This morning I watched Celebrate Mercy, its Day of Arafah program. I am ahead of the times, so to speak (actually in more than one way). Malaysia is hours ahead of most of my readers, so sayteth my statistics. The hours behind top three are United States, Canada and the Netherlands. Then comes Malaysia and others trickle in. Communication can become difficult – even my Saudi and Bahrain folks are minus five hours from my real time. Nothing I can do about it, except move. Good old Edmonton is -14 hours. The most important time zone is London, the time zone of my blog master (-7) which is interestingly the same as Nigeria which no longer concerns me.
Back to Celebrate Mercy. I suggest you tune in, apparently you can go backward on YouTube. The program can best be described as rich. Rich in history, rich in knowledge, rich in the faith. Speakers told of the history of the Hajj. I had knowledge of some, but not all, of course. I learned a great deal. The speakers were all learned, well schooled, with degrees from prestigious universities. It did inspire me to go back to school- get an advanced degree in Islamic studies. There are many schools scattered throughout the world. For many reasons Egypt would be an excellent choice. Was not able to listen to the entire program as breakfast beaconed. I left during the Question and Answer segment but heard an interesting question (and answer). The focus was upon the the Prophet’s (pbuh) final speech made at Mount Arafah.The scholar was asked what was s the. most important admonition. (An admonition is an authoritative counsel or warning)
The answer was the prohibition of riba reasoning that debt is crippling to ethics and morality, greed and avarice walk hand and hand. This could destroy nations, the greed of their leaders make them impotent. Not players on the world stage but evil controllers. For me this had special and chilling implications. When learned of a Muslim man’s wheeling and dealing I admonished him. Strangely, rather unbelievably, had downloaded on my Apple devices Islamic Finance: Ethics, Concept, Practice. WhatsApped with this message.
Me: You are not, as a Muslim, to be dealing with money in this manner and it is said to be destroying your country. I strangely have this book in my possession, I can send it to you.
He: Inshallah. I am too busy.
Me: You can at least read the Table of Contents. Here it is.
I terminated contact with this man but am certain that he did not read even the Table of Contents. He was born in the faith, his family influential and scholarly. He absolutely had to know of the riba prohibition. I would not like to be him on Judgment Day, nor members of his family if he is allowed to continue his practices.
Back to the program which will continue during the next ten days. The link: celebrate mercy.org also celebrate mercy.org/live .
There were more Q & A’s. Another question spoke of the effect of Gaza’s hardships on his ability to concentrate on the mercy of Allah (SWT). The learned answer was rather simple actually: God is in control, and knows what He is doing. That one could march and protest, and perhaps pray, but that would have no effect on the outcome. Then went on to speak of hardship and benefit in readily understandable terms. He said that hardships are necessary using a heart monitor analogy. There is constriction and then an expansion. If the heart keeps expanding it would go off the charts – there needs to be the construction of hardships to balance the benefits.
The series will continue with children’s programming as well as intellectual content. I am committed to continuing watching and donating, once I figure out how to do that.
Change of Pace
As usual we shall now speak of the amusing aspects of my day. Went to breakfast. It is hopelessly crowded. The government of Malaysia persists in giving its citizens multiple long weekends and other holidays allowing families to take a few days to be with one another. This is very different from the USA, Canada and Saudi Arabia. I am glad for the Malaysians but sad for me. Such times finds this hotel overbooked (yet again) for these four days. Nobody told me ahead of time. Oh well. I am always quite quickly seated for breakfast as I am only one person. Some one joined me at my solitary table, it was Mickey Mouse. You will see. With his permission took his photo sending the photo of Mickey to several people I WhatsApp. Got only one response but what a gift it was. I had written to this one person as a caption under the photo you shall see, at the conclusion of the blog.
Me: It is fun here. This guy joined me for breakfast. He did not eat much so it was okay. Hahaha
He: A response in Arabic with many red rose emoji.
Me: I cannot read Arabic but……. Then sent many loving and happy Avatars.
Who was this Arab man? Not a man – a boy. My eight year old Grandson Hamza who lives in Medina with his family. Met him there, went to his school for Parent’s Day, invited by his mother..I miss him so much. It seems a miracle, he, on more than one occasion, knows when I need him and he gets in touch at exactly the right moment. I am truly blessed. I pray, Inshallah, that we will be with one another again.
Later in the day, a member of my Lexis Suites family translated the Arabic. I was then able to send a Eid-Al-Adha Mubarak message back to Hamza
Me: To you Hamza and your family. One of my Lexis Suites family translated the Arabic for me. So I am sending the blessings back to you.
Earlier had the very best time with two of the women staff members. I have many stickers, wrote the letter A on them. Everyone’s shirts say Lexis Suites. I smiled at them:
Me: Tolon (which is Malaysian for please, I just learned it) Now your shirt says Alexis.
They laughed, I took their photo promising I would put it on my blog. They are wearing face mask these days so I will not be invading their privacy but putting the photograph on the blog.
Purposefully I receive no responses to this blog, so I have no idea if people Like or are somehow offended by my words. Instagram different forum. Here is an example, Instagram Likes to a Response which I am loving.
This was to a reel from the brilliant……..
Me: Everything you say about is absolutely true about the the absolute immorality of the USA. I am a recent blessed , a revert at the age of 77. Beat up by a Marin County police department forced to leave after being a respected citizen for 50 years. So I fled. Now a refugee with retirement income from my County employment. Alhamduillah.
Received word this morning that this Response received 293 Likes. I find that truly amazing and totally gratifying. Makes it all worth it – that and the fact I was able to escape the United States of America. Conditions there have only worsened since I fled in October of 2022. Gaza has enabled the world to see the immorality of the USA with greater clarity – never possible before. I was dutifully paying federal incomes taxes to buy armaments for Israel; dutifully paying California State taxes to fund police departments and corrupt courts that wrongfully evicted me from my apartment. They are not getting my money any more. I shudder at their evil and rejoice in my freedom from oppression.
Briefly back to the words of the scholars seeking on Celebrating Mercy program. I am a visual learner so take notes of lectures, speeches and other audio I wish to remember. Made notes which I reread. I am not sure what the speaker was explaining but he spoke of Aisha and the first time she saw tears of joy. She was a child, her father received word that he was to leave Mecca to join the Prophet Mushammed (pbuh) in Medina. He cried, Aisha realized that these were not tears of sorrow but tears of joy. I write at the conclusion of the Introduction of my self published book In Contemplation and In Conversation: Companionship at the Tate Britain.
The blog became an extension, shall we say of this book. The book became my buoy, it kept me afloat. The word “buoyed” can be used figuratively. As in this case, a person (or a book) can buoy up (‘lift up’) someone’s spirits by providing help and empathy.
“This book rescued me from hopelessness and despair, loneliness and alienation. My creative juices were dried up. I was barren. Now I have a fertile mind, more so than ever before. I would like to thank the artists who painted, the Tate Britain that collected, Chris, Jessica, my friends at the Rex Whistler and Lynne. I weep as I write, not tears of sorrow but tears of joy.
The Islamic Faith instructs Believers that all in this dunya is temporary. The artists the Tate Britain and Chris remain in my life. Jessica, my friends at the Rex Whistler and Lynne are no longer. Lynne, my high school and university friend, my help mate and editor died. No idea what happened to Jessica nor the Rex Whistler folk.
The fate of my self published book is also in jeopardy. More about that later. A thoroughly unbelievable story. However the absolute truth.
Today I wore the t-shirt Lynne gave me which says: Current Mood: Alexis as I pinned the A on staff’s Lexis shirts. To those whom I am close to I cried, tears of sorrow saying:
Me: I will always miss her. The worse part is that she was not a Muslim so I know I will not be seeing her in Jannah.
I have made inestimable sacrifices, endured many hardships because I became a Muslim. There are so many benefits. One is that you will see those close to you in Jannah. I shall reserve my intimacy, my deepest caring and my love to those of the Islamic Faith who make an effort to live as Muhammed (pbuh) lived.
Recently a man instructed:
He: Be like Khadijah.
I immediately responded.
Me: Be like him.
He: I will try to be
Me: I love you for saying that.
Unfortunately, alas and alack and to his own demise, that is all he did – say the words. The Quran instructs: Shun false words!
In the end I did – shunned him with his false words.
His false words returned to me, despite all of my efforts to shun him. He used a false front on Instagram to circumvent the restrictions to voice message the words of Eid-al-adha Mubarak. Initially responded not knowing the identity of the sender. His greetings did fall on deaf ears. Fall on deaf ears, an idiom means to be disregarded or ignored. This expression transfers physical inability to hear to someone who does not want to listen. I turned a deaf ear. Turn a deaf ear is an idiomatic phrase that means “To ignore or refuse to listen to someone or something; to fail to pay attention to something someone says”.
My rather accidental message to him I am sure will fall on deaf ears. Announced that I had bigger fish to fry which meant that I have more important or pressing matters to attend to, rather than dealing with a particular issue at hand. Bigger fish can be a priority objective, a superior purpose, a supreme goal It is all of those, gentle readers, You shall hear about it in due time.
There will be photos of my breakfast companion, two staff members with proudly wearing their A’s, an Eid greeting received and sent,
