Sublime

20The law entered in* so that transgression might increase but, where sin increased, grace overflowed all the more,+ 21so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through justification for eternal life through Jesus Christ our LORD.+

8For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from you; it is the gift of God;+ 9it is not from works, so no one may boast.

Using his unquestioned religious authority, Muhammad instituted a mandatory tithe called zakat, which every member of the Ummah had to pay according to his or her means. Once collected, the money was then redistributed as alms to the community’s neediest members. Zakat literally means “purification,” and was not an act of charity but of religious d

Once the veil of traditional dualities has been lifted, the ego obliterated, and the ruh allowed to absorb the qalb, the disciple finally achieves fana, which, as mentioned, is best translated as “ecstatic self-annihilation.” It is here, at the end of the Way, that the truth of the Divine Unity of all creation is revealed and the Sufi realizes that

These two, consecration and faith, are the essential elements of the Christian life--the giving up all to Jesus, the receiving all from Jesus. They are implied in each other; they are united in the one word--surrender. A full surrender is to obey as well as to trust, to trust as well as to obey.

Therefore we do not give up. d Even though our outer person is being destroyed, our inner person e is being renewed day by day. 17 For our momentary light affliction f is producing for us an absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory. g 18 So we do not focus on what is seen, h but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is u

We are merely and forever inside of the divine flow, just like Isaiah’s “rain and snow.” Forgiveness is not some churchy technique or formula. Forgiveness is constant from God’s side, which should become a calm, joyous certainty on our side. Mercy received will be mercy passed on, and “will not return to me empty, until it has succeeded in what it