The Shaikh Muhammad Rahim Bawa Muhaiyaddeen Library
A New Book:
--- "Bawa For Dummies" ---
By My Children
Chapter 01 - Aaron Goes To "Grad School"
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Bawa. That Is, About "The Personal Experiences" of Our Dearest Loving
Daughter Aziza Muhaiyaddeen (Ral.) Living and Hanging Out With Our Dearest Loving Son, And Your Dearest Loving Brother, Shaikh Muhaiyaddeen (Ral.),
In Whom "We Are Well Pleased", For The Last 20 Years Or More, and that is for sure.
Bawa. And Specifically About "The Process" of Her "Falling In Love" With
Shaikh Muhaiyaddeen (Ral.), As Now "Her Wisdom", First On The Outside, And Then Within, And "The Impact" of "That Love" Upon "The Life" of Her Son Aaron, Sitting At "The Divine Feet" of Shaikh Muhaiyaddeen (Ral.), And
Starting To Get "His Act" Together, if you like, and that is for sure.
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Go To "Chapter 01" - Aaron Goes To "Grad School", By Our
Dearest Loving Daughter Aziza Muhaiyaddeen (Ral.)
Go To "The Review" of "Chapter 01", By Our Dearest Loving Grand Son, Shaikh Muhammad Rahim Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (may God be pleased with Him, and with Us), Now Living Within "The Heart" of "The One" Who Will Truly Let Himself "End In God", Now For Your Age, Now For All Life, That Is, Now Living Within "The Heart" of Our Dearest Loving Son, And Your Dearest Loving Brother, Shaikh Muhaiyaddeen (Ral.), In Whom "We Are Well Pleased",
if you like, As Now "The Resonance" of "The Final Truth", and that is for sure. Amen.
Bawa. "This Review" of 'Chapter 01" Is Now Also Available As "Love Letter 028" To Our Dearest Loving Daughter Aziza Muhaiyaddeen (Ral.), Sent On April 9th, 2013, if you like, and that is for sure.
Bawa
"Chapter 01"- Aaron Goes To "Grad School", By Our Dearest Loving Daughter Aziza Muhaiyaddeen (Ral.)
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Bawa. Shaikh Muhaiyaddeen (Ral.) asked me to write about Aaron going to grad school. This would not be happening without the Shaikh. Aaron is a musician in a popular band. Maybe to compensate for his popularity or to justify it he became a personality who wanted to set an example. One thing he did was go into trash cans to eat food to show that we shouldn't waste food. Naturally I who love to worry, was worried about Aaron and his future and his extreme take on life.
Bawa. When Aaron accompanied me to the Fellowship he began sitting with Shaikh Muhaiyaddeen (Ral.). I was happy about that and surprised too. I accepted that God had placed some risq (food) for Aaron that was beyond my ability to understand or orchestrate. The love between them was palatable. I noticed that a physical change would occur in my son when he listened to Shaikh Muhaiyaddeen (Ral.). His cheeks would flush and his eyes would be brighten. Shaikh Muhaiyaddeen (Ral.) called those sessions "breastfeeding the light child".
Bawa. This was before I considered Shaikh Muhaiyaddeen (Ral.) to actually embody his name that Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (Ral.) had given him. I liked him and gave him rides home and looked at his website when I was at work. I noticed that he wrote letters to people on line and shared them openly - there was nothing private about him. I was thrilled when he wrote Aaron and I could read it on his website. When I took him home after meetings (as he had no car at that time), he would keep me in the car for a long time after we reached his home with his talks which seemed to repeat themselves, and always came back to the point of saying "Bawa" before doing, writing or saying anything. But when I saw his effect on Aaron, my heart began to change.
Bawa. Shaikh Muhaiyaddeen (Ral.) decided that Aaron should get his masters degree and doctorate so he could be "safe in the world". Aaron returning to school after eight years was an amazing, powerful and novel idea. Aaron had never been an enthusiastic student. He used his considerable intellect to procrastinate, and keep himself and his friends amused. Shaikh Muhaiyaddeen (Ral.) and Aaron went on an odessy to Temple University to investigate going there, but I suggested that he go to the University of Pennsylvania, as I worked there and it would not cost him much money, so Penn it was. But now he is at Temple for his doctorate, as Shaikh Muhaiyaddeen (Ral.) foresaw and studying education so he can "teach teachers" as Shaikh Muhaiyaddeen (Ral.) instructed him.
Bawa. Meanwhile I was drawn to Shaikh Muhaiyaddeen (Ral.) and began to occupy the seat next to him in the meeting room of the Bawa Muhaiyaddeen Fellowship. He had taken both Aaron and myself under his wing. We sat through Sunday meetings and the special festivities of the mauluds and Ramadan. Shaikh Muhaiyaddeen would not participate in the chatter and socializing of the Fellowship. He would either look at the floor, or be talking about wisdom, or he would be praying, completely oblivious to the drama constantly unfolding.
Bawa. The conversations he did engage in seemed mostly to force people to evaluate what they were holding onto, which did not endear him to those people, though they seemed affectionally resigned to him, and spent a few polite moments listening before going about their business. Others would stay and sometimes there was a little group of us. Shaikh Muhaiyaddeen (Ral.) said he was like a rock in the stream which the water had to flow around, not like us---fibers batted about by the stream's whims. I learned that over the years he had taken many of the Fellowship people under his wing and most of them had moved on. He said the people there had become comfortable with their lives as children of Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (Ral.) and had no wish to become Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (Ral.) as he had.
Bawa. There were some marginalized people at the Fellowship and I will never forget one Ramadan (or was it the Mauluds?, both involve very good food) where he was throwing some kind of food like sweets or popcorn into the mouth of one such young man who was just melting with the attention and love he was receiving. Actually I would count my family among those marginalized people, and it took someone like Shaikh Muhaiyaddeen (Ral.) to reach into our lives and make profound changes; like sending a son to grad school.
"The End"
of "Chapter 01"
Aaron Goes To "Grad School"
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Go To "Main Go-To Menu"
Go To "Review of Chapter 01"
As "Love Letter 028",
To Aziza Muhaiyaddeen (Ral.)
