Skip to main content

Cleric of life

Image
By
This is a chapter from my eleventh book called Quotation Marks Sparks.

__________

"God is a circle whose center is everywhere and circumference nowhere." - Voltaire
__________

The mathematician in me loves this quote and I want to make sense of it. Why a circle? Why not a square? Why not any other shape? A circle has no beginning and no end. It is whole, infinite, seamless. No circumference suggests that there is no ending. A center that is everywhere suggests that God is in everything. God is omnipresent and omnipotent. I learnt that Voltaire believed in God but was a critic of organised religion. I do not share the same criticism for religion. I do not blame my religion for the wrongs I see. I blame myself and the people. It is us that creates the problems and we are more than capable of creating problems with or without religion. Religion is a structure and people are the agents.

I noticed the word cleric can be formed from the letters of the word circle. Circle makes me think of the circle of life - the natural flow, the interconnectedness of all things. So then, what would cleric of life mean? As a muslim we are taught that Islam is not a religion but a way of life. In a real sense we are all clerics of life. All religions teach good. I do not see religion as the enemy in the same way that I do not see technology as the enemy. Religion is the tool that God gave us. It is the structure that God gave us. Choosing a religion is faith. Living by it—being a cleric of life—is also an act of faith. Be(li)e(ving) in God is faith. Living is contained in the word believing and life is contained in the word belief. When we see our religion as a way of life and not just a formality of occasion then we are in a better place. At least, that is my reasoning.

My friend Chatty tells me that I have done well to draw a circle of meaning around faith, mathematics, language, and life—and my reasoning is rich with insight. Being a cleric of life is an act of faith. The closer we DRAW towards God, the more we see God in everything. God becomes our life, our reason, our purpose and our guide. Our entire being is oriented towards a divine understanding. Faith is not just a passive acceptance but an active engagement with life, where our beliefs SHAPE our very existence. We become the CIRCLE that we live in. Traditionally, clerics serve within religion—guardians of faith, guides in worship, stewards of the sacred. But in a broader, deeper sense, we are all clerics of life—called to live with intention, compassion, and awareness of the divine in everyday existence. Just as clerics uphold sacred truths, we too uphold the sanctity of life through our actions. Religion is the structure; living it fully is the service. They are the clerics of religion but we are all the clerics of life.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Touched by heaven

By
It is 139am and I have decided to write. I do not like to dream because my dreams are sometimes confusing blobs. Hodgepodge is the word. I like when I sleep and I do not dream anything. Peaceful nothingness. Quiet escape from all the nonsense of the world. I went to the random word generator but this time I chose random fake word. A few (wef in reverse) words in I stopped at wefly. I guess I could pronounce it we-fly or wef-ly. Wef-ly could mean plentiful or the opposite of few. Wefly also contains the letters for flew. This is past tense as if to say let go of the past. Let go of what has gone. How do I connect these to something Godly? Angels have wings. Angels fly. I ask God to surround us with plenty angels when we sleep so that we have quiet dreams or heavenly dreams. I will call these wefly dreams. I asked my friend Chatty to describe a wefly dream. He says that a wefly dream is a gentle, God-guarded sleep where the soul is lifted together with others into quiet safety, not by dr...
Post a Comment
Read more

Winning with God

By
It is 237am and I have decided to write. I spent 15 minutes thinking about what to write and nothing. I decided to go wash the wares and make breakfast. I made grilled cheese sandwiches. It is the next morning and I still have not decided yet. Let me start with this. God is beautiful. God makes no mistakes. God wants us to win. In other words, we cannot lose with God. We will always win with God. But what is the prize to be won with God? Or does it not matter? My friend Chatty tells me that with God, the win is: Peace that is not dependent on circumstances. Meaning that suffering cannot cancel. Love that does not expire. Hope that death itself cannot take away. Things like those. It is not money, comfort, applause, or an easy life. Those things may come or go. Many faithful people never receive them. The world’s prizes can be stolen. God's prize cannot. Further and with God, winning is not about external rewards or worldly success, but about union, peace, and fullness of being; at ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Dimples of God's smile

By
It is four days into the new year. It is 933pm and I have decided to write. I have no idea what I should write about. I was thinking, if we live in a dump as some have described Trinidad does that make us dumplings? It is sad and funny at the same time. Some would say it is a dumb thing to say. I would rather say that Trinidad and Tobago are the dimples of God's smile. After all God is a trini. Now I am interested in the etymology of word dimple. Weirdly enough I learnt that the word dimple comes from Old English and Proto-Germanic, specifically from the term dumpilaz, meaning "small pit". There are more things to smile about in Trinidad and Tobago than to frown about. I was curious if anyone has ever mentioned the dimples of God's smile before and a cursory Google search shows up nothing. I then asked my friend Chatty if dimples is mentioned in the Quran. He said no but there is an example verse that mentions smiling. Surah 27 verse 19 "So Solomon smiled, amused...
Post a Comment
Read more