Da'ud ibn Tamam ibn Ibrahim al-Shawni's Blog

In the next several months, a free PDF and ePub book wil...

 In the next several months, a free PDF and ePub book will be linked here, that will include much of what was in this blog, and great deal more content related to topics formerly posted here. Additionally, a link to an audio book of some of that content, and finally a link to order the book for purchase. The title is:

A Tree of White Blossoms: The Collected Work of Da'ud ibn Tamam ibn Ibrahim al-Shawni.

The Death of Duryodhana

Duryodhana said, "O Krishna, if I have been defeated, it is only by your cunning deceit and your violation of the rules to which we all agreed before we joined in battle."

Krishna said, "I was no party to your rules, nor present among you to ratify them."

Duryodhana said, "Be honest, at least; you knew the rules and urged the Pandava to violate them."

Krishna said, "This is true."

Duryodhana howled in derision. Krishna silenced him, blazing like the sun before the dying prince, saying, "Apply not...

His celestial throne

Who can ever imagine
     the music we will hear
          around His celestial throne?

Who cannot wish for death
     having heard in life
          only a single note?

Before the spoken word, awareness had no self-awareness. ...

Before the spoken word, awareness had no self-awareness. Creation did not know itself.

As we look back upon the ancients and wonder at their bar...

As we look back upon the ancients and wonder at their barbarous customs, so too will our descendants look back upon us and wonder how it is that we choose our representatives for their purely political skills. They will consider inconceivable that anyone with sense would fail to choose, as the people’s representatives, any but poets, philosophers, scientists, and artists. Yet we appoint instead liars and charlatans, the most debased and ignorant, depraved and fanatical, who delight in power f...

Be detached from success or failure

If God wills that you should be successful, you will enjoy success. If He wills that you should fail, you will fail. His will likewise transcends all actions that may ensure or prevent success, or may assure or avert failure. His will is not contingent on your intention, nor is it bound by your action. Nor is the desired outcome contingent on your innocence or your guilt.
Yet if success is based upon some expectation, and you anticipate this success, and engage in no action, then you have aban...

Nothing whatsoever keeps Him from any other thing.

He Looks Upon a Spark

In terms of sin and redemption, sin is absolutely acknowledged. Yet punishment for sin doesn't take on a necessarily eternal form, but a definitive time-limited one in which punishment is in proportion to the sin. That punishment may be hellish or rebirth in the life to come in a lowly form.
Hinduism putatively solves the problem of equitable and proportional punishment for sin, and that even after death there is the possibility of God's redemptive grace. One may possess good karma or bad karm...

The Well of Fathomless Waters

I had a vision of the son of Vayu, Rama's faithful servant, the wisest of his kind. I said, "Immortal Hanuman, how is it that Vishnu granted you immortality? Was it some boon He granted? A wish He fulfilled in exchange for performance of some terrible austerity?
Hanuman answered, "Never for myself did I perform His service or obey His command. On the day that Sita emerged unscathed from the fire, on that glorious golden morning when she was restored to Rama's side, I said, 'Make my prayer a fo...

Nor Hands Incarnadine

I still have two books to complete. The first is the  Vishvarupa , which has yet to be printed, but which is otherwise finished. The second is the Bhagavad Gita Interpreted, which I edited and for which I provide an extensive introduction. The Vishvarupa, and their immediately preceding books, the Ramlila and the Rasa Lila, are the last of my original works.
While I expect to continue editing works, much as I did with the Rose Garden of Sa'di, I believe that the period of original work...