love

I want to love like this.

Rabi'a

Brothers, my peace is in my aloneness.
My Beloved is alone with me there, always.
I have found nothing in all the worlds
That could match His love,
This love that harrows the sands of my desert.
If I come to die of desire
And my Beloved is still not satisfied,
I would live in eternal despair.

- Rabi’a al-Adawiyya

Appointing a just ruler is...

"Appointing a just ruler is an obligation

by Sacred Law, know, and not by a verdict based on reason.

However, it is not a pillar that must be believed in Islam

but do not deviate from his (the leader's) clear instruction.

Except in unbelief (kufr) whereupon you discard his pledge,

then Allah alone will protect us from his harm.

For (any act) other than this, his removal is not permitted,

nor is he discharged if one of his qualities disappears."

- Jawhara al-Tawhid [the Jewel of Divine Unity]

Imam Ibrahim Burhan al-Din al-Laqqani.

This is the aqeedah/belief text we recently finished studying with our teacher. The commentary we went through was very basic, and for the most part just covers the individual obligatory points of belief, though the above quotation is not from that section.

These verses, from the entire text, were probably the only ones difficult to swallow for myself. I like to think I'm all about peace, no matter what the cost (is that an oxy-moronic belief?).

So I asked my teacher, "how does this make sense?! what if you have a fasiq ruler who is unjust to his people, what is the point of keeping him as your leader?!" - and I spoke just as frantically as those "?!" suggest.
My teacher said it was because of the loss of Muslim blood; nothing is worth that. He didn't explain much further, but I just took that and ended up pondering over it for a long time after.

I am not against the Egyptian people's cause; it takes passion and courage and a great resource of faith, to do what they have done, and to continue despite opposition. But that's just it, at the beginning of this, the only opposition was the leader they were trying to rid themselves of. Now there seems to be two factions within the Egyptian people themselves... and we find ourselves watching a civil war on our television screens - and isn't our call for revolution an echoing of high-school corridors - "fight! fight!" ?

I don't know. But Muslim blood has been shed; human blood. And how are we to know whether those who were killed were willing to die for such a cause? And are those who killed willing to pay the price? Allah is with those who temper their passions, deny their lower selves. He is with those who patiently perservere. Indeed, He cares more for the Egyptians than we could possibly imagine. He cares for them more than their mothers.

May He grant them the victory they seek, in the best of manners.