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Here is a very rough web translation:

We all say we want to be like Rasulullah (S) and the Sahabah ( R) but none of us are even slightly close.

We need to get serious about this deen.

Most people want to make jokes – they want to be seen as people who are funny, who have a good time.

What about being pious? We don’t even like it when other people call us pious. There’s a difference between piety and self-righteousness. Piety is when you do a good job of fulfilling the duties that Allah has given us all. Self-righteousness is when you use the deen as a weapon to make people feel small or to feel guilty. Piety is something we ought to seek in ourselves. Self-righteousness is something we must avoid.

We have stopped doing the basic things that make Muslims Muslim. One of the first things a typical non-Muslim learns about Islam is that Muslims pray five times a day. When non-Muslims ask you if you pray five times a day, what do you say? Often the answer, is “Ummm. (Pause). Well, I try” or perhaps, “I don’t pray.” And isn’t this embarrassing? Our prayer habits are so poor that they embarrass us in front of people who hardly pray at all. Then how much more shame will we feel if we have to face Allah, Allah Who is Holy and Flawless, with severe problems in our prayer?

We don’t pray like Muslims. We don’t speak with the manners of Muslims. We don’t prohibit the things Islam prohibits. We don’t urge people to do the things that Islam urges. So on what grounds are we claiming that we are Muslim? My grandmother, who is no longer living, inna lillahi wa inna ilaihi rajioon, used to make the dua, “Ya Allah, make the Muslims true Muslims.” In the past decade, American Muslims have made great strides in dawah, and dawah is very important because we need to invite the world to the truth and beauty of Islam. But you cannot give something you don’t have. We are very hopeful when someone accepts Islam and part of it is because we know new people can bring new energy to the Ummah.  But just hoping that new converts will save the Ummah is an illusion. Hope is not a strategy. You need to do hard work to learn the deen, understand the deen and then teach the deen.

At-Tirmidhi reports that Prophet Muhammad (S) said, “Holding onto one’s religion in the time of corruption will be like holding on to hot coal.” I think we feel this as a community, this intense struggle to defend our iman. It seems like the outside world wants us to abandon Islam, to reject it as old-fashioned, to renounce it as cruel. In history, there are many examples of people who could have anything in the world they desired, if they would just forsake Islam. Even today we see examples of this. The Bosnians would have been welcomed with open arms by other Europeans if they would just become Christian or atheist. But they kept Islam at the cost of their lives. How many of the neighbors of Israel like Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria could have massive foreign aid and international support, if they would just leave Islam?

“And hold fast, all together, by the rope which Allah (stretches out for you), and be not divided among yourselves” [Al Quran (3:103)] It is very difficult to hold on to a hot coal, but it is very easy to hold on to a rope. And yet in these metaphors, both times we are holding on to the same thing – iman. But they are describing totally different aspects of our lives of faith. What makes it difficult to hold on to iman is the fasad, the corruption widespread around us. What makes it easy to hold on to iman is ukhuwa, the brotherhood and sisterhood that unites us. We all have strengths and weaknesses in our practice of the deen.  Working together, supporting each other, advising each other is how we become stronger as individuals and as a community. Please don’t  think I am saying brotherhood is free of challenges. Brotherhood will make things easier by giving us more resources to draw on, but establishing brotherhood or sisterhood takes time, work, and patience.

We also need to cut out distractions. Clearly we have a limited amount of time each day. Some things we do are worth our time and some clearly are not. It is not my purpose here to single out any one thing that wastes time. We all need to decide for ourselves what is wasting our time. Even things that are halal are sometimes best avoided because they are getting in the way of our obligations. And certainly things which the Shariah forbids have no place in our lives.

We need to commit to a process of tazkiya, purification. I really feel ashamed of some of my vices that persist year after year. There are things I have conquered and there are things that are a daily struggle for me. This is not the time or place for me to talk about my own problems, especially since you may have a completely different set of problems from mine. I am very much in favor of taking a hard accounting of one’s self and being brutally honest when one is alone. We don’t want to be people who  keep becoming worse and worse in character. We don’t want to be people who never change. We want to be the people of consistent personal progress.  These are the people of Jannah.

The One That Got Away – Katy Perry – She captures the pathos of getting matching tattoos with a guy who eventually leaves her. The video is quite touching as it shows Katy growing old and longing for a man who she knows she can’t have.

We Take Care of Our Own – Bruce Springsteen – Mr. Supervisor, you may be in charge, but until you have lived and loved and lost like the Poet Laureate of New Jersey, you will never be The Boss. Some criticize this song saying that it envisions an America that looks inward and ignores the outside world.

Lotus Flower – Radiohead – Trippy, ethereal melodies from the innovative British musicians, Radiohead. Confession: I want them to make a thousand songs that sound like “Creep.” But I know they would never do it because that would be like a prison sentence to them. Until they accede to my demands, this song will do nicely.

Good Feeling – Flo Rida- I’m surprised as anyone is that I like this song. It’s not my usual fare, being slick hip-hop from the durty South, but man is it catchy. It’s an infectious earworm that we’re likely to hear on heavy replay this summer.

We Are Young – fun – A drug-fueled romp of a song that almost rises to an anthem – this song has a lot of people fooled. My cousin’s high school was about to use this as their prom theme song. Then someone told the principal, “You know it’s about getting wasted, right?” The school switched to “When You Were Young” by The Killers. Also a good song, but a bit dated.

What Makes You Beautiful – One Direction – I’m not a father, but if I were I would be quietly pleased if my daughter listed to music like this. Yes, they are a boy band. Yes, this is in the same vein as the saccharine Biebs. Yes, this is superficial pop. But it is clean and sincere too.
I Won’t Give Up – Jason Mraz – Mr. A-to-Z is back with a ballad that seems to come from a very real place. He was very serious about the adorable Miss Tristan Prettyman, also a wonderful singer, but they are no longer together. If this song is literal, maybe Jason is having a rough time getting over her. Regardless, it’s a moving, passionate ode to never giving up on love.

I’m at a payphone trying to call home
All of my change I spent on you
Where have the times gone
Baby it’s all wrong, where are the plans we made for two?

Yeah, I, I know it’s hard to remember
The people we used to be
It’s even harder to picture
That you’re not here next to me
You say it’s too late to make it
But is it too late to try?
And in our time that you wasted
All of our bridges burned down

I’ve wasted my nights
You turned out the lights
Now I’m paralyzed
Still stuck in that time when we called it love
But even the sun sets in paradise

I’m at a payphone trying to call home
All of my change I spent on you
Where have the times gone
Baby it’s all wrong, where are the plans we made for two?

If happy ever after did exist
I would still be holding you like this
All those fairytales are full of sh*t
One more stupid love song I’ll be sick

You turned your back on tomorrow
Cause you forgot yesterday
I gave you my love to borrow
But just gave it away
You can’t expect me to be fine
I don’t expect you to care
I know I’ve said it before
But all of our bridges burned down

I’ve wasted my nights
You turned out the lights
Now I’m paralyzed
Still stuck in that time when we called it love
But even the sun sets in paradise

I’m at a payphone trying to call home
All of my change I spent on you
Where have the times gone
Baby it’s all wrong, where are the plans we made for two?

If happy ever after did exist
I would still be holding you like this
All those fairytales are full of sh*t
One more stupid love song I’ll be sick

Now I’m at a payphone…

[Wiz Khalifa]
Man work that sh*t
I’ll be out spending all this money while you sitting round
Wondering why it wasn’t you who came up from nothing
Made it from the bottom
Now when you see me I’m stunning
And all of my cars start with the push up a button
Telling me the chances I blew up or whatever you call it
Switched the number to my phone
So you never could call it
Don’t need my name on my show
You can tell it I’m ballin’
Swish, what a shame could have got picked
Had a really good game but you missed your last shot
So you talk about who you see at the top
Or what you could’ve saw
But sad to say it’s over for
Phantom pulled up valet open doors
Wiz like go away, got what you was looking for
Now ask me who they want
So you can go and take that little piece of sh*t with you

[Adam Levine]

I’m at a payphone trying to call home
All of my change I spent on you
Where have the times gone
Baby it’s all wrong, where are the plans we made for two?

If happy ever after did exist
I would still be holding you like this
All those fairytales are full of sh*t
One more stupid love song I’ll be sick

Now I’m at a payphone…

[I like this  line, "Still stuck in that time when we called it love
But even the sun sets in paradise" It's hard to let go of warm memories of someone you love. Just as the sun sets in paradise, all things come to an end in this world.

"Where have the times gone
Baby it's all wrong, where are the plans we made for two?"

In "Eat, Pray, Love," Elizabeth Gilbert writes about how in English sadness can be a place. When a person consoles a friend, she might say, "I've been there." She means that she also has been in this dark place in the soul. And though it seems that point is an absolute dead end, a black hole from which not even light can escape, in fact, she too has been there and has come back. She has lived to tell the tale.

Literally, "Where have all the times gone?" doesn't make sense. Time passes, but the past doesn't go anywhere. There is no place where the things we experienced still exist. And yet, there is a sense to it. It's a way of saying, "We don't have the kind of moments we used to have. I keep looking for them, but they're nowhere to be found." The singer continues, "Where all the plans we made for two?" Now instead of looking for the past, he is looking for the future, not the future as it exists, but the ideal future he imagined.

There is a touching poignancy to the line, 'If happy ever after did exist/
I would still be holding you like this."  The speaker has lost hope. He realizes now that his dreams may never come true.]

Introduction to Poetry (from poetry 180)
Billy Collins

I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide

or press an ear against its hive.

I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,

or walk inside the poem’s room
and feel the walls for a light switch.

I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author’s name on the shore.

But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.

They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.

————————————————–

This is where I would usually begin my analysis of the poem but I refuse to torture this innocent piece.

anyone lived in a pretty how town   by E. E. Cummings

anyone lived in a pretty how town

(with up so floating many bells down)

spring summer autumn winter

he sang his didn’t he danced his did

[ee cummings is famous for his unconventional use of language. Notice how the lines begin with lower case letters rather than capitals. See how he uses “didn’t” and “did” as nouns even though they are verbs. If you know the poem “Jabberwocky” by Lewis Carroll, you may see parallels here, as the poet uses nonsense that almost magically makes sense.]

Women and men(both little and small)

cared for anyone not at all

they sowed their isn’t they reaped their same

sun moon stars rain

[There is a pun here where it says “women and men. . . cared for anyone not at all.” “Anyone” refers both to the main character of this poem and the traditional meaning of “anyone” that is “some person.” These men and women do not care for Anyone and they do not care for any person.]

children guessed(but only a few

and down they forgot as up they grew

autumn winter spring summer)

that noone loved him more by more

[This seems to be about the innocence you lose as you grow. There is a certain power one loses with age, an ability to wonder, a curiosity, a type of sincerity. Notice how the sequence of seasons has changed from “spring summer autumn winter” to “autumn winter spring summer.” The poet introduces "noone," the beloved of "anyone."]

when by now and tree by leaf

she laughed his joy she cried his grief

bird by snow and stir by still

anyone’s any was all to her

[Whoever has experienced loneliness will appreciate the line, “she laughed his joy she cried his grief.” Sometimes we ask too much from people when all we really want is someone who will be there, supporting us, in good times and bad.]

someones married their everyones

laughed their cryings and did their dance

(sleep wake hope and then)they

said their nevers they slept their dream

[In the movie, “The Guru,” Vijay says, “Do you know why they call it the American Dream? Because it only happens when you are asleep.” There are people who try to live their dreams and there are others who only dream when they are asleep. Anyone and noone are dream-livers.]

stars rain sun moon

(and only the snow can begin to explain

how children are apt to forget to remember

with up so floating many bells down)

[The poet is saying something about how nature witnesses everything and is timeless while people are bound by time and very limited in their senses.]

one day anyone died i guess

(and noone stooped to kiss his face)

busy folk buried them side by side

little by little and was by was

all by all and deep by deep

and more by more they dream their sleep

noone and anyone earth by april

wish by spirit and if by yes.

Women and men(both dong and ding)

summer autumn winter spring

reaped their sowing and went their came

sun moon stars rain

[I wonder if Cummings was inspired by Eastern philosophy because “dong” and “ding” remind me of “yang” and “yin.” He pairs “reap” and “sow” again here, likely hearkening to the Biblical proverb, “whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” (Galatians 6:7)  It is funny to me that Cummings uses a modern style that overturns conventions of grammar and usage while communicating a very ancient message. The message I get is that time is cyclical, nature is cyclical, and thus our lives are bound to be cyclical. We sometimes worry that the end of time is coming or that society has completely degenerated and yet so much of history, so much of our relationships are cyclical. So are we headed to the END and are we merely at 359 degrees headed back to the beginning of the circle?}

It’s pulse-pounding, it’s heartbreaking, it made we want to cry, and it made me laugh. This is the book that touched me brought to life. Remember, above all, that this is a story that could be our future unless we put aside our differences and fight for our children.

According to Wassily Kandinsky, his most complex work was Composition VII.  Kandinsky composed this work before World War I when his productivity dropped dramatically. During the war, people struggled to acquire basic necessities so painting was beyond a luxury. He made thirty different drawings, watercolors, and oil studies in the process of making this piece. You can say this homework paid off not only because this was such an influential work but also because it only took four days to actually paint  the piece. The swirling colors with a seeming eye in the center is reminiscent of a hurricane. Some scholars interpret the abstract painting representing Paradise, Noah’s Flood,  and the Resurrection. Kandinsky took inspiration from music, especially the works of Richard Wagner.In a sense, the lines and shapes in this work try to evoke a level of emotion similar to that evoked by fine music.  To Kandinsky, a complex work of visual art was akin to a symphony. Composition VII is truly a symphony for the eyes.

http://faculty.txwes.edu/csmeller/Human-Prospect/ProData09/02WW1CulMatrix/WW1PICs/Kandinsky1866/Kand1913CompVII444.htm

http://www.glyphs.com/art/kandinsky/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kandinsky

http://faculty.txwes.edu/csmeller/Human-Prospect/ProData09/02WW1CulMatrix/WW1PICs/Kandinsky1866/Kand1913CompVII444.htm

Le Targat, Francois. Kandinsky. Ediciones Poligrafa, 1986.

One of these days letters are gonna fall from the sky
Telling us all to go free
But until that day I’ll find a way to let everybody know
That you’re coming back
Mmm you’re coming back for me
‘Cause even though you left me here
I have nothing left to fear
These are only walls that hold me here
Hold me here…(4x)

One day soon
I’ll hold you like the sun holds the moon
And we will hear those planes overhead
And we won’t have to be scared
Mmm yes we won’t have to be scared
Oh we won’t have to be yea…
Yea….

You’re coming back for me (3x)

“With its eerie, Thom Yorke/Jeff Buckley-like falsetto and sense of romantic doom, ‘Letters From The Sky’ oozes with sensuality. ‘That’s just a desperate, delusional love song,’ says Steven.”

from Civil Twilight Myspace page

There is a temptation to see other things in this song: a messianic vision of the future, an escape from a prison of some kind, even a memorial of 9-11 (“And we will hear those planes overhead/ And we won’t have to be scared.”) I don’t know whether  the band was being honest, coy, sarcastic, deceptive or other in calling it a “desperate, delusional love song.” The funny thing is you can try your hardest and you just won’t find a meaning that snugly fits all of the lyrics. If it’s a love song, then why is such crazy stuff happening like planes circling over head? If it’s about Armageddon, then what is the bit about “taste your kiss” doing in there? If it’s about escaping from prison, why are the mountains falling? Of course, if you read “delusional” broadly then it all works because you can deal with all the parts that don’t make sense by chalking it up to insanity.