Aqeedah
(Islamic Creed)
But if the world rides on the back of a turtle-
Asked the child,
-What did the turtle stand on?
The man smiled:
Another turtle.
And under that?
Another turtle.
And under that?
He smiled
Kindly:
It’s turtles
All the way down...
But if the universe comes from a point
With no dimensions
(Nothing?)-
Asked the teen,
-Where did everything come from?
The woman smiled:
This universe explodes,
Slows,
Implodes,
And then
Explodes again
Like breaths breathing,
Out and in.
Yeah, but-
How did it start?
She smiled
Patiently:
It’s universes
All the way back...
Space is not. Time is not. No created things are.
But God. Is.
Must be.
Necessarily.
For all created things
Begin.
To exist
Creation must have had
A genesis
In One
With no beginning.
And no end.
Endlessly Complete,
God has no needs.
None.
Shadows cannot be without a light,
But light
Can exist without shadows.
God. Is.
Self-Sufficient.
The puzzle pieces do not fit!
Each crude attempt to render God is wrong.
So wrong.
Like children grabbing moonbeams come away
With empty hands,
We cannot find a likeness anywhere.
God. Is.
Dissimilar.
I take a cube,
Collapse it to a square,
A line,
A point.
Everything that seems to be can fold away.
In Reality, there are no multiplicities,
Just One.
Single.
God.
Life.
God. Is.
Alive.
No force, no motion, no matter
Just
Seamless
Immeasurable
Vibrant
Is-ness.
Knowledge.
That which is and was and will
That which isn’t, wasn’t, won’t
That which could and could not be,
Every strange variety
Of (im) possibility...
God. Knows.
Speech.
Manifesting what God Knows,
My existence is bespoken,
Bespeaks...
Every choice, every thought, every step
Through spoken forests flickering with life...
God Knows. And Speaks.
All that God Commands, is.
What?
Where?
When?
How?
The questions in my fleeting mind
Tilt
Like compasses towards the Truth:
As God.
Wills.
Power.
God Makes, Molds and Unmakes...
Moment by moment
The hologram “reality” I live
Is made substantial by the movement
Of God’s.
Will.
God.
Perceives.
In ways called
Seeing...
Hearing...
Because these are all we understand.
Can understand.
But these ways
Have nothing to do
With eyes
Or ears.
God Sees. And what God Sees, God Hears:
All sounds and tastes and shapes and dreams,
All thoughts and hues and scents and schemes...
All that could be, and cannot be,
All that might be, and will not be,
Intimately, limitlessly...
God.
Perceives.
God. Is.
I crumble to the floor.
I’m sure
That choices honouring my Lord
(The only offering I can give)
ARE DUE.
forgive me...