- al-Ma'idah ("the Repast"): 100
"say: 'iniquity and good are not equal, though many of the bad things may please thee greatly. be then conscious of God, o ye of insight, that you might attain to a joyous state.'"
yaa ayyuha'lladhina amanu 'alaykum anfusakum; la yadurrukum man dallu idha'htadaytum; ila'Llahi marji'ukum jamiy'an fayunabbi'ukum bima kuntum ta'malun
- al-Ma'idah: 105
"o you who have attained to faith - it is for your own selves that you are responsible: those who go astray can do you no harm if you [yourselves] follow guidance. unto God is your return, and He shall tell you of all you used to do."
taken together or separately, these verses frighten. real is real is you/me is this, and to float through or not make conscious choices for real, would be to sleep through.
a lot depends on the eyes used to see.
last night, silver moon casting shadows behind dark impressions of trees, the night filled the sky as though we are vessels and it is the harmony of being to fill these vessels. and there a choice: to see it as such, by itself, and the beauty in night.
or to turn to something else and "tonight i can write the saddest lines. through nights like this...".
later in the night coyotes began their chorus.
neruda once wrote a song of despair, in 1924.
listening to the news, things which jarred so terribly: species going extinct, hurricanes, pain from occupied lands. such sadness at general decadence, and disgust.
soon usman will be 3. children have so much wonder, so much beauty, so much.
"for You, this -
for You, and that the
trembling subside.
that the ash remain ash
turn not to soot,
and that after time of rest
i may hope once more."
--
in the Old City. a boy hurrying, a camera crew in a souvenir shop, a couple in the background. late july05.
