FEAR IS THE STONEMASON

Fear is the Stonemason of the prison of our sins.

With each brick of selfishness do we slowly build higher

the walls that separate us from Allah’s sunlight of Forgiveness.

Our tears of regret let flow will surely loosen the mortar

of our despair from which we fashion with passion-trembled hands

the fortress of our inner Shaitan.

Our hope for the Mercy of Allah brings His Light of Guidance

and Grace upon the darkest shadows of a soul’s long night, for

Tahajjud is His blessed gift of silence before the dawn, wherein

a humbled heart might whisper a tearful prayer into the ear of God.

“Follow not the footsteps of Shaitan,” our loving Lord commands,

that we not stumble in our darkness.  Then He brings us close in

the embrace of His promise that He purifies whomsoever He pleases,

else all would be lost.  For Allah is the All-Hearing that we may be heard,

the All-Knowing that we may truly know ourselves to be His creation, 

made perfection willed to strive and choose -- with Him or without, 

beside ourselves in doubt as long as we listen to our fear and want.  

Alone as long as we choose to close our eyes in arrogance and pride.  

Trapped in our past or blinded by tomorrow’s temptations of delight, 

we sacrifice our Now-ness with Allah upon the altar of our sins and fears.

Lay your prayer mat before the Throne of God.  

Despair not of the countless millions who precede you to the Hall, 

for His chamber, most surely, is a room that has no walls.  

Beseech Him then for Light on Light that illumines from within 

and fills the heart with gladness and kills the flames of sin.

Seek, therefore, His Power which can free the tortured heart.  

Beg the help of Allah alone -- the One Whom none can thwart, 

His Mercy a flood no walls of pain withstand.  

Humility is the hand that knocks upon His Door; 

your righteousness the key that opens it here and evermore. 

Live within each moment and know that each moment lives in God.  

He frees you every instance you return again to Him, 

so hold fast the rope connecting you to Him.  

It’s ever in you always there, protecting you from sin.

The Light of God is Allah’s Love, the Love of God is Allah’s Light.

Let not fear, the stonemason of sin, entomb your soul in night.

In Allah’s daylight you’re already free -- He’s just waiting

for you to leave your unlocked cell, not ever to return.

Choose now and forever His Loving arms and not the fires that burn,

for your fear is but the stonemason, His Love the key you turn.