They Won't Let Me Go!

Words are spoken according to the capacity of the listeners. If beginners do not know how to draw wisdom out, how can it come forth? Once they breathe in, then wisdom will fill their hearts. But they say, “For heaven’s sake, why aren’t the words spoken?” The answer is, “For heaven’s sake, why don’t you draw this wisdom in?” Whoever withholds the power to listen also withholds from the speaker the impulse to speak. 

In the time of the Prophet, a certain unbeliever had a Muslim slave who was a man of true substance. One morning the unbeliever ordered his slave, “Fetch basins. I am going to the baths.” the way they passed by the Prophet praying in the mosque with his companions. The slave said, “Master, for God’s good sake take this bowl for a moment, so that I can make a few genuflections, then I will attend to you.” Entering the mosque, he prayed. The Prophet came out with his companions. The slave remained alone in the mosque. His master waited for him till mid-morning, then he shouted, “Come out, slave!” 

The slave answered, “They won’t let me go, as the work has gone beyond bounds.” The master put his head inside the mosque to see who it was that would not let the slave go. Except for a shoe and a shadow he saw no one. Nobody stirred. He said, “Well, who is it that won’t let you come out?” 

The slave replied, “The same One who will not allow you to come in, the very same One whom you cannot see.” 

People always want to see new things that they have not yet seen. Night and day they seek after new experiences. They are slaves of anything they have not yet enjoyed, but become bored and run away from what they have already heard and understood. For this reason the philosophers reject the Vision of God, saying, “If you can become bored with what you see, this cannot be truth.” 

The Sunni theologians say, “This could occur only if God was single-colored. But in truth He comes forth in a hundred colors, every instant.” “Every day He is upon a task.” If God should reveal Itself a hundred thousand times, not one moment would resemble another. Every instant you see God’s display and yet not even one act resembles another. In times of happiness you see one display, in times of weeping you find another. During moments of fear you see one face, during hope another. Since God’s creations and His acts vary infinitely, not one like another, so you can be sure the display of His Essence also varies endlessly. 

You, too, being a single spark of God’s flame, change a thousand times every instant and never stay the same.
Fihi Ma Fih - Discourse 27