Sunday, March 26, 2006

Return of the Prodigal Child

“Bagaikan Sireh Pulang ke Gagang”
“You must have only Allah in your Heart. You must nourish your spirit. You must have strength, willpower and discipline” When the student is ready, the teacher will appear - and teachers who subscribed to the critical school of thought make very poor students indeed, be it in the material or spiritual domain. There is always this knee-jerk reaction to authority, this unconscious resistance to power, this impulsive desire to assert self-reliance and individualism; yet I felt indescribable gladness upon receiving the ba’ait.
“Life is about sharing - you need a companion, you need fresh air, your air is stale” The child, the parent and the educator in me had kept me busy - that for so long I found that a companion would only encroach on my space, freedom and tasks. And now, the space seems empty, the freedom redundant, the tasks insignificant, without someone to share with.
As I was packing to move to a new place, I found a book that shed more light on my roots. I was excited, I had to tell someone – I told Mama, she asked me to tell my Murshid – and he said: “That’s why you’re here”. Life is a circuitous journey – not a direct and straight path that leads you to your final destination – there are so many diversions and detours that are inadvertently determined by your own character, or lack of it; yet guilt and conscience will lead you back - you will end up at the place where you began - the end is the beginning.

The Light of Muhammad (peace be upon him)
Life is a Lamp, a Hidden Treasure. And the Essence of Allah can only be known through Creation. An-Nur al-Muhammadi was the Light that was created first before Adam (Allah, Dunia and Muhammad), who then manifested the Light of beautiful names and attributes.
Amin.

No comments: