Lord of the Worlds

Lord of the Worlds
In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the MercifulPraise be to Allah, Lord of the Worlds,The Beneficent, the Merciful.Owner of the Day of Judgment, Thee (alone) we worship; Thee (alone) we ask for help. Guide us on the straight path,The path of those whom Thou hast favored; Not (the path) of those who earn Thine anger nor of those who go astray. (1 : 1

Classics of Muslim Spirituality

Classics of Muslim Spirituality
The Qur'an Kareem, kutub (books) of Hadith Shareef and their translations have for long been generally available in Toronto. Now, the classics of Muslim spirituality written by mashayikh (spiritual masters) in the original as well as their translations, are gaining popularity, and are generally available in all Muslim bookstores. For the sake of brevity, I will mention just one classic each of some of the mashayikh to gain baraka (blessings).Among the more ancient classics are:
Hilyatul Awliya wa Tabaqaatul Asfiya (The Adornment of the Saints and the Ranks of the Spiritual Elite), of Imam Abu Nu'aym al-Isfahani;
Al-Risala fi 'Ilm al-Tasawwuf (The Treatise About Knowledge Of The Sufi Lifestyle), of Imam Abu'l Qasim al-Qushayri;
Kashf al-Mahjub (The Unveiling of the Mystery), of Hadrat Data Ganj Baksh Ali al-Hujwiri;
Ihya' 'Ulum al-Deen (The Revival of the Religious Sciences), of Hujjatul Islam Imam Abu Hamid Muhammad al-Ghazali;
Ghunyat al-Talibeen (Wealth For Spiritual Seekers), of Gauth ul A'zam Muhyuddin Shaykh 'AbdulQadir Jilani,
Awarif al-Ma'arif (The Gifts of Gnoses), of Imam Shihabuddin Suhrawardi;
Azkaar (Supplications), of Muhyuddin Imam Yahya bin Sharaf an-Nawawi;
Hizb ul A'zam (The Great Supplication), of Hadrat Mulla 'Ali Al-Qaari;
Mathnawi (Rhyming Couplets), of Mawlana Jalaluddin Rumi;
Champay Dhee Bootee (The Jasmine Plant), of Sultan Bahu;
Mawlid un Nabi Sallallahu 'alaihi wa Sallam, of Imam as-Sayyid Ja'far al-Barzanji
Risalatul Mu'awanah (The Book of Assistance), of Sayyidi wa Imami Mawlana 'Abdallah bin 'Alawi al-Haddad;
may Allah Sub'hanahu wa Ta'ala be pleased with them all, Aameen.
Among some of the more recent classics are:
Simtud Durar (A Necklace of Pearls), of Sayyidunal Imam 'Ali bin Muhammad al-Habshi;
Mukhul Ibadah (The Essence of Worship), anonymous;
Fuyudhaatur Rabbaniyyah (Overflowing Abundance From The Lord), of al-Hajj Isma'il ibn As-Sayyid Muhammad Sa'eed al-Qadiri;
Hadaaiqi Bakhshish (Gardens of Gifts), of A'la Hadrat Imam Ahmad Raza Khan;
Jawhar un Nafees (Precious Jewellery) of Shaykh Uways ibn Muhammad;
Majmu'ah Mushtamilah (A Comprehensive Compilation), of Shaykh AbdulRahman bin Ahmad al-Zayla'iyy;
Daleelil 'Ibaad Ilaa Sabil ir Rashad (Proof For People On The Right Path), of Shaykh al-Haaj Sufi;
Irshad (Spiritual Guidance) of Shaykh Muzaffar Ozak al-Jerrahi;
Anwaar ul Muhammadiyyah (The Muhammadan Lights) of Imam Yusuf ibn Isma'il an-Nabhaani;
Zikr-e-Habib (The Remembrance of the Beloved Prophet, Sallallahu 'alaihi wa Sallam), of Mawlana 'Abdul 'Aleem Siddiqi;
Faizaane Sunnat (The Blessings of the Beloved Prophet's Lifestyle), of Mawlana Muhammad Ilyas Attaar Qadiri;
The Most Beautiful Names, of Shaykh Tosun Bayrak al-Jerrahi al-Halveti;
Abwaab ul-Faraj (Doors of Comfort) of Imam Muhammad bin 'Alawi al-Maliki al-Hasani;
Qutuf u'r Rabi' Fee Qasaid Mad'h Taahaa'sh Shafi' (The Harvest of Rabi' al-Awwal in the Eulogies of Taahaa The Intercessor), of Al-'Allamah Ustadh Muhammad Shareef Sa'eed al-Beidh;
Ad-Durrul Munaddad Fee Seerati Sayyidina Muhammad (A String of Pearls in the Life-History of Our Master Muhammad), of Shaykh Muhammad 'Abdallah Shaddad bin 'Umar Baa 'Umar;
Nahjul Burda Fee Mad'h Khairil Anaam (Following the Burda in Praising The Best of Mankind), of Shaykh Hasan Muhammad 'Abdallah Shaddad bin 'Umar Baa 'Umar; and
Miftah ul Jannah (The Key To Paradise), of Sayyidi wa Imami al-Habib Ahmad Mash-hur bin Taha al-Haddad;
may Allah Sub'hanahu wa Ta'ala be pleased with them all and make us benefit from them, Aameen.
Of the classics just mentioned, the most widely read among both Muslims and non-Muslims in the U.S is the Mathnawi (Rhyming Couplets) of Mawlana Jalaluddin Rumi, while the fastest selling book among the Muslims of U.K is Miftahul Jannah (The Key to Paradise) of Sayyidunal Imam al-Habib Ahmad Mash-hur bin Taha al- Haddad, Naf'an Allahu Bih.
The University of Toronto library houses most of these and many more in almost one whole floor of stacks and stacks of books on Islam. When you reference these, you are convinced once and for all that since the time of Rasulullah Sallallahu 'alaihi wa Sallam, the sufi tradition in the Ahl us Sunnah wal Jama'ah has been the dominant tradition among Muslims. Various minor sects have come up as in all religions but they have been short-lived. The nur (spiritual light) generated by the love of the noble Prophet Muhammad-e-'Arabi Sallallahu 'alaihi wa Sallam automaticallay hands the torch of Islam to the sufis and their disciples to carry, and to spread Islam in all the corners of the globe.
As a result of the general availability of classics of Muslim spirituality, a spiritually-laden vocabulary is gaining ascendancy. Words and phrases like adab (spiritual courtesy and etiquette), mureed (spiritual seeker), muhibb (loving disciple), Huququllah (rights of Allah Ta'ala on us), huququl 'ibaad (the rights of servants of Allah on us), tazkiyatun nafs (purification of the ego/self), tasfiyatul qalb (cleansing of the heart), ikhlas (sincerity), ihsan (spiritual excellence), ilham (inspiration), fee Hubbirrasul (for the love of the Holy Prophet), fana Fillah (annihilation of one's ego for the sake of Allah), 'ainil haqeeqa (the eye of the heart that sees spiritual realities), tazkiratul awliya (narrations about sufi saints), 'arifeen (knowers by direct illumination), siddiqeen (true saints), tawakkul (total reliance on Allah), Ridhallah (for the Pleasure of Allah), and husnul khatimah (felicitous end) are beginning to be understood and appreciated.

Spirituality and Life

by Swami Krishnananda

(A Message issued on the occasion of Swamiji's 54th Birthday in April, 1976.)

The philosophy and culture of India is one of Ananda or Bliss. "From Bliss-Absolute we have come; in Bliss-Absolute we are rooted; and to Bliss-Absolute are we destined," says the Taittiriya Upanishad. It is not a message of pain, agony and distress. Pessimism is unknown to India's culture. It is a culture of exuberant positivity of approach, an approximation to God in the end, who is the greatest of positivities. Life is held to be a movement from joy to joy, and it is this that we call the evolutionary process of the soul. It is movement from a lesser truth to a higher truth, which is a better way of putting things than to repeat the hackneyed tradition that we move from error to truth. In the glorious kingdom of God, which is within everyone, there cannot be any ultimate error. Error is only a misplacement of values. It has no ultimate existence and cannot have an absolute value. Absolute error is unthinkable, and it cannot be. Absolute falsehood does not exist. Everything is as a relative representation of God's perfection and so everywhere, even in the so-called erroneous movements of material, psychological and social forces, there is an element of God present, urging all these processes towards Perfection. To our culture, which is the culture of God, the culture of Perfection, all the duties of life become a manifestation of happiness. The glorious gospel of the Vedas, the Upanishads and the Bhagavadgita, which may be regarded as the tripod of India's message to mankind, provides us with the hopeful exhortation that we can never be helpless at any moment of our life. Our culture is the blossoming full-moon, the real 'Purnima' of hope after hope; aspiration after aspiration. May we recall to our minds, once again, the message of the saints and sages of all times and climes, who have plumbed into the depths of the Great Reality of the universe, that we exist in God, live in God, breathe in God, move in God and perform the functions of our life in the Kingdom of God.
The great message of the Christ that "the Kingdom of Heaven is within you" should be a miraculous and revolutionary teaching to all those who think in terms of the temporal and always evaluate things from the historical point of view. A kingdom cannot be inside anyone. Can you imagine a kingdom being situated within anyone? And, yet, a great incarnation spoke this truth to mankind: - "The Kingdom of Heaven is within you!" Either it is a contradiction in terms or a super-mundane fact which the human understanding cannot fathom. That which is external is also the internal, is also a message of the Chhandogya Upanishad (Section VIII), which is echoed in the statement of the Christ that the Kingdom of Heaven is within us. The whole cosmos is vibrating within every cell of our personalities. Everything that is everywhere is also within us and is inseparable from us. This was the foundation of the doctrine of God's supreme perfection given to us by Acharya Sankara also, on the basis of the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Bhagavadgita and the Brahma Sutras. Everything we need is in us. Everything required by us for our existence, every movement in evolution towards perfection, is implanted in our being. When we were born we brought with us everything that is necessary for us and we carry all these necessities with us wherever we move in this world. We cannot be separated from these needs or standing necessities; they are inseparable from our vital existence.
This is the spirit of true spirituality. There is the letter of the teachings of spiritual life, and also the spirit of these teachings. The letter of the teaching is what is generally practised by the masses in the world, but the spirit is missed. The letter is easy to understand, but the spirit is difficult to follow. What is the letter of the teaching of spiritual life? What does the letter of religion say? It says: you must love God, you must believe in the existence of God, you must speak the truth, you should be honest in your dealings with your brethren, and you should be living a life of purity, goodness and truthfulness. But the letter of the teaching has been so construed, on account of the very constitution of the human mind, that the life of the spirit, or the life of God, or the life of spiritual aspiration, has been covertly, without one's knowing what is happening, separated from the day-to-day activities of life, so that we are one thing in the street or the shop and another thing in the temple or the church. Thus, we have two ideals before us, the ideal for the marketplace and the ideal for the church or the temple. This is the traditional and organised creed of what you may call the churches of religion.
Religion today appears to be shaking from its very roots, because the edifice of the popular religion is built on a sandy basement and has no substantial support at the bottom. The so-called religious man does not really believe in God. The religious mind has taken advantage of its apparent belief in God or concept of God as an instrument in the personal fulfilment of its wishes and ambitions. To most of us, God is an instrument, not the aim or goal of life. Our asking for God is not because He is all-in-all, but because He is a tool for the fulfilment of our ulterior motives. We have desires and desires, in all the levels of our personalities. We are made up of desires: "Kamamayoyam purushah". We do not possess or have desires: We are made up of the desires. Every fibre of our being is constituted of desire alone. Therefore, this desireful personality contrives a tool in the form of the concept of a God in Paradise, in Brahmaloka, Vaikuntha or Kailasa, for its own fulfilment. God's existence is travestied; it becomes a blasphemy of the very notion of God. We are told, again and again, that God is the goal of life and not a means to the satisfaction of the needs of the individual.
We now have to be taught the primary lessons of life itself. We are still in need of the initial educational process, which has to set right the very thinking method of our mind. There is something wrong with us at the very root itself. We think in terms of the body, the personality and its relationships external. These relationships subtly interfere with every activity of our life, including the 'activity' of the 'practice of religion'. It is very unfortunate that 'religion' had become a sort of 'activity', a kind of 'work' among the many other duties in life. The religious consciousness is not a work, it is not a function, it is not an action proceeding from our individual being, because the personality of the individual is an effect; it is of the nature of a process of becoming, tending towards something else transcending it. And, therefore, any activity proceeding from this procession of individual existence cannot be identified with the religious consciousness which is the emblem of God's Being. God is Being. We call Him the Supreme Being. The human mind cannot conceive the meaning of true being. We have a very wrong notion of even what 'being' is. When we say that something exists, something is, we associate 'being' as a kind of adjective with the object that is supposed to exist. The chair exists. When we say that a chair exists, the chair is the subject and its existence the predicate. We have conceived existence as a predicate of the chair which is the subject. But existence cannot be a predicate of anything. It is always the subject. It is presupposed by the notion of every other individual thing in the world. Existence precedes even the notion of chair; it cannot be a predicate of it. On the other hand, when we understand the situation metaphysically, philosophically or spiritually, the chairhood of the so-called object is known to be the predicate of the existence which precedes it. And because of a peculiar twist of character in human thinking, we conceive God also as a predicate to our temporal life. God is an appendage to all our needs, necessities and desires! So God does not seem to be helping us, at least openly. We have misused our relationship with God. We have conceived Him as a kind of attribute to our individuality! A very sorry state of affairs! God cannot be an attribute. He is the Supreme Substantive. He is the Reality. The Supreme Being that God is, is the presupposition of even our thought, of 'being'. That is why we say that God cannot be thought through the mind. And if such an unthinkable presupposition even of all human understanding is the nature of God's existence, what should be the character of religion which is the way to God? It should be characterised by all the attributes which 'being' can have, though in varying, lesser degrees. These sublime characteristics of true religion are inclusiveness - not rejection - and the capacity to transmute every lower phase in the higher, by way of understanding and appreciation.
So, the practice of religion is the practice of God-consciousness in some degree or the other. It is to flood our personality with something super-mundane, super-personal and super-individualistic. When we become religious seekers, we are touched by the non-temporal not only in our personal life but also in our social existence. To be a seeker of God is not easy. You cannot just receive initiation into a Mantra from a Guru and think that you are at once a religious adept. When you receive initiation you are led into a new way of living and being. Your life is to get transformed and there has to be a complete transvaluation of values. Unless that essential condition is fulfilled by the disciple, the initiation will not reveal the needed light.
The law of evolution from matter to life, from life to mind and from mind to intellect, whether in its individual or social form, is initially a law permitting a diversity of being in an apparently multitudinous variety, which gradually rises upwards into lesser and lesser intensities of diversity and objectivity of character, until there is only a universalised consciousness confronting a universal object as the vast creation. But this consciousness has to become its object: a unity of knowing with being, the oneness of self with all existence is the goal of the evolutionary-processes. The cosmic consciousness realises that the cosmos is itself.
This is the message of Bharatavarsha, the message of India's culture, the message of true spirituality, and the message of Gurudev Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj, the message of all the mystics, saints and sages of the world. God bless you all! Peace be to the whole world!

Family - Basis for Society

by Sayyid Qutb
If the family is the basis of the society, and the basis of the family is the division of labour between husband and wife, and the upbringing of children is the most important function of the family, then such a society is indeed civilised.
In the Islamic system of life, this kind of a family provides the environment under which human values and morals develop and grow in the new generation; these values and morals cannot exist apart from the family unit. If, on the other hand, free sexual relationship and illegitimate children become the basis of a society, and if the relationship between man and woman is based on lust, passion and impulse, and the division of work is not based on family responsibility and natural gifts; if the role of women is merely to be attractive, sexy and flirtatious, and if women are freed from their basic responsibility of bringing up children; and if, on her own or under social demand, she prefers to become a hostess or a stewardess in a hotel or ship or air company, thus using her ability for material productivity rather than the training of human beings, because material production is considered to be more important, more valuable and more honourable than the development of human character, then such a civilisation is 'backward' from the human point of view, or 'jahili' in Islamic terminology.
The family system and the relationship between the sexes determine the whole character of a society and whether it is backward or civilised, jahili or Islamic. Those societies which give ascendance to physical desires and animalistic morals cannot be considered civilised, no matter how much progress they may make in industry or science. This is the only measure which does not err in guarding true human progress. In all modern jahili societies, the meaning of 'morality' is limited to such an extent that all those aspects which distinguish man from animal are considered beyond its sphere. In these societies, illegitimate sexual relationships even homosexuality, are not considered immoral. The meaning of ethics is limited to economic affairs or sometimes to political affairs which fall into the category of 'government interests'.
Among jahili societies, writers and journalists advise both married and unmarried people that free sexual relationships are not immoral. However, it is immoral if a boy uses his partner, or a girl uses her partner, for sex, while feeling no love in his or her heart. It is bad if a wife continues to guard her chastity while her love for her husband has vanished; it is admirable if she finds another lover... From the point of view of 'human' progress, all such societies are not civilised but are backward. The line of human progress goes upward from animal desires toward higher values. To control the animal desires, a progressive society lays down the foundation of a family system in which human desires find satisfaction, as well as providing for the future generation to be brought up in such a manner that it will continue the human civilisation, in which human characteristics flower to their full bloom.
Obviously a society which intends to control the animal characteristics, while providing full opportunities for the development and perfection of human characteristics, requires strong safeguards for the peace and stability of the family, so that it may perform its basic task free from the influences of impulsive passions. On the other hand, if in a society immoral teachings and poisonous suggestions are rampant, and sexual activity is considered outside the sphere of morality, then in that society the humanity of man can hardly find a place to develop. Thus, only Islamic values and morals, Islamic teachings and safeguards, are worthy of mankind, and form this unchanging and true measure of human progress, Islam is the real civilisation and Islamic society is truly civilised.

The Islamic Wills

The Islamic Wills
This article is a very brief overview of the traditional Sunni Islamic law pertaining to the Islamic will. The aim of this article is to arouse awareness amongst Muslims particularly those living in the West regarding this important aspect of Islamic law. It should be stressed that when writing a will one should consult an Islamic scholar/legal expert to ensure that the will complies with Islamic law as well as the law of the country of residence.
When a Muslim dies there are four duties which need to be performed. These are:
payment of funeral expenses
payment of his/her debts
execution his/her will
distribution of the remaining estate amongst the heirs according to Sharia
The Islamic will is called al-wasiyya. a will is a transaction which comes into operation after the testator’s death. The will is executed after payment of funeral expenses and any outstanding debts. The one who makes a will (wasiyya) is called a testator (al-musi). the one on whose behalf a will is made is generally referred to as a legatee (al-musa lahu). Technically speaking the term "testatee" is perhaps a more accurate translation of al-musa lahu.

The importance of the Islamic will
The importance of the Islamic will (wasiyya) is clear from the following two hadith:
"It is the duty of a Muslim who has anything to bequest not to let two nights pass without writing a will about it." (Sahih al-Bukhari)
"A man may do good deeds for seventy years but if he acts unjustly when he leaves his last testament, the wickedness of his deed will be sealed upon him, and he will enter the Fire. If, (on the other hand), a man acts wickedly for seventy years but is just in his last will and testament, the goodness of his deed will be sealed upon him, and he will enter the Garden." (Ahmad and Ibn Majah)
the will gives the testator an opportunity to help someone (e.g. a relative need such as an orphaned grandchild or a Christian widow) who is not entitled to inherit from him. The will can be used to clarify the nature of joint accounts, those living in commensality, appointment of guardian for one’s children and so on. In countries where the intestate succession law is different from Islamic law it becomes absolutely necessary to write a will.

The Will (Al-wasiyya)
The Islamic will includes both bequests and legacies, instructions and admonishments, and assignments of rights.
no specific wording is necessary for making a will. In Islamic law the will (wasiyya) can be oral or written, and the intention of the testator must be clear that the wasiyya is to be executed after his death. any expression which signifies the intention of the testator is sufficient for the purpose of constituting a bequest.
there should be two witnesses to the declaration of the wasiyya. A written wasiyya where there are no witnesses to an oral declaration is valid if it written in the known handwriting/signature of the testator according to Maliki and Hanbali fiqh.
the wasiyya is executed after payment of debts and funeral expenses. the majority view is that debts to Allah (SWT) such as zakh, obligatory expiation etc. should be paid whether mentioned in the will or not. However, there is difference of opinion on this matter amongst the Muslim jurists.

The Testator (Al-musi)
every adult Muslim with reasoning ability has the legal capacity to make a will. An adult for this purpose is someone who has reached puberty. Evidence of puberty is menstruation in girls and night pollution (wet dreams) in boys. In the absence of evidence, puberty is presumed at the completion of the age of fifteen years. The Maliki and Hanbali fiqh also consider the will of a discerning (tamyiz) child as valid.
Under English Law you must be at least 18 years of age to make a valid will (similarly in most of the United States of America) unless you are a military personnel in which case you may make a valid will at the age of 17.
the testator must have the legal capacity to dispose of whatever he bequests in his will. When making a will the testator must be of sane mind, he must not be under any compulsion and he must understand the nature and effect of his testamentary act. The testator must of course own whatever he bequests.
the testator has the right to revoke his will by a subsequent will, actually or by implication.
In traditional Sunni Islamic law the power of the testator is limited in two ways:
firstly, he cannot bequest more than 1/3 of his net estate unless the other heirs consent to the bequest or there are no legal heirs at all or the only legal heir is the spouse who gets his/her legal share and the residue can be bequeathed.
Narrated Sa‘d ibn Abi Waqqas (RA): "I was stricken by an ailment that led me to the verge of death. The Prophet came to pay me a visit. I said, "O Allah's Apostle! I have much property and no heir except my single daughter. Shall I give two-thirds of my property in charity?" He said, "No." I said, "Half of it?" He said, "No." I said, "One-third of it?" He said, "You may do so, though one-third is also too much, for it is better for you to leave your offspring wealthy than to leave them poor, asking others for help..." (Sahih al-Bukhari, Sahah Muslim, Muwatta, Tirmidhi, Abu Dawud and Ibn Majah.)

secondly, the testator cannot make a bequest in favour of a legal heir under traditional Sunni Muslim law. However, some Islamic countries do allow a bequest in favour of a legal heir providing the bequest does not exceed the bequeathable one-third.
Legal heir in this context is one who is a legal heir at the time of death of the testator.
Narrated Abu Hurayrah (RA): Allah’s Prophet (SAWS) said, "Allah has appointed for everyone who has a right what is due to him, and no bequest must be made to an heir. (Abu Dawud). Similar hadith narrated by Abu Umamah (RA) and reported by Ibn Majah, Ahmad and others.

The Legatee (Al-musa lahu)
generally speaking, for a bequest to be valid, a legatee must be in existence at the time of death of the testator except in the case of a general and continuing legatee such as the poor, orphans etc.
the legatee must be capable of owning the bequest. any bequest made in favour of any legal heir already entitled to a share is invalid under traditional Sunni Muslim law unless consented to by other legal heirs. an acknowledgement of debt in favour of a legal heir is valid.
acceptance or rejection of a bequest by the legatee is only relevant after the death of the testator and not before. generally speaking once a legatee has accepted or rejected a bequest he cannot change his mind subsequently.
if the legatee dies without accepting or rejecting the bequest, the bequest becomes part of the legatee’s estate according to the Hanafi fiqh because non-rejection is regarded as acceptance. According to the other three main Sunni madhahib, the right to accept or reject the bequest passes onto the heirs of the legatee.
there is difference of opinion as to the time at which ownership of a bequest is transferred from the testator (or his heirs) to the legatee. According to the Hanafi and Shafii fiqh the transfer of ownership is at the time of death of the testator, according to the Maliki and Hanbali fiqh the transfer of ownership is at the time of accepting the bequest.
all the Sunni madhahib agree that if the legatee dies before the testator, the bequest is invalid since a bequest can only be accepted after the death of the testator.
if there is uncertainty as to whether or not the legatee survived the testator, such as a missing legatee, the bequest is invalid because the legatee must be alive at the time of death of the testator for the will to be valid.
if the testator and legatee die together, such as in an air crash, and it is not certain who died first, the bequest is invalid according to the Hanafi, Maliki and Shafii fiqh. But according to the Hanbali fiqh, the bequest devolves upon the legatee’s heirs who may accept or reject it.

Executor of the will (Al-wasi Al- mukhtar)
the executor (al-wasi) of the will is the manager of the estate appointed by the testator. the executor has to carry out the wishes of the testator according to Islamic law, to watch the interests of the children and of the estate. The authority of the executor should be specified. Hanafi and Maliki fiqh state that the executor should be trustworthy and truthful; the Shafii fiqh state that the executor must be just. the Hanafi fiqh considers the appointment of a non-Muslim executor to be valid. the testator may appoint more than one executor, male or female. the testator should state if each executor can act independently of the other executor(s).
if one starts acting as an executor, one will be regarded as having accepted the appointment, both in Islamic and in English law.
Dr. Abid Hussain

The Spiritual Path of Islam

What is the spiritual path in Islam and what is its place in the life as a whole? To answer this it is necessary to study carefully the difference between the Islamic concept of spirituality and that of other religions and ideologies. Without a clear understanding of this difference it often happens that, when talking about the spirituality in Islam, many of the vague notions associated with the word ‘spiritual’ unconsciously come to mind; it then becomes difficult for one to comprehend that this spirituality of Islam not only transcends the dualism of spirit and matter but is the nucleus of its integrated and unified concept of life.
This is a new and revised translation of a talk given by the author on Radio Pakistan, Lahore on 16th March, 1948.
Body-Soul Conflict
The idea which has influenced most the climate of philosophical and religious thought is that body and soul are mutually antagonistic, and can develop only at each other’s expense. For the soul, the body is a prison and the activities of daily life are the shackles which keep it in bondage and arrest its growth. This has inevitably led to the universe being divided into the spiritual and the secular.
Those who chose the secular path were convinced that they could not meet the demands of spirituality, and thus they led highly material and hedonistic lives. All spheres of worldly activity, whether social, political, economic or cultural, were deprived of the light of spirituality; injustice and tyranny were the result.
Conversely, those who wanted to tread the path of spiritual excellence came to see themselves as ‘noble outcasts’ from the world. They believed that it was impossible for spiritual growth to be compatible with a ‘normal’ life. In their view physical self-denial and mortification of the flesh were necessary for the development and perfection of the spirit. They invented spiritual exercises and ascetic practices which killed physical desires and dulled the body’s senses. They regarded forests, mountains and other solitary places as ideal for spiritual development because the hustle and bustle of life would not interfere with their meditations. They could not conceive of spiritual development except through withdrawal from the world.
This conflict of body and soul resulted in the evolution of two different ideals for the perfection of man. One was that man should be surrounded by all possible material comforts and regard himself as nothing but an animal. Men learnt to fly like birds, swim like fish, run like horses and even terrorize and destroy like wolves ¾ but they did not learn how to live like noble human beings. The other was that the senses should be not only subdued and conquered but extra-sensory powers awakened and the limitations of the sensory world done away with. With these new conquests men would be able to hear distant voices like powerful wireless sets, see remote objects as one does with a telescope, and develop powers through which the mere touch of their hand or a passing glance would heal the unhealable.
The Islamic viewpoint differs radically from these approaches. According to Islam, Allah has appointed the human soul as His Khalifah (vicegerent) in this world. He has invested it with a certain authority, and given it certain responsibilities and obligations for the fulfillment of which He has endowed it with the best and most suitable physical frame. The body has been created with the sole object of allowing the soul to use it in the exercise of its authority and the fulfillment of its duties and responsibilities. The body is not a prison for the soul, but its workshop or factory; and if the soul is to grow and develop, it is only through this workshop. Consequently, this world is not a place of punishment in which the human soul unfortunately finds itself, but a field in which Allah has sent it to work and do its duty towards Him.
So spiritual development should not take the form of a man turning away from this workshop and retreating into a corner. Rather, man should live and work in it, and give the best account of himself that he can. It is in the nature of an examination for him; every aspect and sphere of life is, as it were, a question paper: the home, the family, the neighborhood, the society, the market-place, the office, the factory, the school, the law courts, the police station, the parliament, the peace conference and the battlefield, all represent question papers which man has been called upon to answer. If he leaves most of the answer-book blank, he is bound to fail the examination. Success and development are only possible if man devotes his whole life to this examination and attempts to answer all the question papers he can.
Islam rejects and condemns the ascetic view of life, and proposes a set of methods and processes for the spiritual development of man, not outside this world but inside it. the real place for the growth of the spirit is in the midst of life and not in solitary places of spiritual hibernation.
Criterion of Spiritual Development
We shall now discuss how Islam judges the development or decay of the soul. In his capacity as the vicegerent (Khalifah) of God, man is answerable to Him for all his activities. It is his duty to use all the powers which he has been given in accordance with the Divine will. He should utilize to the fullest extent all the faculties and potentialities bestowed upon him for seeking Allah’s approval. In his dealings with other people he should behave in such a way as to try to please Allah. In brief, all his energies should be directed towards regulating the affairs of this world in the way in which Allah wants them to be regulated. The better a man does this, with a sense of responsibility, obedience and humility, and with the object of seeking the pleasure of the Lord, the nearer will he be to Allah. In Islam, spiritual development is synonymous with nearness to Allah. Similarly, he will not be able to get near to Allah if he is lazy and disobedient. And distance from Allah signifies, in Islam, the spiritual fall and decay of man.
From the Islamic point of view, therefore, the sphere of activity of the religious man and the secular man is the same. Not only will both work in the same spheres; the religious man will work with greater enthusiasm than the secular man. The man of religion will be as active as the man of the world ¾ indeed, more active ¾ in his domestic and social life, which extends from the confines of the household to the market square, and even to international conferences.
What will distinguish their actions will be the nature of their relationship with Allah and the aims behind their actions. Whatever a religious man does, will be done with the feeling that he is answerable to Allah, that he must try to secure Divine pleasure, that his actions must be in accordance with Allah’s laws. A secular person will be indifferent towards Allah and will be guided in his actions only by his personal motives. This difference makes the whole of the material life of a man of religion a totally spiritual venture, and the whole of the life of a secular person an existence devoid of the spark of spirituality.
The Road to Spirituality
The first necessity for progression along the path of spiritual development is MAN (faith). The mind and heart of a man should always be aware: Allah alone is His Master, Sovereign and Deity; seeking His pleasure is the aim of all his endeavors; and His commands alone are the commands that are to be obeyed. This should be a firm conviction, based not merely on the intellect, but also on acceptance by the will. The stronger and deeper this conviction, the more profound a man’s faith will be.
The second stage is that of obedience (it~ ’at), meaning that man gives up his independence and accepts subservience to Allah. This subservience is called § slam (submission) in the language of the Qur’~ n. Thus, man should not only acknowledge Allah as his Lord and Sovereign but should actually submit before Him and fashion his entire life in obedience to Him.
The third stage is that of taqw~ (Allah-consciousness). It consists in a practical manifestation of one’s faith in Allah in one’s daily life. Taqw~ also means desisting from everything which Allah has forbidden or has disapproved of; man must be in a state of readiness to undertake all that Allah has commanded and to observe the distinctions between lawful and unlawful, right and wrong, and good and bad in life.
The last and the highest stage is that of ihs~ n (godliness) It signifies that man has attained highest excellence in words, deeds and thoughts, identifying his will with the will of Allah and harmonizing it, to the best of his knowledge and ability, with the Divine will. He thus begins to like what is liked by the Lord and to dislike what He dislikes. Man should then not only avoid evil, for it displeases his Lord, but should use all his powers to eradicate it from the face of the earth; he should not be content with adorning himself with the good which Allah wants to flourish but should also strive to attain and propagate it in the world, even at the cost of his life. A man who reaches this stage attains the highest pinnacle of spirituality and is nearest to Allah.
This path of spiritual development is not meant for individuals only but for communities and nations as well. Like individuals, a community, after passing through the various stages of spiritual elevation may reach the ultimate stage of ihs~ n a state also, through all its administrative machinery, may become mu’min (faithful), muslim (obedient), muttaq§ (God-conscious) and muhsin (godly). In fact, the ideals aimed at by Islam are fully achieved only when the whole community accepts them and a muttaq§ and muhsin state comes into existence. The highest form of civilization, based on goodness, is then reached.
Let us now look at the mechanism of spiritual training which Islam has laid down to prepare individuals and society for this process.
The methods that Islam lays down for spiritual development rest, in addition, obviously, to faith (Im~ n), on five pillars.
The first is the Prayer (Salat), which brings man into communion with Allah five times a day, reviving his remembrance, reiterating his fear, developing his love, reminding him of this Divine commands again, and thus preparing him for obedience to Allah. It is obligatory to offer some of these Prayers in Congregation as well so that the whole community and society may be prepared to journey on the path of spiritual development.
The second is the Fast (Sawm), which for a full month every year trains each man individually, and the Muslim community as a whole, in righteousness and self-restraint,; it enables society, the rich and the poor alike, to experience hunger, and prepares people to undergo any hardships in their search to please Allah.
The third is the Almsgiving (Zakat), which develops the sense of monetary sacrifice, sympathy and co-operation among Muslims. There are people who wrongly interpret Zakat as a tax; in fact, the spirit underlying Zakat is entirely different from that of a tax. The real meaning of Zakat is sublimity and purification. By using this word, Islam seeks to impress on man the fact that, inspired by a true love of Allah, the monetary help which he renders to his brethren will uplift and purify his soul.
The fourth is the Pilgrimage (Hajj), which aims at fostering that universal brotherhood of the faithful which is based on the worship of Allah, and which results in a worldwide movement that has been responding to the call of Truth throughout the centuries and will, Allah willing, go on answering this call till eternity.
The last is Jihad, that is, exerting oneself to the utmost to disseminate the word of Allah and to make it supreme, and to remove all the impediments to Islam ¾ through tongue or pen or sword. the aim is to live a life of dedication to the cause of Allah and, if necessary, to sacrifice one’s life in the discharge of this mission. This is the highest spirituality, rooted in the real world, which Islam wants to cultivate. Life-affirmation based on goodness and piety, and not life-denial, is what Islam stands for. And this lends a unique character to Islam.

SPIRITUAL What ISLAM

The essence of every religion, fundamentally, is aimed for the attainment of spiritual enlightenment, proximity to God, love, compassion, and eternal peace in the life here after. Under such a common definition and understanding, it becomes obvious that religion is bound to be deeply a personal matter in every sense of the word. On the contrary, if religion assumes the characteristics of a doctrine that is primarily concerned with issuing laws on how to offer prayers and how many times, people?s wealth and its distribution, dress code, sex life, punishment for crimes etc, then the whole concept of spirituality loses its Godly element. A religion of such nature, then simply becomes part of human civilization, a political ideology for a group of people who choose to follow a certain social orders and customs.
For this article, I would like to personally interpret spirituality not in the conventional sense, but as a human quest for peace, harmony, and secular philosophy. However, to make my point across to the multiple segments of people who believe in a verity of religions, I also quote the word God into the discussion.
The eternal qualities, which are attached to the principles of religion, are justly expected to stand beyond materialistic orders of this temporal world for the simple reason that the whole concept of spirituality has been perpetually associated with God and God alone. As such, the act of punishing a human being for his crime by another human being or a group of people has nothing to do with spirituality. Praying at different intervals, murmuring repetitive and memorized verses (often without understanding their meaning) does not manifest spirituality. On the other hand, someone who perceives this eternal universe in awe and wonder about its expanse and eternal nature, contemplating on the force behind this creation, manifest spirituality. Or simply, focusing for a moment on a myriad of questions about one?s existence and the meaning of life, translates into spirituality. But sacrificing animals for the appeasement of God or dictating a dress code (Or should I call it uniform?) on people is in extreme contrast with the concept of eternal truth.
Sacrificing an animal needs special implements such as knifes and swords, which in the first place had to be conceived in the human mind before they were invented. Because nowhere it says that man was created with a sword in his hand!
To impose a dress code, firstly it had to be stemmed from the concept of clothing, and then its invention, followed by man made tools to develop them into the prescribed design so that it confirms with the ruling of a particular religion; for example Islamic dress code.
To this my question is very simple; Does the Almighty God had to wait such a long period of time for issuing certain (in this case, sacrifice and dress code) religious orders until such a time when the human beings were capable of inventing tools, and clothing materials?
Every ritual that is practiced in compliance with the orders of religion, particularly the organized religions, is closely associated with this materialistic world. When Quran orders to distribute wealth according to certain proportions among wives, daughters and sons, it should be right to logically conclude that God must have realized that, at a particular point, in later times that man will start acquiring wealth, so that some guidance should be given to him with respect to its distribution. Again, God had to wait until man had to conceptualize and adopt the system of property ownership in order for Him to issue orders in matters of His creations? wealth.
Keeping in mind the above logical questions, let us examine where does Islam stand today? Does Islam allow an individual?s quest for the knowledge of the existence of God on a personal level, using his own intellect, senses, and wisdom? The answer is a big NO! A Muslim is bound to restrict his freedom of conscience within the frame of Quranic prescriptions. The moment he has questions on metaphysical issues, he is considered an outcast or an apostate. People of other religions, including Christianity and Hinduism has already started shedding their inhibitions or political correctness and are not reluctant to cast their doubts about the origins and contemporary relevance of religious scriptures and belief systems. No authority is interested in issuing ?fatwas? against them. But Islam is different. As time passes, Imams and Islamic clergies are becoming more and more powerful enough to tighten their noose around the freedom of thought.
What differentiate the evolved ideologies such as democracy, capitalism, communism, secularism, humanism and so on, from religious scriptures, is their sources of origin. While scriptures are considered divine, other social systems are definitely man-made. Thus when the freedom of people to question the tenets of Islam is confronted with armed resistance, then as a religion it loses its universality and credibility as a divine revelation from God. It degenerates into becoming just as any other ideological system with its own inherent limitations and constraints, so much so that, when faced with rivalry would not hesitate to use violence. But the proponents of these evolved doctrines are able to justify their actions for the mere reason since these systems are manmade and their ideas should spread through humanly possible actions. And that include the use of military forces, politics, weapons and wars. But does a peaceful religion (as the apologists claimed it to be) need to choose the path of violence to achieve its goal?
Islam has no identity as a religion. Rather it is closely identified as a political system under which people are forced to put aside their freedom. It emphasizes on uniformity through Islamic Umma) rather than diversity. It is more ritual based rather than being spontaneous. It advocates a dress code for men and women; just like in schools, military barracks, or hospitals. It believes in a political system where a ?Khalifa? or a deputy should be the ruler. It dictates rules on property distribution. Most importantly, its concept of heaven filled with corporeal descriptions such as, young girls (virgins), beautiful gardens, silk dresses, perfumes, streams, delicious meat, and wines while the hell has fire, hot water, hooks and what else!
When an individual?s life and the life hereafter are controlled and dictated only by these temporal experiences, then what place spirituality has in the religion of Islam?