Discovering God

Purification of the Self God (31:27), similarly, there is no limit to this process of building a spiritual civilization. Spiritual Progress What is spiritual progress? Spiritual progress is another name for a spiritual awakening in one’s internal personality. Material food makes one’s physical body healthy. Similarly, the spiritual existence of a person becomes healthy through such refinements as are called spiritual divine food. (Quran 20:131) It was July 16, 2004. It was a very hot day in Delhi. The light went off for a long period in the afternoon. The ceiling fan stopped. I sat in my room in that heat of July. For a long time I stayed in this condition. Finally the light came back on and the fan started functioning. It was a sudden experience. The moment the fan started rotating the body cooled down. It seemed as though the hour of distress had come to an end and comfort had been restored. At that time, I was reminded of two traditions of the Prophet of Islam in which it is spelled out that the world for a believer is a place of great difficulty or distress. (Sahih Muslim, Hadith No. 2956) But when the believer leaves this world after death, he will find himself all of a sudden in the gardens of Paradise. (Sunan Ibn Majah, Hadith No. 4262) The difficult worldly life of afflictions will all of a sudden come to an end, and