thought provoking

[Hawkeye]

Muhammad al-Houni
As was see in the blood-soaked history of the twentieth century, the “priority of the irrational”- even if embraced only by the radical few - can inexorably lead to limitless violence, because the primacy of the will, whether in God or man, knows no bounds - only reason can save us from annihilation.

[DocW]

We are in constant need of help, guidance, and counsel. If we pray according to the revealed method, we avoid pitfalls of excess and impropriety, and obtain advantage and blessings beyond our imagination. With every word, gesture, movement, and pattern, we may be opening hidden doors and secret locks to hidden realms and eternal bliss.


Prayer straightens all ways and opens all doors. God hears our recitals and supplications, and angels gather around us when we prostrate with sincerity. As the Creator knows what will cause us to prosper in this world and the next, we should follow what He has revealed and how His Messenger (peace and blessings upon him) practiced it in his daily life. It is we who need to worship God; not God who needs to be worshipped -- He is free of all needs. [M. Fethullah Gulen]


Food for thought:
We end up as we deserve -- in old age we must put up with the face, the friends, the health, and the children we have earned. We pay when old for the excesses of youth.

Mrs Iffat Hassan

[DocW]

No one knows when they are well off.
-- Punch

Never exaggerate your faults, your friends will attend to that.
-- Robert C. Edwards

The imagination is man's power over nature.
-- Wallace Stevens

Have thy heart in heaven and thy hands upon the earth. Ascend in piety and
descend in charity. For this is the Nature of Light and the way of the children.
-- Thomas Vaughan

[Hawkeye]

Bernard Levin
All euphemisms are lies. They are lies told for a particular purpose, and that purpose is to change reality. But no man can change reality, particularly by doing no more than wave a word at it. Then why the pretence? Because reality is very often painful, and it is the very bedrock and foundation of our world that no one should be obliged to suffer pain. Nor, the rule continues, shall anyone be obliged to suffer poverty, ill-health, disappointment, loss, bad luck, failure or an ugly face; since there is no way of avoiding all these, or for that matter any of them, we change their names, and think we have abolished them.

[Clarity]

Do not worry about people talking "behind your back", it just means that you are one step ahead of them, and they are exactly in the right direction to kiss your ***!


What matters is how steep you climb and with what kind of conviction, rather than how far or high you climb. Life is a long lesson in humility. Life consists not in holding good cards but in playing those you hold well.


Fake friends are like shadows, always near you at your brightest moments, but nowhere to be seen at your darkest hours.


We Flatter Those We Scarcely Know,
We Please The Fleeting Guest,
And Deal Full Many A Thoughtless Blow
To Those Who Love Us Best.

Love will fly if held too lightly. Love will die if held too tightly. How should I hold you?
How do I know if I'm still keeping you or I'm letting go..

LOOK WHAT I'M OFFERING YOU--YOUR DREAMS. I ASK FOR SO LITTLE. JUST LET ME RULE YOU, AND YOU CAN HAVE EVERYTHING THAT YOU WANT. JUST FEAR ME, LOVE ME, DO AS I SAY, AND I WILL BE YOUR SLAVE.
- Jareth


God, enlighten what is dark in me, strengthen what is weak in me, mend what is broken in me, bind what is bruised in me, heal what is sick
in me, straighten what is crooked in me, and revive peace and love that
has died in me, Amin.

[DocW]

God must have been disap-pointed in Adam -- He made Eve so different.
-- Source Unknown


Knowledge which is acquired under compulsion has no hold on the mind. Therefore do not use compulsion, but let early education be rather a sort of amusement; this will better enable you to find out the natural bent of the child.
-- Plato

[DocW]

Remember to keep your focus on your ultimate purpose of life -- how you define your life.
Remember to keep your focus on where you are going and what route you are going to take.

Remember each day is one step towards your dream, and each day will define your life – so take each day seriously and plan it out.

Remember you cannot keep the time but you know how to well spend it.

Remember you cannot own the time but you can use it to your benefit.

Remember time is priceless but you are blessed with it – so use it wisely.

Remember when you plan your day, you are removing time wasters out of your schedule and making more time for yourself, your family, your life!
Plan your day so you don’t find yourself as a person who is always rushed through life, or a person who did not finish a project he/she always wanted to complete, did not find time to earn some bonus points on his/her Ibadah. Plan your day, plan your life!
Plan and you will find yourself more productive and at the end of the day, you will be able to measure your success and feel accomplished, because by planning, you will earn some extra time for yourself, you can measure your success and feel more accomplished by looking at the list of things you have completed and look forward to another productive day, inshaAllah.
Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.


Mrs Iffat Hasan

[DocW]

"When I go to the West I see Islam without Muslims but when I come back to the East I see Muslims without Islam."

Allama Iqbal

[DocW]

There's a period of life when we swallow a knowledge of ourselves and it becomes either good or sour inside.
-- Pearl Bailey

Perfect behavior is born of complete indifference.
-- Cesare Pavese

In great straits and when hope is small, the boldest counsels are the safest.
-- Titus Livy

God is the tangential point between zero and infinity.
-- Alfred Jarry

[DocW]

The Citizens of Paradise

It is only Allah whose discretion holds supreme in this world. No one else's discretion has in reality even a trace of authority. However, for the sake of trial, Allah has sanctioned freedom to man, who has been given considerable liberty in an otherwise completely enslaved existence, to see how he uses it: does he opt for the realistic choice of submitting to Allah's -- the real Master's-- will or does he get carried away by the thrills of his undeserving liberty and, as a consequence, resort to rebellious attitude.

Allah has prepared the paradise for those who despite possessing many options choose to remain optionless; those who volunteer to fear Allah even on occasions when fear is not seemingly warranted; those who, despite wielding full authority, surrender all their authority to Allah.

When such people are provided with sustenance through the medium of some apparent material source, they acknowledge that it is in fact Allah Who has arranged it for them. They have the liberty to be unfair to others, but they check the sinful inclinations of their liberty for fear of Allah. Opportunities of demonstrating anger, hatred and revenge come their way, but they choose to exercise restraint on occasions of anger and offer forgiveness on occasions of hatred and revenge. Allah allows them to be praised lavishly by others, but they find solace in remaining humble. Allah makes them wealthy, but instead of spending their wealth to satisfy their vain desires, they find it more satisfying to spend their wealth in His way. They follow the way of Allah instead of following the way of their own whims; instead of living for their own sake, they live for the sake of Allah.

The serene world of paradise is indeed for such people. They make themselves subservient to Allah with their own free will; they choose to remain constrained within the divinely ordained restrictions, despite enjoying the freedom to remain unrestricted.
(Adapted from Wahiduddin Khan's works)

[DocW]

Love is the child of illusion and the parent of disillusion.
-- Sandy Wilson

World peace will never be stable until enough of us find inner peace to stabilize it
-- Peace Pilgrim

[Hawkeye]

On the Influence of Shakespeare
"Truism" is a word of abuse, but it should not be, for the whole point of a truism is that it is true, and those Shakespearean phrases that have been worn away almost to dust remain alive in his mouth even if they do not in ours. If you cannot understand my argument, and declare "It’s Greek to me," you are quoting Shakespeare; if you claim to be more sinned against than sinning, you are quoting Shakespeare; if you recall your salad days, you are quoting Shakespeare; if you act more in sorrow than in anger, if your wish is father to the thought, if your lost property has vanished into thin air, you are quoting Shakespeare; if you have ever refused to budge an inch or suffered from green-eyed jealousy, if you have played fast and loose, if you have been tongue-tied, a tower of strength, hoodwinked or in a pickle, if you have knitted your brows, made a virtue of necessity, insisted on fair play, slept not one wink, stood on ceremony, danced attendance (on your lord and master), laughed yourself into stitches, had short shrift, cold comfort or too much of a good thing, if you have seen better days or lived in a fool’s paradise--why, be that as it may, the more fool you, for it is a foregone conclusion that you are (as good luck would have it) quoting Shakespeare; if you think it is early days and clear out bag and baggage, if you think it is high time and that that is the long and short of it, if you believe that the game is up and that truth will out even if it involves your own flesh and blood, if you lie low till the crack of doom because you suspect foul play, if you have your teeth set on edge (at one fell swoop) without rhyme or reason, then--to give the devil his due--if the truth were known (for surely you have a tongue in your head) you are quoting Shakespeare; even if you bid me good riddance and send me packing, if you wish I was dead as a doornail, if you think I am an eyesore, a laughing stock, the devil incarnate, a stony-hearted villain, bloody-minded or a blinking idiot, then--by Jove! O Lord! Tut, tut! for goodness’ sake! what the dickens! But me no buts--it is all one to me, for you are quoting Shakespeare.

And the pleasure of Shakespeare's language is inextricably interwoven with what he says in it. His mind is an instrument of such stupendous understanding, depth and creativity that it towers over the human race, and to hear the content of that mind clothed in that poetry provides a pleasure which consumes like fire.
(Enthusiasms, Jonathan Cape, 1983) Bernard Levin

[ihsan]

To the scholar of Shakespeare:

Are these phrases above evidence of his linguistic genius, which is undisputed, or idiomatic expressions that were common during the era of Shakespeare...

[DocW]

The Difference between Heaven and Hell
By Mr. Javed .Ch
Translated by Abu Anas

One sinful person requested Allah S.W.T to show me Heaven and Hell, Allah S.W.T ordered angels to show him Heaven and Hell, Angels took him to Hell, It was a big dining hall, where big and beautiful chairs were placed with tables and very weak and lazy people were sitting on these chairs with big spoons in their hands, there were big bowls of soup placed on the tables. The sinful person noticed that they didn’t have elbows in their arms, so they could not fold their arms. These people were trying hard to take the soup into their mouth with the spoon but they could not do it, so it fell on their chest and face. They were trying to drink the soup for centuries but they could not even touch the spoon to their lips. Then angels took him to Heaven, it was a big dining hall too and people were sitting on the chairs, with bowls of soup on the table but they were very healthy, beautiful, satisfied and enjoying each other’s company. The sinful person asked the angels, the difference between the Heaven and Hell, angels replied that they don’t have elbows too, but they have found a very interesting solution of this, what they do, they fill the spoon with soup and put it into their neighbour’s mouth and neighbour put it in theirs, so both feed each other’s this way.

The sinful person came back to the world and he told the people, action (Amal) is the only difference between Heaven and Hell, the people of Hell trying to put their spoon into their own mouth and the people of Heaven fill the spoon with their own bowl and put it into others mouth, when I heard the sinful person, I came to know that the Heaven which we search in skies, lies on our dining tables throughout our life, we just have to fill the spoon and put it into the mouth of the person sitting next to us and get very close to the Allah (S.W.T).This is the small thing for which we spend all of our life in searching, the thing which is in our pockets, we travel thousands of miles in search of it. We are so stupid.

[Hawkeye]

To the scholar of Shakespeare: Are these phrases above evidence of his linguistic genius, which is undisputed, or idiomatic expressions that were common during the era of Shakespeare...

One needs to make a small distinction between individual words and phrases. Firstly it is said that Shakespeare introduced a couple of hundred new words though some in the list are disputed. However, in the Bernard Levin article I posted there is no doubt that he coined those phrases and somehow they entered everyday speech. To me the power of Shakespeare is not so much in the beauty of his writing but in the economy and sheer power of the words themselves in that the phrases give birth to a thought and at the same time there is a certain sense it which it is beyond understanding, that you simply cannot put it in a better way. In an odd way you know what he means but cannot explain it or if you try you ruin the idea. For example, from Romeo and Juliet: "What's in a name? that which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet" or in Richard III "The world is grown so bad, that wrens make prey where eagles dare not perch"

Anyway, have a look at www.pathguy.com/shakeswo.htm for a list of some of the phrases and words plus a little discussion.