I was in discussion with someone and they said that one can be spiritual without God. That concept in itself is quite fascinating – spirituality is everywhere. So really I think the speaker will elaborate and really let us experience the whole concept in a way that he does so beautifully always.
I would like to refer in the preamble to the discussion to what Imam Khomeini said on this particular topic. He said that if you observe a person who despite performing religious duties has not attained inner self he should become aware that he has not performed the external properly. And a person that desires to accomplish the internal being without an external part like some of the common Sufis has no proof of the true God.
Perhaps it may sound controversial but this is what I am reading from Imam Khomeini. He goes on: “A large group is of the impression that the meaning of spirituality is that a human being finds a place, utters a supplication and makes a series of movements and dances and so froth – is that a being of spirituality. Or one is under the impression that the person is of a certain behaviour as an aesthetic and he should not have any interaction with the people in the city. I am an aesthetic. Aestheticism was more pronounced in the prophets than in others but they did not go inside their homes and claim to be aesthetics and have nothing to do with the people and let everyone do as they desired”.
This is quite an interesting way of looking at spirituality because as you know it has become quite a vogue and Mr Blair when he was prime minister was promoting a certain kind of spirituality that people did not think about what is going on in Iraq and Afghanistan and just sort of think about being spiritual. So that in itself is quite interesting to look at.
Sheikh Fadhlalla Haeri: I would like to share with you this evening three aspects of one major issue and the major issue is what is the source and essence of life and creation and how does that essence and source govern the universe? If we have a better understanding of our relationship with that source our relationships with each other will improve and our relationship between ourselves with our own soul, between our ruh, and our nafs (soul) will improve.
The three aspects of this major issue are the historical background. I would like to have a few minutes to cover 10, 20, 30 thousand years of human evolution. Then I would like to spend a bit more time on tawheed. And the last issue is tawheed in the last thousand years.
About ten to 15 thousand years ago we have some indication that the shamans and the seers and the sorcerers which led human groups to spread out on this earth had some openings about the future, about what lies behind the mountain.
If we want to know today we need to study the past. Physiologically, psychologically, mentally and neurologically we are a function of tens of thousands of years if not millions when you see the shift from homids to homospaiens. There is no doubt that 200,000 years ago something major happened in our ability to reflect on reflection. Many of the animals on the evolutionary scale have self reflection but we human beings can reflect on reflection. I am aware that I am talking to you So this rise of consciousness of consciousness continued in a very way with an ever increasing force.
None of us can stop it. Everyone one of us wants to know more, wants to be more secure, wants to know about what comes after death. We want to know what is going on now. We want to know why we are suffering from whatever it is – it can be a physical issue, pain, but it could also be psychological – mental. We want to know the nature of what it is that is upsetting me or is causing me disruption so that I avoid it. What drives us all relentlessly is the drive to sustained happiness.
We all seek pleasures in this life – whether it is through the senses, through food, through sight, through beauty through anything that gives that pleasure knowing very well that when we do not have it we will experience displeasure. These additional appetisers of pleasure led us to a zone of unconditional joy or bliss. We all love that state in which you are mindless, thoughtless.
In the Mohammedi package of salat, in the Mohammedi package of ibidat they all lead to this point of oblivion. Otherwise what is the point of all the traditions regarding the ultimate state where you and I and anyone else who is fortunate enough will experience an inner joy.
That is why early on with people who were from all these divided tribes and had enemies within the family, with the neighbourhood when there was looting, the prophet did not come there and psychologise or do a lot of the social services and preaching of tolerance. They tasted something much higher than their love of survival, fear of insecurity or of their neighbours. They tasted something that was so joyful which was the presence if you like of that infinite light or the presence of Allah’s light. As a result of that they would forsake all of the historical animosities.
As you know people at that time did not forget how many generations before somebody killed somebody. It was part of their culture to take revenge. All of a sudden, within ten or 15 years, all these vulgar, violent people suddenly came as one band.
Why was this? It was tawheed. It was not about saying we are speaking the same language, we are co-religionists – there was no such thing. It was experiential, not talking about eman. Tasting that there is the one and by the one I can function and my ultimate purpose or functioning is to be passionately seeking the presence of that oneness at all times.
It is also for that reason that we have in our normal shariah issues that is you have done all your conditions for your ibadat but your heart is not there then it is riah – you just want to show off. Let the other people see me. We all suffer from some of these sicknesses because this is the vale of humanity until such times that when you meet your enemy in your heart you have nothing other than the closest affection and love.
The Quran also reminds us that this is what we aspire to that we want to know that one and only one, that light of lights is utterly, absolutely operative whether we admit it or not, whether we see chaos on earth, injustice on earth.
Allah is a doer. So many of our great beings like Ibn Arabi put those foundations that no action emanates except from the one. You and I say no: I am able to lift my hand. I am lifting my hand. But where did the energy come from? Where did the neurons fire up all of the other muscles and where did all the co- ordinations come from? They were designed millions of years ago by that mystical, mysterious happening of ‘to be’. From that to be in this cycle of our creation 15 bn years ago the cosmos began and than the earth began – 500 million years ago the semi permeable cell began to vibrate.
The first thing it did was what? There are seven different ayas about it. Everything is glorifying it. So how did this first cell glorify? It is by replicating. It wanted to remain forever because Allah is forever. Allah is not subject to time or space.
Look at the amazing programming. Because of that first thing of continue, continue, continue, human beings also want to have progeny continuing. Also the amazing hardwiring of sexuality of pleasure to continue. That’s why we are creating hordes of semi criminals in this world. This is nature. This is the way of nature. When you see young people they are completely overwhelmed hormonally. This happened early on. This has been with us for millions of years until such times as reason, intellect and then higher elements of consciousness – that state of consciousness that takes you to a realm that has no description. You fly into a zone that is indescribable. You are truly and utterly in a state of joyfulness for no reason.
So that is what happened. So in the history of humanity as we began to be more and more evolved at every level consciousness began to rise continuously in a visible way. Consciousness has been rising from the point of kun until the Adamic consciousness and the fall of from the garden where there were no problems, no insecurities, goodness badness, blissfulness. We had to come to another zone of consciousness where we are given a choice of doing good and enjoining against evil. Helping , serving, patience all of the attributes. All of the so-called 99 names and many more so that we reform the characters.
What are we reforming? What is character? We are trying to reduce the veils, the shadows, upon the ruh because the ruh is sacred, it is divine. It cannot occur, it cannot exist, it cannot be manifested unless it has got its opposite. The same as rahmaniya and shataniyah. You cannot have one without the other. You cannot have birth without death.
So the grooming of the self is none other then reminding myself that I am not this fellow who is now angry, who is fighting, who is shouting, who wants to restore justice. We all have to do our best to bring about these qualities of goodness on earth. It is unavoidable. This is where the whole movement of participation in action, until I realise that I am seeking nothing other than the attributes of Allah.
Why do we love wealth? We seek some wealthy fellow to be photographed next to. And before you know it he is bankrupt and immediately you take the photography away. I was in Egypt two weeks ago and they had scratched out the big marble plaques that this place was opened by Hosni Mubarak. And you find the graffiti and the scratching out on Hosni Mubarak. What goes up, goes down.
We don’t want this up and down. We want constancy. I want constant goodness. I want constant wealth. He who has discovered their inner most they have gone beyond seeking outer wealth. The source of all wealth is within you. But why do I not see it? Because I am pre occupied in my day to day things, acquiring this, acquiring that and in the last four or five hundred years it has become an obsession. More and more and more.
That is why present day spirituality in the West is not working in the sense of transforming people or enlightening people because of their habits. We have become habituated to more is better, whereas on the spiritual side less is more. And our practice proves this. You dissociate yourself. You do wudu, you are no longer connected, you have no thought, no intention, no desires and you disappear. It is doing with nothing.
Spirituality early on led the early settlers to wonder about the sky, the heavens, the earth and the cycles of movement and one of the big fathers of it was Ibrahim Al Isa. But he wasn’t the only one, nor was he the first but he became very well known because of his travels – relatively well travelled, although be it only 2,000 miles but never mind. In those days it was a big thing. And he was the most modest, courageous and generous. So he was a good example of humanity and divinity collectively. Outwardly a human being amongst people but in his heart he knew there is something in him that is forever. Therefore he knew Allah’s light which is in the soul and is forever. And that is what liberated that great being. And many many others. Hundreds after him.
So for at least 4,000 years we have had this example of tawheed lived by individuals and a certain measure of practices, certain rituals and as a result of this religions came about. Once a religion comes about then structure sets in and hierarchies emerge and we also gain as human beings. We want to find a way to the ultimate of the ultimate. So we either take the path of worship, additional devotion, the path of sacrifice or the path of jihad in the outer sense. Lately the path of intellect, higher reason has become dominant because we have more time on our hands.
One hundred years ago, 90 percent of the world population had to spend quite a bit of time in the fields, ploughing digging. Nowadays more and more people are spending time behind the wheels of a motorcar at the desk and complaining about obesity. People are thinking they have to reduce their sugar intake because sugar diabetes in the past 50 years has become the dominant disease in countries that have never heard of it. It is because our life style has changed along with our habits of food consuming, food storing, food production. I am not here to give you any judgments. I am just trying to paint a picture so that you visualise the issue of tawheed which is the key from the rise of civilisation, the early dawn of settlements a few thousands years ago.
And there are some very special cases from cultures where they had multiple gods but every now and then this idea of tawheed burst out during the time of Nefertiti in Egypt and many others. There were hundreds gods, which were a good business bit suddenly a great leader discarded them and said ‘no’ there is one reality, one might, one essence which encompasses these billions of multiplicities. This is not an easy thing to visualise. People are different, rocks are not the same as plants. Yet they are all ultimately emanating from the one source.
Of course with the advent of science it is easier to visualise because a lot of it comes back to electromagnetic fields so to speak. But all of these great forces so to speak they look different, they appear different but take them to their early points and you find that they are almost the same.
We have nowadays 92 elements in our periodic table and all of these elements are within us because we are stardust, early explosions that were the cause of the first elements of hydrogen. And then it became more and more complex. At one time there was a huge immense heat hundreds of millions of degrees centigrade. Some new elements emerged.
So all of this activity is going on and human evolution was moving forward to realise that there is in truth one reality which is not subject to beginnings or ends or any space. In other words what the Quran tells us. So the issue of tawheed was the foundation of humanity.
Then comes the glorious version of the Muhammedi package, the finality if you like of this Ibrahimic line Islam. The Prophet simply lived the truth: there is only one for whom I have come, for whom I have sustained my passion and my utter, unconditional love is for that, by that, unto that. We have so many treaties about love in Islam. So many different levels and layers. Ultimately it is about that which is called uskh. It is almost on the verge of madness. It is like Majoun when he met Leila and he said I do not know who you are. Or Bustani when the king sent him a big tray of something because he wanted to please him. And the fellow came to the door and said I don’t know who he is I am looking for him.
Loss of identity. If you do not lose your identity you are no where near tasting absolute reality. It is one of those things. It does not mean you should tear up your id. Realise that this is your human side this is the skin, realise that you have borrowed these things from the earth and you are returning them. But who are you? Where are you when you are in deep sleep, where are you when you are in a coma? Who are you? Eventually you truly know. You don’t discuss it anymore. You know that you are ruh and the ruh is there having its echo which is the so-called you. The so-called you is changing from youth to adulthood to old age until you are wise enough leave the body behind. You say enough is enough, I have used the earth and created millions of tons of waste. Please excuse me. That is the only relief that you have.
Truth happiness and relief in a sustained way comes when you have done that. But in the meantime you practise it. How do you practise it? By knowing, experiencing, tasting oneness. And it starts in a social way. That is why most religions insist upon serving others. Serving those whom you don’t like. When Mousa was about to perish and the three physicians came and said we want to help you and he looked up and they were his enemies and he said not from you. And he became worse and worse and worse and they saw him almost dying and their hearts softened and it was for their sake.
There is one and only one and that one and only one operates within your heart. But everyone else potentially is the same – whether it is a Prophet or whether is it a gangster. But the gangsters ruh is covered by layers and layers of veils and egos. So there is no light coming. That is why we must practise true respect of others. In truth there are no others, there is one!
So the Mohammedi package completed all of those that were before my making it simple, easy whether you are alone or in a society. Seal yourself from the world, declare that that which you are looking for is greater than any greatness, greater than you can ever imagine, beyond your mind, enter into your mindlessness wilfully with no desires and no expectations.
So the young persons ever increasing desires with the wise spiritual being closer to arrival at that which is closer to him than his juglar vein is the only desire not to have any desire. Not easy. It must be so easy that it can be done. The more we talk about it the more it feels impossible. It becomes another human potential talk or a pep talk. You have to do it. You must be so passionate, so desperate intellectually. It doesn’t have to be simply because you have been bashed about by everybody else. No.
So many people were wealthy sons of kings they were at a stage where they do not know where to turn. Don’t turn anywhere. Turn into your self, into your nothingness and the source of everything will be illuminated to you. All is well from the highest point of view. And nothing is well. You and I have to do something. And don’t forget that something is for you to discover in you. The scientists call it an utter absolute void. It is not a void. It is the beginning of the creation of space and time as you know it.
Without space and time we would not be in this world. There is an illusion of this thing called space. Where is the space between you and generosity? Think of a mean person. There is no generosity there. He has been mean to his mother, to his daughter to the cat to the blind person, to everyone. And yet it is possible that this person could suddenly flip and be generous. So what was the distance between him and generosity?
All of these attributes can be imagined as fields of energy permeating everywhere. But it you and I who have to touch it. I have to touch generosity. How? By acting. Please take
This it will quieten your mind. Why is it that we in the east always like to give gifts. I came here very foolishly as a student and somebody said you have a very nice tie. I said very foolishly please take it.
This was in the mid 50s in miserable England. Being from the Middle East we were used to this cultural habit. Why this cultural habit? It was to quieten the other person’s desire. If you like it please have it. To bring about some stability in people’s minds.
So the Islamic package is based on returning to emanating from the ocean of oneness. Other wise it ends up as we have now, a lot of rituals but no transformation. No joy. How can ever a truly religious person not have sense of humour. The whole thing is a joke. You and I we are passing. Any minute you may die. Any instant the air goes in it may not come out. How can you be so serious. Don’t you know who I am? Come and look at my desk and all the pictures that I have with all the presidents. In Pakistan you have to change the pictures every week or every month. At least here in Europe they have some respect for the older people.
The entire din of Islam is based on transformation. And look at what we have done. More and more and more. Look at or despots during the past 50 years. The despots we have in the Muslim world want to build the biggest mosque. They are competing with each other with mosques the same way they do with horse races. It is a mockery. It is not just one person’s fault. You cannot just blame this or that or the ulema.
How can you ever forget that which is the source of your remembrance. But day to day activities bring about rot and rust and we suffer in order to return back to that inner presence.
So there is not much point arguing about it, doing a lot of theological hair splitting if it is not going to be lived. We are suffering because we are not living it all the time. We have some idea of belief. What do you believe? How come you don’t know. And if you know why do you talk about it. If you know something you don’t discuss it all the time. You know it.
You end up being inwardly intoxicated and outwardly sober. Inwardly hakika, inwardly Mecca outwardly Medina. Inwardly you know nothing but you know what you need to know in an outer sense. What a confidence, what a security, what a joy.
Now to come back to the last few hundred years with the weather they have. Can you imagine the diet they had in England in the last 500 years? It was miserable. The is the reason the earliest expeditions were for spices. All the trade. To give some taste to the cabbage and peoples wealth was measured according to how much they consumed of nutmeg or of the other four or five major spices. They expanded to become 30 or 35 different spices. So there was a need for a bit of excitement in the mouth.
Look at it now. Consumerism, more and more and more and the whole world is taken over. So it isn’t any more this capitalist dominant culture. It is truly the West and the rest. As a youngster I would ask can we modernise without Westernising? Rubbish. How can you separate a way of life. You take it on as a whole package.
What did we do as Muslims 100 years ago, 200 years ago, 300 years ago in order to give the young people the excitement of the arts, innovation, creativity. So the current situation of the world is that mostly through science, through new philosophy we are discovering that in truth no matter where you look there is oneness, one light, one source.
So I am very optimistic. We are in a crucial time. Outwardly there is a lot of suffering but with the advent of what we take for granted nowadays, the ease of communication the global scene the best will come. We have that heritage. If we live it people will want to take it. If we have a beautiful party going on next door you would like to join it.
Rumi says we have a wonderful party. If you come to it you have won. Nothing else matters if you come to that party. And if you don’t want to come also nothing matters. Look at the tombs of sultans and kings. Miserable and dark. And look to some of the valleys and you will find it is like a celebration. There is some light. Nothing matters more than you and I and everyone truly discovering the source of joy, well being happiness and inner peace. Thank you very much.
*Shaykh Fadhlalla Haeri was born in Karbala, Iraq, a descendant of several generations of well-known and revered spiritual leaders. Educated in Europe and America, he founded a number of companies in the Middle East and worked as a consultant in the oil industry. He travelled extensively on a spiritual quest which led to his eventual rediscovery of the pure and original Islamic heritage of his birth.In 1980 he established the Zahra Trust, a charitable organization with centers in the USA, Britain and the Middle East, which makes traditional Islamic teachings more widely available through courses and publications, promotes the revival of traditional systems of healing and supports a variety of charitable programs. Shaykh Fadhlalla is currently engaged in lecturing and writing books and commentaries on the Holy Qur’an and related subjects, with particular emphasis on ethics, self-development and gnosis (‘irfan)
