"If your limbs and organs are immobile,
it is not a serious matter;
this will cause you no harm.
What is serious is immobility " of the heart,"
for this is the supreme calamity. "
- Shaykh Abdul Qadir Jilani
________________________________
O Sacred One
we have a heart problem
a big problem
a really big problem
we are called to have hearts of flesh
hearts alive
hearts that beat
and send the very stuff of life
coursing through our bodies
hearts that feel
joy and pain
hope and fear
and in feeling
send the very stuff of life
into the world
compassion and forgiveness
hope
love
instead, O Sacred Lover
we seem to have hearts of stone
rigid
cold
unfeeling
unresponsive
there is no heartbeat
no movement
and thus the lifeblood
the Spirit does not flow
we can stand on a stage
and speak words that shame and guilt the poor
we can propose laws and policies that abandon the vulnerable
we can send young Muslim children to jail for building a
clock
we can take down a black person on a street, violating them
(without even speaking to them)
we can close our eyes to the plight of people forced from
their homes by hate
responding only when we see a dead child on a beach
we can abandon those who are addicted or mentally ill
we can fail to love those who are difficult to love
and fail to forgive
O Sacred and Compassionate One
all too often we have hearts of stone
renew our hearts within us
for hearts that do not feel the pain and hurt of the world
and cannot feel joy and love
hearts that cannot forgive
and be moved to compassion
are the supreme calamity
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