ALMISKEENAH

 

Patterns of folds and creases adhere to swaying bodies buffeted by gusty winds sweeping across the courtyard. Pigeons and dust fly across Jannatul Baqi, momentarily caressing craggy grave stones before whipping up another frenzy of dust, feathers and billowing fabric. Murmurs and splutters of tears merge into the encoded sound wave vibrancy.

Who says you cannot see love, touch love, hear love, taste love, smell love?

Love is watching and hearing the patter of bare feet, surging as if magnetized, across polished marble and deep plush carpet to those few meters of the entire Universe that is Paradise, to be as close as possible to the adjacent Abode of Peace, where our Beloved, our Intercessor for the real Jannah is aware of us all.

Love is when the physical realm of one’s body is so squashed to the next that one’s identity dissolves.

Love is when the breathing of sisters from lands and places so distanced, sighs and cries in unison.

Love is when for a whole hour one is part of a throng patiently waiting to move another step closer.

Love is when the eyes can see the antique grill separating us from our Beloved SallAllahu alaihi wasallam while the heart has already entered.

Love is the aroma of hundreds, confined and controlled in the heat, wafting with the ethereal fragrance from the Beloved SallAllahu alaihi wasallam.

Love is when the well of ancient tears flow freely, breaking all droughts.

Then suddenly love is not and yet is all….that explosive all consummating flash, a fusion of the outer and the inner, the hidden and the manifest…. surrender.

*

I fumbled my way to an open area beneath the umbrellas. Trying to search for a reality within a body that seemed devoid of a heart. A heart smitten by love, in love, for the love of our Rabb, through His most loved one SallAllahu alaihi wasallam.

My focus is then turned to a search of a different kind, for my niqab and gloves after the crush, when reality hits…THEY ARE GONE! Lost in the crush of love! First disbelief; another search.  Nothing. Then a smile. Then various plans racing through my head. Interesting, as the option of walking home without these was a resounding no option.  I decided on plan a-5+76>%x-1.02+y…..which was….pulling my arms up into my big abaya and attaching my raggedy old SHOE BAG to my face!!!!!!!!!! until  I wander to the shops. But it was still too early for the majority of them to be open. I must have looked a sight in the empty Taiba building, the security guys keeping an eye on me. I finally see one clothing shop open, thinking that throwing a black scarf over my head would be enough to get me home, but Alhumdulillah they had a niqab! And gloves I got from one of the trinket type places which seem to be open from Fajr.

While crossing the courtyard I came across many huge locusts. They have been about for a week or so now. It intrigues me as to why they would venture to Madinah as there is no food to attract them. I feel they too are visiting for the Barakah of this blessed Radiant City and to give their Salam to its honoured resident SallAllahu alaihi wasallam. And Almighty Allah Ta’ala knows best.

It has been fascinating watching the reaction of people to these quite large locusts; squeals and surprised jumps! My “blog” mind thought that a photo of them would be good, but I did not have my camera, knowing that I was going for Ziarah. They all looked dead, just lying on the marble. So I picked one up, thinking I could take a photo of it when I got home, and keep it as a show and tell specimen. I wrapped it carefully in a tissue and placed it gently inside the SHOE BAG! Alhumdulillah for this shoe bag! I then resumed my strolling homeward, thinking how to eat locusts is Halal, and the time I did eat them in Indonesia. Crispy and crunchy! And of how when the Prophet Ayyub Alaihis Sallam was taking a bath,  Allah Ta’ala, sent a swarm of gold locusts falling on him. He started collecting them in his garment when he heard Allah Ta’ala call to him, ‘O Ayyub! Have I not made you rich enough to need what you see? He said, ‘Yes, O Lord! But I cannot dispense with your Blessing.’ A beautiful reminder, always a beautiful reminder in all of the signs sent from Allah Ta’ala. Including His reference to them in His Book, where the disbelievers will rise from their graves:

Their eyes cast down, going forth from their graves as if they were scattered locusts. (Al-Qamar  54:7)

And how Firaun was cursed with a plague of them. (Al-Araf, 7:133)

*

Immersed in Dhikr and the remnants of love from the mornings visit, my reverie was jolted as my “dead” photographic model took flight! It was a majestic escape, large glittering silvery wings soaring to the heavens!

Such a metaphor! Ya Allah, change my dead heart to be soaring to the heavens in my love for You and Your Beloved, SallAllahu alaihi wasallam, Ameen.

 

 

Know that the world is a mirror from head to foot,

In every atom are a hundred blazing suns.

If you cleave the heart of one drop of water,

A hundred pure oceans emerge from it.

If you examine closely each grain of sand,

A thousand Adams may be seen in it.

In its members a gnat is like an elephant,

In its qualities a drop of rain is like the Nile.

The heart of a piece of corn equals a hundred harvests,

A world dwells in the heart of a millet seed.

In the wing of a gnat is the ocean of life.

In the pupil of the eye a heaven.

What though the corn grain of the heart be small

It is a station of the Lord of both worlds to dwell therein.

Mahmud Shabistari from The Garden of Mystery

 

All good is from Allah Ta’ala whereas mistakes are from this humble speck. May Allah Ta’ala Bless all readers, bringing you all closer to Him and His Rasul SallAllahu alaihi wasallam.  May He accept our humble efforts and grant us the capacity to be good and do good. Ameen.