In the Arabic language many of the names that men and/or women have are based on the names of God. They’re based on the ninety-nine names that God has that are recited in a little book called the asma’ ul-husna which usually states those names and then defines them. And one of the things that Muslims do is: prior to beginning anything, prior to eating, prior to starting a venture, as an opening they say, “Bismillahir-Rahmanir-Rahim” which means “in the name of Allah, the merciful and the compassionate”, and “Rahman” and “Rahim” are two of the names of Allah.
In the prayer when The Witnessing is said, it’s said “ʾašhadu ʾal lā ilāha illa l-Lāh, wa ʾašhadu ʾanna muḥammad ʿabduhu wa rasūlu-llāh.” which means: “I bear witness that God is God, and I bear witness that Muhammed is His rasul, his messenger, and his abd, slave,” and many of the names have “abd”, the word “slave”, in front of them. Like “Abdul Rahman”, “Abdul Rahim”, “Abdul Allah” and so forth.
So, when you have these elevated names, or you’re given these elevated names, there’s usually a prefix of “slave of” or “the One who is submitted to” which brings us to the word “submission”.
Islam is supposed to be a religion of submission. So what does that mean? What does it mean to submit to Rahman, to submit to mercy? What does it mean to submit to Rahim, to submit to compassion? What does it mean to submit to Allah, to submit to God? What is submission to the higher plane? What is submission to the Holy Names? What is submission to the Higher Qualities? What does it mean to submit to them?
Well in this world, lots of people are slaves to lots of things. We’ve all heard the expression, “He’s a slave to his desire”, “He’s a slave to his fears”, “He’s a slave to his compulsions”. It means that people become so attached to portions of their worldly life that they no longer control the interaction between themselves and the world, but the world controls the interaction between itself and man.
An alcoholic will have trouble passing a bottle of liquor without drinking some. Now that would mean that they’ve lost control over their ability to withstand the temptation, or the call, or the need for the liquor. So you might, in a way, say that they have submitted to the control of liquor.
A thief, if he saw a wallet on the street would have trouble passing it by, or would have trouble picking it up and looking inside and see whose it was, and giving it back to him. So he’s submitted to the greed of wanting money under any circumstances. There is no longer an overriding principle as to how to obtain his money because he’s submitted to greed as opposed to other things.
So what does it mean to submit to mercy? What does it mean to submit to compassion? What does it mean to submit to gratitude? What does it mean to submit to peace? What does it mean?
Let’s talk about peace first. In order to be peaceful we need to be without all of the things that cause us disease. We need to be without all of the things that pull our peace from us. If we can’t be peaceful, then it means that we have submitted to the things that take our peace away from us, we’ve submitted to the non-peaceful, we’ve submitted to the things that cause trauma to our peace. We’ve submitted to the things that cause anxiety. And what is it, for the most part, that causes anxiety? It is about having needs and/or desires and not having them fulfilled. So the things that cause us a lack of peace are unfulfilled needs.
Now needs, by the very word, gives us the idea of needing to have, of having to have, and that then gives us the idea of grasping for, taking. Well taking, is quite the opposite of submitting. So when one is captured by the world, when one becomes a slave to the glitters and the magnetisms of illusion and spends his time trying to fulfill those needs, one has left peace, and he’s left peace for need…
