"Spiritual But Not Religious": Servanthood and Vicegerency

He is above all things and within all things—tanzih and tashbih. Both distant and near. Every Sacred Tradition that remains holistic contains both perspectives. As the Native American sage Black Elk expressed it:

"We should know that all things are works of the Great Spirit (Wakan-Tanka). We should know that He is within all things... and even more important, we should know that He is above all these things and peoples."

The Abrahamic traditions usually emphasise distance before nearness. They first affirm the distinction between servant and Lord before speaking of a hidden unity or oneness. God is initially understood as the transcendent Reality above us, and this perspective naturally demands awe and servitude. "The fear of God is the beginning of Wisdom" (Proverbs 9:10).

We live in an age that "abhors the idea of fear or submission to that which is high exalted above our human littleness. Humility or obedience is condemned as a 'lack of self-esteem'"¹ and people today speak almost exclusively in terms of empowerment. This has led many to reject the idea of an authoritarian God who issues commands from above and expects to be obeyed. The New Age, with its preference for "spirituality without religion," reflects this attitude: many seek the inner divinity and hidden unity while discarding the servant-Lord duality along with the religious framework that comes with it.

Let us clarify that those who truly realised the hidden unity between the soul and God (the created and the Uncreated) never abandoned the servant-Lord relationship, as though it were merely a preliminary stage to be discarded. Some of the greatest non-dualists continued to pray, worship, and serve God with even greater devotion after attaining such realisation. As long as one remains imprisoned in bodily form, and all the limitations that belong to such a state, one is bound to perform the role of servant.

Notes

* Divine distance precedes Divine nearness in Islam. Similarly, servanthood ('ubudiyya) precedes vicegerency (khalifa). 

* For further reading, please click on article titled "Shariah and Tariqa: Religion and Spirituality" from the homepage.  

References

1.  Charles le Gai Eaton, Remembering God: Reflections on Islam, page 240-1