ashadhu allillaha illalahu...
the title of this surah is provoking to me. catapulted by words...poets like abdul wahab, nazim hikmet, kazi nazrul, suheir hamad, tony medina, pablo neruda, emily dickinson... poetry has been my movement, moved into gasp, quiet tears...
in the beginning of this surah, ALLAH addresses the prophet directly, providing empathy...words that go beyond emotional, that require thought into a scientific process...
26:2 These are the verses of the book that make things clear. It may be that you will destroy yourself with grief because they will not believe 26:3 but if We had so willed, We could have sent down to them a sign from the heavens so that there heads would be bowed down before it in utter humility."
the clarity resides in the being, in witnessing. the scripture is in the skies and the earth, and the firmament, as ALLAH, constantly makes clear. but for those who are in doubt, who are deceived by the senses into believing what their taste buds say, then the Word, the Qur'an, is available.
the depth of 26:2/3 is more than the literal, more than ALLAH reaching down from the clouds with His omni-present hand, and shoving people into the ground. that would be un-scientific. that would require a great deal of blind faith. that would make a good story. but both the sunnah, the practice of the prophet, and the word, the Qur'an, amke clear, over and again, that this is a mathematic. this math is illustrated in the writing and the art. geometrics.
the reminder here, is that the heavens, which is the ether, which all planets, stars, comets, orbit in surrender, as the fabric of life, and our emergence, could have been different. could've been that we, through the process of evolution were goat, or cow, or ant, or hawk...all of whom are in surrender to the One, and thus have their head bowed. except for us. we were made human. this is the rub...why? what is our purpose as humans? why were we made such?
we survived the wilderness through our ability to think, to manipulate our environment. instead of being crushed by the much stronger beasts of wild, we managed to out-think them. yet somehow, this led to an arrogance, a greed, a lust...thus the need for order, for law, for a reminder that there is a law to nature, to the food chain. a tiger runs after the wildebeest, they all run, all of them. then the tiger attacks and catches its prey. they all stop running. why? the tiger is not a babylon soldier wantonly killing everyone in sight. nor is the tiger the average human with some disposable income, eating meat with every meal, or every day. the tiger takes what it needs and the wildebeest understand this.
so, we forgot to live. being human, has led us to forget, and thus messengers.
26:5 Whenever there comes to them any fresh warning from the Merciful, they always turn their backs on it.
the remainder of this surah expounds on the stories of the messengers of the past from the criterion and many of the other previous surahs: moses and aaron, noah, ad and thud, lot, and shuyab.
none of these messengers came as vigilantes, with big plots to save humanity, and become success stories that could be championed in yoga magazine and oprah. they came with great guidance from ALLAH, through deep meditation, and humility, and constant Surrender. in fact, they were met with the utmost adversity, and were only able to persevere, because they were in profound alignment with Truth. each step of the way they asked, they prayed, they feared, and placed their fear aside to do from the place of One.
the One, the Source, has been the modus operandi of the messengers. they would be obtaining the opposite of success in a babylon sense. they would be celebrated as the issue, the problem, scum...yet and still they did. fearlessly,
26:50-54 so fear God, and obey Me. do not obey the bidding of those who are given to excesses - those who spread corruption in the land, instead of putting things right.
yet we are constantly prostrating to jay z and madonna, and bruno mars and wiz khalifa, and sharukh khan, and ashwariya rai, and french montana, and donald trump and puff daddy, and j lo...we make excuses for them and see them as heroes because they went from rags to riches. they become models of the story that you too could hit the lottery and own mansions that could be on cribs, and own your own private jets and cruise ships.
the process of gaining success is to go from arrogance and mis-guidance to humility and surrender through purposeful work to serve the universe. instead we give energy to those who spread corruption. and these our are role models?
these celebrity figures, the ones with catchy songs that have young men grabbing their crotch, and young women revealing any cleavage they can show, that has grown men and women acting like kids... these celebrities are in this context, the poets.
26:228 and as for the poets, it is the misled who follow them.
each of the stories on these messengers makes clear how deeply committed they were to justice, not because they were into politics, but because justice is derived from ALLAH, justice is the natural order of things, is the Great Balance. injustice, imbalances, leads us into the state where we are rationalizing all our luxuries, things we may not even view as luxuries...injustice is making excuses for the golden calf, like you and your family are somehow exempt from the Great Balance, like you occupy an exceptionalism.
when lot was questioned by his people of his motives, he responded: my reward is only with the Lord of the Universe (26:180).
what were his people suspicious of? that they needed to maintain Balance, by being accountable to one another, by thinking beyond themselves and their own desires.
26:181-185 give full measure and cause no loss to others. weigh with correct scales: do not defraud people of what is rightfully theirs.
this is the message that appears over and over, in every generation, and with the great height of arrogance, has become more deeply demonized, to the point that none of us want to bang with truth, because the house, the car, and the dog...becasue, the flatscreen, and the status, and what will the family, friends, etc, say, think...
the option to live humbly, in truth, in alliance with the path of spirit - justice - is made clear. you have choice. you can follow the aforementioned messengers, or you can keep bopping your head to the great illusion.
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