interview with omid djalili

read this interview with omid djalili, funny stand-up comedian, actor (gladiator, pirates 3, the mummy, notting hill, etc), and Bahá'í.

also check out his own page, omid no agenda, and check out his funny blog!

judging...

here's a tip, don't judge others for what they do or might not do. next thing you know, you'll be doing the exact same thing...

O SON OF BEING!
How couldst thou forget thine own faults and busy thyself with the faults of others? Whoso doeth this is accursed of Me.

Naw-Rúz and devotional

on friday we had the celebration of Naw-Ruz, the new year, and this year it was a bit extra special to me. as mentioned before, I had the great joy of having two of my very closest friends from sweden here, and got to spend quite some time with them:


their period of time here was also almost exactly the same 3-day visit as I made exactly 3 years ago, and celebrated Naw-Ruz. they even flew with same airline! you can see those pictures here. and here you can see my pictures from this year.


and yesterday evening was a really amazing experience. a friend had arranged a musical devotional, with just a lot of singing and chanting of prayers. we were sitting outside, in the vicinity of the Shrine and terraces:


being there was absolutely amazing. we kept on singing and playing for almost two hours, and everyone joined in at one point or the other. it was such an amazing experience which I wish everyone would've had the chance to participate in. hopefully there'll be more of those in the future :)

here are some quotations that came to my mind during the devotional:

"Intone, O My servant, the verses of God that have been received by thee, as intoned by them who have drawn nigh unto Him, that the sweetness of thy melody may kindle thine own soul, and attract the hearts of all men.
Whoso reciteth, in the privacy of his chamber, the verses revealed by God, the scattering angels of the Almighty shall scatter abroad the fragrance of the words uttered by his mouth, and shall cause the heart of every righteous man to throb.
Though he may, at first, remain unaware of its effect, yet the virtue of the grace vouchsafed unto him must needs sooner or later exercise its influence upon his soul.
Thus have the mysteries of the Revelation of God been decreed by virtue of the Will of Him Who is the Source of power and wisdom."

"By My Life and My Cause! Round about whatever dwelling the friends of God may enter, and from which their cry shall rise as they praise and glorify the Lord, shall circle the souls of true believers and all the favored angels."

"Every meeting which is organized for the purpose of unity and concord will be conducive to changing strangers into friends, enemies into associates, and 'Abdu'l-Bahá will be present in His heart and soul with that meeting."

"... where some among them will engage in glorifying the All-Glorious Lord... Know that shouldst thou bring this about, that house of earth will become a house of heaven, and that fabric of stone a congress of the spirit."

"It behooveth the friends in whatever land they be, to gather together in meetings, and therein to speak wisely and with eloquence, and to read the verses of God; for it is God's Words that kindle love's fire and set it ablaze."

"Hold meetings and read and chant the heavenly teachings, so that city may be illumined with the light of reality and that country become a veritable paradise by the strength of the Holy Spirit, for this cycle is the cycle of the Glorious Lord and the melody of oneness and solidarity of the world of mankind must reach the ears of the East and West."

the rest of the pictures from last evening are here. I will also have two videos up soon.

summing up the fast

it's been a month of fasting now, and it's been really different from anything before. this is the first time that I'm fasting with so many other Bahá'ís around me, so there naturally have been a very different atmosphere around it. (among other things, a lot of fasting-related jokes have been going home!)

it's been really nice to wake up in the mornings with my flatmates (and a few visitors), have breakfast together, say some prayers, and then go on with the day. a few mornings I've gone back to sleep, and a few others I've stayed up reading. I haven't finished God Passes By yet, have about 100 pages to go, but should be able to do it within a week or so.

the not eating part of it has actually not been difficult at all, which reminds me of this quotation:

In the Prayer of Fasting We have revealed: "Should Thy Will decree that out of Thy mouth these words proceed and be addressed unto them, 'Observe, for My Beauty's sake, the fast, O people, and set no limit to its duration,' I swear by the majesty of Thy glory, that every one of them will faithfully observe it, will abstain from whatsoever will violate Thy law, and will continue to do so until they yield up their souls unto Thee."

I almost feel like I want to keep it up, simply because it is so much easier to just keep on working instead of going for lunch. I manage to keep my train of thought, and with the hour or so lunch break, it takes a while to get back into the working flow again. but then again, it's probably a good idea to keep my body nourished...

as for the spiritual aspects of it, I think being in the World Centre definitely has a special effect on things. it's difficult to explain, but I think it helps to create a greater awareness of the spiritual importance of the fast. it's not as much focus on the not eating part of it, because everyone here already knows about that. fasting is like a dam, we add up spiritual bounties during this time which we can then use for the rest of the year. I'm already looking forward to next year's fasting...

Naw-Rúz, the new year, tomorrow. looking forward to that celebration too :)

5. O SON OF BEING!

Love Me, that I may love thee. If thou lovest Me not, My love can in no wise reach thee. Know this, O servant.

I think an analogy would be good here: imagine that we are plants, and God's love is the sun. the sun is always shining in all directions, but it is only when we turn towards the right source, that we will be able to benefit from the radiance of it. turning our back will do us no good.

and what does loving God mean? well, I think it simply means getting to know Him, again acquiring those qualities and virtues of Him, and being thankful for what He has bestowed on us.

I'm so happy!

got two of my closest friends from back home here for a 3-day pilgrimage. met them briefly this morning and will hopefully be spending more time with them later on. yay! :)

once, I showered twice

this will probably have to go down as one of the most absent-minded episodes of my life...

I come home after a rather long day, and go to take a shower. as I come out, my flatmate is on his phone with his parents, so I sit down and read a bit. after a little while, I feel that something is wrong. to my great surprise, I realize that I completely forgot to wash my hair! here's how it looked like:


so naturally I had no choice but to get back into the shower and wash my hair...

it's all a blur

but a good one at that:


tried to play around with my camera. using a 15 sec long shutter speed, which means it needs to be stabilized. since I don't have a tripod, I used a friend's head. didn't quite keep it all that stable, but still quite interesting shot. I like it.

4. O SON OF MAN!

I loved thy creation, hence I created thee. Wherefore, do thou love Me, that I may name thy name and fill thy soul with the spirit of life.

a continuation of last week's Hidden Word, with God loving us, and also loving creating us. now we are told to love Him, in other words get to know Him and reflect His qualities. God will then "name our name", which I understand in a way as remembering us and bestowing His bounties and grace upon us, which will fill our soul with the "spirit of life".

being filled with the spirit of life, would be to find that eternal love of God that filled the disciples of Christ, Muhammad's followers, the Letters of the Living, and all heroes and heroines of the Faith. I found a very interesting quotation about the spirit of life in 'Abdu'l-Bahá's Some Answered Questions (pp 300-301), which explains this spirit of life, the love of God, and its effect (my bolding):

"... the love of God, the light of which shines in the lamp of the hearts of those who know God; its brilliant rays illuminate the horizon and give to man the life of the Kingdom. In truth, the fruit of human existence is the love of God, for this love is the spirit of life, and the eternal bounty. If the love of God did not exist, the contingent world would be in darkness; if the love of God did not exist, the hearts of men would be dead, and deprived of the sensations of existence; if the love of God did not exist, spiritual union would be lost; if the love of God did not exist, the light of unity would not illuminate humanity; if the love of God did not exist, the East and West, like two lovers, would not embrace each other; if the love of God did not exist, division and disunion would not be changed into fraternity; if the love of God did not exist, indifference would not end in affection; if the love of God did not exist, the stranger would not become the friend. The love of the human world has shone forth from the love of God and has appeared by the bounty and grace of God."

quite beautiful and amazing, isn't it?

amazing

I must say there's been some incredible reception since I "announced" theaqdas.org about two weeks ago. with two more announcements on thursday and sunday, the statistics suddenly shot up. there've been more than 1200 visitors to the site from 78 countries and territories, from literally all over the world.

I've gotten random e-mails of encourage from people, with comments and a few suggestions. I must say I'm absolutely stunned as to the reception so far. I just hope people will also be able to use it and not just check the site out and be done.

it's an evergoing process, I'm practically working on small tweaks and fixes every day, but hopefully I'll feel happy enough to let it be. it might need a rewrite sometime in the future, but that's for later.

do I have anything else coming up? maybe... ;)