Part One: SEERAH (Biographical Sketch) CHAPTER

C:\Users\Admin\Dropbox\The Message - Material of Maulana\16. Books and Review\Apa's Books\Life And 96 CHAPTER 11 The Concept of Spirituality in Islam SPIRITUALITY as a philosophy has a long history of five thousand years. In ancient Greece there were great philosophers like Plato and Aristotle whose thinking was spiritual in character. According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, spiritualism is the philosophy of higher reality, which has been defined by different philosophers in different words such as, “immaterial reality,” “a universal mind,” “a supreme being,” “spiritual cosmic force,” “infinite personal God,” etc. Spirituality, being a subjective discipline, it cannot be described in objective terms. Every person is composed of two things—body and spirit. The body is related to objective science while the spirit is related to subjective science. There are two different concepts of spirituality: God-oriented spirituality which is based on the concept of God Almighty, and man-oriented spirituality, which is based on man’s soul itself being the treasure-house of spirituality. As for the former concept spirituality results in God-realisation while in the latter, spirituality results from self-realisation. The concept of self-realisation is based on the assumption that the treasure of spirituality exists within man himself. And through meditation man can peep into his inner self and discover spirituality. This concept has been explained by Acharya Rajneesh in his book, “Kundalini Andar Base.” However this concept of man-oriented spirituality called “indwelling God” by Pandu Rang Shashtri, founder of the Swadhyaye Movement, is not corroborated by Islam. According to Islam man has no such spiritual treasure house existing independently. For man is a taker-creature. He receives everything from his Creator. The concept of spirituality in Islam is based on the principle of Godrealisation. God is the treasure house of all virtues. And when man’s contact with God is established, in the world of his feelings, at the psychological level, an unseen, inner revolution is brought about which is called spirituality. In