Lesson 6 of 6 · When the dryness is something else
Third. It may be a question about belief
Sometimes what looks like dryness is a question underneath it. Not I feel nothing, but I am not sure this is true.
That is a different thing and it does not respond to being treated as dryness. Setting a floor will not touch it, and neither will more of the same practice.
It goes to somebody who can sit with a real question without being frightened by it. A scholar or a teacher who will hear the question as a question rather than as a symptom. Those people exist and they are worth finding, and being asked something difficult does not offend them.
Worth saying separately: if the thoughts about God are unwanted, distressing, and arriving against your will, that is the second category above and not this one. Those are not questions. They are intrusions, and they belong with a clinician.
That reception is in the Qur'an, which is worth knowing if you have been made to feel the asking is the problem. Ibrahim, peace be upon him, asks to be shown how the dead are given life. He is asked in return whether he does not believe, and he answers yes, but to put my heart at rest. The question is not rebuked. It is answered.
Qur’an and Sunnah
Ibrahim, peace be upon him, asks to be shown how the dead are given life, is asked in return whether he does not believe, and answers yes, but to put my heart at rest. The question is not rebuked. It is answered.
وَإِذۡ قَالَ إِبۡرَٰهِـۧمُ رَبِّ أَرِنِي كَيۡفَ تُحۡيِ ٱلۡمَوۡتَىٰۖ قَالَ أَوَلَمۡ تُؤۡمِنۖ قَالَ بَلَىٰ وَلَٰكِن لِّيَطۡمَئِنَّ قَلۡبِيۖ قَالَ فَخُذۡ أَرۡبَعَةࣰ مِّنَ ٱلطَّيۡرِ فَصُرۡهُنَّ إِلَيۡكَ ثُمَّ ٱجۡعَلۡ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ جَبَلࣲ مِّنۡهُنَّ جُزۡءࣰ ا ثُمَّ ٱدۡعُهُنَّ يَأۡتِينَكَ سَعۡيࣰ اۚ وَٱعۡلَمۡ أَنَّ ٱللَّهَ عَزِيزٌ حَكِيمࣱ
And when Abraham said, ‘My Lord, show me how You give life to the dead,’ He said, ‘Do you not believe, then?’ ‘Yes,’ said Abraham, ‘but just to put my heart at rest.’ So God said, ‘Take four birds and train them to come back to you. Then place them on separate hilltops, call them back, and they will come flying to you: know that God is all powerful and wise.’
Qur’an 2:260
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.