Names

Stories spin rapidly into one another
We are distraught at the description but
The teller is laughing indifferently
She talks of dreams of black and
Screams at night time and fears that
Boil over and scald her as she recites
Verses to quench the pain
A bystander worries
'I will pray for you'
But quickly adds
'What is your name?'

I laugh a joyful laugh
It reminds me just the same
The time of pre-ramadan dates
Just before iftaar and I asked
Naming one by one
The sisters that I love
'Saliah' I say and pause
I don't know a Saliah but
Here she is in the middle of my prayers
If God is not stingy with what he grants
Then why should I be as I pray for all the Saliahs
of today the future and buried in history

Our prayers are nameless sometimes
They come from the pits of our being
Where the kind hearted masked hero
Is all we know but it is enough
So pray for the faceless souls
Who have painted broad strokes onto
The canvas of our life
So pray and wash the brushes
Complete the masterpiece
Before we die

Allah's Messenger (peace be upon him) said, "When a man makes another his brother he should ask him his name, his father's name and the stock from which he comes, for it binds friendship more closely."
Tirmidhi

Eid

I am faded henna looking
Back at the anti climax
Wondering how one day
Changed it all

They were veiled praying
With utmost humility
Crying with downcast eyes
Grabbing hold of an opportunity
Before they faded and hoping
With hearts swelling of forgiveness

They were striving
With thobes and tawpis
First row men at fajr time
Seeking for ten days like
the fibre of their being
Depended on it

Her eyes are painted ,black
Like a small testimony
To her former self
And she was shining nur, perhaps
she thought glitter would do
Constricted in her waist hugging
Dress that she'll wear once but
Never again.
Once is enough.

And the men they have eaten
Beyond their full and zuhr waits
and continues to wait deep
into the afternoon
They mark the end in a suit
With a silk tie

They say image is identity
We celebrate Eid like
Christmas minus the tree
Did we fall that quickly?
Or is the question
Who are we?

Fashion as a belief is manifested through clothing.
Yuniya Kawamura Fashion-ology

It was narrated that Ibn ‘Umar said: “The Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: ‘Whoever imitates a people is one of them.’”
Abu Dawud

Narrated by Ali ibn Abu Talib:
The Prophet of Allah (peace be upon him) took silk and held it in his right hand, and took gold and held it in his left hand and said: "both of these are prohibited to the males of my community"
Abu Dawud

Odd Nights

She is taking the midnight train heading to
A destination unknown
Dark bricks silently pass her
Nobody cares for those underground
Those who spend the night wandering
Aimlessly through self constructed tunnels

The scene is from a black and white film
She is young , biting lips and fighting
A battle against the tears
Through the void it is hard
To make lifelong friends who
Leave at the next stop
Everything is empty her eyes fixated
So her mind won't ask

It is easy to get off
This is my stop they say so flippantly
But it is harder , much harder to tell the world
I'm on the wrong train and I've been on it for far too long
Pushing past commuters so caught up they hardly budge
To pry open the doors and
Jump because it is as you whisper before
The fall 'this is the wrong train'

Odd nights come after
The rush hour , they come
When staring at the silver moon you
Realise that you were wrong and
You are scared because the Conductors voice
Lifts from the back of the cabin
'It's the end of the line folks'

They said, "Our Lord, we have wronged ourselves, and if You do not forgive us and have mercy upon us, we will surely be among the losers."
Surah Al A'araf
Verse 23

Ramadan

This is not your typical , I'm-so-happy-I've-seen-the-moon-lets-fast-and-pray-and-eat-some-dates Ramadan poem. 

The weight of the world
Has crushed feeble shoulders
Stumbling steps are born
From hearts of weak resolve
I no longer wish to face the pain
Bittersweet truths are far too bitter
I have carved the path that I now walk
I am my own nemesis , I am the cause
And the action
Grief and disbelief

This is the end I have chosen to meet

Did I really choose

The temporal over the eternal?

Mistakes are born in ignorance
And carried miserably through in arrogance
To commit the sin knowingly
Is the fall of all that was innocent

So I ask that vile, wretched soul
The blackness of shortcomings

Known and unknown
Is this who you want to be?

I lived a life of no benefit

I yearned for some sort of happiness
So I strived to fill the emptiness

But everything was hollow
I tiptoed around, my heart
How could something wrong
With time become right
I am caught in my own web of lies

Death comes quickly, unexpectedly

It will seize me
In the midst of a moment
That I do not have the blessing

To live to regret

I am weak
On the verge of losing
The faith I cling to desperately

So woefully weak it seems
That I must starve my body
To feed the soul.