
We are the Siyasatdan!
We act really shareef
We are a mirror of your votes
We trade in your belief
.
We are the Siyasatdan!
The funny thing is this
You need us for governance
We need you to exist.
Continue readingWe are the Siyasatdan!
We act really shareef
We are a mirror of your votes
We trade in your belief
.
We are the Siyasatdan!
The funny thing is this
You need us for governance
We need you to exist.
Continue readingThere’s a natural mystic blowing through the air. Bob Marley
There’s a natural mystic glow in the unseen
And to feel it quaff the goblet of tawheed
You can feel it in Malcolm
In his mesmerising smile
In the trials that he suffered
In his righteousness and style
I don’t tell no lie
There’s a natural mystic deep reality
And to taste it, love the Only Deity
Feel the warmth of Ali’s fire
Grasp the rain of his words
In the ring, the unsurpassable
In the hearts, he turns alive
I don’t tell no lie
There’s a natural mystic shimmering finesse
If you purge the self, you’ll feel its dear caress
Like the gracious Mother Khadijah
The pearl of New York
In the beauty of her service
In the deepness of her eyes
Can’t keep them down
There’s natural mystic, blowing through the air
Notes:
Personalities referred to in the poem:
Malcolm X
Muhammad Ali
Mother Khadijah
Bob Marley
May Allah illuminate their secrets and teach us beneficial lessons through their lives, ameen
I found out about Mother Khadijah from the link below:https://sapelosquare.com/…/profile-mother-khadijah-faisal/
O Romeo; O Romeo
Wherefore art thou smitten?
Drained in the net of Juliet
Before I was thy kitten
O Romeo; O Romeo
I haven’t said wherefore
I curbed your siege of loving terms
And let love with you brawl
Continue readingWith a strike on the rock!
And the lights appeared!
And a smite on the block!
There’s no grief or fear!
In the fifth of the year
Deep in the Shawwal
Stirring hearts dug a trench
By the great Dhubab
Enemies far and near
Were conspiring high
To destroy the new faith
To observe it die
Outnumbered, facing death
Odds did not look good
But the hope did not die
And the Prophet stood
With a strike on the rock!
And the lights appeared!
And a smite on the block!
There’s no grief or fear!
Continue readingI’m dressing up for Juma’,
Suited and looking fine
No t-shirts nor tracksuits today
I want to impress the Divine
I yearn to get there early
And be acknowledged for
Arriving to the first in line
Angels tick me off at the door
Continue readingI’m here to dismantle some wicked lies
About the Prophet and his blessed wives
Some haters promulgate misleading views
About Muhammad may God’s peace imbue
Propagandists echo their disgust
About our Prophet which is so unjust,
They scorn our feelings for the chosen one
Spreading misinformation to stir tensions
Continue readingPull your choler through the mud
Collar Beelzebub
Numb your Id
Benumb shrew blood
Succumb through and through to the One True Flood
Notes:
The intention of this piece is to highlight the absolute wonder and majesty of Surah Ikhlas vis a vis the limitations of human endeavour (ie- my own). I also love the sounds and aural qualities of Surah Ikhlas, and I guess I am trying to capture some of the sublime sounds of it within the English language.
Choler- formal- anger
Beelzebub- ancient synonym for the Devil
Id- from Freud’s theories about the subconscious- the Id refers to the hidden desires and obsessions within human consciousness
Shrew- refers to a rebellious personality
In appreciation of verse 155, Sura Baqarah, Al Quran Al Hakeem
I’d heard this verse
Many times before
But I fell in the world’s momentum
And now I’m drawn,
Like a looping moth
To the light of
Wa La Nablu Wanna Kum
I’d heard this verse
So deep and terse
But I swayed in a sea of fevers
But now I am swept
Like a floating wreck
To the shores of
Wa la Nablu Wanna Kum
I’d heard this verse
With a heart immersed
In the dread of the world’s hysteria
But now the only thing to panic-buy
Is the key for
Wa la Nablu Wanna Kum
I’d heard this verse
In the Friday prayers
While my mind viewed conspiracy theories
But now the fake news
Needs to be rebuked
With the truth of
Wa la Nablu Wanna Kum
I’d heard this verse
In the universe
Of talks and the deen intensives
But now all the notes
And inspiring quotes
Need to act on
Wa la Nablu Wanna Kum
I’d heard this verse
When things were worse
For the poor folk mired in outbreaks
But now the vaccine
For my uncertainties
Is the pledge of
Wa la Nablu Wanna Kum
Dear COVID,
I’m NOVID
And I’m older by 42
I’ve seen the SARS
Mad Cow disease
And AIDS and Avian flu
Bird flu, Man-flu, Ebola
I’ve seen them on the news
And now you’re here, Corona crown
Pandemic so epically
Epidemic of our media age
Behaving untypically
Scourge of men and stock markets
Endemic to the earth
A pulsing strain of pathogens
You’re spreading round your worth!
Soon you may encounter me
Coughing through NOVID then
Coasting through my veins and blood
We’d meet and start to blend
COVID could imbue NOVID
Then I would be your host
Conflated with an acronym
Not such a thing to boast!
Now name-calls in registers
Could make me squirm in shame
People may remember you
When they gaze at my name
I guess if I spread ill like you
They’ll see COVID in NOVID then
I guess if I harass the weak
COVID in NOVID then
Your name could blight me, permanently
No cheer would my name give
Thoughts of dire suffering
By saying just: NOVID
But if I learn the art of love
Like Tiresias transcend
If I spread verse and elegies
OVID in NOVID then!
But If I learn to weather storms
Like Ulysses and his men
If I ride waves of discontent
OVID in NOVID then!
So COVID 19 here you are
With NOVID 77
Perhaps there’s poetic justice
Perhaps there is a blessing
Perhaps through you I’ll know myself
And wash hands for 20 seconds!
By Novid Shaid
For Shelley
I met a traveller from a digital land
Who said: “Two vast and wireless screens and phones,
Stand in some memories. Near them, on discarded toilet rolls,
Spread out, a printed message lies, with fonts
So micro soft, and typefaces for command prompts,
Tell that its printer well that software read
Which yet survive, stamped on these paper sheets,
The ink that stained them and lines that smudged
And on the strips of rolls, it can be read:
‘My name is Intermandias,
Look on my works, ye ancients, and despair!’
Nothing online remains. Round the decay
Of this obsolete tech, boundless and rich
The lone and loving souls stretch far away.”