47. The God-Ideal, Part 6
Religious Gatheka
by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Why is God called the creator? Because the creation itself is the evidence of some wisdom working. No mechanical creation could result in such perfection as is nature. All the machines of the scientists are built on the model of nature’s mechanism, and every inspiration that the artist gets, he receives it from nature. Nature is so perfect in itself that in reality it needs no scientific or artistic improvement upon it, except that, to satisfy the limited human fancies, man develops science and art. And yet it is still the creation of God expressed in art and science through man; as in man God is not absent but more able in some way to finish His creation which necessitates His finishing it as man. No better evidence is needed for a sincere enquirer into the Creator-God. If he only concentrates his mind upon nature, he certainly must sooner or later get an insight into the perfect wisdom which is hidden behind it. The soul that comes into the world is nothing but a divine ray. The impressions it gets on its way while coming to the earth also are from God.
For no movement is possible without the command of God. And therefore in all creation , in its every aspect, in the end of search and examination God alone proves to be the only creator.
The word Sustainer is attached to His Name. Jesus Christ said, “Consider the lilies of the field. They toil not, neither do they spin; yet even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed as one of these.” And Rumi explains it further in the Masnavi: “ Even the spider is not neglected by God, but is supplied with its food.” Even the smallest germ end worm, insignificant as it is, had depended for its supply upon man, who cannot even always supply himself, how would the creation have gone on? It seems that the creatures who do not worry for their supply, to their mouth their food is conveyed. Man’s struggle for his supply, it seems, is greater than all other living beings in the lower creation.
But what makes it so? It is not God, it is man himself, who is selfish and who is unfair to his brother, absorbed in his own interests in life. In spite of all the famines the world still has sufficient supplies; but imagine the amount of food that has been sunk in the sea; how many years was the earth, in which man’s food is prepared, neglected by men busy killing one another! If the result of this causes hunger and greater strife, is God to be blamed? It is man who deserves all blame. Sa’di very subtly explains human nature in regard to Providence - it is the most beautiful expression - : ‘ The Creator is always busy preparing for me the supply, but my anxiety for my supply is my natural illness.’ Life is such a phenomenon, if only we dive deep into it, that we find no question without an answer. It never is so that we need something and are not provided with it. Only the difference is between what we think we need and what we really need. For the supply is always greater than our need. And therefore Providence is always a phenomenon. Sometimes we look at it with smiles, at other times with tears. But it is something real and living; and more real it will prove to be if we look at it climbing to the top of our reason.
God as Judge is spoken of by many prophets. And the man of reason and logic has tried to attribute justice to the law. But justice is not law, justice is above the law. Very often to our limited view things in the world appear unjust, and often it seems that there is man’s law: what he wishes he does if he has the power to do it. But behind this illusive appearance there certainly is a strict justice and a real law. No sooner does the heart become living than this law manifests. One cannot but marvel at life and nature, to see how great is the justice of God, that it is: give with the right hand and take with the left, - all you give and all you take. And no soul has to wait for days or weeks or years, or for death to come for the law to manifest. Every day is a Judgment Day and every hour is the hour of justice. A criminal will escape from the prison bars, but he cannot go from under the sky! There is the Judge within and without. When his eyes are closed he is being judged within, when they are open he is being judged without. We are always in a court of justice. If we do not realize it, it is because we are intoxicated by life and we become like a drunken man in the court, who does not see the judge or justice.
But what we can marvel at most in life is to know that, in spite of His great justice, God is the Forgiver. He forgives even more than He judges. For justice comes from His Intelligence, but forgiveness comes from His Divine Love. When His Divine Love rises as a wave it washes away the sins of a whole life in a moment. For law has no power to stand before love, the stream of love sweeps it away. When before Christ the woman was brought who was accused by everyone of her crime. What arose from the heart of the Master? The law? No, it was love in the form of mercy and compassion. Even the thought of the love of God fills the heart with joy and makes it lightened of its burden. And if, as the religious have always said, once in a person’s life he has asked whole-heartedly for forgiveness, in spite of his whole life’s sins he will certainly be forgiven.
Daily Reflections on the following points in Religious Gatheka 46
Point One: “No better evidence is needed for a sincere enquirer into the Creator-God. If he only concentrates his mind upon nature, he certainly must sooner or later get an insight into the perfect wisdom”.
Contemplation: Sufi Thought 3: There is One Holy Book, the sacred manuscript of nature, the only scripture which can enlighten the reader. In our contemporary life we are often alienated and away from nature. Let us take a little time daily to tune to nature.
Point Two: The word Sustainer is attached to His Name. Jesus Christ said, “Consider the lilies of the field. They toil not, neither do they spin; yet even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed as one of these. – The Creator is always busy preparing for me the supply, but my anxiety for my supply is my natural illness.” (Saadi) Life is such a phenomenon, if only we dive deep into it, that we find no question without an answer. It never is so that we need something and are not provided with it. Only the difference is between what we think we need and what we really need.”
Contemplation: From the Holy Bible, The New Testament
“Ask and you shall receive, for everyone who asks receives” (Mt 7:7-8).
“Whatever you ask in my name, I will do it” (Jn 14:13).
“You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions” (James 4:3).
“If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you” (Jn 15:7).
Point Three: “One cannot but marvel at life and nature, to see how great is the justice of God, that it is: give with the right hand and take with the left, - all you give and all you take. And no soul has to wait for days or weeks or years, or for death to come for the law to manifest. Every day is a Judgment Day and every hour is the hour of justice.”
“When His Divine Love rises as a wave it washes away the sins of a whole life in a moment. For law has no power to stand before love, the stream of love sweeps it away.”
Contemplation: I bask in the purifying Presence of God.
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