Organic Light Pan

It’s been another month. Yesterday I went out to look for the new crescent moon of Rabi’ Al-Awwal, the third month of the Islamic year, the month in which the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of God Upon him) was born. It is a good time. Unfortunately however, the moon was not seen yesterday. The clouds in the sky were thick and only a small window through the clouds was visible for us to look into. Nonetheless, the month has come to an end and today with clearer skies the new crescent moon was easily visible and I had the good fortune to spend about an hour with it as it slowly sank into the western sky.

Rabi Al-Awwal Crescent

When I photograph the moon I always think to myself, these photos will not be very interesting. The sky looks plain, the moon too thin and I think to myself how great it would be if the sky suddenly erupted in a blush of color. But after I return home and start working with the images, I am utterly amazed at how beautiful the moon is with all its subtleties.

Subtleties of the Moon

And then when the color does appear, it makes the moon stand out even more. One of the beautiful aspects of the moon is that it cycles. It always returns to this moment, like clockwork every month. It’s dependable, even if we can’t see it due to clouds or weather or some other reason, it always returns. It’s a promise that you can bank on. At the same time, it, just like everything else in creation is in a state of evanescence. It will vanish just like everything else. Here today and gone tomorrow.

Crescent in a blush of pink

Just like the light that lights the sky vanishes, so to will the moon and everything else for that matter, everything.

However, its only in the absence of something do we realize how important that thing was to us and what a blessing it was. And just when you think that you can’t do with out that blessing, you find that in its absence you can see things that you were never able to see when its brilliance was blinding you. You realize that even though all you can see is a small sliver of its light, its true nature is hidden by the make-up that covers it and in the shadows its true nature is revealed.

The Moon Revealed in Earth Shine

As the day came to a close and the final photo taken, I realized that no one is an island. Even though the moon tonight was the most brilliant object in the sky, it was not alone and could never be our moon if it was alone. For sharing the sky with the moon was Venus, our closest neighboring planet. Everything in nature has its counterpart – night and day, sun and moon, husband and wife, right and wrong.

The Moon and Venus

One cannot exist without the other. Everything in creation exhibits this quality. And it is only with this very quality can anything be perpetuated. If one side of the balance is upset it will upset the other side as well and send everything into an out of control chaotic spiral downward into destruction – May God protect us from that.

Last week I saw a bumper sticker that read “Trees Are The Answer”. I honestly found that to be a very profound statement. It struck me odd, as that I thought I was the only one who thought that the answer to many of our glaring problems are the trees. We find that we faced today with so many challenges and problems globally that if we think about them we get overwhelmed, at least I do.

Much has been written about trees – essays, poems, songs – so I don’t think I can add much. But I don’t think I have ever run across anything that highlights the relationship that we actually have with trees. Trees actually breath, that is they absorb carbon dioxide and release, as a waste product, oxygen. Funny – we breath in oxygen and release carbon dioxide as a waste. We need their waste and they ours. The only trouble is that we seem to be drowning in carbon dioxide and killing off the trees at the same time via chainsaw.

In my last post, I wrote of balance; that Divine balance that was put in place by our Creator. Maybe that balance goes beyond mere economics. Maybe it has a farther reaching implication. Maybe it means that everything has a balance point and if we tip it too far we will destroy ourselves.

There is an interesting tradtion of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, that says “If the Last Day comes upon you and you are planting a tree, continue planting it“. That is don’t let anything sway you from doing whatever good thing that you are doing irrespective of the tribulation at hand. But what I find so intriuging is that the Prophet, peace be upon him, used the act of planting a tree, which indicates to me that trees will be important to us even up to the very last day.

Maybe its to simple an answer to our global problems, but then again…

The month of Ramadan is just about over. In less than 24 hours, the search for the new crescent moon will begin for those who follow the tradition set more than 1400 years ago in marking the beginnings of the months. The day the follows the end of Ramadan is known as Eid Al-Fitr, the festival of fast breaking, and is celebrated the world round by observant Muslims. It is a joyous day that marks not only the end of a month-long devotion to our Creator but also that as Muslims we were able to stay away from and curb our desires during daylight hours. It is a month where those who observe it hope to gain the self-control and discipline to tame our egos, grow more conscience of the Divine, and foster love, mercy and compassion to all of humanity.

And so it is with this as a backdrop that the current events unfolding leave me somewhat introspective on our future. Continue Reading »