Dealing With Difficulties – Abdur Rahman’s Corner
Peace, one and all…
Every life has its share of difficulties. Everyone has their lessons to learn, and their issues to struggle with. In a recent reading of the Mevlevi Evrad-i Serif, I was struck by the following passages from Surah al-Talaq:
‘…And to everyone who is conscious of God, God always prepares a way of emergence, and provides for him in ways he could never imagine, and for everyone who places trust in God, God is sufficient…’ (Quran 65:2-3)
It spoke deeply to me of my own personal trials, and how to deal with them. Allah has given me these tests, for my own growth, from His overflowing love. They have not arisen by chance, but by conscious design. The Divine Intelligence is continually shaping the events of my life, guiding me towards liberation and a beautiful homecoming. I have to listen deeply and struggle against my difficulties, realising that I am, in large part, the cause of my own problems.
When I got to work that morning, I opened the Quran (as is my usual custom), taking the first ayah my eyes saw as a reflection point.
قَالَ رَجُلَانِ مِنَ ٱلَّذِينَ يَخَافُونَ أَنْعَمَ ٱللَّهُ عَلَيْهِمَا ٱدْخُلُوا۟ عَلَيْهِمُ ٱلْبَابَ فَإِذَا دَخَلْتُمُوهُ فَإِنَّكُمْ غَـٰلِبُونَ ۚ وَعَلَى ٱللَّهِ فَتَوَكَّلُوٓا۟ إِن كُنتُم مُّؤْمِنِينَ ٢٣
Yet two men whom God had blessed among those who were afraid said, ‘Go in to them through the gate and when you go in you will overcome them. If you are true believers, put your trust in God.’ (Quran 5:23)
As I set about my morning’s work, I kept returning to the phrase ‘Go in to them through the gate’. This ayah deals with the difficulties faced by the Bani Isra’il in the course of their early wars. Fear of defeat, and what it might say about us, lies behind so many of our burdens. Fear itself can become an attachment. We can allow ourselves to become shackled to our fear, to our own disempowerment. It is only divine assistance that can free us: ‘Yet two men whom God has blessed among those who were afraid…’, as the ayah begins. Allah is al-Fatah, the Opener, the Liberator. We are instructed to face God within the midst of our difficulty, not as a means of avoidance but as the Source of Aid Itself.
The way through our trials are to enter them honestly, to realise that they come to us from Allah, and that they are the means of liberating some part of ourselves. Our trials are themselves a door out of some unhelpful attitude, of some troublesome behaviour. Understanding situations requires acceptance of their reality, of not trying to bypass them. Trials are difficulties, and though acknowledging their Source helps, we are still required to struggle, to make an effort.
The gate is thus the real means of emergence. Conscious acceptance of our trials and willing effort is what transforms difficulties and brings about healing. God consciousness (taqwa) is also essential. We need prayer to ask God to open and heal the deeper, hidden causes at work. We need constant attention and practice, we need to remember God as we work, and this is the dhikr we need. We need to work honestly, and have the beautiful names of God upon our tongue as we do so.
يَسْـَٔلُونَكَ عَنِ ٱلْأَهِلَّةِ ۖ قُلْ هِىَ مَوَٰقِيتُ لِلنَّاسِ وَٱلْحَجِّ ۗ وَلَيْسَ ٱلْبِرُّ بِأَن تَأْتُوا۟ ٱلْبُيُوتَ مِن ظُهُورِهَا وَلَـٰكِنَّ ٱلْبِرَّ مَنِ ٱتَّقَىٰ ۗ وَأْتُوا۟ ٱلْبُيُوتَ مِنْ أَبْوَٰبِهَا ۚ وَٱتَّقُوا۟ ٱللَّهَ لَعَلَّكُمْ تُفْلِحُونَ ١٨٩
‘They ask you [Prophet] about crescent moons. Say, ‘They show the times appointed for people, and for the pilgrimage.’ Goodness does not consist of entering houses by the back [door]; the truly good person is the one who is mindful of God. So enter your houses by their [main] doors and be mindful of God so that you may prosper.’ (Quran 2:189)
At lunchtime, I opened the beautiful Fifty Poems of Attar. Poem 17 seemed to fit this situation perfectly:
The love of her beauty is a sea of fire.
If you’re a lover you’ll burn; such is the Path.
When a bright candle’s flame suddenly heaves
won’t the moth burn? Its burning is certain.
If you want love’s secret leave unfaith and faith.
What room is there for them in love’s entrance?
The lover who comes to the Path’s first stage
falls in frailty like a shadow on the ground.
After a while nothing remains of the shadow
because the sun lies in wait in a distant place.
Many thousands of travellers made pretence to Love.
Mansur is like the gemstone on the seal of the Path.
Anyone who claims the pearl of truth from this sea
is forever cherished in the courts of both worlds.
The task of this Path is extremely arduous;
one person each millennium sees the Path through.
How will you know the Persons of this Path? for they
first walk on this Path, then on Seventh Heaven.
Along the Path Attar came upon a place
higher than the body and soul, outside of love and hate.
Attar, Fifty Poems of Attar, no. 17
The work before us is difficult. Escaping the ego’s trap is so difficult that we cannot do it unaided, not least because the problem is intimately connected to the way we view the world. We ourselves are the problem, by which I mean the ‘we’ that we commonly experience as ‘us’. It is only love that releases us. It is only the divine that can help us.
This is love’s path, so burn truly. Burn in truth. Let the dross burn away. Remember love. Do love. Step outside of yourself.
