There has been news going about lately about William Shakespeare and his inclination towards Islam and particularly to the concept of Sufism. Here is one article by The Observer.

Shakespeare's Globe , together with the UK published Q-News magazine are having a series of lectures entitled "The Shakespeare and Islam Lecture Series" based on the research and findings by Muslim[American] aut hor Martin Lings.

Some of the lecture titles include :

"Sufi Reflections on the Shakespeare Sonnets"
"The Iago Factor: Obstacles on the Path to Peace"
Othello was my favourite tragedy until I read Hamlet.

If you are free and loaded, you can make your way to London at the Shakespheres Globe. *sigh*

This year, I greeted Ramadhan with folks from the Naqshabandi order. Thankfully, I didn’t have to stay behind after work and so I got home, changed and left after sunset prayers, the month of Ramadhan already opening its gates of bliss.

Besides waking up before dawn for a meal and ending the daily fast at sunset, there are other supererogatory prayers and deeds that followers eagerly strive to perform.

The first Ramadhan at our new home, we were all happy to have a meal together at a table in a decent home for once. After having gone through the kinds of housing we’d been on.

I normally start slow, not going full out for the supererogatory rituals. I picked up momentum last Sunday at the usual Masjid I’ve been going to since last Ramadhan. 

My evenings are spent there after breaking my fast at home.

By the time I get home some 15mins shy of 11 and I am in bed by midnight and then I am up by 5am the next day. I am exhausted by the time I get home from the Masjid, but its time worth spending, its time when I am really living.

I have a shot of the obligatory strong coffee [to stay awake and alert at work], after my morning meal. I see all the essential vitamins and minerals flooded to death at the caffeine attack in my system. I actually visualize tiny atoms screaming and running for their lives and for my health every time I down my cup of coffee.

For now, I decided to take time out from the Masjid on Saturday. I was occupied in the evenings over the weekend, but yesterday, I felt I needed to stay home.

Sometimes I feel like I go off tangent on the spiritual curve when I develop a routine, which inevitably becomes mechanical for me. I get the feeling that I am moving too far away from God or that I am not sincere with my deeds, because if I were at home in my own private moments, I wouldn’t have performed the rituals I normally perform in the Masjid.

So I decided to remain home to perform my prayers at my own pace. I look forward to nights I spend at the Masjid. ..Even then, I often feel the need to remain home on some days, to wake in the middle of the night on my own, when it is easier to go back to bed with no one to motivate me to wake up, to perform my extra prayers at my own will. Even if I don't wake up, I learn about my own state of spirituality.
Its just my way of spending Ramadhan:-) Masjid prayers would resume soon:-)Wont be long before I will miss it.

Soul receives from soul that knowledge, therefore not by book nor from tongue. If knowledge of mysteries come after emptiness of mind, that is illumination of heart.
~ Jelaluddin Rumi

I read in the local papers again, about Muslim girls with the scarf getting expelled from French schools. These students I'd read about recently are top students in school.

The "problem" is more, so much more than what it appears to be.Where the French are coming from in terms of separating the Church can never be compared with what the rest of the world religous world had been through. The Muslim world did not have to deal with fundamentals of physics and nature in religious theology like the Christians in Europe had to. Sure today we(Muslims) have our problems, we never had the problems the European Christians had. We never felt compelled to burn "thousands of books to save the world from faithlessness" for example.

So, religion and way of life for many others other than European Christians-with-a-baggage is diametrically different.

Do the French really think they could absolutely eradicate faith and manifestations of faith? Are they in denial of human nature?

As for the girls who protest, I see the youth in them, I recognise the fervour, the relentless rebellion, I applaud them:-)

"Travel is dreaming, is improvisation, a poverty of reason." ~ My friend Jared.

"We cannot be sure of having something to live for unless we are willing to die for it" Che Guevara

When Jared sent his poem, inspired after watching "The Motorcycle Diaries". I told myself to save it and read it after I'd seen the film myself.

I remember seeing posters of "Che" Guevara, reminding lme of Bob Marley with his dreadlocks cut short all over Cochin city [my favourite city in Kerala]. Kerala is the world's first democratically elected Communist State. Every child I met from my family is politically aware. Every single person, from whatever background reads the daily news and is politically clued in. As a state, Kerala is one of the many states thats very vocal in resisting globalisation.

When I was in Mumbai, MacDonalds couldn't have felt more wrong to have existed. One kilo of potatoes cost Rs7 (< US$0.04) and a pack of fries from MacDonalds cost you Rs45 (almost US$1). Thats oppresive.

I am not one-dimentionally anti-globalisation. I am for a global society and the global village and being a part of the global citizen...being without boundaries and embracing humanity, its culture, differences, its heritage. I love it when mehndi is globalised, when the Indians go Chinese when something new happens to their llives, when pizza is the worlds fast food...you  get my point. What makes me mad is global oppression, monopoly, imperialism and everything that pissed the hell out of Carl Marx.

Marx was anti-religion. He is famously known for his belief that religion is the opium of man. That didnt agree with many religionists of course and this became a cause and reason for the countless war that happened during the cold war. This in turn backed with the reasoning that the communists were a ruthless, heartless bunch of barbarians trying to create a Uthopia. This, a response of one statement, one sentiment by a philosopher who also strongly believed and stood for many ideals all the prophets in the relgious history of mankind tried to convey. Appreciate the irony.

Maybe there were ruthless communist leaders, but communism or the concept of socialism is not one thats against the nature of man. Every man desires justice and wants to be treated with justice.

When machines came along in the earlier part of the 19th century, the labourers*Luddites* werent wrong in protesting and even getting violent,smashing the new machines of the Industrial revolution. Their violence is a result of rational insight as opposed to an irrational displacement of human workforce, thereby rendering many jobless and left in the lurch to fend for themselves. But I digress.

"The Motorcylce Diaries" is a film of an intimate record of a revolutionary leader of our time. It was made with such sensitivity, such devotion to the honesty of expressing medical student,Ernesto Guevara's emotions,beliefs and his uncompromising honesty.

At the risk of sounding ridiculous, let me say that the true revolutionary is guided by feelings of love. ~ Che Guevara

I admire the spirit of "Che". He was original. He never believed in copying anyone. He acted from his gut. He acted honest, true to his soul, to his predisposed nature, of desiring justice and truth.

Gives me great joy to announce that one of my best friends, Cake, has given birth to a healthy albeit helfty;-) 3.7kg baby Muhd Ilhan Harith yesterday evening. AlHamdulillah. This news made my heart smile this evening. I can't wait to meet Ilhan.:D

We all go through our own inner struggles, our own inner battles, but essentially we all try to see the good and want the good out of people.

If you emanate goodness, wheather with effort or no, you reap goodness. Have you met people who only expect the least goodness out of people? Sceptism and suspicion rule their hearts, minds and souls. It consumes them. It eats them from within.

They thrive on taking those around them ...into their endless bottomless pit of misery. They love to prove to the positive, active, passionate that what they see, what they know is nothing but naivity and ignorance while they are the ones who actually know reality.
 Talk about self absorbsion.
Sad.

In a given circumstance, a negative person may only derive all the bad that one has to say about another person/issue/place, etc. Have you noticed how one speaks well of  another when he/she normally doesnt when in the present of someone who is sincere and means well?

We all influence eachother wheather we like it or not. We all get affected by those around us wheather we have a control or not over how they may or may not affect us.

I have  a low threshold for people with nothing but negativity, nothing but suspicion, jealousy and ignorance and what have you.

Where did I come from, and what am I supposed to be doing?" 

"I have no idea. My soul is from elsewhere, I'm sure of that, and I intend to end up there."

~ Jelaluddin Rumi

Got this on email today...bizarre.

MOTHER-IN-LAW: When you rearrange the letters:
WOMAN HITLER

ELEVEN PLUS TWO: When you rearrange the letters:
 TWELVE PLUS ONE
 
A DECIMAL POINT:When you rearrange the letters: 
IM A DOT IN PLACE

ELECTION RESULTS:When you rearrange the letters:
 LIES - LET'S RECOUNT

GEORGE BUSH: When you rearrange the letters:
 HE BUGS GORE

I had Class 95 on this afternoon, your typical Sunday afternoon music bliss...when you get to hear tracks from so many years back, triggering memories and bringing to life instances, moments relived as if not a second had passed since you last experienced it years ago.

The Cranberries came on, one of the MTV live recording of "Zombie". There is one reason why I tend to listen to songs in English more often than music from my own culture. Sure, Malayalam songs are fantastic, as is its music...Hindi numbers are great and I dont think the glory it had in the 80s for Tamil music could ever be relived.

Nevertheless,there has always been the disatisfaction for me, with these songs with regards to the themes they've always dealt with : love, a broken heart, and yet another broken heart and more love songs.

Much as I do enjoy the lyrical magic the many Indian languages can acheive that the English Language can never be at par with...I still appreciate the music and songs I listen to in English more. You never hear a commercial song dealing with social issues with Indian music, unless you count those tacky pseudo patriotic theme songs some movies have. Hence my preference for my music. Not that music in English is perfect and flawless and don't have& nbsp;hopeless love songs.

It could also be that I read and think in English more often than not. This is the outcome of the cultural melting pot that I have been brought up in. More on cultural melting pot later...meanwhile...

"But you see it's not me,
it's not my family
In your head, in your head,
they are fighting With their tanks,
and their bombs And their bombs,
and their guns
It's the same old theme since 1916
In your head, in your head they are cryin'
In your head, in your head, Zombie, Zombie
In your head, what's in your head Zombie"

More beautiful tracks come to mind from their earlier albums, Linger, No need to argue, Ode To My Family,Animal Instints, Just My Imagination, Dreams...:-) and that incredible "God be with you Ireland" rememeber that one? I love D'lores' voice. Whats your favourite Cranberry track?