I converted to Islam in 1988. I tell people: “I chose Islam because I need lots of rules to tell me I’m doing it right.”
Obedience is often considered a lesser form of religious expression. In our culture there aren’t a lot of opportunities to talk about obedience and I had not developed a vocabulary for it. I found my 32 years of experience with Islam singing in 13th century praise of obedience. Finally, someone who got me.
When I talk about obedience, it’s as if I’ve rejected the American Dream. We left obedience as a useful concept with coal chutes and a lack of refrigeration. It is quaint, foreign, dangerous, and disproven.
Life is not a vending machine where you put in virtue and get back happiness. But for me, it is one where I put in obedience, and got back peace.
Suffice it as a recompense to you for obedience that He has judged you worthy of obedience.
It suffices as a reward for the ones who do good that He has inspired obedience to Him in their hearts and brought upon them a state of reciprocal intimacy with Him
Ibn ‘Ata’Illah Book of Wisdom 10:90-91
I believed that reciprocal intimacy with God came from obedience, as well as all other spiritual progress and rewards: fortitude, peace, patience, and faith for all seasons.
On my retreat, I came upon the Buddhist word for faith: sraddha. In the Buddhist tradition, faith is a verb, not a noun, and it translates as: “To put your heart on,” and implies trust, clarity, and confidence. In sraddha is agency. To quote Wayne Muller in a discussion of sraddha: “Genuine faith is born of the ability to trust in what is most fundamentally true within ourselves.”
I realized that in my religious past, I had been more spiritually fulfilled when my internal approach to Islamic practices were consciously intended for self-improvement. When I balanced what would improve my spiritual health with the letter of God’s laws. When had my approach shifted? What were my options for a path forward that maintained my self-image as a faithful person? What would it mean if faith were a verb?
God makes some people remain in the service of Him, and He singles out others to Love Him.
“All do we aid – these as well as those – out of the bounty of thy Lord, and the bounty of thy Lord is not limited.”
Ibn ‘Ata’Illah Book of Wisdom 7:68
What would happen if I relied on the practice of Love instead of the practice of Service as the foundation of my relationship with God? If what I seek from God for my own purposes, reciprocal intimacy, sprung from active Love?
Plum Librarian LLC 