Understanding The Meaning of Existence and Cultivating Space for Growth
Oct 27, 2024
Like all of you I'm a helpless witness, live from my telephone, to the events unfolding at this very moment and for over a year now in Palestine, and now in Lebanon.
Faced with so much horror, it's only human to ask ourselves the meaning of this existence, and why is there so much pain and injustice. It is in the Sacred Word that I always find the answer to this kind of questioning, and these last few days, I've found the answer and meditation in verse 30 of the 41st Surah, named “Surah Fussilat”, from which I'd like to share with you my reading and a translation.
إِنَّ الَّذِينَ قَالُوا رَبُّنَا اللَّهُ ثُمَّ اسْتَقَامُوا عَلَيْهِمُ الْمَلَائِكَةُ أَلَّا تَخَافُوا وَلَا تَحْزَنُوا وَأَبْشِرُوا بِالْجَنَّةِ الَّتِي كُنتُمْ تُوعَدُونَ
This verse is commonly translated in many translations found on the market as:
“Those who say, “Our Lord is Allah,” and stand in the right path, the Angels descend upon them. 'Do not be afraid or distressed; but have the good news of the Paradise that was promised to you.’"
As for my reading, I see this verse as essential as it summarizes for us nothing less than the meaning of our existence. This may not be obvious with the translation I've just shared with you, a translation found on the internet, but I invite you to follow me in this present article, and perhaps you will come to understand, by following my reasoning, why I see in this verse an essential message for all mankind.
In Arabic, the beginning of the verse is “inna l-ladhina qalou Rabbuna Allah”: “those who say ‘our Rabb‘ is ’Allah'...”. The use of two different words requires of us to take the time to translate “Rabb” and “Allah”. “Rabb” refers to the function of ‘tarbiya’, i.e. the function of education, watchfulness and development that the Divine exercises over all His Creation. “Allah” refers to the Source of all existence, the All-There-Is, the Supreme Being from Whom all things come. Thus, the verse can be translated as follows: “Those who say: ‘Our Educator and Teacher, the One who cares for us and watches over our growth and development, is the Supreme Being, the All-There-Is’…"
The verse therefore speaks of those who see and recognize themselves as pupils of the Divine, and who see this whole earthly existence as a class in which they are given the opportunity to learn and grow, and who therefore hope to leave this life having become holier and more aware. They are the ones who take care to preserve a space in which this growth and development can take place.
It's not for nothing that the Divine Intelligence has chosen to use the term “those who say Rabbuna", and not, for example, “those who worship Allah”, or “those who say la ilaha illa Allah”, or other characteristics. The verse does indeed refer to a particular category of people: to those who say, and if they say it it's because they live it, that “Rabbunna Allah”: “we perceive this life as an opportunity to learn and grow, we accept everything that may arise in this existence as a lesson, we are in “tarbiya”, we are planted seeds that are in perpetual growth, in constant development”. Now, not everyone ‘says’ this, that is, not everyone envisages life and the relationship to the Divine as being a student-teacher relationship, as a learning bond that seeks human development and growth.
The verse continues with “thouma staqamou”, which I would translate as “and who cultivate a space to make themselves available for the Divine to come and strengthen them (qawama), but also, to be ‘straightened out’ (istiqama). The terms “staqamou” and “istiqama” come from the same root as “moustaqim”, which doesn't mean “straight”, as is usually the case in translations, but speaks of “rising up”, “rebalancing upwards”, “returning to verticality”, or, in other words, of those who let the Divine put them back on their feet after having fallen.
Next the verse informs us that these people just described, those who see the Divine Intelligence as their teacher and who make themselves available and permeable to receive the teaching and grow in its light, receive help: the help of the “malaikah”, a term that is translated as “angels”, but which literally means “assistants” or “reinforcements”. Angels are assistants, not of the Divine, who needs no assistants, but of the conscious beings that are jinns and humans. Angels are the pure consciousnesses that remind us of the consciousness of our spirit before incarnation, for the latter, before coming to incarnate on earth, swam in their world, and it has not forgotten this passage in this angelic presence and still knows and recognizes their language.
So for those seekers of God who see life as a school, and consider everything that happens to them in this life as a lesson, for those who have made themselves available, the help of the Angels is made close, that is, it becomes accessible to their level of feeling and perception. These helpers tell them, the verse tells us: “fear nothing for the future, regret nothing from the past, and touch that hidden dimension of blessings to which you are invited”. In other words: fear nothing for the future, be neither stressed nor anxious, for the Teacher knows what to do, you are in Good Hands. And “regret nothing of the past”, for as long as you breathe, new opportunities for you to learn and grow will always present themselves to you, until you can touch with your finger and tangly experience that hidden dimension of existence called “Jannah”: the secret gardens of paradise, a dimension that is already available here and now.
Their discourse continues in the next verse (V.31), where they say: “We are your ‘awliya’, your allies, your helpers, your friends in this earthly dimension of existence and in the next”. This is the message of friendship that the Angels send to those who recognize the All-There-Is, the Source of their existence, as their Teacher, and who make themselves available to walk the path, permeable to experience life, accepting to be shaken up and then put back on their feet.
It seems to me that these two verses sum up the purpose of our existence, that our goal must be to hear this message. I would even say that if a person encounters difficulties and manages to hear this message, I see him or her in a better position and condition than someone who is not going through difficulties, but who cannot manage to hear it. Because hearing this message means that we have understood the meaning of life, and that is indeed the goal of our passage on earth.
The more I observe what's happening in Palestine, the more emotionally I realize that our Palestinian brothers and sisters have truly understood the meaning of life. They're going through so much pain and suffering, but you can see them hearing this message, constantly. You can see how they've made themselves available, how they manage to understand that the goal is not this material existence, but rather that the goal is to know: “what should my response to my context be?”. “If I'm placed in such and such a situation, what am I supposed to do?”
I think every human being should seek to read their own context and ask themselves what their “istiqama” is, their own way of making themselves available for growth and improvement in said context.
May God inspire and help us in this direction. Ameen.
