Just rambling over nothing on Friday.

Friday today and while the Imam giving his Kuthbah or sermon  where he said the Allah has awarded His Grace on mankind or something to that effect my mind exploded saying to myself, "Please i bet to differ!" Allah has created suffering for mankind and the rest is His-story. But i sat in meditation listening to the sermon as one cannot raise an issue in the midst of the Imam's sermon, as a matter of fact you cannot even shhh! or be quiet to your fellow worshiper without loosing you merit for the Friday prayer.Later this evening I shared this experience with one of my friends who was concerned about his handicapped younger brother who he believes is being ill treated or abused by his other siblings while in their care. I told him about it is so unfair or so it seems for man to suffer so much every moment of the day and sometimes in his sleep.
He was taken aback by my admit even if it was all in the mind, that I dared to question my Lord in Friday while in His Mosque.Masha'Allah!
I went on to explain my thoughts on suffering without letting him know that it mostly were what the Buddha had set out to find an answer to; why is life suffering. I tried to explain to him of how we cried at birth and caused our mothers to scream her life out just to bring us into this life. I went to point out about the impermanence of our existence and so on and he listened without saying a word. After a long silence I asked him if there is a way out of this predicament and he looked at me with a blank look.
The Imam's sermon on Fridays usually will open with the phrase Tawakal or what I understand to mean having faith in Allah. This is the key to Islam, an absolute and immovable faith, a complete surrender. Life is faced with this in mind  I told my friend that we should learn to be thankful for what has been given us for it could have been worse, he could have been his brother or he could have been born blind, or missing a limb. For this we should reflect upon Allah's Grace. I asked him how many times in a day has he expressed his gratefulness to his body, mind and spirit for being what it is and not any less? It is in expressing our gratefulness to Allah, a Higher Being  in whatever form that we begin to realize the beauty and perfections of His Creation and that life is as it should be. Being ignorant to this we exist in darkness and gloom making our life one long journey of suffering. It was doubtful that my friend a man with limited education, a drug pusher living in a fisherman's "Pondok' or hut built on the edge of the water and soon will be torn down due to development understood all these but I tried. I was worried that I might cause him to loose his faith in Allah which was not my intention, Na'Uzubillah! Allah forbids!
My way of helping my friends is by massaging them. Giving them a good rub down as close to the bones as possible waking up their weakened energy centers, making them feel their own body. I told a few the reason I like to do it is because in massaging their bodies i am massaging off my own aches and pains .I massage my brothers, my sisters my relatives and friends and I felt it become an act of meditation every so often  letting my fingers run on their own seeking and pressing points that needed to be awaken, it is a s close an any artist can come to understanding the human form from head to toe, inside and out, I am a Living Art! I manifest what being and artist is beyond the boundaries of race or creed, philosophy or religion, I am a witness to this whole Creation of how Great is the Will of my Lord, for all He said was Be and it Is. This is the Big Picture, the Complete Cut of this human tragedy of Being and Artist, this is the glory that is the manifestation of the Divine through the tips of the fingers of a wanabe artist.
Oh off course i am not alone in this mess, there many like me throwing paints and inks around nibbling and scribbling with charcoals and lead and seeking for that which is the original, the true  form, that which none has imagined or dreamed of, that which will bring down this veiled existence and reveal the Truth behind all these props we call life. We each tell our stories in our own ways and styles and techniques, and we will call it Art.