Acting as if you see the Divine hiding in plain sight

“Tell me what Excellence (Ihsan) is?” Muhammad (aws) answered, “To worship Allah as if you see Him, and if you do not see Him, yet He sees you.”

As I was contemplating an upcoming class around finding the Divine hiding in plain sight I was praying to Allah for guidance around some things I could share to help the class get a deeper feel for what I was trying to help them uncover. The above quoted line from the Hadith of Gabriel popped into my head. Along with that seemed to come insight into a new, to me, way of looking at this. It seems there are two places from which one can hear this Hadith. They are fear or love. Depending on which lenses your glasses, for relating to the Divine, have will make a difference on how you interpret this for your personal walking.

The majority of my life I have interpreted this teaching (whether in my Christian upbringing or chosen Sufi Muslim path) from the place of fear. I had better behave and sin as little as possible. I was always aware that God was keeping an eye on me and would inflict either immediate or delayed punishment to fit the sin. On the one hand this did give me a relatively “clean” life where I could pretty safely run for a political office, if I ever felt the need to. On the other hand it produced much stress in my life and relationships and created a perfectionist attitude fueled by a heavy laser focus ready to judge and arrogantly steer people to the right way which also prevented me from having fun and enjoying life. May Allah forgive me for all the hearts I hurt in this process, and there are many. To all of you, I am deeply deeply sorry. 

Then came the insight during the contemplation… What if I looked at it through the lens of love? If the name Allah comes from the verb “waliha”, which means to love passionately, to love madly (Physicians of the Heart – chapter 6) then Allah, not only means “The One” but it also means “The One passionate Love”.  If every surah of the Quran (except one) begins with “Bismillah ar-Rahman, ar-Rahim” (In the Name of Allah, the compassionately loving, the mercifully loving), then it only makes sense to interpret this through the lens of love. That blew it wide open for me in a beautifully new way.

Remember when you fell in love, whether the first time or the last time, everywhere you looked reminded you of the beloved who took hold of your heart. Everything was a sign and all you wanted was to be with your beloved and be enveloped in your passionate love for each other. When you were together they were all you saw, all you worshiped. When you were apart, you either reread letters, emails, texts, looked at picture or listened to songs, anything and everything was a reminder of your love for them and their love for you. Seeing the Divine in everything and being crazy mad in love with the Divine is not really any different.

Dr. Alan Godlas, a professor and Sufi, shared at the recent Sufi School East that Allah is the “Soulmate of soulmates”. The Divine is constantly sending us messages of Love. If we can change our glasses from those of fear of punishment to those of passionate love we can start to see we are being called back to Love, the Passionate Mad Love that birthed the Universe and all that is within and outside of it. It isn’t always easy because, like all relationships, things may happen that are painful and some pain comes from our past and misunderstanding imposing itself upon the present. And some pain comes from those in the world who are living from a place of fear or darkness that is expressing less than the angelic aspect of our humanity. My question is - can we still hold onto our Lover during the difficult times and trust our Lover is watching over us and guiding us, even if, in that moment, we cannot see our Lover? The answer, according to the Hadith of Gabriel, is that it is possible. 

So, for my class on walking with the Divine and finding it hiding in plain sight – I will start out with this Hadith and talk about the Divine being our mad passionate lover playing hide and seek with us in every moment. Sometimes we may easily recognize the Divine and other times, we may have to look way past the outer image to the subtlety contained within to find our Lover. But, no matter what, I now have a new way of relating to Allah – truly as a Lover running through the woods and hiding behind things begging for me to catch It and become One with it in Passionate Love.

Feed The People

Last night I had a dream of Sidi. This is only my second dream I have ever had of him, which I can recall. It was beautiful. I was with three USHS teachers, not sure which three, and one was standing in front of a podium asking Sidi if we should move forward with holding a class that night, in lieu of all that had happened. If we were going to, the teacher explained to Sidi, we needed to turn the satellite on for it to warm up in time for the class.

Sidi looked at us and said “Feed the people”. That was all he said and then I awoke.

It fits Sidi so well. “Feed the people”.

I contemplated it and felt into the many levels of meanings that statement seems to contain.

First there is the level of physical (body). Sidi was always taking care of feeding the people with the physical food needed to sustain their bodies. He knew, way before “Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs” came along, that in order for people to be able to have the energy or time to seek the spiritual side of life, they needed their basic needs met. We are to continue to carry on that work of sharing what we have with those that don’t have.

Second there is the level of emotional (heart). Sidi gave us the gifts of the healing prayers, surah’s, and remedies. Once people are cared for physically, they can see the need for emotional feeding, healing, and support. And as it goes, when emotional healing happens more physical health and healing happen as well.

Third there is the level of mental (mind). Sidi blessed us with many books that teach what he learned from his teachers. The message of Peace, Love, Mercy, Justice, and Freedom that was passed down from the very first teacher and founder of the Shadhiliyya path, Abul Hasan Ali ash-Shadhili. Once we are physically cared for and emotionally healthy we can then begin to search for meaning to our existence. That starts with studying the teachings and learning the cosmology of the Sufi path.

Fourth there is the level of the spiritual (soul). This is where the rubber hits the road. Once all other needs are met and the spark of our divine purpose is ignited we will seek how to live that out. How do we now, take what we have been given, and feed the people. How do we practice surrendering to Allah and moving from a place of integrity within our essence to express that moment to moment; interaction to interaction.

At each of these levels there is a way for us, in that place, to feed the people around us or in a place that we have just come from. Sidi has never asked us to be that which we are not. He has always challenged us to be who we are and to serve Allah and people (which are really reflections of Allah).

And the best part of all of this is – you don’t have to be a Sufi to do this or understand this. Every mystical path contains this, using their own vocabulary or concept for “The One”. Every spiritual path has value. Sufism works for me, and that is why I write about it. But it doesn’t mean I think it is what everyone must be or follow. How boring would that be?!

I pray I am able to “Feed the people (and animals)” in a way that is honest with what I am. I pray we all can do the same. Feed the bodies, hearts, minds, and souls of our fellow humans and animals we share this planet with. Blessings to you all.

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.