Forgive and Forget

Often without even trying, 

the ones closest to our heart 

(by the very nature of their closeness)

are the ones who can hurt us the most.

And because it hurts so much, 

it is our parents, siblings, lovers, close friends

who we can find hardest to forgive.

The remedy in the Quran addressing this problem 

is a quite simple piece of advice:

 "وَلـيَعفُواْ وَليَصفَحُوٓاْ"

"walya'fu": 

and do not punish 

"walyasfahu": 

and turn the page

Simply: 

'forgive and forget'.

Cool. 

But we just said that

it's not always that easy, is it?

So the ayat continues by asking:

"أَلَا تُحِبُّونَ أًَن يَغفِرَ اللهًُ لَكُم"

"Would you not like 

that Allah should forgive you?"

SubhanAllah, with this

Allah has weighed up the difficulty of forgiving and forgetting 

against the magnitude of Allah's forgiveness.

(And what can possibly compare to the magnitude of Allah's forgiveness??)

Meaning, if a person still refuses to forgive and forget, 

it is quite possibly a problem of iman (faith).

If he still refuses to forgive and forget, then

he has to perhaps look into his heart 

to see what is stopping him: 

it could very well be pride and arrogance.

The ayat concludes with:

"وٓ اللهُ غٓفُورٌ رّٓحِيمٌ"

"And Allah is Forgiving and Merciful"

So..will you 

forgive and forget? 🙂

Reference: 

Ustaz Nouman Ali Khan's tafsir of ayat 22 of Surah An-Nur

Eiduladha

But then, what is love -

that emotion, intangible;

that feeling, unmeasurable?

It seems that even at its most quantifiable,

love is but a complex series of chemical reactions in the brain, incomprehensible.

There doesn't seem to be a unit of measurement for love;

like there are metres and miles to measure distance,

or hertz and decibels to measure sound.

And so, empty sound

is what "I love you"

too often turns out to be.

That, to me, 

was prophet Ibrahim's lesson

in his willingness to sacrifice his son:

That there actually is 

a unit of measurement of love -  sacrifice.

That the more one loves, the more for his object of love

he should be willing to sacrifice.

Ibrahim's love to God was not intangible,

not empty - it was proven by his willingness to sacrifice what he loved most in this world.

Eiduladha is a celebration of that sacrifice; of that love.

selamat hari raya, everybody!! 🙂

Does the heart want 

happiness, or familiarity? 

I think it yearns for the former

but finds contentment in the latter.

Maybe that's why a cloudy day is strangely comforting.. 🤔

(Until it starts raining lah. Then not happy, or comfortable)

Papa is a Tree

Pa, I remember you arriving home from work,

hands on hips, imitating the branches of a tree:

"Papa is a tree. 

Try and climb papa!"

Gleefully adik and I obliged, 

having never climbed a real tree,

racing to climb you like the city kids we are

(and having little regard for the health of your back 😅).

It has been nearly 15 years now since we last did that.

Those years have seen us kids 

grow up, leave school, fly overseas.

While you, Pa; 

our football coach, 

our chauffeur,

our best friend, 

have stayed our steady tree. 

I guess it can be tricky playing that role..

Being that steady over the years, 

it's easy to blend into the background -

people forgetting how important you are.

As you put out roots into yesterday, 

giving us steady support;

as you put out shoots into tomorrow, 

sheltering us from Life's elements;

as you put out flowers and fruits, 

nurturing those around you;

as you put out leaves green, red and brown, 

coloring our lives.

Trees, like everything, grow old

but they do develop a certain beauty with old age:

barks scarred and wrinkled with wisdom, 

leaves no longer growing thick,

revealing the empty nests of those city kids

who once lived on you, but

now live halfway across the world.

They remember still what you once said,

hands on hips, imitating the branches of a tree:

"Papa is a tree. 

Try and climb papa!"

Happy birthday, pa..

We love you! ❤️❤️😬😬