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Rābiʿa’s Three Gifts

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  بِسْمِ اللّهِ الرَّحْمـَنِ الرَّحِيمِ وَأَحْسِنُوا ۛ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ يُحِبُّ ٱلْمُحْسِنِينَ Wa aḥsinū, inna Allāha yuḥibbu al-muḥsinīn. “Do good. Indeed, Allah loves those who do good.” Sūrat al-Baqarah 2:195 There are teachings that come as long speeches. And there are teachings that come quietly. In a small object. In a gesture. In something so ordinary that only the awake heart understands it. In Tadhkirat al-Awliyāʾ , ʿAṭṭār mentions a beautiful telling about Rābiʿa. Rābiʿa sends Ḥasan three simple things. Wax. A needle. A hair. Nothing grand. Nothing costly. Indeed the friends of Allah often teach through small things, because small things enter the heart without noise. The wax says: Give light, even while you burn. The needle says: Keep working, but do not decorate yourself with the work. The hair says: Once these two lessons are learned, even a thousand years becomes light. The wax is the first lesson. A candle does not give light from a distance. It gives light by offering ...
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The Damage of Doubtful Sustenance

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بِسْمِ اللّهِ الرَّحْمـَنِ الرَّحِيمِ وَإِذَا سَأَلَكَ عِبَادِى عَنِّى فَإِنِّى قَرِيبٌ ۖ  أُجِيبُ دَعْوَةَ ٱلدَّاعِ إِذَا دَعَانِ Wa idhā sa’alaka ‘ibādī ‘annī fa-innī qarīb; ujību da‘wata al-dā‘i idhā da‘ān. Sūrat al-Baqarah 2:186 — “And when My servants ask you about Me, indeed I am near. I respond to the call of the caller when he calls upon Me.” There are verses that console us. There are verses that awaken us. And there are verses that do both at once. This verse is one of them. Allah does not say, “Tell them I am near.” He says, “Indeed I am near.” The answer comes directly. The distance is removed. The servant asks. Allah answers. The caller calls. Allah responds. The door is not locked. The sky is not empty. The Lord is not absent. And yet, the Qurʾān does not teach us to treat du‘ā as a formula without a life around it. Du‘ā is not only words raised by the tongue. It is a whole human being standing before Allah. The tongue calls. But the heart also calls. The hands call. ...
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Made for the highest skies

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  بِسْمِ اللّهِ الرَّحْمـَنِ الرَّحِيمِ    أَوَلَمْ يَرَوْا۟ إِلَى ٱلطَّيْرِ فَوْقَهُمْ صَـٰٓفَّـٰتٍۢ وَيَقْبِضْنَ ۚ    مَا يُمْسِكُهُنَّ إِلَّا ٱلرَّحْمَـٰنُ ۚ إِنَّهُۥ بِكُلِّ شَىْءٍۭ بَصِيرٌ A-wa lam yaraw ilā al-ṭayri fawqahum ṣāffātin wa yaqbiḍn; mā yumsikuhunna illā al-Raḥmān; innahu bikulli shay’in baṣīr. Sūrat al-Mulk 67:19 — “Have they not seen the birds above them, spreading and folding their wings? None holds them up except the Most Compassionate. Indeed, He is All-Seeing of everything.” It is possible to live beneath the sky and forget flight. It is possible to inhabit a world saturated with signs, yet become so habituated to surfaces that the sign no longer pierces us. We see birds above us, but no longer behold dependence. We see wings, but not mercy. We see motion, but not the unseen holding by which motion becomes possible. The Qurʾān does not merely ask us to notice birds. It asks us to recover sight. It asks us to understand that flight is nev...
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The Motorcycles Were Never His

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بِسْمِ اللّهِ الرَّحْمـَنِ الرَّحِيمِ    إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَأْمُرُكُمْ أَن تُؤَدُّوا الْأَمَانَاتِ إِلَىٰ أَهْلِهَا   وَإِذَا حَكَمْتُم بَيْنَ النَّاسِ أَن تَحْكُمُوا بِالْعَدْلِ    إِنَّ اللَّهَ نِعِمَّا يَعِظُكُم بِهِ إِنَّ اللَّهَ كَانَ سَمِيعًا بَصِيرًا Innallāha ya’murukum an tu’addul-amānāti ilā ahlihā; wa idhā ḥakamtum baynan-nāsi an taḥkumū bil-‘adl; innallāha ni‘immā ya‘iẓukum bih; innallāha kāna samī‘an baṣīrā. An-Nisa 4:58 — Allah commands you to return trusts to those to whom they are due, and when you judge between people, to judge with justice. How good is the instruction Allah gives you. Surely Allah is All-Hearing, All-Seeing.   آمِنُوا بِاللَّهِ وَرَسُولِهِ وَأَنفِقُوا مِمَّا جَعَلَكُم مُّسْتَخْلَفِينَ فِيهِ Āminū billāhi wa rasūlihi wa anfiqū mimmā ja‘alakum mustakhlafīna fīh. Part of Al-Hadid 57:7 — Believe in Allah and His Messenger, and spend out of that over which He has made you trustees.  One of our school drivers retired las...
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Thirty Years, Six Lessons

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بِسْمِ اللّهِ الرَّحْمـَنِ الرَّحِيمِ   وَمَا مِن دَآبَّةٍۢ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ إِلَّا عَلَى ٱللَّهِ رِزْقُهَا وَيَعْلَمُ مُسْتَقَرَّهَا وَمُسْتَوْدَعَهَا ۚ كُلٌّۭ فِى كِتَـٰبٍۢ مُّبِينٍۢ Wa mā min dābbatin fil-arḍi illā ʿalallāhi rizquhā wa yaʿlamu mustaqarrahā wa mustawdaʿahā; kullun fī kitābin mubīn. Hūd 11:6   —There is no moving creature on earth whose provision is not guaranteed by Allah. And He knows where it lives and where it is laid to rest. All is written in a clear Record. There is an old report about Ḥātim al-Aṣamm and his teacher Shaqīq al-Balkhī. Before entering the story in detail, it is useful to place two transmitted forms of the report side by side. In the six-lesson version, Shaqīq asked Ḥātim, “Since you have accompanied me, what have you learned?” Ḥātim replied, “Six things. I saw people uncertain about their provision, so I trusted in Allah, because He has said that the provision of every creature on earth is upon Him. I saw that every person has a frie...
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