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is a being with a distinct entity, and everything else has been created by Him. Wahdat al-Wujud is an un-Islamic concept. It is basically a version of the concept of monism, which is not derived from the Islamic scripture. Some advocates of meditation claim that through meditation one can attain what they call ‘self-realisation’, which, they claim, is the apex or goal of the spiritual quest. In their understanding, worship of, and prayers to God, are not necessary for ‘self-realisation’. What one needs to do, they say, to attain spiritual advancement is to learn to ‘be in the moment’, including by sitting still and keenly observing one’s breath or thoughts, for instance. What do you say about this? This is a supposition. Self-realisation is not possible without tadabbur or contemplation over God and His creation. God has a prime role in one’s realisation. This is because thinking about the fundamental reality begins with the question of who created man. If we eliminate this, we have no starting-point for our thoughts and understanding. The starting point of the art of thinking is to know the Creator. Without this, the process of thinking cannot begin at all. Enlightenment is related to intellectual awareness. According to my knowledge, simply observing one’s thoughts cannot lead to intellectual development. Intellectual enlightenment is the result of a continuous thought process. And the claim that sitting still and observing one’s breath leads to enlightenment, too, is unscientific, because observing one’s breath is a physical phenomenon and so it cannot lead to spirituality, which is an intellectual attainment. Is it possible, as some people claim, to come to know oneself (or what they call ‘self-realisation’) and God through one’s own efforts (such as through meditation), without the need for following the guidance of the prophets in the form of Divinely-revealed scripture? No. Without scriptural guidance, one can only have a vague idea of God. One will not be able to get the details. For example, without scripture, although one may discover that there is a God, one cannot determine His attributes. o