Living in love and living in God
Responding to a comment left ages oago on this underused blog I found and enjoyed this:A Student asked Baba Farid if singing was lawful and proper. He replied that, according to Islam, it was certainly unlawful, but its propriety was still a matter of discussion. Nizam-ud-Dauliya told Nasir-ud-din, a disciple of his, that one day when he went to visit Baba Farid he stood at his door, and saw him dancing as he sang the following :
I wish ever to live in Thy love, O God
If I become the dust under Thy feet, I shall live
I thy slave desire none but Thee in both worlds;
For Thee I will live and for Thee I will die.
at
http://dhakkisahib.com/pages.cfm?p_id=28
It reminds me of something Colin Chapman taught me. He said that we need to appreciate the best of another religion and not look to compare the best of our own faith with the worst of another. (or vice versa)
Visiting India I found in a number of places poems, ideas and personal testmonies that were almost word for word echoes of my own poems of my experienc of Christ and of God in worship.
I guess if I explored all the ideas of Baba Farid I would find plenty of points on which we did not concur, but the above passage in traditional religious language expresses something I can affirm with joy.
Current events in the world - Gaza, credit crunch etc - make it seem ever clearer that we face a challenge to re-create our global-social world in a way that differs from the one crerated by nationalism, unhealthy competition, greed, fear and violence.
The challenge is there to us all but inparticular to those who are active in living out their religious beliefs to create a sustainable and just world. An age old challenge but the consequences of failing to attempt it let alone failing to achieve it grow greater with every passing year.
The old ways of competition have succeeded in giving us so much but now we are so many the cost of that success is too high.
How can the a simple Christian faith lived out at a level of ordinary citizenship be a contribution to such a new world. What are the consequences for Christian belief? How might the Church be called to the Cross is such an era?
Anne and I have been speaking recently about the New Testament passage about knowng God and living in God and living in love for others.
It adds a new dimension to the Baba Farid song.
I wish ever to live in your love, O God
If I become the dust under Your feet, I shall love
I your slave desire none but You in both worlds;
For You I will live and love those around me as you live and love in me
and in and for this
and in and for You
and with you in and for us
I will die and live.
posted by Colin Darling @ 5:03 AM
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