The Mosque: The Heart of Submission

Chapter 13. Poverty

13. Poverty Although the heavens and the earth, like humankind itself, were created to make it known that He Is the Truth, they are all poor, utterly poor, for they give nothing to God. Whenever the self becomes fixated on the world or with itself, though both are merely signs of God, it takes these signs to be gods—that is, it associates other things with God. Everything we have, we receive from God. Turning this fact into action means accepting that the self is in a state of total debt. The question of the self is a question asked by the giver; and the receiver returns the question to the giver. But return also confirms arrival. In love for one’s parents, the self as receiver transforms itself into giver. The self’s existence stems from Oneness, as manifested through one’s parents. The commandment to be gentle to one’s parents and to speak kindly to them confirms them as the place where Oneness is revealed; but the self must not take this place to be the Self. Hence, ‘‘speaking kindly’’ is a way to return to Oneness, though the self may be transcended through distance—that is, through unification by the exclusion of speech. But as the Merciful says in the Recitation: ‘‘God forgives not that aught should be with Him associated; less than that He forgives to whomsoever He will.’’1 50 / The Mosque Since God has no other, the self’s duality is that of God and nothing : we can only realize ourselves in God by recognizing that all that is not God is nothing. Associating other things with God may take the most diverse forms. The worst is to take the places and times that God has ordained as His own, and the prophets, books and forms of worship that He has revealed, to be anything other than the path that leads to Him. Only He is dependent on nothing and no-one—as He says, ‘‘God is the Allsuf ficient; you are the needy ones.’’2 Accepting that the Praiser is the fairest example means confirming that every subject of faith—that is, of knowledge and love—is merely a sign that praises God. ‘‘I was sent,’’ the Praiser said, ‘‘with words that encompass everything.’’3 Thus one can turn toward the Face of God through phenomena and their names, in all their fullness of meaning. Praising God as the Lord of the worlds, who instigates and reflects love, raises the Praiser from the lower to the higher Treasury of knowledge, and does so incessantly, up to and beyond the ultimate boundary. The summit of human potential is evidenced by our piety, which is more than mere orientation in space or subjugation to time. True piety is the submission which leads to faith—that is, to love and knowledge, which are confirmed by giving.4 Responsibility to the needy is responsibility to God, which means to oneself. The human self has the ability to turn inward, seeing its bodily state as animal and subordinate, and hence distinct from the self which is illumined by the Spirit. In so doing, the self differentiates between sacrifice and awareness as the ultimate potential for approaching and uniting with Reality. ‘‘And the beasts of sacrifice—We have appointed them for you as among God’s waymarks; there is good for you. So mention God’s Name over them, standing in ranks; then, when their flanks collapse, eat of them and feed the beggar and the suppliant. So We have subjected them to you; haply you will be thankful . The flesh of them shall not reach God, neither their blood, but consciousness from you shall reach Him.’’5 Poverty / 51 By recognizing Oneness as the current of all existence and sacri- ficing all that is subordinate to the Self, we gain It.6 Consciousness of and with the Self in and above all things brings oneness with His will which manifests itself in all things. Hence, when we sacrifice, we bear witness that there is nothing in the outer and inner worlds that is without His inextinguishable Truth. The human heart thus becomes the site of unification and differentiation —that is, the Holy Mosque. All that is external to the heart is subordinate to it, for the external is merely the manifestation in differentiated form of...