Peace, one and all…
Here are some musings inspired, in part, by my online retreat…
Each new breath brings forth a new moment from God. Each new breath brings forth a new opportunity for communion with that moment, and with the One Who wrought it. Life is thus a series of moments, an always unfolding story of relationship and interaction. To make the most of this ongoing flow, I must be patient. I must wait at the Beloved’s bright door.
Patience is thus the acceptance and integration of life’s ever-breaking waves. These lines of Hafez speak powerfully to me here:
‘If your patience is like that of Noah
in the sadness of the storm,
affliction will leave you and the hopes
of a thousand years will be fulfilled’
Unheplful deeds separate us from the seas of life, as though we turned from the ocean to face a dry and barren land. To sin, therefore, is to see oneself as separated, as divorced, from the whole. To sin is to ignore the revelation of each new moment, to deny this flow as it manifests itself in ourselves and in others.
Repentance is the deep, inward acceptance of all our unhelpful interruptions. Repentance is therefore re-connection, where that which is time-bound is joined once more to that which is time-less. To repent is to realise that our actions have eternal significance; that the things we do here, in this small world, reverberate throughout the cosmos. Mevlana (God sanctify his noble soul) says it this way:
‘The undisciplined man doesn’t wrong himself alone -
he sets fire to the whole world’
(Masnavi I.79)
Life is not a series of random, discrete pieces but an integrated, united whole. Repentance is thus the sound of the drop falling back into the ocean once more. And God says in His glorious Book:
‘We have made every living thing out of water’ (21:30)
To truly live I must realise that I am a part of that Ocean; indeed, I am sustained and nourished by it in each living moment, as Mevlana says so beautifully here:
‘Though your life has almost passed,
this present moment is its root:
if it lacks moisture, water it with repentance.
Give the Living Water to the root of your life,
so that the tree of your life may flourish.
By this Water past mistakes are redeemed.
By this Water last year’s poison is made sweet’
(Rumi, Masnavi V.2222-2224)
May Allah al-Tawwab turn me back to Him once more, and may Hu bless all who pass by.
And my last prayer is in praise of God, Sustainer of All Being.
Ma’as salama,
Abdur Rahman
