Sufism: A path to perfection. We live in a society that advocates that happiness is the outcome of wealth and material accusations. But when we analyse the main reason for our failure to achieve happiness, we find that happiness does not dwell in outward things.
With the name of Allah most Beneficient ever Merciful
Since our minds are scattered and our hearts cluttered by various sorts of defilement, we are unable to establish harmony or happiness within us. Happiness comes when the mind and heart are kept in perfect unison.
A person burdened with desires and ambitions cannot enjoy the beauty of life because the freshness and newness of life can be experienced at every moment only through meditation, as otherwise life becomes a drab and disgusting existence.
Sufism says that without first creating order in our mind it is impossible to bring happiness in our life. We must realise the fact that our mind is the maker of all mischief and misery. When the mind is utterly quite, still and silent, perfect tranquility prevails which is our real state.
In other words, in the thought free state in the mind alone we can attain real happiness, in that perfect stillness of the mind there is pure bliss, a rare sense of joy and sublime feeling.
We are all members of one huge family called humanity, with one common purpose and according to Sufism, that one common goal is to attain God consciousness (attaining emaan/ faith)
Today the people in every land are faced with innumerable problems that were unknown to their ancestors because of the modern technological civilizations. The modern man is so much involved in sensual activities; his mental energies are wasted enormously.
Hence it is very essential one must practice meditation systematically, then only there is the possibility of reducing wastage of energy considerably. In other words, by keeping one’s mind in a state of stillness the quantum of energy that is dissipated through the cerebral-spinal system and the ceaseless cellular activities in the physical bodies, are substantially minimized.
In meditation all the faculties which the human mind is equipped are brought into full play and capacity. The state of meditation in no way brings about a lethargic condition of the mind or senses, but actually it creates an awareness full of dynamism and the optimum use of the mind and the senses.
Sufism stresses the importance of spiritual training and in this practice, what is required is a discipline of the entire being of man, of all the diverse faculties, and not mere intellectual training, since spiritual illumination is not dependent on scholarship and logical thinking.
At the end of a long and sustained spiritual practice which involves severe control of the sense organs and the mind, then there is the possibility purging of all its impurities.
Fana: So long as there is desire in the mind, true state of Fana cannot be experienced because the craving of the mind for pleasures is always restless and unhappy. Actually fana is a pure sublime feeling untouched and uncorrupted by thoughts or desires.
Fana means “Die before your death”, as the heaviest burden of life is the ego, and this self of man creates all sorts of tension, misery, mischief and conflict.
Fana is complete when one “dies” to every thought, desire, despair, hope and ambition in life. It is only by “dying” that one shall be able to find the joy of living.
The Sufis interpret life as a long spiritual journey, one day it must come to an end, and when it does come to an end, paradoxically, it is there at the point from which it started.
Therefore, death in this world is not the end of existence.
It is worthy of note that if we want to be without problems we must be thoroughly “dead” while “living”, which means spiritual renewal is impossible without dropping the mental mechanism. Mystically speaking, both birth and death are unified and transcended if one melts in the blasé of infinite truth (Haq).
Purpose of Sufism: Sufism is not a cold, deliberate shunning of everybody and everything for the sake of one’s own salvation, but the ultimate purpose of Sufism is the crucifixion of the egotistic personality and rising up into a new consciousness of our internal oneness with the supreme reality – Allah. The state of “Baqua” implies the death of human ego and the resurrection into the divine consciousness: and this spiritual awakening or divine elevation is achieved after passing through the experience of “Fana”, which means silence of the great void.
Peace of Mind: Today we find people spiritually hungry in every corner of the globe and if there is a single point in which there can be no difference of opinion, it is that every one of us wants happiness or peace of mind.
If the world and society is in a chaotic condition, it is because there is no peace in the mind of men. Happiness comes only when our mind is perfectly clear and free from all confusions.
We should enquire into the deeper aspects of the mind with ever increasing attention. It is also necessary to observe why the mind craves for sensual pleasures and how the same pleasurable enjoyments lead us to pain.
Without such self observation, it is impossible to have any kind of mastery over our mind. Whatever may the pressures of problems confronting us, our mind should remain unaffected by circumstances. When it is necessary we must use our thinking faculty, but other times we must be able to remain in our natural state of “perfect peace”, without wasting our mental energy on unwanted thoughts and desires.
The basic factor behind all human suffering is some sort of frustration and the reason for such suffering interminable nature of desires which can be snapped only by abstention from desire all together. Detachment in the true sense of the term is an experience which liberates one’s mind in overcoming distraction.
The world we live in is a wonderful place because of its perpetually changing nature. What a man hates most is monotony and hence the changing world is a blessing to humanity. The world appears to man in different ways according to their physiological constitution.
To scientist it appears in one way while to the ordinary man, in another way. is only to the sufis that the world appears in its true form. The realm of spiritual liberation has always been a matter of great interest to the seeker or “mureed” (disciple), because man, is a physically finite being in an imperfect world aspires for immortality.
Every man (insaan) in his heart of hearts feels an urge for an unalloyed joy, absolute freedom, uninterrupted peace, perpetual life and cessation of misery.
Sufism makes a strong plea that a lasting solution for human problems can be found only when the mind reaches the stage of:”fana”, because it constitutes not only the cessation of mental activities though choiceless awareness, but also freedom from the known, which means our mind has got merged in perfect silence.
When we understand all about ourselves there is that emptiness and in that state there is wisdom, and that wisdom begins when sorrow ends. Sufism emphasizes the importance of leading a pure life and practicing spiritual disciplines so that the whole Psycho – physical constitution of the “mureed” (Disciple) becomes changed and purified.
This self discipline gives the seeker not only the necessary strength to bear the impact of mental agitation, but also saves him to stand the strains of the inner struggle.
Meditation: (Muraquabah) meditation means a state of alertness where no thought interferes, and in that state we not only explore the various aspects of the mind, but also the secret of self which brings about ever new dimensions of a supra mental state–a level beyond the senses.
Normally we act out of opinion, conclusion, or out of speculative intentions, but we must realise the fact that meditation is the action of silence. Mediation normalizes the nervous system, increases orderly functioning of the brain, promotes integrated thinking, regulated action and behavior. Concentration is the preliminary process by which the diversified ways of the mind are brought to a single point.
But mediation which is the highest form of contemplation is the divine method by which our mind is ultimately rendered silent. This state of meditative awareness not only helps us to commune with Allah but also releases the mind from its restlessness.
All forms of spiritual discipline aim at tranquilization of mind helping to rectify functional impairment, mental disease and structural alterations.
Specialists in Psychosomatic medicine and psychiatry have come to show a good deal of interest in meditation as it attempts to eliminate physiological tensions and counteract bad influences that cause integration of personality.
Relaxation, both mental and physical, is becoming more and more essential in the fast moving hurly burly world in which we live.
Sufism holds the view that it is useless to look for peace or relaxation outside ourselves: it must come from within by leading a life of meditation.
In the silent mind alone one can attain full spiritual satisfaction. The best way to attain freedom is by egoless love, egoless work, egoless contemplation and egoless knowledge, which means one has to surrender and sacrifice everything.
In the present day world where crisis of character is eating into human vitals it is our sacred duty to liberate the human consciousness from life. It is to be realized that a man of meditation alone can perform the right action in which there will be no regrets, confusion or contradiction.
In meditation we live in this world without the image of pleasure or pain and in that profound state of muraqaba we actually discover the origins of thinking, then we enter into a new dimension where the division between the observer and the observed does not exist, and there alone the blessing of mutation can take place spontaneously and effortlessly.
Free and happy indeed is the Sufi who lives in a state of perfection and in which state of egolessness he is able to understand and appreciate the unending beauty of life.
Published by Anjuman e Waris e Mohammedi 2013. Author: Dr K.M.P. Mohamed Cassim Phd. Founder President, Perfect Peace Lodge, Sri Lanka.