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Whoever knows Allah curbs one's tongue from speaking about Allah, since this kind of
knowledge cannot be contained in speech. - Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him)
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God
Our concepts of God get in the way of our relationship with
God. Our opinions about God prevent us from coming to
know Divinity.
Human beings have been generating thoughts concerning the
nature of God for thousands of years. Many of us suppose
our understanding of Divinity is more advanced and
sophisticated today than was the case with so-called primitive
peoples.
After all, philosophers have explored all manner of questions
concerning the existence and nature of God. Theologians
have reflected on these matters. Scientists have commented
on these issues.
Surely, given that so much time, effort and consideration has
been directed toward developing the idea of God, this idea
ought to be more refined now than ever before. Surely, in the
light of all the developments in logic, rational methodology,
critical thinking, radical theologies, hermeneutics,
deconstruction and post-modern perspectives, we should
have, in this day and age, a more superior idea of God than
existed in ancient times.
According to the Sufi masters, one of the mistakes
consistently made by many people, both ancient and modern,
is to assume God is accessible through rational thought.
People who make this assumption really have no knowledge
of what the parameters and limitations of rationality are, nor
do they have any knowledge of God. They guess and
speculate about both, but they have no knowledge or
understanding of either one.
The practitioners of the Sufi path indicate one can no more
stuff Divinity into the container of rationality, than one can
pour the ocean into a thimble. Moreover, this comparison
actually flatters rationality rather excessively.
The mesh of rationality is not sufficiently fine to grasp the
subtlety of Divinity. The capacity of rationality to penetrate
into issues is not even sufficiently deep to penetrate into the
origins of reason, let alone encompass the One Who has
made reason possible.
The light of reason only can illuminate that which the
qualities of its light can render visible. It is a matter of
capacity, both of reason as well as that which is to be made
visible. The capacity of reason cannot contain the capacity of
Divinity.
Whatever we know of God has come from God and not from
reason. The Prophets, saints and spiritual guides did not find
their way to God by reasoning their way to Divinity.
The Sufi masters indicate revelations, together with mystical
unveilings, states, visions and stations, always have been the
primary modalities through which God has disclosed
something of the nature of Divinity. Reason may come into
play after the fact of such experiences, but reason is not the
channel through which these experiences enter into human
awareness in the first place.
Of course, we may use reason to assign significance, value,
meaning, and purpose to mystical experience, once the latter
has occurred. However, here, too, the Sufi masters maintain
God is the best One to inform us of the character of those
experiences.
The practitioners of the Sufi path indicate we need to learn
how to listen with our hearts to that which is being
communicated to us by God through our spirits. When the
mind is informed by the prepared and purified heart,
according to the capacity of the mind to grasp such
understanding, then the mind will know as much as it is ever
going to know with respect to Divinity.
The proper etiquette of the mind, with respect to engaging
those aspects of Divinity which are accessible to reason, is to
be receptive to the counsel of a sincere heart (whether one's
own or that of a spiritual guide). When the mind becomes
assertive and aggressive in its relationship with Divinity,
Divinity, out of embarrassment for the faux pas of rationality,
lowers veils of indiscretion over the gaze of reason.
Sufi masters point out our relationship with God is adversely
affected by our rational projections onto mystical experience.
This is where much error and distortion is introduced.
People begin to confuse their ideas of God with the reality of
God. People assume the imaginative machinations of their
minds are messages being communicated to the heart by God.
This is extremely dangerous territory. Many people have
become hopelessly lost in such regions. They waste their lives
journeying toward the mirage of their own ignorance,
eventually dying of spiritual thirst in the desert of the mind.
Without the help of an experienced spiritual guide, there is no
possibility of escaping from the foregoing predicament. The
map, compass and sextant of reason are useless here unless
complemented and corrected by one who knows the secrets
of navigation through these regions.
The Sufi masters indicate we know God through our
relationships with God. The Names and Attributes of God all
give expression to different modalities of relationship with
Divinity.
For example, Divine qualities of: love, compassion, kindness,
forgiveness, mercy, creation, majesty, beauty, and so on, are
disclosed to us through our relationship with God through
these qualities. Just because our senses, mind, heart, and
spirit engage these relationships through different modalities
of understanding does not alter the fact that each modal
engagement of a given quality of God constitutes a
relationship with Divinity of one sort or another.
According to the practitioners of the Sufi path, the ways in
which God chooses to relate to us do not permit reason to
deduce anything about the nature of Divinity which has made
such relations possible. God, for instance, has made the
relationship of love possible between God and human beings.
We can experience this relationship through various
modalities of understanding and on different levels and with
different degrees of intensity, richness, etc.. However,
nothing in this experience permits any valid or defensible
inferences about what else God is beyond this: God is One
Who makes such relationships possible.
The same holds true for all of other relational engagements
of Divinity. Our knowledge of God is restricted to the
relationships which God discloses to us through our
experience.
Moreover, our knowledge of these relationships is limited by
the character of our capacity to grasp different dimensions of
these relationships. Just as reason has its limits of capacity to
grasp reality, so, too, according to the Sufi masters, do our
spiritual capacities stop far short of the ability to grasp the
infinite fullness of the reality of Divine Essence.
Nonetheless, of all the instruments of knowledge which God
has made available to human beings for the purpose of
relating to Divinity, there is one which is best suited to
bearing loving witness as well as knowing servitude to Divine
beauty and majesty. This capacity resides, so to speak, as a
mystery in our spiritual essence.
This capacity may not be able to circumscribe or exhaust the
reality of God. However, it exceeds the capacity of reason to
do so by billions of spiritual light years.
The Sufi masters indicate that, God willing, we can deepen
our relationship with God and increase our knowledge of the
significance and character of this Divine relationship. To
accomplish this, there are certain dimensions of our being
which must be prevented from trying to exceed the mandate
of their respective capacities. Among other things, this means
we should set aside our reasoning and opinions concerning
God.
Part of wisdom is knowing what range of capacities we have
available to us for relating to God. Yet, wisdom also involves
knowing what capacities are appropriate to use during
different relational engagements with Divinity in order to
derive the most benefit from those engagements.
Reason plays no part in either kind of wisdom. In fact, our
reasoning and opinions concerning God are antagonistic to
the emergence of such wisdom.
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