In Continuous Congress with the Lord, on a Journey of Self-realization

A Man in Continuous Congress with His Lord

"I am in a continuous converse with my Lord," the man said...

"If ever a fine wisp of self regard or pretension of selflessness

Breezes through the acre of my thoughts,

Inevitable as the rising tide, God replies with an opportunity

For me to look foolish and selfish, eating my own words.

If ever a gossamer thread of selfishness or vindictiveness

Is weaved in the cloth of my thoughts,

Inevitably as the rising Sun, God replies with an opportunity

To make good, one selfless act to undo a web

Of selfishness and self-regard.

"In such circumstances," the man continued,

"Is there anything real as victory or defeat?

When God is with you, good or bad;

Whether you are doing charity or on some wicked errand,

Being carried by your reluctant feet?"

…………………………………………..

Some sufis go crazy-love talking and writing about ‘the journey’, about the mystical travel from one spiritual station to another, until finally they are meant to find themselves in the Divine Presence of God. I think I am guilty of this crazy-love.

But I suspect that ‘the journey’ is in essence a journey of self-realization. A realization that wherever we are, and however messed up we can be (at let us not place any artificial limit on the ability of men to thoroughly mess up their lives), God is always with us. For such is the Love of our Lord that He will not stay away from us. Shadowing our every move, more attentive and concerned for our fate than the most paranoid clucking mother hen. He is counting our every breath. He is rejoicing in our happiness and He is mourning our sadness. 

As God is always with us, I think it makes sense that we and God are constantly in conversation. And as the poem above suggests, it is a conversation of feelings and karmic events that often goes unnoticed.

Whether we are a saint or a sinner, each reply that God gives us towards our pretensions of good or evil is subtly designed to give us the best opportunity to move one step closer towards realizing the Divine Presence that is already within us. Not a moment in our daily lives that God is not saying to us constantly, “Come to Me, Come to Me, Come to Me…”

Oh...and thank you, sunshine, for coming to me today.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way