'O God, carry us in the ships of Thy deliverance, give us to enjoy the pleasure of whispered prayer to Thee, make us drink at the pools of Thy love, let us taste the sweetness of Thy affection and nearness, allow us to struggle in Thee, preoccupy us with obeying Thee, and purify our intentions in devoting works to Thee, for we exist through Thee and belong to Thee, and we have no one to mediate with Thee but Thee!' Imam Sajjad ('A); Sahifa al-Sajjadiyya

Wednesday 3 June 2009

The Perfect Servant

Ibn Arabi (III 248.12)


God made this earth a place for the vicegerency. Hence it is the abode of His Kingdom and the site of His deputy, who becomes manifest through the properties of His names.
So, from the earth, He created us. Within it, He gave us residence, whether alive or dead. And from it He will bring us forth through the Uprising in the last configuration. Thus, worship never leaves us wherever we may be, in this world and the afterworld, for, even though the afterworld is not an abode of [religious] prescription [taklif], it is an abode of worship.

Among us, whoever ceaselessly witnesses that for which he was created in this world and the next is the perfect servant, the intended goal of the cosmos, and the deputy of the whole cosmos. Were all the cosmos - the high of it and the low of it - to be heedless of God's remembrance for a single moment, and were this servant to remember Him, he would take the place of the whole cosmos through that remembrance, and the existence of the cosmos would be preserved through him. However, if the human servant were to be heedless of the remembrance, the cosmos could not take his place in that. That of it which is empty of the human being who remembers would go to ruin.
The Prophet said, 'The Hour will not come as long as there remains in the earth someone who is saying <Allah, Allah>'

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