Man, Woman and the Sphere of our Political Future

Rais Abu Bakr Rieger

Saturday, 29th June 2019

First of all I want to thank Amir Umar del Pozo for the organization of this wonderful gathering and also Khadija Martinez for her efforts and all the energy she has put into organizing the women’s conference. Also I want to thank Ibtisaam for a brilliant, very balanced summarization of the women’s conference. There was a very serious side to it, but there was also the joy of the gathering shining through. I received it as very powerful and ambitious, but never ideological. In fact one expression came into my heart, which is: sober drunkenness.

When I am asked to give a talk the title has usually very significant words; like in this case: Men and women. It is a habit of mine, to go immediately to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe1, just to look where something appears which has to do with men and women. In fact the first quote I found is from “Poetry and Truth”. It is a quite charming quote, Goethe says: “Men age, women change”.

Continue reading “Man, Woman and the Sphere of our Political Future”

Qādi ‘Iyyād

QIyad1

Hot head and feet, still digesting lamb meat,
Wending way on cobbled stone through Suq street
Asking selected for the great man’s tomb
Approaching him and leaving tourist’s gloom
Until nothing new is left, day to day
Remains, plain, essential, a human wave
flows and eddies towards our well-known friend.
Across the court of languorous kittens,
Shade gone, brief hammer descends before bidden
Into cool and muted light collect us.
Sarcophagus serene and always thus,
Presence itself transfers to wearied hearts,
Welcome before good manners to these parts
And our hearts are soothed by its acceptance.
Hearts expanded lit up like dawning day,
The same in essence each one his own way.
How can it be other, never undone
All illumination comes from the sun
Whose unmeasured strength dispels darkened song.
We understand now it does not belong
To anyone but they belong to it.
The unseen, soft, ancient hand passes tea
Over word, tune and calméd hearts that see,
Waves overwhelm while wellspring overflows
How, why or wherefore no one ever knows.
The gift is in the power of the Giver
Regardless of the life seen by its liver
Submit, be grateful, share your blessed fate.

Du’a al-Qunūt

اللَّهمَّ إنَّا نَسْتَعِينُكَ وَ نَسْتَغْفِرُكَ وَ نُومِنُ بِكَ وَ نَتَوَكَّلُ عَلَيْكَ

وَنُثْنِى عَلَيْكَ الْخَيْرَ كُلَّ 

Allahumma inna nasta’inuka wa nastaghfiruka wa numinu bika wa natawakkalu ‘alalayka wa nuthni ‘alayka’l-khayra kullah

Oh allah! Truly we seek your help and your forgiveness and believe in you and praise you for all good.

نَشْكُرُكَ وَ ﻻَ نَكْفُرُكَ وَ نَخْنَعُ لَكَ وَ نَخْلَعُ وَنَتْرُكُ مَنْ يَكْفُرُكَ 

Nashkuruka wa la nakfuruka wa nakhna’u laka wa nakhla’u wa natruku man yakfuruk

We thank you and are not ungrateful to you and submit ourselves to you and surrender and abandon all who reject you.

اللَّهمَّ إيَّكَ نَعْبُدُ وَ لَكَ نُصَلِّي وَ نَسْجُدُ وَ إلَيْكَ نَسْعَى وَ نَحْفِدُ 

Allahumma iyyaka na’budu wa laka nusalli wa nasjudu wa ilayka nas’a wa nahfidh

Oh allah you alone we worship. We pray and prostrate to you. We strive and struggle in your way.

نَرْجُو رَحْمَتَكَ وَ نَخَافُو عَذَابَكَ الْجِِدَّ صٌٌٌ إنَّ عَذَابَكَ بِالْكَافِرِينَ مُلْحِقٌ 

Narju rahmataka wa nakhafu ‘adhabaka’l-jidd. Inna ‘adhabaka bi’l-kafirina mulhiq

We hope for your mercy and fear your harsh punishment. Certainly your punishment encircles the rejectors.

Diwans of the Darqawa

This is a pdf of the English translation of the Diwans of the Darqawi Shaykhs, Muhammad ibn al-Habib, Muhammad al-Fayturi, Muhammad al-Harraq and Mustafa al-‘Alawi, may Allah bless them all and grant us benefit by their work.

This is placed here as a resource for the Fuqara, in response to requests for the English translations of these greats men’s songs. As far as I know this is very hard to find and is out of print and is the only copy I have.

Please click on the link below and then on the first instance of its repetition on the succeeding page:

Diwans of the Darqawa

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From the Muqaddimah of ibn Khaldun – with a note

Bedouins are closer to being good than sedentary people.

 

The reason for it is that the self in its natural state of creation is ready to accept whatever good or evil may arrive and leave an imprint upon it. Muhammad, sallallahu alayhi wa sallim, said:

“Every infant is born in the natural state, Fitrah. It is his parents who make him a Jew or a Christian or a Magian.”

To the degree the self is first affected by one of the two qualities, it moves away from the other and finds it difficult to acquire it. When customs proper to goodness have been first to enter the self of a good person and has thus acquired the habit of (goodness, that person) moves away from evil and finds it difficult to do anything evil. The same applies to the evil person when customs (proper to evil) have been first to affect him. Continue reading “From the Muqaddimah of ibn Khaldun – with a note”

The Brothers of the Rasulullah

Abu Dharr al-Ghifari, radiallahu anhu, said that the Messenger of Allah, sallallahu alayhi wa sallim wa ala alihi, said, “Do you know what saddens me and what I am thinking and longing for?”

We said, “Oh Messenger of Allah inform us of that.”

He said, “I will tell you insha’Allah.” Then he sighed deeply and continued, “It is my yearning for my brothers who will come after me.”

I said, “Oh Messenger of Allah are we not your brothers?” Continue reading “The Brothers of the Rasulullah”