Prayer for the Day - 15/02/94
Non-muslims often find the Qur'an a confusing book, with a style that seems very strange to their ears. The way that the themes and images are dispersed and interspersed, can seem random and disjointed to those who are not familiar with the Qur'an's overall pattern and context. But for muslims, familiar with the language, the words weave together like a design woven into a fabulous carpet, in the pattern of which we see a reflection true to the experience of our lives.
This reading is from the chapter called Light, verses 41-46
Have you not seen how whatever is in the heavens and in the earth praises God. And the birds spreading their wings? Each - He knows its prayer and its praises; and God knows the things they do. To God belongs the Kingdom of the heavens and the earth, and to Him is the homecoming.
Have you not seen how God drives the clouds, then composes them, then forms them into a mass, then you see the rain issuing from the midst of them? And He smites whom He will with it, and turns it aside from whom He will; and the gleam of His lightning almost snatches away the sight.
God turns about the day and the night; surely in that is a lesson for those who have eyes.
God has created every beast of water, and some of them go upon their bellies, and some of them go upon two feet, and some of them go upon four; God creates whatever He will; God is powerful over everything.
Now We have sent down signs making all clear; God guides whomsoever He will to a straight path.
During the fasting month of Ramadan, I get used to feeling the need for water. Even in the cold wet days of Glasgow, after only a few hours the mouth and throat begin to feel dry, and thirst begins to monopolise the mind. As the sunset time of breaking fast draws near, the anticipation of liquid refreshment exhilarates those who are fasting, like a flock of beasts might get restless scenting rain approaching on the wind. For, like the beasts, we are made of water (plus a handful of salts and minerals), and so must constantly replenish our supply or turn to dust.
We have eyes, like many beasts, strange fragile watery globes which turn collected reflected light patterns into electrical signals for the brain to process, the eye, that most unlikely winner of the fight for the survival of the fittest. The eyes, that prefer to experience things at a distance, yet so subtly reveal a scale of creation that can include distant stars and galaxies, and see beauty. And God not only Knows the things they do - He Sees. The gardens of Paradise have two fountains running water and two fountains gushing water, like eyes that weep and eyes that gush tears of deepest pain and anguish. The pain is part of getting there, to the homecoming.
Sometimes we all feel that we are living in the eye of the storm, and as the recent known world gets torn apart around us, and the rescue boat just saves us from being carried away on the rising flood, and we finally abandon all hope for our possessions and let go - we feel relief if we manage to survive. Each time we are given the chance of a new beginning, but also a need to let go of the past. For relief of suffering depends on accepting what we have been given to deal with in the past, and spreading our wings and moving on, flying direct. Or we can walk, just following the path straight ahead, or as the road runs through this life we may even prefer to travel on the bus. It's all the same at the end of the line - Final Stop - God willing, the Gardens of Paradise. Home again.
In the Name of the One Who is All-merciful and All-compassionate. O God! Show us the straight way through this life, the easy way, the way of those who know the world as a succession of blessings showered upon them, not a world in which we are overwhelmed by anger, bitterness, and strife, and not a world in which we are wandering lost and astray. Amen