We, as a Muslim nation are very much enthusiastic about our faith and beliefs when it comes to the point where outer world challenges it. The religious challenge unites us to the decree that we are ready to die and kill for it. Believing and having faith is the right way to do anything you are passionate about but the question here is, are you really spiritually enlightened to take such actions? Or you are just passionate about it because you have been taught this since your birth?
The basics of religion Islam is complete and primordial faith that was revealed through many prophets and finished on Holy Prophet Hazrat Mohammad (SAW). The oneness and connectivity of everything is the key to be conscious of our religion and spirituality is all about the unity and interconnection of your soul with the universe. Every religious person is not a spiritual one but you can sense a great impact of having a strong faith in a spiritually enlightened person. Achieving higher consciousness takes a lot of trials and errors of personal growth which the majority of us never get to experience because we are too focused on our current objective reality.
Sigmund Freud, Austrian neurologist and father of psychoanalytic theory, presented a theory about consciousness (state of being aware of being and surroundings). He divided human consciousness into three levels of awareness: the conscious, preconscious and unconscious. First level is all about being aware of what we see and understand in our surroundings, second is about desires, thoughts and the part where our memories are stored, now third “the unconscious” is where things consist of what we are not aware of yet e.g. memories, thoughts and urges. According to Jungian philosophy collective unconsciousness is the deepest layer of our soul.
Historically, many Muslim scholars dedicated their lives to exploring the spiritual and psychological questions of human wellbeing. However, traditionally spirituality in Islam arguably is least examined with comparison to Buddhism, Taoism and Hinduism.
Ibn ?azm (d. 456 AH), the famous Andalusian scholar of Islam, said, “I searched for a common goal amongst humankind, to which all would agree to strive for excellence. I have not found anything other than the vanquishing of anxiety [hamm].”
Spirituality, Sufism or Tasawwuf is an experience of the soul where you acknowledge the power of your God and accept reality and surrender to the divine power. It is a personal experience/journey/transformation which involves contemplation, awareness and quest for purity. The mysticism of Sufism is justified by passages from the Qur’an that describe the nearness of God and the way that people can respond and on the mysterious night journey Muhammad made, ‘Miraj.’
In Bukhari, it is related that when the angel came to the Holy Prophet on another night, “his heart saw, and his eyes slept but his heart did not sleep; and such are the Prophets, their eyes sleep, but their hearts did not sleep, then Gabriel accompanied him and carried him to heaven (Bukhari 61:24).
Again it is written, “And he awoke and he was in the sacred mosque” (B:98:37). In another of Bukhari’s Hadith, it is written, “Whilst I was in a state between that of one sleeping and one awake” (Bukhari 59:6).
Islam is not just about worshipping Allah but to understand the meaning of your existence
We usually are aware of all this knowledge and religious stories and we passionately pass these on to new generations but have we ever tried to go on a personal journey to experience the oneness and connectivity with God? We are passing on the stories which we have heard from our elders and them from their elders but never experienced or tried to experience it and this could be the reason why new generations are going into the depths of depression because we never get to experience what this universe actually is and what is our purpose here? Achieving higher consciousness can lead to positivity and the understanding of our purpose on this 3D plane we are living in. Islam has gained bit of a reputation as a religion of violence in the west but it was not like this years ago when Islamic scholars were trying to find the purpose of mankind and the purity of existence – all through Sufism.
Enlightenment or spiritual awakening is a vast topic and a way to get close to God and understand the union of everything this universe has. Islam teaches us love and positivity towards every person, action or event and acceptance that whatever has happened or happening is by the will of Allah. When souls get lost in the objective reality and ignore the real purpose of being and this universe, leads to the negative void like depression, anxiety, violence and anger which takes us away from our faith and away from the universe and hence the GOD.
It is God Who sends to His servants clear signs
that He may lead you out of the depths of darkness
into the Light.
And truly, God is to you most Kind and Merciful.
[ Sürah al-Åadïd 57:9]
Understanding that the world is beyond what we see and everything is connected like the circulatory system of our body, how every vein is connected and flows the blood is exactly how our souls are connected to this universe and to Allah. Every cause has an effect and every intention has a feedback from the universe. According to the teachings of Mohammad, our ultimate spiritual guide, we must perceive every happening in our lives with positivity, acceptance and surrender to the flow of the universe.
The writer is a researcher and a visual artist with an interest in theology, cosmic creativity and sentience of internal existence through exploration of art, philosophy and scientific theories about objective reality