Bidden or not bidden, God is present.

Carl Jung has a plaque on his grave that reads: "Bidden or not bidden, God is present."

When I heard this mentioned on a podcast the other day, I immediately thought of the following excerpt which talks about the fact that God not only sees us as we are, but crucially, understands us as we are - even when we struggle to understand ourselves. It says the following:

"In our personal relationships in this world, we seek to be understood, at least by the people we love and by our friends; but also perhaps, by our enemies for, if only we could explain ourselves to them, they would not be our enemies [...] What a relief, then, to discover that - in the only way it really matters - we are totally understood because we are totally known. What a relief also, to be aware that there is one Person in whose presence we no longer have to pretend or deceive or protect ourselves [...] He is always there, waiting; it is we who have made ourselves absent from Him [...] We are known, understood, seen and forgiven." (Gai Eaton, Reflections) I think about this passage all the time. I was probably 19, maybe 20, when I first read Reflections, and it honestly changed my life. Up until that point, I didn't know that I wasn't alone. To be known, understood, seen, forgiven. Known, understood, seen, forgiven. That's all I had ever wanted. Unbounded, unconditional, unlimited understanding.

So, thinking of this in the practical sense, what does it really mean to believe that we are each intimately known, unequivocally understood and unceasingly seen both within the Light of God and by the Presence of God? The suggestion here is not necessarily one of exposure, but actually one of safety, of refuge, and perhaps even relief. It means that "bidden or not bidden", called upon or ignored, invoked or forgotten, loved or despised - God is present.

It means - and this is my favourite part - that God sees us in a way that no one else could ever see us. In fact He sees us in a way that we can rarely ever see ourselves. We are far too full of our own rubbish. Uniquely, he sees through us: through our protective walls, our coats of armour, our cracked glass houses and our outward forms. He sees us with a gaze that is at once penetrative and discerning whilst also being immensely merciful and full of love and understanding. God is either, both and neither, all the the same time.

Most importantly, he alone sees the sincerity of our intentions. He knows all our hang ups, the things that keep us awake at night, the things we wish we had done better, said better, known better. He knows our insecurities just as He knows all our mistakes. And yet, we are continually not only understood and accepted by God, but crucially, accompanied by his presence wherever we are. ("Wheresoever you turn your faces, there is the face of God" [2:115]) The door never shuts, unless of course it is we who make the effort to shut it. And even then, by virtue of our nothingness, our efforts still would not render it shut.

More than this, it means that God is present in desperation, in joy, when we feel that we need him, and perhaps most perilously, when we are convinced that we don't. God is even present for the unbeliever, even for the one who speculates or ridicules the suggestion of His existence.

The passage above also offers an implicit commentary on the dialectic between permanence and impermanence, finitude and infinity, and prompts us to differentiate between that which is relative, and that which is Absolute. What this means for us - as individuals as well as a collective - is that the emotional and psychological architecture around which the experiences of our everyday lives are erected and demolished on a daily basis, simply dissolve into insignificance when placed against the backdrop of the Absolute. Bidden or not bidden, He is there. Therefore, for me at least, this means that if we are aching to feel whole, and searching to be seen, needing to know that we are accepted, seeking validation, fortification or replenishment through the approval and attention of others - it is not necessarily the search that is wrong, but rather our misplacement. To want to feel complete is not unnatural. Yet we all (myself included) search for completeness in all of the wrong places. To believe that completeness can be reached or found or felt within the bounds of relativity, that is, through objects, attachments or worldly ties, is to believe in a realm that is by its very nature ephemeral, fleeting and vacant. Nothing here will remain. Conversely then, we must turn to God who has no beginning, no end. Even when we don't call upon Him, He remains with us. He is therefore the Absolute antithesis of the very ephemerality that defines our own existence. He is Absolute, Omnipresent. Bidden or not bidden - always there.

 

(received from tinyletter.com/mounaks a few months ago.) 

Monthly Favourites // January 2018

It's January 2018 already! Another year has passed, subhanAllah. 

I can't help but feel that this semester I have finally, without realising it, took upon more work than I can handle. But the fact that I am calm -on the outside at least- about it makes me feel like, hey, maybe I can handle it after all! But this coming two weeks will be very busy for me, and if I can successfully get through them, then maybe I can do anything and everything that life throws at me! (a very exaggerated exaggeration)

I don't have much to share, except a series and a book.

TV Series //

I recently watched The Fall, a British/Irish psychological thriller. If you've been following me for sometime now, you'd know that I love watching psychological thrillers and just when I thought this would be a regular thriller, it proved me wrong. I came to know that British series are significantly different from American series. American series would have many seasons and more or less 20 episodes per seasons. The Fall only had 3 seasons (with a brilliant ending!) and 5-6 episodes per season. Therefore binge-watching 3 seasons of The Fall was similar to binge-watching a season of an American series. The movie is brilliantly written! I loved it from the start to finish, I loved how it touches on feminism (both male and female issues), it had a strong female lead that help track down the killer and the killer was.. not the regular young creepy male loner, which made it interesting. If you're looking for something to watch, would totally recommend. 

Book //

This book is pretty famous, people on the internet talk about it, and I wanted to read something in 2018, so I randomly picked this book. The number of pages is intimidating, and when I read the first few pages, which immediately introduced 4 male characters, I couldn't differentiate them, which made me think that I wasn't gonna finish the book after all.. BUT I WAS WRONG.

The author quickly distinguished the four characters by race and background, and the book ended up turning into one of the most painfully beautiful books that I have ever read. It so heart-wrenching, it made me cry many many times and I had to put down the book from time to time because my heart couldn't handle it. It is beautifully written, and reading what initially seemed scary turned out to be easy.

I personally hate reviews before attempting to watch or read something and started reading this book without knowing what it was about because when you indulge in it without having any expectations and you're more.. surprised? when you read it but if you're one of those people who like reviews, here's a goodread's review that I feel describes the book perfectly:

I can't, with a clear conscience, give this book anything less than 5 stars. It's a book that kept me reading long into the night, made me turn each page with vigor and curiosity, gave me chills and shivers over the joys and sorrows of each character, and ultimately left me feeling a bit older and tortured and yet at peace with the deeply complicated nature of humanity.

What Hanya Yanagihara does with A Little Life is nothing nearly as pretentious as that paragraph above. Somehow in 720 pages, she manages to adequately--better yet, excellently--show and make the reader experiences the lives of these young men. The novel follows four boys who meet at college: Malcolm, JB, Willem, and the central and mysterious figure, Jude. It's truly Jude's tale, but Yanagihara ends up telling each and every one of the boys' stories with ease and genuineness that makes them real.

Her prose is clean and honest and revealing of the many emotions that humans experience. It's never explicitly beautiful, not flowery or overwrought with adjectives or descriptors. But it has its own beauty that comes from its ability to convey these feelings, making you feel every pain or happiness that Malcolm and JB and Willem and Jude feel. It's some of the best prose I've read in a while (or ever read), and I wanted it to keep going on forever.

There's so much more I could say about this book. About how it hurt me to read at times--because yes, there is very graphic material that makes the reading cringeworthy in parts--about how I fell in love with so many wonderful people in this story, about how I learned empathy and sorrow and frustration and anger for and with each of them, and how if I were to write a book I would want it to have the essence of this one.

The truth is, though, I can't recommend this book to people, not without knowing them very well. Because it's a difficult journey that I can't suggest everyone take. Don't take this book lightly. But if you do choose to read it, if you choose to flip to that first page, be prepared for something inexplicable and jarring, but resilient and beautiful and ultimately worthwhile. (Source)

Well, that's it for this month! Anyone still making resolutions? Hope this year you'll achieve all your hearts desires! 

Handle With Care.

I love studying Uloom al Hadith (Science of Hadith). I was once talking to my Uber driver and he said, "why would you love the Hadith more than the Quran, you should prioritise the Quran above anything else", which is undeniably true, but I also think he misunderstood where I was coming from. 

The Quran is constant. Muslims don’t differ too much with regards to the Quran, mostly the interpretation of it. But the sunnah, hahaha. We quote Prophet Muhammad SAW on a day basis, we come across sayings attributed to him on a daily basis be it in on Facebook, WhatsApp messages, instagram, tumblr reblogs and also the people around us.

It’s everywhere and it is sad that despite the fact of how widespread it is, many of the hadiths we come across are weak, or even false. The spread of falsehood comes with how widely and commonly spread it is, despite the severe warning of the Prophet SAW to not attribute a saying to him which he did not say. People do it all the time. It’s sad, and scary. 

All I can say is: be careful. We live in a time that is far far far from the Prophet. We are the generation 1,400 years after. Things, sayings and news get twisted in a matter of seconds even during our time, let alone sayings from 1,400 years ago! Check your sources. Alhamdulillah the scholars have done the hard job for us. They’ve travelled far for chain of narrations. They’ve authenticated ahadith. They’ve categorised ahadith. They’ve compiled it, they’ve done research on every narrator. Whatever you can think of, you name it. They’ve done it. 

If someone were to sell you a Van Gogh, or a Monet, or even a Kahlo for a cheaper price than what it’s worth, you’ll get it authenticated. These are beautiful paintings, but they're merely paintings. Allah’s deen is worth so much more. All we have to do is latch onto what the scholars have done for us. Be careful.