Jennah by Ammar

"Say: ‘Surely my prayer, my sacrifice, my living and my dying are
for Allaah, the Lord of all the worlds.’ ” Qur’aan, 6:162

Allah says...

"It is not befitting for a believing man or woman, when a matter has been decided by Allah and His Messenger, to have any option about their decision." [Soorah al-Ahzaab (33):36]

Amatullah

For one minute I thought I saw the light of freedom
I thought I smelt the sweet grasses of green pastures
Fields of saffron and the wafting perfume of heaven
I heard the heartfelt and joyful laughter of the green birds of paradise
I willed my body forward as I yearned to be of them
My heart fluttered and my eyes watered
My mind washed of worry and grief
For one moment I thought it was the end and I was forever saved
I stretched out my arms and ran towards salvation
Ya Rabb, do what you will with my life, I long to be you
But not yet have I been relieved of this life
Every soul is appointed a time and some trials
Foolishness is to forgo the hereafter for the pleasures of this world
What is more fulfilling than iman entering the heart?
Than the Quran illuminating the soul?
Than receiving the pleasure of Allah and the love of his angels?
May Allah swt love me and increase my love for Him,amen

Scorn

They fall, warming my cheeks
Hot sting of tears on open wounds
Replacing the curse words and severe beatings Id rather give you
I bite my tongue and hold my breath
I fist my clothes and hide in my layer
You've bested me and I have retreated
But my tears don't come cheap
And my Lord will compensate me

Fortunate Is He

Fortunate is he...

Who remembers Allah abundantly.

Worldly distractions cannot mildly sway

His thoughts of Allah and judgement day

Righteous is he

Who bows to One he cannot see

Whose deeds do not spring without Bismillah

Fulfilling his tasks with perfect Taqwa

Devout is he

Who supplicates to Allah intensively

Whose heart is merciful, tender and kind

His gaze on life after, this world behind

Prosperous is he

Who spends his wealth on the poor and needy

Who speaks a kind word to kin and neighbour

Ever-grateful for Allah’s favours

Guided is he

Who prays Salah with punctuality

Early morning, Tahajjud he prays

For Allah's pleasure and nearness he craves

God fearing is he

Who contemplates death early

Who starts as he sees his demise

And tears fall over wasted sacrifice

Blessed is he

Who sings Allah’s praises fervently

Blessed be all of Allah’s slaves

Allah’s mercy be with them always 

By: Yusuf Islam

Things I want the most

I want to go to the highest level of Jennah
Where I can speak with my Lord 
Where I can sit in the best circles
I want a beautiful garden that contains beauty no one could imagine
Where I can rest my heart forever
I want my family and friends to be there with me
I want the ummah of Mohammed saw to achieve the highest stations
I love them and it would distress me to have harm come to even the worst of them
I want my beloved to have everything his heart desires
I want my heart to desire goodness 
I want health and wealth for my kin and I
I want justice and peace
But most of all I want to be Muslim until the day I die
Ameen

If wishing could make it so

I wish the wind would blow and, in pieces, I would with it go
I wish my heart were encased in ice and made of stone
A sculpture to glorify love but devoid of the ability
Safe but deprived
I wish to die to fly above the seven skies
True freedom from the oppressions of mortal strife
Sleep sound and dream of golden crickets and silver butterflies 
I wish to only be visible in dimming light
In the night, light up like fireflies
Captivating sleepless eyes
Oh God, Let the sunlight be my disguise
Only with the moon will I rise 

For those who fancy fire

I am in love .
He is unaware.
If I inform him of what is in my heart.
I will steal his peace with my war.
You must understand that I love with fire
and fight with ice.
Unintentionally destroying with both.

12/12/10

God is the light

How great the wonders of the heavens
And the timeless beauty of the night
How great -- then how great the creator?
And its star like priceless jewels far beyond the reach of kings
Bow down for the shepard guiding him home

But how many eyes are closed to the wonder of this night?
Like pearls, hidden, deep beneath a dark stream of desires
But like dreams vanish with the call to prayer
And the dawn extinguishes night - here too are signs
God is the light
God is the light

How great the beauty of the Earth and the creatures who dwell on her
How great -- then how great the creator?
As it's mountains pierce the clouds hight about the lives of men
Weeping rivers for thousands of years

But how many hearts are closed to the wonders of this sight?
Like birds in a cage, asleep with closed wings
But as work stops with the call to prayer
And the birds recite - here too are signs
God is the light
God is the light

How great the works of man and the things he makes
How great -- then how great the creator?
Though he strives to reach the heavens he can barely survive
The wars of the world he lives in

Yet how many times he's tried, himself to immortalize?
Like his parents before him in the garden of Eden
But like the sun sets with the call to prayer
And surrenders to the night here too are signs
God is the light everlasting
God is the light everlasting
By Yosuf Islam 

Declassified

To My Father

 Click on the link to hear a short and touching poem by a Guantanamo detainee.

Winter storm

Every winter I ask myself why I still live here.

For Omar

Anger is my prison
Prison bars, long and hard
Anger that finds no release, no relief
Fueled by blood and pundits on the TV screen
React or don't, defend or wont
They're coming
Unprovoked they will come to snatch away my dignity
Humiliate me
Turn my people against me
Threaten them to renounce me
Like Yousef, I'll languish behind bars
Waiting for freedom in death or life
While they play with words
Redefined and re-described
to persecute others for lesser crimes
They purchase evil in exchange for righteousness 
This world in exchange for the next

Reflection on darkest days

Love and faith waver
Yesterday I believed and today I do so to a lesser degree
I loved and today I am less devastated by not having it returned
I lived and now I do so with less vigor
I learned, now I do so but less keener
I laughed, now my laugh lacks honesty
I dreamed, now it grows darker
I hoped, but now it fades
Yesterday I loved and had faith

Gutter Water

Ugly sister of the mountain stream
In imitation of natural beauty you beam
Flowing over crumbled streets
Saturated in dirt we knock off our feet
To reach the ocean, what a difficult feat!
One that you will surely beat
Thrashing wheels that cut your vain
Splashing children cause you pain
When you catch the light, you glitter and shine
Trudging forward, even in the worst of times

Some images are hard to forget ...

One by one

Shuhada Street

Soldier on Sister

O this heart of mine

She does not yield nor does she cower
She beats out her beautiful songs
And sings ballads of love
She empathizes with the fallen
She refuses to be pragmatic
She is trusting and naive
She is an idealist
She is stubborn, picky, loyal, and kind
She is honest
She is increasingly sensitive 
She hurts and takes the rest of me hostage
She is scorn and I feel the burn
She is corrupted  and the whole of me is tainted
She is purified and all the troubles in the world are pushed aside

Riches Await You

You there who needlessly worries of future affairs
Riches await you
You only have to reach and in your fingers they ensnare
Riches secure, no need to devise any coup
Blessings shower from your Lord day and night
Ask without hesitation, you'll receive what you like
Wonders no man has dreamed of in his life
No worries, no grief will cast shadows over your delights
Beauty drapes itself over everything in your life
From your creator comes every joy
So give thanks for what you enjoy without strife
If only you could see through my eyes what being you looks like
Abdullah whose worldly life is too filled with light

Almost enough

Sometimes in the spring when the wind is just right you can pick up the scent of flowers.
I like that.
I also like that the mountains are the back drop to my life
and that I only have to drive a few mins to lose the city and its people.
I like winter days made mild by Chinooks.
These things almost help me forget.

Go

Go on and live a life more beautiful that any that could have included me.
Ive been born with a black cloud and will die in a storm
I will only water down your joy and block your sun
I am no good
And only serve as a lesson
One of shame and regret
and mostly loneliness
Go on 

Intimations of Inmortality

What though the radiance which was once so bright
Be now for ever taken from my sight,
Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower;
We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind...

By William Wordsworth 

rabbi innee lima anzalta ilayya min khayrin faqeer!

"O my Lord! truly am I in (desperate) need of any good that Thou dost send me..." (28:24)

Drawing Lots in Life

If protesting does not avail
then hold the tongue
swallow grief
then wait
Wait for your tense muscles to relax
for the ache in your heart to fade
for that knot in your throat to unfurl
for the anxiety to leave you be
You don't act because you can find no action
Your only propeller, time
like mud slowly dragging you behind 
As you remember days when you raced past it
cruel is fate,
letting you dream and believe in nonsensical possibilities
Allowing you to smell and even taste victory
Only to bring you crashing on your knees
wont you leave me one thing?
Wont you spare me my heart, or my body, or my mind, or my soul
Must you test me in everything at once?
If it is meant for me to suffer
and that is my lot in life
then I will suffer

How long is too long?

So long have we taken
Through the season and weather changing
Wasted youth in anxious waiting
Come now of age and find roses fading

Patience

Patience is a sour word that bears sweet fruit.
It is throbbing anguish that saves one from eternal damnation 
It is pain without compliant
It is to be wronged with out compensation and justice
It is the barring of burdens
It is struggling with no end in sight
It is remembrance in times of plenty
It is difficult and admirable 
It is a sign of trust and faith
Patience 

Yadni kiya si birra, khe essa jira?

I'm thinking of you tonight
Just like I thought of you last night
And all the minutes in between
I'll think of you tomorrow night
Just like I'm thinking of you tonight
And all the minutes in between
I'll think of you next year
Just like I thought of you last year
And all the minutes in between
How greedy you are, my love
You've taken everything from me
And all the minutes in between

Say

Do you know where your heart is?
Do you think you can find it?
Or did you trade it for something
Somewhere better just to have it?

Do you know where your love is?
Do you think that you lost it?
You felt it so strong, but
Nothing's turned out how you wanted

Well, bless my soul
You're a lonely soul
Cause you won't let go
Of anything you hold

Do you know what your fate is?
And are you trying to shake it?
You're doing your best and
Your best look
You're praying that you make it

Well, bless my soul
You're a lonely soul
Cause you won't let go
Of anything you hold

- OneRepublic

Missing Ramadan

Farewell! thou art too dear for my possessing

Farewell! thou art too dear for my possessing,
And like enough thou know'st thy estimate,
The charter of thy worth gives thee releasing;
My bonds in thee are all determinate.

For how do I hold thee but by thy granting?
And for that riches where is my deserving?
The cause of this fair gift in me is wanting,
And so my patent back again is swerving.
Thy self thou gavest, thy own worth then not knowing,

Or me to whom thou gav'st it else mistaking;
So thy great gift, upon misprision growing,
Comes home again, on better judgment making.
Thus have I had thee, as a dream doth flatter,
In sleep a king, but waking no such matter.

-William Shakespeare

Jail art by Tarek Mehanna

Days Spent

How have I spent my days?
I've spent them being a daughter
a sister
a lover
a friend
I've toiled as a student
a worker
a helper
but is that the end?
And what of my life as a servant of Allah?
What of my prayer
my fasting
my learning His deen
my reading His kalaam?
What of my charity
my voluntary acts to extinguish my share in harram?
What of my honesty
in action
in speech?
What of my nights
in prayer
in pleading for the everlasting?
And what of these,
How have I spent my days?

Surat Al-Hashr

You are Beautiful

You are so beautiful and you don't even know it
Its hard to measure and even harder to grasp
Its subtle and endearing
It lingers in the recesses of the mind
Floating through dreams and files of random thoughts
Conquering unawares
Rendering all those with the misfortune to gaze upon you, powerless
To know you, is to love you
To plead to God day and night to either be given or be saved from you
To eagerly wait for either prayer to be answered
Oh beautiful one, wont you turn my way
Wont you fix your gaze on me and make me forget?
Speak to me words of sweet goodness
Words as beautiful as you are
As beautiful as my life would be had I spent it with you

Love Me Until Your Love Runs Out

Before now, I didn't know how it felt
I didn't know the sting of pain laced with hope
How it feels to be gashed but find bleeding a purge
Who knew the depths and complexities of human emotion
I find everything I've felt before, superficial
Surface emotions full of numbness
I didn't know loss and gain can be one in the same
To be given and have it taken
To love then lose
To be blessed then tested
Alhamdulillah, My Lord must have answered my du'as
Answered when I asked Him to love me and increase my love for Him
Rather than deterred my love has emboldened
How strange is this love and unique the Beloved
How strange that broken emotions only increases me in love
Surely I've discovered the cure to all sicknesses of the heart
and it is plentiful

Remembering to Remember

You showered your blessings on me
Favored me over much of your creation
How can I let my heart break when its supposed to be only for you?
I wont let the joy leave me heart not matter what the test
La ilaha illallah anta
You've preserved me and concealed for me what I conceal
You forgive when I repent
How can I ever turn my face?
My heart yearns for you, quench it
Satisfy me so I'll never remember dissatisfaction
Subhanaka, inni kuntu mina dhalemeen

I am the most fortunate

How fortunate I am that I have a Lord who favors me
He gave me shape and perfected it, filling it with life
Placed me in the care of loving parents
Fed me and clothed me all the days of my life
He let me enjoy the luxuries of this world He deprived many of His slaves
Guided me to His deen
Provided me opportunity to learn His book, recite His kalaam
Promised me paradise if I keep our trust
And Allah always keeps his promise
I am the most fortunate

I was wondering the same thing actually...

Beautiful Reminder

I Believe in Islam

I believe in Islam like I believe in the sun rising, not just because I can see it, but because, by it, I see everything. — Unknown