Allah is two kinds of energy, potential and kinetic energy. You need to accept His potential energy, potentiality. Then, you need to accept His kinetics, which is the action.

ACCEPTING YOUR CAPACITY

The second thing you need to accept is your capacity. What capacity do you have? You have to accept and live with that capacity that Allah has given you. Then, the qualities and the abilities that Allah has given, you have to accept that.

For example, everybody cannot be a brain surgeon or a rocket scientist or a shaykh or a computer whiz. So, we have to accept our capacities. We cannot say if it is good or bad. Maybe the brain surgeon does not want to be a brain surgeon. It is a lot of work. Maybe he would like to be a beach bum, who has no responsibilities. Maybe he would be happier. Every shaykh does not want to be a shaykh. You have to accept your capacities, and you have to accept your duties that come with the capacities and abilities.

What else do we have to accept?

ACCEPTING THE PURPOSE OF ALLAH

The most important thing is purpose. The biggest acceptance of all for human beings, which we do not accept, is our purpose. Purpose for what? You have to accept the purpose of Allah. In order to do this, you have to have understanding. You have to have the understanding of the purpose of Allah, so you can accept His purpose. The purpose of Allah is that He wants to live with you in this body, with your consent. He wants you willingly and consciously to give yourself to Allah.

ACCEPTING THE ACTION OF ALLAH

Then, we have to accept the action of Allah. What is the action of Allah? This action is called love. The main action that Allah is looking for, from you, is love. That is to say, the thing that is going to develop, the phenomenon that is going to develop with this action is love.

THE GOAL OF SUFISM

Allah has created you. He gave you all this: hands, seeing, hearing, this machine, all this. He wants to do something with you without your objecting. And what are you doing, you are objecting. Why are you objecting? There are many reasons. One: you are not understanding; two: you want to be with your nafs , ego, and you do not want to share this kingdom with your Lord, who has given it to you to begin with.

You are objecting because you have an understanding particular to you, which is different from Allah’s understanding, and you want to act with this understanding, ignoring Allah’s purpose and the understanding that He is looking for. That way, you are trying to be god yourself and this is shirk, setting up partners with Allah. This is what Allah does not forgive.

The goal of Sufism is to overcome all this and to unite your purpose with Allah’s purpose, to unite your existence with Allah’s existence, to unite your love with Allah’s love. Everything needs to be aligned. When you start doing this, then the purpose becomes one. We call this tawhid, oneness.

This is where the combination is, in this body, Allah and you together, in oneness. Your objection to accept, to act, and to understand comes mainly from ignorance and our attachments to the desires of our nafs, which we think has priority over Allah’s wisdom. What do you want to do? Do you want Allah, or do you want you?

GLOSSARY

Islam: Accepting Allah’s terms

nafs: ego

shirk: setting up partners with God

tawhid: oneness

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