Poetry | My Father at Twenty-Nine by Dwaine Spieker
Age of Jahiliyah
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"O mankind! We created you from a single (pair) of male and female, and made you into nations and tribes, that you may know and cooperate with one another."
- (Quran 49:13)
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I am as My servant thinks I am. I am with him when he makes mention of Me. If he makes mention of Me to himself, I make mention of him to Myself; and if he makes mention of Me in an assembly, I make mention of him in an assembly better than it. And if he draws near to Me an arm's length, I draw near to him a fathom's length. And if he comes to Me walking, I go to him at speed.
- Hadith Qudsi
Whosoever shows enmity to someone devoted to Me, I shall be at war with him. My servant draws not near to Me with anything more loved by Me than the religious duties I have enjoined upon him, and My servant continues to draw near to Me with supererogatory works so that I shall love him. When I love him I am his hearing with which he hears, his seeing with which he sees, his hand with which he strikes and his foot with which he walks. Were he to ask [something] of Me, I would surely give it to him, and were he to ask Me for refuge, I would surely grant him it. I do not hesitate about anything as much as I hesitate about [seizing] the soul of My faithful servant: he hates death and I hate hurting him.
- Bukhari overcometv
New YouTube channel to help borderline Muslims overcome concerns they may have about embracing Islam.
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Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits and
Are melted into air, into thin air:
And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.
-- William Shakespeare Categories
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The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
- William Wordsworth Pages
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Without education, you are not going anywhere in this world.
- Malcolm X -
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“The Islamic teachings have left great traditions for equitable and gentle dealings and behavior, and inspire people with nobility and tolerance. These are human teachings of the highest order and at the same time practicable. These teachings brought into existence a society in which hard-heartedness and collective oppression and injustice were the least as compared with all other societies preceding it….Islam is replete with gentleness, courtesy, and fraternity.”
- H.G. Wells Top Posts
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“I have always held the religion of Muhammad in high estimation because of its wonderful vitality. It is the only religion which appears to me to possess that assimilating capacity to the changing phase of existence which can make itself appeal to every age. I have studied him - the wonderful man and in my opinion far from being an anti-Christ, he must be called the Savior of Humanity.”
- George Bernard Shaw Recent Comments
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Rania rides shotgun in the Gaza Strip.
At thirty meters, she watches a sharp-shooter
cut down a stone-thrower with a single round.
The soldier’s bullet teaches the boy a lesson
his mother will never forget.
- Dennis J. Bernstein
"Rania's Ambulance" -
He made the Hereafter an abode to reward His believing servants only because this world cannot contain what He wishes to bestow upon them and because He deemed their worth too high to reward them in a world without permanence.
- Ibn Ata’llah Islam & Muslims
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All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
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I will not
dance to your war
drum. I will
not lend my soul nor
my bones to your war
drum. I will
not dance to your
beating. I know that beat.
It is lifeless. I know
intimately that skin
you are hitting. It
was alive once
hunted stolen
stretched. I will
not dance to your drummed
up war. I will not pop
spin beak for you. I
will not hate for you or
even hate you. I will
not kill for you. Especially
I will not die
for you. I will not mourn
the dead with murder nor
suicide. I will not side
with you nor dance to bombs
because everyone else is
dancing. Everyone can be
wrong. Life is a right not
collateral or casual. I
will not forget where
I come from. I
will craft my own drum. Gather my beloved
near and our chanting
will be dancing. Our
humming will be drumming. I
will not be played. I
will not lend my name
nor my rhythm to your
beat. I will dance
and resist and dance and
persist and dance. This heartbeat is louder than
death. Your war drum ain’t
louder than this breath.
- Suheir Hammad -
In the summer
I stretch out on the shore
And think of you
Had I told the sea
What I felt for you
It would have left its shores,
Its shells,
Its fish,
And followed me.
- Nizar Qabbani
"In the Summer" Meta
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Age of Jahiliyah 
Hello,
My name is Dwaine Spieker, and I am the author of the poem listed above. I just wanted to let you know that I am honored to have my poem appear in your forum.
I found your blog by doing a Google search of my name, which I do periodically to safeguard my online reputation.
In particular, the photograph to which you have tied my poem is stunningly beautiful. I don’t know where the scene depicted is, but is looks incredibly close to the Nebraska pasture I envisioned in writing the poem.
I wish you all the best in your blogging and the rest of your life. Again, thank you for featuring my poem.
All my best,
Dwaine Spieker
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Hi Mr. Spieker,
Wow! The honor is completely on our side. We’re always thrilled when a poet stops by our humble corner on the web.
I’m glad that you not only don’t mind that we featured your poem, but that you like the photograph that goes with it. I wish I could give you more information about it.
I discovered your gem of a poem some years ago in a literary journal (I forget which one now), and I knew I wanted to work with it. I like combining my favorite poems with images. Words are so special, powerful and transformative and when combined with visuals, I think the effect is quite epic.
Thanks for the well wishes! I wish you all the best too in life and writing! And thanks for sharing your beautiful words with us.
All the Best,
M.
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