Maulana Wahiduddin Khan | The Sunday Guardian | Jan 30, 2022
In terms of nature, or in terms of the creation plan of God, the ‘we and they’ concept is unrealistic; it is the obverse of the factual position. So when you address people by saying: ‘ladies and gentlemen’ you fail to touch people’s hearts, but when you address people as ‘sisters and brothers’, you remove the psychological wall between yourself and them. Alienation suddenly disappears. Everyone becomes like a member of your own family.
It is a miracle; there is no doubt about it. But this miracle can be performed only when your ‘sisters and brothers’ is not simply a form of lip service but comes from deep down in your heart. Lip service is mere hypocrisy, while a wholehearted address is like a psychological wake-up call which has the power to rivet your listeners’ attention. True spirituality comes from the heart; it has nothing to do with any mere form of address or religious rites. There is a saying: charity begins at home. The same is true of spirituality. Spirituality begins with one who projects himself as a spiritual person. Only one who can do so will produce a spiritual result.
Although spirituality is a matter of the heart, it does have certain external manifestations, which show that a spiritual person is quite different from others. If one is not truly a spiritual person, the very manner of his utterances will betray the truth about him; while if someone is truly spiritual, his speech, his tone, his way of behaving, will at once confirm his sincerity.
There are natural flowers and there are plastic flowers. Artificial flowers may look very similar to natural flowers, but they have no fragrance whatsoever; a natural flower will not only have the real flower’s look but will also please you with its sweet fragrance. This is true also of spirituality: spirituality which is such only in form is like an artificial flower, while spirituality which has true spirit is like a natural flower.