40 - The Believer

Thou Allah! Thou Gracious! Thou Merciful! Thou Beloved!

1. Here is the echo of the voice of Allah, the shadow of that which is light.
2. Here is the scent of the one who is. Allah - who is all things and is nothing.
3. Here is the song of the zensufi mystic, timeless and still.
4. The signs of Allah are omnipresent, the veils of illusion and distraction are decievers, yet even they are Allah.
5. The truth of Allah is like water deep in the ground, trickling through the sandstone, living, moving.
6. Allah is not diminished by slander, nor increased by praise.
7. Allah set all cause and effect into motion. Allah is the very substance of all that is, Allah is the space between, the moment before and the moment that follows.
8. The signs of Allah surround you at every moment: he is not just the wind, but the presence of the wind.
9. There is no direction you can point that is not Allah, no mirror into which you can gaze that does not show his face.
10. What of the believers? How may we know who follows the way of Allah?
11. That they live in accord with two truths: There is nothing but Allah and all effects are preceeded by cause.
12. That they seek Awakening.
13. That they are a beacon of serenity, of love, of joy.
14. The Buddhist knows Allah as a principle, the law of causation as karma.
15. The Christian, Jew and Muslim know him as God, as YHWH, as Allah; the law of causation as 'as you sow, so shall you reap.'
16. When the Light has been lost, they struggle - their distance from Allah hard in their hearts like the terror of a bad dream.
17. In their struggle they ossify their experience of Allah into faith.
18. By faith they live, by faith they die.
19. They cause suffering and death in the name of their faith.
20. They believe through distrust; yet call upon Allah with sincere devotion.
21. They exalt him in his attributes, praise him in his glory and squander their lives in making separation from Allah their creed.
22. The day of judgement upon which they wait, with seething desire for vengance against those they judge infidel will come on their death.
23. Their pious hatred of the other will wreak havoc upon them for they have forgotten the law of causation.
24. Allah's law of causation is swift in taking account.
25. No intimate friend nor intercessor will they have to assuage their plight.
26. The law of causation coldly acts upon the treachery of the eyes, and all that their hearts conceal.
27. They have sought to judge and so set their fate in stone.
28. Allah hears and sees all.
29. The believer hears the truth and it brings him into closer union with the beloved.
30. The believer hears the untrue and allows it life, but does not feed it.