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Salaat


A very learned and scholarly person, with a long beard and an attractive face, came to visit me. During conversation, discussion turned to hadith ['a saying of the Holy Prophet (saw)]. The aforementioned gentleman said:

"It is stated in a hadith that the pen has dried up writing about what is yet to happen. Now if the pen has dried up then it begs the question as to what is spirituality."

Morning comes every day. The atmosphere in the morning stays constant according to the season. But we take every morning to be a new morning. Night comes. We sleep in the same home, in the same room, in the same bed, and in the same sheets, yet we think that every night is a new night. We eat when we feel hungry. Bread constitutes our diet, yet every time we eat it we take it to be a new loaf of bread. Are we not living a life of deception? And if one's entire life is a deception then what value if any can be attached to the extravagant claims to spirituality? The nation is inactive as it is; yet you are preaching of even more inaction.

Commentating on this hadith, Abdaal-e-Haq Qalander Baba Aulliya (r.a)' has stated:

'"There is a book that has already been written. In other words, this book is the past (1.e. a record). There are different ways to read this book. If the book is read from the beginning, in order and in continuity, i.e., first word and then the second word, first line and then the second line, first page and then the second page—if this is the way the entire book is read then this is the method of reading which applies to wakefulness (consciousness)."

A person's conscious experience is that a day passes, then the next day passes, a week passes, then the next week passes. Similarly, months, years, and centuries pass in the same order and in the same way, i.e. they pass one after the other. After Tuesday, Thursday does not arrive until Wednesday has passed. The month of Shavvaal does not arrive until Ramadhan and the other months prior to it come to pass. This way [of thinking] is the conscious way that is present in man (bound by the confines of time and space). This approach is called wakefulness. And when this conscious approach transports to a different page of the book it becomes the subconscious approach, free from the confines of time and space. In simple words this can be stated thus: The same approach alternates between two compartments and this alternation and shifting of thought is what our life is. In light of these facts, whatever there is, has been written in a book. The book is eternal and eternity has become the past. As far as the concept of sin and virtue, or goodness and evil, is concerned, this is the process of giving meaning to information. The thing that is good is also bad. A man establishes salaat, but if he remains unaware of the reality of salaat according to the Holy Quran, (which is the establishment of a connection and a relationship with Allah the Exalted), then [such] salaat becomes the mean of his annihilation and destruction.

The interpretation of salaat is that it brings a believer into the realm of the unseen. The general observation, however, is that it is difficult for people to find even the presence of heart and mind in salaat, let alone, gain an awareness of the unseen. As soon as a person stands for salaat and recites the intention for salaat he is overwhelmed by the onslaught of thoughts.

Abdaal-e-Haq Qalander Baba Aulliya(r.a) says that the spiritual interpretation of "the pen has dried" is that the past rules over the universe and, since man took the responsibility of the trust upon his shoulders, he has accepted the responsibility to be filled by the past. The past is a saying of the Holy Prophet(saw) that,

"Do not speak ill of the times; Allah is time."

Everything has already happened in eternity" does not mean that Allah the Exalted has bound or restricted humankind [to a to prewritten script]. In fact, within the book that has been written in eternity, not only are the two paths, of mercy and of pain, mentioned, but it has also been given the freedom to choose between either of the two paths. The writing in the book states that, 'Two paths are available to a person —one leads to mercy, the other ends in turmoil.'

Spirituality is necessary because there is no other way that can introduce man to the past (i.e. the book written in eternity).


Journey Towards Insight

KHWAJA SHAMS-UD-DEEN AZEEMI

Science has made immense progress, yet many believe that, even with all of the modern tools at our disposal, human beings function at no more than 10% of their mental capacity. This leads to the question of what exactly it is that comprises the remaining 90%. Yet another question that arises is this: If it has taken man four and a half billion years to be able to apply only 10% of his ability, how long will it take for him to make use of the remaining 90%?