Essence of the One
Wanderer, worshiper, lover of leaving.
It doesn’t matter. Ours is not a caravan of despair.
Come, even if you have broken your vows a thousand times.
Come, yet again, come, come.”
~ Jalal ad-din Rumi
-Translated by Coleman Barks.
In his book, Music of the Soul, our guide and teacher, Shaykh Muhammad al-Jamal wrote:
I am the Forgiver. Return, My children, for I want to hear your voices calling for forgiveness, mercy and guidance. The mistake is a gate to righteousness. Through the gate of the mistake, most of My beloveds come to reach Me.
First, I put them in the fire of the mistake, then this fire brings them to the deeper fire of My love. Then I show them My light in the fire, and in a moment, they jump and are face to face, the Rabi’a of their time.
Do not think that your mistakes forbid you to reach Me. They are the instruments of My will. But learn and repent. Consume the essence of the mistake, so that once having done this and deeply understood, you cannot return to make that mistake again.
Offer the essence of the mistake to Me in the fire of your love for Me and My love for you, and do not take it back again.'”
As long as we are here on this planet in human bodies, we will make what we humans call mistakes. They are a necessary part of the plan.
The challenge is to use the mistakes as opportunities to return and return and return, to always learn from the mistakes and to forgive ourselves. God is the Forgiver, and He is most Patient, most Compassionate, most Merciful.
Ours is to learn to embody His qualities – to forgive ourselves, to have patience, mercy and compassion for ourselves. We are on a journey to know and love God through knowing and loving ourselves. The opportunities – those things we call mistakes – are abundant and gracious.
photo credits:
ID 47377906 © Hayati Kayhan | Dreamstime.com
ID 27207843 © Xavier Allard | Dreamstime.com
Camel photo by Debra Graugnard
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