The Flying Carpet

Life, with all of its emotions and perceptions, incidents and states, concepts and thoughts, only continues as long as the process of breathing continues. Life depends upon breathing. When one ponders the different ways of breathing, one finds out that the process of breathing is established in every living thing, but within each species there is a set interval between each breath. For instance, if breathing causes man's heart to beat 72 times within a certain time, the heartbeat count for a goat for that period of time will be different. Within an ant, it will vary even more greatly.

If an instrument is invented that could measure the breathing of a tree, its heartbeat, based on its breathing, will be different than the heartbeat of the creatures that can talk. And if we invent an instrument that can measure the heartbeat of a mountain; it will be different from that of a tree. Everyone knows that one breath comes in and the other goes out. That is, we inhale one breath and exhale the other. It is also common knowledge that under peaceful circumstances there is a particular balance in the process of breathing, on the contrary, in times of worry, grief or anxiety the state of breathing changes. For instance if a person becomes afraid, his heartbeat becomes faster, and faster still. If we observe carefully we can see that along with the heartbeat, the process of breathing also becomes fast. There are two aspects to breathing. One aspect is that we take in breath, that is, we inhale and absorb oxygen through breathing. The other aspect is that we expel breath, that is, exhale carbon dioxide.

The point to carefully ponder here is that when we inhale, something goes inside of us and burns. That is, the oxygen that is in the atmosphere goes inside of us through breathing and it burns as petroleum burns inside a car. We also see that the burnt waste is expelled outward. This process continues from birth until death. Now we will describe this in terms of spirituality.

According to the statement of Allah the Exalted, everything comes from Allah, and everything returns toward Allah [Holy Quran ch5:v18]. When we breathe in, our direction is inwards, towards our soul. When we exhale the breath, all our interest lies in the world and remains attached to the objects of the world and to our perceptions of flesh and blood. There are two aspects to perception. One aspect is that which confines us within time and space. The other aspect is that which frees us from the confines of time and space, and it remains dominant within us during the state of sleep. That is, when we fall asleep, our conscious perception is negated and time and space lose their grip upon us; and when we wake up, our perceptions free of time and space are temporarily distanced from us. According to the saying of Allah the Exalted, sleep and wakefulness are the two aspects of life. That is, human life is composed of two aspects, or two types of perceptions or awareness. One is called day or wakefulness; the other, night or sleep. Under the form of the awareness of night, every living creature is free from time and space; under [the form of] the awareness of day, every living creature is confined within a perception bound to time and space. Life is established upon breathing, and breathing has two aspects: we breathe in, and we breathe out. The breath that goes in brings us closer to our spirit, and the breath that goes out brings us closer to the perception that keeps us away from knowledge of our spirit. With closed eyes, or with our eyes open, when we concentrate upon something with complete focus, the duration of breathing in becomes longer, that is, our conscious awareness turns towards our spirit.

In all the books that have so far been written on tasawuf ['mysticism'], spiritual fields of knowledge are mentioned but that knowledge has not been made readily accessible to the general public. Many secrets and hints are mentioned but only those that have attained a certain level of spirituality [i.e. they are manzil raseedah] or those who have treaded the path of mystic initiation ['raah-e-sulook'] are able to understand these secrets.

Our ancestors have also stated that since spiritual knowledge is transferable, it should be protected and safeguarded. This is the reason that these fields of knowledge are called ilm-e­seenah ['knowledge of the heart']. The ancestors have gone so far as to say that, after attaining this knowledge, their results (supernatural phenomenon) should be kept secret. Why was it so? The only thing that comes to mind is that, in those times, people did not possess the ability to think, understand and attain knowledge to the extent that they do today. Before this age of scientific progress, it was considered a miracle to be able to send sounds too far-away places. But today scientists have discovered the wavelength of sound. The transfer of thought from one place to another was also considered miraculous (supernatural). In today's world, complete images can be transferred over distances of thousands of miles. Not long ago, just some 50 years ago, when it was said to people that man is made up of lights, they ridiculed the idea, 'I0day science has proven that man is composed of wavelengths lot light]. Not only have they said that man is composed of waves, but they are also able to capture the image of man at a plat e where Ire had previously been present, but has since left.

In the olden days, grandmothers used to tell children stories about magic carpets, on which the prince and princes would sit and fly away. The same magic carpets of the grandmothers are today present before our eyes, Not only are they present, but we are able to travel on them according to our will and desire.

The examples show that, before scientific progress, humankind did not possess the ability to understand these symbols and secrets. This is the reason why our elders and ancestors first selected a few individuals and then transferred to them those fields of knowledge. But in this age, man's mental ability and stamina, and his understanding and power of reflection are so strong that the things which used to be categorized as miracles are present today in people's everyday lives. Due to the exposure of knowledge, as man gained in [mental] stamina, his conscious grew stronger, his intelligence developed further, and his ability to learn and understand the deeper [aspects of life] increased. This is a great advantage that has come about due to the advancement of science, but along with it, as the strength of the conscious grew stronger, to the same degree the strength of certainty grew weaker and weaker.

The weakening of the strength of certainty means that man drifted away from Allah, and the main reason for that is that the goal of scientific progress was the attainment of worldly comfort and luxury. Since this world itself is a symbol of uncertainty, is fictional, and has no more significance than its assumed perceptions, this progress also became a torment. If this progress, along with material means, was based upon the search for transcendental abilities, belief and certainty, instead of weakening, would have strengthened. But despite this, the advancement of scientific knowledge has this benefit at least that we have developed the taste to learn about such fields of knowledge that bring us closer to spirituality.

Fifty years ago, or a hundred years ago, what used to be achieved by performing spiritual exercises over fifty or a hundred years, can now be achieved in a few months or a few years due to an individual's unshakeable certainty, and strength of will.