Newsletter Issue:
January 2010"Follow what you are taught by inspiration from your Lord."
(The Qur'an, Surah 6, Verse 106)
"Islam: the peace that comes when one's life is surrendered to God."
(Huston Smith)
The prophet Muhammed (pbuh) opened his heart profoundly to Allah. For 23 years he received revelations and followed his call. Just as the angel Gabriel served as the intermediary between God and Muhammed (pbuh), Muhammed served as an intermediary between God and humanity. By surrendering to divine revelation, he changed the course of humanity.
Revelation: the act of revealing or disclosing, or making something obvious and clearly understood through active or passive communication with supernatural entities/divine. (1)
If we are to find peace ... if we are to live in a state of Islam ... if we are to follow our destiny and serve the world, we must be on the lookout for the signs of divine revelation that are continually being communicated to us.
Only you can discern the voice of the divine as it expresses uniquely to you. It may come in the form of a quiet whisper from within or without. Or it may arrive with the power of a gale-force wind.
As Huston Smith has said:
"Value, virtue and spiritual fulfillment come through realizing the potentialities that are uniquely one's own. In ways that are not inconsequential, those possibilities differ from those of every soul that ever has, or ever will live in the future." (2)
Each of us is a unique person with a path that is ours alone to walk. As we surrender to divine will, our soul's calling comes into clearer view. We must follow the call, even if incompletely revealed. As the Quaker saying reminds us, "Act on the light you have, and more light will be given."
As interfaith ministers and chaplains, we are being called to leadership, and we are asked to hold a vision of wholeness and divinity. In leadership training classes that I recently attended, we were asked to consider the following questions:
- Who first called you to leadership?
- What were the circumstances?
- Did you hesitate?
- What were your concerns?
- Did you feel compelled to say "yes" because of the person asking?
[Can you imagine the Prophet Muhammed (pbuh) answering those questions?]
So, here are some questions for you:
What is waiting to be revealed to you and through you?
How might you be called to deepen into spiritual service and servant leadership?
In what ways can you be a bridge between humanity and divinity?
_______________________
Let us enter into the silence, as the the Prophet Muhammed (pbuh) did in the Cave of Hira, and listen for the voice of the divine.
As-salaam alaikum.
-----------------
NOTES
1. www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Theism
2. Quoted in Huston Smith, The World's Religions (HarperSanFrancisco, 1991).
