Shaykh Muhammad Mendes always has brilliant and thought-provoking poems/prose on his facebook wall, I had to share some here:
“Most people,
From pimps, to professors, to politicians, to priests,
Are motivated by an insatiable desire
For pleasure, profit, power, and prestige;
These people who were born to be masters of creation
Die as slaves of their egos,
Imprisoned by the mirage of material existence.
Our freedom, our happiness, has always been attained through
Inner detachment from material things, poverty of soul, and the wealth of the Spirit.
Allah (God) help us”
“Don’t dumb down your understanding of Islam
To mere rituals and religion,
Or to palaces in Paradise
And celestial virgins.
You see Heaven is so much more than
Real estate and real housewives of the hereafter.
Islam is the Spiritual in the ritual,
The Metaphysical Reality in the religion.
Islam begins with submission to God
And ends with the Vision of God…
My God.
Islam begins with Awe
And ends with Love,
Like the Prayer begins with praise
And ends with Peace
Islam begins with slavehood
And ends with mastery,
It begins with knowing
And ends with becoming.”
“We humans will peacefully coexist
When our egos barely exist.”
”We are living in a Time
When the Mathnawi of Rumi
Is no longer the ceiling of religion
But is the floor.
If you do not understand the Age
In which you live
You will be trying to teach and practice a path within your religion
That neither inspires the intellects and souls of the people around you
Nor provides healing for those wounded by their past;
You will be frustrated with them and they with you,
And you won’t understand why.”
“The artist says, ‘The rose is beautiful.’
The scientist says, ‘The rose is a system.’
The capitalist says, ‘The rose is profitable.’
The lover says, ‘The rose is affection.’
The mystic says, ‘The rose is I.’”
“The price of freedom is death,
Death to your psychological attachments:
Attachment to appetites and comfort,
Attachment to rank and recognition,
Attachment to every identity that followed your physical birth,
Attachment to culture and religious dogma,
Attachment to dependence on corporate and political institutions for your needs,
And attachment to fear.
Death is but the precursor to a new birth,
A new life of freedom.
Let go,
And let God.”
“The marriage of a woman to a man
Is a metaphor, a symbol, a sign,
For the marriage of your soul to your Spirit
Which is the goal of Islam,
The Way of Love.”
“Don’t get married
because you’re
lonely,
broke,
brokenhearted,
or unfulfilled in life;
get married
because you have found
someone of the opposite gender
who truly
mirrors your spiritual approach to The Creator,
compliments your personality,
and will completely support you
in your unique life purpose and mission
no matter what.”
