Mecca Quotes

Faith is universal. Our specific methods for understanding it are arbitrary. Some of us pray to Jesus, some of us go to Mecca, some of us study subatomic particles. In the end we are all just searching for truth, that which is greater than ourselves.

The journey is part of the experience - an expression of the seriousness of one's intent. One doesn't take the A train to Mecca.

Far from being the father of jihad, [Prophet] Mohammad was a peacemaker, who risked his life and nearly lost the loyalty of his closest companions because he was determined to effect a reconciliation with Mecca

One reason that cats are happier than people is that they have no newspapers.

Don’t misunderstand me; I don’t want to die alone, but spending quality time with myself 60 to 70 percent of the day is my idea of mecca.

And still I urge you to struggle. Struggle for the memory of your ancestors. Struggle for wisdom. Struggle for the warmth of The Mecca. Struggle for your grandmother and grandfather, for your name. But do not struggle for the Dreamers. Hope for them. Pray for them, if you are so moved. But do not pin your struggle on their conversion. The Dreamers will have to learn to struggle themselves, to understand that the field for their Dream, the stage where they have painted themselves white, is the deathbed of us all.

Hardly. Faith is universal. Our specific methods for understanding it are arbitrary. Some of us pray to Jesus, some us go to Mecca, some of us study subatomic particles. In the end we are all just searching for truth, that which is greater than ourselves.

Mohammed? Are you kidding? He was dreamed up by the Mecca Chamber of Commerce.

We allow ourselves to be blown by the winds because we do know what we want: our hearts know it, even if our thoughts are sometimes slow to follow- but in the end they do catch up with our hearts and then we think we have made a decision

In middle school, my friends decided I was weird, and they didn’t like my hair. They ditched me and talked behind my back, which is cool — I’m over it. [laughs] One time I called them and said, “Hey, do you want to go to the Berkshire Mall?” They all gave me excuses and said no. So I go to the mall with my mom, and don’t you know, we run into all of them. Together. Shopping. My mom could see I was about to cry, so she said, “You know what? We’re going to the King of Prussia mall,” which was the mecca.

It's a big world, and I really like it.

His readiness to undergo persecutions for his beliefs, the high moral character of the men who believed in him and looked up to him as leader, and the greatness of his ultimate achievement - all argue his fundamental integrity. To suppose Muhammad an impostor raises more problems than it solves. Moreover, none of the great figures of history is so poorly appreciated in the West as Muhammad

When I want something, I go for it. Life is way too damn short to live any other way. And I want to get to know you better.” Those lashes lowered one more time, his gaze tracking to my lips like they were some kind of Mecca. “Yeah, I definitely want to get to know you better.

It is lonesome, yes. For we are the last of the loud. Nevertheless, live. Conduct your blooming in the noise and whip of the whirlwind.

فجأة طفا صوت من أعماق ذاكرتي، صوت رجل عجوز من قبائل الأكراد بشمال إيران، قال لي ذات يوم: المياه الراكدة في بركة تتعطن وتتشبع بالطين والعكر، أما المياه المتحركة المتدفقة، فإنها تظل نقية.. هكذا الإنسان في سكونه أو تجواله

و لو أن المسلمين احتفظوا برباطة جأشهم و ارتضوا الرقي وسيلة لاغاية في ذاتها،اذن لما استطاعوا أن يحتفظوا بحريتهم فحسب،بل ربما استطاعوا أيضا أن يعطوا انسان الغرب سر طلاوة الحياة الضائع

For a painter, the Mecca of the world, for study, for inspiration and for living is here on this star called Paris. Just look at it, no wonder so many artists have come here and called it home. Brother, if you can't paint in Paris, you'd better give up and marry the boss's daughter.

Each time we use our cell phones, snap pictures with a camera, or use a search engine’s algorithms, we benefit from the legacy of Muhammad’s modern mindset. His mindset is not tied to Mecca or Medina, for as the Golden Age political philosopher Al-Farabi observed, “Medina is not a location but the manner in which a community comes together.” Indeed, people of any culture or race can establish a “place of flowing change.” As Muhammad declared in the final days of his life, “My progeny are those who uphold my legacy!

All white people are born with a singular mission in life in order to pass from regular whitehood into ultra-whitehood. Just as Muslims have to visit Mecca, all white people must eventually renovate a house before they can be complete.

So, Swami Jesus, will you go on the hajj this year?" Ravi said, bringing the palms of his hands together in front of his face in a reverent namaskar. "Does Mecca beckon?" He crossed himself. "Or will it be to Rome for your coronation as the next Pope Pius?" He drew in the air a Greek letter, making clear the spelling of his Mockery. "Have you found time yet to get the end of your pecker cut off and become a Jew? At the rate you're going, if you go to temple on Thursday, mosque on Friday, synagogue on Saturday and church on Sunday, you only need to convert to three more religions to be on holiday for the rest of your life.

إن كل فضيلة تدمر ذاتها إذا خلت من التواضع..

إلا أننا مليئون بالمخاوف التى تدفعنا إلى تأمين حياتنا دون أن نصل إلى أغوارها وأعماقها، ونشعر أن هناك خطيئة تكمن فى مثل تلك الدوافع والمقاصد..

She's my Mecca.

...I suddenly felt in myself all the weight of Europe: the weight of deliberate purpose in all our actions. I thought to myself, 'How difficult it is for us to attain to reality... We always try to grab it: but it does not like to be grabbed. Only where it overwhelms man does it surrender itself to him.

أكدت رسالة النبي – صلى الله عليه وسلم- أن السببية العقلية هي السبيل للإيمان الصحيح بينما تبتعد التأملات الصوفية وما يترتب عليها [من سلوك] عن ذلك المضمون، والإسلام قبل أي شيء مفهوم عقلاني لا عاطفي ولا انفعالي، الانفعالات مهما تكن جياشة معرضة للاختلاف والتباين باختلاف رغبات الأفراد وتباين مخاوفهم بعكس السببية العقلية، كما أن الانفعالية غير معصومة بأي حال

The body, so to speak, is simply the riding-animal of the soul, and perishes while the soul endures. The soul should take care of the body, just as a pilgrim on his way to Mecca takes care of his camel; but if the pilgrim spends his whole time in feeding and adorning his camel, the caravan will leave him behind, and he will perish in the desert.

وتحت وطأة ثقافة الفكر الغربى، ترتجف أرواح كثير من المسلمين والمسلمات. لقد سقطوا تحت وطأة مفهوم متناقض مع مفاهيمهم، يتضمن أنهم لكى يحققوا مستوى أفضل من العيش، لابد أن يحسنوا من مستوى إدراكهم. فسقطوا فى وثنية التقدم التى سقط فيها الغرب حين قلص دور الدين إلى نغمة خافتة مصاحبة؛ وبذلك تأقزموا ولم ينموا: فكل محاكاة معادية للإبداع، لابد أن تجعل البشر أقزامًا...

تستطيع أن تلمس ذلك الحب بيديك، إلا أنك لا تستطيع أن تعبر عنه بأي كلمات، مهما كانت بلاغتها..

Welcome to the blood bath! If you are looking for Economics 101…you are in the wrong fucking place, my friend! If you seek the Circle, this is Mecca!

Perhaps that was, is, the hope of the movement: to awaken the Dreamers, to rouse them to the facts of what their need to be white, to talk like they are white, to think that they are white, which is to think that they are beyond the design flaws of humanity, has done to the world. But you cannot arrange your life around them and the small chance of the Dreamers coming into consciousness. Our moment is too brief. Our bodies are too precious. And you are here now, and you must live—and there is so much out there to live for, not just in someone else’s country, but in your own home. The warmth of dark energies that drew me to The Mecca, that drew out Prince Jones, the warmth of our particular world, is beautiful, no matter how brief and breakable.

It was only by escaping into the desert that Moses and the Jews were able to solidify their identity and reemerge as a social and political force. Jesus spent his forty days in the wilderness, and Mohammed, too, fled Mecca at a time of great peril for a period of retreat. He and just a handful of his most devoted supporters used this period to deepen their bonds, to understand who they were and what they stood for, to let time work its good. Then this little band of believers reemerged to conquer Mecca and the Arabian Peninsula and later, after Mohammed's death, to defeat the Byzantines and the Persian empire, spreading Islam over vast territories. Around the world every mythology has a hero who retreats, even to Hades itself in the case of Odysseus, to find himself.

You can’t bring an unwritten place to life without losing something substantial. Manila is the cradle, the graveyard, the memory. The Mecca, the Cathedral, the bordello. The shopping mall, the urinal, the discotheque. I’m hardly speaking in metaphor. It’s the most impermeable of cities. How does one convey all that?

كثيرا ما ينير الله قلوبنا خلال الأحلام لينبئنا أحيانا بما يمكن أن يوجهنا في الأيام القادمة وأحياناً ينير لنا ما غمض أمامنا من الحاضر... ألم يمرّ بك شيء مشابه يا محمد؟؟؟..

All over India, all over the world, as the sun or the shadow of darkness moves from east to west, the call to prayer moves with it, and people kneel down in a wave to pray to God. Five waves each day - one for each namaaz - ripple across the globe from longitude to longitude. The component elements change direction, like iron filings near a magnet - towards the house of God in Mecca.

احتسيت القهوة، وتطلعت إلى وجه زيد المليء بسعادة رزينة، قلت له: "لماذا يا أخي نعرّض أنفسنا لهذه المهالك بدلاً من المكوث في بيوتنا مثل العقلاء من الناس؟" رد زيد: "لأنه لا يليق بنا أن ننتظر في بيوتنا حتى تتيبّس أعضاؤنا وتجتاحنا الشيخوخة. عدا ذلك، ألا يموت الناس أيضاً في بيوتهم؟ ألا يحمل الناس مصائرهم حول أعناقهم أينما كانوا؟

بدأت أتساءل: هل هي السوداوية الدفينة في الإيرانيين ومشاعرهم المأسوية التي دفعتهم الى تبني المذهب الشيعي؟ .. كان تعظيم وتمجيد الإيرانيين للعقيدة الشيعية تعبيراً عن احتجاج صامت على الغزو عرب لإيران

هل يوجد واقع مستقل عن إدراكنا؟ أم أن أدوات إدراكنا هي التي تخلق الواقع الذي ندركه؟

كان اختلاف الحال بين مسلمي الأمس ومسلمي اليوم يوجعني كلكمة مؤلمة..

If the only thing wrong with mosques, Lent, chanting, ?Mecca, confession, or reincarnation is that they're not yours- well maybe the problem is "YOU

She was not only a female, but a damned beautiful one.A gentleman would have turned away the moment he realized what was happening." ~Alex Kerr

Hateful things sometimes befall the hateful but the hateful are not rendered lovable thereby.

Salem has become this... Mecca for Wiccans, but no witches died here. Aside from Tituba, no one practiced anything like witchcraft near here in colonial times. It was a bunch of bored Puritans who thought killing their neighbors at the behest of teenage girls was a fine, Christian form of entertainment and land acquisition.

He shook his head, but I kept flattering him, telling him how fine his beard was, how fair his skin was (ha!), how it was obvious from his nose and forehead that he wasn't some pig herd who had converted, but a true-blue Muslim who had flown here on a magic carpet all the way from Mecca, and he grunted with satisfaction

كنت شغوفاً بالتواصل إلى جوانب حميمية محببة إلى نفسي من الحياة, و أن أقتحم تلك الجوانب دون أن أضفي على نفسي وسائل مصطنعة كما يفعل كثيرون, و أن أصل بنفسي إلى روحية حقيقية كنت أوقن إنها موجودة إلا أنني لم أتوصل إليها بعد.

If the only thing wrong with Moses is that he's not yours; if the only thing wrong with Jesus is that he's not yours; if the only thing wrong with mosques, Lent, chanting, Mecca, Buddha, confession, or reincarnation is that they're not yours--well, maybe the problem is you.

This was the Mecca of the American Dream, the world that everyone wanted. A world of sleek young women (allied with Slenderella to be so) in shorts and halters, driving 400-horsepower station wagons to air-conditioned, music-serenaded supermarkets of baby-sitter corporations and culture condensed into Great Books discussion groups. A life of barbecues by the swimming pool and drive in movies open all year. It did't appeal to me. Fuck health insurance plans and life insurance. They wanted to live without leaving the womb. It made me more alive to play a game without rules against society, and I was prepared to play it to the end. A tremor almost sexual passed through me as I anticipated the comming robbery.

I do not believe we can stop them, Samori, because they must ultimately stop themselves. And still I urge you to struggle. Struggle for the memory of your ancestors. Struggle for wisdom. Struggle for the warmth of The Mecca. Struggle for your grandmother and grandfather, for your name. But do not struggle for the Dreamers. Hope for them. Pray for them, if you are so moved. But do not pin your struggle on their conversion. The Dreamers will have to learn to struggle themselves, to understand that the field for their Dream, the stage where they have painted themselves white, is the deathbed of us all. The Dream is the same habit that endangers this planet, the same habit that sees our bodies stowed away in prisons and ghettos.

Balanced atop the highest spire of the Salt Lake Temple, gleaming in the Utah sun, a statue of the angel Moroni stands watch over downtown Salt Lake City with his golden trumpet raised. This massive granite edifice is the spiritual and temporal nexus of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), which presents itself as the world's only true religion. Temple Square is to Mormons what the Vatican is to Catholics, or the Kaaba in Mecca is to Muslims. At last count there were more than eleven million Saints the world over, and Mormonism is the fastest-growing faith in the Western Hemisphere. At present in the United States there are more Mormons than Presbyterians or Episcopalians. On the planet as a whole, there are now more Mormons than Jews. Mormonism is considered in some sober academic circles to be well on its way to becoming a major world religion--the first such faith to emerge since Islam.

Some evenings, I kneel toward Mecca with my uncle. Maybe Mecca is the place Leftie goes to in his mind, when the memory of losing his arm becomes too much. Maybe Mecca is good memories, presents and stories and poetry and arroz con pollo and family and friends... Maybe Mecca is the place everyone is looking for... It's out there in front of you, my uncle says. I know I'll know it when I get there.

‏النقاء الخالص لايحمل أي قيمة أخلاقية مادام ذلك النقاء موجودًا في غياب الدوافع والرغبات والشهوات

Love is like magic, volatile, beautiful, and scary.

اتضح لي أن تخلف المسلمين لم يكن ناتجاً عن الإسلام، ولكن لفشلهم أن يحيوا كما أرادهم الإسلام، وفشلهم في التمسك بتعاليمه..

الإيرانيون شعب سوداوي ومكتئب بالفعل.و انعكست كآبتهم على براريهم و أرضهم..

Even if you can only do the littlest bit of good, you have to keep going, because that little bit of good may save someone's life.

Sometimes the places and people you thought were safe look different once you've seen them from another perspective.

كلا يا زيد_ أنت و أنا، نترك أنفسنا للرياح لأننا نعرف ما نريد: قلوبنا تدرك ما نريد، حتى لو كانت أفكارنا أبطأ في ملاحقة ما تريده قلوبنا، إلا أنها تدرك في النهاية ما يدور في القلوب ثم نعتقد بعد ذلك أننا اتخذنا قراراً..

الآراء الشائعة في الغرب عن الإسلام [تتلخص] فيما يأتي: (انحطاط المسلمين ناتج عن الإسلام، وأنه بمجرد تحررهم من العقيدة الإسلامية وتبني مفاهيم الغرب وأساليب حياتهم وفكرهم؛ فإن ذلك سيكون أفضل لهم وللعالم)، إلا أن ما وجدته من مفاهيم وما توصلت إلى فهمه من مبادئ الإسلام وقيمه أقنعني أن ما يردده الغرب ليس إلا مفهوماً مشوهاً للإسلام... اتضح لي أن تخلف المسلمين لم يكن ناتجاً عن الإسلام، ولكن لإخفاقهم في أن يحيوا كما أمرهم الإسلام..... لقد كان الإسلام هو ما حمل المسلمين الأوائل إلى ذراً فكرية وثقافية سامية" ص [243-244].

بينت الأعوام الأربعة التي قضيتها في مجتمعات إسلامية أن الإسلام مازال حياً وأن الأمة الإسلامية متمسكة به بقبول صامت لمنهجه وتعاليمه إلا أن المسلمين كانوا مشلولين غير قادرين على تحويل إيمانهم إلى أفعال مثمرة

كانت أول علاقة له بفكرة الإسلام وهو يقضي أيام رحلته الأولى في القدس عندما رأى مجموعة من الناس يصلون صلاة الجماعة يقول: "أصابتني الحيرة حين شاهدت صلاة تتضمن حركات آلية، فسألت الإمام هل تعتقد حقاً أن الله ينتظر منك أن تظهر له إيمانك بتكرار الركوع والسجود؟ ألا يكون من الأفضل أن تنظر إلى داخلك وتصلي إلى ربك بقلبك وأنت ساكن؟ أجاب: بأي وسيلة أخرى تعتقد أننا يمكن أن نعبد الله؟ ألم يخلق الروح والجسد معاً؟ وبما أنه خلقنا جسداً وروحاً ألا يجب أن نصلي بالجسد والروح؟ ثم مضى يشرح المعنى من حركات الصلاة، أيقنت بعد ذلك بسنوات أن ذلك الشرح البسيط قد فتح لي أول باب للإسلام

Purify your intentions, your inner being, your heart and be sincere in your actions,’ he wrote. ‘God looks into your heart, not at your outer form. He looks at what lies behind the clothes … He looks into your private sphere, not at your public show.

I believe he is attempting to pray,” said Sheikh Bilal. “But he isn’t clean. He hasn’t performed the ablution or checked the direction of Mecca, or begun in the correct position.” “My dear sir,” said the sheikh. “God likes catching His servants unprepared. The boy has set down what is obviously the first plate of food he has seen in a long while in order to thank his Creator. There are few acts of piety more honest than that.

تلك المشاعر من عدم الرضا السعيد التي لا يعرفها إلا الشباب والرغبة العارمة في هدم العالم وبنائه من جديد..

ركوب متواصل يبدو بلا نهاية، رجلان على ناقتين، وشمس ملتهبة حارقة، كل شي يسبح قي ضوء مبهر قوي، كثبان رملية تعكس أضواء حمراء وبرتقالية تبهر البصر، كثبان بعد كثبان بلا نهاية، وحدة وصمت محرق، رجلان على ناقتين يتأرجحان في رتابة لا يتغير إيقاعها على وقع الخطى الي تجلب النعاس، تجعلك تنسى في أي يوم أنت، وتنسى الشمس المحرقة، والريح الملتهبة،والطريق الطويل الذي لا تبدو له نهاية.

White America” is a syndicate arrayed to protect its exclusive power to dominate and control our bodies. Sometimes this power is direct (lynching), and sometimes it is insidious (redlining). But however it appears, the power of domination and exclusion is central to the belief in being white, and without it, “white people” would cease to exist for want of reasons. There will surely always be people with straight hair and blue eyes, as there have been for all history. But some of these straight-haired people with blue eyes have been “black,” and this points to the great difference between their world and ours. We did not choose our fences. They were imposed on us by Virginia planters obsessed with enslaving as many Americans as possible. They are the ones who came up with a one-drop rule that separated the “white” from the “black,” even if it meant that their own blue-eyed sons would live under the lash. The result is a people, black people, who embody all physical varieties and whose life stories mirror this physical range. Through The Mecca I saw that we were, in our own segregated body politic, cosmopolitans. The black diaspora was not just our own world but, in so many ways, the Western world itself.

People succumb to fear, no matter the government. The everyday person doesn’t want war, but it’s remarkably easy to convince them. It’s the government that determines political priorities, and it’s easy to drag people along with you by tapping into that fear. I don’t care if you have a communist mecca, a fascist regime, or a representative democracy, even some monarchy with a gutless parliament. People can always be convinced to turn on one another. All you have to do is convince them that their way of life is being attacked. Denounce all the pacifist liberal bleeding hearts and feel-good heretics, the social outcasts, the educated. Call them elites and snobs. Say they’re out of touch with real patriots. Call these rabble-rousers terrorists. Say their very existence weakens the state. In the end, the government need not do anything to silence dissent. Their neighbors will do it for them.

Hope was a strange thing. Once it found its way into your heart, your soul, it was almost impossible to get it out.

ومع الألم الذي تحسه بفقد الأشياء الثمينة، التي تفقد إلى الأبد، ما زلت أذكر مسار رحلتي الأخيرة عبر الصحارى، حين سرنا، وسرنا، كنا رجلين على ناقتين، عبر الأضواء السابحة في الصحراء..

وإن أخطأ في جانب ما، فلأنه لم يحاول أبداً أن يكون شيئاً أخر غير ذاتهـ..

لن أرى دمشق...لماذا؟ تساءلت بمرارة، هل دمشق محرمة عليّ؟

لقد وجدنا طريقنا وصممنا على ألا نفقده مرة أخرى..

If you scream, you're marked "insane." But silence is a place in which to scream!

52 The matter is not finished by going to Mecca, so long as you do not finish off the self from your heart. Sins are not shed by going to the Ganges, even though you immerse yourself hundreds of times. The matter is not finished off by going to Gaya, no matter how many offerings you make to the dead. Bullhe Shah, the matter is finished when the ego is destroyed. 53 If I search for you for you inside, then I think you are confined. If I search for you outside, then who is contained within me? You are everything, you are in everything, you are known to be free from everything. You are me and I am you, so who is poor Bullha? 54 You remain awake at night and perform your devotions. Also awake at night are dogs, better than you. They bark and in no way can they be stopped. They go and sleep on the dung heap, better than you. They do not leave their master's door, even if they get beaten with slippers, better than you. Bullhe Shah, buy yourself something for the journey, or else the game will be won by the dogs, better than you.

It was not the philosophers and the prophets who taught us to believe in life after death; all they did was give form and spiritual content to an instinctive perception as old as man himself.

هل ترى أولئك المدرسين هناك؟ إنهم مثل أبقار الهند المقدسة، إنهم كمن يأكلون كل ورقة مطبوعة يجدونها في أي مكان و أي شارع...إلا أنهم لا يهضمونها... لم يعودوا يفكرون؛ إنهم يقرأون ويحفظون عن ظهر قلب ويعيدون ما قرأوه ويرددونه كما هو، أجبال بعد أجيال

لم تتأثر الحياة في الجزيرة العربية بالبشر بقدر ما أثرت الجزيرة العربية بقسوة صحاريها وصرامتها في البشر و أجبرتهم على سلوكيات معينة.. تلك البساطة الموروثة في السلوكيات و الأفعال واضحة في ايماءاتهم وحركاتهم وفي سلوكهم ومواقفهم إزاء الحياة

A moral compass does not cease to function because one's surroundings are new and strange, or else it is no compass at all.

How difficult it is for us to attain to reality...We always try to grab it: but it does not like to be grabbed. Only where it overwhelms man does it surrender itself to him.

أما الصحراء فجرداء واضحة ونقية ولا تعرف المصالحات. تمحو من قلب المرء رغبته في متع الحياة وتحولها إلى أشكال مزيفة واضح زيفها، وبذلك تحرر المرء وتجعله يستسلم للمطلق في جوهره لا في صوره، ذلك المطلق الذي هو أبعد من كل بعيد، إلا أنه أقرب من كل قريب..

Shams of Tabriz Befuddled believer! If every Ramadan one fasts in the name of God and every Eid one sacrifices a sheep or a goat as an atonement for his sins, if all his life one strives to make pilgrimage to Mecca and five times a day kneels on a prayer rug but at the same time has no room for love in his heart, what is the use of all this trouble? Faith is only a word if there is no love at its center, so flaccid and lifeless, vague and hollow -- not anything you could truly feel. Pity the fool who thinks the boundaries of his mortal mind are the boundaries of God the Almighty. Pity the ignorant who assume they can negotiate and settle debts with God. Do such people think God is a grocer who attempts to weigh our virtues and wrongdoings on two separate scales? Is He a clerk meticulously writing down our sins in His accounting book so as to make us pay Him back someday? Is this their notion of Oneness?

كنا قد توقفنا لأداء صلاة الظهر . وبينما كنت أتوضأ من قربة ماء ، تساقطت قطرات على بقعة من حشائش جافة بين قدمي، محموع من سيقان الحشائش الجافة الباهتة، صفراء ذابلة بلا حياة تحت حرارة شمس لافحة. حين تساقطت عليها قطرات الماء، بدا كما لو كانت رعشة تسري في أنصال أوراقها الجافة المتغضنة، رأيت أوراقها وأنا مشدوه وهي تتفتح ببطء وارتجاف. نثرت قطرات ماء أخرى عليها، تحركت أنصال أوراقها واستدارت ثم استقامت ببطء، باستحياء وتردد.. كتمت أنفاسي دهشة وأنا أصب مزيداً من الماء على بقعة الأعشاب. تحركت أسرع وانفردت سيقانها المائلة واستقامت أوراقها بحوية أشد، كما لو كانت هناك قوة خفية تدفعها للاستيقاظ من أحلامها المليئة بالموت والفناء. كان مشهداً رائعاً لا يمكن أن أنساه، بدت أنصال أوراق الأعشاب الضئيلة تتمدد كما تتمدد أطراف نجمة البحر، كأنها مأخوذة بنشوة خجولة لايمكن كبح جماح متعتها، احتفاء جامح من المتعة الحسية: عادت الحياة منتصرة إلى ما كان يبدو من لحظات من الموتى، رأيت ذلك ووقع تحت بصري، حدث باتقاد مشبوب، بقوة طاغية تتوق إلى الحياة، وتفوق قوتها وعظمتها القدرة على الفهم والتفسير.

و تحت وطأة ثقافة الفكر الغربي ترتجف أرواح الكثير من المسلمين و المسلمات ، لقد سقطوا تحت وطأة مفهوم متناقض مع مفاهيمهم ، يتضمن أنه لكى يحققوا مستوى أفضل من العيش ، لابد أن يحسنوا مستوى ادراكهم. فسقطوا في وثنية التقدم التي سقط فيها الغرب حين قلص دور الدين الى نغمة خافتة مصاحبة ، و بذلك تأقزموا و لم ينموا : فكل محاكاة معادية للابداع ، و لابد أن تجعل البشر أقزاما ..

In 1979, while Saudi Arabia was in the midst of a process of liberalization, a group of religious fanatics seized the Grand Mosque in Mecca. The Masjid al-Haram houses the kaaba, considered the holiest sitefor Muslims. This incident was a national trauma and transformative for al Saud, who reacted to it with an increased religious traditionalism enforced by the government and spearheaded by the ulama. Ambassador Smith credited a clear transformation to what occurred in 1979. “Saudi Arabia started going ultraconservative after the takeover of the Holy Mosque.

كان من نتائج عملي في جريدة (فرانكفوتر ذيتونج) النضج المبكر لتفكيري الواعي، كما نتجت عنه رؤية ذهنية أكثر وضوحاً من أي وقت مضى، فبدأت في مزج خبرتي بالشرق بعالم الغرب الذي أصبحت جزءاً منه من جديد، منذ عدة شهور مضت اكتشفت العلاقة بين الاطمئنان النفسي والعاطفي السائد في نفوس العرب وعقيدة الإسلام التي يؤمنون بها، كما بدأ يتبلور في ذهني أن نقص التكامل النفسي الداخلي للأوروبيين وحالة الفوضى اللاأخلاقية التي تسيطر عليهم قد تكون ناتجة من عدم وجود إيمان ديني قد تكونت الحضارة الغربية في غيابه، لم ينكر المجتمع الغربي الإله إلا أنه لم يترك له مكاناً في أنساقه الفكرية" ص١٨٢

Then Gai told me about the famous cup of the heart, which I should now begin to empty. The Sufis compare our spiritual heart, the seat of God within us, with a cup into which the love of God flows. This cup, however, needs to be emptied before it can be filled with Divine love. This emptying is a long process that requires courage, strength of character, determination, and, above all, sincerity. It is a process of reining in and eventually extinguishing the ego, of letting go of material needs, bad and unhealthy habits and emotional attachments in order to make room for God. Sufis often likened it to the process of dying and being born again. ‘Die before you die’ is a famous Sufi saying. This was the essence of every spiritual path, Gai told me.

No trees in sight, just concrete Still I see Two roads twist and turn in front of me No signs, but screams Which way's reality? So you choose; yeah, you choose Maybe you lose The sidewalk paved in hitches Broken hearts not fixed by stitches But morning's coming soon No right in sight, just questions And you find There is no map to Mecca It's just life No right answer; perfect marks It's no big deal; it's just your heart Falling stars and lightning sparks This will only sting a bit We are all just Magnets for fate Stumbling, skipping, running at our pace Making choices, losing voices Making wishes for forgiveness But morning's coming soon And no matter where you sit, how fast you sip The coffee tastes the same on magnet lips "Magnets for Fate" -Electric Freakshow

To be real on this path you must be humble -- If you look down at others you'll get pushed down the stairs. If your heart goes around on high, you fly far from this path. There's no use hiding it -- What's inside always leaks outside. Even the one with the long white beard, the one who looks so wise -- If he breaks a single heart, why bother going to Mecca? If he has no compassion, what's the point? My heart is the throne of the Beloved, the Beloved the heart's destiny: Whoever breaks another's heart will find no homecoming in this world or any other. The ones who know say very little while the beasts are always speaking volumes; One word is enough for one who knows. If there is any meaning in the holy books, it is this: Whatever is good for you, grant it to others too -- Whoever comes to this earth migrates back; Whoever drinks the wine of love understands what I say -- Yunus, don't look down at the world in scorn -- Keep your eyes fixed on your Beloved's face, then you will not see the bridge on Judgment Day.

قضيت كل وقتي في دمشق أقرأ من الكتب كل ما له علاقة بالإسلام، كانت لغتي العربية تسعفني في تبادل الحديث؛ إلا أنها كانت أضعف من أن تمكنني من قراءة القرآن الكريم، لذا لجأت إلى ترجمة لمعاني القرآن الكريم، أما ما عدا القرآن الكريم فقد اعتمدت فيه على أعمال المستشرقين الأوروبيين. ومهما كانت ضآلة ما عرفت إلا أنه كان أشبه برفع ستار، بدأت في معرفة عالم من الأفكار كنت غافلاً عنه وجاهلاً به حتى ذلك الوقت، لم يبدُ لي الإسلام ديناً بالمعنى المتعارف عليه بين الناس لكلمة دين؛ بل بدا لي أسلوباً للحياة، ليس نظاماً لاهوتياً بقدر ما هو سلوك فرد، ومجتمع يرتكز على الوعي بوجود إله واحد، لم أجد في أي آية من آيات القرآن الكريم أي إشارة إلى احتياج البشر إلى الخلاص الروحي ولا يوجد ذكر لخطيئة أولى موروثة تقف حائلاً بين المرء وقدره الذي قدره الله له، ولا يبقى لابن آدم إلا عمله الذي سعى إليه، ولا يوجد حاجة إلى الترهب والزهد لفتح أبواب خفية لتحقيق الخلاص، الخلاص حق مكفول للبشر بالولادة، والخطيئة لا تعني إلا ابتعاد الناس عن الفطرة التي خلقهم الله عليها، لم أجد أي أثر على الثنائية في الطبيعة البشرية فالبدن والروح يعملان في المنظور الإسلامي كوحدة واحدة لا ينفصل أحدهما عن الآخر.

Its real deity, I saw, was no longer of a spiritual kind: it was Comfort. No doubt that there were still many individuals who felt and thought in religious terms and made the most desperate efforts to reconcile their moral beliefs with the spirit of their civilization, but they were only exceptions. The average European - whether democrat or communist, manual worker or intellectual - seemed to know only one positive faith: the worship of material progress, the belief that there could be no other goal in life than to make that very life continually easier or, as the current expression went, 'independent of nature'. The temples of faith were the gigantic factories, cinemas, chemical laboratories, dance halls, hydroelectric works; and its priests were the bankers, engineers, politician, film starts, statisticians, captains of industry, record airmen, and commissars.

وفر الإسلام باختصار حافزاً قوياً إلى التقدم المعرفي والثقافي والحضاري الذي أبدع واحدة من أروع صفحات التاريخ الإنساني، وقد وفر ذلك الحافز مواقف إيجابية عندما حدد في وضوح: "نعم للعقل ولا لظلام الجهل، نعم للعمل والسعي ولا للتقاعد والنكوص. نعم للحياة ولا للزهد والرهبنة". ولذلك لم يكن عجباً أن يكتسب الإسلام أتباعاً في طفرات هائلة بمجرد أن جاوز حدود بلاد العرب، فقد وجدت الشعوب التي نشأت في أحضان مسيحية القديس بولس والقديس أوجستين... ديناً لا يقر عقيدة ومفهوم الخطيئة الأولى .. ويؤكد كرامة الحياة البشرية، ولذلك دخلوا في دين الله أفواجاً، جميع ذلك يفسر كيفية انتصار الإسلام وانتشاره الواسع والسريع في بداياته التاريخية ويفند مزاعم من روجوا أنه انتشر بحد السيف. ص246

I thought about evolutionary historians who argued that walking was a central part of what it meant to be human. Our two-legged motion was what first differentiated us from the apes. It freed our hands for tools and carried us onthe long marches out of Africa. As a species, we colonized the world on foot. Most of human history was created through contacts conducted at walking pace, even when some rode horses. I thought of the pilgrimages to Compostela in Spain; to Mecca; to the source of the Ganges; and of wandering dervishes, sadhus; and friars who approached God on foot. The Buddha meditated by walking and Wordsworth composed sonnets while striding beside the lakes. Bruce Chatwin concluded from all this that we would think and live better and be closer to our purpose as humans if we moved continually on foot across the surface of the earth. I was not sure I was living or thinking any better.

Through The Mecca I saw that we were, in our own segregated body politic, cosmopolitans. The black diaspora was not just our own world but, in so many ways, the Western world itself. Now, the heirs of those Virginia planters could never directly acknowledge this legacy or reckon with its power. And so that beauty that Malcolm pledged us to protect, black beauty, was never celebrated in movies, in television, or in the textbooks I’d seen as a child. Everyone of any import, from Jesus to George Washington, was white. This was why your grandparents banned Tarzan and the Lone Ranger and toys with white faces from the house. They were rebelling against the history books that spoke of black people only as sentimental “firsts”—first black five-star general, first black congressman, first black mayor—always presented in the bemused manner of a category of Trivial Pursuit. Serious history was the West, and the West was white. This was all distilled for me in a quote I once read from the novelist Saul Bellow. I can’t remember where I read it, or when—only that I was already at Howard. “Who is the Tolstoy of the Zulus?” Bellow quipped. Tolstoy was “white,” and so Tolstoy “mattered,” like everything else that was white “mattered.” And this view of things was connected to the fear that passed through the generations, to the sense of dispossession. We were black, beyond the visible spectrum, beyond civilization. Our history was inferior because we were inferior, which is to say our bodies were inferior. And our inferior bodies could not possibly be accorded the same respect as those that built the West. Would it not be better, then, if our bodies were civilized, improved, and put to some legitimate Christian use?

Brought up, as Mahomet was, in the house of the guardian of the Caaba, the ceremonies and devotions connected with the sacred edifice may have given an early bias to his mind, and inclined it to those speculations in matters of religion by which it eventually became engrossed. Though his Moslem biographers would fain persuade us his high destiny was clearly foretold in his childhood by signs and prodigies, yet his education appears to have been as much neglected as that of ordinary Arab children ; for we find that he was not taught either to read or write. He was a thoughtful child, however ; quick to observe, prone to meditate on all that he observed, and possessed of an imagination fertile, daring, and expansive. The yearly influx of pilgrims from distant parts made Mecca a receptacle for all kinds of floating knowledge, which he appears to have imbibed with eagerness and retained in a tenacious memory ; and as he increased in years, a more extended sphere of observation was gradually opened to him.

The difference was principally in the invisible places toward which their respective hearts were turned. They dreamed of Cairo with its autonomous government, its army, its newspapers and its cinema, while he, facing in the same direction, dreamed just a little beyond Cairo, across the Bhar El Hamar to Mecca. They thought in terms of grievances, censorship, petitions and reforms; he, like any good Moslem who knows only the tenets of his religion, in terms of destiny and divine justice. If the word 'independence' was uttered, they saw platoons of Moslem soldiers marching through streets were all the signs were written in Arabic script, they saw factories and power plants rising from the fields; he saw skies of flame, the wings of avenging angels, and total destruction.

فمع أوجه التناقضات بين كل التيارات و الاتجاهات إلا أن هناك جانبا مشتركا جمعها كلاً في افتراض واحد,هو الافتراض الساذج بأن من الممكن انتشال الحياة من فوضاها الحالية و الارتقاء بها إلي الأفضل لو تم تغيير الأحوال الاقتصادية و السياسية إلي الأفضل . كنت أوقن أن التقدم المادي في حد ذاته ليس هو الحل , علي الرغم من أنني لم أكن اعرف علي وجه اليقين أين يمكن أن أجد الحل, كما لم أتمكن من إقناع نفسي بتلك الحماسة التي اعترت كل جيلي من أجل "التقدم

Praise be to Allah, who revealed the Book, controls the clouds, defeats factionalism, and says in His Book: 'But when the forbidden months are past, then fight and slay the pagans wherever ye find them, seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem (of war)'; and peace be upon our Prophet, Muhammad Bin-'Abdallah, who said: I have been sent with the sword between my hands to ensure that no one but Allah is worshipped, Allah who put my livelihood under the shadow of my spear and who inflicts humiliation and scorn on those who disobey my orders. ...All these crimes and sins committed by the Americans are a clear declaration of war on Allah, his messenger, and Muslims. And ulema have throughout Islamic history unanimously agreed that the jihad is an individual duty if the enemy destroys the Muslim countries. This was revealed by Imam Bin-Qadamah in 'Al- Mughni,' Imam al-Kisa'i in 'Al-Bada'i,' al-Qurtubi in his interpretation, and the shaykh of al-Islam in his books, where he said: 'As for the fighting to repulse [an enemy], it is aimed at defending sanctity and religion, and it is a duty as agreed [by the ulema]. Nothing is more sacred than belief except repulsing an enemy who is attacking religion and life.' On that basis, and in compliance with Allah's order, we issue the following fatwa to all Muslims: The ruling to kill the Americans and their allies -- civilians and military -- is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it, in order to liberate the al-Aqsa Mosque and the holy mosque [Mecca] from their grip, and in order for their armies to move out of all the lands of Islam, defeated and unable to threaten any Muslim. This is in accordance with the words of Almighty Allah, 'and fight the pagans all together as they fight you all together,' and 'fight them until there is no more tumult or oppression, and there prevail justice and faith in Allah.' ...We -- with Allah's help -- call on every Muslim who believes in Allah and wishes to be rewarded to comply with Allah's order to kill the Americans and plunder their money wherever and whenever they find it. We also call on Muslim ulema, leaders, youths, and soldiers to launch the raid on Satan's U.S. troops and the devil's supporters allying with them, and to displace those who are behind them so that they may learn a lesson. ...Almighty Allah also says: 'O ye who believe, what is the matter with you, that when ye are asked to go forth in the cause of Allah, ye cling so heavily to the earth! Do ye prefer the life of this world to the hereafter? But little is the comfort of this life, as compared with the hereafter. Unless ye go forth, He will punish you with a grievous penalty, and put others in your place; but Him ye would not harm in the least. For Allah hath power over all things.' Almighty Allah also says: 'So lose no heart, nor fall into despair. For ye must gain mastery if ye are true in faith.' [World Islamic Front Statement, 23 February 1998]

I spent most of my time floating on an inflatable raft in the pristine Mediterranean waters, my big belly curving toward the sun, reading (incongruously) The Autobiography of Malcolm X. It rocked me to my core. Malcolm’s story opened a window onto a reality I had ignored. But the greatest revelation the book brought me was the possibility of profound human transformation. I was spellbound by his journey from the doped-up, numbers-running, woman-beating, street-hustling, pimping Malcolm Little to a proud, clean, literate, Muslim Malcolm X who taught that all white people were the Devil incarnate—to his final, spiritual transformation in Mecca. There he met white people from all over the world who received him as a brother, and he realized that “white,” as he had been using the word, didn’t mean skin color as much as it meant attitudes and actions some whites held toward non-whites—but that not all whites were racist. At the time of his murder, he was anything but the hatemonger portrayed in the American press. Somehow, through the horrors that had been his life, he had become a spiritual leader. How had this been possible?

فعلاً – فكرت بيني و بين نفسي – سخر الانسان الغربي نفسه لعبادة “الدجال”. لقد فقد من زمن طويل كل براءة و فطرة و كل تكامل داخلي مع الطبيعة. أصبحت الحياة لغزاً أمامه. أصبح متشككاً ، و بذلك عزل نفسه عن مجتمعه من البشر و أصبح يعيش في عزلة داخلية. و حتى لا يفنى في تلك الوحدة ، فإنه يسعى إلى قهر الحياة و التغلب عليها بوسائل خارجه عن فطرته. لم تعد حقيقة أنه حي تهبه أماناً داخلياً : لا بد أن ياصرع على الدوام من أجل مزيد من الحياة كأنها غاية في ذاتها. و لأنه فقد كل تكيف روحي لما فوق المادة ، قرر أن يحيا بلا بعد روحي ، و دفعه ذلك إلى إختراع وسائل آلية ميكانيكية تكون حليفة له و نما عنده الميل المحموم اليائس إلى التقنية و التمكن من قوانينها و وسائلها. راح يخترع كل يوم آلات جديدة، و يضفي على كل منها بعضاً من روحه و يدعها تقاتل بدلاً منه ليستمر وجوده زمناً أطول. إنهم يفعلون ذلك > إلا أن ذلك يخلق لهم على الدوام الاحتياجات الجديدة، و مخاطر جديدة، و مخاوف أكثر تدفعه إلى إخترع حلفاء جدد مصنوعة ، في عطش لا يرتوي أبداً. لقد فقد جانبه الروحي في العجلات الدائرة للآلات المنتجة، و فقدت الآلات الهدف الرئيسي منها- ان تكون حامية و مخصبة للحياو الانسانية- و تحولت إلى آلهة بذاها، آلهة مفترسة من الصلب. و يبدو أن مبشرى و دعاة ذلك الإله لا يرتوي لا يعون أن سرعة تطور التقنية الحديثة ليست فقط نتيجة للنمو العقلي ، بل نتيجة لليأس الروحي ، و أن تلك المنجزات العظمى التى يعتقد أنه يقهر بها الطبيعة ليست في حقيقتها إلا ميلاً دفاعياً : فخلف واجهاتها البراقة يكمن الخوف من المجهول.

And suddenly I knew, as I touched the damp, grainy surface of the seawall, that I would always remember this night, that in years to come I would remember sitting here, swept with confused longing as I listened to the water lapping the giant boulders beneath the promenade and watched the children head toward the shore in a winding, lambent procession. I wanted to come back tomorrow night, and the night after, and the one after that as well, sensing that what made leaving so fiercely painful was the knowledge that there would never be another night like this, that I would never eat soggy cakes along the coast road in the evening, not this year or any other year, nor feel the baffling, sudden beauty of that moment when, if only for an instant, I had caught myself longing for a city I never knew I loved. Exactly a year from now, I vowed, I would sit outside at night wherever I was, somewhere in Europe, or in America, and turn my face to Egypt, as Moslems do when they pray and face Mecca, and remember this very night, and how I had thought these things and made this vow. You're beginning to sound like Elsa and her silly seders, I said to myself, mimicking my father's humour. On my way home I thought of what the others were doing. I wanted to walk in, find the smaller living room still lit, the Beethoven still playing, with Abdou still cleaning the dining room, and, on closing the front door, suddenly hear someone say, "We were just waiting for you, we're thinking of going to the Royal." "But we've already seen that film," I would say. "What difference does it make. We'll see it again." And before we had time to argue, we would all rush downstairs, where my father would be waiting in a car that was no longer really ours, and, feeling the slight chill of a late April night, would huddle together with the windows shut, bicker as usual about who got to sit where, rub our hands, turn the radio to a French broadcast, and then speed to the Corniche, thinking that all this was as it always was, that nothing ever really changed, that the people enjoying their first stroll on the Corniche after fasting, or the woman selling tickets at the Royal, or the man who would watch our car in the side alley outside the theatre, or our neighbours across the hall, or the drizzle that was sure to greet us after the movie at midnight would never, ever know, nor even guess, that this was our last night in Alexandria.

....It was to complete his marriage with Maimuna, the daughter of Al Hareth, the Helalite. He had become betrothed to her on his arrival at Mecca, but had post-poned the nuptials until after he had concluded the rites of pilgrimage. This was doubtless another marriage of policy, for Maimuna was fifty-one years of age, and a widow, but the connection gained him two powerful proselytes. One was Khaled Ibn al Waled, a nephew of the widow, an intrepid warrior who had come near destroy- ing Mahomet at the battle of Ohod. He now became one of the most victorious champions of Islamism, and by his prowess obtained the appellation of " The Sword of God." The other proselyte was Khaled's friend, Amru Ibn al Aass ; the same who assailed Mahomet with poetry and satire at the commencement of his prophetic career ; who had been an ambassador from the Koreishites to the king of Abyssinia, to obtain the surrender of the fugitive Moslems, and who was henceforth destined with his sword to carry victoriously into foreign lands the faith he had once so strenuously opposed. Note.— Maimuna was the last spouse of the prophet, and, old as she was at her marriage, survived all his other wives. She died many years after him, in a pavilion at Serif, under the same tree in the shade of which her nuptial tent had been pitched, and was there interred. The pious historian, Al Jannabi, who styles himself "a poor servant of Allah, hoping for the pardon of his sins through the mercy of God," visited her tomb on returning from a pilgrimage to Mecca, in the year of the Hegira 963, a.d. 1555. "I saw there," said he, "a dome of black marble erected in memory of Maimuna, on the very spot on which the apostle of God had reposed with her. God knows the truth ! and also the reason of the black color of the stone. There is a place of ablution, and an oratory ; but the building has fallen to decay.

يوم الجمعة – سبت المُسلمين – تُدرك أنّ هناك تغيّراً في وقع الحياة في دمشق, دوامات صغيرة من الفرح والسرور مع إجلال ومهابة دينية, فكرتّ في أيام الآحاد في أوروبا؛ في الشوارع الصامتة, في المُدن يوم الأحد والمحال المغلقة؛ تذكرت كل تلك الأيام من الآحاد الخاوية والإحساس بالقهر الذي كانت تلك الأيام تجلبه. لماذا هي كذلك؟ الآن بدأت أفهم وأدرك: الحياة اليومية لأغلب الناس في الغرب تُشكّل عبئاً ثقيلاً لا يحلّهم منه إلا أجازة يوم الأحد, لم يعد الأحد يوم راحة بل يوم هروب ... نسيان وهمي مصطنع من وطأة الواقع الذي يحيونه, ويكون ثقله مُضاعفاً وخطراً ذلك اليوم الأسبوعي للهروب. أما عند العرب, فلا يبدو أن يوم الجمعة يوم هروب أو نسيان, ليس لأن ثمار الحياة تتساقط بسهولة في حجورهم بلا جهد ولا مشقّة, بل يعود السبب ببساطة إلى أن أعمالهم – حتى أشقّها – لا تتعارض مع رغباتهم الشخصية. لا توجد لديهم آلية لذاتها في العمل؛ على العكس من ذلك, هناك تواصل عميق بين العامل وما يعمله: لذلك تصبح الراحة ضرورية حين يشعر بالإجهاد. لقد رسّخ الإسلام ذلك التناغم بين العامل وعمله كحالة تتسق مع التركيب والتكوين البشري, لذلك لا توجد راحة إجبارية يوم الجمعة. الحرفيون وأصحاب المحال الدمشقية يعملون يوم الجمعة بضع ساعات, ثم يغلقون أشغالهم بضع ساعات يذهبون فيها للجوامع لصلاة الجمعة وبعدها يلتقون بالأصدقاء على المقاهي ثم يعودون إلى أعمالهم وصناعاتهم لبضع ساعات أخرى في سعادة وإسترخاء نفسي, كل واحد وما يود. محلات قليلة تغلق يوم الجمعة, وبإستثناء وقت صلاة الجمعة تجد الشوارع مليئة بالناس مثل بقية أيام الأسبوع