eclipse

on the union of two souls, and what society has made of it

“The pleasure of union is the closest example to the soul’s joy in nearness to its Lord.”

-Imam Al-Ghazali

The prophet ﷺ said: “It is from the conditions of the Last Hour that knowledge would be taken away and ignorance would prevail (upon the world), the liquor would be drunk, and adultery would become rampant.’’(Sahih Muslim 2671a)

Through time, the human being and the society it is embedded into is supposedly meant to evolve, however in certain aspects it seems to be spiralling into a slow decay. The hyper-sexualisation that has become so rampant now is the epitome of evidence for society’s decay. What was once controversial, was merely the sight of a woman’s ankle peering from her dress, and now? There is nothing controversial. You wake up, a quick scroll on your phone and there are women dressed in barely anything flaunting their bodies online, there are men whose hearts are blackened with lust who consume such content. You make your way to work and there are clothing advertisements that reveal every part of a woman, on a huge billboard, and you cannot even look away. What was once a private sin done behind closed doors out of fear and shame, irrespective of the desire, is now perfectly accepted, and even worse so, there are more platforms and opportunities than ever for it all to spread, like wildfire. ‘Art’, ‘expression’, ‘freedom’, they call it. But it is nothing but a darkening.

The way of Allah, Islam, despite being something strange and going back to being something strange, is a way of life firstly, but it also encompasses the preservation of it. Our vessels are crafted so preciously by the One who created us, they are a literal evidence of his existence, they are responsibilities, they deserve only to be protected and cared for, and preserved. As if something we have borrowed for a short while, and something we will return. That is the ‘deen’, it is a way of life, not a means of suppression. We have never been asked to give up everything of this dunya that may bring us pleasure and joy, only that we preserve ourselves within the journey towards it and in the destination of attainting it. It appears as a simple concept; you are entrusted with something, you take care of it. Not in possession; our vessels are not designed to be hidden away; it is within human nature and inclination to be witnessed and wanted. But in a way that is safe for us, in a way that keeps our hearts and souls that are kept within our vessels, clean and pure. What society has turned into filth, Allah designed as act of worship for His sake, as a means of forgiveness and repentance.

Where society wishes to strip us of our layers to reveal ourselves, Allah described the union between two souls are them being the layers for each other. One soul is a garment for the other. There can be no more beautiful description than this. A garment protects, it conceals imperfections and weaknesses, it guards with compassion instead of judgment. A garment beautifies; it draws the beauty from oneself that already existed, and elevates it; holds a mirror up to it. A garment is closeness without submersion; it is the only thing that can live so closely to the skin and the soul behind it, without becoming of it. A garment thickens in its protection and warmth through the blank winters of life, and loosens and cools in the cheerful summers. It is designed for whatever terrain a soul finds themselves in, it softens against the friction of this world and its harshness. Only in the safety of such a connection, honoured by the One who designed it to be as such, should any vessel entrust itself to another. To witness one’s soul as no one and nothing else in the world witnesses it, is a huge deal. Islam honours it as so.

This witnessing and bond between two souls beyond being at its core at an act of worship and becoming of a garment, manifests as much else. The everyday life requires us to fit into predictable boxes, our speech, our actions, our way of doing things must be as expected, we must exist in a way that makes sense and in a way that conforms to norms. Our authenticity and vulnerability are not made space for, in this fast-paced, ever-turning, and selfish world. But it all dissolves when someone sees you that closely. Two souls in the proximity of one another can allow the worries and hardships around them to fade into the distance for a while. Our lives have become so layered, they have been spun into such complex webs, but at the centre of it, the same needs still lie there. The need for closeness, on an emotional, spiritual, intellectual, physical, mental level has, and always be the spine of the human. Therefore its fulfilment by one means or another, in a permissible and encouraged way, becomes almost necessary. Navigating this dunya can feel like walking through a pitch-black night, and there are sources of light we must seek to guide us through. There are many. This being one of them.

A different lens to view this soulful proximity from is to consider it a mirror. The human mind does not often value ambiguity and uncertainty, especially regarding their stance with someone. How much do I mean to this person? Have I revealed too much of myself whilst I have barely not even scratched the surface of their soul? Do I occupy their mind in the way they occupy mine? But these questions have no room to grow and flourish in the case of such closeness. The sky cannot be heavy with blurry, grey clouds, when you reach that level of closeness that allows you to be above them. When all you are met with is the sharp, blueness and clarity of the skies, above the grey, because your vulnerability requires theirs. They cannot hide away, because you cannot hide away. There is beauty, and ease, in such transparency. During an eclipse, the sun and moon must align, for it to be an eclipse. This phenomenon cannot occur if the sun did not meet the moon, or if the moon did not meet the sun, they must meet in the middle, in a space they both equally possess and occupy.

The sun and the moon spend so long within the solitude of their own cycles; waxing and waning on His command. But during this eclipse, they are one; a unity forms between them, they come to face one another. And in a world where one enters alone, and leave alone, and spends a lot of time sitting and making peace with this aloneness, a unity as such becomes something the soul craves at times, over the fragmentation that occurs at the hands of the design of this world itself. This fragmentation that is spoken of describes the feelings of being seen for one thing and not the other, for the parts of the self that are not witnessed, for the words spoken to mean one thing and then proceeded to be lost in translation; it has many branches. One mechanism of this fragmentation may occur through the barriers of the tongue, in language, in words. Words convey so much, stories of the past and present, feelings of the now and the future, however they can only convey so much. The vessel has the power to convey oftentimes what words do not possess the ability to maintain the weight of. The eyes, the angle of a head’s tilt, the pursing of a mouth, the heaviness in a sigh, at times these can speak volumes more. And when one vessel witnesses another beyond the expression of language, and instead through the movements and expressions of the vessel itself, this forges an entire new depth to closeness.

The other purpose He speaks of regarding this connection is as a means of tranquility. At a soul level, of course, but even so in a physiological state. Your brain recognises this safety within another soul, and releases chemicals to allow your whole system to be calm, in their presence. There are many ways in which we can attain peace within ourselves, but this cellular-level peace; it’s different.

So within this dunya that reduces such a sacred and intimate union down to a swift disposal of lust, remain true to the depth and beauty of what it is really designed to be. May Allah grant us unions that clothe us in mercy, and hearts that find tranquillity only through what He has made lawful.