Muslim Salad

Before Islam I was lost
And after Islam I was lost
Between this and that group
Was I tossed

A bookstore Shaykh
Not even worth a dollar
With do-it-yourself Islam
Who needs a scholar?

Tossed so much
Might as well been a salad
I was quoting Hadeeth
But my wudu was invalid

If I can’t purify my outer
Then what about my inner?
Piles of books
But still a big sinner

What I know, doesn’t show
And now I know better
That’s what happens without the spirit
And only the letter

So attach myself I must
To scholars with unbroken chains
For this is the means
By which pure knowledge remains

... Aaron Haroon Sellars