ISLAMIC SPIRITUALITY

The Quran attaches great importance to contemplation, reflection and serious thought. There are a number of verses in the Quran that indicate that innumerable signs of God are extant in the heavens and the earth. The observance of God’s signs is the greatest source of spirituality. This spiritual journey demands a change in lifestyle. This lifestyle for a spiritual traveler may be put briefly in these words: ‘Simple living and high thinking.’ Simple living means limiting one’s worldly requirements to the minimum and assiduously avoiding comfort and luxury. That is why the Sufis used to wear coarse clothes as a symbol of the simple life. It helps the traveler in his spiritual journey. High thinking means that his thoughts are not embroiled in material things. By engaging one’s mind in higher realities, one becomes a recipient of divine inspiration. This inspiration of divine light comes to his mind uninterruptedly, igniting his whole existence. The Quran attaches great importance to contemplation, reflection and serious thought. There are a number of verses in the Quran that indicate that innumerable signs of God are extant in the heavens and the earth. The observance of God’s signs is the greatest source of spirituality. According to a Hadith, ‘Worship God as if you are seeing him' (Sahih Bukhari). When man engages himself in true devotion; he is linked with God at a sensory or psychological level. He comes close to God. Through an invisible cord he comes in contact with God; God’s light passes through him. His entire existence comes to be pervaded by this indescribable feeling, which is called spiritual experience. This is called Rabbaniat in the Quran (Be people of the Lord) (3: 79). Rabbani means one whose thinking, and whose actions are God-oriented, who has placed God at the centre of his attention. When an individual attains spirituality, his state becomes like a lamp lit all of a sudden. He undergoes spiritual experiences. His heart becomes an ocean of spiritual waves. He appears to live in this world, but he has found another far superior world for himself. o