Friday, September 17, 2010

Thy Friend and Intimate

Nor can goodness and evil be equal.
Respond to evil with doing good
deeds to the evil doer.
Then will he, between whom
and thyself was hatred,
become as though he was
thy friend and intimate!

~The Quran 41:34

Of Note: Recently a former member of a radical Islamic group asked his fellow Muslims to restrain themselves in response to incitement by those threatening to burn the Quran. Tawfik Hamid, now a reformer and senior fellow at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies, told of Abraham's response to his father who wanted to stone the young prophet for refusing to follow the pagan believes in vogue at the time. Abraham's response? "Peace be unto thee! I shall ask my Sustainer to forgive thee. For behold he has always been kind unto me." Hamid believes that "the more Muslims follow this model, the more they could bring peace to the world. And the more tolerance Muslims show for values like freedom of expression, the less others will think of burning the Quran." Many have asked why more Muslims do not speak publicly regarding the actions of religious fundamentalists in their midst. Well, here is one. Will others join him?

Today's Weather Report: Cloudy, rainy, cool. All the above described our day. A friend and I picked beans in his son's garden. LOTS of beans and a few peas. Many were eaten right then and there. Yummy. It struck me what a wonderful bounty can be had from a small space.