Qalb

I must remember not to remember You. It is good for my soul. I must not think it is good for my soul.

But I see a group of white butterflies (what's the collective noun) fluttering around and over a clutch of orange flowers in their mindless way and I wonder to myself: do they think they're moths, if that's fire?

It's 10 o'clock and the day is done. The sun barely visible, too tired to make an effort today. And I know that the next two hours will not exist, a time out of time, just floating, drifting, softly past everyone. The earth has slowed down, is heavier, has recovered an old sense of propriety. I love this uselessness today, since it escapes all functionality, all introspection. Just is.

As usual, I walk past the mosque without entering. But I do notice some mud that has been freshly turned and then slowly baked under the open skies. No, I can't but help think of You...

~~~~~

Only by the dhikr of Allah is the heart made tranquil. Dhikr is remembrance, recalling what is already present. That which is ever-present is not perpetually and spontaneously recognized and known by man, because he has been deflected by forgetfulness (ghafla).

Remembrance is not meaningful unless there is its opposites, forgetfulness. It is part of the play of duality. The deeper one is in ghafla, the greater is the chance that one will return to dhikr. The night becomes darkest before the break of dawn. These are the immutable laws of reality and have nothing to do with man

From the dictionary we find the verb qalaba to mean: to turn around, turn about, turn upward, upturn; to turn, turn over; to turn face up or face down; to turn inside out or outside in; to turn upside down; to tip, to tilt over, topple over; to invert, reverse; to overturn, upset, topple; to capsize; to roll over; to subvert, overthrow; to change, alter, turn, transform, convert, transmute; to transpose; to exchange.
---Shaykh Haeri.