Quest for sustenance

this is a phrase i used once in a song; "the quest for sustenance, a sea bird's cry", it escapes me at this moment which song, does not matter, the stain of potato chips are on my fingertips already, i just brushed a little salt off of my t-shirt, bright sun shining as they fall through air to ground, halfway across the street, into the alley alongside dumpsters smelling ripe as late afternoon temperature climbs, a car behind me speeds up when i veer off toward the building entrance, back to my desk, this moment is waiting, discussion of spam, earlier a twix bar, what does $1.19 buy these days, one twix bar, one small bag of potato chips, and that little corner store survives another day in this economy, a little reading today about the $250 million it will cost to build detention centers for prisoners of this war that we started in iraq, how they have rioted in volumes of 1,000 to 10,000 at a time, this anger they feel, the small rocks that blind the guards when thrown at more than 100 mph with a makeshift slingshot, reading also glenn beck's column that today scorns our oil addiction while recommending drilling in the anwr, who very recently wrote on the benefits of corporate welfare, probably for oil companies right glenn?, the same companies that are racking up record-breaking profits over and over again, who is it that owns mr beck, not too hard to figure that out, and today the sun shines and the first 800,000 of our economic stimulus checks go out, so all will be wonderful now.

" The quest for sustenance is regarded as “seeking the bounty of Allah”, and is thus hued with a profoundly religious character. The Prophet (Pbuh) has said: “The quest for halal earning is a duty after a duty” which implies that seeking halal sustenance is a religious obligation second in importance to religious observance like prayer, fasting etc. Economic activity in the life of a Muslim is therefore regulated by divine principles, principles that are premised on commercial morality. Commercial morality is intrinsically bound to religion and is as important to faith, as wudhu is to salat. The Qur’an describes upright merchants in the following words: “Men whom neither business nor sale can divert from the remembrance of Allah, nor from regularity in salat or from giving zakat”. True believers are not recluses or mystics, they are men of action distinguished by their moral fibre. They steer clear from unbecoming business ethics or ill-gotten gain. " (Islamic Voice: Rabi-ul-Akhir 1422HJuly 2001Volume 15-07 No:175)