Topics
All are aware that
everything that is in the universe is born-it grows and develops, reaches its
prime, and then its decline sets in Eventually, progressively, either slowly or
quickly, it dies. Man faces exactly the same predicament. Man is born and he
through a time of innocence and then steps into the world of awareness. The
adult, intelligent and conscious man, who considers this stage of awareness his
highest elevation, starts to decline. A time comes when the mental and physical
strength fails to bear the burden of the human structure. When the structure's
bricks and stones (skeleton), cement and mortar (nervous system), plaster
(flesh), and its beautiful facade (skin) lose their strength, the structure
collapses and falls to the ground.
Observation of the
law of motion lends us the fact that within every object that is in motion
there is something stored, and it is when this stored thing burns that the
object moves. Within motor cars and airplanes, it is gasoline that burns;
kerosene burns within lanterns; electricity burns within illuminated bulbs, and
within man energy burns in form of calories. The more calories that are stored
within a person the stronger, the more active, and better looking he appears. A
person's health is affected by the same ratio that his calories decline. Just
as a cat starts to stop and stall if its fuel supply is interrupted, man also
falls and rises. This rise and fall is indicative of his superior health.
According to God's
command, man has been fashioned from rotten mud and dry ringing clay. Within
this insignificant object Allah breathed in His spirit, transforming it into a
living being that can hear and see and taste and feel. Man is able to walk around,
sleep and awaken, eat and drink, and use his will mid abilities because lights
have been stored within him. Excessive use of the lights quickly makes him
tired and exhausted; ample supply of lights keeps him healthy and active for a
longer time. The longer a man is busy in worldly affairs, the more he loses his
inner peace and contentment of heart.
Worldly comfort and
luxury may have its place, but it is law of nature that when man concentrates
on something, that thing appears displayed on the screen of the human mind, and
this display consumes the lights that had been stored - not the same store [of
lights] that is being generated by the 200 billion cells of the human mind.
If one of the rooms
in a house contains ten items such as n sofa set, a radio, a television set, a
table, and other articles of display and luxury, while another room contains
only a bed, when our eyes view the [room with] ten items, the stored lights within
us display the ten items on the mental screen [whereas, in the other room we
need to consume only enough lights to display one item]. In other words, the
light that could have been spent for just one item is spent ten times over.
It is a general
observation that an ordinary man experiences better health and a longer life,
whereas a man with his mind caught in worldly affairs not only experiences poor
health but also a shorter life span. The fact of the matter is that, within one
of the men, the expenditure of the stored lights is less, while in the other
man that expenditure is greater. Everyone knows that the one who spends more is
eventually bankrupt.
From a spiritual
point of view, when a child comes out from the mother's womb into this world,
he possesses a large enough storehouse of lights to live a lifespan of 5000
years. He spends this [stored fuel] so excessively due to his foolishness,
false pride, and ostentatious nature that the lifespan of 5000 years is reduced
to a mere 50 or 60 years. In other words, man who could have lived for 5000
years, spends [life energy] excessively and runs out of it in 50 or 60 years.
It is a law [of
nature] that the man who is content and at peace experience good health-he has
good appetite; he does not have any difficulty falling asleep; and he lives
longer. On the other hand, the man who lives in chaos and who is plagued by
mental worries needs to expend many more calories than are normally required.
He also has the need to eat, but in order to feel hungry and then to stop
feeling hungry he needs to us medication. He wants to sleep, as sleep is the
best tonic for mental energy, but he is not able to sleep. Like every other
living thing he wants to experience joy, but the imprints of sorrow and
misfortune and of excesses in the business of profit and loss do not let that
joy come to the surface, so he covers has face with so many false faces to hide
the agony within. This agony consumes an inordinate number of calories and,
alas a time comes when, with so much sorrow and regret, be passes on to the
next world, without having obtained his purpose in life, becoming an
illustration of this [verse of the Holy Quran]:
[“He
loses both this world as well as the Hereafter."
(Holy
Qur'an Ch22: v11)]
He leaves for a
world where he will not find his business or his factories or his magnificent
mansions-his entire life's worth is reduced to a 6x3 foot barren hole in the
ground, and it does not take long before the particles of this man's body, who
so worshiped the world, are trampled under the feet of both man and beast.
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%?
