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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 Prophert(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
NM 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 pass 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 sins 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 verse and, since man took the responsibility of the trust upon his
shoulders, he has accepted the responsibility to be filed 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).
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%?
