Seeking the One

An excerpt from Shaheed Baqir Sadr's work that I find very illuminating. Sadr was both a teacher and a martyr. The convergence of ilm (knowledge) and amal (practice) in his personality makes these words so precious.

"This Actually Existing Being is fit to be the ideal because He is absolute. Yet there is one thing to be noted. When man wants to acquire some light from this limitless source of light, obviously he can acquire it only in a limited and measurable quantity. Whatever he acquires has definite limits, whereas the absolute ideal has no such limits. He is neither perceptible nor imaginable. Yet the light which man acquires from Him is definitely restricted within exact limits, though the ideal is not restricted within any limits. That is why Islam insists that one must always distinguish Allah, the ideal from all that exists in one's mind.

One must make difference even between Allah and His Divine Names. Islam emphasizes that the Divine Name is not to be worshipped. Only the named is to be worshipped, for the name has mental existence only. Its relation with Allah is only mental. Therefore the named is to be worshipped, not the name, for while the named is absolute, the name is limited like all mental ideas. Allah is Self-existing and does not depend on any one or any thing. He is far from having any characteristic qualities attributable to the creation."

(Source: Trends of History in Quran, Chap: Selection of Ideal)

This relates to what Imam Jafar Sadiq said to Hisham b. al-Hakam: "God, the Exalted, should not be compared to anything, nor should anything be compared to Him. Whatever comes to the imagination is other than God."

But, despite their limitations, human beings are blessed by His invitation to seek Him, to connect with Him, the One, the Limitless, the Eternal, by using their hearts and minds.

"Call upon Allah, or call upon Rahman: by whatever name ye call upon Him, (it is well): for to Him belong the Most Beautiful Names."
- Quran 17:110

Rumi shares the Divine invitation with such poetic beauty:

Each moment contains a hundred messages from God
To every cry of "Oh Lord"
He answers a hundred times, "I am here."

The love of God is like a fire in the heart that burns away the dirt of all worldly desires and fears. See Sadr's 'Heart to Heart Talk' from the same book here.