Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Do not ask why or what? Wth do you mean??

In Sidi Muhammad Al Jamal's writing he says often "do not ask why or what". I hear it from other teachers in other religions as well. When Christian teachers talk about it they are usually telling us not to question and just blindly trust. However when Sidi talks about it I get the sense he may mean something different. Sufism is about experiencing and tasting to see if what we are taught rings true for us. If that is what Sidi is teaching us, to experience and to taste, then we would need to question at times as well. Then what could Sidi mean when he says "do not ask why or what"?


Could he be directing us to be present in the moment and present to our innate wholeness which contains all the divine qualities within? 


Asking "why" can take us away from being with Allah in the moment and stops us from coming from a place centered in our innate wholeness. It starts us searching for reasons for what is happening. We look outside for causes to make sense of everything. Our focus is off what we are experiencing. The "why" takes us into our head to find out the reason and the cause of a good or bad thing. 


When we ask "what" we may now be moving into the future. We are trying hard to figure out what we can do differently to avoid a similar bad situation in the future or what we can duplicate to get the same result or better for something good that may have happened. 


Why or what can get us addicted to seeking our answers outside ourselves or addicted to our own thinking and stories about the situation.  


Understand I am not saying analysis is wrong in and of itself. I would, however, question our intention behind it. Are we doing it from a place of fear and avoidance or addiction? Or are we coming from a place of peace and love seeking to bring more peace and love into the world. 


This now brings me to the question I think Sidi may be trying to guide us to ask. We are told "he who knows himself knows their Lord". So instead of asking "why" or "what" what if we asked "how"?  "How is Allah wanting to express or experience or know itself through our individualized expression in this moment, in this situation?"


Maybe we are being asked to see Allah in the totality of the experience as well as how Allah moves us in it. How better to know who you are by experiencing all facets of life's expressions and reactions. If there is truly only One, only Allah, and we are individualized drops of that One, then maybe we are all trying to find our way back and life is the process of that. Asking "how" may be a quicker way to return to that Unity and truth of Allah. 

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