Undoing Angst
When we turn to GOD, it is His Light that attracts us. And when we turn away from Him, other forces, namely the false lights of pride, lust, and other gods we deem to be greater than GOD, exert their power.* But we cannot perform anything, even closing our hearts to Him, without His closure.
* Everything happens according to GOD’s Effective Will, or Command of power. If it accords with His Ethical Will, or Command of obligation, then it counts as His Guidance. But if it violates or veers away from His Ethical Will, then it is termed His Misguidance. He is still in control, but His Approval is missing from those events.
Indeed, the repugnance one feels at the thought of GOD having power over one’s fate is the real-time experience of being repelled, or in other words misguided, by AL-LAH. The moment we revert to acceptance and consent, however, we are free of the existential angst that constantly puts us on the spot (by putting the spotlight on us), and the illusion of unfairness vanishes like a knotty koan unravelled at last. Disarming ourselves, we are, by a simple yet terribly difficult agreement to ‘stand down’, suddenly the “friends of GOD”.
Verily the friends of GOD are free of fear nor do they grieve – / Those who did believe and practised vigilance. / They deserve good tidings in this worldly life and in the Everafter. Nothing alters what AL-LAH has spoken. That is the tremendous victory. (Q10:62-64)
أَلاَ إِنَّ أَوْلِيَاءَ اللَّهِ لاَ خَوْفٌ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلاَ هُمْ يَحْزَنُونَ
الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَكَانُوا يَتَّقُونَ
لَهُمُ الْبُشْرَى فِي الْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا وَفِي الآخِرَةِ لاَ تَبْدِيلَ لِكَلِمَاتِ اللَّهِ ذَلِكَ هُوَ الْفَوْزُ الْعَظِيمُ
On the fringes of the Ineffable, talk of GOD must resort to figures of speech such as rope and knots, or light and shadows. If GOD is All, why not just do away with the knots and shadows, and speak only of One Rope, One Light?
If Light were to banish all darkness, then nothing that could cast a shadow would be permitted to exist, including ourselves, and nothing would be left to say, “This is Light.” Meaning comes from the contrast of this and that, from diversity. To talk about Light, we must have darkness in the background of our minds. In any discussion of Good, we cannot avoid implying the existence of evil. And thus these concepts, by the sorcery of language and our need to make clear distinctions, generate a chronic and inevitable dualism. Necessary illusions intrude upon our thoughts and offer themselves as an alternate reality, one in which light and darkness are equivalent marks on a graph, good and evil contend as equal forces in our lives, and God is spoken of as a person, however supreme, who bears comparison to whatever is set up against Him, be it the world, the devil, free will, or other gods. So commonplace have these views become that we no longer sense the fallacy underlying them.
Say, “Are the blind and sighted similar, or are the darkness and the light the same?” Or have they made for GOD associates who could create equivalents to His creation so that they appear alike to them? Say, “GOD is the Creator of all things; He is the One, the Conqueror.” (Q13:16)
قُلْ هَلْ يَسْتَوِي الأَعْمَى وَالْبَصِيرُ أَمْ هَلْ تَسْتَوِي الظُّلُمَاتُ وَالنُّورُ أَمْ جَعَلُوا لِلَّهِ شُرَكَاءَ خَلَقُوا كَخَلْقِهِ فَتَشَابَهَ الْخَلْقُ عَلَيْهِمْ قُلْ اللَّهُ خَالِقُ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ وَهُوَ الْوَاحِدُ الْقَهَّارُ
That is GOD, your Lord, the Truth. What is there after Truth but error? (Q10:32)
فَذَلِكُمْ اللَّهُ رَبُّكُمْ الْحَقُّ فَمَاذَا بَعْدَ الْحَقِّ إِلاَّ الضَّلاَلُ
The latter quotation is not the only verse that identifies AL-LAH with Truth and leaves a question mark hanging over everything else. Of course, other ‘things’ are called ‘the Truth’ as well, such as the Qur’an itself, the Message brought by all the prophets, true statements in general, and how the heavens and earth were created. But none of these are true except as acts or manifestations of GOD. To think of them as independently true would be to attribute a partner in truthfulness with Him.
At the heart of our problem is a view of reality that orthodox theology has always been reluctant to confront. Early Muslims had the good sense to keep the obvious implications of equating GOD with all reality under cover, as it were. But when Mansur Al-Hallaj (c. 858 – 922) (244 – 309 of the Islamic calendar) declared “I am the Truth”, he exposed the insoluble dilemma of expressing Absolute Truth in an ambiguous world. Though they are, ultimately, illusions, darkness and evil have their ‘place’, and we cannot dispense with them by simply claiming to be God. Language, law, ethics, and a functioning society must make distinctions and continue to operate in an unclear, imperfect, and ultimately illusory world. And so Al-Hallaj was executed as a heretic. He had chosen the wrong context in which to express a truth that was Absolute in his heart, where he was “nought”, but detrimental in a public forum. He was not content to let GOD continue “softly working on” his knot.
The Qur’an was never intended for use solely by monists, mystics, monks, dervishes, and intellectuals. There are many passages that have an unmistakably monist tendency, but none of us can manage our lives without practical concessions to our dualist limitations. Most of us are not equipped to handle the abstractions that underpin the philosophy of perennialism or explore our capacity for a mystical union with the Divine. We all still depend on the rudiments of just getting on with things – eating, sleeping, studying, marrying, raising children, trading, making decisions, and generally dealing in the common coin of good and bad, right and wrong, and pain and pleasure. For this reason, the Qur’an refers to itself as al-Furqan, “the Criterion”(Q25:1), that which distinguishes between true and false. AL-LAH calls our attention to His signs in pairs – not only day, but also night, not only heaven but also earth – as if to tell us that we have to recognize and contend with partial truths before we face the Truth, the Whole Truth, and nothing but the Truth hereafter.
The GOD You Already Know 