Dynamics of Canonical Prayer

As soon as I enter salat/canonical prayer in Islam, I immediately am transformed from a state of anxiety, irritation, restlessness, and confusion, lack of concentration to a state of utter calmness, inner silence, flow, peace, and harmony. The greatest blessing is that I can’t sin anymore. I’m from the worldliness of ghaflah. I no more am in a state of dreaming or vulnerable to ‘create a dream around my world’ and forget really what my purpose is. People are safe from the bitterness and harmfulness of my tongue and hands.

In fact, whole society, whole world transforms beyond our imagination due to congregational act of salah. Because. As Islamic scholar Mahmoud Ayuob states in his book on Islam that when a believer enters salah ‘time and space are sanctified … whole world is purified [for her/him]’.

Hazrat Umer, second people’s caliph/servant of Islam – and I repeatedly use this example – wrote to all of his governors a letter. And in that letter he started off with what was most essential of him that all his governors must protect and establish – Salah! Sacred rituals revealed to mankind in this final, universal revelation* [listen to Abdal Hakim Murad on 'Islam and West' part 3-4] of Islam are greatest gifts to humanity. Unfortunately, the ‘native Orientalists’ (Shahid Alam’s article, Native Orientalists at the Daily Times) and those whose intellect has been atrophied fail to appreciate the Treasure salah and other rituals are.

* Christianity, first of all, a religion that has historically claimed and to a far degree succeeded to be a universal one, was never meant to be Christianity by its founder Sayyidina Isa (A.S.). He came as a Prophet to Jews. Modern biblical scholarship has proven that beyond doubt. First time I came to know of this apparently less known fact to many Christians was in, What Islam did for Us?, by Tim-Wallace Murphy. Then in works of Karen Armstrong, who even made a TV-documentary, The First Christian, on St. Paul, exposing using historical data how St. Paul made a new religion out of the message of Prophet Jesus.

O man! what has deluded you from your Generous Lord?

Quran says in chapter no. 2, verse 28, 29, asking man to use his intellect (al-aql) to surrender before the Truth most evident, then how can one deny it?; and may it just not become unclear to us like that moon which seemed to be fogged high in the sky once on a clear dark night:

Ch # 2: Verse # 28: How can you refuse to acknowledge Allah [when your very existence is a living evidence of the Creator. There was a time when you were a thing not worth mentioning (76:1)] You were lifeless and He it is Who gave you life [and made you worthy of being addressed as 'you' (32:9)] Then He will cause you to die and then bring you back to life again whereupon unto Him you will be made to return. (40:11, 7:25, 22:66, 26:81, 30:40, 45:26, 71:17-18) (2:281, 10:56, 32:11)

2:29: He it is Who created for you all, everything that is in or on the earth; then He directed His design to the regions above (the earth) and fashioned them suitably into seven layers of the atmosphere (67:3, 71:15)(11:7, 17:44, 23:86, 41:11-12, 57:4, 65:12); He knows all about everything, (truly and
certainly).

God reserves the right to wonder as to inquire: O man ! what has beguiled you from your Lord, the Generous (or Gracious) one? Seriously...

Limitation of Doubt

Source

In the previous post was mentioned the famous dictum of a skeptical philosopher 'who forgot to mention the right consequence' of the word 'therefore' in his dictum, and what that original quote of Descartes proves is what Nasr states as:

You can negate everything, doubt everything, but you cannot doubt the instrument by which you are doubting (everything else).

Nasr also goes on to mention the "hanging man" of great Persian philosopher Ibn-e-Sina which not only explains the dilemma of men 'bend on denying the Truth', but also the great difficulty they face in rejecting practically everything (which is simply impossible): "Ibn-e-Sina talks of a hanging man, who is hung in the middle of space. His feet don't touch anything; his legs don't touch anything. He doesn't know where he is. [Thus] he can doubt the existence of earth, he can doubt the existence of air - there is nothing he cannot doubt! The one [and only] thing he cannot doubt is himself that is doubting everything."

I think therefore...

'I think therefore God is.' Not that "I think therefore I am."

- Seyyed Hossein Nasr, "In the Beginning was Consciousness," The Dudleian Lecture delivered at Harvard Divinity School.

Divine vs. Worldly

Scene: Last moments at an airport departure longue.

Dr. Agha to Umer: Remember. Divine thought/knowledge/Light is inversely propotional to your indulgence in this world.

The former, i.e., the religious enlightenment, is never in direct relation with the absorption in this world, or, in other words, with worldly progress.

So let this formula be your yardstick to judge who has Light and who doesn't have. You can easily discern with it between True and False Spiritual Master. But above all live and apply this formula.


I don't think that material progress is in conflict with spiritual, although both are diametrically opposed to each other in quality (see "Islam at the Crossroad," ch. The Spirit of West). And that spiritual progress may take place with the material progress simultaneously, although it need not be necessary, as M. Asad remarks in the suggested book. What supports the advice of my teacher is the evident reality that when our roots are strong in this world the contemplation of the divine becomes very difficult. It was only possible for Prophet Muhammad (SAW) to balance between this world and the one beyond. I cannot go to "Mirage"; he did. I can't bear the immense pain he had to bear. He nonetheless remained absorbed in the thought of divine through both contemplation and practice. I wish to assimilate at least one world that which is higher. What else can I desire than that which is eternal!

Shari'ah & Tariqah: Two Indispensible Aspects of Islam

S. H. Nasr explains this "geometric" explanation of the relationship between two most important dimensions of Islam, i.e. shari'ah (law) and tariq'ah (path or way) in his Ideals and Realities of Islam:

"Some of the traditional Sufi master, especially those of the Shadhiliyah order, have used the geometric symbol of a circle to depict the relation between these [i.e. shari'ah and tariqah] fundamental dimensions of Islam. From any point in space there can be generated a circle and an indefinite number of radii which connect every point of the circumference of the circle of the Centre. The circumference is the Shari'ah whose totality comprises the whole of the Muslim community. Every Muslim by virtue of accepting the Divine Law is as a point standing on this circle. The radii symbolize the Turuq (plural of Tariqah). Each radius is a path from the circumference to the Centre. As the Sufis say there are as many paths to God as there are children of Adam. The Tariqah, which exists in many different forms corresponding to different spiritual temperaments and needs of men, is the radius which connects each point to the Centre. It is only by virtue of standing on the circumference, that is, accepting the Shari'ah, that man can discover before him a radius that leads to the centre. Only in following the Shari'ah does the possibility of having the door of the spiritual life open become realized."

Now some words on the reality of Centre, or Haqiqah, and for some the need of walking on Tariqah despite being 'saved' by being on the periphery:

"Finally at the Centre there is the Haqiqah or truth which is the source of both the Tariqah and the Shari'ah. Just as geometrically the point generates both the radii and the circumference, so does metaphysically the Haqiqah create both the Tariqah and the Sahri'ah, that Haqiqah or Centre which is 'everywhere and nowhere'. The Law and the Way have both been brought into being independently by God who is the Truth. And both reflect the Centre in different ways. To participate in the Sahri'ah is to live in the reflection of the Centre or Unity, for the circumference is the reflection of the centre. It is thus the necessary and sufficient cause for living a whole life and being 'saved'. But there are always those whose inner constitution is such that they cannot only live in the reflection of the centre but must seek to reach It. Their Islam is to walk upon the Path towards the Centre. For them the Tariqah is providentially the means whereby they can attain that final End or Goal, that Haqiqah which is the Origin of all things..."

Much, much more can be quoted and reiterated about the subject matter, as this is only just a little preparation and 'clearing' required to delve deep into this subject which is to practised above all anything than to just talk about, for it is in the execution of this knowledge that our truest benefit lies.

* Artwork by yours truly

We can be unconscious of the existence of things when they actually do to our faculties of intelligence, why and how?

Sometimes, we turn blind to some things that actually exist, and have a cause for living or being there, manifesting themselves. It mostly happens when we avoid experiencing or, in simple terms, do not allow ourselves to know the causality of those things.

I, for instance, since my childhood, had been hearing, as though in a dream, voice of perhaps an insect - a voice very sharp, pinching and loud. How can I believe now that I denied any existence of that voice and its source then, as today, when I came out of the dream, really identified it, without doing, or conceptualizing, anything? How come can I believe myself?

The answer, partial maybe, is: Only because I avoided it, and didn't even try to identify and know it completely and objectively. I thought that I couldn't know it that easily. Therefore, with the passage of time it became my habit to deny the source of that voice and to avoid any contact with it through observation or meditation. Or, perhaps, it isn't that easy to know some things completely and objectively.

What do you think?

A Thoughtful Sitting

March 11, '09.

Today's experience with a serious and thoughtful sitting, unlike any silly, futile chit-chat between retarded "buddies", forces me to pen down the thoughts I could gather from the participants who were dying to be self-critical. Thoughts so rudimentary, so practical that I wish to keep them somewhere in the backyard of my human memory, and more to share them and spread. Today was a beginning of a new day in my quest of my Self. A quest to find 'meaning' in this otherwise, apparently, haphazard life in which to question the very disorder of it. We have formed a little society, headed by a sociology teacher, who speaks of his own science nothing more than a thin layer of ice over an iceberg! And he is very true. Because the very purpose of this informal sitting group is to penetrate the symbols of life. Thus, owing to this serious aim, the whole base of the group's medium of expression tends to be of metaphysical nature, which is very profound. Here's the problem for us. Metaphysics is the supreme science, as S. H. Nasr says. Therefore, it requires a lot of spiritual preparation to open up our intelligence, in order to know the existence and the nature of reality. Metaphysics never weds itself to clever thinking, it weds to a pure heart and to the intelligence whose functioning is proper and receptive to this supreme science.

This realization has still to dawn upon the imagination of many in our group. However, some took a brave start today and found themselves giving a voice to their own ongoing journeys, sometimes forgotten and in places like these, revisited. And one such voice triumphed in my eyes, no matter how poorly.

"What is life?," when asked the gentleman replies, "I used to ponder on this. And I concluded after observing the ever absence of jinns in the present scheme of this universe. Then I pondered on why humans were created in place of jinns? We know that they were very violent and enmity always prevailed among their communities. And that among jinns there was no peace and love conceivable. God hoped from this man that he would maintain peace among themselves. He would know what angels never knew. That he would love his fellow beings. I don't think there's a hell." He finishes presenting his views on the purpose of life here, although most of the time we were much preoccupied by the very question of purpose's possibility in human life. A view so real and persistent, I can never think why I never thought of it. A strict Muslim may call the last part of the conversion a blasphemy, and he or she may. But the existence of peace and love as a purpose of human beings is as much real to me as I am.