It takes an Earthquake

It takes an Earthquake

1992 3-4 March-April 10-11 It takes an Earthquake (476) If a man is to enter Paradise, he cannot do so after living a life full of errors of omission and commission, with a deaf ear turned resolutely to his conscience. If he is to enter heaven’s gates, a whole moral revolution must take place within him. And it must be of such an intensity that it is like a veritable earthquake. If this seems a very high price to pay, it must be remembered that it is in every way commensurate with the divine refinement of the Paradise he hopes to secure.

In every man lies hidden a great divine being. But that being must be nurtured and released, very much in the way that an enormous amount of energy is released from an atom when it is smashed. Man’s real task in his current life of trial is to produce just such an explosion from within, so that, that hidden divine self may make its appearance.

Every man is born in tune with the nature of his Maker. But circumstances, traditions, desires, and many other such pressures, draw veil after veil across his moral vision: blunting his perceptions and muting his conscience. He gradually comes to live out his life according to the way his thinking has been conditioned. If he is to make any spiritual progress, he must recognize the artificiality of these veils and tear them aside, no matter what the material cost.

Making a break with one’s own mental make-up is definitely one of the most difficult things one can attempt. But it is in the struggle to undertake this task that God has kept hidden all the secrets of His blessings for human beings. The Qur’an says that when man makes this necessary break, his psyche is transcended and raised to the level of the divine.

The divine nature once awakened in him, he becomes the direct recipient of God’s blessings. He leaves this world of limitations and enters a world of boundless joy. Just as his thinking becomes divine, so also does his moral sense. This happens in the same way that a beautiful tree emerges from a seed. But the most important factor is that the seed should be willing to break open and ultimately, to destroy itself, so that this should happen.

In every man, there is a divine being who can enter the gates of heaven in the hereafter. But this hidden man can come into being only when the outer self is ready to produce an inner revolution of the intensity of an earthquake.

In .order to promote his worldly desires, and for the sake of expediency, man places everything he cherishes at stake. Whereas detachment from material goals and a refusal to act out of expediency would immediately open the gates of heaven to him. Unfortunately, most people are unaware of this vital truth.