The Twenty-Ninth Flash

Preface

Thirteen years ago, my heart combined with my mind and urged me to the way of reflective thought which the Qur’an of Miraculous Exposition commands with such verses as,

That you may consider.(2:219; 2:266) * Perchance they may reflect.(7:176, etc.) *   Do they not reflect in their own minds, did God create the heavens and the earth?(30:8) * There are signs for those who consider.(13:3, etc.)

The Hadith the meaning of which is “An hour’s reflective thought is better than a year’s [supererogatory] worship”1  states that on occasion an hour’s reflection may be equivalent to a  year’s worship. It also offers powerful encouragement for reflective thought. For myself, in order to preserve the extensive lights and lengthy truths which appeared  to my mind and heart during the thirteen years I have followed this way, I recorded a number of phrases by way of indications, not to point out those lights but to indicate their existence, facilitate reflection, and preserve the order. I used to recite the phrases to  myself  verbally in  varying  Arabic  terms when  I embarked on the reflection.  Although  repeated  thousands  of  times  over  this  long  period,  I  never became wearied, nor did the pleasure they afforded diminish, nor the spirit’s need of them lessen. For since the reflection all consisted of flashes from Qur’anic verses, the qualities of not causing weariness and preserving their sweetness, which are qualities of the verses, were represented in the mirror of that reflective thought.

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1   al-‘Ajluni, Kashf al-Khafa’, i, 143; al-Ghazali, Ihya’ ‘Ulum al-Din, iv, 409 (Kitab al-Tafakkur);

al-Haythami, Majma‘ al-Zawa’id, i, 78.