Skip to main content

Dua Arafah

I discovered a very profound supplication by Imam Hussain ibn Ali, the beloved grandson of the Holy Prophet on the Day of Arafat.

This excerpt had me awed beyond description:

And I bear witness, O my God, with my true belief,
and the fortitude of the determinations of my conviction 
and the purity of my open belief in Your Oneness 
and the essence of the secret of my conscience, 
and the ties of the canals of the light of my sight, 
and the lines of my forehead  
and the hallows of the courses of my breath,
and the (nasal) cavities of my nose, 
and the courses of the meatus of my hearing,
and whatever my two lips hide and cover up,
and the motions of the vocalization of my tongue,
and the socket of the palate of my mouth and jaw, 
and the matrices of my dents, 
and the tasting of my food and my drink, 
and the carrier of my skull, 
and the tube of the tissues of my neck 
and what is included by the cloak of my chest, 
and the carriers of the cord of my aorta, 
and the cords of the pericardium of my heart, 
and the pieces of the retinues of my liver, 
and that which is included by the cartilages of my ribs, 
and the cavities of my joints, 
and the interactings of my organisms, 
and the extremes of my fingertips, 
and my flesh, 
and my blood, 
and my hair, 
and my skin, 
and my nerve, 
and my sinews, 
and my bones,
and my brain, 
and my veins, 
and all of my organs,
and that which was pieced together during the days of my suckling, 
and whatever of my body that the ground carries, 
and my sleeping, 
and my wakefulness, 
and my motionlessness, 
and the movements of my bowing and prostration; 
(by all that I bear witness)
that if I try my best and strive throughout all ages and all times, 
if I live them, to thank properly only one of Your favors,
I will not be able to do that, except through a favor of You, 
which also requires me to thank You for it, 
once again with new thanking and with praise
that is newly acquired and newly prepared.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Reclaiming my voice

It has been more than 2 years since I published anything on this blog. I have written a few reflections quite abit during this time, but they are mostly in draft versions, probably reflective of the scatteredness of my thought processes, or the ongoing engagement with the topic which has yet found a proper resolve (or is there ever a resolve really?), or just me finding mere words to articulate my thoughts that are waiting to be entertained and possibly verbalised or written. I'm driven to write this post precisely because I can't entirely ignore the nagging voice inside my head, telling me to use writing as a tool to not only express myself, but to reclaim my voice. It is such an insanely noisy world. The constant stream of information from different online platforms not only pull me from various directions, but it spreads my attention too thin that it is impossible to follow one stream of thought, sit on it for awhile, slowly reflect and if possible, articulate it. It is not

Information vs. Knowledge

“To know how to put what knowledge in which place is wisdom. Otherwise, knowledge without order and seeking it without discipline does lead to confusion and hence to injustice to one's self.” - Syed Muhammad Naquib Al-Attas This week's key takeaway for me is that; knowledge requires knowing its proper order and place.  Everything else is just information.

Infinity

unbounded to any definitions or limits, existing but not adequately known. this entity, being constantly talked about, pulls like an unbeatable gravitational force. we are always approaching, almost touching, existing in tandem, still, not yet meeting Infinity the eventual meeting where there are no bounds