The Wrappings of Gratitude

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ

In the Name of Allah Most-Compassionate, Most-Merciful

In the last post I mentioned that next we would be exploring further the meaning of the stars and what they allude, particularly in the context of Allah swearing by them. However, it seems to me that before we can actually proceed with that assessment we need to cover another idea first which will better situate our discussion in the context we are seeking to understand. Beginning first with the idea of understanding a particular context, what we find is that the key to learning, something I have mentioned several times before, is contextualisation. To place ideas and learning in context was a methodology of teaching of the prophet Muhammad (s), and this was important because even the greatest ideas, without some context, are far too remote and abstract, and ultimately fall short in their ability to be understood and applied. Hence, the prophet (s) would always present examples and analogies to illustrate the principle at the heart of the teaching much in the same way that Allah presents the Qur’an, not as a series of laws, but as ideas, principles and concepts that transcend the boundaries of space and time, of culture and location. And yet they can all be understood within any given location and context which encourages the Muslim to develop the dual-idea of understanding universal ideas within the context of its application. This approach is one of the keys to effective learning and also teaching because if the principles that reside within the laws are understood they may be applied according to the situation rather than adhered to in a very rigid form. For example there is the story of the man that approach the prophet (s) seeking forgiveness and expiation for having slept with his wife during the daylight hours of Ramadan. Generally the commandment of Allah is that anyone that intentionally breaks their fast without valid reason such as travelling or illness or some other exceptional circumstance must pay expiation. So the prophet (s) commanded the man to fast for two months consecutively, which is the norm, to which the man replied, “Oh Messenger of Allah, I could not even fast one month how can I fast two?” The prophet (s) then instead asked the man to feed the poor, to which the man replied, “there is no one poorer than my people”, the prophet said, “then feed your people”. The point being illustrated here is the flexibility of application of law through the understanding of the principles those laws support, this flexibility in the mercy and understanding of the prophet (s) could not have been possible had there only been a view to the action rather than the circumstances of the action the available means of resolving it according to the person or situation. Hence understanding principles, context and application are absolutely key to properly understanding why, we are human beings, as creations and slaves of Allah, as followers of the Messenger of Allah (s), as the family of Aadam (as), as the followers of the Ibrahim (as) – are where we are – how we got here – and where we are supposed to go.

We can only properly establish where to go and the direction to take once we have established where we are, and in that sense, whilst in one respect Allah has granted us families, cultures, and languages to situate ourselves vis-à-vis other people on earth, in another respect these are relative forms of determining our context. Hence, Allah refers us to the stars and when we do we realise that there is no north, south, east or west, there is no up or down, right or left. There is only Allah. He exists within and without and no boundaries withhold Him and no eye can grasp Him, yet He sees everything. But there is also a purpose to referring to the stars which is the same reason why for thousands of years human beings wanted to tie their finite existence here on this earth to the seemingly infinite existence of the stars. It was a very much innate human desire to want to connect to something permanent outside of the self, which is actually the same reason why human beings desire so powerfully the life of this world. The reason being that Allah has placed this innate desire within all human beings to want to live forever, however, how this manifests depends on the degree to which we are aware of our Creator and able to discipline the desires of the soul, which is in essence the purpose of the Quran and Sunnah. Reminding us of the finiteness of time and space, of matter and energy, all those things that we might expend all of our efforts in the life towards – that one day Allah will destroy it all – that the only things that will remain will be our permanent efforts and good intentions for Allah alone.

However, before we can begin our quest, our journey into the darkness of space, through the illumination of the meaning of the stars we also have to consider something of great import – that not all of the lights of the stars are able to penetrate the lower heavens and reach our eyes. That whilst some are visible others are invisible, and then of those visible they are only visible to some and of those invisible they are only invisible to those that do not seek to see. As Allah says in the Qur’an:

وَإِذَا قَرَأْتَ الْقُرآنَ جَعَلْنَا بَيْنَكَ وَبَيْنَ الَّذِينَ لاَ يُؤْمِنُونَ بِالآخِرَةِ حِجَابًا مَّسْتُورًا

“When thou dost recite the Qur’an, We put, between thee and those who believe not in the Hereafter, a veil invisible. (Qur’an al-Isra 17:45)

One of the meanings of this verse is that Allah literally places a veil, a hijab, between those that seek knowledge and understanding and those that do not, those that seek the higher meanings of existence and those that are content with seeking success in the life of this world. Not only in this verse but in numerous others in the Qur’an, and indeed in the Qur’an in its entirety, we find in essence the same message – of the understanding gained through reflection on the signs Allah has placed in the heavens and the earth. And yet Allah also states that those that reflect which is essentially the meaning behind those that recite the Qur’an, are placed behind another veil by which they are exposed to those meaning not granted to those that do not reflect. And reflection in this context does not simply mean thinking or pondering, but giving up the idea that success in this life, in the material realm, has any bearing on our success in the spiritual realm.

There is another world our there, a world beyond the grasp of our ordinary senses, but a world that can be known and understood through our perception, which is composed of knowledge granted by Allah according to our purity, which is composed of the purity of our desires, and the purity of our being. Those that think it is easy to be granted access to the spiritual realm in terms of understanding will have to refer to this ayah of the Qur’an where Allah has specifically also referred to those that “believe not in the hereafter”. Hence this is a re-affirmation of the first part of the ayah referring to the veil. Another such veil is contained in believing in the hereafter, which applies as much to Muslims as to anyone else in that to believe in the hereafter means to conduct oneself as those ones death was imminent. To believe in the hereafter is to believe that ones life and conduct will be entirely accountable on the day of reckoning. As Imam Ali so wisely said, “Live for your dunya as though you will live for ever, but live for your akhira as though you will die tomorrow”. The point here being that it our journey to the stars to which our Lord has so graciously invited us can only begin with our own firm commitment to leave behind a life of this world, or even think that an atoms worth of good deeds could have any bearing on our success on the final dy before Allah. But what makes the difference on that day is the manner in which we approached our existence, not as one we sought to dictate through our efforts, but one we gave up the control of to Allah to direct our affairs as He wishes. Hence, in return for our commitment to realising this other world we seek Allah begins to open up for us portholes to gain a glimpse through means of inner-sight into this marvelous world. However, this is the key point that we are driving towards, and one that requires much more exploration today, which is that not everyone can be unveiled from the life of this world, and not everyone can be unveiled towards gaining an insight into the spiritual realm. In this context I refer to the movie the Matrix which presented the same idea that some people are entirely veiled from the true nature of existence, happily living their lives oblivious to what their lives mean and ultimately why they are here. One particular line captures that idea:

“Unfortunately, no one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself.”

This idea of having to see it for yourself is taken directly from sacred knowledge in that the Matrix being referred to is in essence the idea perpetuated by Firoun, of a false existence in which he is god, and there is no other. The Shahada entirely reverses this false notion, with its opposite, “there is no god but God”. The Matrix is thus a system of thought based on the illusory idea that this system means something, that outside of it nothing else exists, that all of ones life, meaning and success is contained within it, and can only come from it. But in fact just in the same way the ropes of the magicians of Firoun were illusions so is this system. Sacred knowlege, and knowlegde of the sacred realm informs us of this very idea, that in fact the only system is the Divine Order, to which everything is subservient, an idea beautifully illustrated by Ibrahim (as) through the argument Allah gave to him against the unjust king Nimrod when the king referred to himself as God. Ibrahim (as), replied, “if you consider yourself God by virtue that as a king you have power of life and death over your subjects, if then the sun rises fom the east and sets in the west, can you then make the sun rise in the west and set in the east”? In other words, you may well have been given power over your subjects by Allah, but who created those people, it is only the power of the sun that sustains them, do you then have such power as to divert its course, was the argument Allah gave Ibrahim (as) against both Nimrod and also against the rest of humanity. That in Islam the means do not have any bearing on the ends, that for all our power, that power is only contingent on the existence and power of Allah, and all of this power that we possess through our means is only by way of test, of Allah examining which one of His servants will give up the means and only seek the ends for which the means have been created and thereby gain access into a world found without boundaries.

Insha’Allah in the next post we will examine this idea of how the unseen can become part of our perception through our sincere desire to want to know and see the truth and thereby have a radical impact on our thoughts, ideas, actions, intentions and most importantly our sincerity.

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ

In the Name of Allah Most-Compassionate, Most-Merciful

As you have seen by now that over the past few months we have covered a broad range of subjects including Islamic history, art and architecture, mathematics and geometry, astronomy, love, marriage, law, philosophy, psychology, Islamic Jurisprudence, and the Inner Dimensions of the Self – to name but a few subjects. Within these subjects we have also covered many different themes, ideas and concepts including beauty, symmetry, etiquette, words, light, knowledge and wisdom. One of the reasons for approaching the central theme from this diverse perspective is to demonstrate the connectivity between unity and diversity. Our central thesis has always been the unity of God, and at the heart of every subject examined is God, because without Him every idea, every thought and every word are out of context. I remember a quote a few years ago, one which I referred to in an article I wrote in my early twenties from an engineering perspective which was, “All evidence from biology suggests that intelligence and power arise from connection”. In other words when we examine biology in detail, when we examine the signs God has placed in biology we realise that those species which form complex social systems built upon communication, hierarchy and knowledge are usually successful and intelligent creatures such as bees and ants. Connection in this case also refers to knowledge and memory and cooperation such as in the example of elephants known for their formidable memory, or dolphins that work together to catch their prey, or whales that can travel for thousands of miles and return each year at the same time and place in search for krill.

In each one of these cases what we find are the same principles that Allah has caused us to think about, that of connection, connectivity, working together and unity. Without the ability to see the connections between these diverse subjects it is difficult to form new connections in ones neural pathways, and hence what tends to happen is that people use the same pathways in the brain to form an understanding to different ideas. The resultant is that they are unable to form new perspectives, they become entrenched in a certain way of thinking just as the wheels of a cart become stuck in the tracks of a well-traversed dirt-road. When we examine the Muslim scholars of the past who directly contributed to every single branch of the arts and sciences that the modern world today benefits from, we find one common theme amongst those scholars which was an ability, and more importantly a desire to understand a broad range of subject. And hence it was not at all common for one scholar to be an expert in philosophy and mathematics, or law and astronomy.

“Are we human because we gaze at the stars,

Or do we gaze at the stars because we are human?”

One of the important reasons I mention this is because over time the sorts of issues tend to occur with regards to the development, or lack thereof, of Muslims in terms of their ability to see both diversity and connection in a world resplendent with ideas. People tend to generally limit themselves to one or two areas of understanding which they have a limited understanding of because they do not connect one area of study to another. The inability to do this has a profound effect on the level of ones Emaan, because for the large part, Emaan is composed of connection – that is to say – the ability to deduce truths through reflection and observation in any number of given subjects. In other words Allah has placed knowledge of His existence in every source of learning from the stars and galaxies to mathematics and law. And contained within each one is an invitation to reflect on the existence of Allah. God has also placed His signs in every branch of learning in order to prevent us from being entrenched in one form of thinking, and this is in order to develop in us the understanding of one main idea, that of the Unity of Allah.

There is a distinct dichotomy between Muslims in terms of their ability to understand concepts and ideas, and hence their open-mindedness, which relates to their ability to be tolerant as opposed to being judgemental. What we know from European history is that for one-thousand years during a period known as the dark ages, this time was characterised by intolerance between people and groups. The main reason being that they tended to have a single entrenched idea about God, an idea they were unwilling to change or see from a different perspective. Whilst the rest of Europe languished in the poverty of minds starved of its very life-blood, ideas – at the same time the Muslim cities of Cordoba, Seville, Granada, Toledo, and many other in the Iberian Peninsula were flourishing. One of the keys to their success was the tolerant society they created which entirely coincided with a period in which people were learning a huge diversity of subjects.

Diversity of knowledge relates to diversity of understanding, which combines to engender a sense of connectivity, unity and tolerance – all of which relate to and direct one towards the single most important idea in the universe – an idea that the whole universe is directed towards which is the Unity of God. Insha’Allah in the next post I want to take this idea of diversity and unity further and relate to the importance of reflecting on the meaning of the stars and the profound impact their presence has had on countless previous human civilisations. Just to place the importance of the stars into context, indeed they are so important and significant, that Allah actually swears by them. In other words they are so important that He has referred to them in to the strongest terms in order to impress on us the absolute necessity of reflecting on them, and learning about them, and most importantly how they relate to us. As Allah says:

وَالنَّجْمِ إِذَا هَوَى

مَا ضَلَّ صَاحِبُكُمْ وَمَا غَوَى

“By the Star when it sets”

“Your companion Muhammad is neither in error, nor is he decieved”

(Quran, 53:1-2)

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ

In the Name of Allah Most-Compassionate, Most-Merciful

The heart that wanted to be filled with light;

The heart that its Lord sought to draw near to Him;

Said nothing,

Yet desired everything;

The heart that truly wanted to be close to its Lord;

The heart that wanted to be purified;

The heart that wanted to be intensified;

The heart that wanted to be elevated;

The heart that wanted to be heightened;

The heart that wanted to be filled with light;

To it,

Its Lord said: “Be broken”

“Allah is with those whose hearts are broken for His sake”

(prophet Muhammad)

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ

In the Name of Allah Most-Compassionate, Most-Merciful

The piece of coal that wanted to be a diamond said to the earth: Press me;

The succulent grape that wanted to be wine said to the feet: Crush me;
The rain-cloud that wanted to be thunder and rain said to the other clouds: Collide with me;
The gas-cloud that wanted to be a star said to the forces of space: Compress me;

The mountain that wanted to be a valley said to the elements: Erode me;
The oyster that wanted to be a pearl said to a sand-grain: Aggravate me;

If Allah wills to help a person,

If He wills to elevate a person, and,

If He wills to bring a person closer to Him,

He tests them.

“Allah tests those the most that He loves the most”

(prophet Muhammad)

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ

In the Name of Allah Most-Compassionate, Most-Merciful

Those words, my Master, that with silence you once read,
When what was meant was voiced in what you left unsaid.

And the light gently flowed from those expressive eyes,
The eloquent suggestions in your occasional sighs,

And the ‘in’ and ‘out’ of breath, and between two the pause,
That, childish and insensible, I empty did suppose,

Or in answer to a question when you’d meaningfully smile,
While with a gesture of the hand my inquiry you’d beguile;

And the secrets that you wouldn’t say but wordlessly inferred,
In spaces between the lines and letters of each word -

All these unravel to me now – unlettered still, yet clear,
Their silent shapeless messages that I distinctly hear.

Jalalu’ddin Rumi