Young people share their Ramadan experiences in essays that the Huffington Post's Paul Brandeis collected. Nayab Mahmood shares from her perspective as a Muslim in Food for Thought: An Interfaith Ramadan. Why I Stopped Observing Ramadan: A Unitarian Universalist's Journey Toward Spiritual Practice is by UU Nicolas Cable. The third essay is My Jihad by Saadia Ahmad who attends college in Providence, Rhode Island.
Towards the One The Perfection of Love, Harmony and Beauty The Only Being United with all the illuminated souls Who form the embodiment of the Mother, The Spirit of Guidance. Amin
Omar Faruk Tekbilek - One Truth
There never was a people
without a Warner having lived among them.
-Quran 35:24
*** *** *** *** *** *** ***
And certainly We sent Messengers before you;
there are some of them
that We have mentioned to you
and there are others whom we have not mentioned to you.
-Quran 40:78
*** *** *** *** *** *** ***
Hadhrat Abu Zarr Gifaari (Radi Allah Anho) narrates
that the Holy Prophet, peace be upon him, said,
'The Prophets were 124,000.'
(Mishkaat)
* * * *
There is no truth but Truth
and the Prophetic Light
is Truth's messenger.
Ya Haqq!
* * * *
Every people has a book even if it is written in the language of the stars.
"Our Bible is the wind and the rain."
-Herbalist Carol McGrath
as told to her by a Native American woman
*** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***
Before the written word, sacred stories were spoken, entire books were memorized by the people, passed on generation to generation.
Every religion is a love song, an intimate gift to the peoples of the world. Though they come to us in different languages, the words are the same for the Word is one.
May S/He Who is the Abba in Heaven of the Christians, Hashem of the Jews, Allah Most Merciful of the Muslims, Sophia of the Gnostics, Buddha of the Buddhists, Tao of the Chinese, Ahura Mazda of the Zoroastrians and Brahman of the Hindus lead us from the unreal to the Real, from darkness to light, from disease and death to immortality. May the All-Loving Being manifest Him/Herself unto us, and grant us abiding understanding and all-consuming divine love. Peace, Peace, Peace be unto all.
- by Ramakrishna, (my revisions to the prayer in italics)
It is said that Allah has 3,000 Names. 1,000 of them are known only to the angels. 1,000 are known only by the Prophets. 300 are found in the Torah, 300 in the Psalms, 300 in the Gospels and 99 in the Quran. The sum of these names is 2,999. There is one name that is hidden by God, the Ism Allah Al Azam.
When Gandhi was asked if he was a Hindu, he answered:
"Yes I am, I am also a Muslim, a Christian, a Buddhist, and a Jew."
<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3
O humankind!
We have created you from a male and a female,
and made you into nations and tribes,
that you may know one another.
Verily, the most honourable of you with Allâh
is that (believer) who has At-Taqwa.
Verily, Allâh is All-Knowing, All-Aware.
--Quran 49:13--
I think the Way of the Heart is the international language.
Miki Cohen, Israeli Dervish
Huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!
Those who believe, and whose hearts find satisfaction in remembering the Beloved, know without doubt hearts find satisfaction in remembrance of the Beloved.
The Gayatri Mantra is a prayerful Sanskrit chanting of a verse from the Holy Vedas, one of the Sacred Texts revealed to the people of India in ancient times.
In the Gayatri Mantra, the seekers ask the Creator of the Universe to enlighten us, to guide our intellects toward wisdom and the ability to behold a deep understanding of Truth.
One of the more literal translations would be:
May we attain that excellent glory of Savitar the god:
So may he stimulate our prayers.
---The Hymns of the Rigveda
Among the many beautiful interpretations:
O Creator of the Universe! We meditate upon Thy Supreme Splendor. May Thy Radiant Power illuminate our intellects, destroy our sins and guide us in the right direction!
O Divine Mother,
Our hearts are filled with darkness.
Please make this darkness distant from us
and promote illumination within us.
May the Supreme Light
that illuminates the three worlds,
illumine our intellect also, fully,
and direct the rays of our intelligence
to the path of virtue
We meditate on the Divine Light
of that adorable Sun of Spiritual Consciousness.
may it illumine our intellect just as the
splendorous sunlight dispells our darkness.
Earth, sky, heaven. Let us meditate on these and on the most excellent
Light of that adorable Sun.
We pray that they may
guide our intellect.
Wikipedia includes some of the following interpretations:
Let us adore the supremacy of that divine sun, the god-head who
illuminates all, who recreates all, from whom all proceed, to whom all
must return, whom we invoke to direct our understandings aright in our
progress toward his holy seat.
(Sir William Jones)
Unveil, O Thou who givest sustenance to the Universe, from whom all
proceed, to whom all must return, that face of the True Sun now hidden
by a vase of golden light, that we may see the truth and do our whole
duty on our journey to thy sacred seat.
(William Quan Judge)
We meditate on the worshipable power and glory of Him who has created
the earth, the nether world and the heavens (i.e. the universe), and who
directs our understanding. (Sivanath Sastri)
We meditate on the glory of that Being who has produced this universe; may He enlighten our minds.
(Swami Vivekananda)
We meditate on the effulgent glory of the Divine Light; may he inspire our understanding.
(S. Radhakrishnan)
O Lord, you are the Almighty, the Omniscient, the Omnipresent one.
You are imperceptible, exists beyond the peripheries of mind;
but present in earth, in cosmos, in all the galaxies.
You are all pervasive.
Your luminosity sustains the life of all the living beings on this earth.
You are the source of light.
O my Lord, bless us, so that our intellect may get illuminated.
From Wahiduddin.net , several other translations are found:
We meditate on the glory of the Creator; Who has created the Universe; Who is worthy of Worship; Who is the embodiment of Knowledge and Light; Who is the remover of all Sin and Ignorance; May He enlighten our Intellect.
(Swami Shivananda)
We meditate upon the radiant Divine Light of that adorable Sun of Spiritual Consciousness; May it awaken our intuitional consciousness.
(S. Krishnamurthy)
