Pakistan crackdown over cartoons
Protests in the city of Peshawar
A radical Islamic leader has been detained in Pakistan to prevent him from leading protests against cartoons satirising the Prophet Muhammad.
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world...4722712.stm
I know this is not 'all Muslims', just an example of what 'belief' gets. An identification with a belief creates a need to defend that belief. And depending on how strong that identification is, kill for that belief. There is no way to regulate the world into respecting every person's, culture's, groups, religions beliefs. And I would not have it be so...it's taking it all too seriously. And if anything, Hafiz is not 'too serious'. He appears to be fairly serious about the necessity of humor and recognizing just how absurd our 'beliefs' are.
While, yes, I feel Hafiz would say that any image of Muhammad is not the truth of Muhammad, not to look to the image for a sense of 'reality', I do not feel he would say it was necessary to offer any objection to anyone else's depiction of Muhammad or to 'go to war' over it. In fact I feel he would most likely laugh at this. :)
“No one could ever paint a too wonderful picture
of my heart or God.” ~ Hafiz
(an excerpt from
www.poetseers.org/the_poetseers/hafiz )
"From this point Hafiz became a prodigious poet producing hundreds of poems which expressed a seekers longing for union with the divine. His poetry made Hafiz famous and he gained the respect and love of many local inhabitants. However his ecstatic and unorthodox poetry gained him the displeasure of the ruling Muslim orthodoxy. Because of this Hafiz twice had to flea the city of Shiraz, on many occasions he was only saved by his sharp wit.
At the age of about 60, his Master Attar, finally granted Hafiz his life long desire - union with God. From this point Hafiz’s poems reflected a new consciousness, no longer was there any sense of separateness from God."
What does it serve to concern one's self with the actions of another?
Ghazal 35
Keep to your own affairs, why do you fault me?
My heart has fallen in love, what has befallen thee?
In the center of he, whom God made from nothing
There is a subtle point that no creature can see.
Until His lips fulfill my lips like a reed
From all the worldly advice I must flee.
The beggar of your home, of the eight heavens has no need
The prisoner of your love, from both worlds is thus free.
Though my drunkenness has brought forth my ruin
My essence is flourished by paying that ruinous fee.
O heart for the pain and injustice of love do not plead
For this is your lot from the justice of eternity.
Hafiz don’t help magic and fantasy further breed
The world is filled with such, from sea to sea.
~~~~~~~~
Ghazal 41
Though the wine is joyous, and the wind, flowers sorts
Harp music and scent of wine, the officer reports.
If you face an adversary and a jug of wine
Choose the wine because, fate cheats and extorts.
Up your ragged, patched sleeves, hide & keep your cup
Like this flask of wine, fate too bleeds and distorts.
With my teary eyes, I cleanse my robe with wine
Self-restraint and piety is what everyone exhorts.
Seek not your joy in the turn of the firmaments
Even my filtered clear red fluid, dregs sports.
This earth and sky is no more than a bleeding sieve
That sifts and sorts kingly crowns and courts.
Hafiz, your poems invaded Fars and Iraqi ports
It is now the turn of Baghdad and Tabrizi forts.
~~~~~~~~
Ghazal 42
I long to open up my heart
For my heart do my part.
My story was yesterday’s news
From rivals cannot keep apart.
On this holy night stay with me
Till the morning, do not depart.
On a night so dark as this,
My course, how can I chart?
O breath of life, help me tonight
That in the morn I make a start.
In my love for you, I will
My self and ego thwart.
Like Hafiz, being love smart;
I long to master that art.
~~~~~~~
An identification with a religious belief is nothing more than egoic war. Let the wars end.
