O’ Beloved, out of Your infinite loving-kindness and endless mercy you continually send Your Divine inspirations, urging us to love You Alone. To us You allow the apparent choice, to surrender or rebel. How can humanity be so unappreciative?
What difference is there, Lord, between Shaytan and a saint? Are not both a part of Your creation? Why would Your creation rebel against You, who are alone the Source of all love and kindness—the very reservoir of auspicious qualities? If we know of You, or Your Reality, in Truth, how can we help but be inspired to love You? And if we love You, will that love itself not inspire spontaneous loving service to You?
But alas, most of us have fallen far from Your favor, with our mistaken ideas of independence and self-sufficiency! When will we be reconciled? We wonder this wilderness in search of satisfaction, while You are the very fount of all pleasure. How could we have ever left Your intimate consolation? This is the potency of Your external energy, that you could make it so deluding as to coax our souls from Paradise itself! Indeed, you do have power over all things!
And yet, You have not excluded nor completely withdrawn Your love from us. For You send Your Spirit to us in a variety of ways: through saints and sages, through Your Prophets and their Revelations, and even, (if we will to tune into it), even by way of our own hearts. With so many ways to regain our intimate connection to You, we cannot rightfully fault You for our continued rebellion, nor our absent-mindedness.
You gracefully deliver inspiration to us in all its forms. No, it is we who seek to deprive You of our willful cooperation in Your Divine design. And why do we do this? Why indeed, except that we think we know more about how to enjoy than You—The Supreme Enjoyer. What arrogance! What willful ignorance! May You forgive us, as we may sometimes know what we do but, nevertheless, we are plagued by a continual pattern of forgetfulness. O Beloved, have mercy on our souls!
You have never rejected me, despite my repeated shunning of You and Your bounties. You await, ever-ready to bestow Your love and favor, to shower us with Your graceful forgiveness, and still we resist. We are foolish beyond calculation!
Like a loving parent would give money to a child for the child to use to buy the parent a gift, so have you blessed us with such an abundant appearance of free-will, that we might reciprocate Your loving kindness by surrendering it back to You. And in that is the secret of Your love. You have created, knowing in advance how we would act, how we would rebel and go astray. However, You were also well aware of our impending return to You, by way of accepting and reciprocating Your love. Indeed, You are All-Knowing, Most-Wise!
All that we have is Yours, Beloved. Now we cry for Your guidance. Show us how to return all to You. And make us of those who appreciate, and give thanks.
May we patiently accept all that You allow or send our way; both what seems good and pleasant, as well as what we would egotistically judge to be undesirable and unpleasant. For, if we are honest we will admit that we don’t actually know. You Alone are All-Aware of our ultimate welfare. We may desire a thing that is bad for us, or shun that which is for our benefit. Indeed, You know, and we know not!
Or, are we going to rely upon the dictates of our own finite and corrupted minds? Are we to only be grateful for what we perceive to be pleasant and desirable? Will we adore You, our Beloved, and esteem Your infinite wisdom; or, will we instead seek our refuge in our own mental wrangling? To only be thankful for what appears to be pleasant is to adore the gifts you send, rather than the Giver. True trust is to believe and submit to Your control, knowing whatever you send or allow to be our manifest destiny.
May we, therefore, appreciate and give thanks in and for all things. For they can only be allowed or willed into existence by You Alone. Unless we do this, we will never see Your face, the face of our Beloved, wherever we may turn. Let us love You in all circumstance, rather than loving circumstances above You. Smear our eyes, O’ Lord, with this salve of love, that we may perceive You in all things, at all times, in innumerable ways! This is the real joy of spiritual life. Rather than trying to escape the hardships, trials and tribulations of life, let us cooperate with Your will, whether it be divine or permissive. Let us rest assured that no circumstance, no sickness, no persecution, nor loss can ever come about without Your consent. And it is precisely because of this consent that we can have the utmost confidence that it will work for our good, as it is coming from or though the One Supreme Controller, the One who loves us.
There is unending bliss in this Eternal Truth. To the extent that we live, breathe and have our being in it, our relationship with You is made real. This is real knowledge. To know—not just think—but to actually realize how everything is related to You, our Beloved, who Alone are Absolute Truth. All is in You and is Yours. Nothing in Your creation is beyond Your purview. Not a leaf can fall to the ground without Your knowledge. Everything is of You. There is no completion or perfection that is not in You and of You.
May we be continuously thankful in this way, and thus constantly reside in You. Thus our joy is complete in Your Presence.
–12 SteppinSufiServant
12SteppinSufiServant 