Death, like a thief in the night…

Ina lillah wa ina illaihi raji’un

I saw a holy man on the seashore who had been wounded by a tiger. No medicine could relieve his pain; he suffered much but he nevertheless constantly thanked God the most high, saying: ‘Praise be to Allah that I have fallen into a calamity and not into sin.’

If that beloved Friend decrees me to be slain
I shall not say that moment that I grieve for life
Or say: What fault has thy slave committed?
My grief will be for having offended thee.

As found here.

The challenge - to consciously be full of gratitude in speech and thought for a week - reminds me of the day that Rabia al-Adawiyya saw a man passing with a large bandage around his forehead. When questioned about it, he replied that he was suffering from a headache.

“How old are you,” she asked.

He replied that he was thirty, so she asked, “Till today, how have you passed your life?”

He replied, “In perfect health”.

She said, “For thirty years the Lord kept you sound, and you did not fly any colors on your body to express your gratitude for His gift, so that people could ask you the reason for your joy and, then, learning of God’s blessings on you, praise Him! But today, at the first sign of illness, you have flown the colors of complaint for all to see!”

Struck by her words, from that day on the man was known to all as the one who never complained.

Good times gone, but you missed them
What’s gone wrong, in your system
Things they bounce, just like a spaulding
What’d you think, you miss your calling
It’s so free, this kind of feeling
It’s like life, it’s so appealing
When you got so much to say
It’s called gratitude

Good times gone, but you feed it
Hate’s grown strong, you feel you need it
Just one thing do you know
What you think that the world owes you
What’s gonna set you free
Look inside and you’ll see
When you got so much to say
It’s called gratitude

From the 1992 album Check Your Head released on Capitol/ Grand Royal.

This really was one of the better books I’ve read in a while. Informative, entertaining and highly worth your time. I borrowed a copy from library (because buying books new is always a pricey proposition) but I’m considering buying one for myself in the future.

The interesting thing about this is that honestly, in New York, he’s not really that out of place.

Cowon iAudio D2 Review - Anything But iPod

The video review is a little too slick and slavish for my tastes, but it does demonstrate why I think this is the right PMP for me. Long battery life, expandable memory, great sound quality all point to a thumbs up in my book. My only other choices right now are the 32GB Zen and the 60GB Zen Vision M from Creative. I’d considered the Samsung YP-P2, but the fact that the 16GB model is unavailable in Singapore and that there’s neither expandable memory nor TV-out, as well as limited video codec support don’t do it any favours. The 3″ touch screen is really cool though and supposedly has some of the best sound quality around, with solid firmware upgrades adding games, audio codec support and more.

There are of course more high tech models coming up soon ( as always), so I’ll probably wait awhile before putting any money down.

The new series of billboards promoting the new Singapore kit is quite impressive, featuring members of the Singapore team against a backdrop of fiery, Voltron-esque lions.

What would be even better would be if the jerseys themselves were to show a similar of level of imagination and creativity. Instead they’re a rather bland affair, looking like Nike had some red jerseys in their warehouses that nobody wanted and decided to sew the Singaporean flag onto them.

***

I’ve never been a huge football fan, but FC St. Pauli has me intrigued.

Nenek: Look, Farah Adibah. Uncle Zhak is so dark!
Farah: Yah! I can’t see him!