Hi friends,
I could post this in any thread of those which contains more or less the same subject but i found myself unable to decide a perfect one. So, i decided to put it as a new thread.
Before talking about Islam, let us have a look at religion or spiritual schools.
The first question comes in mind is that- what is religion?
In each and every religion or renowned spiritual schools, there is a starting point which was initiated by the founder of that particular religion. That founder certainly found either a new way to reach the ultimate or if not so, he would have reached such a destination, or found a new route, which was not known earlier. After this the followers of that particular religion or spiritual school follow the same method and some of them also get the same results.
At this juncture that religion or spiritual practice is absolutely pure and perfect because it contains only what the founder had earned and learned. It is obvious that the founder would be the first leader or the head of the organization. After this, people will join him as followers. Time passes away and it is quite possible that after some generations, such a person becomes leader of the group which is not equal to the founder in terms of both knowledge and intention. There are fair chances that a new leader can give verdicts and directions in his interests in the name of religion. That’s how intrusions pollute religions.
A common person cannot challenge it because to check or correct someone, one has to be at least at par in terms of knowledge, if not better. In later stages, leaders and followers of religions use to misinterpret the verdicts of founder according to their convenience to take personal benefits. This phenomenon has been happened in all religions.
As religion becomes popular with time, it tends to found more adherents and forms a large group. Thus, it becomes necessary for the founder to lie down some general principles regarding day to day life.
So, this is to say all ancient religions offer not only wisdom and knowledge but a complete life style; from spirituality to guidelines for social aspects of life. Thus, there are two parts of them. One part is for intellectuals and spiritual scholars while the second is for folks. We have to keep this in mind otherwise the fair chances are of misinterpreting them. The essence of religions is their spiritual part, not the social guidelines as they are just complimentary.
This has happened and particularly Islam paid a very heavy price of that. Fanatics tweaked and twisted the essence of Islam and put a very bad and intruded face to it. They misunderstood the social guideline part of Islam as its crux and tried to force it on the spiritual counterpart. We all are witnessing the result of that. The real face of Islam is Sufism.
Contrary to the orthodox version, Sufism is very liberal but this does not mean that it is against rules but stresses more on intention than rules. It says that the love and affection towards Allah is more important than rituals.
Let me explain-
Let us assume that there are two Muslims and they are going to offer prayer (namaz) at Kabbah. They are friends and use to go together but they have some urgent work and so one of them decided to stay back for a while.
Now, the first one is in the hurry because prescribed time of the prayer is going to be over soon. So he is trying to perform the rituals in haste though he is very vigilant that each and every ritual should be performed exactly mentioned in the texts. In this way he completes his offering and came out from the mosque thinking that he has done his duty towards Allah and now he is focused once again on his routine life.
The second man comes late. He knew that the prescribed time is getting over but he stayed back because he wants to go to Kabbah with free mind and time as well. He reached at Kabbah but the authorities did not allow him as the prescribed time of prayer is over. He requested but they allowed him just to stay there instead. He sat there with all his sadness thinking that Allah will not forgive him. His heart filled with sorrow and frustration. He just sat there for some time looking at Kabbah and all of the sudden his eyes became wet. He stood up and came out from the mosque to ensure that nobody could saw him weeping. Now, going back and being alone, he could not able to hold himself and tears started flowing from his eyes. His sadness followed him throughout the day until he was not able to go again to the mosque with his friend and offered prayer properly.
Now, conservative version will hold that the first person is right as he has done just what should be done but there is a fault on account of second person.
On the contrary Sufism says that though the first person did not do anything wrong but he defaulted in his intention. In the case of second person Sufism holds that, even defaulting in rituals, the heart of him was connected throughout with Allah, so, according to Allah, his time of prayer will be counted from the very moment of his entrance in the mosque, till he came back again with his friend for the second time and it is many times in comparison of first one.
There is a famous saying in Sufism-
ALLAH KEEPS ACCOUNTS OF THOSE WHO KEEP ACCOUNT OF ALLAH.
This one line is more than enough to understand Sufism.
I mentioned all this because, under present circumstances, the image of Islam is very much intruded by extremists and it is considered to be very rigid, very rule based, unadjustable and even violent but it is not. Sufism is so flexible that even people from other religions are allowed to visit and offer prayers at the Dargahs (graves) of its masters. Here in India, one can find many followers of Sufi masters who come from other religions. So, it is as good or as bad any other religion. Furthermore, its Sufi vertical is very much pervasive in its literature if one tries to look into it. So, in my opinion, Sufism should be considered as a real face of Islam.
I want to put one more example forward from the Quran to understand the difference between the approaches of Sufism and orthodox Islam.
The second Surah (chapter) of Quran is named as Surah Al- Bakrah which literally means ‘the cow.’
I am quoting the English translation of the verses from 67 to 70.
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And (remember) when Musa (Moses) said to his people: “Verily, Allah commands you that you slaughter a cow.” They said, “Do you make fun of us?” He said, “I take Allah’s Refuge from being among Al-Jahilun (the ignorants or the foolish).”
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They said, “Call upon your Lord for us that He may make plain to us what it is!” He said, “He says, ‘Verily, it is a cow neither too old nor too young, but (it is) between the two conditions’, so do what you are commanded.”
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They said, “Call upon your Lord for us to make plain to us its colour.” He said, "He says, ‘It is a yellow cow, bright in its colour, pleasing to the beholders.’ "
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They said, “Call upon your Lord for us to make plain to us what it is. Verily to us all cows are alike, And surely, if Allah wills, we will be guided.”
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He [Musa (Moses)] said, "He says, ‘It is a cow neither trained to till the soil nor water the fields, sound, having no other colour except bright yellow.’ " They said, “Now you have brought the truth.” So they slaughtered it though they were near to not doing it.
dar-us-salam.com/TheNobleQuran/index.html
The literal meaning of these verses is very clear that Allah asked to kill the cow which is in a good shape.
But Sufism interprets it totally differently. It says that these verses have nothing to do with cow. It says that the cow is used as a metaphor for human intellect.
Thus, ‘kill the cow’ means sacrifice your mind in the favor of Allah. ‘Neither old nor too young’ is indicating towards the ripe and mature mind as a child is unable to apprehend all this while if we leave it for too late then it would be difficult to draw it towards Allah. ‘Bright yellow color’ is used for healthy state of mind. ‘Cow neither trained to till the soil nor water the fields’ is indicating that we should draw our intellect towards Allah only when it is not busy elsewhere. It other words Sufism is saying that it is useless to pray just for formality as the tongue is pronouncing the prayer while mind roaming around.
It the same way Sufism defines the whole of Quran. The Sufi interpretation does not differ much from Vedic and Buddhist explanations of God and other aspects of spirituality.
with love,
sanjay
