IN HEROD'S KEEP
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He does whatever He pleases and none may dispute Him. He chooses and none may question His choice. He blesses and curses whom He will and nothing may thwart His purpose.
He prevails in His ends, though most men do not know. He decrees a
thing “be” and it is. He is the Creator of Heaven and Hell and all that is
between them. Not a breath
is drawn without His explicit command.
In
the religion of God, the unbelievers say, are fetters to bind men. But in the
limits revealed by the Apostles of God there are myriad freedoms, and He
permits even the freedom of unbelief.
When
he was a child, Jesus, the son of Mary, was playing with the boys of his
neighborhood. Several of them ventured onto a rooftop. Jesus told them to come
down. The boys did not listen. One of the boys slipped from the roof, fell down
and died. The other boys ran away. Jesus stayed beside the boy’s body in the
dust.
The
dead child’s parents accused Jesus: “What have you done to our son?” Jesus did
not answer, and the parents said, “You pushed him off the rooftop and killed
him!” Jesus stood over the boy and said, “Who threw you down from the roof ?”
The dead child opened his mouth and said, “You did not throw me down; I slipped
and fell, though you warned us to come down.”
Jesus
said, “I set the limits and those who abide in them live and those who
disbelieve die. In the limits of the law I reveal nothing arbitrary, though to
him it seemed so. And by establishing the limits, I did not punish him; he died
of his own accord. How can you accuse me when I held out to him the hand of truth?
Call
to mind the prophets Noah, and Salih, and Hud. They counseled the people but the people
rejected them. They came as warners and helpers, but the people refused them
and humiliated them. What will be said of the unbelievers except that they will
understand the meaning of neither mercy
nor wrath? They will bemoan
His blessings and rejoice at His wrath against them.
Joseph
and Pharaoh traveled along the Nile to survey Egypt. Three years of drought had
parched the land,
but Pharaoh’s granaries were
still overflowing because he had heeded Joseph’s counsel. Now Pharaoh and
Joseph came upon a farmer and his many sons. The farmer had yoked his youngest
son to the plow and he and his older sons whipped him and mocked him as he
plowed the dust.
Pharaoh
stopped and spoke roughly to the father, saying, ‘Why are you torturing this
boy?’
The
farmer fell on his face, groveled and said, ‘Lord, he has offended me.’
Pharaoh
said, ‘What did he do?’
The
man said, ‘Lord, he is violent and disrespectful. He struck his mother’s face
until her eyes were swollen shut. And yesterday, my other sons offered me water
while I worked in the field, but the boy struck the cup from my hand!’
Pharaoh
turned to Joseph and said, ‘Like afflicts like. The man is a brute and has raised
a brutish son and punishes him for it.’
But Joseph,
who saw into their
hearts, said, ‘The
boy is innocent.’
Pharaoh
said, ‘But he beat his mother and attacked his father. Is his father lying?’
Joseph
said, ‘He is not lying, but his knowledge is still no more than ignorance. The
boy’s brothers poisoned their mother and, to save her from a sleep from which
she would never awake, the boy struck her three times to wake her. His mother
asked him, “Why did you strike me?” But the boy was silent; he concealed the
wrongdoing of his brothers.
When
his brothers put poison in their father’s cup, the boy dashed
it to the ground before it could touch his father’s lips. His father asked him,
“Why have you done this?” But the boy said nothing; he loved his brothers. At
these assaults, his parents beat him. And having ruined his brothers’ attempts
on the lives of their parents, the boy was afflicted by them with vile
tortures.’
Pharaoh
unyoked the boy and took him from his father and his brothers. The father
rejoiced to be rid of this unruly child. The brothers rejoiced that the boy
could no longer stand between them and their inheritance.
Pharaoh
appointed the farmer’s son a minister of his government and gave him a wife
from among his daughters.
His father and mother meantime, were murdered by his
brothers. And his brothers each turned one against the other and were crucified
for their various crimes. When word of this came to the youth, he was
distraught.
But
Joseph said to him, ‘Consider how wayward they were. When you showed them true
mercy, they reviled you and put you in
chains. When you were taken from them
and prevented any longer from interceding between themselves and their
destruction, they considered this good fortune.’”
Whatever
you possess, surrender. Whatever you desire, refuse. Whomever you love,
renounce. When the believer bows down in the dust, he does not worship the
dust.
His
is the ultimate authority to command and no commands whatsoever but His are
binding. Make no partners with God, for He is the Peerless, the Self-Abiding.
And do not question Him or ask from Him an accounting of His doings to satisfy
your inability to comprehend.
The
disciples of Jesus went into the city to purchase food, for Jesus had said to them,
“Are you hungry?”
When
they returned, they offered him bread,
but he turned it away with his hand, saying, “You know nothing of the food I
eat.”
The
disciples said to each other, “Who has brought him food?” But none knew. They
had not parted from one another’s company all day. They said to him,
“Lord, did you eat while we were
away?”
Jesus
said, “No. I have fasted all day.”
The
disciples said to themselves, “He contradicts himself. How will he teach us
when he himself cannot tell truth from error?”
Knowing
their thoughts, Jesus said, “You think I’m a hypocrite because you do not know
that my appetite is different than yours. You
hunger after things
of the world.
Remember this when I speak to you, so that you will see in my contradiction your condemnation.”
Whatever
they accuse Him of, the wages of their falsehood fall back on them, excepting
those who repent. He is the Merciful, the Forgiving.
Do
not seek beauty or friend or yet helper from any but Him. He is the Ancient
Beauty, the Peerless Friend, the Only Helper.
When
Jesus came to the Mount of Olives, he sent two disciples to the village to
fetch for him the colt of an ass. This he commanded to fulfill the prophecy of
Zechariah. These disciples came upon a colt on which no man had ever sat and
untied it.
The owners demanded, “Why are you untying our colt? Would you be
accused as thieves?” The disciples answered, “It is for the Lord, and no man’s
accusations are more terrible than to disobey him.”
The
disciples returned to Jesus with the
colt. They laid their garments on its back and they set their Lord on the
beast. And as Jesus approached Jerusalem, he was met by the multitudes who
cheered him and reached out their hands to touch the hem of his garment, or
even to stroke the colt on which he rode.
The
people called out to him, saying, “Bless us, Lord!” They cast their own
garments and also branches of trees before the path of the Lord, to soften his
approach and to honor him.
Jesus
came to the Temple and alighted from the colt and turned away from the crowd.
He told his disciples, “Return this colt to its owner.”
But
the people said, “Lord, give us this colt that it might be a remembrance of
you, that we might honor it and give it comfort and peace all the days of its
life. We would die rather than see any harm come to it.”
Jesus
said, “He is a beast fit for labor, not for praise. While I am with you, I am
remembrance enough. Will you not honor me and live me comfort and peace? In all the
worlds only one has died with me, but you would all die for an ass.
Set
your hearts on me, not on the colt that brought me. Though you may imagine you
are remembering me when you invoke the colt, in truth you have forgotten me.”
He
is the Incomparable, the Self-Sufficing. Nothing whatsoever may thwart His
purpose. He is All-Knowing, All-Seeing. There is nothing you conceal from Him,
though the world may account you blameless. Such is their accounting!
A
man, famous for his piety, was being praised by a people who had gathered to
partake of his pious company. They extolled his greatness to his face for many
hours, praising him ceaselessly. Yet
the man did
not respond to
their flattery but
looked troubled.
A
friend tugged at his sleeve, “Such praise should please you. But you sit without
speaking, as though these praises were curses.”
The
man replied, “Such praise saddens me. For every virtue I have paraded before
men’s eyes, I am reminded of two faults I have successfully concealed.”
To whom
will you turn but to the
Lord for forgiveness? Remember the words of Iblis to
the unbelievers when, on the Last Day, the tribes of men were called together
before God. Iblis said, “God’s promise to you was true, but I renounce my
promises.
And
do not accuse me. I am blameless. Your crimes do not fall on me, nor am I
guilty for your disbelief. I but called and you responded to my call. Blame
only yourselves and seek no helper except God for He is the Most Merciful, the
All-Forgiving.”
When
Noah was building his ark according to God’s command, he asked, “Who among the
people will survive His anger?”
The
Angel of God said, “All who take refuge with you will survive.” But
Noah doubted and said, “Will He spare my family?”
The
Angel said, “He will spare you and your family and all those who believe. He is
Merciful, Forgiving.”
After
Noah heard this, he was relieved for the sake of his wife, Emzara, whom he
loved more than his own life, and for his four sons. But when the flood came,
Noah’s favorite son would not board the ark. Noah
said to him, “Come aboard with me and be saved.”
But
the son said, “I will climb to the top of the mountain where. I
will be safe from the flood.”
Noah
said, “There is no shelter but with Him. Why do you seek another shelter?”
A
great wave rose up between the father
and his son and separated them. The waters swept the son
away to his death. Noah
mourned and remembered God’s promise. The Angel of God said to him, “Why
do you doubt His promise to you?”.
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