THREE STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT

as a gift from the Creator. But developing a personality which is well prepared for life’s contingencies calls for much striving on the part of the individual himself. Ore may be a gift of nature, but the turning of this ore into steel and machinery is carried out in factories set up and operated by human beings. It is on this act of self-preparation that the next developed stage depends. People must realize their God-given abilities and continue to introspect objectively. Those who make an effort to find out their shortcomings, those who are ready to pay any price for truth and work on converting their “ore” into “steel”, those who sedulously refrain from all negative emotions, such as egoism, arrogance, greed, jealousy, anger and vengefulness—all the things which are dangerous obstacles to the building of one’s personality—in short, those who engage themselves continuously in self-purification are the ones who, by the grace of God, will succeed in discovering the truth and wholeheartedly accept it. Every person imbibes some sort of conditioning from his surroundings. Reflecting his emotional make-up and likes and dislikes, he develops certain habits and a particular mindset in accordance with what he thinks of as his best interests. Often, all these are obstacles to our spiritual progress. To remove these obstacles, we need to become our own guard. We need to identify our own faults and make efforts to rectify them. We need to subject our own selves to a process of merciless deconditioning. This is a necessary condition for purification of the self. Without this, such purification is no purification at all. Without merciless self-reform you cannot be purified, and without purification, you cannot enter Paradise. One who journeys through these stages of spiritual development mentioned above and arrives at the Truth is referred to in the Quran as ‘an-nafs al-mutmainnah’, or a ‘soul at peace’ (89: 27). These are the people who submitted to God’s Creation Plan. Having moulded themselves in line with this Plan, they have developed the necessary character. It is these people whom God will be pleased with and whom God will bless with a place in the eternal gardens of Paradise. o Man should discover that God-given quality with which he is blessed and full of hope he should proceed to construct his life.