Eternal Life

Beyond the world of thought, on the other side, as spirit travels through the world of barzakh ['realm between material kind spiritual life'] and manifests itself in the form of a child, the first teacher of the child is she who cleanses and bathes the child and wraps him in a snow-white cloth. After that, it is the mother who takes over the responsibilities of a teacher. The maternal instincts of the mother first give the child the concept of cleanliness. Along with the ongoing process of cleanliness, the mother invokes upon the surface of consciousness of the child, the concept of the father. As this impression gets stronger, within the tiny cells of the child's brain, images are reflected of the paternal and maternal grandparents. And then along with the mother, the father as well as other close relatives in the family, assume the role of the child's teacher. The style of thinking of the child begins to take on the characteristics of his or her teachers. The depth of a child's style of thinking determines his personality. If members of the family display characteristics of arrogance, disdain and a superiority complex, If the child also accepts within him the influence of these traits. If the young and the old of the family are personifications of sincerity, love and selflessness, the emotions of sincerity, love, brotherhood, gentleness and forbearance arise within the child automatically. After burning in the kiln of a style of thought, man can burn down to ashes, and after burning in the kiln of .1 style of thought, man can become flawless, as gold become after being smelted.

My childhood is an entire tale within itself. Not a fictional tale, but a tale with real characters. When I was born, it was a very distinguished personality who chewed a piece of date to put in my mouth [as a blessing and birth ritual]. As I grew up, I was placed in a religious school. The teacher who taught me the Holy Quran was not only a stranger to aesthetic beauty ['husn-e-jamaal'], but all he possessed of the inner beauty of character [husn-e-akhlaaq] was [apparent in his style of teaching that centered on] inflicting brutal corporal punishment Amid regular beatings and injured bones, the blessed words of the Holy Quran, which had been deprived of meaning and context [by the teachers], imprinted upon the pages of my brain. Also, the environment within which I was reared was one where talk of religion was predominant. One's clothing and appearance was highly distinctive. The atmosphere of the home was such that my mother was consumed with fear. She had no significance of her own. She was a machine that kept on running on some undetermined fuel. At times this machine would be hand grinding wheat between two parts of a stone mill, and at times this machine would be thrashing paddy in a wooden mortar [to separate husk from the rice].

This machine walked about in the house in such a fashion as if it was her job to keep running all the time and to keep working at one thing or the other at all times. Due to the kindness of my mother, I was fed with a golden spoon, but looked upon with the fierce eye of a lion. What is the eye of a lion? When a lion looks at one with his fierce bloody eyes, all that has been eaten vanishes away, and nourishment that had been stored for years is immediately consumed. The level of certainly among the 70-, 80-, and 90-year-olds was such that when it was said to them that 'you are heaven bound,' it was as if they had just received an electric shock. With imploring eyes and a pleading tone, they would say, 'may God make it so that what you are saying turns out to be true.' They did not have even as much certainty in their worship and religious exercises as a common man has with respect to another common man.

Being raised in this atmosphere of uncertainty, I reached that level of consciousness where a person makes certain decisions about himself. He starts to understand that the past is not everything; that future is also a necessity. Coming out of this time of uncertainty, I started searching for paths of certainty. The thought occurred in my mind that certainty will be found where there would be no fear. The wealth of certainty will be found where there would be no grief. Long story short, years passed in the search for such people who were free from fear and grief. Only one criteria [for the right group of people] lay before me, that, 'Allah's friends neither fear nor grieve.' From the age of 17 years till the age of 26 years, I remained busy in search of such a friend of Allah, who according to Allah's announcement, neither feared nor grieved. I saw miracles performed and heard stories told of kashf-e-jal and kashf-qabr. I came in contact with such men, whose single gesture brought spirits before the eyes. I met people who exuded such holiness that each and every moment of their lives were imprinted with the pure Islamic Law, [' Sharjah]. But I had not been able to reach such a person who was free from fear and grief. When my heart filled with tenderness, eyes remained wet with tears, and my mind inclined towards concentration, the promise of Allah was fulfilled.

"And those who strive for Allah; Allah guides them in His ways."

[Holy Quran ch29: v69]

What blessed fortune! I [finally] found a free man—such a free man upon whom the dark clouds of fear and grief never cast their shadow. Peace, contentment, and joy showers upon those who had been grieved and fearful, as they sit in the company of such a person.

This free man is Qalander Baba Auliya (RA), may Allah have mercy on him, whom nature has lovingly taken within its embrace. This free man, having placed me within the kiln of a style of thought, destroyed all those idols which I had inherited from my environment —the idol of uncertainty, the idol of the fear of hunger and poverty, the idol of the fear of death, the idol of honour and disgrace. The fictitious world inside me was turned upside down and such a pattern of certainty was created where the eye does not see anything besides Allah, where the heart does not feel anything hem Allah, and where knowledge without practice is ignorance where uncertainty is shirk ['associating partners with Allah], and where certainty is eternal life.