Incantation

A French poem I translated/interpreted into English
by the French Symbolist Albert Samain, enjoy.

Incantation

O night enchantress, O softness, O solitude,
The landscape with its reedy flutes
Welcomes thee. . . thee and thy naked flesh,
Flesh which thrills the tired spirit of the earth.
The eve of dreams lets slip from its fingers
Garlands of flowers, so it may sleep in thy arms, so fresh.
The heart shudders, so weak in the sun, heaving
And twisting its hair in a fountain of tears.
The peasants returning to these fields of silence
Take in the twilight's eternal bright tinge;
A passing of sadness from a breath of sky
Vaguely illuminates this mysterious pool.
Last sounds in the path fill with shade. Day's end. . .
O night, heart of nuptial flowers, thou spy;
The soils become sleepy and cattle lie,
The maidservant closes a gate at path's end.
A magnetic moon glows on thy breast,
An alluring nymph sways in the rushes;
And all that we dream in our sobbing hearts
Ascends like the sea, towards thy mystical face.
The dead weight of the harmonious hour under the skies,
In the distant extending shade, sanctifies the lines;
And the man, awake to the mysterious signs,
Seems slowly to assemble a prayer in his eyes. . .
There in the distance, the village presses unending rooftops
And only nameless multitudes emerge,
The monuments, alive as well as the shepherds,
Take care to testify their hearts in the darkness.
The spangled abyss opens with pensive ardency,
And the spirit, visited by unknown rumors,
Is astonished, quivering... listening, like large black rivers
To the fullness of clouds, passing eternity.
Intoxication! Arms reach out to the sky! Bewildered flights. . .
A kiss to infinity which makes the moment die. . .
And behind our faces - this struggling desire,
Always, forever Icarus's thread of hereditary pride.
A sacred breeze blows from deep space,
Unfastens a fruit that hangs from a women's thigh,
While with its approach in the distance, great hearts
Burn aflame, like bonfires on distant peaks.
I greet thee, O night of shepherds and prophets,
Mother of infants with long black veils,
Fertilize those twins of torment by which
The works of man and women are made.
Proud night! August sanctuary of the secrets,
O night sister of death impenetrable,
Night of Orpheus and Isis, O goddess, venerable,
Primordial grandmother of seas and forests!
Divine night, virgin, pure and merciful,
Who revives the love in thy obscure smile.
Thee, who lay on the heart thy long hands of azure,
Portle of the innocent who sleep below thy mantle,
Only thee can calm the unknown torments
Of those lying in daily tortures.
Their faces burn, and see here thy somber hair;
Their hearts, alone, and see here thy naked arms.
Each one untying its shackles from an infamous mask.
In thy forests, under the watchful gold eyes of an owl,
Who, with all its heart, surveys an insane bow,
Goes splendid and free into its soul.
In the bushes, however, shades create
A sentimental bird, a sad, divine bird
In deserted gardens where leaves palpitate,
And make weep its heart in crystal sobs.
Midnight...The vault is like a delicate church.
The book of gold and iron is fully resplendent,
And sublime flesh vibrates in ether!
O vague silence transversing the void. . .
Flowers, already breathing strange, bizarre evenings;
The dream ventures... entwined by Helen,
Across these far seas of human thought
Led by its chariot with large black swans.
O night, thy flesh divine, makes the earth leap,
Thy cup of black silver, filled with deep space,
Pours upon us thy most sacred of splendors,
And I will adore thee for this, this mystery in triplicate,
O night enchantress, O softness, O solitude.

Translation © 2001 Kevin Germain

thougths

thank you all who responded to my last post of frustration, and I apologize ~ I don't personally like public displays of unhappiness when it has to do with people and thier choices. Alas, it is human nature...

It is very nice to meet you Jehanzeb, your blog is very nice.

I never had and hope I never will have desires to 'convert' people. There is a huge of gaping gulf of difference between giving knowledge when asked for and actively trying to change the thinking of another person. While my feelings were directed at one catagory, truely they are not the only ones in my opinion that should be taken to task for ignoring the spirit of their faith. Treat others the way you would like them to treat you. (Lk 6:31 Mt 7:12 Th 6 - 56 )

"One of you will not attain faith, until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself."
Saying of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him.

and yet, I too, forget... "And seek assistance through patience and prayer, and most surely it is a hard thing except for the humble ones. " (Quran II:45) and also "And whoever is patient and forgiving, these most surely are actions due to courage" (XLII:43).

I forget because I am human, and they forget because they are human. They judge because they are human and I judge because I am too, and the evil that we do is against our own souls — it does not affect Allah in His Greatness in any way. May He help us to have more rememberance of His Truth and they capacity to act with it and the intention to follow His Command that is ever present within the secrets of our hearts. The religion is finished because He has given us what we need to know inorder to be sucessful in this life and in the life to come, revelations by the book are no longer necessary because all the information on how to act kindly and justly with forgiveness is already present in our hearts and minds. WE KNOW WHAT IT IS THAT GOD ASKS OF US, now we must act as He has instructed us to.

May Allah forgive me of my impatience, and may He bless my readers for the strength of their kindnesses.

Why is it that Christians...?

Outside a few very notable exceptions, I have noticed that Christians don't seem to like acknowledging people of other faith... why is that? Its not much of a problem with Jews, Buddahists, Muslims, or even atheists, for that matter.

Interesting... its like I got cooties or something. Gee, I hope not.

It must be really hard, when the existence of other faiths essentially makes your own faith a moot point...

Comet Sonnet

It was an old poem, now, in the heat of inspiration it is a song...

Oh! I can not escape the breath of this day,
I've drunk this langourous cup of night afar,
Poured down mouthfuls of galaxies, comets, and stars,
Bursting, sweet and ripe, like grapes. Oh this day!

This day! A day, a void, a death deeply human.
So touchingly sacred - (silently nurtured ennui.)
A recompense, a release from desire, and see,
My love, breathing a breath of who's truely no one...

O sweet comet-like tears turning to wine,
When our sun's aurora sweeps us away,
I beg of it, kiss these droplets of wine this way;

O vapourless void! Enrapture this day,
I press my Belovéd, O Universe, O Heart,
I can not escape the breath of this day...

Kevin Germain -- june 2000

Adana Kebab

Connection

There are many avenues that one can tred when contemplating the option of sufism as a full time affair. Most of them are quite valid in their own ways, each has their own specialities, their drawbacks, and their stations. By stations I mean is how far that particular flavor of sufism can bring the student. In this day and age we have the very necessary manner of egalitarianism, equal opportunity for all - a very right and proper way of addressing all of our political and social needs, truely. Yet, the inward being of all of us is very much different, each of our interiors has radically various needs and capacities, this we know is true by observing each of our activities. Look at how each of us interpret our pastimes, for instance, our interior lives becomes very much externalised when we are relaxed.

So, inwardly we are varied, our inward lives - our "spirit" - is unique for every individual, and this means our capacities for wanting and knowing our interior varies person to person. So there are different schools of sufism that address these different kinds of interior lives, actually one could even posit the idea that different religions possibly entertain this dynamic as well - but I think it is perhaps more complex than that. Outwardly we are equal, inwardly unique.

From a certain standpoint there need be only one question when considering a "spiritual path."

Is it connected?

By connected, I mean connection... as in is there a direct communication with the Ultimate...? Let me put it another way. Is the knowledge, or teaching, or inspiration, produced by rote? Is it soley based upon a book that is dated in time? Is the attraction simply a matter of charisma? Is it founded upon the actions of one person, or does it transcend all of the living people that partake in promoting it?

In persuing a spiritual path, like sufism, one should check to see if the school that one is considering has a living connection, there should be at least one living person that embodies and carries a ready line of communication to Reality, yes, to God. This does NOT mean that this person is infallible, all powerful, or is superhuman... rather we ALL have the potential to have an immeadiate open communication with our Source, it is just that there are somethings that we have let get in the way. Which is why some of us seek a spiritual path, to return to this natural state of connection. We need to make sure, though, in our searching that the path we are investigating actually has what we are looking for...

Sufism

Separation II

Separation II

And did thy ancient mem'ry fly
Dauphin, at Parnassus
To the Oracles of Delphi,
The navel of the earth?

There, did thy existential truth
Dauphin, discern for thee
The moral nature of thy youth,
What'd this alter forsee?

What'd thy spangled temple open
Dauphin, a deep recess
Of dreamt regret, nigh forgiven,
Celest'l recompense?


And in thy prophetic fervor
Dauphin, combine divine
Encumb'rances, thy soothsayer,
To love this absent moonshine?

Or were thee at Apollo's shrine
Dauphin, when he did speak,
'Know thyself', knowing this, thy pride
Thou dreamt that did bespeak?

Tell me, Dauphin, are thee not proud?

Separation I

This was from a quartet of poems I wrote on the concept of mankind's separation from his Source,It starts of with a quote from Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi, may his secret be blessed. Note, "Dauphin" means the heir apparent to the throne of France, generally a prince that is gone and waiting to fill his office, ie; impying that he has forgotten his job...

Separation I

Who knows whether the
candle's wax tears are shed
because of its proximity
to the fire or from its
separation from the honey
of the hive?

Jalaluddin Rumi

I

What's become thy ancient mem'ry
Dauphin, why thee wander
Silent among wailing banshee,
Where's thy weeping lover?

What doth her siren song recall
Dauphin, are thee lonely
Here in her emerald ocean vault
Dauphin, aren't thee lonely?

Have you forgotten thy promise
Dauphin, will she be true
Always, and forever possess
A thousand nights for you?

Or did thy lover steal thy heart
Dauphin, and rip thy breast,
Tearing it, piece by piece, apart
To appease her savagness?

Did thy lover wisk it away
Dauphin, one more trophy
For mermaids in the ocean main,
Dauphin, she's thy banshee?

What else have thee forgotten,
Dauphin?

Misery, a sufi perspective...

Darius had made a comment on Kenneth Finton's song from the previous post and I thought it worth while in reposting it and the thoughts it generated.

Realizing how much of our "misery and strife" that we create for ourselves has to be major in anyone's life. (There are also forms of misery that we don't create for ourselves - I think mainly of things that can happen to our bodies - but even here, not creating additional unecessary suffering around that becomes key to going forward with integrity


I am always bowed low when I realise that I am to blame for anothers sorrow, that for me is the worst burden to bear. Most certainly, misery is a condition in life that I hope we strive with all of our might to eradicate in other peoples lives. We should be checking at all times to make sure our actions are not contributing to another person's misery - a tall order! And yet, I think we create our own misery by our responses, yes, even in the worst of times...

From a personal perspective, when we take the step to accept what ever it is that Reality sends our way, and we take this step because we want to know Truth - then each footstep is filled with the awarness that everything is from Reality. Our perception of a personal misery, no matter how devastating - turns out to be a response, a plea to the Universe, crying "Why did you do this to me?" When we fully well know that we are not special in deserving a exemption from lifes trials. An earthquake is a terrible trial to bear, truely - but the misery we feel in experincing it is partially a statement saying that we should not be experiencing it.

Pain is real, but who can say that we are not supposed to have it?

Progressive Faith Blog Carnival!

Hello folks! Welcome to this weeks edition of Progressive Faith Blog Carnival! Given my proclivity for art and faith I suggested this weeks focus be on the intersection within these two dynamics, or just some sort of artistic expression that covers a aspect of your faith.

We kick it off with a great song that Kenneth Finton wrote: Forgive Yourself where he rhapsodizes us with the remembrance that we are 'one with this miracle of life' and don't blame the misery we create on others.

You yourself are one with this miracle of life.
You yourself create all your misery and strife.
Don't blame it on another,
it all within you dwells.
Can you come to discover
all is well within yourself?

Forgive yourself. It's only right.
Accept yourself. It is your right.

Forgive all those who did you wrong,
they only did what you passed on.
Forgive yourself for being weak,
we all feel weak before we've strength.

Nothing anyone can take
is worth a worried care.
Nothing anyone can steal
is worth a ruffled hair.

Does the rich man have a carefree life?
People want what he has, he has to keep it out of sight.
Does the poor man live to be happy and well?
Or do each of us create the place that we dwell?

Forgive yourself. It's only right.
Accept yourself. It is your right.

You yourself are one with this miracle of life.
You yourself create all your misery and strife.

(©HT MUSIC, BMI)


Bint-eh Adam or Daughter of Adam, in Arabic, hooked us up with a beautiful black and greenish painting of butterflies within the Ka'bah - the house of worship which the Prophet Abraham built, where Muslims try to make a yearly pilgrimage to. She shares with us her ideas of Allah as the Painter and Humankind as the canvas, and how that asks change of us. She says, "Think of the two Holy Cities and the Sanctuaries: one is black, the other green. A cube and a dome!What is more amazing is that when I told a well-wisher this, I was reminded that “every colour has an accompanying level of adhab (respect)." Yes, I couldn't agree more, every sound, touch and thought suggests a corresponding appropriate response... thank you Bint-eh Adam!

Mata has taken a hard look beyond the front page news stories motivated by the revelation that we in the privilged west do not get the full picture,,, and nor do we try to find out, she points out. She is staggered by what she finds and prays that we act and are not silent anymore. Amin.

Shawn of www.lofitribe.com fame gives us his thoughts conncerning the so called “Marriage Protection Amendment” and the religious ramifications surrounding it as well as the social issue toward which it points: Homosexual Marriage. Thanks Shawn for chipping in!

Paul Decelles also blogs on the issues homosexuality and the Church.

VirusHead has problems with the term "The pre-pregnant", its very funny, thanks.

xpatriatedtexan's blog, "Christian Liberal is not an oxymoron", posts on the hypocracy of the US lecturing Germany on human trafficking.

Mike posts his description The DaVinci Code movie and its value to people, modern society, and religion - and breaks off into the symbolical, consciousness, archetypal meanings that are sometimes ignored within our societies.

Our good sufi poet and friend Tiel serves us up a helping of poetry, with a side of religion by sharing with us her poetic manifesto of sorts where she explains her path towards serving poetry, and thereby surrendering to Allah within that. A must read... thank you Tiel.

Lastly I'd like to share with you all a post that Darius sent:

Art and Faith:

Much modern art - in general, I'm not a fan - seems to me to express faithlessness. Or, when it's good (but I don't know how modern Van Gogh, for example, is considered to be), it testifies to a struggle between faith and forms of thought and experience that leave us unconscious of it.

And of course there's always religious art, sometimes very striking and wonderful, that testifies to faith in the form of belief systems. Fine if you share the belief system; if you don't, then you appreciate the beauty but find the religious conviction aspect more or less off putting.

My favorite esthetic - just one I happen to know something about, I'm far from well educated in art - was what I found in the Romantic and Victorian poets and essayists of Britain. Writers like Tennyson, Wordsworth, Shelley, Keats, Coleridge, Arnold, and why am I forgetting his name (the author of Sartor Resartus) were doing two things in their work.

First, they were grappling in complete honesty with the changing world view and challenge to traditonal beliefs posed by science. Second, they fully acknowledged the heights of aspiration and moral passion that are no less factual and real than the facts that science is discovering.

To me, much of what they wrote testifies to faith and other spiritual realities in a way that showed the vitality of spiritual life. It was strikingly beautiful. At the same time, they remained poets and not prophets; to me, they never managed to come up with what I think is needed: the clear articulation of a basis for faith within our shared lived experience and not belief.

(I actually spent 25 years on this project myself, but have run into the fact that my manuscript won't be published. Really tried. But no "marketing platform" today means no publication, especially in nonfiction.)

Thank you Darius, and thank you all for sharing with me and the world your thoughts, struggles, and prayers. May God bless you all and your endeavors and help us all to know Truth and act with it, to know falsehood and to help us avoid it. Now go out in the world and spread Truth!


Sufism
Blogging
Faith
Art
Religion
Spirit
Poetry
Music
Painting
News
Activism
BlogCarnival

Blog about slugs

If you have a fondness for things without spines, no, not you ex-boyfriend or politician, but slugs - Yes slugs, than the blog Snail's Tails is for you, lots of pictures... I couldn't decide which post was better to point you to, hmmm should it be the slug laying eggs? Or do you want to see a slug eating chopped up earthworms?

hey! How did that picture get here! Ooops, sorry!


Image © Copyright 2005 Aydin Örstan

G o d as image

One of the great difficulties in speaking or writing about this conception of a 'divine creator' is that when we say "god" the images or ideas that arise in our hearts or minds have a tendency to clash with what other people think or feel. It is painfully all too apparent that each one of us identifies a completely different image with the term 'god'.

And yet, strangely, I don't think it could be any other way, could it?

By now we are all very used to hearing and seeing these vigorous so-called fundamentalists argue a strict description of G-d... have any of you actually noticed the level of diversity to which many of them actually fall to, if you were to compare them? Oh, sure we got the slogans, "Jesus is Lord", "Allah Akbar" (God is Great), "Don't put a period where God put a comma, He is still speaking".... ect. I'd like to suggest the idea that the personal value of these kinds slogans very rarely has much real to say about the hidden true image in our hearts which we attach our deepest idea of God to.

Should you dig deeper than the cheap penny slogans and discover the parts to which each of these fundamentalists claim, you will find that many can not agree on a strict description of their supposed idea about "their" god. I am almost 40 years old, been raised in a overwhelming predominately Christian community and I have not yet heard ONE person agree in ESSENCE and SPECIFICS on the nature of the Christian Trinity with another Christian. Nope, not once... Each church had their various slogans, to which each person of faith felt comfortable with, which they could identify with, - but get to the meat of the matter and usually the whole congregation is all over the map... Well, thats not fair, my community can't much be counted among the fundamentalists... but I have sat with all sorts of people and I think you know what I mean.

One of the troubles with this is that it seems like we are going along acting like we are all adherents of the same image; thinking, feeling and SEEING the same things! Especially the fundamentalists! Heaven forbid should we find out otherwise.. Oh, the places you'll go!

So, here I am, a Sufi Muslim, in the middle of middling America, spilling my guts about my personal sense of 'what god is" and/ or is not... Not too many seem to care, cause hell' this guy's bound for hell right? I dunno, I just don't know. I just want to be on the record for pointing out that our personal conceptions don't affect squat!

and yet, they are everything, too. I think so at least. What do you think? What affect does YOUR conception of the Divine have upon Reality?

I don't think it does. I do think it matters greatly in how we move in and about our reality - reality with a small 'r'. Our lives is infused with our accepted notions of who, what and where we are going. It affects every single one of our choices: what we eat, where we sit, how we look, everything. Period. It matters not whether it is an atheistic or otherwise, how ever you spin it, vague or otherwise, you positively have some sort of notion on the nature of YOUR own reality. The notions we have, unfortunately, are just that, thoughts and perception linked variously together by the seemingly haphazard discovery of them, irregardless of their incomplete nature.

So, for the record, I will share with you my notions, I'll share the secret image that is touched when I utter the word "G O D" or what I prefer, Allah. (Never mind why I prefer it, thats my business, if you really care, ask and I will post later about why.)

The Allah that I know is the Unlimited Conscious Energy that Sustains and is in charge of All Existence. I witness this as true, in my own being, when I see every single action - all of them! In the blinking of my eye I see Allah's Power! In the burning flame I see Allah - how? Science has proven to us that energy can not be destroyed, it just changes form, so in the candle I see the wax (which is a shivering collection of electrons and atoms bound together by mutual energetic attraction) become flame which becomes smoke and returns to air which therein it returns again to become more food for fire... Endless changing of shape, nature, and potentiality! Science sees molecules and atoms, just dots waiting to change. I see potentialities. Today I see Allah the Destructor feeding the flames of the candle, where yesterday I saw Allah the Maker of Form and the Steadfast in the hardened shape of a wax taper. Who knows what tomorrow will bring the smoke to be? Perhaps a leaf...

My thoughts are such that because we are in the cycle of living and dying, ie; change - we are not in a very good position to comment with unshakable certainty what EXACTLY Reality is or is not.

And yet, that is exactly what I did, or tried to do... isn't it? I did just that, I 'commented with unshakable certainty' that the G O D that I know is the Unlimited Conscious Energy that Sustains and is in charge of All Existence...

Well, difference is that the conception that I found is imageless. As much as my image addicted brain can handle that is. The irony of being human is that the very tools with which we use to discover things in fact limit the extent of what we can know, my brain uses images or electrically processes, to ascertain the shape, movement and energy of outside phenomena, hence; small energenic processes feel out and become swallowed into larger fields of energy.

It is at once both personal and impersonal in unimaginable depths, it is both close and far. It is both fantastically wonderful and unbelievably horrible, at the same time! Whether these notions of mine are actually accurate or not is pointless to the real nature of existence, what matters is how it effects my behavior with it. It is my thought that the degree to which we attach our notions and images of Reality to our histories, to our cultures — to what ever limits us, then that is what determines the extent to which our notions serve us and our fellow travelers.

We can't affect G O D, but we can certainly affect our fellow travelers — so to what extent does your notion affect your friends and countrymen? Does it hinder them or help them? Does it save them or damn them?

Here's your President...

Oh, god I just gotta laugh... " Brown: E-mail shows Bush glad FEMA took Katrina flak

quote: The September 2005 e-mail reads: "I did hear of one reference to you (Brown - FEMA director), at the Cabinet meeting yesterday. I wasn't there, but I heard someone commented that the press was sure beating up on Mike Brown, to which the president replied, 'I'd rather they beat up on him than me or Chertoff.' "

The sender adds, "Congratulations on doing a great job of diverting hostile fire away from the leader."

sucker

You know I really don't like this particular US Administration and it is not that I ascribe to one rigid political viewpoint, nor do I hate or wish any harm or evil upon anyone regardless of thier point of view, but sometimes you just have to call a spade a spade... and stupid is as stupid does...

God help us

The Carnival is coming...

This weeks blog carnival is almost upon us! If you want to be included get your posts into me by the 10th! There are a number of benefits to participating in a "Blog Carnival", it can get larger numbers of people interested in the many areas that we write about, we can meet new people, learn something new about topics we were unaware of, make your blog available to a wider audience, gives you a chance to voice your opinion, ect! And I am dying to read your submissions!

You can either:

--leave a comment on this post

or

--email me kdgermain @ charter.net

Include the permalink to your post, the URL for your blog, and (optional) a brief description. If you email, make sure to put "Carnival Post" in the subject line.
Get your links to me by any time on June 10th.

For the Sake of Our Beloved

I've found my way around to a few blogs that are either starting or are in the middle of the process of some sort of personal interpretation of their various texts of faith. I have mentioned Darius's blog A Possible Gospel And New Testament before, he has a nice tact in discussion, explanation, and elucidation of his particular point of view of the Gospels. Also, Darius is just a cool name to have, can't say I've known anyone with it, except isn't it originally a greek hero's name?

Reflections on Following Jesus, by Doug Houg a pastor with has a nice manner of speaking has been writing on his thoughts on the Bible and was a nice place to stumble upon.

Chris Wisener just started his place to think things through... where he posted an enlightening piece on the importance of Jesus Christ.

And there is Gautami Triapthy's Doctrines Of The Bhagavadgita, where he (or she) is beginning to start on the, yes, the Gita. Having been exposed to the wonders of the Upanishads through my wife's doing, I am looking forward Gautami's posts.

I probably won't be able to keep up with them all, but this is a nice chance to see various individual approaches to their own faiths and I am inspired by the idea of following and basking in the glow of the personal revelation of so-called ordinary folk as opposed to studying the accepted authorities on the subject.

With that in mind I'll share a few thoughts on verses from the Quran as I am able and am inspired to do so. There have been endless quantities of ink spilt on exegesis of our texts, including the Holy Quran of course. But, I will take Darius's cue and simply provide my personal reflection. Realize that there are schools of thought within Islam that would state such a "personal" interpretation has little value and can "lead to falsehood". I believe there is a certain amount of truth to this, but I trust also in our individual capacities for reason and hope that we exercise it at all times, including when resorting to "traditional sources" for appeals to authority. A pure heart is King.

Bismallah er Rahman er Rahim

This is the phrase that should start every muslims action and it is at the beginning of every chapter, called a "Sura", of the Quran, (except one). It can be rendered as:

In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful, Most Compassionate.

There is an ocean behind the utterance of these words, first and foremost because these were revealed directly from the Source of All Being. Secondly, in my understanding, a revelation is something that has been brought out of realm of the "unseen" into this world, the world of form. What that means is that the essence of the revelation is unlimited, but there are qualities that can be described as limited. Why? Simply because the being that received them was human, and part of us human beings exists in time, place, and form. This phrase was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad, may Allah send unlimited peace and blessings upon him and those who follow his light and intention, it was revealed in his language of Arabic.

Not everyone understands or is comfortable with this language, and I hesitate in feeling that it is necessary for every individual to know it, I am not one to condemn whole hosts of people simply because they don't or won't have access to one certain text. I believe this view point is supported by the Quran and statements made by the Prophet, and it just plain makes sense, too! I can't claim to have a scholar's knowledge of Arabic, but a beginners working understanding I do have. Simply because it is part of my responsibility in approaching the text that I have a connection to.


In The Name Of

For The Sake Of

I am acting with Your Permission

With Your Will And Your Strength I have this intention.

I Bear Witness That You Are the Doer, So It Is You, my Beloved Who is Doing This.

My existence in every way is completely and utterly dependent upon Your Being and I am signing my name as one who has the intention of surrendering my self to You, My beloved.


For those of you familiar with Islam, you will notice how easily 'Bismallah" slips into "La illahe ilallah" ~ There is no god worthy of worship, but Allah.

I arbitrarily stop here because there is not enough letters in human language to exhaust extolling the beauties of our Beloved.

N.B. apparently Darius is a she, my apologies for assuming...

I didn't know it rained blood in India recently ...

or aliens... In April, Louis, a solid-state physicist at Mahatma Gandhi University, published a paper in the prestigious peer-reviewed journal Astrophysics and Space Science in which he hypothesizes that the samples -- water taken from the mysterious blood-colored showers that fell sporadically across Louis's home state of Kerala in the summer of 2001 -- contain microbes from outer space.