"All upon it will disappear
the face of your lord endures forever
majestic and giving
all on earth and all in the heavens implore his favor
each new day a dispensation"
~ from Approaching the Qu'ran: The Early Revelations, by Michael Sells
“All upon it (upon the earth, the seas, the cosmic spheres) will pass away or disappear. The created world that results from the action of the Compassionate is fleeting (f'nin). Only “the face of your lord” endures. The next verse proclaims that “all on earth and in the heavens implore him.” Earlier, verse 6 had alluded to “the stars and the trees bent low in worship,” with the implication that the sun and trees stood for all created beings in ceaseless prayer, grateful for their existence. Here, in verse 27, the prayer is one of petition and in each new day the Compassionate responds with a new “dispensation” (sha’n). These verses took a specific importance in Islamic theology, poetry, and mysticism. Theologians saw them as affirming that God creates the world anew every moment; that the created universe in constantly oscillating between annihilation (fana’) and recreation. Poets read the verses as indicating that in every moment the divine beloved approaches the human love and in every moment departs, leaving the love in a constant state of longing, caught between the joy of union and the sorrow of separation. Sufis read the verses as indicating the passing away or annihilation of the ego-self and the subsequent remaining of the vision of God in the heart of the Sufi. In this regard, Sufis quoted a
hadith in which God announces: “When I love my servant, I become the hearing with which he hears, the seeing with which he sees, the hands with which he touches, and the feet with which he walks.” For some Sufis interpreters, the divine state dispensation in every new day signifies the constant transformation of the deity within its manifestations and actions in the world, the constant passing away and recreation of the Sufi in contemplation of the divine, and the need of the servant of God to be open to each new divine command, appearance, and form of self-manifestation in each new moment."
the face of your lord endures forever
majestic and giving
all on earth and all in the heavens implore his favor
each new day a dispensation"
~ from Approaching the Qu'ran: The Early Revelations, by Michael Sells
“All upon it (upon the earth, the seas, the cosmic spheres) will pass away or disappear. The created world that results from the action of the Compassionate is fleeting (f'nin). Only “the face of your lord” endures. The next verse proclaims that “all on earth and in the heavens implore him.” Earlier, verse 6 had alluded to “the stars and the trees bent low in worship,” with the implication that the sun and trees stood for all created beings in ceaseless prayer, grateful for their existence. Here, in verse 27, the prayer is one of petition and in each new day the Compassionate responds with a new “dispensation” (sha’n). These verses took a specific importance in Islamic theology, poetry, and mysticism. Theologians saw them as affirming that God creates the world anew every moment; that the created universe in constantly oscillating between annihilation (fana’) and recreation. Poets read the verses as indicating that in every moment the divine beloved approaches the human love and in every moment departs, leaving the love in a constant state of longing, caught between the joy of union and the sorrow of separation. Sufis read the verses as indicating the passing away or annihilation of the ego-self and the subsequent remaining of the vision of God in the heart of the Sufi. In this regard, Sufis quoted a
hadith in which God announces: “When I love my servant, I become the hearing with which he hears, the seeing with which he sees, the hands with which he touches, and the feet with which he walks.” For some Sufis interpreters, the divine state dispensation in every new day signifies the constant transformation of the deity within its manifestations and actions in the world, the constant passing away and recreation of the Sufi in contemplation of the divine, and the need of the servant of God to be open to each new divine command, appearance, and form of self-manifestation in each new moment."
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