la illaha illala.
this is the declaration of Surrender (islam). this is the focus of surah vi: the cattle - the Oneness. the Oneness of Essence may have been a radical theory at the time, may have been heresy to those involved in bowing down to statues, in placing garlands on cattle as a sacrifice to the supreme god of the arabs - Allah.
Allah, the supreme idol, received a larger portion of the offerings of the pagan arabs than the other gods. "and they say: such cattle and crops are forbidden. no one is to eat of them save whom we will...and they say: that which is in the bellies of such cattle is reserved for our males and is forbidden to our wives" (vi:140).
these declarations of practice, of religion, are problematic, according to the teachings of surah vi. they create too much room for spook theories that justify injustice and institutionalize malpractice. "thus have their (so called) partners (of ALLAH) made the killing of their children to seem fair" (vi: 138). since there is no grounding in the proof that is Life, that are the signs - sun, moon, ocean, life and death - they lend themselves to spook practices.
the spook practices may legitimately recognize the world of spirit, as this is truth. over the years many people in my life have been in contact with spirits, with voices from other points of space and time. one of my heartbeats, nana, once told me about the spirits she spoke with. in fact, there'd be times when i thought she was on the phone, when she was talking out loud, and i'd arrive in the room she paced in and saw no phone in her hand, no other person in the room. she'd look at me and laugh.
my greatgrandfather like my grandfather, was a medicine man. his specialization was catching djinn (spirits, the fire people). people in our ancestral village went to him with possessed sons, wives, husbands who stayed in the phooker (swamp-lake) all day. he'd arrive eight feet tall, his thick beard barely moving in the presence of the terrified djinn, who knew of him, who lashed out like banshees. my grandfather stood still with a large empty perfume bottle and prayers. within an hour he was done, walked quietly back, leaving mud huts in resolve.
some, mystified by the power of the djinn - their abilities to walk through walls, to shift shapes - bowed down. they bowed down to the djinn of the water and the djinn of the rice paddies, and the djinn of the summer and the djinn of the rainy season. "they ascribe as partners unto Him the djinn, although he did create them, and impute falsely, without knowledge, sons and daughters unto Him" (vi: 101).
there is only one, a oneness. so namaste to all, as all of us are soul and thus within the reaches of the One, by way of our shared Self. all of us, plant, lake, mountain, human, donkey, falcon, comprise the One-ness. but no one in particular. by bowing down to others, we become subject to ego, to misdirection, to missing the connection to the whole, and in turn participate in practices such as the pagan arabs were at the time: "they are losers who besottedly have slain their children without knowledge... they indeed have gone astray and are not guided." this refers to the practice of child burials, particularly female child burials, as offerings to the deities.
abraham had to experience this on his own: "and when he saw the moon uprising, he exclaimed: this is my lord. but when it set, he said: unless my lord guide me, i surely shall become one of the folk who go astray (vi: 78). and when he saw the sun uprising, he cried: this is my lord! this is greater! and when it set he exclaimed: o my people! lo! i am free from all that ye associate" (vi: 79).
what abraham realized was that the sun, moon sets, that life is change, that there is nothing, be it the leaves on a tree, nor the sand of the dessert, that is not subject to change, and although they are all elements of sustainability, they are not separate, they cannot be distinguished into component parts - "lo! i have turned my face toward Him who created the heavens and the earth" (vi: 80).
the oneness of ALLAH can be understood in the hurt that you feel, there are others tied into your hurt - my friend dani tells me it is the winter, it is the grey clouds and cold winds, it is the women he loved, who he spent a year climbing with, leaving him, he says, his hurt stems from being away from the tropical soil of puerto rico, of the tongue that rolls like bomba there. dani's hurt is tied into everything and everyone else, all elements and people and beings. he talks to me and i listen, i grow sad too. he gives me a hug but doesn't place me on a cross.
"the originator of the heavens and the earth! how can he have a child, when there is for him no consort, when he created all things and is aware of all things?" (vi: 102).
all of us, can be understood as the sons and daughters of God, as part of the Creation, the sum of which equals ALLAH, equals the Oneness. hence the term One, of the early 2000's that replaced salam (peace) of the nineties. One, is the number of ALLAH, is the mathematics of existence. la illaha illala.
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