The Man in the Bowler Hat

On the dot at nine O Clock 

The spurious claimant walks past

What a strange behaviour 

From one who said and claimed, the worst 

Of those who did nothing except show an extra kindness 

Does he go to revisit the place of the crime 

Like a criminal that he is, does he go to gloat 

Buoyed by the destruction that he wrecked

Or does he go to bait those that he accused

That when they holler and rebuke 

That man in a suit, 

Who looks like he would not hurt a feather 

Then he would have them sent down 

For malicious communication 

What a stupid reason 

For a force full of corruption 

We do not need to rebuke him 

Nor hurl obscenities 

For the lie is on him 

He is his own destruction. 

Those who auger ill

Ill will they have 

This is true no matter, who 

Each makes their own truth 

And his is a base lie 

That belongs to none but himself 

Let him sleep not easy, 

Nor know any comfort 

Until judgement day. 

END

Shafees Nov 2021

Shortened Sight

My sight beheld the honeyed plane

In a place where no man would wish to be

It peered towards, infinity 

My sight shortened, and yet saw more

But not by eyes, not these instruments that glow. 

But by another, I cannot know 

Imagine if you but would 

The noblest of us all, rejected, cursed 

And made to run from children throwing stones 

And when the angel did appear to his command 

He offered a chance that their children might right 

The wrong they did that day, etched upon our memories 

So that when all Arabia in turmoil did revolt 

Not so the Children of Taif, they did not bend 

The Messenger’s hopes were well founded

But greater still those words laid out a choice 

Made clear that their chance would appear 

And thus it did and they proved true. 

The power of hope cannot be thwarted

Not by all false religions that brood with fear 

That cause men to wrong, to wrong .. 

and yet think they right. 

That they be justified in their denial 

Of God’s goodness being not restrained 

His hands are not tied, you fools, you lie

But peace is upon those who believe

And they do not have to be your people, your kin.  

No fear with attach to them, nor will they grieve. 

I was given the sight to know. 

That I would protected, in that worst of places 

That I would not stop, nor bend with fear

That I might offer the choice to one other

Who has proved true, this long year all through 

Let not fear, nor obfuscating argument be your screen 

Choose with your heart, and feel real. 

(C) Shafees, London 

9th October 2021

Kidney Pains

 My kidney pains 

We start with those things that you know 

That I need to drink more water to flush it through. 

Then after that it stutters, then lurches forward 

The words that is in spasmodic shifts that guile the eyes 

For we were a pair that laughed at each other’s well worn cares

And did not mind what people thought, or if they stared. 

Most definitely the promise of God must be true 

That what comes after must be better than what we’ve been through

Two solitary fingers set alone 

Brought together side to side, before time 

Then pushed apart by sordid jealousies 

Should be together as if they were one 

That promise yet waits for you to call 

The Messenger (saw) who brought pure faith, as true. 

For when you tie your hope on a thing that he said was so. 

Then every trial is only a reason 

To bring further blessings, countlessly so. 

Then put your trust in the source of all goodness. 

And pray that I’m the reason for your elevation.  

Nothing comes Free

When we contemplate the exemptions from the five fardh, and what the greatest of our worship asks of us, therein is a great benefit. 

For the Salaat is obligatory for the sane, and only the insane are exempt from it. To the extent that if the call to prayer is made, and you are within the precincts of the masjid that you needs must answer the call and pray the salaat in congregation with the Jamaa’. 

Having prayed before with another Jamaa’ is no excuse. The only excuse is the lack of sanity. 

Furthermore incapacity is itself not an excuse, because in that instance we are to pray with our eyes - make the rukoo and sujood by lowering our gaze. 

The Zakah, poor due, is obligatory on all who hold assets in excess of their immediate need. And therefore it is not due on your home, or your car, or your provision. But it is due on anything that you hold to make a profit on, and on your wealth that you save. 

Interestingly here our society is not predicated, as this is, on misfortune nor the fear of regret of it. Whereas this society encourages saving, our does not. 

The exemption here to pay Zakah is the poor and those that do not have, or have just enough for their own m, and their families, upkeep. 

Sawm, the Ramadan fast, is incumbent on us all as a community. The exemption from it is for the old, infirm, unwell and the traveller. The expiation of which is the feeding of the poor. 

Hajj, our most perfect worship and the last to made clear is incumbent on all who are able and have sufficient means. 

Recently I had the good fortune to take my three sons for Hajj. There I impressed on them that the Hajj that we were doing was NOT their fardh Hajj. For that would require for them to perform it with their own funds and their own hard earned money. 

Of the five, the testimony of faith is incumbent upon all. 

After that the ordained five daily prayers are the most accessible, for did not God make the whole World as a place of sujood for us all. So that when the appointed time arrives, we stand to pray wherever we are. 

And the next that is twinned, nearly always in the Quran, with the established Salaat (prayer) is Zakah (the Poor due). 

And even though the Messenger (saw) made it so easy for the poor to perform charity. For he said even a smile is Charity. And that the prayer is Charity for your bones and your body. And that every step that you take to the Masjid washes away sins. 

Even then the poor of Medina felt keenly that they lacked in that they could not give in Zakah, so much so that they complained to the Messenger (saw). 

And then he gave them the Tasbih. 

That they felt the keenness in the lack of means is telling. Especially when you consider that the Messenger (saw) said that they would be the first to enter Heaven (their questioning being lighter). 

That they understood that the religion is not just lip service. But that the greatest of it is giving, and sacrificing so that another may benefit because of you. That is where you proof lies. The proof of who you are. 

If anything is worth doing then it is worth sacrificing for, paying for it and doing it. 

Indeed that which differentiates us from the Ahmadiyyq is that we do not accept free services, or gifts, irrespective of where they come from. 

That we know that for something to be pure and blessed it needs to come from us, for us, and not be provided by another. 

*Knowledge is sought through study and contemplation.*

*Not this above, nor lectures, nor talks.*

The First Command

*So oppress not the orphan,

Nor turn away the petitioner unheard,

But instead of your Lord’s bounties do proclaim.”

S Ad-Duha, the morning brightness, the last three verses. 

*ACCEPTED OPINIONS*

Most Mufasir say that the revelation that followed on from the first six verses of Surah al-Alaq (the start of revelation), was Surah Qalam (the Pen). 

This because they like to think of revelation in linear terms, as one following logically on from another; the last two verses of the first revelation, after all, having talked of the Pen; “He (God) who taught by the Pen, taught man that which he did not know”. 

And so they suppose would not God, Most Gracious, expound more on the celestial (or even archetypal) Pen? That which we know He created first and commanded it to write, and it wrote all that would be. 

But then when you think about it the Quran is far from linear. Surah Alaq, the first revelation, sits 96th in the order of Surahs (or chapters) out of a total of 114. 

And that too it’s last 14 verses being revealed separately, on another occasion, from its first 6 verses. 

Indeed it is often forgot that the ordering of the Quran is part of the revelation itself. 

That it is not in the order of it’s coming down. 

And that the companions being fully cognisant of this fact, decided to set up a stringent committee with stringent rules to determine the Mushaf that we have today. *1

Some other Mufasir say that the second Surah to be revealed was S. Muzzamil, the wrapped up one, in reference to what happened directly after the first revelation. 

The Messenger (saw) ran home to Bibi Khadija (ra), his wife and the first of the believers, in a state of shock, anxiety and even fear and said “Cover me, cover me”. 

But when we read on past the first few verses of Muzzamil,  the argument and rhythm of the passage seems seamless. 

And it clearly recommends standing in prayer at night, as a precursor to what is implied in verse 8, and then made clear in its twinned Surah - Mudathir (the cloaked one).- the public call to belief. 

Those who know the Seerah know that the public call to belief came after the Messenger (saw) had invited his kin to a meal and then invited them to the true religion. 

It is as if God, in S Muzzamil, reminds the Messenger of how he felt after the first revelation, of the fear, trepidation and anxiety that enveloped him and then informs him that the prayer at night is the best to counter those feelings. And it is beyond certain that as he entered the public call to faith, that these feelings would likewise reappear. 

Furthermore the kernel of our perfectly revealed prayer, for Jibreel taught it to our Messenger (saw) who then taught it to us, is Surah al-Fathihah. And we know from a Prophetic Hadith that no prayer is complete without it. 

*A PROTECTED QURAN*

Then to hold that Muzzamil, which advocates the night prayer, descended before al-Fathihah, is incredible. 

It is once again evident that Allah t’ala protected the Quran from being fully explained, even that is in regards to its ordering, that we each might have the occasion to deliberate here and now. *2

*The Seerah: the biography of the Messenger*

We know of the earlier life of the Muhammed (saw) prior to his receiving the commission from God and becoming His Messenger. 

That he was kind to the orphan, since he himself was one fully at age of around three. That he treated the poor and destitute kindly. That he hated injustice. And that he had lived a lifetime amongst his people, for he only received the commission from God at forty, and was known to be honest and truthful to the extent that his own people named him al-Amin (the trustworthy). 

And then seclusion became dear to him. 

And one night the quiet of that seclusion was broken by a mighty word delivered to him by a noble heavenly Messenger, the angel Jibreel (Gabriel), and that was the beginning of 23 years of revelation that gave us the Quran. 

The Messenger said of it that the revelation came and “it was as if it was written on my heart”. 

The revelation says of itself that if it had descended on a mountain, the mountain would have humbled itself and crushed asunder in awe (Surah Hashr). 

That was a phenomenal event, the like of which had never happened before to any other Messenger or Prophet. The like of which will never happen again. 

The Seerah then tells us of a period of silence in revelation. Whilst the Messenger (saw) lay initially in fear of it, with time his thoughts were “why has My Lord forsaken me?” 

And it is with that that the second revelation descended - Ad Duha- the Morning Brightness. 

*Ad-Duha*

“By the morning brightness 

And by the night at its quietest 

Nay, your Lord has not forsaken you, nor is He displeased with you 

 And what will come later (for you) is better than what is before (you now). 

And your Lord will give to you that will make you well pleased. 

Did He not find you an orphan and give you shelter?

Did He not find you straying and guide you?

Did He not find you in need and enrich you?

So oppress not the orphan,

Nor turn away any petitioner unheard,

And do proclaim your Lord’s bounties (to them)”

Muhammed (saw) was already known to be kind and generous to the orphans, poor and destitute. 

And whilst this confirmed him in what he had already been doing. The revelation took it to a whole new level. 

*Comfort them.*

Make them happy, and remind them of what they already have to be thankful for. 

It is as if this first command is a throwback to his description in the former scriptures as being a Comforter (Paraclete). 

And every other command is but an extension of this, and an explanation of this. 

For the Messenger (saw) taught us that if you have a roof over your head, and know where your next meal is coming from, then that is enough of a bounty to be thankful for. 

And that gratitude to God, is indeed an unbounded bounty. 

*Al Fathihah*

Indeed when we think deeply about it, did al-fathihah precede the sending down of our prayer, or did the prayer precede it?

The former must surely be the case. 

And then the forth line which is often rendered as “thee alone do we worship”, since worship had not been shown to us before that time, must be rendered as “thee alone do we serve”. 

The question then must be “how do we serve God?”, and we should rightly expect the answer to be given within al-Fathihah itself. 

“All thanks is due to the Lord (Sustainer/ Provider) of the Worlds,

The Most Mercuful, the Ever Forgiving”

Indeed God loves to do good. 

Sustains, and provides, us all from places we see and from places that we don’t see. 

And this He does out of kindness and generosity. 

So then should we not serve Him best by doing good, and by making the people happy?

And is not the best good that we can do, reminding our fellow men and women of God’s infinite care, mercy and goodness.  And then making it easy for them to appreciate that in the ordained prayer. 

This is In essence making them happy by reminding them of how much there is to be thankful for. 

This is why the prayer must and should be established. Because it makes it easy for us, as a people, to come closer to God, to do good and to be happy. 

*Knowledge is sought through study and contemplation 

Not lectures, nor talks, nor this above.*

*1 Ali (ra) the cousin of the Messenger, the first youth to accept Islam, and the fourth of the Rightly Guided Caliphs, was fully literate. And had his own chronological, hand written, Quran burnt after the compilation of the Uthmani Quran. 

*2 following on from *1, it’s clear that Ali (ra) being fully literate since he was the scribe for the treaty of Hudabiyyah, and being present since the beginning of revelation would have a better than good grasp on the order of revelation. 

And then he had his own chronological Quran burnt, and never once alluded to it afterwards. 

It is as if he knew the importance of the Quran posing a question about each verse. The time of its revelation, and the context of the revelation.