The Arabic word “Istowhadaإستوحد ” (to be alone), linguistically and idiomatically, means to seek unity with God. It is He who grants you your unity with Him. So if you isolate yourself from Him, do not think that you can arrive at such union. Apart from the Lord, you are scattered or dispersed or you are in an inner multiplicity, that is, “inner dispersion”. And you get to that condition because you are afraid to cleave to Him; that cleaving is what makes you united with Him through love.
Love presupposes a duality or better a twosome-ness; yourself and that of another. Twosome-ness, which is a transcending of numerical-ness, is your way to union. The singleness of love makes the two as one in that realm which is invisible and indescribable. Love is the only logic or argument with which you transcend countability (the world of numbers) so that the saying “We are two souls in one body” becomes true. Functionally, the two souls become one soul….. but they yearn for unity. What is important is not the plurality of the two entities after they have united in love; what is important is that functionally you and others can see that you (the two of you) have become one mind in the dynamism of spiritual oneness.
As such we are faced with the question: What is the oneness of God? I thought much about that till I came to the conclusion that the oneness of God is in Himself. And He pours Himself over on us due to His love for Himself and for the creation. It is unacceptable to attribute to Him that His love is creative if love is only a quality He has. His own being has to be love in order for Him to create. The meaning that is challenging is this: the Lord is not qualified with love; He is love. Since for the Creator, love is his Being and for the creature it is the emanation of that Being. That is to say that love is internal and it comes from the soul and the soul is formed through it. Love is not an aggregation of people that come together to seek the same interest. Those would fight together in that association that seems to be the bond that binds them together. Coming together in space and time has nothing to do with love. Love is the binding of hearts belonging to people who might be far from each other. And the greatness of that often leads to unity and to oneness to the point of union. And that is poured by God on the hearts that seek closeness together; and hearts that become so close together have God as their unity.
I started my article with the title “Inner Unity”. People, aggregated together in space and time, are not necessarily united. Unity comes forth from hearts which seek closeness and the greater the closeness the greater the unity obtained. This is a grace that God grants to whom He wants and nothing can overcome it.
When the favor of the Lord is poured down on people, He inflames them with love and they become one despite the multiplicity of their bodies. Unity is not a coalition no matter what its nature is or what its subject matter is; division has always dwelt in the unity of a party, coalition or revolution. When people in their multiplicity yearn for unity, they become of one spirit and plurality and its power disappear. People are not one due to their aggregating together because every association of that sort is temporary since there is no depth in it; and nothing can remain except love. And love is not obtained from the aggregation of people and their coming together, but from the Spirit from Above that descends on them and makes them one.
Organization, any organization, does not make unity of being or unity of communion; it is coercive in its nature because it is imposed. And in recent history, there has not been an organization that did not break down. Any group of people that does not unite having in mind to become the Church or church-like, will have dissension creep in to it.
Political or military groupings function by receiving orders. This is false obedience that is propelled by fear.
This world is not stirred up except by violence, that is by hatred. And the peoples keep on warring whether they are victorious or are overcome since killing was there from the beginning of humanity and it remains the main ruler of this world. Sin is at work everywhere till someone who calls the few to repentance appears. And the societies are constantly torn apart. That’s why King David said: “Save me from blood guiltiness O God of my salvation.” When does Man become aware that he does not have life unless he sits at the table of the Lord? The spiritual few who are chosen are the saved ones and the grace which is received saves those who love it.
And if those attain to serenity by asking for mercy and repentance, the new world that is wrought only by Grace obtains; and it is enlivened by Divine Kindness which is poured on us from the Spirit.
Grace calls us insistently to itself; and when it embraces us we will have a new spirit in each of us and we will head towards a new world that consists of the righteous. But those who are evil destroy themselves and also the world.
God builds the new world with His love for His creation. He does not want to remain by Himself. God reaches out with Himself to those He created to make of them a new world. And if we do not go by that world, we remain “old” and then we rot. And if we beatify ourselves (with God) much, each one of us becomes God’s person, that is, His beloved; yet that presupposes that we renew ourselves on the inside. Man is the inner person. And from there you obtain your splendor, and the “inner life” people become the people of God and build the new world. Appearances have no importance with those people; they seek after the depth of their inner being where God dwells.
The endeavor is that we all get formed by our inner being if God dwells in it. That is what He means when He tells us that we are God’s people the stones of which all are made by God, the one who builds hearts.
The spiritual structure in this world is not made of the materials of this world. And outside the “inner world” there is nothing. Yet your inner world is only that which has been wrought by God. And you build it with those who love God. Those participate with God in building you up. So you are built by God’s hands which are His grace. And God did not end creating on the sixth day. That was merely a signal for the continuity of creation. And that does not refer to what has been created of people and other creatures. That refers to the Lord creating your heart. And hearts, through love for each other, become the “new world”.
Translated by Riad Moufarrij
Original Text: “الوحدة الداخلية” – An Nahar – 02.03.2013
