dua for forgiveness

Leaving this here in hopes that I’ll remember and try to put this one into regular rotation: I’m in deep need of it, for sure…

Abu Musa reported that the Prophet, peace be upon him, used to pray

‏اللهم اغفر لي خطيئتي وجهلي، وإسرافي في أمري، وما أنت أعلم به مني، اللهم اغفر لي جدي وهزلي، وخطئي وعمدي، وكل ذلك عندي، اللهم اغفر لي ما قدمت وما أخرت، وما أسررت وما أعلنت، وما أنت أعلم به مني، أنت المقدم، وأنت المؤخر، وأنت على كل شيء قدير

O Allah! Forgive my errors, ignorance and immoderation in my affairs. You are better aware of my faults than myself. O Allah! Forgive my faults which I committed in seriousness or in fun deliberately or inadvertently. O Allah! Grant me pardon for those sins which I committed in the past and I may commit in future, which I committed in privacy or in public and all those sins of which You are better aware than me. You Alone can send whomever You will to Jannah, and You Alone can send whomever You will to Hell-fire and You are Omnipotent.

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Barnaby Nutt, ed – ‘No Constructive Conclusions’

‘No Constructive Conclusions’ collects work shot around Katowice, Poland, and the Silesian Metropolis by Wojtek Mszyca, Pavel Pětroš, and Ian Barnaby Nutt. After meeting on Flickr, Wojtek invited the others to visit him in Poland  and shoot around his hometown. Pavel and Barnaby went at different times, and later, the three put their photographs together and exhibited the project at venues in Poland and the Czech Republic in 2017. Barnaby produced this limited zine to advertise the exhibition, and as a keepsake, and I was lucky enough to wind up with a copy. Win!

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Brian David Stevens – ‘Beachy Head’

Beachy Head is a beautiful collection of photographs, made over a 12 month period by Brian David Stevens at Beachy Head,

the highest chalk sea cliff in Britain, rising to 162 meters (531 ft) above sea level. The peak allows views of the south east coast from Dungeness in the east, to Selsey Bill in the west. It’s height has also made it one of the most notorious suicide spots in the world.

With that sort of intro, these beautiful landscape photographs take on an ominous, haunted feel. Together, they feel like a sort of elegy.

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who do you trust?

Many years ago, I was talking to my friend the DJ. He told me some about a mission trip he took to Africa, and said something to the effect that over there, where people live closer to the land and the natural environment, you more clearly see the hand of God in the world, but here in America, there was a filter over everything that distracted us from Him and masked His presence in the world.

So how do we get around this filter? Well, Allah azza wa jall told us

وَاصْبِرْ نَفْسَكَ مَعَ الَّذِينَ يَدْعُونَ رَبَّهُم بِالْغَدَاةِ وَالْعَشِيِّ يُرِيدُونَ وَجْهَهُ ۖ وَلَا تَعْدُ عَيْنَاكَ عَنْهُمْ تُرِيدُ زِينَةَ الْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا ۖ وَلَا تُطِعْ مَنْ أَغْفَلْنَا قَلْبَهُ عَن ذِكْرِنَا وَاتَّبَعَ هَوَاهُ وَكَانَ أَمْرُهُ فُرُطًا

And keep yourself patient [by being] with those who call upon their Lord in the morning and the evening, seeking His countenance. And let not your eyes pass beyond them, desiring adornments of the worldly life, and do not obey one whose heart We have made heedless of Our remembrance and who follows his desire and whose affair is ever [in] neglect.

Allahu Akbar! Continue reading “who do you trust?”

Ah, Canon Sure Shot 115u, I hardly knew ya

I spotted this pretty little camera in the back of the jewelry case at my local Goodwill a month or so ago, hemmed and hawed for about 10 minutes, bought it, ran 3 rolls through it, then packed it up and sent it off to my EmulsiveSanta recipient last week. It’s not a bad camera at all, after all, it was one of Canon’s last compact film cameras, and by 2003 they surely knew what they were doing with auto-everything, point-and-shoot cameras, but I sent a camera in last year’s EmulsiveSanta thing (the Pentax Espio 35-70), so I felt obligated to send one this year too, and this little Canon Sure Shot 115u was the best camera I had that I felt comfortable gifting, so I said goodbye and off it went. Continue reading “Ah, Canon Sure Shot 115u, I hardly knew ya”

baby steps

Islam is not about perfection. Allah is alone in His perfection. Islam—the submission to the will of Allah, obeying His commandments, and following the teachings of the prophet, peace be upon him—is about striving for perfection. It’s not a race; it’s a lifelong journey. And like many journeys, there are detours, false starts, breakdowns: it’s not always smooth sailing.

So what do you do when you falter on the path to Allah? Continue reading “baby steps”

Arimoto China – ‘ariphoto selection vol. 8’

Arimoto Shinya’s ariphoto series (and zines) documents his encounters with Tokyo wildlife: grinning elderly men with missing teeth; punks, goths, and heshers; hippy bikers; dog walkers; cosplay girls; homeless; I could go on. The tagline on his website sorta says it all: “TOKYO, SEEN BY MY EYES, IS AN ECOSYSTEM WITH MAGNIFICENT CIRCULATION.” I was excited to get in on an honest to goodness Japanese photo zine, and now that I have it in my hands, well…

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