The Silence of God

“Faith is a heavy burden. It is like loving someone out in the darkness who never comes, no matter how loudly you call.”

The Seventh Seal

 

 

There is an old Swedish film from the 1950s called The Seventh Seal. It follows a young knight who is world-weary and disillusioned upon returning home from the Crusades, and finding that his land is ravaged by the Black Death.

He soon encounters Death, or the Grim Reaper, who has come to take his life. In a last-ditch effort to find meaning to his life and commit “one meaningful deed”, he stalls Death by challenging him to an intermittent game of chess.

Throughout the film, we learn more of the knight’s inner turmoil. With all the suffering that he has witnessed in his life, the knight struggles to relate with God, whom he cannot see, hear, or feel. And with that, he does not know how to make sense of his looming mortality, as he does not even see much point to life.

“I want knowledge,” he says in a conversation with Death. “Not faith, not assumptions, but knowledge. I want God to stretch out His hand, uncover His face and speak to me.”

“But He remains silent,” replies Death.

“I call out to Him in the darkness. But it’s as if no one was there,” says the knight.

“Perhaps there isn’t anyone,” replies Death.

“Then life is a preposterous horror,” says the knight. “No man can live faced with Death, knowing everything’s nothingness.”

The film’s poignant yet unanswered question of why God is silent deeply resonated with me, because it is a question that I have personally struggled with.

In my weakest moments, I have certainly wondered where God was during violent atrocities around the world where people were helplessly oppressed. And I have certainly gone through traumatic experiences in my personal life, during which I had my bouts of magical thinking. I prayed to God over and over again that a particular situation in my life would just miraculously change. And when it didn’t, I felt like God wasn’t there.

As I got older, I learned a few important lessons on how to best think of God’s silence.

First and foremost is to accept that it is a test of life. Our life here is only temporary and full of tests and challenges. It is only in the Hereafter that we are able to meet God directly.

While we are here, we like to expect to communicate with God in extraordinary ways. We expect to hear from Him in the form of dreams, or miraculous turns of events, or other divine signs. Of course, it’s possible for these things to happen. But more often than not, God speaks to us in the ordinary and everyday things. We just have to do our part to pause and reflect.

To quote from the Qur’an (2:118): “Those who have no knowledge say, ‘If only Allah would speak to us or a sign would come to us!’ The same was said by those who came before. Their hearts are all alike. Indeed, We have made the signs clear for people of sure faith.”

The Qur’an often mentions the sublimity of everyday phenomena, like the alternation between night and day, and the formation of clouds and rain, as signs of God’s presence and will. But there’s another particular aspect of this that is worth discussing here, and that is, how God responds to our prayers or supplications (du’a).

What we need to understand about du’a is that we’re not approaching God as if we’re making an order at a restaurant, or making a wish to a magic genie. When we’re making du’a, we’re asking for His help. And in turn, we are surrendering ourselves to His wisdom.

There are generally three ways in which our du’a gets answered. We may either get what we asked for immediately, or we may get it later at a better time, or we may have it replaced with something much better for us, if not in this life, then in the everlasting Hereafter.

If we understand this, there is no need for us to complain that God is silent, or that He is isn’t answering our prayers. Just think of the prophets (peace be upon them), many of whom didn’t get to see the outcome of their du’a until decades later, even though they were the most beloved to God.

And the thing is, we need to be careful of how we think of God, because if we do believe that God isn’t answering our prayers, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. As Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said, “The supplication of one of you is answered, as long as he is not in haste, saying: ‘I have supplicated to my Lord, but He did not answer me.’” (Hadith verified by Bukhari and Muslim)

Another way to think of God’s silence is to see it as something that brings us closer to Him. This idea is pretty much at the heart of tasawwuf, or Sufism — that God’s silence may not be so much a test of our faith as it is our path to loving Him.

One poem by Rumi, titled Love Dogs, demonstrates this idea. The poem narrates a man who calls out for God. He is approached by a cynic who taunts him, “I have heard you calling out, but have you ever gotten any response?”

The man becomes saddened and goes to sleep. He dreams of meeting Khidr (peace be upon him) who asks him why he has stopped making du’a. The man replies, “Because I never heard an answer back.” 

“The longing you express is the return message,” says Khidr. “The grief you cry out from draws you toward union.”

It makes sense, doesn’t it? Oftentimes, we may love and miss someone or something much more in their absence. And when it comes to God, it is our longing for Him which brings us closer to Him. I personally remember one of my friends telling me something similar once when I was utterly down and out, that, “Whenever you’re depressed, it’s a sign that Allah misses you. He’s calling on you to talk to Him.”

With that, it is believed that the mere act of making du’a itself counts as worship (according to a hadith verified by Abu Dawud). Because it may just be that by longing for God and turning towards Him, He is increasing us in His love and in His favor, and He is increasing our status in the Hereafter.

For this reason, Umar al-Khattab (may God be pleased with him) rightly said, “I do not concern myself with the burden of the answer to my du’a. I concern myself with my ability to make the du’a.”

As I end this article, understand that just because we may perceive that God is silent, it doesn’t mean that He really isn’t there for us, or that He isn’t speaking to us in His ways.

Even our beloved Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) had his times of struggling with God’s silence. One of my all-time favorite chapters in the Qur’an, Surah Duha, was in fact revealed in response to his feeling like God had abandoned him, after not receiving any revelations for a long period of time.

God reminded him, as He also reminds all of us, “Your Lord has not abandoned you, nor has He become hateful of you.” God then says, “Did He not find you as an orphan then sheltered you? Did He not find you unguided then guided you? And did He not find you needy then satisfied your needs?”

It’s alright to feel this way when you’re going through a tough time, but never give up on finding Him. Call out to Him to your best ability, and it is His promise that He will not only be there, but He will reciprocate your call in double its worth. 

As Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) remarked in a Hadith verified by Bukhari, “Allah says: ‘I am just as My slave thinks I am, (i.e. I am able to do for him what he thinks I can do for him) and I am with him if He remembers Me. If he remembers Me in himself, I too, remember him in Myself; and if he remembers Me in a group of people, I remember him in a group that is better than they; and if he comes one span nearer to Me, I go one cubit nearer to him; and if he comes one cubit nearer to Me, I go a distance of two outstretched arms nearer to him; and if he comes to Me walking, I go to him running.’”