God speaks, according to Shah Wali Allah, in the ‘tongue of imagery’ and the ‘tongue of factuality’. When He commands Ibrahim (pbuh) to sacrifice his one and only son, Isma’il, this is a far cry from the teleological suspension of the ethical, but rather that in reality, God actually did ask him to sacrifice a ram, but because of his state at that moment, it appeared to him in the form of Ismail. Likewise with the commandment to Muhammad (pbuh) to pray fifty times a day, which was in reality five times a day given the circumstances of the community. But precisely because at that level the terrestrial contingencies of the material world were transcended, it actually appeared as fifty times a day. So too, with our supplication to Him; that we often don’t realize what exactly we have in mind. Allah reminds us of this in the Qur’an that we may think something is good (or bad) for us but the reverse is actually the case. We trust too much in ourselves, no thanks to the character of our ti...