The Table Spread
of the Cosmos

The entire universe is a table spread of divine sustenance for a true believer. Everything in this world is made so a person can draw a lesson from seeing it.

The Quran says God is the light of the skies and the earth. It means that the world is entirely an expression of divine attributes. A sensitive heart will see reflections of God in everything that exists here. The entire cosmos is a table spread of divine sustenance.

If faith in God gives someone the sensitivity that true faith in God engenders, he will see God’s light everywhere in the universe. When the breeze touches him, He will feel that he is experiencing God’s touch in the softness of the breeze. In the flow of a stream, he will see the mercy of God expressing itself. When he hears birds chirruping, his heart will witness a soul-stirring tune played on a divine musical instrument. It would be like bathing in divine fragrance when he smells a fragrant flower.

The entire universe is a table spread of divine sustenance for a true believer. Everything in this world has been made in this way so that a person may draw a lesson by seeing it. Those who truly love God can experience these divine states.

The Flame-of-the-Forest is a tree that bears gorgeous flowers. When autumn comes, and its leaves fall, the tree appears like a dry stick. However, then a silent revolution happens. It sprouts brilliantly hued flowers! What had been a dry stick becomes laden with stunning flowers. It seems God has specially sent His beautiful umbrella for the tree which was thought to be a useless stick.

It happens so that some servant of God may see it and exclaim, “Lord! I, too, am a Flame-of-the-Forest tree. If you want, you can cause beautiful flowers to bloom on me! I am a dried stick. If you want, you can make me green! I am leading a meaningless existence. If you want, You can fill my life with meaningfulness! I am standing on the edge of Hell. If you want, you can admit me into Paradise!”