Veil and Garment

Photo by Sina Bahar on Unsplash

Between the servant and God, there may be a thousand veils, yet between God and the servant, there is no veil at all. He sees us as we are, in the naked truth of our being.

فَقَدۡ عَلِمۡتَهُۥۚ تَعۡلَمُ مَا فِی نَفۡسِی وَلَاۤ أَعۡلَمُ مَا فِی نَفۡسِكَۚ: ۵-۱۱۶

“You know what is within me, and I do not know what is within You.” (5:116)

But the tragedy is this: when we fell from the noble station of ahsani taqwīm, the finest form and measure of creation, we did not merely remain unveiled before God; but through our own misdeeds, we became stripped from our garment (of piety) as well. In such a state of exposure, how shall we stand before Him? How shall we bow in the dignity of servitude?

يَعْلَمُ خَائِنَةَ الأَعْيُنِ وَمَا تُخْفِي الصُّدُورُ ٤٠: ١٩

“He knows the treachery of the eyes and what the hearts conceal.” (40:19)

It is among His immense mercies that He has veiled our betrayals from honor, concealing the slips of our gaze and the darkness (of ego and desires) in the hidden chambers of our hearts. We often pray that He preserve our dignity before people in life. Yet there is another prayer we seldom utter: that He restore to us our true garment (of piety).

And that garment is taqwa, the inward consciousness of God, the trembling awareness that clothes the soul in light.

Fortunate are those who depart this world having wrapped their deeds and their inner states in the garment of taqwa.

That alone is the true success.