Sharafuddin Maneri

This reading really caught my attention from the beginning. From my own experience with religion and faith, I think most religious people do experience these first three steps of faith. The first is verbal (which I think is about telling others and God you have faith), second is sincere (which I think is truly believing it in your heart rather than just having faith on the “outside” to others), and the third is “reached when a person’s soul is illuminated in such a way that he is able to perceive every action flowing from a single source and deriving from a single agent.” The reading goes on to explain step four. It is a long description with a lot of interesting points that really made me think. For example, I liked how it said, “Before Your Unique Being, there is neither old nor new: everything is nothing, nothing at all. Yet He is what He is. How then can we remain separate from you?” When I read this, I think it is saying that to God nothing is new or old because God is eternal and outside of time. This is at least is how I have heard other people try to describe the eternal aspect of God in relation to the constant movement of time we experience and cannot control. I also think it is saying that nothing has value to God like things have value to us. We have value in so many things that are temporary and it would make sense for God to be unconcerned with those things. Of course, I also think that there is much more meaning behind this reading than I could notice or understand. I think the point of step four is to say that God is always going to remain and that everything is rooted in God. After we die God is still the same. Ultimately losing yourself completely in God gives you a divine union with Him. “The absolutely unhampered realization of the Unique Being only occurs in this stage. “