Light

Dear friends—Travelers of the realm of the unseen and Witnesses of the omnipotent presence of God—Admirers of spirituality!

When lowliness and loftiness are mentioned, discussions turn toward the analysis of what is lowliness, and what is loftiness or exaltation. The stories of nations' rise and fall tell us that nations that employ thoughtfulness, reflection, and mental inquiry are the ones that hold an elevated status. And nations whose conscious is devoid of reflection fall to a status of lowliness and disgrace. It was to witness these scenarios of lowliness and elevation that nature provided for me such resources that from my poor and underdeveloped country I flew through the vastness of space to reach London. I am sure it was nature's intention that my experience in the path of lowliness and loftiness be elevated.

I am basically from an educated and learned family where lowliness describes a person who is neglectful of his salaat and fasting etc., whereas loftiness describes one who is engrossed in gathering reward for his virtues. In the world that I am in talking of now, I did not see anything that showed concern for the concept of reward and punishment. But I saw them more well off, more organized, and more humanitarian than my own nation. So much so that if a person is unemployed there, he gets enough allowance that he can easily live with all the amenities of life. Their standard of living is such that cannot be imagined by even the richest of men in a poor underdeveloped country. They have access to every such thing that can possibly be of use in human life. Their academic progress is at such a level that, within short periods of times, new inventions are brought forth. But what they lack there is the peace of heart and mind. There are few among them who sleep without medication.

The point to ponder here is that the developing and the underdeveloped nations also are deprived of the peace of heart and mind, despite the fact that they have piled up billions upon trillions of virtues on their side. But they are devoid of that light which turns into happiness and joy and runs in the blood of the human body. It is seen that the person possessing the largest store of virtues is the farthest away from peace. There is an aridness which clings to the body; a permission that holds us in its monstrous clutches. We have seen the upholders of virtue here, as well as there. The condition there is much worse than here. The curse of sectarianism [here] has reached such a low that policemen, intoxicated with alcohol, even enter mosques wearing shoes and with dogs alongside them, and shut down the mosques. Each person insists that he is righteous, while those of the other sect deserve to be killed. This is the condition of poor underdeveloped countries.

The condition of those nations that boast of their progress and consider themselves superior is not much different than this. This is the nation that for the sake of its selfish monetary profit has disfigured this beautiful world. It has fogged what were once beautiful starlit nights. It has polluted what used to be the intoxicating and magical morning breeze with poisonous atomic fuel. This is that elevated nation that has stolen the smile of the flowers. Songs of the birds that once lifted the spirit have now turned into heart- wrenching sonnets. Science and technology has thrown man into the abyss of insecurity. For humanity suffering from pang of insecurity, moonlight has lost its charm and sunlight its beauty. Who does not know that atomic experimentation, fumes of petroleum and diesel, and burnt debris from jet planes, has poisoned the atmosphere to such a degree that each breath that man takes is toxic, and this toxicity has turned man's life upside down. Nerves have been shattered; the mind has lost focus; the heart is ever inclined to sink. The weeping, ailing, and agonizing nation, hiding behind the illusory curtain of progress, realized that its wellbeing lay in escaping from the monstrous hold of insecurity, but in this escape as well, the greedy and selfish genius mind grabbed it in its clutches like a hunter seizes its prey. And the progressive man of this age, in order to escape this sense of insecurity, invented such narcotics as heroin, LSD, rockets, marijuana, and mandrax, and thus the common man, in order to escape one problem, became entangled in thousands of others.

This entire conversation boils down to the conclusion that as long as a commercial mind operates within individuals, humankind will never be at peace. The developed nation is. suffering punishment because its progress is based on selfish Interest. Each progress is a means to accumulate more wealth. Undeveloped nations are suffering from problems because no action of theirs is free of commercial needs [and mentality]. They remember Allah with the same intention of profiting themselves, though Allah does not approve of this way of thinking. Allah the Exalted states:

"Those who conceal Allah's revelations in the Book, and purchase for them a miserable profit- they swallow into themselves naught but Fire; Allah will not address them on the Day of Resurrection. Nor purify them: Grievous will be their penalty." [Holy Quran ch2: v174]

It obvious that burning coal within one's belly is an agonizing punishment, which is this same grievous punishment which at times takes the form of anxiety, at times restlessness, and at times it turns into a sense of insecurity, every moment taking us deeper into the world of fear, casting upon us the enchanted spell of death.