I do not want to go deeper into the theological controversies, which have divided both the Muslim world and the Christian one, each in itself, concerning the subject of the word. In Christianity, which is historically precedent [to Islam], the major statement is: “In the beginning was the Word” [John 1: 1]. Which beginning was this? There is no doubt, for most commentators, that John the Evangelist as he opened his Book with this statement he pointed to the beginning of the Book of Genesis, which says: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” [Gen.1: 1] If John has said that in the beginning of this creation the Word was, then, the Word would be previous to creation, and he supports this interpretation at the end of the first verse, saying: “and the Word was God.” The term [Word] indicates Christ before His descent to the world. And this has remained the used designation until Arius, in the fourth century, said that the Word is the first creature and the mediator between God and the universe. And the Church’s objection to Arius was about his claim concerning the createdness of the Word or the Son. This was – in my perception of the history of heterodoxies – the major heterodoxy which has divided the Church for the following decades, and it has not returned strongly, to my knowledge, unless with the emergence of Jehovah’s Witnesses, in similar terms or meaning.
It is neither my intention nor within my capability to show the debates that took place in Islam concerning the createdness of the Qurʼan, or its uncreated nature as the words of God. In order to identify the eternal nature of the Qurʼan, it should have been settled that the words of God are ancient, since they come from the Eternal Existent, and consequently they are not temporal. Large group of Muslims maintained the necessity of relating the eternal words with the Qurʼanic verbal template, and thus the ‘Knowledge of the Occasions of Revelation’ [ʼasbāb al-nzūl] has emerged which is about the circumstances in the life of the Prophet, nevertheless, [it maintains that] they were in the knowledge of God and thus, it does not abolish the eternity of the divine word.
The eternity of the Qurʼan and the eternity of the Word (or the Son), for the Christians, are two similar issues which the believing mind had to encounter. Those who maintained the eternity of the Word, for the Christians, and the eternity of the Qurʼan, they faced two real questions, which is the same question for the believing mind.
However, the problem is more complicated in Islam, since it is the problem of the relation between the word and the words which revealed to the prophet and are expressed through his voice, and then these words were written or preserved, heard and recorded. The question is: what is the role of the prophet in the embodiment of these words, whether verbally or by reciting them? Was he merely a man who received the words and transmitted them, or the meanings [of the words] were revealed to him and he had to find their verbal expression? All this has raised much inquiry, and schools have varied upon them.
However, as I maintained earlier, this is not my concern in this hasty work. Today, I am not arguing with anyone, yet, I presented the dilemma in order to reach at a human objective, starting from the sayings of the ancient Christian Fathers that the Word incarnated (from the Holy Spirit and Mary) in order that the body (and they mean human existence) becomes a Word. I ignore now the consideration of the eternity of the human image in [the form of] energy, based on the words of those who say that every creature is [originally] a word, which later on took the form of a creature. Both the people of the East and the West have addressed this question. However, for the intricacy of the subject I will not wade into it.
What concerns me is that you might become a divine word, in simpler terms. I want you to imitate God’s word, to become God’s utterance, or a reflection of God in work, speech, intention, and that you might be free from every human word, which derives of human inspiration. In reality, the American translation of the Bible which maintains that the Scripture is inspired by God carries, in my opinion [in Arabic], the adoption of the Islamic word ‘inspired’, ‘inspire’ and its derivatives. However, the Greek term carries the meaning that there is in all the Scripture the whiffs of God. Hence, the problematic is not about a disagreement between Christianity and Islam, since each has a statement concerning God’s relation to the text. In Christianity, the Word of God is Christ, himself, and not a compilation of books; and the Spirit has provided the evangelists, and the prophets before them, by the Spirit’s power in order to write words about Christ, before His incarnation, or after it.
What I want here is to talk about the human relations in the light of the divine power that is within the human being. If your behavior was fully identical to that of God, and to what God has said, you become God’s word, since you reveal God to the people, hence, whoever sees you sees God. In this sense, you are the son of God, and you call God Father not because you have emerged from God’s essence, and in the essence God has no partner. Rather, God’s light has been reflected in you, and there are no two lights in existence. God provides you with God’s light. In this sense, you alone, in creation, are a divine light. Irrational creatures might inspire you about God’s existence, as our Fathers have said; however, they are not the vision [of God]. The light, in ancient physics, is in the eye. And when you behold God you perceive the light. This is the relationship between God and the human being.
Nevertheless, if your soul becomes gloomy and the light of your eyes extinguishes, you would not see God. God, in existence, is independent from you. And if you disobey God you would perceive nothing at all, as it is mentioned in the Sermon on the Mount: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” [Matt. 5: 8] And heaven, as we call this encounter between God and the human being in Christianity, is that the light of the Lord meets the light in the person, so that at the end “God may be all in all” [1Cor. 15: 28], as Paul says. It is not that God’s Being becomes confused with yours, but God’s eternal power intersects yours and embraces it to itself. Heaven is, then, a sea of light, through which all the lovers of God move. This starts here, whenever God dwells in your heart. Hence, the “here” and the “there” do not really differ, though the Hereafter is better for you than the First [life] [cf. Sūrat al-Ḍuḥā 4]. However, in the divine depth, i.e. is in God, God is willing to receive you, and no mark of disgrace will remain upon you, and your sins will not be recalled, and God will not recall them. Heaven is not only the eradication of transgressions, but also the eradication of their memory in God and in you. The demise of sins here is the repentance. However, repentance is about toil and diligence every day and every moment, until there is no trace of sin. And whenever sin is eradicated from you your soul becomes a mirror for those who behold God, and hence, they see themselves in you. Thus, slavery, which is the drift between your light and your Lord’s, vanishes in you. I know that there is a drift between the Creator and the creature, in relation to the essence or the being. And I know that obedience is required. However, in the heavenly junction, which is your heart, the beloved does not call for other than the beloved, and God becomes contiguous to you.
You would experience this whenever you were from the lovers. I do not call you to neglect the word descending upon you from God, through interpretation or through other means. However, I call you to the state of love, in which there is no speech. And in heaven the tongues of angels invalidate the words which have been poured upon us, for a reason of teaching. Reminding is the outcome of knowledge. God does not disappear in the higher Kingdom, however the reminding of God will fade away, since you would not need human words, and the language of the angels is silence.
In the world, there are means of subsistence and means of learning. However, all this remain at the level of mediums. As for love, love is not a medium [or instrument], rather it is the baptism of luminance, after which there is nothing other than its layers. Then, you will live of the blessed face of God, and the vision will grow in your spiritual eyes and God will exceed in brightness, since God is not a rigid picture. The living one does not have a portray. In the world, the living ones are subject to time, which hardens them. God is complete luminosity. God’s light oscillates in God in order to make you alive, and you walk not following this light, since it is within you, in order that you might live forever in an indescribable lucidity.
Translated by Sylvie Avakian-Maamarbashi
Original Text: “النور وأنت” –An Nahar- 10.08.2008
