Job’s Supplication – Part 9

“As far as physical diseases are concerned, we may seek refuge from them when they hinder our worship. But we should seek refuge in a humble and supplicating fashion, not protesting and plaintively. If we accept God as our Lord and Sustainer, then we must accept too all that He gives in His capacity of Lord. To sigh and complain in a manner, implying objection to divine determining and decree is a kind of criticism of divine determining, an accusation leveled against God’s compassion. The one who criticizes divine determining strikes his head against the anvil and breaks it. Whoever accuses God’s mercy will inevitably be deprived of it. To use a broken hand to exact revenge will only cause further damage to the hand. So too a man, who afflicted with misfortune, responds to it with protesting complaint and anxiety, is only compounding his misfortune.”

As previously discussed, worship is acknowledgment of my reality i.e. being aware of my status in creation i.e. I am created and being aware of my status before the One who gives me my existence. How am I going to communicate with the Source that gives me existence? We usually answer by worshiping Him. What is worship? Is it performing the rituals? My concept of worship must make rituals meaningful for me. Worship is the reality of how I perceive myself in existence and before the Source of my existence. Due to an illness or calamity given to you, if you happen to be unhappy with your existence, you cannot be happy with your existence Giver. As a result, you develop a negative attitude towards the Creator and you turn away from It. With this attitude, the event that is given to you in order to acknowledge the Source of your existence harms you.

Everything one experiences is for his own self. Just as you cannot share the feeling of hunger with someone who has never experienced what it is like to be hungry, similarly, when it comes to belief, it is one’s own personal conclusion. My duty is only to be satisfied within myself. Therefore, it is fair to say that one has to be selfish when it comes to working on belief matters. You can only help others after you solve your own problems, the condition being if they are ready to listen to you. Even the Prophets did not help people who were not seeking the truth. Analogy: If a medicine cured my illness and I come across someone suffering from the same illness, I can share the medicine that helped me as long as that person accepts her illness and seeks the cure.

• It is inevitable for any human being not to want to convey their experience of their personal conviction to others. However only after being convinced within oneself first can one share with others.

If a calamity or physical illness turns against your sense of worship, you need to be concerned. Reflect on the meaning of worship as given above, analyze your illness and calamity and try to get rid of the negative feelings in order to be happy with your Creator, the One that gives both health and sickness in order for us to acknowledge It.

How can one seek refuge in a supplicating and humble fashion?

First, ask yourself: Am I the one who decides the order or am I the one subjected to the order? Accept your reality i.e. be aware of what you are. Are you the Creator or the created being? I am the created being because I am made according to the Will of someone else. Only when I realize that I am subjected to the will of my Creator, am I responding in a supplicating manner.

To some extent, we know that we are not the Lord and we cannot decide about our existence. I have to accept that I have no freewill as far as my being given existence is concerned. But I have freewill when it comes to seeking meaning out of my existence. I have to work on accepting that I am created and that I have a Lord. I am free not to accept that I have a Lord. If I find myself in such a state of mind, then I have to go back and investigate who is my Lord/Sustainer. If I am aware of my status in the universe i.e. I am a created being, then I can supplicate as follows:

• Please, I am hungry, give me food.
• Please I am in pain, give me health.
• That is why pain is given to me, so I may use my freewill to turn back to the Health Giver.

Divine Determining is the order that exists in creation that we are subject to. When I am hungry, I have to eat. When you are given illness, it is the determined order for you. That is the order as it is determined to be, it is nothing natural. My life is determined to be and my freewill is determined to be. No one can escape from Divine Determining. Can you escape from being in need of breathing every second? No. The order in creation requires it for me to inhale/exhale.

The option to make choices is also within Divine Determining. I may choose to eat or not to eat. If I am not going to eat, then I am rejecting Divine Determining (I will suffer). If I decide not to breathe, then I am rejecting Divine Determining (I will die). If I choose not to follow the order, I am bound to lose. That is within the purpose of creation.

Why are we created? I am created to get to know who I am and who my Owner is.

How am I going to establish the relationship with my Owner from my side because It has already done its part? By acknowledging my neediness and being grateful for what is given to me. Now, it is my turn to respond back to It through acknowledgment and expression, which is the heart of worship.

How can Divine Determining be applied practically? Jane is given an illness. Jane has to accept this and accordingly she has to use her freewill to either benefit from the illness or misinterpret it.

• When you are in pain, how can you benefit yourself from it? By questioning, reflection on yourself, your existence in order to become aware of your status in this universe i.e. supplication.
• That is, through pain you understand health. Your health was given to you and now it is taken away. You want health back and you realize your Source. You supplicate: “You are the Creator of health and I acknowledge you and I need your help now”.

Creation of pain is reminding you who the Creator of health is. When you take the medicine, if you are aware that medicine is also created by the One Who created the illness, it is part of worship.

What is the difference between supplication and worship?

• Supplication is an extension of worship.
• Worship is knowing who you are as far as your existence is concerned. It is acknowledging your status in this universe i.e. you do not create anything.

Let’s say you are in a forest for a couple of days with no packed food. You get hungry. Question this feeling. How on earth did you get hungry? Well, I get hungry throughout the day, that is how I am made. Ok. Now question this feeling of experiencing hunger, the need for food and the satiation one receives after eating.

The meaning of worship is mostly misinterpreted among followers of certain religions. Usually, when religion and life are considered separate entities, one has a very weak relationship with its Maker. Simply doing rituals as a means of fulfilling prayers before the Creator is a kind of hypocrisy where you perform the rituals as a requirement of religion or to make God happy. In fact, your belief in God should be prompting you to follow the rituals. Without an organic way to establish relationship with the Creator, religion remains a separate entity in one’s awareness of existence. In general, every action needs to be performed with a certain consciousness of acknowledgment.

• If I am aware of an Agent in my consciousness, then actions I perform will have meaning. Example: I am breathing because I am made in such a way, with such a need. I am thus subject to Divine Determining.
• Similarly, rituals are the result to this consciousness and thus, rituals become an extension to this consciousness. Belief (consciousness) + rituals Religion

Your Lord sends guidance, teachers and representatives which are called Messengers (Prophets) that provide you with practical prescriptions (rituals) after you develop your consciousness of your existence. After establishing the consciousness, rituals become meaningful and following the rituals then become the primary responsibility for any human being when they feel the need for it. Otherwise, if I am heedless of my existence, rituals become external to my existence.

1. Rituals need to be practiced according to one’s understanding of the Creator.
2. Performing rituals must be the result of my understanding of the Creator that I pray to or fast to, and thus become acquainted with.
3. When rituals stem from an internal conviction, they become meaningful.

When I internalize 1, 2 and 3, I will be in a state of mind that I have to do the rituals which becomes worshiping the source of Existence. Example: I have to breathe and in my acknowledgement of this reality of being and this order is my prayer. No dualism between prayers, rituals and meaning of existence but they all combine to one, my natural state of being.

One should practice their consciousness as much as one becomes aware of the opportunities that are presented. This world is a training ground, we are being trained here to know who we are and who our Lord is and establishing our relationship with this Lord. The important point to always remember is that I am a student in this universe. Everyone is a student of the Speech of the Creator and is qualified to understand the Speech at his/her level. One should not try to jump ahead of themselves nor step down. That is, do not desire to be at a higher grade than what you are supposed to be at. Present yourself as you are: “I am going to read”. “What are you telling me here?” At the primary school level, students learn to hold a pen. It means that at this level of understanding, my rituals will have that much value.

• Similarly, beyond primary school level understanding, my rituals will have values according to that understanding.

Why are we given tests in school? It is the continuation of the learning process. I am being trained here to get to know who I am and consequently who my Lord is. Every event is an opportunity, a class for me to attend and upgrade my position i.e. I become aware of my createdness.

When I define the Speech of God from my perspective at my own level, I understand the test from my perspective. It is an opportunity to become aware of my status here.

Would I expect my Creator to say something beyond my capacity? No, my Creator speaks to me according to my level. I have to look at the matter from my perspective, not from the Speaker’s perspective because the Speaker speaks from His perspective which is Absolute and I cannot comprehend the Absolute.

That being said, one should try to avoid people who talk about God from God’s perspective. We all know by now that knowledge is not the truth. Example, Speaker says: “my punishment is severe”. A primary student will look at it in terms of not getting chocolate while a graduate student will look at it in terms of not getting his degree. Doesn’t the Creator know who you are? That is, It speaks to you according to your capacity that you will understand.

Most people read verses as a way to establish judicial ruling thinking that it needs to be applied equally. The truth is that the verses have endless layers of meaning because no two people are alike. Judicial rulings make up about 5 % of the Quran, 95 % is about your human education. Judicial rulings should be left to professionals who analyze and issue rulings. The rest of the 95% I am eligible to understand it within my own capacity without being at the level of professionals. I need to ask the ones who know better than me to help me upgrade my understandings. Example: “All praise is due to Allah” has endless meanings pertaining to every capacity level. Just like in the example above, the primary school student will acknowledge that chocolate is given to him by the Creator through the parents while the graduate student has the potential to acknowledge that activities of particles that he was studying in his science class are nothing but the glorification of the art of the Creator of the universe.

We should just focus on understanding who we are and what our position is in this universe. When a historical event is narrated, it must have something to do with me right now. Let’s say there is an event about some Prophet named Solomon and his army. When I read the Quran from my perspective, I ask: what is my army? Well, my army could be the endless senses that I am endowed with via which I communicate with the universe. Who is going to win the war? What does it mean for me? There are options in front of me: I can either conclude that things are happening by accident or by a Conscious Choice.

• No one is entitled to claim that they comprehend God’s wisdom totally.

Question: When the Prophet narrates something, how can I make sure that it is not from his perspective?

A Professor trains his student and then hires him as an instructor. You take the class being taught by the instructor. Can you ignore the instructor? No. As far as I am concerned right now, the instructor is narrating to me. But first, I need to check whether I need an instructor or not? The instructor must be alive for me right now. Similarly, Prophets are trained employees of God. Hence, they are just presenting God’s speech to us in human form. I should make the mission of the prophet alive right now for me. That is, update it to my conditions now.

Sunnah is the Prophetic way while hadiths narrations are people’s narrations and their perspective of the Prophetic doings. Bear in mind that people narrate according to their worldview, interest area and capacity. Thus, it becomes a historical narration within certain conditions.

Prophet (pbuh) speaks to people according to their capacity. The Prophet or Instructor is essential in my life. As a human being, I do not know why am I here. How am I going to receive guidance from my Creator? Then an employed instructor presents me my reality with the aim of connecting me with my source of existence through a vehicle (Quran) which I can communicate with. This consciousness is essential: I need an instructor trained by my Creator. Narrations take different forms based on time conditions. How can I apply it to my conditions? This needs expertise. I need to be watchful for who I am listening to: Are they speaking to me or narrating history to me? If anyone makes narrations applicable to your present life right now, listen to them. Unfortunately, there are not that many expert hadith interpreters around us.

• Learning is easy.
• Interpreting it and applying it to your practical life conditions is hard. Specialization is needed!

Establish why I exist, within myself, is Sunnah. Establishing Lailah Illallah (nothing has the power to create but every is created by the One Who Creates the universe) is Sunnah. Establishing why you believe in the hereafter is Sunnah. Not to follow your tribe blindly is Sunnah. Imitation is not Sunnah. Information in and of itself is worthless.

RELIGION= thinking + reflection + investigation + internalizing + satisfaction + establishing one’s own worldview.

There is wisdom for us to be in our condition. It allows us to question and be human, i.e. so we may understand our reality.

• What do I feel right now in my own being?
• How do I locate myself in existence?

I need to be satisfied within myself and share it. I need to share it that is my Divine Determining. I cannot stop from sharing. I am a human being.

Why is the author saying that whoever accuses God’s Mercy, he will be deprived of Mercy? It means that if one accuses God’s Mercy by saying that my Creator is not Merciful, one deprives himself of Its Mercy. She would not look for the Mercy in the created matter. As a result, one gets more pain. If someone is in pain and complains that there is no Mercy in the creation of pain, then he is insinuating that the One who gives existence is torturing him. How can you have a monstrous God who loves to torture you? If one does not see any Mercy in creation, one will not even believe that there is a Lord anymore. Hence, one will be inclined to say that there is no God.

Often heard: If there is evil in creation, then there cannot be God.

• Is there evil in creation? No.
• Thus, all pain is for me to understand who my Lord is.

By depriving myself of acknowledging Its Mercy, I am denying all previous experiences of Mercy. I am left in despair because I imagine that when I die, my existence will come to an end. I have to think: Can my existence come out of nothing? What is causing my existence to come into existence? The same Source is causing your death to come into existence.

We are training here to get to know the Cause of our existence. Everything given is an opportunity to acknowledge the One that brought you into existence. That is the only way to get pleasure out of existence in this universe.

If I believe and confirm the All-Merciful One, then it is to my benefit. If I reject it, I lose.