50. A Parting Admonition

The material in this blog is now available at amazon.com under the title: Ideas Inspired by the Qur’an.

Go down and tell them what you saw in this clear space --
The blazing blue of sky stretched out beneath GOD’s Face.
Go down: such is the firm resolve of your own heart.
We fear the worst, and so have told you how to start.

If on that dark and sloppy sea of squirming sensuality,
Where bodies rise and gasp and roll and plunge and die, you keep your soul
In unison with this pure tone you heard above
And speak to them of GOD and demonstrate His Love . . .

Then we shall bring you back to what you lost,
And pay you double what your efforts cost.
And it shall be forgotten that your proud heart
Was what had for so long kept us apart.

I have accomplished what I set out to do in the Introduction, namely to help at least one person on the way to GOD. That person is myself. From a mass of restless and unfocused thoughts I have distilled an intellectual structure that constitutes, at least for me, the core of a coherent, albeit incomplete, outlook on everything “beneath GOD’s Face”. I have uncovered, for myself at least, a meaningful, motivating interface with the Qur’an – an interface that not only can generate ‘children’ like it but also serve to clarify the outlines of my ongoing spiritual development.

It seems boastful to say that ‘I’ have done this. The truth of the matter is that GOD has done this for me. All my abilities are from Him, by Him, and in Him. But to declare that GOD has done this could lead to an even greater misunderstanding. Some may construe such wording to mean that I am claiming some special connection to or dispensation from GOD, or that this book is divinely inspired and therefore free of error. No, I only want to say that, whoever the real actor in the performance is, this particular work is done, and has achieved much of what I originally intended by it. And GOD be praised for that result.            

Why are we here? To be “in unison”, by deed, word, thought, and feeling, with some heavenly harmony that we heard long ago – before time, if that can be conceived – and even now are sensible of its vibrations in us. Then why that distance? Ah, but its distance is mere seeming; that harmony is ‘in’ us as nothing else is. Then why the illusion of distance? Because the overcoming of it by Immediate Reality creates such an exquisite intensity of feeling, inspired by yearning, evocative of life, and culminating in joy! It was worth the pain, to have that Infinite Pleasure rush in to fill the void. It was an illusion He allowed us to invent so that He might dispel it – a darkness assumed, that His Light might be so much more enlightening in the end.

The Truth is only a step away, if only we would turn to take it. I have found the taking of that step to be the longest, hardest, and most baffling challenge I have ever faced. The Qur’an demands it of me in terms that are alternately imperious, imploring, implicit, and impossible to fathom. And I struggle even now; it is not yet done with me. I pause here, at the conclusion of this book, but the demands of the Qur’an continue. And at the moment of death, if I am conscious, it will come to me and say, ‘Forget what you have been doing all these years. Why rehearse your useless self-talk in the antechamber of One Who knows you (and Whom you know) better than you know yourself? The only question that concerns you at this instant is, “What am I doing right now?”’

Some may think it reasonable to counter with, ‘What can you possibly do at the moment of death?’ To that my reply is, ‘The greatest deed a human being can undertake at any time in life.’

The hadith goes on to mention other deeds in descending order, but on your deathbed there is nothing better, and virtually nothing else worth mentioning. If you are ‘doing’ faith at death – and if that faith is for GOD alone, not in yourself, your legacy, etcetera – then you are doing very well indeed.

I consider this book, and anything else I may be allowed to write hereafter, little else than getting dressed and going over my lines for that all-important first interview. And I had better do that now, because I do not know what my number is, or when I will be called.

Some may consider focusing on that crucial point in life to be morbid, life-denying, or obsessive. On the contrary, I think this state of ‘high alert’ for death not only provides a clear scale of priorities and a long-term strategy for self-development but also enhances the value, clarity, and beauty of every living moment with the thought that this could be the last, as referred to after Chapter 30:

Then I saw the open gates, where handsome Death smiles and waits,
What the purpose is they serve, drawing up to every nerve,
Every Doom-delaying moment of elation and verve.

In this land, since now I know how the golden blossoms grow,
Why the hand of the breeze and its painful sharpness please,
All my sense-seconds seem fresh and fairer than a dream.

I say “the last”, but a true perspective on death is that it is merely a dark passageway, such as one we have all passed painfully through, to a new birth so brilliant that our petty preoccupations here will be forgotten as shadows of a nearly unreal past – a dream that dissipates a few moments after waking. And all that preparation of faith will suddenly appear to be the most rational program we ever signed up for.

Given its absolute importance, faith in GOD is what I lack the most, and consequently what I have made the centrepiece of my book. All other topics discussed herein are like spokes to its hub. There are many other issues in the Qur’an I could have spoken about – women, slavery, war, banking, and government come to mind. I am fully aware of the controversies regarding all of these. And I know that followers of the Qur’an are asked to ‘follow’ so many other things these days that discussions and decisions about our current set of challenges are indeed relevant and urgent. But lacking a firm, vibrant, and intelligent faith in GOD, all these other topics produce nothing but hand-waving, tongue-wagging, and copious amounts of fire and smoke. Out of a disproportionate fear of losing ground on such matters, the priceless core is insensibly lost. No other gains can compensate.

The reader who seeks technically authoritative decrees about faith (i.e., in terms of fiqh) or an impeccable academic presentation with all its accoutrements (e.g., a compendious bibliography and the standard mode of presentation) will not be pleased with this book, and I accept their necessarily negative remarks. As I indicated in Chapter 38, this book was written with my End in mind, AL-LAH being not only The First critic I have to please but also The Last to be offended if I manage to blurt out what brings me closer to Him. That was my main purpose, and I only share this work with others on the off-chance that a few readers might share that purpose and benefit from my efforts to express it.

I could say so much more, but just as it takes courage to face one’s end, it takes wisdom to recognize that a good ending is one that welcomes its proper time. Such a time is now, and so I salute my patient readers with a fond ‘Goodbye’, which is only a contraction for the lovely English prayer of ‘God (or GOD) be with you’. And remember: if AL-LAH is all you have, you have it all.

Next page