Letter to Julia 20111228

In the name of Allah, most Gracious, most Merciful.

Hello Julia, my love. How are you feeling? I pray you are being patient, and trying to slow down, and taking good care of your beautiful self. I assume you have been busy being social during the Christmas and New Year's season, because of the friends, family, and upbringing you have had. I suppose it is easy for me not to celebrate thus season, but not because of the Islam I have. I hardly even celebrate the 2 Eids, other than the prayers and charity. I do enjoy the fasting month of Ramadan, so I guess that is what I celebrate. No, I'm not some stifled up old "fuddy-duddy"- look at my rock and roll past! I'm certainly not an angel or a prophet. I guess I'm merely a rockstar. But I am kinda too lazy to "Mach Schau" for everyone. That's probably one of the reasons why having a fashion show going during my concerts is a good idea. Dance routines have a bad habit of being too damn pagan.

The Qur'an is not here to bring us distress. It is an admonition to those who fear Allah. Life is certainly a trial, and what we feel in the Qur'an to be a hassle, is actually a guidance to the righteous. What if there is that bit of information we need to save our own lives? Or even that bit of information we need to secure an important business? "The most valuable commodity I know of is information, wouldn't you agree?" (from the movie "Wall Street") In the end it is the devil who is the hassle, the trifling annoyance that gets in the way of our happiness, and rewards for our hard work.

Long ago, when Cain killed his brother Abel as an act of jealousy, Allah ordained to the children of Israel that if someone killed a human, other than for murder or the spreading of mischief in the land, then it would be as if that someone killed a whole people. But this did not stop people from commiting evil excesses, and today killing is a numb act of news. What occurs today is part of the countdown to Judgement Day. The Plan of God is to keep the Hour hidden, partly so that the transgressors will increase in iniquity, and the burden of their punishment thereof.