Meditations On the Beautiful Signs of Allah

Continuously, the eternal bright sunlight radiates throughout the golden, sunlit forest. The tops of trees shine like tinsel in the sunlight. The shadows are deep, and beneath them, myriads of rays shine through the leaves like prisms. Life is abundant and connected to each other. Trees and plants communicate through roots. Even the rocks are alive.

All life is one energy. Each life is unique and separate. All is threaded together with the brilliant light of the Creator. This Creator is beyond all names that we can call Him. He is the supreme being of the whole universe. He is beyond all faiths, all different worlds, and all the different species of life. This awareness and spark of consciousness exists in us all.

He is constantly creating out of Nothingness. He is creating out of love. Life and matter, once non-existent, springs into life; when He says “Be,” it exists. Truly, I wish to know the reality of You, how You exist within each second of my life. I wish to worship You with my actions. How I wish to witness You with the mundane and ordinary moments of my life.

You are the eternal light shining through earth time. For You know the past, present, and beyond. There is no sense of time, no limitations of space. For You, time is eternal. There are times that I cannot see beyond my limited ego and the clouds of depression cover You up, but You are always like a shining bright beacon within the sea of my despair, leading me back to you. My illusions and thoughts lead me away from You, but You are always there, calling me back.

Truly, I wish to know the reality of You, how You exist within each second of my life.

Within the New England woods of my childhood, I knew the oneness of You. I sensed it within every leaf, every change of light and weather. There was a sense of order within my life and with the universe. The stars rose and set, marking the years of my life. The warm breezes danced within scattering light. This order will last long after I depart from this Earth. I want so much to savor the sweetness through every experience of my life. You are home to me, my very existence. The earth beneath me, and the sky above me, you made just for me.

You are beauty that I celebrate, beyond all religions and cultures. You do not discriminate. You are the most forgiving. You are the Eternal through and out side your creation. One great Soul uniting us all.

I find Him while sitting within solitude as well as nature. Usually with the morning as it drapes itself amongst the dust particles, falling within the sun rays like souls to the earth. While the sunlight creates mosaics upon the floor which no one usually notices. Also, besides prayer, I practice mindfulness meditation, which focuses on breath and the awareness of body sensations, sounds, and awareness of the thought. We try to be aware of the present moment and to savor what Allah has given us moment to moment.

My illusions and thoughts lead me away from You, but You are always there, calling me back.

The deep shadows of leaves are folding themselves within softly lit curtains. My eyes barely open on meditative thought. I try to focus on my heart and breath through it. The past, present, and future move within my mind like a slowly moving train. I imagine that my Beloved is with me. That He exists within the silence in every corner of the room… Within the shadows.

The room is like a luminous white chapel of light. The leaves are like oceans of waves, with undulating folds of shadow and light upon the hard marble floors. The universe falls within motes of dust upon the floor, spiraling down. I feel how many centuries the gestures of postulating saints have prayed within the sanctuary of stillness, within dark hidden corners.

I look out to the darkened moist branches of morning, tinseled with the pearls of crystal globes made sacred with pure blooms. The times of rain, quenching my parched throat. I feel He is with me, the awareness deep within my bones, sinews, and breath. He compassionately watches me.

I feel my heart has been too hard, that I had too much sorrow in my life to speak of. Tears run down my face. Deep years of mourning vanish; the shroud of the dark night has lifted. It was clouded by the white bones of alienation and disbelief. The space between my empty eye sockets filled with insanity and grief is now filled with beauty. Pages of reality are revealed, like verdant grass growing in cracks of clay, of a once arid heart.

I feel He is with me, the awareness deep within my bones, sinews, and breath. He compassionately watches me.

He drapes reminders of Himself with the space of ordinary objects, envelopes them within the emptiness between living branches. The leaves are hues of green against a manic, cerulean sky. I had placed the roses on the table and lit the incense and the candles, and I feel the scent envelope my face.

You know what my soul wants even though I cannot speak it. I feel that You listen to my heart. I listen to the birds outside and feel that You are the originator of their songs.

His signs can be found in the deepest silence, even amongst the mundane and ordinary. I find them sometimes even while I am washing a dish, looking outside the window at my garden. I find them even when it rains, and in the sound the rain makes falling on the roof, which is usually rare in California. I do not turn on the television or music, but sit in absolute silence, except for the rain falling.

I remember Him every time I pick up my paintbrush, and I celebrate Him in my being an artist. Each brushstroke is a prayer, and it is also a meditation. I convey my love for Allah through my art and poetry.

If only He would take off the shackles of my heart and take away the fear within me, so I could learn to trust others again and keep from getting hurt. The fear has placed a veil on me that keeps me from knowing Him. I feel in bondage with my grief. I want to find freedom and comfort within Him. I want to know Him beyond the frailness and fantasies of my broken mind.

The sunlight and shadows play within this ordinary day in my room in the morning hours. I find solace in my heart, and the courage to walk with my head held high.

I remember Him every time I pick up my paintbrush, and I celebrate Him in my being an artist. Each brushstroke is a prayer, and it is also a meditation. I convey my love for Allah through my art and poetry.

In the evening, I find His signs amongst the constellations, which look like metallic crystal beads within the velvet ink colored sky. The planets are like gemmed worlds that move against the sky, witnesses to our acts, staring back at me like strangers. A sweep of the Milky Way cloaks the night.

The crickets strum the bows over the violin of their ebony ribbed legs. They chirp like mad men within dew-laced shrubs and damp verdant grass. There are wind chimes that I have placed within the trees; their melodious clinking is being seduced by the soft breeze’s lips. Silhouettes of blackened plum trees and oak trees wearing winged silver gloves dance, their fingers tearing at the jeweled ink sequined cloth of sky.

I can hear the coyotes, and the buzzing of the sound of insects, and the call of birds and frogs. The full, lemon moon is a spotlight saying awe, gauzed over by cirrus clouds. I am a spectator to this grandeur play. It is an awesome pageant of nature, which Allah has made, that changes each season. It draws the lifeblood in me that flows out into the hands, and then into the pen or brush.

All this has made me into an artist. I feel great passion in me. I feel oneness and a great connection to all living things, to the true reality. Those others ignore, but this is what I exist for. It surges in me, this God-given inspiration that made me this child, this witness. I am a representative to this beauty. I am deeply in awe of this great theater of existence. It has made me a true worshiper, and an artist and writer since childhood. I create to convey His full beauty. This is my meditation on the signs of Allah.