INTRUSIONS OF ETERNITY
As we ponder here the numerous ways by which the Absolute can express Himself to us in terms necessarily relative, we gradually tilt towards a faulty understanding of a Being Who lives, loves, acts, and knows in ways that we can almost call familiar. We need to remind ourselves, over and over again, that however much the Infinite condescends to use the terms of our finite understandings, He is ultimately incomprehensible to us, and closer to the wordless glowing in our hearts than the prolix products of our heads. One of the names of AL-LAH that best conveys this ineffable sense of perfection in silence is Peace or Serenity.
From ‘A’ishah (may AL-LAH be pleased with her) [who said] that the Messenger of AL-LAH (may God bless him and give him peace) would say, when [completing his worship by] pronouncing peace, “O GOD, You are Serenity; from You Serenity exists. How blessed are You, the Owner of Sublimity and Honour!” (Sunanun-Nasa’i, Hadith 1338)
عَنْ عَائِشَةَ، – رضى الله عنها أَنَّ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم كَانَ إِذَا سَلَّمَ قَالَ اللَّهُمَّ أَنْتَ السَّلاَمُ وَمِنْكَ السَّلاَمُ تَبَارَكْتَ يَا ذَا الْجَلاَلِ وَالإِكْرَامِ
Although Paradise is described in terms that reflect higher planes of life, love, power, and knowledge, it is most often designated as the ‘Place of Peace’ – Darus-salam (Jerusalem being its earth-bound cognate). This could be because, amid all the various manifestations of Divinity in this world, an enlightened tranquillity is the form that most convincingly signals the presence of GOD in both the Everafter and this world. All the various strands of life, love, power, and truth hinted at earlier come together in the demeanour and virtues of those rare persons who radiate the reality of immortal being. In the presence of these select spirits, we cannot help but feel reverence and awe, as if we were on the verge of encountering GOD Himself.
We wonder how GOD can be unchanging and yet live, unmoved and yet act, beyond all need and yet love, or omniscient and yet responsive to every detail of our lives. The Peace ‘that passeth understanding’ shows us – occasionally in our own hearts, through dreams or intense spiritual epiphanies – how that might be. When we awake or return to ordinary consciousness we half-remember how it appeared then, inexplicable but utterly convincing. We realize how our experience of time dilutes or interferes with this altered consciousness, which is why so many passages of the Qur’an link higher forms of spiritual awakening, including death and resurrection, to the abbreviation or erasure of time:
The night of the Decree is better than a thousand months. / The angels and the Spirit are descending in it by permission of their Lord with each command. / Peace! Until the break of dawn. (Q97:3-5)
لَيْلَةُ
الْقَدْرِ خَيْرٌ مِنْ أَلْفِ شَهْرٍ
تَنَزَّلُ الْمَلاَئِكَةُ وَالرُّوحُ فِيهَا بِإِذْنِ رَبِّهِمْ مِنْ
كُلِّ أَمْرٍ
سَلاَمٌ هِيَ حَتَّى مَطْلَعِ الْفَجْرِ
These moments of bliss in our lives are probably the nearest we will ever come to ‘meeting’ the Transcendent before our ultimate reunion with AL-LAH. Not all who taste such ecstasy connect it to a monotheistic faith; many prefer less metaphysical terms such as nirvana or satori, or simply remain aware of how they feel at the time without delving into its provenance or greater meaning. Even Peace can seem overemphasized as a mode of Divine Presence when we are attuned to other aspects that we find more meaningful or of greater concern.
My purpose in this introductory digression is not to establish a hierarchy of values or to declare one or another version more enlivening, powerful, comforting, or true. As limited beings, we will never have an adequate grasp of the Omnipresent One. Freedom from all of our conceptions and descriptions is yet another way of connoting GOD.
But for many who read this, connoting will never be enough. He must be denoted (and thus demoted). The big question in their minds, the focus of all their doubts, is: What is God? Does He exist? Or is He merely a figment of our over-active, anthropomorphic imagination?
The GOD You Already Know 