Poetry & Fiction Qur'an With the Divine

Stairway to Heaven

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kevharb/2953130118/in/photostream/By Farah Abduz-Zahir

Rhythms primordial
soothing, inspiring, connecting
to some hidden electron’s
orbit.
In some inner recess
synapses dance
Listening. Smile plays on lips
Heart alight
chest heaves and inhales
blessed blessed air
made fragrant with the sounds
of this recitation
suspended in sound waves
that permeate every alveolar crevice
giving life
suffuses into blood and traverses the body
crossing the blood-brain barrier
entering the mind
in a thousand ways
every sense alive.
No trance.
But True Life.

What my breath and my being and my inside world was
created to receive
What those doors to the outside
rejoice to let through
The words of the Creator
my Beloved’s speech,
the kindest gentlest words
Envelopes and enlightens the humbled one
Standing through long nights

Blessed night of power.
Oh the stars tremble
and the Universe a tremor
Did you feel it?
That resonation with your heart strings?
– a Galaxial roar!
The Creator’s speech
came down, through seven heavens and beyond
One pure reality.
One perfect perfection.
My soul, one ranged in rank
of rank upon rank upon rank
and rank and file and more and more
all across the globe
This human kind
United to hear
Once more the speech of its Maker

Bala Shahidna‘!
‘We bear witness’!!
Now I remember…. now I recall.
– comes back from the recess of my memory
That was formed before a synapse in my brain
From before I was a drop of despised fluid
I said,
I bear witness.
No wonder the earth moved under my feet
for a split second
the time-space continuum breached
I would cry…but I am transfixed
My Lord, I have come
I am coming home.

My Lord, I recall now. I know my way
Life-amnesia has dissipated
some dense fog that gathered ground
since the day I was breathed in to the fetus
it has been settling.
Oh what loss, now I know
for a moment it moves aside
And I glimpse
Light upon Light
The Light of my home

That lamp is burning bright
In a book, on a pedestal
in words in my memorization
in script in decoration
in friends who speak it
in mother who teaches it
in an Ummah who lives it
In the Messenger who brought it – may God illuminate his soul!

A thousand veils of darkness I amassed about me
each moment of every hour I pay no attention
The human created weak and forgetful
I wallow in contrition,
yet,
Only strong knowing my weakness before you My Lord
Only honored knowing my humility before you My Lord
So I survive
this arduous journey
that will be gone in a blink of an eye
but never seems to end.

Haqq and Iqra
In the name of your Lord who Created

Home is calling
Home is calling
Listening, these words…calling me home, ah home is calling
peaceful place where I used to be… reminders of it emerge
like some beautiful phantom out of smog
and beckon me back.
Alif…Lam…Meem
Only you know my start and end my Lord
My Lord without start and without end. You are constant peace

Pure True Loving Light
Fount of Original Eternal Compassion
Oh back to You I want to fly
Back to where I belong

Whole again.

The words keep calling,
reminding, reminding, reminding.

About the author

Guest Authors

Guest Authors

As a virtual mosque, we strive to provide a safe space for learning and discussion. We would like to invite our readers to join this process. Everyone has a reflection to share, expertise on a specific topic, or a new idea. We hope, by opening up submissions from guest authors, that we can highlight the work of new, talented writers in our virtual community.

8 Comments

Leave a Reply to MG X