“The Weight of Zaynab’s Gaze” by: Zahra Moeini The leaves of the oak trees have welcomed the hues of Fall’s procession. Zaynab treads the witness Of leaves that swell Bursting with each step The shades of a brother’s memory. Those who walk alongside Look at the weight of Zaynab’s gaze Flowing back and forth On […]
Category Archives: Poetry
Justin Tyler : Patience a Poem
posted by Muharram In Manhattan
Patience by: Justin Tyler I was… Lost. Confused. Purposely lied to Under the veil of ignorance… Heard all the arguments from all of the audience As I, staged my way Through purposeless days… My nights consumed with, contemplation and reading Like Malcolm X confined in his solitude My journey to Islam – Behind […]
Adeeba Talukder : A Poem on Yazid
posted by a mercy case
Time is a curve of loss, rind pressed against rind, skin against skin, until the solid fruit lies weak, shapeless. But watch the syrup as it falls into the cup, glistening and whole. Life, in the end, could not mold him in the way of sap: He lay, thick, sagging with wine, […]
Ana Cedano : A Leftist in Love
posted by a mercy case
I remember falling in love with you when I hit my second decade I had heard of you before but I didn’t really know you Then I met you and I quickly became a fan Loving you for taking a stand Loving you for trembling with indignation at injustice Fighting against ‘ism-s’ Colonial Imperial and […]
Poetry : Hymns of Karbala
posted by Muharram In Manhattan
Listen to the author recite Hymns of Karbala : Hymns of Karbala The 1990s were the years of El Niño, the Golden Age of hip-hop, the Gilded Age of commerce. The Roaring Nineties brought opulence, decadence, and freshly minted robber barons on the information superhighway. The landscape awash with ideas, brimming with innovation, the […]
Poetry : After My First Ever Majlis About Karbala
posted by Muharram In Manhattan
Listen to the author recite : After My First Ever Majlis About Karbala Yā Ḥusayn I am so ashamed tonight More ashamed than I have ever been since I became a Muslim because I don’t think I would have been strong enough to stand with you on the plain of Karbala I would have thought […]
Poetry : The War of Alphabets
posted by Muharram In Manhattan
Listen to the author recite The War of Alphabets The War of Alphabets I. Like any other war, this war began with an aliph, the first letter in Arabic, the beginning of a slash. It is 632. Islam splits into two denominations. Abu Bakr takes over, Ali is stalled. Rulers continue to battle over numbers, […]
Aun Hasan Ali : Some thoughts on the remembrance of Karbala
posted by Muharram In Manhattan
One of the tragedies of modern life is the monopoly of reason. Keats’ lament that Newton would unravel the rainbow and clip an angel’s wings was prescient indeed. I find it increasingly difficult to access those aspects of my self that are not meant to be governed by reason. I cannot appreciate Mir’s couplets without analyzing them, and the expression “subḥāna rabbī al-a‘lá wa-bi-ḥamdih” has become a philosophical project of tanzīh and ithbāt. The majlis of Husayn is one of the few places left where I can still access something visceral. It is one of the few times that I experience the tranquillity of a mode of knowledge that is not discursive. That is precious to me and I’m not willing to give it up for yet another rational act like political mobilization.
Ali Gee : Motivational Muslim, Charity and Belly of the Beast
posted by Muharram In Manhattan
Motivational Muslim I think about all the sadness and the tears that I have seen And then I remember I’m like every other human being Flawed and insecure, arrogant and mean Black dot on my soul no one else has ever seen What’s it all for? Just to live and die young Or old and […]
Hussain’s Love: the battle of breaking one’s self
posted by Muharram In Manhattan
Hussain as man At Nightspring Hussain empathizes with the nightingale. tuning nocturnal odes around the fire and rewinding his-story, because summer has come early to Karabala. Dreams at dawn dropping dew on Hussain’s dried lips, because Karbala’s clouds barely peel With no shade of any olive tree under which to rest Hussain’s sun-scorched eyes dream […]