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February 25, 2009

my forelock is in your hand

O God, I am your servant, and the son of Your servant, and the son of Your bondmaid: my forelock is in Your hand, Your judgment concerning me is done. I implore You by every name which is Yours, by which You have named Yourself, or which You revealed in Your book, or which You taught to anyone from Your creation, or which You appropriated to Yourself in Your knowledge of hidden things, that You might make the Qur'an a renewal of my heart, a light for my inmost thoughts, a way through my affliction, and the unveiling of my distress.

The Prophet

Posted by amin at 11:32 AM

sparkling cross

Not with more Glories, in th' Ethereal Plain,
The Sun first rises o'er the purpled Main,
Than issuing forth, the Rival of his Beams
Launch'd on the Bosom of the Silver Thames.
Fair Nymphs, and well-drest Youths around her shone,
But ev'ry Eye was fix'd on her alone.
On her white Breast a sparkling Cross she wore,
Which Jews might kiss, and Infidels adore.
Her lively Looks a sprightly Mind disclose,
Quick as her Eyes, and as unfix'd as those:
Favours to none, to all she Smiles extends,
Oft she rejects, but never once offends.
Bright as the Sun, her Eyes the Gazers strike,
And, like the Sun, they shine on all alike.
Yet graceful Ease, and Sweetness void of Pride,
Might hide her Faults, if Belles had Faults to hide:
If to her share some Female Errors fall,
Look on her Face, and you'll forget 'em all.

Alexander Pope - Canto II: ll. 1-18

Posted by amin at 11:26 AM

intimate communion

The only wish I have is to live with you in intimate communion, gazing by day at your face, by night my own face pressed against the soles of your feet; to be sheltered by your tall, cypress-slender body, and gather nectar on your sweetly smiling lips. Then when I see my desire fulfilled, my wounded heart will be healed at last. Oh, let the plenteous fountain of your love water my withered and ravaged field.

Jami - Yusuf and Zuleikha

Posted by amin at 11:22 AM

The sorrow that you have in the loss of a thing is the measure of the love you had in keeping it.

St. Gregory

Posted by amin at 11:19 AM

the light of the earth

In this keen and clear element, however, he has his entire power: here he can fly! Why should he again go down into those muddy waters where he has to swim and wade and soil his wings! No! There it is too hard for us to live! We cannot help it that we are born for the atmosphere, the pure atmosphere, we rivals of the ray of light; and that we should like best to ride like it on the atoms of ether, not away from the sun, but towards the sun! That, however, we cannot do- so we want to do the only thing that is in our power: namely, to bring light to the earth, we want to be “the light of the earth!” And for that purpose we have our wings and our swiftness and our severity, on that account we are manly, and even terrible like the fire. Let those fear us, who do not know how to warm and brighten themselves by our influence!

Nietzsche - The Gay Science

Posted by amin at 11:16 AM

February 18, 2009

the knowledge of god by god

The knowledge of the first, the command of the True One - praise be to Him - in so far as He is He, in other words from the aspect of absolute unity, is the knowledge of God by God, within the limits of the knowledge implied in the verse: "God bears witness that there is no god but Him" (3:18). This is the noblest degree of certainty, the most perfect mode of knowledge, unlike the knowledge of cause through effect which does not give certainty. For the truth about knowledge is, as they have said: "We have not known You as You should be known," and in the words of the Qur'an: "They measure not God with His true measure" (6:91).

Nasir al-Din Tusi - Sayr wa Suluk

Posted by amin at 1:57 PM

February 11, 2009

the style of the quran

The style of the Quran is, in tune with its content and goal, grand, awesome, and in some places truly sublime.

Goethe

Posted by amin at 12:01 AM