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Religion
The World Is Pregnant with God
“The world is pregnant with God.” For Angela of Foligno, the discovery of God depends on three arts: “presence,” “love,” and “prayer.” By freeing oneself from the mind and seeing with the eye of love, one can discover God in the signs of existence.
One Christian mystic has an astonishing expression about God, which to my eyes is among the most eloquent; though to some it may seem blasphemous or nonsensical. Angela of Foligno says: “The world is pregnant with God.”
This statement not only expresses the world’s overflowing fullness of God, but also recounts the truth that a world pregnant with God needs to give birth. One who knows midwifery can attain the discovery of God. The world is brimming with God, is pregnant with God; and a pregnant world must deliver. But how?!
“Presence,” “Love,” and “Prayer”
When we are adorned with these three arts, we attain His discovery, and God overflows from the veins of existence into the veins of our soul.
Attar said: “The world is full of You, and the world is unaware of You.” We are often absent in the world and from the world. Where we are most present is the realm of the mind. Our body is present, but our senses are absent. In truth, the mind’s intoxicants do not allow our senses to touch the world. Have you ever heard of the present-absent being? When, liberated from the prison of the mind, we connect with the world, that is when we have “presence.”
It has often happened that heartwarming melodies are resounding around us, but we are so immersed in our thoughts, in memories, desires, and anxieties, that we have no “presence” in relation to those songs and tunes. Especially in an age of abundant news production and consumption, which has practically led to the inflation of our minds, along with the ever-increasing acceleration of urban life and technology, our unmediated connection with the world has been severely weakened. Haste and the lust for news are two major obstacles on the path of “presence.”
Imagine you are driving and must be attentive to see a location sign and turn toward it. But suddenly thoughts invade your mind, and consequently, that guide sign does not catch your eye. According to religious teachings, the world, in its entirety, is an āyah, and āyah means sign. God can only be discovered through His āyāt, or signs; but if we lack total and complete presence, alertness, and wakefulness, we will pass by the signs unaware. If presence is absent, the world is no longer a collection of signs. It has a material dimension but lacks a signifying dimension. The signifying realm of the world is only attained in a state of presence. Apparently, what the mystics referred to as “seeking” was precisely this presence filled with vigilance:
“A dervish asked: ‘Where shall I seek Him?’ He replied: ‘Where did you seek that you did not find? If you take one step of sincerity on the path of seeking, in whatever you look upon, you will see Him.’” (Asrār al-Tawhīd, Muhammad ibn Munawwar)
It is for this reason that Christian Bobin says God is not an idea, but a life filled with vigilance and sensitivity. Only when we live with presence and awakened senses will we feel God:
“God is not a thought or an idea, but the bluish, formless vapor left by children’s snail-like lips on the glass, the care for ordinary life—a profound, contemplative peace of heart.” (A Killer as Pure as Snow, Christian Bobin, translated by Farzaneh Mehri)
“Perhaps God is only the sign of our sensitivity, our finest nerve fiber, a golden wire a thousandth of a millimeter thick. A wire that in some is broken, and in others vibrates with full force.” (Same source)
“In the past, children were taught that God is in the heavens, but who will teach them that heaven is on earth and everywhere, and shines forth in simple things?” (Prisoner of the Cradle, Christian Bobin, translated by Mahvash Ghavimi)
The other art is love. We can only experience God when we have a loving encounter with existence and existents. The sacred and divine dimension and realm of the world becomes manifest to us when we look with the eye of love. Love makes things transparent and allows us to see the inner layers of beings. Like a dust-covered mirror that shows nothing, and only the breath of love can wipe the dust from its face.
Love scatters dust from the world and reveals the divine face of everything. Victor Hugo writes: “God is behind all things, but all things hide God. All objects are dark, and all creatures are veils of the beyond. To love a being is to render them transparent.” (from the novel Les Misérables)
The world is pregnant with God, and God is discoverable through presence and love. Shams Tabrizi said:
“The beloved is beheld through the eye of the lover; the trouble is that they do not behold God with the eye of love, they behold Him with the eye of knowledge, with the eye of gnosis, and the eye of philosophy. The eye of love is another matter entirely.” (Maqalat-e Shams)
Angela of Foligno explains her profoundly deep words, which arise from her personal revelation:
“In a revelation, I beheld everything and saw the perfection of God, and I compared and examined all of creation, that is, everything on this shore and what lies beyond the seas, hell, the sea, myself, and every other thing. And in everything I saw, I could find nothing but the glorious presence of the Lord, which was ineffable in its essence: and my soul, in every flash of bewilderment, cried out: ‘This world is pregnant with God.’...
God is present in every creature, and in everything that exists, He can be found, whether it be a wicked person or a good-natured angel, in heaven or in hell, in good things or in evil things, that is, in everything... And furthermore, I realized that His presence in a wicked person is no less than in a good-natured angel.” (Christian Mystics, Steven Fanning, translated by Farid al-Din Radmehr)
Gibran says something similar to the words of Angela of Foligno:
“If you would know God, look around you and you shall see Him playing with your children.
Look into the sky; you shall see Him walking in the clouds, stretching out His arms in the lightning, and descending with the rain. You shall see Him smiling in the flowers, then rising and waving His hands in the trees.” (The Prophet and The Madman, Kahlil Gibran, translated by Najaf Daryabandari)
The discovery of God is not possible outside of our daily life and our relationships with existence. We only need to elevate the quality of these relationships. Even in things of little value and seemingly trivial, God can be experienced, provided our gaze and heart are adorned with “presence” and “love.” “Perhaps the spiritual life is nothing other than the material life carried out with care, calmness, and perfection: when the baker performs the task of baking bread with utmost precision, God is present in the bakery.” (The Light of the World, Christian Bobin, translated by Pirouz Sayyar)
The third art is the art of prayer. Prayer, which is a dialogue with God, makes us generative from within and bestows upon our soul the necessary openness for the experience of God. In prayer, we invite God within the boundaries of our spirit and plant His seeds in the field of the heart. Prayer prepares the soil of the soul for the growth of God’s seeds and opens our windows toward God. Prayer, according to religious traditions, is the brain and soul of worship, and since, as G.K. Chesterton put it, “Faith is not a thing like a theory but resembles a love affair,” prayer is the creator and sustainer of our connection with God. Prayer guarantees an interpersonal relationship with God.
Hebel said: “When a human being prays, God breathes in him.” (Prayer: A Study in the History and Psychology of Religion, Friedrich Heiler; translated by Shahab al-Din Abbasi). Zwingli said: “Prayer is nothing other than the raising of the mind and consciousness to God.” (ibid.)
“Prayer is what Calvin calls ‘the constant exercise of faith.’ We can also say that prayer is the ‘language game of faith’ and thus has an essential link to faith. Gerhard Ebeling states that prayer is a hermeneutical key to our understanding of God, and Gerhard Sauter claims that we can only speak about God based on how we speak to God. According to Sauter, theology is anchored in prayer.” (What Are We Doing When We Pray? (On Prayer and the Nature of Faith), Vincent Brümmer, translated by Ashkan Bahrani and Masoud Rahbari)
What is of fundamental importance is the response to the thirst for God in our souls, not belief in God. Regardless of whether we believe in the personal God of the Abrahamic religions or an impersonal God, it seems that becoming filled with the feeling of God is made possible through presence, love, and prayer. In a personal conception of God as well, the abode of nature, so long as it lacks a mirror-like and sign-like aspect, is a veil, and for transcending worldly veils, we have no path available to us other than presence, love, and prayer, which open the doors of the world and the windows of the soul. Presence turns the wall of nature into a mirror; love dusts off the mirror of beings and reveals the divine aspect of everything; and finally, prayer prepares the soul. It creates a thousand windows for the abode of the heart and draws the breaths of God into our spirit.
It seems that regardless of what kind of God we believe in, "presence, love, and prayer" can answer our thirst for God.
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The World Is Pregnant with God
Sadiq Qutbi
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Discussion8 comments
این هم برداشتی است متفاوت و زیبا
لا اِلهَ اِلاَّ اللهُ عَدَدَ اللَّیالِی وَ الدُّهُورِ لا اِلهَ اِلاَّ اللهُ عَدَدَ اَمْوَاجِ الْبُحُورِ لا اِلهَ اِلاَّ اللهُ وَ رَحْمَتُهُ خَیْرٌ مِمّا یَجْمَعُونَ لا اِلهَ اِلاَّ اللَّهُ عَدَدَ الشَّوْكِ وَ الشَّجَرِ لا اِلهَ اِلاَّ اللهُ عَدَدَ الشَّعْرِ وَ الْوَبَرِ لا اِلهَ اِلاَّ اللهُ عَدَدَ الْحَجَرِ وَ الْمَدَرِ لا اِلهَ اِلاَّ اللهُ عَدَدَ لَمْحِ الْعُیُونِ لا اِلهَ اِلاَّ اللهُ فِی اللَّیْلِ اِذا عَسْعَسَ وَ الصُّبْحِ اِذا تَنَفَّسَ لا اِلهَ اِلاَّ اللهُ عَدَدَ الرِّیاحِ فِی الْبَرَارِی وَ الصُّخُورِ لا اِلهَ اِلاَّ اللهُ مِنَ الْیَوْمِ اِلىٰ یَوْمِ یُنْفَخُ فِی الصُّورِ همهی ذرات عالم «لا اِلهَ اِلاَّ اللهُ» را متجلّی میکنند؛ همهی عالم جلوهگاه خدایمتعال است
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