Repentance of the elect

• Dhu Nun al-Misri once said: "Repentance of the common people is from sin, and for the elect is from the heedlessness".
• Ibn 'Ata' likewise said that repentance is of two kinds: repentance of inabah (return) and repentance of istijabah (answering or fulfillment). The first one is the servant repents out of fear for God's punishment while the repentance of istijabah is that one repents out of shame due to God generosity.
  
• As Ruwaym said: "It is repentance from repentance". (Risalah Qushayriyyah)

The longing u express is the return response

One night a man was crying, Allah! Allah!
His lips grew sweet with the praising,
until a cynic said,
"So! I have heard you calling out,
but have you ever gotten any response?"
The man had no answer to that.
He quit praying and fell into a confused sleep.
He dreamed he saw Khidr,
the guide of souls,
in a thick, green foliage.
"Why did you stop praising?"
"Because I've never heard anything back."
"This longing you express is the return message."
"The grief you cry out fromdraws you toward union."
Your pure sadnessthat wants helpis the secret cup.
Listen to the moan of a dog for its master.
That whining is the connection.
There are love dogs
No one knows the names of.
Give your life to be one of them.

[Mathnawi, Maulana Jallaluddin Rumi (may Allah sanctify his soul & bless his secret) translated version by Coleman Barks]

My homepage revamped

After four years online, there is a need to revamp my personal homepage to keep up with the latest internet technologies. Instead of putting 'under construction' notice as above, I believe it would be better for me to redirect it to my temporary blog (needs to redesign this as well, though!). Nonetheless, the new homepage needs sometimes to be online again since I am very busy these days, completing the last lapse of my studies. I hope it will be up by next year, 2008, sometime in February Insya ALlah. Please make du'a for me.