Peace, one and all…
In recent weeks, according to WordPress, the most popular search term for my blog has been ‘hands’. I love hands, both for what they are and also for what they represent: hands can reach out in greeting; hands hold the trusts of other in safety and surety. The open hand gives without thought of reward and the closed hand holds firmly to all its relationships. Hands stretch forth in supplication and hands are cleansed in readiness for prayer:
‘O YOU who have attained to faith! When you are about to pray, wash your face, and your hands and arms up to the elbows, and pass your [wet] hands lightly over your head, and [wash] your feet up to the ankles’ (5:6)
I am my hands. All that I am is a reaching out into life, in the hope of human connection – with myself, with others and with God. I welcome others into my life with a gesture of the hands, and I offer my allegiances through the giving of my hands:
‘Behold, all who pledge their allegiance to thee pledge their allegiance to god: the hand of god is over their hands’ (48:10)
‘Let there be no compulsion in religion: Truth stands out clear from Error: whoever rejects evil and believes in Allah hath grasped the most trustworthy hand-hold, that never breaks. And Allah heareth and knoweth all things’ (2:256)
And praise be to God who maketh it so.
Ma’as salama,
Abdur Rahman
