It rains on the just and the unjust alike


Both these photos were taken by me at the Nizamuddin Dargah in Delhi. One of the most revered Sufi saints, Nizamuddin Auliya (1238 – 1325) was responsible for the Chishti Sufi Order spreading through India, and was the spiritual master of Amir Khusro (1253–1325), who is regarded as the father of qawwali. We were at the Sufi shrine for a late night Ramadan qawwali celebration; it was June just before the monsoon was due to break, and the weather was stiflingly hot and humid. Cats are cherished by Muslims, and as the celebration commenced we were joined by the cat seen below. Which gladdened us as we had left our own ginger cat in boarding kennels three weeks previously to travel in India. When the ecstatic music started the cat shinned up a pillar of the shrine and sat on a cross-beam listening contentedly. As midnight approached I felt drops of water on my head, and turning to my wife said "At last the monsoon has arrived". I looked up to see thousands of stars and the moon in a cloudless sky, and the ginger cat sitting on a beam directly above me.


Matthew 5:45 (KJV) tells us: 'That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. Also on Facebook and Twitter.

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