My beef with spiritualism

Actually my “beef” is not with spiritualism itself, it has to do with how it is preached and practiced in Pakistan. Some of you may recall my previous essay on this topic under the heading “Lost Sufis of Pakistan” on which I got a lot of flak as usual. But that essay was intended for another audience altogether and in this essay I will try to explain the basis for my skepticism against the various popular forms and shapes of spiritualism / Sufism / mysticism in Pakistan. I will also try to shed light on some popular myths on this subject matter which I find contradictory with the teachings of the Quran.

One of the comments I got in the last essay that spiritualism has to be actually “felt” from within and Allah gives guidance to whomever He chooses. Now the first part of this statement is quizzical to me, it implies that guidance is for a selected few who can actually feel it, for those of us who cannot “feel it” are destined to be doomed without any hope of salvation? Islam is not a religion for an enlightened few; it is for the whole mankind. Indeed, Allah gives guidance to whomever He chooses but we must not forget that there is a prerequisite to it; we have to seek guidance first. Come near to Me and I will come towards you, the Quran claims. Allah does not give salvation to those who do not seek it.

In the Quran Allah says that He is all seeing and all hearing. He also says that I am nearer to you than your own jugular. Now when He actually says that, is there any space left for any intermediary to convey our grievances and prayers to Him? Here, you may also claim that prayers are more potent when conducted through the pious ones, if I accept that for a minute then, there is actually no need for Allah to say the above, He could have said the same in the Quran thus leaving no ambiguity whatsoever.

Yet another popular belief is that the student of spiritualism has no right to question his teacher. He has to obey his teacher without any shadow of doubt. Again I say, when the Quran is telling us to think and open our minds then why are we being told the contrary? People should also realize that by not questioning these pirs and faqirs, we simply handover a blank cheque to them and they gleefully play havoc with our money and our minds to say the least. Do we not read of rape and plunder by these so called pirs and faqirs almost everyday in the newspaper?

Once again I would like to clarify that I am not at all against spiritualism. Who am I to refute it? Spiritualism is indeed found in different forms in almost all regions practiced in this world. It is my belief that first we have to act upon the “physical” aspect of our religion and by striving to attain that Allah shall give us guidance to the next level; the spiritual level. Why do we always have to go for short cuts in all aspects of our lives including the religion?

I would like to end this essay with a quote from the Quran which, I hope, some of you will find meaningful:

“And the Day whereon We shall gather them all together, then We shall say to those who did set partners in worship with Us: "Stop at your place! You and your partners (whom you had worshipped in the worldly life)." then We shall separate them, and their partners (so-called gods) shall say: "It was not us that you used to worship."

"So sufficient is Allah for a witness between us and you, that we indeed knew nothing of your worship of us."

There! Every person will know (exactly) what (all) he had earned before, and they will be brought back to Allah, their rightful Lord, and their invented false deities will vanish from them.

Surah # 10 Yunus (Jonah), Ayat 28-30

We must realize that much of what is being taught today as a Sufi way is actually not what these Sufi’s actually said. I say again, it is for us to seek the truth for ourselves.

The Quran 101

I have often read that the Quran should not be read without the guidance of a learned moulvi. It has also been written that by reading the Quran without such guidance one can become ‘gumrah’ and may forever lose his soul to the devil. So, being an eternal rebel and a reader, I decided to take this risk. Whether I lost my soul or not, I leave for you guys to decide but I would definitely like to share why I consider this Book to be truly sacred and a gift from God to mankind.

First of all, it was very puzzling for me to think that a book which was meant to challenge the intellect of a nomad sitting right in the middle of a desert almost 1500 years ago cannot be understood by a modern man, is it so complicated? If a man is at risk of losing his soul by reading it, then why make it public? If I do accept that it is complicated then why did our Prophet (SW) and his companions took so much pain to compile and write it down? Why did they not allow it to be passed from one generation to the next verbally? What secret things have been written in it which only a moulvi can decipher and I cannot?

As I cannot tell you what I lost by reading the Quran, I want to share with you what I gained from it:

· In sharp contrast to what we have been told, in so many places in the Quran, Allah tells us to THINK about His creations and see things around us because in His creations we will find clues which all point to a presence of a single Supreme Entity; Himself. So when Allah is asking us to think then, why do we close our minds and label everything unconventional as “un-Islamic”?

· Every time I go back and read the Quran again, it opens some new avenues for me to think. Every single time I read it, it seems that I am reading it for the first time. It always gives me something new to ponder. No other book till date has given me this feeling.

· The Quran is based on simple facts; I have yet to find a single Ayat which can be termed as disputable or refutable. The Quran is solely based on logic. Here, I dare others to read and find something which they can claim as controversial.

· In so many Ayats, a single incident has been described and always from a different angle in order to highlight a different aspect. This is the true beauty of the Quran.

It is about time that we realize that the Quran starts from the word Iqra (read). Now if I lookup the word “read” in the dictionary, it means “interpret written material”, “learn something by reading”, “understand something intuitively”, “give particular interpretation to something”. So now you tell me, do we really “read” the Quran?

Al-Asr

Surah No. 103 Al-Asr (The Declining Day)

This Surah has 3 Ayaat and was revealed in Makkah

In the name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful.

103.001
YUSUFALI: By (the Token of) Time (through the ages),
PICKTHAL: By the declining day,
SHAKIR: I swear by the time,

103.002
YUSUFALI: Verily Man is in loss,
PICKTHAL: Lo! man is a state of loss,
SHAKIR: Most surely man is in loss,

103.003
YUSUFALI: Except such as have Faith, and do righteous deeds, and (join together) in the mutual teaching of Truth, and of Patience and Constancy.
PICKTHAL: Save those who believe and do good works, and exhort one another to truth and exhort one another to endurance.

SHAKIR: Except those who believe and do good, and enjoin on each other truth, and enjoin on each other patience.

Surah Al-Asr is considered to be one of the most important Surah of the Quran, yet remains the least understood. Imam Shafe has said that if the people only considered this Surah well, it alone would suffice them for their guidance.

I have gone through several commentaries by notable scholars but almost all of them ponder upon why Allah has drawn the testimony of Time (Asr) in this Surah. The commentary by Zohurul Hoque & Husain Nuri do shed some light on the point which I would like to highlight and which in my humble opinion forms the crux of this Surah and which makes this surah so beautiful yet so easy to understand.

In the first two Ayaat Allah says “By Time, the man is in loss”. In my opinion, the testimony of time is sought because time is a reality and nobody can refute the reality of passing time. Here I am also in complete agreement with all the scholars who point to different versions of the word “Asr”.

In the last Ayat, Allah says “except those who believe and do good, and exhort one another to Truth, and enjoin one another to perseverance”. The verse affirms three and not four key activities that determine who would not be at a loss (in my opinion, the fourth one is rather a consequence of doing the earlier three). The very first activity is to believe in Allah or Eman. The second requirement is to do good (Amal-e-Swalihat). Amal-e-Swalihat can simply be put as to do good to one’s own soul by constant self-improvement, followed by doing good to humanity. The third requirement is to speak the truth (haq). Lastly, the verse points out to steadfastness (Sabr) one has to endure in the course of action for following the three previously stated activities. The literal meaning of perseverance is a steady persistence in a course of action, a purpose, a state, etc., especially in spite of difficulties, obstacles, or discouragement. So in order to escape the loss, one not only has to remain steadfast himself but also need to engage other people of similar beliefs to motivate and keep the spirits high due to discouragement.

Now coming back to my point, after Eman, Allah has emphasized on doing good (Amal-e-Swalihat). In my opinion, “Amal-e-Swalihat” are primarily and solely directed towards humanity. By specifically used the term “Amal-e-Swalihat” right after “Eman”, Allah has pointed out that salvation lies in doing good to the humanity also.

Now, why do we forget is important aspect is my question is to my Muslim brothers? why can’t we realize that by doing good to the humanity we are very rightly following the teachings of Islam? Why do we forget that by serving humanity we are in turn serving Allah?

Lastly, I would like to declare that what I wrote above is in true earnest and would accept all the responsibility for my words in front of Allah. So help me God !