The Intimate Discourses of Ibn Ata’illah 12

Peace, one and all…

Intimate Discourse 12

My God, whenever my miserliness makes me dumb, Your generosity makes me articulate, and whenever my attributes make me despair, Your grace gives me hope.

Commentary

Sins silence the servant’s tongue which supplicates for Allah’s proximity. This pursuit is the result of closeness and love which are the products of obedience to Allah Most High. Since the servant is devoid of obedience and possesses only defect and incompetence, the tongue of pursuit is silenced. But the kindness of Allah activates the tongue with speech. When the servant realises that Allah is gracious, he musters up courage.

Evil attributes have created despair in the servant who feels that he is unable to adopt steadfastness and firmness in the Path of Allah Most High. However, each time the despair is displaced by hope as a result of Allah’s kindness and favour.

Reflections

In the last Discourse we saw how our continually shifting circumstances are a way for us to encounter God in all things. This brings me great hope. It also makes me aware of my own shortcomings. That is, my eye is directed inward: where am I encountering these circumstances fully and honestly, and where am I hiding from them? As so often happens with Ibn Ata’illah’s Munajat, I am brought back to the need for honest self-accounting, a much-need questioning of my motivations and intentions. Encountering these blind spots leads me to contemplative silence. I am silenced by the truth of the moment , as well as by a natural tendency to hide away.

But, we are not left in that space. Allah’s grace reaches out to us and loosens our tongue. Divine generosity opens the heart and we are able to understand ourselves more fully and articulate our hidden limitations and needs more clearly. Whenever we despair, hope arrives, as if to say, ‘Keep going, just a little further. I am with you’.

This point was beautifully made in a recent sohbet on the theme of despair and hope. Perhaps the most relevant point was that made by the following Quranic passage. In it Ya’qub (as) is describing his sorrow at the loss of his beloved son Yusuf (as):

‘I complain of my anguish and sorrow only to Allah, and I know from Allah what you do not know’ (Quran 12:86)

As this one can testify from personal experience, complaint can be a difficult hurdle to overcome. Complaining to others can poison our hearts, making us bitter and resentful. Turning to God with our sorrows, our grievances and difficulties can be restorative, a sincere tawba. Tawba opens the door to insight and fresh perspectives, reminding that our relationship with Allah is that which truly heals us, and expands our hearts.

The sohbet concluded with a beautiful ghazal by Hafez Shirazi.

Your lost Joseph will return to Canaan, do not grieve
This house of sorrows will become a garden, do not grieve

Oh grieving heart, you will mend, do not despair
This frenzied mind will return to calm, do not grieve

When the spring of life sets again in the meadows
A crown of flowers you will bear, singing bird, do not grieve

If these turning epochs do not move with our will today
The spheres of time are not constant, do not grieve

Don’t lose hope, for awareness cannot perceive the unseen
Behind the curtains hidden scenes play, do not grieve

Oh heart, should a flood of destruction engulf the world
If Noah is at your helm, do not grieve

As you step through the desert longing for the Ka’aba
The thorns may reproach you, do not grieve

Home may be perilous and the destination out of reach
But there are no paths without an end, do not grieve

Our state in separation from friends and with demands of foes
The God who spins fate knows all, do not grieve

Hafez, in the corner of poverty and loneliness of dark nights
As long as your words are prayers and lessons of Quran, do not grieve.

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