang the prophets of God
And now a whole population
Are hanged by the wailing wall.

By the tears of this torn land
This wall is a see-through
My heaven is way beyond this debris
The wailing wall is just a wall.

A chandelier a night for now;
Patience, wait
Be my obedient servant.

Authenticity defies the divide:
This is my land
Before Hitler I was here
After Hitler I am still here
And after all the children of Hitler’s
Wailing wall have gone
Here shall I be.

From this land sprang I
And from this land,
After the bombardment
If nothing else were to remain;
A nail and at least some bone
By the will of Allah
Shall resurrect.

This land is in my bone marrow
I am a child astride by the torn land.
So I will still be here
Even after the Bushes, and all the big
Boys have departed, I will still be here.

Like the prophets I now wail
And like them one day shall I cease to wail.

Authenticity defies the divide
Winner is the one that laughs last
I hang by the scent of heaven
Beneath and beyond the wailing wall
I am with those that wait.

Approaching laughter is a salve
And so much better than impending doom
Patience carries the slave
Yonder, beyond the thunder
Over the wailing metal birds
I wait with those that wait.

For now a chandelier a night, Patience
Wait for me;
It’s wailing time
Palestine is waiting by the see-through wall.

(c)Safi Abdi, 2007, all rights reserved.

The Palestinian Boy

The Palestinian boy
Happy his lot could've been
Chasing ball
Carefree under the open skies
Dreaming in colors
And of the scent of roses.

But there are no bouquets for this boy
Just coffins and the stench of blood.
At every twist and turn a blockade slaps him in the face...
his ball might just land in a new settler's porch...

In his homeland a detainee
the Palestinian boy is ten-fold older than his tender age.
Yeah, his face is smooth but his heart is folded in grief.
He was there when his home caved in
And his baby sister paved the ruins
And is haunted forever by his Dad's mangled body.
His Mom's shrieks all he hears of music
A cry for help the only song he knows.

He is the product of a world sans conscience;
A sad soul stretched to the limit.
Is it a sin to want to smell my rose? he asks
A crime to call what's mine, mine?
Does torturing me increase the world's joy?
Will the earth cleave asunder
if I till my portion of the soil?

@ Safi Abdi, all rights reserved.

Sincerity

What's Sincerity? How can we tell when we are sincere? Is there anyway we can measure the level of Sincerity in our hearts?

My computer’s English Thesaurus lists the meanings of Sincerity as: honesty, truthfulness, trustworthiness, genuineness, frankness, openness, candor and innocence.

This to me speaks volumes about the universality of this human quality. Sincerity in its basic form being a common human value that’s shared, appreciated and sanctioned by the human spirit, irrespective of one’s race, tribe or creed. Those of you who are familiar with the life of God’s last Messenger, know how the Arabs of Mecca appreciated Mohammed’s integrity and truthfulness long before he became a Messenger of Allah.

Sincerity in thought, word and deed that in a nutshell is what Islam’s all about; God-consciousness in relation to himself, those around him, and his Maker; all three in a way being interrelated.

"No man is true in the truest sense of the word but he who is true in work, in deed, and in thought," said the Prophet of Islam.

"Verily, the reward of deeds depends upon the intention and every person will get the reward according to what he has intended." If the intention is to show off then the good deeds are nullified.

The first three people on whom judgment will be pronounced and thrown into the Fire, Muslims are warned, are: a martyr who dies to show off his courage, a person who gives to show off his generosity, and a scholar who learns and teaches to show off his learning. All seemingly good actions, yet because of lack of good intentions on the part of the doers, such good actions become the cause of their doers' downfall.

To stress the importance of Sincerity at all times, Allah's Messenger said:

"Allah does not look at your bodies and appearances but He scans your hearts and deeds."

While the Muslim is exhorted at every step of the way to give charity, and non-payment of Zakaat (compulsory charity) might even take one out of the fold of Islam), yet the best charity, Muslims are taught, is the one whereby "the giver’s left hand does not know what the right hand gives."

Believers are exhorted to be Sincere at all times, in all their dealings, whether public or private, expecting reward from none but Allah:

"Say: Truly, my prayer my service of sacrifice my life and my death, (all) for Allah, The Lord of the Worlds". ( Quran: Chapter 6:Verse:162)

Yaa Allah! Shall I ever know why...

Stars in my eyes that were so trim
My Somalia, my dreams, and that grim
realism
I say, Allah! what an amazing trip!
If only I knew the why of that trick!

This is Your heaven
And there my spot
And there’s that rainbow
At every such grip.

Before the light
There’s the shade
Behind the mountain
There’s the plane.

There’s Great Musa
And there the learned Khidr
There’s the slaying of that guiltless child;
Or so it seemed to the eager Musa
Until absolute knowledge became the truce.*

This is Your heaven
And there’s my keenness
My dreams, my Somalia
And that grim realism
Actuality and hopes in collision
Ya Allah! Shall I ever know why the cactus tree
Teases the green grass?

@ Safi Abdi, all rights reserved.


* The Story of Musa (Moses) and Khidr is told in the Quran, for ref. please check: chapter 18, verses 60-82.

How Grateful are You?

Visiting the dentist one day for a routine check up I was pleasantly surprised to find just how healthy and fit I really was. A first time patient in that clinic I was made to fill out a form that contained a long list of illnesses that ran up to two pages; diseases that eat away at the bodies of countless people the world over. Having filled out such forms before I’m sure this wasn’t the first time I was asked to declare my health publicly.

But as I ticked the “no” box for each and every major illness listed on the form that day I realized for the first time in my life just how lucky I was to have had such a great health. What amazed me wasn’t so much that I wasn’t suffering from any of the diseases mentioned but that how I often fail to take note in my day to day affairs the blessings that I enjoy, and shamelessly take for granted, as if they were a right I was entitled to have, instead of them being gifts that I should be grateful for.

Health is a great blessing, a free gift that I had been enjoying for as long as I can remember barring a few short intervals in an otherwise disease-free condition.

But sadly, the few times that I’ve consciously pinched myself to attention at this fortunate state of mine can be counted with the help of your fingers. And except for the memorized words that I mouth every morning I wake up from yet another restful sleep, recharged, and without a single major disorder in my body or mind, when was the last time I really sat down for a few minutes to count my blessings?

Has the thought of knowing about the thousands and hundreds of thousands of people who might have passed their nights away in misery suffering one or other disorder, if not multiple maladies that need constant care ever burdened my conscience, except perhaps for the usual sympathetic gestures we all make every now and then when met with disasters happening elsewhere?

There are God’s people crawling on the face of this earth precious limbs blown away by some stupid bullet, simply because they happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. There are people for whom the beauty of Sunrise is something that can only be felt, not seen and because of their disability are unable to feast their eyes on the beauty of a fresh bloom or the kaleidoscope of an autumn day. Others suffer all their lives from physical or mental disabilities or even both while the likes of me which number the bulk of humanity strut around hale and hearty, with all five senses working full time, drinking in the beauty of God’s creation anytime anywhere, without so much as a thank you, God. If we are not careful some of us might even fall into the nasty habit of feeling superior, just because God had chosen to test us this way. The fact of the matter is, we are all God’s creatures, being “things” made, and whether we have a single good leg or two legs, we’re all God’s creatures and are equal before the Creator. The deciding factor isn’t so much what we have, or don’t have, but rather how we deal with the different situations that come our way.

A Muslim I should be the first to know that whatever gifts that are given in terms of health, wealth, faculties, special powers, children, happiness, time, life, faith, peace, rain, and the countless other blessings, heavenly or earthly, are all favors that are entrusted to us; a temporary loan if you will, and one that can be taken back any moment. Whatever is not given or is taken away is also a matter that’s solely in the Hands of God, a trial from God; albeit a different sort, but a trial all the same.

Some of us humans instead of being grateful and happy with the merciful way God has treated us we go out of our way to invite harm to ourselves. It’s strange that the animal kingdom has more sense as you’ll never catch an animal in an act of discontent, disobedience or senseless violence while we humans walk this earth inflicting harm on others and on ourselves and get into all kinds of mischief ruining our health and the health of others and basically falling into all sorts of life threatening traps and harmful escapades.

Instead of being grateful to God for the precious health or whatever other gifts that are lent out to us (for a reason) we get too cranky at the first whiff of an obstacle. Such has been the case with me the few times God put me to a simple test. Like most people I know the tendency is to dwell long on the painful episodes while the good life that are generally enjoyed are put out of sight.

Let me please share with you the story of the man who paid a visit to a wise Sheikh. The man complained about his poverty and made a lot of noise about his dire situation. Having listened to the man’s grumblings, the Sheikh immediately offered the man a huge amount of money in exchange for some of the man’s body parts. As expected, the man refused the offer as his body parts were dearer to him than any money the Sheikh could offer. This way the Sheikh was able to convince the man that the poor man wasn’t so poor after all.

@ Safi Abdi, all rights reserved.