water us
O Allah, water us with rain, unfold upon us Your mercy through Your copious rain from the driven clouds, so that Your goodly (moofiq) earth may grow on all horizons! (Imam Sajjad (AS), dua#19)
drift like passing clouds
And you see the mountains, which you suppose to be stationary, while they drift like passing clouds –
the work of Allah – who has made everything faultless. Hu is well aware of what you do! (Qur’an 27:88)
mountains
Hu has spread out the earth and set in it firm mountains and streams, and of every fruit Hu has made in it a pair. Hu draws the night’s cover over the day. There are indeed signs in that for a people who reflect (Qur’an 13:3).
wind and rain
When Almighty created the openings of atmosphere, expanse of firmament and strata of winds, Hu flowed into it water whose waves were stormy and whose surges leapt one over the other. Hu loaded it on dashing wind and breaking typhoons, ordered them to shed it back (as rain), gave the wind control over the vigour of the rain, and acquainted it with its limitations. The wind blew under it while water flowed furiously over it. (Imam Ali (AS) sermon #1)
california under smoke and fire
The weekend of June 21st experienced a rare, almost unheard of, dry electric storm over much of Northern California. The storm unleashed over 8000 lightening strikes – this, coupled with record high temperatures throughout California, has resulted in (so far) 1,026 fires burning over 104,000 acres. Because of the high level of smoke, just about all of Northern California is now under a health advisory.
The air is thick (indoors and outdoors) with the smell of burning wood, and falling ash:
Short-term exposure can aggravate lung disease, increase the chance of respiratory infection and cause heart attacks in people with heart disease. Even healthy people may experience irritation of the nose and throat, coughing, chest tightness and shortness of breath.
hope
Imam Sadiq (a.s) quoted on the authority of Imam Ali (a.s): “Be more hopeful for that for which you have no hope, compared to what you have some hope for. (Mishkat, h. #580)
our identity
a comment on Zaid Shakir’s article on Obama
…neither Hamas, nor Hizbullah, nor Iran are “our enemies.” Hamas and Hizbullah are Islamic Resistance movements, rooted in the Muslim people of the region who have been occupied by the zionists.
