The Secret Diary of Adnan Mole Aged 34 and a bit

2007-06-16T06:05:00.001-07:00

emel

The One With No Name

2007-03-01T03:27:00.000-08:00

slowly slow my child the world waits for YOU and your window of time will come shining THROUGH slowly slow dont rush you know itll all come easy theres somethings you cant take back no regrets for what youre gonna get need some thinking down the LINE slowly slow my darling im here for YOU (here for you) and every stumble every fall breaks my heart in TWO i only want the best for you and every step makes up the mile even though it takes a WHILE and god will always smile on you my CHILD so have faith have faith just like the bird that feels the SUN and sings before the dawn has COME have faith have FAITH slowly slow my boy I see youre STRONG (see youre strong) and everybody wants to find a place where they BELONG but dont you find yourself some DAY in a cold and dark and lonely PLACE and you wonder how you got THERE i know it gets clouded in your MIND (clouded in your mind) and you wanna move faster it seems youre running out of TIME but i love YOU together well get THROUGH dont you know slowly SLOW slowly my son you wanna be a MAN and I guess those days are gone when I used to hold your HAND cos this is the age of winks and smiles butterflies deep INSIDE but youll always be the coolness of my EYES so have faith have FAITH just like the bird that feels the SUN and sings before the dawn has COME have faith have FAITH slowly slow my child the world waits for YOU and your window of time will come shining THROUGH slowly slow dont rush you know itll all come EASY

Its been great knowing you, Diary and now it's time to move on. Follow a bad deed with a good deed and behave WELL towards people and have no regrets. Live a fresh and long life. All the love from the bottom of my heart and the extent of my being.

Wa-s salaam.

21 Feb 07: Senrū for Today

2007-02-21T01:07:00.000-08:00

Walter

Painted seagulls
Some say to relieve his thoughts:
For some, it's the only way.

Senrū

21 Feb 07: Quote For Today

2007-02-21T01:05:00.000-08:00

Doesn't it strike you as odd that none of our relatives are related to us? (Source)

19 Nov 2007: Words From Your Friends

2007-02-19T04:24:00.000-08:00

Inna-s solaata 'alaa-l mu'mineeyna kitaaban mawqoowta
(Indeed, prayers are enjoined on believers are stated times - Quran 4:103)

19 Nov 2006: Quote For Today

2007-02-19T04:23:00.001-08:00

"I went looking for God in a Church and didn't find Him there.
Then I went to a Synagogue and didn't find Him there.
I went to a Mosque and didn't find Him there.
Then I looked in my heart, and there He was." (Rumi)

19 Nov 2007: Thought For Today

2007-02-19T04:21:00.000-08:00

Things happen when they are supposed to

13 Feb 2006: Quote for Today

2007-02-13T13:56:00.000-08:00

"...Writing, to me, is simply thinking through my fingers..." (Source)

13 Feb 07: Senrū for Today

2007-02-13T13:29:00.000-08:00

Maturity

Experience and time
Both shape us:
Absorb all around, accept.

Senrū

13 Feb 07: Links For Today

2007-02-13T13:24:00.000-08:00

Muhammad - Legacy of a Prophet
5 Minute Intro to Islam
Rice genome fully mapped
Diversity and autism
My Atkins Diet Story
Rice
Biologically based software
MSA 2006 Diversity Camp Video
Carl Rogers
Isaac Asimov
Humanistic psychology
Why Islam? One-minute reasons!

27 Nov 06: Senrū for Today

2006-11-27T14:12:00.000-08:00

Networks

Fragile, complete function
At once we become known:
There's no going back.

Senrū

27 Nov 06: Article for Today

2006-11-27T08:53:00.000-08:00

Three Conditions to Acquire Excellent Manners
By Ibn ul Qayyim al Jawziyyah (One of the great loves of my life)

This is one example of the excellent manners with which Allah has equipped his Messenger. He described him as,

"Verily, You (Muhammad) are on an exalted standard on character." (68:4)

Aa’isha described him as,

"His character was the Quran." (Muslim, Abu Dawood, Ahmad)

Such excellent character cannot be attained without three conditions:

1. The foundation must be good. If one has a rough and dry nature, it will be hard for him to submit to this (excellence of character) through knowledge, will, or practice. On the other hand, a mild and smooth nature will be ready and willing to receive the plowing and the seeds (to prepare it for character excellence).

2. The soul must be strong and capable of conquering calls of laziness, transgression, and desire. Those matters contradict perfection, and souls which cannot defeat them will always be defeated and conquered.

3. (One must possess) a discerning knowledge of the truth of matters, enabling one to put them in the rightful position, and to distinguish between flesh and cancer – between glass and jewels.

If these three qualities are present in a man, and Allah's facilitation helps him, then he will be among those whom the best has been decreed and for whom Allah's care has been secured.

And I say: subhaanallah! I do not know of anyone who thinks, feels and articulates as much like me as ibn Al Qayyim. I wish I could meet him, because I truly love him so much. I hope to meet him and spend time with him in Paradise, inshaa-a Allah.

26 Nov 06: Quote for Today

2006-11-26T13:13:00.000-08:00

"Within every man and woman a secret is hidden, and as a photographer it is my task to reveal it if I can. The revelation, if it comes at all, will come in a small fraction of a second with an unconscious gesture, a gleam of the eye, a brief lifting of the mask that all humans wear to conceal their innermost selves from the world. In that fleeting interval of opportunity the photographer must act or lose his prize." (Yousaf Karsh)

26 Nov 06: Senrū for Today

2006-11-26T01:41:00.000-08:00

Reality

Keep heart, mind and body firm
And mantain strength:
Worship Allah ALONE.

Senrū

26 Nov 06: Links for Today

2006-11-25T23:43:00.000-08:00

FBI Widens probe of American Israeli Public Affairs Committee spying
Ascii Generator
Global illumination
Hindu squats
Jeremiah
Senryū
ArtisanCam Bradford
Functional fixedness
Cognitive dissonance
Reification
Symbolic interactionism
Polytheism
Skipping ropes: who's ya mamma???? Yum!
Pray! You have no reason not to!
Heart of a Muslim
Planet of the Arabs
Prince of Persia (documentary)
Yusuf Karsh

25 Nov 06: Links for Today

2006-11-25T12:47:00.000-08:00

Downing Street Says...
Hassle me
Placeopedia
Your history here
Hear from your MP
Pledge Bank
Write to them
Independent Review of the Impace of the Freedom of Information Act (October 2006)
Not apathetic
Petition the Prime Minister by email
Petition to abolish faith schools and "creationist" (?) teaching
Petition to ask the PM to stand on his head and juggle ice cream
Fitnah (definition)

23 Nov 06: Links for Today

2006-11-22T23:19:00.000-08:00

Interview with Abu Bakr Ash-ShaaTireey (16 mins)

22 Nov 06: Links for Today

2006-11-22T10:17:00.000-08:00

Turning Muslim in Dallas ( Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 )
How much Heroin seized in the UK in 2000 came from Pakistan??? (answer?)
Polygamy is Islam: a safety net for society

21 Nov 06: Quotes for Today

2006-11-21T09:57:00.000-08:00

Did You Know ?

Did you know that non-Jewish Israelis cannot buy or lease land in the Zionist entity?

Did you know that Palestinian license plates in Zionist entity are color coded to distinguish jews from non-jews?

Did you know that Israel allots 85% of the water resources for jews and the remaining 15% is divided among all Palestinians in the territories? For example in Hebron, 85% of the water is given to about 400 settlers, while 15% must be divided among Hebron's 120,000 Palestinians?

Did you know the United States awards the israel $5 billion in aid each year?

Did you know that yearly US aid to israel exceeds the aid the US grants to the whole African continent?

Did you know that the israel is the only country in the Middle East that has nuclear weapons?

Did you know that the israel is the only country in the Middle East that refuses to sign the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and bars international inspections from its sites?

Did you know that israel currently occupies territories of two sovereign nations (Lebanon and Syria) in defiance of United Nations Security Council resolutions?

Did you know that israel has for decades routinely sent assassins into other countries to kill its political enemies?

Did you know that high-ranking military officers in the israeli Defense Forces have admitted publicly that unarmed prisoners of war were executed by the IDF?

Did you know that israel refuses to prosecute its soldiers who have acknowledged executing prisoners of war?

Did you know that israel routinely confiscates bank accounts, businesses, and land and refuses to pay compensation to those who suffer the confiscation?

Did you know that israel blew up an American diplomatic facility in Egypt and attacked a U.S. ship in international waters, killing 33 and wounding 177 American sailors?

Did you know that the second most powerful lobby in the United States, according to a recent Fortune magazine survey of Washington insiders, is the jewish AIPAC?

Did you know that israel stands in defiance of 69 United Nations Security Council Resolutions?

Did you know that today's israel sits on the former sites of more than 400 now-vanished Palestinian villages, and that the israeli's re- named almost every physical site in the country to cover up the traces?

Did you know that it was not until 1988 that israelis were barred from running "jews Only" job ads?

Did you know that four prime ministers of israel (Begin, Shamir, Rabin, and Sharon) have taken part in either bomb attacks on civilians, massacres of civilians, or forced expulsions of civilians from their villages?

Did you know that the israeli Foreign Ministry pays two American public relations firms to promote israel to Americans?

Did you know that Sharon's coalition government includes a party -- Molodet -- which advocates expelling all Palestinians from the occupied territories?

Did you know that israel's settlement-building increased in the eight years since Oslo?

Did you know that settlement building under Barak doubled compared to settlement building under Netanyahu?

Did you know that israel once dedicated a postage stamp to a man who attacked a civilian bus and killed several people?

Did you know that recently-declassifi ed documents indicate that David Ben-Gurion in at least some instances approved of the expulsion of Palestinians in 1948?

Did you know that despite a ban on torture by israel's High Court of Justice, torture has continued by Shin Bet interrogators on Palestinian prisoners?

Did you know that Palestinian refugees make up the largest portion of the refugee population in the world?

And finally do you know who is the terrorist now?

21 Nov 06: Links for Today

2006-11-21T05:41:00.000-08:00

Identity Cards Act 2006 of the British Parliament (I didn't think this would ever get passed - amazing!)
British National Identity Card: Wikipedia the free encyclopedia
Plane stupid! (I tried the train system: it stinks!)
MP4 Players

21 Nov 06: Links for Today

2006-11-20T23:13:00.000-08:00

Talk Islam!
Tour Saudi vitually with an American woman!

20 Nov 06: Links for Today

2006-11-20T12:35:00.000-08:00

I like you?
NatWestFraud (full story here)

19 Nov 06: Links for Today

2006-11-19T05:57:00.001-08:00

The World's Most Annoying Web Page
"Studmuffin" (definition)

12 Nov 06: Links for Today

2006-11-12T08:03:00.001-08:00

Shrek the Third

11 Nov 06: Links for Today

2006-11-11T05:45:00.000-08:00

Abdullah - The Journey from being a Hindu to accepting Islam (Duration 0:36:14)
Four Corners: 4 New Muslims (Duration 0:48:01)
Jan: From Catholicism to Islam (Duration 0:9:36)

11 Nov 06: Quote for Today

2006-11-11T05:17:00.000-08:00

How I Came To Love The Veil

Yvonne Ridley, Washington post - London, USA

Monday, October 23, 2006

I used to look at veiled women as quiet, oppressed creatures -- until I was captured by the Taliban. In September 2001, just 15 days after the terrorist attacks on the United States , I snuck into Afghanistan , clad in a head-to-toe blue burqa, intending to write a newspaper account of life under the repressive regime. Instead, I was discovered, arrested and detained for 10 days. I spat and swore at my captors; they called me a "bad" woman but let me go after I promised to read the Koran and study Islam. (Frankly, I'm not sure who was happier when I was freed -- they or I.)

Back home in London , I kept my word about studying Islam -- and was amazed by what I discovered. I'd been expecting Koran chapters on how to beat your wife and oppress your daughters; instead, I found passages promoting the liberation of women. Two-and-a-half years after my capture, I converted to Islam, provoking a mixture of astonishment, disappointment and encouragement among friends and relatives. Now, it is with disgust and dismay that I watch here in Britain as former foreign secretary Jack Straw describes the Muslim nikab -- a face veil that reveals only the eyes -- as an unwelcome barrier to integration, with Prime Minister Tony Blair, writer Salman Rushdie and even Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi leaping to his defense.

Having been on both sides of the veil, I can tell you that most Western male politicians and journalists who lament the oppression of women in the Islamic world have no idea what they are talking about. They go on about veils, child brides, female circumcision, honor killings and forced marriages, and they wrongly blame Islam for all this -- their arrogance surpassed only by their ignorance. These cultural issues and customs have nothing to do with Islam. A careful reading of the Koran shows that just about everything that Western feminists fought for in the 1970s was available to Muslim women 1,400 years ago. Women in Islam are considered equal to men in spirituality, education and worth, and a woman's gift for childbirth and child-rearing is regarded as a positive attribute.

When Islam offers women so much, why are Western men so obsessed with Muslim women's attire? Even British government ministers Gordon Brown and John Reid have made disparaging remarks about the nikab -- and they hail from across the Scottish border, where men wear skirts. When I converted to Islam and began wearing a headscarf, the repercussions were enormous. All I did was cover my head and hair -- but I instantly became a second-class citizen. I knew I'd hear from the odd Islamophobe, but I didn't expect so much open hostility from strangers. Cabs passed me by at night, their "for hire" lights glowing. One cabbie, after dropping off a white passenger right in front of me, glared at me when I rapped on his window, then drove off. Another said, "Don't leave a bomb in the back seat" and asked, "Where's bin Laden hiding?"

Yes, it is a religious obligation for Muslim women to dress modestly, but the majority of Muslim women I know like wearing the hijab, which leaves the face uncovered, though a few prefer the nikab. It is a personal statement: My dress tells you that I am a Muslim and that I expect to be treated respectfully, much as a Wall Street banker would say that a business suit defines him as an executive to be taken seriously. And, especially among converts to the faith like me, the attention of men who confront women with inappropriate, leering behavior is not tolerable. I was a Western feminist for many years, but I've discovered that Muslim feminists are more radical than their secular counterparts. We hate those ghastly beauty pageants, and tried to stop laughing in 2003 when judges of the Miss Earth competition hailed the emergence of a bikini-clad Miss Afghanistan , Vida Samadzai, as a giant leap for women's liberation. They even gave Samadzai a special award for "representing the victory of women's rights."

Some young Muslim feminists consider the hijab and the nikab political symbols, too, a way of rejecting Western excesses such as binge drinking, casual sex and drug use. What is more liberating: being judged on the length of your skirt and the size of your surgically enhanced breasts, or being judged on your character and intelligence? In Islam, superiority is achieved through piety -- not beauty, wealth, power, position or sex. I didn't know whether to scream or laugh when Italy's Prodi joined the debate last week by declaring that it is "common sense" not to wear the nikab because it makes social relations "more difficult." Nonsense. If this is the case, then why are cellphones, landlines, e-mail, text messaging and fax machines in daily use? And no one switches off the radio because they can't see the presenter's face.

Under Islam, I am respected. It tells me that I have a right to an education and that it is my duty to seek out knowledge, regardless of whether I am single or married. Nowhere in the framework of Islam are we told that women must wash, clean or cook for men . As for how Muslim men are allowed to beat their wives -- it's simply not true. Critics of Islam will quote random Koranic verses or hadith, but usually out of context. If a man does raise a finger against his wife, he is not allowed to leave a mark on her body, which is the Koran's way of saying, "Don't beat your wife, stupid."

It is not just Muslim men who must reevaluate the place and treatment of women. According to a recent National Domestic Violence Hotline survey, 4 million American women experience a serious assault by a partner during an average 12-month period. More than three women are killed by their husbands and boyfriends every day -- that is nearly 5,500 since 9/11. Violent men don't come from any particular religious or cultural category; one in three women around the world has been beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused in her lifetime, according to the hotline survey. This is a global problem that transcends religion, wealth, class, race and culture. But it is also true that in the West, men still believe that they are superior to women, despite protests to the contrary. They still receive better pay for equal work -- whether in the mailroom or the boardroom -- and women are still treated as sexualized commodities whose power and influence flow directly from their appearance.

And for those who are still trying to claim that Islam oppresses women, recall this 1992 statement from the Rev. Pat Robertson, offering his views on empowered women: Feminism is a "socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians." Now you tell me who is civilized and who is not.

Yvonne Ridley is political editor of Islam Channel TV in London and coauthor of "In the Hands of the Taliban: Her Extraordinary Story" (Robson Books).

10 Nov 06: Thought for Today

2006-11-10T14:44:00.000-08:00

To realise
The value of a father
Ask someone
Who has never had one.

To realise
The value of ten years:
Ask a newly
Divorced couple.

To realise
The value of four years:
Ask a graduate.

To realise
The value of one year:
Ask a student who
Has failed a final exam.

To realise
The value of nine months:
Ask a mother who
Gave birth to a still born.

To realise
The value of one month:
Ask a mother
who has given birth to
A premature baby.

To realise
The value of one week:
Ask an editor of
A weekly newspaper.

To realise
The value of one hour:
Ask the partners
Who are waiting to meet.

To realise
The value of one minute:
Ask a person
Who has missed
The train, bus or plane.

To realise
The value of one-second:
Ask a person
Who has survived an accident...

To realise
The value of one millisecond:
Ask the person who
Has won a silver medal in the Olympics

Time waits for no one.

Treasure every moment you have.

You will treasure it even more when
you can share it with someone special.

To realise the value of a friend:
Lose one.

by Anonymous

10 Nov 06: Links for Today

2006-11-10T06:34:00.000-08:00

A Palestinian's blog
Islamic Architecture - great site!
UK Islamic Events? They're all here!
$26.5 this weekend goes to the film "Borat"
Retrograde Mars

09 Nov 06: Links for Today

2006-11-09T13:54:00.000-08:00

Did you know that it's "Breast Cancer Awareness Month" ??? Well, it is!

Google Adsense
Open Directory Project

2006-11-08T08:02:00.000-08:00

101 ways to do d'awa....?
Satellite pictures of Makkah and Medina (u need Google Earth for this!)

06 Nov 06: Picture For Today

2006-11-06T13:46:00.000-08:00

Abdurraheem Green

06 Nov 06: Links for Today

2006-11-06T05:55:00.000-08:00

Email spam - amazing reading.
ASCII Art
STAR WARS - Animated ASCII-style!

05 Nov 06: Links for Today

2006-11-05T04:20:00.000-08:00

Stopped by police? Here's what you should know...
Tour the Prophet's mosque video - great!
How I became a Muslim...

02 Nov 06: Links For Today

2006-11-02T07:24:00.000-08:00

BBC and Telewest Working Together on "DVD TV"
Telewest: Biggest cable provider in UK started in Croydon
HMRC: Nets £400 billion a year in taxes (why are they complaining about £3 billion a year lost in fraud???)

31 Oct 06: Links For Today

2006-10-31T06:03:00.000-08:00

Muslims in the UK? Here's the stats!
Lupe Fiasco [ MySpace Page | Wikipedia Entry ]
Adnan, this time last year
...and two years ago!

The One With The Missing

2006-10-23T03:30:00.000-07:00

In the Name of Allah, the Owner of Mercy, the Giver of Mercy

As-salaamu 'alaykum, Diary.

Well, it's been a while, hasn't it? Why? Well, I have been busy as station manager and generally part of the team for Radio Ramadhan Bradford, would you know?

I have been trapped like a little animal in this place all over Ramadhan and have been to the mosque only a few times in total. Throughout the months, there have been loves... there have been laughs... and of course, excellent companionship, for the most part: like a little family.

I have grown, as I continually do. The most recent things I have learnt and am now able to do is completely leave myself bare to Allah, for him to do with me as he wishes (12 October) and to trust the small group of people which has been around me for the last month. I have of course, easily succeeded in making the Youth Stuff team sisters laugh, mainly by wiggling my bottom at them through the studio room glass while they have been on air (and also making silly hand gestures etc. etc., typically Adnan-style).

My dad is getting remarried, so I was VERY happy about that and Aisha is (hopefully) going to have a baby, inshaa-a Allah in June, so I will be an uncle - yet again.

As part of my job, I have been operating and managing the automated system for the adverts and also sourcing and splicing material to put into the night time programming. Noam Chomsky has made appearances a few times, which led me to discover an organisation known as "AIPAC"; someone (a friend of Noam's) had written an article in criticism of some of Noam's alleged leanings in his works, noticeably that he plays down the role of this organisation in American and indeed world politics.

What surprised me when I read about this organisation is amazing the amount of "power" which they wield; with 100,000 members across fifty of the fifty-two states (that's 2,000 on average in each state), they have - and still have - the power to tell the president and all other politicians what to do, using the lever that those who stand against them never get re-elected.

With everyone apparently in America's pocket, it's not difficult to work out who runs the world.

When I learnt of all this and rationalised it out in my mind, I came to the conclusion that as far as I was concerned, this was THE big picture of what was happening in the world.

As I always like to see the "big picture" in anything I do, I felt I had finally found it for life in the human world (as far as non-Muslims were concerned).

That led me to realise that whenever there is a prophet alive and present on the Earth, there is light but once he has gone, there is utter darkness and it is for everyone to scratch around in the darkness as they see fit.

And to me now, that is the world at the moment: utter darkness.

And I am truly sad that the prophet (soll Allahu 'alayhi wa sal-lam) nor his companions are no longer amongst us and I look forward to the time when Jesus ('alayhi-s salaam) will once again return).

I am melancholy. I do miss you all.

Adnan signing out.

Wa-s salaam.

23 Oct 06: Links For Today

2006-10-23T03:29:00.000-07:00

Islambase: nice-looking site, maa shaa-a Allah!
Hey! Learn 'Arabic like I did. It's eezeee!

21 Oct 06: Links For Today

2006-10-21T04:36:00.000-07:00

AIPAC - The organisation that runs the world.
How I became Muslim
YouTube - "Become Muslim"
Quran translated into Bangalay

17 Oct 06: Links For Today

2006-10-17T04:50:00.000-07:00

Israelis, Arabs should cut out the middleman

The One With Enough

2006-09-05T09:40:00.000-07:00

In the name of Allah, the Owner of Mercy, the Giver of Mercy

As-salaamu 'alaykum, dear Diary -

Well, I made istikhaarah today to throw in the towel with Radio Ramadhan, with the result hanging in the balance at the moment.

Other than that, life is plodding on, al-hamdu lillah

I read the other day in a book someone had left in the mosque that "al-hamdu lillah" is the best statement, while "laa ilaaha il-la-l Allah" is the best way of remembering Allah; apparently, both authentically narrated: one from Muslim; the other being authenticated from At-Tirmidhi by the likes of Adh-Dhahabi and Al-Albani...

I also learnt (also authentically narrated) that the Prophet (soll-Allahu 'alayhi wa sal-lam) was asked by a bedouin to teach him some words, so the Prophet (soll-Allahu 'alayhi wa sal-lam) replied:

"...Laa ilaaha il-la-l Allahu, wahhdahu laa shareeyka lahu, Allahu akbar, Allahu akbar kabeeyra wa-l hamdu lillah katheeyra; subhaan Allahi rob-bil-l 'aalameeyn; laa hawla wa laa quw-wata il-la bi-l laahi-l 'azeeyzi-l hakeeym..."

[There is nothing worthy of the one, true object of worship - Allah, having no partners with him, Allah is the Most Great, Allah is Most Great, and all praises and thanks are for Allah, alone, in abundance; high is Allah above any imperfections; there is no might or power, except with Allah, the Most High, the Most Wise]

to which, the bedouin replied: "that is for Allah - what is for me?"

to which the Prophet (soll-Allahu 'alayhi wa sal-lam) replied, "Say: allaahumma-ghfirleey, wa-rhamneey, wa-hdineey, wa-rzuqneey".

[O Allah! Forgive me and have mercy on me and guide me and provide for me]

And in another narration, the Prophet (soll-Allahu 'alayhi wa sal-lam) had the habit that whenever someone accepted Islam, he would teach them the following words:

allaahumma-ghfirleey, wa-rhamneey, wa-hdineey, wa 'aafineey, wa-rzuqneey

[O Allah! Forgive me and have mercy on me and guide me and cure me and provide for me]

Al-hamdu lillah!

Finally, Qaswarah offered me some perfume, for afternoon prayer, while we were sat, waiting for the prayer, so I accepted some on my hand.

Adnan signing out.

Wa-s salaam.

Adnan

05 Sep 06: Links For Today

2006-09-05T09:39:00.000-07:00

An Open Letter to Magaret Whitman
The One With The Laws (golden oldie!)

04 Sep 06: Links For Today

2006-09-04T09:10:00.000-07:00

Everything Lebabnon - exactly what it says on the packet!
Goodbye, Steve.

The One With The Focus

2006-09-03T04:58:00.000-07:00

In the Name of Allah, the Owner of Mercy, the Giver of Mercy

As-salaamu 'alaykum, dear Diary

Well, this is the start of a new chapter - one that will (like all the others) end very quickly; in fact, having already been written before anything was created.

That is the ultimate focus: where we really came from. Islam gives you a frame of reference for your existence. This sets your body, mind and soul firmly in life and provides the backdrop for all your thoughts, feelings and actions. Imagine what it would be like not to have a true frame of reference? You would only be a shadow of a human.

This is what Islam has to say on the subject of "focus":

In the beginning, there was Allah (cf. Hebrew: Elohim) . Allah is the originator and sustainer of the heavens and the Earth and everything in them and between them. Thus, there exists only two things: Allah and then his creation. Allah is infinite and absolute in nature and has always existed. Nobody has (or can) do a true estimate of Allah, yet he is able to estimate everything (and everyone) precisely - right down to the hairs on your head. No leaf falls but he knows it. Nobody has ever seen Allah and to him belong the most beautiful names. There is nothing like him. He is above the heavens and the Earth and above the Throne, in a way befitting his majesty. Neither slumber nor sleep overtake him. Between the Throne and the highest heaven (there are seven) is ten thousand years - yes, that's right: ten thousand years - of water and everyday he is completely in overall control of everything.

Allah created the Pen and told the Pen to write everything that would happen until the Day of Resurrection on the Preserved Tablet, which is now retained in the lowest heaven. The Books (Torah, Psalms, Gospel, Quran) are preserved on the Tablet.

Thus, the destiny of everything was written ten thousand years before anything was created.
And the destiny of Adam was written forty years before his creation.

Allah created Adam from clay with his own two Hands and then breathed life into him. Adam's wife was created from one of Adam's ribs and then they were sent down to Earth, to live according to the Book.

Adam and his wife had children, who have preceded each other in generations, and are now currently spread over the Earth. You and I are two of them.

Allah sent a further 124,000 Prophets and Messengers (313 were Messengers and came with a Book) to Adam's children to remind and to warn, and of how to live life (with these men being living examples themselves).

Allah still exists and expects that each action is done with the sole intention of pleasing him and that is matches what is required in the Book; thus, there are consequences to living and life.

There are more specifics and these will be covered in an entry entitled, "The One With The Focus MkII".

Adnan signing out.

Wa-s salaam