Poetry – e-Advice

Let the days go forth as they will (Imam Shafi)

August 28, 2020

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Veronica

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Here is my translation of a very nice poem by Imam Shafi’ the respected founder of one of the four schools of Islamic Law in Sunni Islam. In it he gives some advice about how we should live. Poetry and eloquence has a high place in Arabic culture. دَعِ الأَيّامَ تَفعَلُ ما تَشاءُ وَطِب نَفساً إِذا…

Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley

September 6, 2020

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Veronica

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Poetry

I met a traveller from an antique land, Who said – “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand, Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which…

Limited by Carl Sandburg

September 6, 2020

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Veronica

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Poetry

I am riding on a limited express, one of the crack trains of the nation. Hurtling across the prairie into blue haze and dark air go fifteen all-steel coaches holding a thousand people. (All the coaches shall be scrap and rust and all the men and women laughing in the diners and sleepers shall pass…

Matthew Arnold on loss of faith and the darkness of modernity

August 30, 2020

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Veronica

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Poetry, Tradition versus Modernity

Writing around the middle of the 19th Century, just before the seismic shock waves of the Origin of the Species and Das Kapital, in a society still confident in its faith, the sensitive seer Matthew Arnold has detected a turn in the tide. This is another treasure from English literature which will resonate with a…

What John Donne foresaw in his poem, The Anatomy of the World

August 26, 2020

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Veronica

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Poetry, Tradition versus Modernity

Wisdom is the lost property of every Muslim, and for this reason it is a pleasure to share a gem of wisdom found in the treasury of English literature. John Donne was a metaphysical poet, and as such, he speaks to our times which needs his metaphysics as physic (medicine) for the sickness of materialism…

Remembering God – and a beautiful reminder

August 28, 2020

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Veronica

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Religion, Poetry

In the name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful. All praise is for Him who made pitch, harmony and discord, sound and silence, and peace and blessings be upon his messenger who taught us how to pray and to remember Allah. This life is full of alarms and attractions which grab our attention, making us …

Prayer for Life

August 28, 2020

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Veronica

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Poetry

Don’t let me get to Ninety-three, Just to discern my life to be Wasted in futility. Don’t let me say when it’s too late, “I should have shut that stable gate. If I knew then what I know now I’d choose a new furrow to plough.” Lord, don’t let me shut my eyes To…

The Repentance of Abu Nawas

September 1, 2020

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Veronica

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Poetry

From the Repentance of Abu Nawas Abu Nawas was a brilliant poet who was also famous for living the life of a profligate and reprobate, doing many things forbidden by Islam and writing about them. However, towards the end of his life, he wrote a beautiful poem of repentance which surely must touch the…

Let the days go forth as they will (Imam Shafi)

Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley

Limited by Carl Sandburg

Matthew Arnold on loss of faith and the darkness of modernity

What John Donne foresaw in his poem, The Anatomy of the World

Remembering God – and a beautiful reminder

Prayer for Life

The Repentance of Abu Nawas

Hikam Ibn Ata’illah and The Serendipity Mindset

Islam and modernity: shooting at the moon

Does bad language make for bad religion?

Category: Poetry

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