notions of a purple ontology

Better late than never!

3 Boys: Ramadan 2006, Cairo

(best viewed large: just click through!)

May the Peace, Grace & Blessings of God Be Upon thee

hidey-ho from a Fairfield, Virginia basement basking in the glow off the TV as The Ashes unfold, Australia fighting back after some untypical English steel yesterday... boy my wife's been tolerant she seems to understand this male thing... Alhamdullilah

so,

Off to El Paso, Texas tommorow! Stopover & hike it up to Carlesbad the next day inshallah will check out our sun-drenched rental taken on sight unseen except for the photos...things will hopefully settle down after moving out of a suitcase for the first time in 5 months!

what a relief & God Almighty is the One who Grants ease & tranquility

make du'a if you feel the urge!

~~~~~

Was dumfounded by the Smithsonian Air & Space museum here.. it's what America does really well planes & rockets.. I became a 7 year old all over again, all those hands on air pressure physics experiments.. what an old familiar & joyous feeling...

A cracker photo I took on the night I went to meet my wife for the very first time!... starting to have time to review all the photos from Egypt

well until apache country & where the script will resume Godwilling

a contented salams to you!!

Hey Wishes of Peace to you!

almost forgot about this blog! hey that' s married life! Alhamdullilah! got a life again haha

and that's the thing that this blog was borne out of the Saudi experience of utter isolation now the situation has reversed!

She's, certainly got rights over me, God Bless her & is not too enthusiastic about the amount of time I'm spending to maintain email etc on the web, so updating is bound to be less frequent.. and she's right, so the nature of this whole thing will have to be reconsidered in light of my new responsiblities... bithnillah

Well I 've been here in Fairfax near Washington DC for over a week now Alhamdullilah...wow Amrika! wide about 20% in almost all dimensions I'd say.... broadband heaven, hidef media and disturbingly addictive

Enjoying it immensely however, so far, except for the dearth of Islam, brotherly contact & the distance to travel to a mosque, but this was all expected & meant to be... & Praise be to Hu Who Maketh it so

Also Enjoying the Ashes improbably here at this late hour, England getting 'put to the sword' such an appropriate expression to the situation... embarrasing really

don't worry video is coming from Abu Hasan Shadhili's(RA) tomb, after I have more time, energy & momentum on my hands Godwilling after 3rd December when in New Mexico

in the meantime some more photos...

to the DC museums & Smithsonian tommorrow inshallah!

ALLAH!

& God Bless to any who chance upon this

the Tomb of Abu Hasan As-Shadhilli (RA), Abu Hasan, Egypt 140 km from Mirsa Alam, Red Sea
Originally uploaded by enthogenesis.

Alhamdullilah they opened the locked inner door to make du'a for him & take a few photos..there was an incredible hadra going on in the tomb by some Egyptian murids took footage.. there was beautiful musky perfumed smell inside the tomb & no incense visible, they swore to God that no perfume was added either! similar to the smell in the cave of Uhud where the Prophet(salalahu 'alyhi wa salam) rested .. some interesting video was taken, will post on blog... Godwilling!

info about the revered Sheikh can be found here
&
wiki entry here

Old Beggar: road to the Tomb of Abu Hasan As-Shadhilli(RA) from Mirsa 'Alam
Originally uploaded by enthogenesis.

Big Salams from Alexandria, I like this town! very cool temperature wise & very European...!

and if your wondering where I've been...well... oh how do I say... best just out with it

I'm married!! by the Grace of God (Exalted Be He!) Alhamdullilah!

In a curious series of baraka filled events it finally happened..! we're both still amazed

So net access in wild & varied places around Egypt has not been so simple & time to transmit & upkeep email in light of my new responsibilities in life.. well I'm sure you understand! ... still on a blissed out honeymoon.. returning to Cairo tommorrow inshallah

God's Beautiful Wisdom in this matter is finally coming to light..

Heading to New Mexico around the 15th to set up house & shop of all places! apache country I believe!.. well she's a doctor God Bless her! that's where her work is & so planning to finish the script there Godwilling as it's something I can happily do independant of place.. inshallah

very large new page turning once again...

that's qadr! & Praise be to God, All Wise Who Maketh it so...

please make du'a (prayer/supplication) for us!

~~~~~

the blurb accompanying this photo, taken recently

"He was living alone in that tent on his right, with a few goats, sitting under a tree in a lonely valley kilometers from anyone with a trembling old hand holding an empty water bottle... God Help him! we did what we could"


photos of the tomb coming..

Glowing Salams to thee...

United Arab Interstellar League Energon Receiver Machine
Originally uploaded by perfectlymadebirds.

Salams!

Why not? the caption that goes with it is quite something but you have click through to see that by this eccentric American artist who dresses as an Arab maybe he's Muslim Allahu Alim

Otherwise weird sleep schedules ruling my life, destroying productivity Alhamdullilah! I can't keep a rhythm, sleeping hardly at all for a couple of days, Allah is doing strange things!

would like to think He's trying to help me maximise ibada' during this month wa Allahu Alim

~~
Please don't take this the wrong way, this is an observation only

Soberingly I had to perfrom on of my pillars by hand, to the poor in my neighbourhood, Alhamdullilah I visted widows, blind people, miserable abandoned wives & struggling daughters, the sick , the paraplegic, the weak, the helpless, the old, the almost forgotten...I saw their decrepid living quarters, families in one room, to weak to get up out of bed some of them all known to be decent people of taqwa, I was led to them by sincere brothers who know all the people in need...Alhamdullilah

this is their only social security their local community... literally a couple of hundred metres away is the presidential palace, sickening



so many, indeed there's here a city full of them & just the biggest city in Africa

I went home & couldn't help but cry thinking about the pain etched in their faces & my selfish, lucky life as a westerner & what the hell am I doing? Why aren't I doing more? All these people my brothers & sisters drowning in utter poverty..with an Alhamdullilah on their lips

there right there right now while I'm in expensive internet cafe

you can go back to whatever your doing now...

Salams & Supplications thick be this Numinous Month,

since it is the nature of such things...great passage from

Sh Ibn 'Ata' Allah Al Iskandari's: 'Miftah al-Falah wa Misbah al-Arwab'

'The Key to Salvation: A Sufi Manual of Invocation'

regarding the practise of zikr (invocation) using Allah! (God!) instead of La ilaha 'illa llah! (there is No God but God!)

~~~~~~~~

"It is related that ash-Shibli was asked by a man 'Why do you say
Allah & not La ilaha-illa 'llah?' So ash-Shibli answered

Because Abu Bakr gave all his wealth to the point where not a
single thing remained with him. Then he took of a garment
in front of the Prophet (salalahu 'alyhi wa salam). So the Messenger
of God ( salalahu 'alyhi wa salam) said " What did you leave for your
family?' He answered, 'Allah'

Likewise I say Allah

Then the questioner said, 'I want a higher explanation than this'.
So ash-Shibli said, 'I am embarrassed to mention an expression
of negation in His presence, while everything is His light'. Then the
man said ' 'I want a higher explanation than this'. Ash-Shibli answered,
'I am afraid that I will die during the negation of the phrase before reaching
the affirmation.' (ie during La ilaha ila..(there is no god except..) & not during
'Allah'(lit The God!))
The questioner again said, 'I want a higher explanation than this'. So ash-Shibli
said "God Most High said to His Prophet :

"..say Allah. Then leave them to disport (show) themselves with their idle talk (or*) plunge in vain discourse and trifling"

(*: Yusuf Ali Translation)

(Quran 6:91:

ْ قُلِ اللّهُ ثُمَّ ذَرْهُمْ فِي خَوْضِهِمْ يَلْعَبُونَ (6:91)
Baset - Hussari - Minshawi

"Quli Allahu thumma tharhum fee khawdihim yal'3aboon"


Then the young man got up & let out a shriek. Ash-Shibli said
Allah. He screamed again; ash-Shibli said Allah then he screamed a 3rd
time and died, may God most High have mercy upon him!

The relatives of the young man gathered together and grabbed ash-Shibli,
charging him with murder. They took him to the caliph and were given
permission to enter, and they accused him of murder. The caliph said
to ash-Shibli, 'What is your response?'. He answered, ' A soul yearned,
then wailed and aspired, then screamed, then was summoned, then heard,
then learned, then answered. So what was my crime?
The caliph shouted, 'Let him go!"
~~~~~~~~~

I couldn't help but be overcome with a loud exahltation when when I read this...!!

a classic Sufi tale..

May it's inner mysteries unfold in our hearts all!

asalatu wasalam 'ala sayyidina Muhammad wa lahi wa sahabahi wa taslima
Amin! Ya Rabb

May the Peace, Grace & Blessings of God Be Upon thee!

Papua - Lafforgue
Originally uploaded by Eric Lafforgue.

Ramadan?? uh? go away shorty

(thanks to 'the' Eric)

my thoughts...
Originally uploaded by ornellab..

(thanks ornellab! the caption : This old man is waiting that many animals cross the way in Kashgar Bazar (West China))
May God Accept!

Praying tarawee'ah at home where I can understand it , practise the tajweed & am more involved, generally I believe (I mean I checked it out in shaf'i fiqh: please correct me if Im wrong!) ) there's more reward in my case (ie not being able to understand the arabic) than praying in jamm'a where it can last up to 2 & 1/2 hours for 8 rakats in places!!...it's definately not making it easy on the people! certainly in my case anyway.. I have to fight for concentration during these long Quranic passages up to 15 minutes at a time.. where are the techniques given by Ulema to do this? particularly if you're not good Arabic speaker or listener?.. My understanding was that it should be easier, particularly for the fard prayers, shortish suras, May God Forgive me but I'm taking the more interesting and legally valid option for me...

May He Accept all your Worship & deprivations this month!

May the Peace, Grace & Blessings of the Beloved Be Upon thee!

Iftar(breaking of the fast), 28 Sept 2006, Ramadan, with br 'Adl the lawyer, Giza, Cairo
Originally uploaded by enthogenesis.

He's got as law firm in Cairo with 7 lawyers working for him & not a single computer in the office! if you can believe it! obviously effective though!..very old school! always invites me, he lead the prayers in Tarawee'ah afterwards also very long rakats too, May God Accept!

OK the food:

bottom corner 2 soups
-cooked vegetable in corner
-egyptian classic 'lisan asfar' ie yellow tongues (small egg shaped nodules in tasty soup) on it's right
-'mashy (stuffed) coromb (like spiced meat/veggy thin wraps) on the left
-stuffed eggplant & cucumber
- far right ; Egyptian 'Canelloni' (pastry wrap of spicy meat of some kind)
-centre: the ubiqutous roast chicken
- lahm baqry (stewed beef)


then there was mangoe, pomegranite & figs for dessert! haha Alhamdullilah

Hope you're all enjoying similar delights...

God Bless & Salams

el Dumo, Milano
Originally uploaded by enthogenesis.

this doesn't do it justice but I hope you get the idea..signing off for the night!

waterfall cliché!
Originally uploaded by enthogenesis.

Imam Abdel Fatah, Marseille, Sep 2006
Originally uploaded by enthogenesis.

the sweet brother from 'Bled' (Algeria) & Imam of the mosque downstairs from my hotel showed me round town for a day

he trained as a dancer in Algeria & can run a 10k in 38 minutes without any training! amazing!

God Bless him!

statue station: backstreets, Marseiile
Originally uploaded by enthogenesis.

last fragments of sunset...there's a open air market in front

The ceiling of the Basilica Notra Dame de la Garde, Marseille
Originally uploaded by enthogenesis.

amazingly like a mosque uh?

candle church
Originally uploaded by enthogenesis.

a torrent of photos from Marseille now! while I'm on it~


Interior of a church right near the Marseille Harbour

series: faces
Originally uploaded by kriziaa.

Sometimes I go to comment on photos & this happens:

penury speaketh, years laid waste
idleness inhabits his enamoured face
dissapointed jowls, soul hunger proud
into an invectiveness intramuscularily expressed
is it payed? or recompensed?

damn that picture's good

yes my postion in the khilaf favours photon catching not 'creating animate life'
~~~~~~

Ramadan skyving at the cafe back home NOW!

Hope the fasting/praying & striving is takin' you HIGHER!

by the Grace of He Who maketh all things just So

ALLAH!

Salams wa 'Amil Eeh?

Notions of an orange Ramadan eve about to flow into the hearts of believers...

May Almighty God Make it the Closest approach for you all, yet! amin

I'm freewheeling around the 24 hour clock as I'm want to do with little or next to no contact with outside life, committments or regular appointments..

..takes me back to Adelaide circa '98-2000, when I attempted unsuccessfully to retire from the world, & turn my back on what I conceived was the hypocrisy of earning money while trying to utterly detach from it: couldn't work it out ...ahh the existential conondrums of a life outside of Islam

today couldn't sleep after fajr after being up all night, made it to the flipside about 8AM consequently was up at an unmentionable hour this afternoon, the night representing the least composing of distraction (& running yes again!)

So what's happended?

-well first, thanks to Irving Kirchmar I met the forceful & intelligent personage of a certain American sister Cathryn Goddard, a 10 year resident of Cairo, Phd holder in Economics, fluent in French, Turkish, Arabic & her native toungue and erstwhile sufi path seeker! Who is about to have her translation of the fascinating Eva de Mitray's Towards the Heart of Islam: A Woman's Approach published by Fons Vitae very shortly

She lives in an amazing flat, with an astonishing view atop of a tall building in Zamalek (the central island straddling the Nile)

She welcomed me, fed me wonderfully & provided hints, tips & contacts galore..God Bless for her efforts! By the Grace of God indeed

- Secondly I got suprisingly drawn into the fate of two 'leeetulle'(sic) orphan kittens, left in a filthy box by the main door of the labyrinthal edifice in which I live, abandoned by their mother a day old, one was already dead, I buried it but I was told by various people that the mother was about, & I didn't see anyone concerned about their welfare in a city infested with strays ( there's 10 living in our building at least) but I never saw her, so over the next couple of days I tried to keep them alive but as I learnt, it's a very tricky thing indeed I didn't have the knowledge to actually do it! Until it was too late, the last one died in my hands way to dehydrated to go any further, lapsed in coma & slipped out..they can't see, require specific high protein milk, cows milk unfortunately doesn't work, need to be kept really warm, hydrated: lots of stuff alas I tried but not hard enough..It's strange how such an interaction with such a really tiny helpless animal can almost completely involve you.. but back to the flat with me, myself & I & the recording angels & God Knows what else with tarawee'ah starting tonight I mean NOW

May God(Exalted be He!) Inspire all of us to profound ibada', good works & transformed hearts by the end, inshallah

go to go Maghrib's hitting, RAMDADAN'S ON! YA ALLLAH! & this keyboard's got me almost screaming, I've a cursor that jumps around as I type, no-one can fix it... it's like an obligatory 'have patience' device when you're trying to write stream of concioussness, forgive any typos..

& God Bless to any who may chance upon this!

outta here

Jame-Abbasi-Mosque-3
Originally uploaded by Hamzeh Karbasi.

It's not a Mosque it's an Islamic Teleporter.....!

had to let this out too

Salams!

M O S Q U E. Mandu
Originally uploaded by Claude Renault.

the one & only Claude Renault an astonishingly good photographer in the real sense

check out his work in flickr in the Outstanding Travel Photo pool

how does he do that?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Had a great meeting with __________ (removed at his request), newly minted **************************************, thanks to Brother Daoud, who, it turns out, is the one who approached me in Hyde Park corner back in August 2003!! After having made du'a to God (Exalted Be He!) that I meet people of inward knowledge, a few days after arriving in London from Adelaide...

Shortly after, he was the one who appoached me out of the blue! As he said tonight, "it looked like you were looking for something" & gave me the information that Sh Nuh was speaking that very night in Ilford which led me to meeting the Murids of Sh Nuh and Sh Ali (the Malaysian Nashqbandi Sh) which was like meeting family...after the years of wilderness in Aus :God Bless them all!

the thing is he gave me his number but I lost it or something & thought I lost contact...!!

How's that?!

ALLAH!