Tranquillity: A man uses his lunch break to offer prayer in Palestine. When one realises that everything is in God's Hand, he will taste the sweetness of faith. Picture: Reuters
Friday, May 9, 2008
THE Great scholar Ibn Ata' Allah said in his Aphorisms, "Even the foremost energies cannot pierce the walls of foreordained destinies."
This issue is related to a doctrinal reality which we must all absorb in our very beings: all causes are subservient to God Most High's "foreordained destiny" (known as qada' and qadar), and it is not God Most High's foreordained destiny that is subservient to causes. This we must know.
Causes such as human endeavours to work, seek sustenance and so forth — such causes are troops among God Most High's other troops which all serve God Most High's foreordainment.
These causes with which you interact, lead you to whatever God Almighty has foreordained for you.
Physicians, their remedies, their prescriptions, and all their means lead you, in the end, to whatever God Most High has foreordained "for" you or "against" you. All the means with which you interact, those you use and seek after in order to obtain education or degrees, marry, start a family in the way you envisage, and whatever goals other than those — the Creator has filled the earth with causes! — you must know that these causes are like marshalled troops which revolve around a single axis: execution of God Almighty's foreordainment.
Have the highest energy you like. Exert the greatest skills in marshalling ways and means to your advantage. As skillful as you may get in gathering together causes according to your wishes, that energy of yours, which has mustered all causes for your sake, can never overcome God Most High's foreordained destinies.
Yes, it is as if these foreordained destinies were a kind of fortified wall — like the fortified wall around the city which everyone knows — while the causes with which we interact are like arrows we shoot at that high wall. Can the arrows of causes, whatever they may be, ever pierce the bastions of foreordained destinies and go beyond them? Never in any way whatsoever. That is the meaning of Ibn 'Ata' Allah's words, "The foremost energies cannot pierce the walls of foreordained destinies".
Each and everyone of us must know this doctrine. What is the evidence for it? The Elect One — Prophet Muhammad, may God Most High bless and greet him! — has taught us a sacred phrase which he ordered us to repeat always. What is that phrase? It is la hawla wa-la quwwata illa billah — "There is no change nor power except by God Most High".
Reflect upon it. It means exactly what Ibn 'Ata' Allah is saying. There is no change for a human being — causes, means, the universe and all that is in it — there is no change for all of that, nor power, except if that power comes from God. The Prophet also said, "Everything is by Divine foreordainment (qadar), including helplessness and intelligence".
Among the names of God Almighty is Al-Qayyum — "the Sustainer of All". "Allah! There is no God other than He, the All-Living, the Sustainer of All" (Surah al-Baqarah 2:255 and Surah Ali 'Imran 3:2).
That is: the Sustainer of the universes, Who controls them as He wishes and organises them as He likes. Nothing at all moves except by His Sustainment (qayyumiyya). Is there any efficacy left for causes after this?
Our Almighty Lord says, "And of His signs is this: The heavens and the earth stand fast by His command" (Ar-Rum 30:35). It means that what you can behold of the movement of the celestial spheres — those we see and those we do not, the ordering of the earth, all that is between the heaven and the earth, and all that lies within this universe, seen and unseen.
It means that, behind all causes and effects (asbab wa-musabbabat), it is God Himself Who threaded together these causes and effects and joined them.
Some may say, "If this is the case, then why act at all?" The answer is: right conduct with God. God Almighty has made this lower-worldly existence stand on certain customs (sunan). He has tied together these things and those. Whatever comes first, appears to us to be a cause; whatever comes last, appears to us to be an effect.
God Most High has made the universe stand on that system. That is: God's way is that He satiates you when you take food. His way is that He quenches your thirst when you drink. His way is that He provides you with sustenance when you knock at the door of sustenance.
His way is that He cures you when you rush to the doctor and ask him for the remedy that will benefit you. That is the way of God Most High. He ties things together, but without there being actual efficacy for what we call a cause. It is proper conduct (adab) on our part with God Most High to respect His system in the universe.
When a human being becomes immersed in this doctrine — his heart, not just his tongue — he shall be far away from suffering, far from emotional and nervous upheavals; he shall no longer be affected.
Look at him who possesses true doctrine and true belief in God Most High, who has fastened his heart to God Most High, and before whose eyes and insight all causes have melted away so that he no longer see anything other than the Causator. He shall sleep in all tranquillity.
He shall say: "Leave me alone, you and your talk! The physicians, their medicine, ailments and their remedies are all servants bound to obey God Most High's foreordained destiny, and it is not God Most High's foreordained destiny that is subservient to the knowledge of physicians and their remedies and all the rest." His mind is at peace.
Let us plant this certitude firmly in the core of our beings. It brings immense benefits to us. None has tasted the sweetness of belief unless he has reached that level of perception.
* Translated by Gabriel Haddad
The Brunei Times
This issue is related to a doctrinal reality which we must all absorb in our very beings: all causes are subservient to God Most High's "foreordained destiny" (known as qada' and qadar), and it is not God Most High's foreordained destiny that is subservient to causes. This we must know.
Causes such as human endeavours to work, seek sustenance and so forth — such causes are troops among God Most High's other troops which all serve God Most High's foreordainment.
These causes with which you interact, lead you to whatever God Almighty has foreordained for you.
Physicians, their remedies, their prescriptions, and all their means lead you, in the end, to whatever God Most High has foreordained "for" you or "against" you. All the means with which you interact, those you use and seek after in order to obtain education or degrees, marry, start a family in the way you envisage, and whatever goals other than those — the Creator has filled the earth with causes! — you must know that these causes are like marshalled troops which revolve around a single axis: execution of God Almighty's foreordainment.
Have the highest energy you like. Exert the greatest skills in marshalling ways and means to your advantage. As skillful as you may get in gathering together causes according to your wishes, that energy of yours, which has mustered all causes for your sake, can never overcome God Most High's foreordained destinies.
Yes, it is as if these foreordained destinies were a kind of fortified wall — like the fortified wall around the city which everyone knows — while the causes with which we interact are like arrows we shoot at that high wall. Can the arrows of causes, whatever they may be, ever pierce the bastions of foreordained destinies and go beyond them? Never in any way whatsoever. That is the meaning of Ibn 'Ata' Allah's words, "The foremost energies cannot pierce the walls of foreordained destinies".
Each and everyone of us must know this doctrine. What is the evidence for it? The Elect One — Prophet Muhammad, may God Most High bless and greet him! — has taught us a sacred phrase which he ordered us to repeat always. What is that phrase? It is la hawla wa-la quwwata illa billah — "There is no change nor power except by God Most High".
Reflect upon it. It means exactly what Ibn 'Ata' Allah is saying. There is no change for a human being — causes, means, the universe and all that is in it — there is no change for all of that, nor power, except if that power comes from God. The Prophet also said, "Everything is by Divine foreordainment (qadar), including helplessness and intelligence".
Among the names of God Almighty is Al-Qayyum — "the Sustainer of All". "Allah! There is no God other than He, the All-Living, the Sustainer of All" (Surah al-Baqarah 2:255 and Surah Ali 'Imran 3:2).
That is: the Sustainer of the universes, Who controls them as He wishes and organises them as He likes. Nothing at all moves except by His Sustainment (qayyumiyya). Is there any efficacy left for causes after this?
Our Almighty Lord says, "And of His signs is this: The heavens and the earth stand fast by His command" (Ar-Rum 30:35). It means that what you can behold of the movement of the celestial spheres — those we see and those we do not, the ordering of the earth, all that is between the heaven and the earth, and all that lies within this universe, seen and unseen.
It means that, behind all causes and effects (asbab wa-musabbabat), it is God Himself Who threaded together these causes and effects and joined them.
Some may say, "If this is the case, then why act at all?" The answer is: right conduct with God. God Almighty has made this lower-worldly existence stand on certain customs (sunan). He has tied together these things and those. Whatever comes first, appears to us to be a cause; whatever comes last, appears to us to be an effect.
God Most High has made the universe stand on that system. That is: God's way is that He satiates you when you take food. His way is that He quenches your thirst when you drink. His way is that He provides you with sustenance when you knock at the door of sustenance.
His way is that He cures you when you rush to the doctor and ask him for the remedy that will benefit you. That is the way of God Most High. He ties things together, but without there being actual efficacy for what we call a cause. It is proper conduct (adab) on our part with God Most High to respect His system in the universe.
When a human being becomes immersed in this doctrine — his heart, not just his tongue — he shall be far away from suffering, far from emotional and nervous upheavals; he shall no longer be affected.
Look at him who possesses true doctrine and true belief in God Most High, who has fastened his heart to God Most High, and before whose eyes and insight all causes have melted away so that he no longer see anything other than the Causator. He shall sleep in all tranquillity.
He shall say: "Leave me alone, you and your talk! The physicians, their medicine, ailments and their remedies are all servants bound to obey God Most High's foreordained destiny, and it is not God Most High's foreordained destiny that is subservient to the knowledge of physicians and their remedies and all the rest." His mind is at peace.
Let us plant this certitude firmly in the core of our beings. It brings immense benefits to us. None has tasted the sweetness of belief unless he has reached that level of perception.
* Translated by Gabriel Haddad
The Brunei Times