Maulana Wahiduddin Khan | The Speaking Tree Blog, TOI | April 8, 2013
Spirituality as a philosophy has a long history of five thousand years. In ancient Greece there were great philosophers like Plato and Aristotle whose thinking was spiritual in character. According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, spiritualism is the philosophy of higher reality, which has been defined by different philosophers in different words such as, “immaterial reality,” “a universal mind,” “a supreme being,” “spiritual cosmic force,” “infinite personal God,” etc.
Spirituality, being a subjective discipline, it cannot be described in objective terms. Every person is composed of two things—body and spirit. The body is related to objective science while the spirit is related to subjective science.
There are two different concepts of spirituality: God-oriented spirituality which is based on the concept of God Almighty, and man-oriented spirituality, which is based on man’s soul itself being the treasure-house of spirituality. As for the former concept spirituality results in God-realisation while in the latter, spirituality results from self-realisation.
The concept of self-realisation is based on the assumption that the treasure of spirituality exists within man himself. And through meditation man can peep into his inner self and discover spirituality. This concept has been explained by Acharya Rajneesh in his book, “Kundalini Andar Base.” However this concept of man-oriented spirituality called “indwelling God” by Pandu Rang Shashtri, founder of the Swadhyaye Movement, is not corroborated by Islam. According to Islam man has no such spiritual treasure house existing independently. For man is a taker-creature. He receives everything from his Creator.
The concept of spirituality in Islam is based on the principle of God-realisation or marefat. God is the treasure house of all virtues. And when man’s contact with God is established, in the world of his feelings, at the psychological level, an unseen, inner revolution is brought about which is called spirituality. In this matter the relationship between God and man can be likened to an electric wire and the power house. When the wire is connected to the power house, electricity is produced, and the place is lit up. In this way, light is the result of the wire’s connection to the power house of God.
According to the Quran the universe has been fashioned by God in a way that it may become a source of spiritual inspiration for man. A truly religious person, connected to the power-house of God, is able to observe the phenomena of the universe and draw lessons from them and receive spiritual nourishment from the physical events by converting physical events into spiritual lessons. He derives spiritual nourishment from material things. The Quran has described how godly people continuously derive such sustenance from their environment, thus maintaining their intellectual and spiritual well-being. This is elaborated upon in the Quran as follows:
“In the creation of the heavens and the earth, and in the succession of night and day, there are signs for men of understanding; those that remember God when standing, sitting, and lying down, and reflect on the creation of the heavens and the earth (saying): ‘Lord, You have not created these in vain. Glory be to You! Save us from the torment of the fire, Lord.” (3:191)
This is what I refer to as contemplation as mentioned in the Quran. Contemplation is essential for developing our spirituality. Contemplation is a high kind of thinking. It is not a state of silence, but a deep kind of thinking process. It takes us from the seen world to the unseen, from darkness to light, from chaos to conviction, from limitation to limitlessness, from word to meaning. It is like a door through which one enters another world. In short, from the human world we reach the divine world.
The concept of concept of contemplation is based in Islam on two things, at-tafakkur wat-tadabbur (3:191, 4:82). Abu Darda was a senior companion of the Prophet. After his death a man came to his wife and asked her what was the most important form of worship performed by Abu Darda. She replied: He would spend the whole day thinking, thinking, and thinking. According to this, Islamic contemplation is a thinking process rather than the cessation of intellectual activity. The Quran further tells us that this intellectual process has two different directions—al-anfus and al-afaq. Al-anfus literally means soul, that is, inner world; afaq literally means universe, that is, external world.
So when a believer sees the universe functioning in a perfect manner and he finds that all the events in this vast universe always proceed towards a meaningful result, he realises that man’s life too must have a meaningful end. This makes him exclaim:
“O our Lord! You have not created all this without purpose. Glory be to you! Give us salvation in the life to come.” (3:191)
Thus the universe is a manifestation of God’s attributes. Hence, it is a source of spiritual nourishment for those who want to lead a divine life on earth. For them, the whole universe becomes an important means of reaching spiritual perfection. This spiritual development continues throughout their earthly life till a time comes when they attain that degree of spirituality which the Quran calls the ‘Rabbani soul.’ It is, souls such as these, who, in the life Hereafter, will inhabit paradise. Our most compassionate Lord will say:
“Dwell in Paradise; you shall have no fear, nor shall you grieve.” (7:49)