Worship

God says: The seven heavens and the earth and all beings therein declare His glory. There is not a thing but celebrates His praise, but you do not understand how they declare His glory! (Surah Bani Isra’il, 44) The earth has been entrusted with knowledge by God, as humanity has been entrusted with knowledge. The earth also knows its Creator. The truth is within everything. If man, with heedfulness, looked around himself, he would detect it immediately. God says: On that day [the earth] will declare his tidings; for that her Lord will have given her inspiration…(Surah Zalzalah, 4-5) Thy Lord has revealed to the bee… (Surah Nahl, 68) And He revealed to an ant the presence of His prophet Solomon (Surah Naml, 18) He tells us that a day will come when the earth will speak of all that has happened upon it. Things we presume to be without life will be witnesses on the Day of Judgment; thus, they know. A rock, although it appears inanimate, has a face turned to its Creator and a face turned to man. It is filled with the love and fear of God, while we think that it is senseless. We are senseless ourselves, living and walking upon the face of the world, believing it to be lifeless! All creation has a language of its own, but no one, save those whose ears of the heart are open, can hear it. How else could the earth evolve into layers of elements – lead, copperm silver and gold – into jewels and diamonds. Seeds grow into plants, into thousands of grains and fruits. Nothing is lost; everything is kept in the memory of nature. An ear like Solomon’s can hear the words of the winds and the mountains and the birds. It is reported by Anas, the companion and adopted son of the Prophet, may God’s peace and blessings be upon them, that the Messenger of God took up some pebbles in his hand. A voice come forth from them, crying, “Allah, Allah, Allah!” When he gave the pebbles into the hands of his beloved companion Abu Bakr, the stones still kept reciting the name of God. But when Anas was given the pebbles, no more was heard. One day the Prophet was ill. The angel Gabriel came to him in the form of a beautiful human being and presented him with wonderful grapes and pomegranates. As he was eating them, a voice proceeded from them, speaking the name of the Lord. When he gave some to his grandchildren, Hasan and Husayn, the fruits kept reciting the names of God, but when another of the companions was given the fruit to taste, the sound ceased. The cognizance of the Creator is within the creation. This is the manifestation of God’s name “The All-Powerful” All that is taken to be lifeless matter- the earth, the water, the air, the fire – is immersed in continuous worship of its Lord. As a stone has neither mind nor thought nor feeling, as it is without emotion or will, it exists naturally in a state of complete submission. The plants are in a lesser state of submission because they have a will to grow, and in their effort to grow they forget God and lack in worship. Lesser still is the submission of the animal, the sentient being. Although animals do not have a fully developed mind and will, they have instinct, and that is what prevents them from total submission and full worship and realization of their Creator. Man is the least apt to submit to God and the most lacking in worship. His mind, his imagination, his lust, the desires of his flesh, his anger, his will are the powers which hold him and keep him in heedlessness. At best, he may intend to know his Lord by his intellect, seeking proofs of His existence, wishing to see Him with his own eyes, and suffering under the influence of the will given to him. It is only the perfect human being who realizes the limit of the mind and finds the Lord. This come to a few through the manifestations of the divine to consciousness; through looking at things with the affirmation of unity as a guide; through the opening of divine disclosures; through inspiration. Those few surpass the whole of creation and reach the level of being servants of God. And then they serve the rese of creation. (The Tree of Being:Shajarat al-kawn. An Ode to the Perfect Man. Interpreted by Shaykh Tosun Bayrak al-Jerrahi al-Halveti. Archetype Pub. London, 2005)