Dawud Wharnsby
Canadian singer-songwriter, poet, performer, educator and television personality.
“The past we’ve got we must forget. Future hasn’t happened yet. Carry this moment in a song. Insha Allah, it won’t be long.”
“I believe the proverbial ‘search’ doesn’t end until we die”.
“Truth is buried, deep inside of men, sweep away each day.”
“‘Where’s the next show?’, ‘Why don’t you make a Video?’, ‘Put on these beads and clothes and The Bling, Bling!’ Well, if that’s all it’s about than I think that I want out,
"The Light, The Thunder, The Dunes of Sand, The Sun, The Moon, Man and the land. If we work a little, we might see, if we think and reflect on each rock and tree, there’s no measure to all it’s worth ~ sustainable earth."
"I sent an email to my loved one, just the other day, it’s sad communication has evolved this way. We use so many words but have so little to relay, as angels scribble down every letter that we say. All the viral attachments sent and passionate insults we vent, it’s easy to be arrogant behind user passwords we invent. But on the day the scrolls are laid, with every word and deed displayed, when we read our accounts, I know, for one, I’ll be afraid."
“No more starry eyes from behind these dusty spectacles. I’ll wipe them and follow my own shadow for a change.”
“But if we hide ourselves away, afraid to grow and learn, we might wake up in the flames of the ignorance that burns and we’ll never be much more than only casualties of war in a struggle we can’t win if we have no faith to begin. We’ve got to tip the lid and let some sunlight in.”
“Time seems cold, each day we grey away. Believe the lines that we’ve been told, 'Lose our way lose yesterday’, they say, but who are they? Who are they anyway? They didn’t hear us play at eight years old.”
“We’ve digitized the revelations - does our rehearsed recitation go any deeper than our throats? Our calls to prayer they seem to rise up to the skies, conferences and lectures, seminars for you and I. The words that blow away with the nasheed that make us cry, yet why are the drums so silent?”
“The world is not a box, there’s no lid, no doors, no cardboard flaps or locks, and everything in nature from the clouds to the rocks is a piece of the puzzle of the purpose of mankind, it's a piece of the peace that we’ll find.”
“I glance reflections of my face everyplace I go, in my mirror and in shop windows, like the lead in my own show. Do I dare look closely? See each wrinkle, scar and flaw?”
“Standing in the market square, so alive but void of life, We work and we sweat and we struggle through each day. As our efforts scar our hands, this world stains us with demands. It’s hard to see life’s humour in the business games we play. As we gnaw our nails with stress, our fists and hearts pound so carelessly. With every effort forward, how much more can we digress?”
“What of this God whom we command, to bless our colourded flag and land, so busy drawing lines in sand that we don’t think and understand.”
“There was a house made out of sticks, there was a city, made out of bricks, I was amazed at what I saw, all I could say was Subhanallah!”
“All of us, ride on the same bus, shop at the same malls and stores. All of us, debate and discuss, decide and divide what is mine and what’s yours.”
“You could call me antisocial, I’ve called myself that sometimes too, but I just prefer to be alone, and that’s nothing against you.”
“Start small, put down the book you’re reading and sit with your grandmother to learn her language and find out about her life’s struggles and her history, before she passes on and your history is lost; put down the TV remote control and stop letting pop culture define who you are and go for a walk through your hometown’s historical landmarks. Find your identity by actually looking for the things in life that appeal to you or stir emotion in you. If you just let your government, your local imam, even your local pop singer or nasheed singer, define what you should be, you will never be more than that. Look in the mirror and ask yourself, ‘Who do I WANT to be?’ Start there.”
“Every picture you give me I save, and every colour you use is so true to you. Every minute we spend I engrave, and every memory rethought is so new. There is trust that we must recognize. There is so much that we must learn to see and be, if we could only open our minds. Just grow with God and please be patient with me, and I will give you my life.”
“You’ve built me a cabin but I want more, and more and more, now build me an office tower with an automatic door. Build me a fence that I can wrap around my state. If anyone tries to break through, I pity his fate.”