When we look at each other we see bodies, and these bodies are made up of the elements; they’re made up of earth, air, fire, water and ether. Yet if we do an examination of ourselves, we will find that the earth, air, fire, water and ether part of our bodies that we see is subject to disappearing; it’s subject to degrading. It’s subject to destruction. There is a communal contract among the elements within the body to exist together for a certain period of time, but then there comes a time when the earth goes its way, the water goes its way, the fire goes its way… the different elements each go their own way, and the communal agreement to sustain this body leaves. When that happens death comes. Unless the elements work in unity the body can’t function.
If that’s true, then we must be truly something other than this body. One of the great paradoxes of our existence is we seem to be this body but we are not this body. We seem to be made of the elements but we are not made of the elements. We are something different than that.
Allah is without form and without elemental construction. There is a part of us that is also without form and without elemental construction, and that is the soul. Somehow we need to find that part of ourselves. We have to learn somehow to detach from all of that which the body influences us, we have to detach from all of the body’s needs, we have to detach from doing the work of the body.
The body has a whole list of desires, and of needs, and we somehow have to overcome these desires and needs in order to find that part that is not elemental. As long as we deal with the elemental and that becomes, and is, the main focus of our attention, it’s very difficult, maybe impossible; to get in touch with that part of us that’s non-elemental. A very simple example of how religious doctrine tries to get you to that point is fasting. As long as we’re attached to food, then we are attached to maintaining this body. If we can fast, we can detach ourselves from one of the main elemental needs, or desires, of the body. That’s one of the reasons for fasting.
It is said that only God can pray to God. God is non-elemental, God is without form. So question: is it possible to pray to God through form? Is it possible to use form as a way to praise the formless?
