The Intimate Discourses of Ibn Ata’illah 9-10

Peace, one and all…

Intimate Discourse 9 & 10

My God, how near You are to me,
and how far I am to You!

My God, how kind You are to me!
So what is it that veils me from You?

Commentary

‘Allah is closer to man than his own life, but man, on account of his egoistic attributes, is far from Allah. Not a moment passes without Allah’s mercy and grace being on the servant. When Allah is so magnanimous and gracious to his servant, nothing can impede him from the perception of Allah’.

Reflections

God is near to but we are far from Him! On the face of it, this is a paradox. How can something be both near and far at the same time? And yet, as I sit with this question, two things come to heart. Firstly, God’s immanence is permanent and unchanging. Secondly, this being so, we are the ones who turn away. Distance and closeness are not therefore physical descriptions as much as they are orientations. Allah is always oriented to mercy and love. We are not. Sometimes we are loving. Sometimes we are hateful. Sometimes we are close. Sometimes we are distant. Two Quranic passages draw out these notions more fully.

‘We created man. We know what his soul whispers to him: We are closer to him than his jugular vein’ (Quran 50:16)

Our faults and the whispers of our heart are know to the Real, directly and intimately.

‘Believers, respond to God and His Messenger when he calls you to that which gives you life. Know that God comes between a man and his heart, and that you will be gathered to Him’ (Quran 8:24)

If God is so near to us, why, then are we so far from Him? What is it that veils us from Allah? Ultimately, we are kept far from God by our workaday nafs, our ego-based view of the world. As Ibn Ata’illah’s Intimate Discourses have made abundantly clear, it is our sense of separation, driven by ideas of entitlement and notions of ownership, that block our heart’s ability to perceive reality more deeply. This is made clear in the following Quranic verse: ‘They have hearts they do not understand with, eyes they do not see with, and ears they do not hear with’ (7:179)

In spite of this, Allah’s immanence is greater than our distance, and God’s mercy is greater than our limitations. This is why reading Ibn Ata’illah’s Intimate Discourses has been so helpful for this one. In our previous Discourse we explored God’s gentle subtlety, His overwhelming kindness. Reading each passage separately has helped this one to explore these things analytically, but reading them as a whole repeatedly has underlined just how intricate, caring and liberational divine planning is. Allah!

In the final analysis, the path to God is an education in mercy, taught to us by a Lord Most Merciful. Our response draws us to return in gratitude and love. As such, divine lutf draws us ever onwards, to the point where we too might ask Allah directly: ‘What is it that veils me from You? Please help, Merciful One!’

There is hope. There is a way out. There is Allah, wa Kafa Billahi Wakila, ‘and God is Sufficient as a Trustee’ (Quran 33:48).

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