Moses once heard a shepherd praying as follows: “O God, show me where thou art, that I may become Thy servant. I will clean Thy shoes and comb Thy hair, and sew Thy clothes, and fetch Thee milk.”
When Moses heard him praying in this senseless manner, he rebuked him, saying “O foolish one, though your father was a believer, you have become an infidel. God is a Spirit, and needs not such gross ministrations as, in your ignorance, you suppose.” The shepherd was abashed at his rebuke, and tore his clothes and fled away into the desert. Then a voice from Heaven was heard, saying, “O Moses, wherefore have you driven my servant? Your office is to reconcile my people with me, not to drive them away from me. I have given each race different usages and forms of praising and adorning me. I have no need of their praise, being exalted above all such needs. I regard not the words that are spoken, but the heart that offers them. I do not require fine words, but a burning heart. Men’s ways of showing devotion to me are various, but so long as the devotions are genuine, they are accepted.”
“Awakening” by Amjid Yaseen
“The Fabulous Gryphon” by Ibn Arabi
“A Moment of Happiness” by Rumi
and, one additional quote by Rumi as well.
These poems are full of mystical symbology, expressing the author’s desire to know and be closer to God.
The video is set to the instrumental rendition of “Nights in White Satin” by The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
As an example of symbology, here is a commentary that I like about the topic The Qur’an as the Ocean of All Knowledge.
Sufi interpretation begins with several basic premises: that the Qur’an contains many levels of meaning, that man has the potential to uncover these meanings, and that the task of interpretation is endless. In their exegetical writings, Sufi’s quote such Qur’anic verses as “We have left nothing out from the Book (6:38), We have counted everything in a clear register (36:12), There is nothing whose treasures are not with Us and We only send it down in a known measure (15:21)”, and, “If all the trees on the earth were pens and the sea seven seas after it to replenish it, the words of God would not be depleted (31:27).
The image of the Qur’an as an ocean is a particularly popular one, as in this quote from the Jawāhir al-Qur’ān of Abū al-Ghazali.”
“I will rouse you from your sleep, you who have given yourself up to recitation, who have taken the study of the Qur’an as a practice, who have seized upon some of its outward meanings and sentences. How long will you wander about the shore of the sea with your eyes closed to its wonders? Was it not for you to sail through its depths in order to see its amazing things, to travel to its islands to pick its delicacies, to dive to its bottom and become rich from obtaining its jewels? Don’t you despise yourself for losing out on its pearls and jewels as you continue to look only to its shores and esoteric aspects? Haven’t you heard that the Qur’an is an ocean from which the knowledge of all ages branches out just as rivers and streams branch out from the shores of the ocean?Don’t you envy the happiness of people who have plunged into its overflowing waves and seized red sulfur, who have dived into its depths and taken out red rubies, shining pearls and green chrysolite, who have roamed its shores and gathered gray ambergris and fresh blooming aloes wood, who have clung to its islands and found an abundance in their animals of the greatest antidote and pungent musk?”
(The above commentary comes from: Sands, Kristin Zahra.
Title: Sufi commentaries on the Qur’an in classical Islam)
Dr. Gerald Schroeder sets forth a powerful argument for a Creator of the cosmos that goes beyond Intelligent Design theory to the radical rationality in nature. Dr. Gerald Schroeder holds a dual doctorate in Nuclear Physics and Oceanography from MIT along with high-level research in chemistry and planetary sciences. Dr. Schroeder’s argument was so powerful it played a part in influencing the worlds leading atheist, Antony Flew to accept the existence of an infinitely intelligent Creator. This video is a part of the documentary entitled “Has Science Discovered God?” that made world headline news because it shows how Antony Flew changed his mind about atheism on the basis of the message of modern science, a message that testifies to the inherently intelligent infrastructure that underlies the universe.
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