Monday, August 19, 2013

NO FAITH WITHOUT WONDER


The Created and the Uncreated
The perfume cannot comprehend the perfumer,
The arrow cannot comprehend the archer, 
The created cannot comprehend the uncreated,

Yet the scent of the perfume excites the maiden, you can smell it!
And the arrow is flying on its trajectory towards the deer, you can see it!
Thus all of God's creatures sense their own created beings,

But what lies beyond our physical senses...?

Oh Wonder! You are a wondrous thing!
........................

Physical Senses. If you stop wondering, you stop living. Oh, you can live physically, since all of our senses are geared towards the purpose of continuing our own life and existence - Hungry? Eat. Thirsty? Drink. Horny? Procreate. 

Inner Senses. But the problem with physical senses is that  they act at a very basic animal instinct. And unless we are prepared to live as animals, we must address the substrata of our conscious existence, that is our emotions and thoughts that is beyond our base desires. And once we explore our inner consciousness, we are in a different world altogether, a world of flux often pulled by opposing forces of love and hate, generosity and greed, attachment and detachment, companionship and loneliness, humility and hubris. 

Such things we 'sense' within ourselves according to our mind and our heart. And it is in this horizon of intangible feelings, that we find the need for assurance, hope, redemption, knowledge and contentment. This is the hidden form of this world, and the door of exploration that God has laid in the well of our conscience. 


The Outer World and the Inner World. For however wondrous is a storm at sea. However mysterious and beguiling is a night sky full of stars, however maddening is the beauty of a human child, it is our inner understanding, our inner self that is reacting to all these physical expressions of this world and giving meaning to them.

And so religious faith is all about that really. It is our natural inclination towards the inner uncreated reality that is God, helping us towards finding the true meaning of our deeds, our emotions and ultimately, this world and our purpose in life. This is the basic tenets of all religion whatever faith you may be dressed in.

The Inner Uncreated Reality is More Real Than Our Physical Created Reality,
Giving understanding and meaning to it all.

And though meanings find their expression through our actions (and omissions), it is essentially our inner reflections through which we may find our happiness  and success in this life and in the next, towards that One uncreated Being, the incomparable Absoluteness, that is God the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate, the Lord of Mercy and the Giver of Mercy...

All about You
When I contemplate life, 
When I listen to you,
When I consider myself,
When I read the books of the wise,
When I look at the world,
The birds flying in the sky,
When I listen to the world,
The dogs barking in the night,
When I dip my feet in a cool forest stream,
When I see a candle light 
And the near wandering moth,
In truth,
It is God that 
I wonder of.  
....................................


So you see. If you have stopped wondering, where is your faith? For faith is not about the certainty by which you judge yourself or other people. It is faith in the certainty that God Almighty does not discriminate between one person to another save by our good deeds, good thoughts and helpfulness to others. 

God. The True Wonder of all, beyond wonder, beyond all!

Don't you agree, sunshine? Even if I do tend to ramble on? I wonder...

He he he.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam
Love will show the Way

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