A Sufi Thought for the Week (Brecht)

Posted on June 9, 2013 by sufiways

“What happens to the hole when the cheese is gone.”— Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956, German poet and playwright)

This quote may be treated as a modern koan.

Contributed by Modaser Shah

Posted in Classic Teaching, Modaser Shah | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Evolution of the Self: The Qur’anic Viewpoint

Posted on June 6, 2013 by sufiways

by Navid Zaidi

Darwin’s theory of evolution explains how life progressed through stages leading to the development of humans.

But what about the future of individual human life?

Has life reached its climax in the humans or are we going to evolve further into some other kind of species?

If the present is the climax, then it makes us wonder if this is the end of our individuality.

If it is the end, why would life take so much time and struggle to develop something and then discard it like a waste product?

Moreover, if life is going to evolve further in the future, how does that help me as an individual. My personality will be gone when I die and turn into dust? A total waste?

The Qur’anic view of evolution is dynamic. It presents an individual view of personality that has a definite beginning but a continuous career in the future.

The recurrent theme in the Qur’an is that every individual self is unique and will move forward in the future through various stages of development in various environments.

By the sunset redness and by the night and its gatherings and by the moon when at her full, that from state to state shall ye be surely carried onward (84: 16-19)

This career of a person is perhaps destined to become a permanent element in the constitution of being.

The Qur’an puts forth the view that man’s personality should not go to waste after going through such a lengthy and complicated process of evolution.

Thinks man that he shall be thrown away as an object of no use? (75:36-40)

The final fate of man does not mean the loss of individuality. The ‘unceasing reward’ (ajrun ghair e mamnun) of man means his gradual growth in self-possession, in uniqueness and intensity of his activity as a unique self.

Dr Allama Iqbal (Indian Poet-philosopher, 1877-1938) has the following to say to summarize this concept:

موت کو سمجهے هیں غافل اختِتام زندگی
هے یه شاِم زندگی صُبح دوامِ زندگی

The imprudent ones consider death is the end of life,
This apparent evening of life is the morning of perpetual life!

Life is one and continuous. Man marches always onward to receive ever fresh illuminations and continues to shape his personality, better or worse, in the future.

But it is only as an ever-growing self that man can belong to the meaning of the Universe.

Consider the soul and He who has balanced it and has shown to it ways of wickedness and piety, blessed is he who has made it grow and undone is he who has corrupted it (91: 7-10).

And how do you make the soul grow and save it from corruption? By action.

Blessed be He in Whose Hand is the Kingdom! And over all things is He potent, who has created death and life to test which of you is the best in point of deed; and He is the Mighty and Forgiving. (67:1-2)

The deed is the built-in mechanism in each self that disciplines it for a future career. Good deeds grow the self towards perfection whereas the bad deeds drag it towards dissolution.

This built-in mechanism in each self is the conscience which, like a software, continuously records the deeds.

Nay O men, but you are lured away from God whenever you are tempted to give the lie to God’s judgment. And yet, verily, there are ever-watchful forces over you, noble, recording, aware of what you do. (82:9-10)

The watchful force set over every human being is his own conscience, which ‘records’ all his motives and actions in his subconscious mind. Since this is the most precious element in man’s personality it is described as ‘noble’.

Now, the big question? Can we make scientific sense of the Qur’anic view of evolution? I’m afraid I’m not qualified to answer that question. Renowned astrophysicist and mathematician Paul Davies writes in his book God and the New Physics:

“Though some of these ideas may seem fearsome, they do hold out the hope that we can make scientific sense of immortality, for they emphasize that the essential ingredient of mind is information. It is the pattern inside the brain, not the brain itself, that makes us what we are. Just as Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony does not cease to exist when the orchestra has finished playing, so the mind may endure by transfer of information elsewhere………in principle, the mind can be put on a computer, but if the mind is basically ‘organized information’ then the medium of expression of that information could be anything at all; it need not be a particular brain or indeed any brain……This conclusion leaves open the question of whether the ‘program’ is re-run in another body at a later date (reincarnation), or in a system which we do not perceive as part of the physical universe (in Heaven?), or whether it is merely ‘stored’ in some sense (limbo?).”

At the present state of our knowledge we do not know how this ‘software program’ is run in the next phase of life. According to the Qur’an the existence of this program, once created, is timeless. The following verses throw some light on the point:

What! when dead and turned to dust, shall we rise again? Remote is such a return. Now know We what the earth consumes of them and with Us is a book in which account is kept (50:3-4)

These verses clearly suggest that the nature of the universe is such that it is open to it to maintain in some other way the kind of individuality necessary for the final working out of human action, even after death of the body in its present environment.

What that other way is we do not know. Nor do we gain any further insight from the Qur’an into the nature of this ‘second creation’ (Khalaqan Jadeeda, 29:20). The analogies of the Qur’an only suggest it as a fact; they are not meant to reveal its nature and character.

Philosophically speaking, therefore, we cannot go farther than this – that in view of the past history of man it is highly improbable that his career should come to an end with the dissolution of the body.

Posted in Classic Poetry, Classic Teaching, Navid Zaidi, Original Essays | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Metamorphosis: The Fly

Posted on June 3, 2013 by sufiways

by Ali Hammad

I woke up feeling light. At last, I thought, the waist-trimming belt, the tailored diet, and the customized exercise plan were beginning to work: I was losing weight. I jumped out of the bed, stripped, and climbed on the bathroom scales. Still a 170 pounds. Not the loss of even a single ounce. Dammit. I pulled out another scale from the bathroom closet. Still the same.

For a man of 5 feet and 11 inches, a weight of 170 pounds made for a normal body mass index, I knew. But weighing 15 pounds less, I also knew, would stop in its tracks a nascent double chin. Lucky to have been born with a square jawline, keeping it trim was up to me. I looked at a few ripples of flab on my abdominal muscles. Those needed to go, too.

I heard a buzzing, a low-decibel buzzing, like a fly close by. I looked around. Nothing. Maybe my ears were ringing. I took a shower and went back into the bedroom to put on my new bespoke suit.

That day I had an important meeting. I had to dress carefully. A 12 million dollar contract hung on how I looked and spoke. As I was trying to select matching cuff links and tiepin, I heard the buzzing again. I looked up. There it was. Sitting directly in front of me, on the wall, a fly—fat, green-bellied, entirely repulsive. As I looked around for a newspaper or a book to swat it with, it flew away.

My thoughts returned to the impending deal. The business could not be entrusted to an assistant. I didn’t have any good assistants to speak of. All idiots of a varying degree. Not half as educated as I was. Not a quarter as smart as I was. The thought of the nincompoops made me angry. Why did I pay fools good money? Did that make me a fool, too? I resolved to fire a few.

As I was tying my shoes, the buzzing returned, this time an indistinct voice with it, creating a noise as would one of those out-of-vogue shortwave radios of yesteryears. Slowly the voice started to become more distinct. A voice in my head, I thought (I had had those before). But the voice was naïve, child-like—nothing like what I would hear in my head. My voices were much more suave.

Before the buzzy fly interrupted my thoughts, I was thinking of how to word the little lie that I had to tell to get the contract. I didn’t feel at all guilty about it. It was a mere fib, something that would allow me get the contract, yet not hurt the client in any material way. I just had to tell it with a straight face, without giving the slightest hint of it being a lie.

“Bzzz…You are thinking of lying, aren’t you?…Bzzz…Don’t do it…Bzzz,” came the shortwave-radio voice, quite decipherable now, even if still associated with a little static.

The fly? Was the fly saying that? I couldn’t believe that, but the voice couldn’t be pinned to anything else. “Who…or…what are you?” I said in a hesitant voice.

“Bzzz…I am you…Bzzz…You are me…Bzzz…We used to be one,” said the fly.

Because, heretofore, I had not had much practice speaking with flies, I was at a loss for words. All I could come up with was, “So how did we become two?”

“Bzzz…Last night, in a moment of meditation, I prayed for separation from my ego…Bzzz…You are my relinquished ego,” answered the fly.

“And who are you?”

“Bzzz…I am me…Bzzz…the real I…Bzzz…the free part of us…Bzzz…the soul.”

“Who did this? Who separated us?”

“Bzzz…The One who can…Bzzz.”

“My dear Fly,” I sneered, “I don’t know if it’s obvious to you yet but you got the short end of the stick.”

“Bzzz…How so?”

“Look at you. You are ugly, little, inconsequential.”

“Bzzz…I am beautiful…Bzzz…expansive…Bzzz…and consequential as the universe.”

“You’re a goddamned fly. Can’t you see?” I was angry.

“Bzzz…Your vision, your perception is distorted. Bzzz…You are the ego. Bzzz…You can’t see anything in its true form…Bzzz…Even to yourself you seem different than you do to others.”

The damn fly was getting on my nerves. A plan occurred to me. I started walking towards the kitchen. I thought the fly would follow me. It did.

“Buzzy, my dear, why did you ever want to separate from me,” said I, as I positioned myself between the fly and the center island of my ample kitchen.

“Bzzz…I wanted to connect with others…Bzzz…with the world…Bzzz…with the universe…Bzzz…with what is beyond the universe…Bzzz…I couldn’t have done it while you, my ego, were still attached to me.”

I opened the top drawer in the center island in which lay the flyswatter.

From the corner of my eye I saw the fly sitting on the kitchen table behind me. I was trying to keep the fly engaged. “Well, the question is this. If you were so anxious to get rid of me, why are you back to see me once you have won your freedom from me?”

“Bzzz…You, after all, were me…Bzzz…I wanted to help you…Bzzz…I wondered if an ego can metamorphose or merge into a soul.”

With the handle of the swatter firmly clenched in my right hand and with the lightning reflexes of a Bruce Lee, I turned around and zapped the fly with the flap. It died instantaneously, the buzzing halting abruptly. I scooped up the fat, ugly, green-bellied, repulsive carcass with the flap of the swatter and threw it in the garbage can. Then I cleaned the table surface with Lysol.

I felt lighter than ever.

From the kitchen, I opened the door to my four-car garage and strode towards my Lamborghini Aventador.

Posted in Ali Hammad, Original Fiction | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Salvation, Heaven, and Hell: The Qur’anic Viewpoint

Posted on June 3, 2013 by sufiways

by Navid Zaidi

Heaven and Hell are not places. They are states, or conditions of the soul’s existence, in the life after death. Their descriptions in the Qur’an are visual representations of an inner fact, i.e., their character.

Hell, in the words of the Qur’an, is ‘God’s kindled fire which rises above the hearts’ (Al-Humazah 104:6-7). In other words, this ‘fire’ originates in a person’s inner consciousness. This clearly alludes to the spiritual nature of the ‘fire’ in a person’s belated realization of wrongdoing. It is a painful realization of one’s failure as a person that arises within one’s own consciousness, not imposed by an external agency.

According to the teachings of the Qur’an, the re-emergence of the soul brings it a ‘sharp sight’ (Qaf 50:22). This newly awakened self-consciousness and reason in a person will plead that he/she had always been more or less conscious, and perhaps even critical, of the urges and appetites that drove him/her to evildoing. However, this belated and, therefore, morally ineffective rational cognition will not diminish but rather enhance the burden of self-realization.

Imagine this painful condition of soul’s existence with utter loneliness and bitter desolation, the torment of unceasing frustration, the darkness and despair intensified beyond anything imaginable in this world and you will know, however vaguely, what is meant by ‘Hell’.

There is no such thing as eternal damnation in Islam. The word ‘eternity’ used in certain verses in the Qur’an relating to Hell, is explained by the Qur’an itself to mean only a period of time (An-Naba 78:23).

The Qur’an suggests an undiminished survival of the individual personality and consciousness in the life after death. In the Qur’anic view of the life to come, death and resurrection are continuous stages in the career of each human soul.

The life of the soul is one and continuous. However, time cannot be totally irrelevant to the development of personality. A person’s character tends to become permanent. Its reshaping must require time.

Hell, therefore, as conceived by the Qur’an, is not a pit of everlasting torture inflicted by a revengeful God. It is a metaphor for a corrective experience which may make a hardened soul once more sensitive to the cool breeze of Divine Grace.

This concept is explained by the Qur’an where it speaks of the fire of Hell as a person’s friend (mawla), i.e., the only process by which the soul may be purified and redeemed (Al-Hadeed 57:15). However, this process is not imposed by an external agency. It arises from within a person’s own consciousness.

The soul will continue to march onwards from state to state (Al-Inshiqaq 84:16-19) to receive ever-fresh illuminations so that there will be further opportunities for the soul to create new situations during its endless career in the hereafter.

Heaven is a metaphor for the joy of victory over the forces of disintegration. It is the existence of the soul in an inner state of unimaginable happiness in the afterlife. Imagine the most joyous sensations, beauty, love, consciousness of fulfillment, perfect peace and harmony and you have, however vague, the idea of what is meant by ‘Heaven’.

In a nutshell, this is beautifully mentioned in the Qur’an in the expression ‘the human being who has attained to inner peace’ (nafs-e-mutmainnah) (Al-Fajr 89:27-30).

Since Heaven and Hell are not localities, they cannot be the sole property of one group or another.

With a remarkable breadth of vision, the Qur’an repeatedly stresses the fundamental idea that salvation is open to all human beings equally (Al-Baqarah 2:62). This is a very important point and must be properly understood in order to get a clear insight into the Islamic theory of salvation.

It is with the irreplaceable singleness of its individuality that the human soul will approach God and see for itself the consequences of its past action and to judge the possibilities of its future (Maryam 19:93-95).

Therefore, it is a person’s duty to purify his/her soul and save it from corruption during this earthly life (Ash-Shams 91:7-10). In other words, Heaven is not ours as of right; it is to be achieved by personal effort. We are only a candidate for it.

And how to make the soul grow? By good deed.

It is the deed that prepares the soul for dissolution, or disciplines it for a future career. The fundamental principle of a good deed is to respect your own soul as well as that of others.

And how to corrupt the soul? By narrow-mindedness. In many ways narrow-mindedness degrades the whole person and may eventually demolish the structure of the human personality. This is often fueled by an underlying feeling of discontentment.

Now, the Muslims may feel that Islam is the ‘best religion’ and might think that it would be a good thing if all of humanity became Muslim. On the contrary, as explained by the Qur’an, that is not the will of God (Al-Maidah 5:48, Al-Baqarah 2:148).

So often we find that when one leaves his/her own country it brings a chance to come into contact with other religious traditions and learn about them. This should naturally result in getting closer to reality, realizing that among humanity there are so many different dispositions.

It is only through closer contact with other traditions that we realize the positive things about them. This naturally creates a mutually comfortable feeling to arise. Then, as expressed by the Dalai Lama, it is like going to a restaurant. We can all sit at one table, order different dishes according to our own taste, but nobody argues about it!

Posted in Classic Teaching, Navid Zaidi, Original Essays | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

A Sufi Thought for the Week (Gandhi)

Posted on June 2, 2013 by sufiways

“You must be the change you want to see in the world.” —Mohandas Gandhi

Contributed by Kamran Zafar

Posted in Classic Teaching, Kamran Zafar | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Sufi Snaps: The Sign Says (A photo and a thought)

Posted on June 1, 2013 by sufiways

by Ali Hammad

IMG_0276

Live your cake and eat it, too: the sweetness of an idyllic life

Photo and message by Ali Hammad

Posted in Ali Hammad, Original Photography | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Strings that tie the Mystics of the Indian Subcontinent

Posted on May 31, 2013 by sufiways

by Ali Hammad

Not just the strings of commonality of ideas but strings of the musical instruments of the Indian subcontinent tie its mystics, be they Sufi, Yogi, Buddhist, or Sikh.

Sufis found arts—poetry, music, dance—conducive to a mystic state of mind, a path to God. They defended, promoted, developed, and in some cases pioneered these arts in this region. They also played a key role in the development of many, now familiar, musical instruments, including stringed instruments.

In one of our previous posts (A Life of Purpose), we had featured some Sufi poetry set to guitar music. Tagtraumer, a fellow blogger, commented that the guitar in the video was a Martin Backpacker guitar. This led to a discussion (see Comments on that post) that led to this post

Please consider this only a 101 on the stringed instruments of the Indian subcontinent; I am only a consumer of music, not a creator. Also, the following is not a complete list.

Sarangi

A body carved out of a single piece of wood, a skin stretched over the body, 3 playing strings, approximately 35 sympathetic strings, the tuning and the exact number of strings individual to each school (gharana) is what constitutes a Sarangi, played with a bow that is quite different from that of a violin.

Sarod

A lute-like but fretless instrument that may have up to 25 strings, with about 5 playing strings, a couple of drone strings, and the rest making up the sympathetic strings. Again, the master of each particular school (gharana) determines the exact number and tension of the strings. Strings are played with a pick.

Sitar

The word sitar is derived from the Persian word sehtar (“three-stringed”). It is the most well known of the stringed instruments of the Subcontinent. A long neck, a pear-shaped gourd body, front and side tuning pegs, 20 movable frets, 5 melody strings, 2 drone strings, and up to 13 sympathetic strings make up a sitar. It may also have a resonating gourd under the pegbox end of the neck. The strings are plucked with a wire plectrum worn on the right forefinger.

Tanpura

This long-necked lute, also called tambura, superficially resembles a sitar, but is fretless and has four metal strings. It provides a drone accompaniment for the classical and folk music of South Asia. It is seen and heard in the sample of sarod music above.

I believe that no discussion of stringed instruments should conclude without the word “peace.” So, Peace in English, Salaam in Urdu, Shanti in Hindi.

Posted in Ali Hammad, Original Essays | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

What is Sufism? Part 2: Love of God

Posted on May 30, 2013 by sufiways

by Navid Zaidi

How can man be liberated from the bondage of mind and matter? The only way to break these chains is to have a more powerful attachment. That is love of God. A true lover of God becomes oblivious of his surroundings. He/She is not concerned with orthodox and dogmatic religion. He/She is indifferent to faith or lack of it. Says Fariduddin Attar the Sufi:

Paganism is for the pagans and faith for the faithful,
A bit of heartache is enough for Attar !

Sufi mystics have revealed in their works and teachings that attachment to this world and its goods makes man a prey to his appetites and desires. The satisfaction of every desire entails hardships, pain and suffering. These desires deprive man of all peace of mind and man is ever in a state of agitation.

The path of the Sufis is the path of love. Their love is one-pointed, fixed on God or their Master. Their meditation is not meant to earn paradise or avoid hell. Once Shibli was seen running with a burning coal in his hand. He was asked where he was going. He said, ‘ I’m running to set fire to the Kaaba so that men may care only for the Lord of the Kaaba’.

The Lord is present in everything and everyone. He is the essence behind all appearance. He exists behind every element and force of nature.

God is within. God is not to be found anywhere outside. Neither in mosque, nor church or temple or holy places. He abides within man and there alone He is realized.

Since God resides within man, human body is the temple of God. And God Himself has created this temple. The Bible says, ‘Kingdom of God is within you.’ And, ‘The Lord of heaven and earth dwells not in temples made with hands; neither is He worshiped with men’s hands.’

The soul is pining in separation from her Lord. The two are not distant from each other but there is a veil between them which does not let them unite. This veil is the ego which gives a false sense of independence to the soul. Unless the veil of ego is removed the soul can never be in peace. So long as the senses are not tamed, the mind is not killed and the duality is not removed, union with the Lord is not possible. Says Shams Tabriz, master of Rumi:

Look not downwards to the ground like beasts. You are, after all, a man: Look upwards. When you recover from the swoon of this body, becoming a new being, you will attain a new world.

Rumi says:

So long as man does not rise above the senses he remains deprived of a vision of the Hidden Face.

How can love of God be born within us? Sufis tell us that the answer to this problem is with the Master. The master is the concrete form of the Lord because he/she has realized God and has absorbed God within him/her. Therefore, the only entity worthy of our contemplation is the master. When the soul and the mind are completely collected the door is automatically opened. Jesus says:

Seek and ye shall find. Knock and it shall be opened unto you.

Posted in Classic Teaching, Navid Zaidi, Original Essays | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

The London Murder: What Does a Sufi Student Think?

Posted on May 29, 2013 by sufiways

by Modaser Shah

From time to time, one has to descend from the ethereal flights of imaginative thought into the rough and tumble of actual life and messy reality. What do Muslims think about this brutal murder in broad daylight of a British soldier by two Muslims, in the name, supposedly, of other Muslims who were victims of war? There is no answer to this question; one may as well ask: what do human beings think of this appalling deed? For Muslims are no more a monolith than are any other group of human beings. However, it may be that the Imam in England who was asked for his reaction about this incident, particularly whether he condemned it, may provide some clues as to the how certain Muslims think, or refuse to think, or even feel, about such things.

The thing about Sufis that differentiates them from many others was, and is, that they have not renounced their capacity for thinking. For some people, perhaps, it may not even be a conscious decision not to have one’s own thoughts, and slavishly follow what others have thought. For one’s own thoughts and feelings can be threatening to the maintenance of the status quo, whether internal or external. So this clinging to established categories can be thought of as a defense mechanism.

At any rate, the Imam is reported to have said that he condemned the root causes of the murder. One might speculate that to him the world was divided between good and evil, i.e., Muslim and Non-Muslim, the latter dehumanized into a monolith, not deserving much thought or sympathy, with respect to their individual circumstances, or guilt or innocence, whether the man was willfully carrying out cruel deeds or was just part of a system and was doing his job as part of that apparatus. As a matter of fact, to the religionist, individual considerations don’t count for much even for Muslims. Ideology, or ideologized religion, is what counts. The Imam might not care much about the two individuals as individuals; they might be important in so far as they did the deed in the name of religion and of co-religionists.

This is definitely not the Sufi way. The Sufis believe the individual to be of paramount importance, whether believer or non-believer.

The poet Allama Iqbal, generally supportive of struggle in the name of God and generally opposed to mysticism, could not completely foreclose elements of peace and mysticism in his personality, which are seen to come through in some of his poetry. I remembered the following verse when thinking about the murder:

When the sword is raised for what is not right, it is evil

Even the cry of “God is Great” (in that situation) is evil

The late Christopher Hitchens and his book (God is not Great) come to mind. Evil, or at least a potential for it, exists in the human mind and heart, and this reality has to be faced. Religion, other ideologies, and fields of human activity, can erase it, but can also house it, give it sanctuary. As with human experiences, there seems to be a dialectical interplay between opposing tendencies, as though seeking a synthesis.

One can hypothesize that Hitchens was struggling with the unwanted “believer” side of him, the shadow, as it were, just as the most fervent of believers may be carrying on an internal battle with their unbelieving side; but this internal struggle is externalized, as it is hard to contain and tolerate internally. Sufis, like Zen practitioners and philosophers, try not to avoid or externalize this struggle but attempt to become it—embody this ongoing struggle between faith and doubt, hoping to transcend it, like other such contradictions, inside or outside, psychological, social, political.

Khushal Khan Khatak, a Pashtun poet-warrior, who fought against the hegemonic Aurang Zeb (incidentally, a darling of the conservative religionists of the time) like Iqbal was not successful in totally banishing his mystical leanings from his poetry. Says he:

I have been a Kaffir (unbeliever) for you (addressing his Nafs,or base self) for forty years

Will you not be a believer with me for a few days?

This seems to indicate an awareness of the internal struggle between faith and its opposite that goes on in the human heart.

May the murdered soldier rest in peace, may his family find solace. And may the two murderers learn to own their internal struggles and torment rather than inflict it on others; this, I think, is what the Sufi would undertake.

Posted in Modaser Shah, Original Essays | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Personality and the World of Technology

Posted on May 28, 2013 by sufiways

By Navid Zaidi

‘If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or objects’……Albert Einstein

ستاروں  سے  آگے  جہاں  اور  بهی  هیں

ابهی  عشق  کے  امتحاں  اور  بهی  هیں

‘Other worlds exist beyond the stars,

Other tests of Love are yet to come.’…………..Dr Allama Iqbal (Indian poet-philosopher 1877-1938)

We, the humans, are a peculiar creation. Even when faced with the most discouraging circumstances our imagination and understanding give us a more perfect vision of ourselves. We discover the means to transform our dreams into living actualities. Thus, we gradually become a determining factor in our own evolution.

However, we now live in a world of technology. Despite its extraordinarily positive aspects, it also has a damaging effect on our existence. Our world seems to be escaping us from all sides, turning out to be devoid of sense and stripped of meaning and direction.

‘Competition’ has become a new form of destiny and ‘staying in the race’ is the new goal (what is known by the hopeless term ‘benchmarking’).

The new world of technology makes us feel like we are spokes in the wheels of a bicycle which must keep on going in order not to topple over. We must continue to ‘progress’ but this mechanical progress is fueled by a struggle for survival. In the post-Darwinian world this is a form of natural selection and there is nothing there to suggest that it is moving in a direction of what is better.

Can we seriously believe that we shall have more happiness and freedom because a new iPhone will be here in a few months?

Our thoughts, our aspirations, our ways of life, our entire mental and physical outfit are all determined by the needs of the new world of technology.

The interests of this tech world as a whole are fundamentally different and even antagonistic to the interest of individual personality. The individual is not participating in the tech world with a conscious will. His/her activity is nothing more than an unconscious performance of a particular function which the social and tech economy has allotted to him/her.

We are absorbed in the optically present sources of sensation around us but entirely cut off from the depths of our own being. This brings us nothing but life-weariness and robs us of faith in our own future.

Now, life is a forward assimilative movement and in humans the center of life becomes a Person. The essence of personality is continuous creation of desires and ideals. Personality is fortified by continuous action to achieve those desires and ideals. This sense of effort, the experience of purposive action and the success we actually achieve in reaching our goals convinces us of our personality.

Contrary to what the world of technology dictates, the individual center of experience (Personality) is the fundamental fact of human life. All life is individual. There is no such thing as universal life.

Personality is formed and disciplined by continuous formation of fresh goals and ideals. The essential feature of a goal is our vision of a future situation.

Contrary to what materialists say the nature of reality is both immanent (as perceived by sense-perception) and transcendental (hidden) and so may be our goals and ideals.

The immanent goals and ideals belong to the physical environment that surrounds us and belong to the system of cause and effect. The tech world is an indispensable instrument of personality in the present environment but not a final expression of the nature of Reality.

Personality understands and masters the environment in order to acquire and amplify its freedom and happiness but it is the transcendental that restores to us that attitude which makes us capable of winning a personality here and retaining it hereafter.

Says Dr Allama Iqbal:

‘ It is only by rising to a fresh vision of his origin and future, his whence and whither, that man will eventually triumph over a society motivated by an inhuman competition, and a civilization which has lost its spiritual unity by its inner conflict of religious and political values.’

Consider these four great fundamental values of existence; Truth, Beauty, Love and Justice. All four are transcendental, for all of us, you, me and everyone else. But they are real and based in concrete experience of personality.

On the other hand, is the cause and effect aspect of nature the whole truth?

Says Sir Arthur Eddington (British astrophysicist, 1882-1944):

‘ We have acknowledged that the entities of physics can from their very nature form only a partial aspect of the Reality. How are we to deal with the other part? It cannot be said that the other part concerns us less than the physical entities. Feelings, purposes, values make up our consciousness as much as sense-impressions. We follow up the sense-impressions and find that they lead into an external world discussed by Science; we follow up the other element of our being and find that they lead—not into a world of space and time, but surely somewhere.’

As Einstein and Iqbal suggest in above quotes, the ultimate goals and ideals are to be sought not in the direction of the stars but in an infinite individual life and spirituality.

Posted in Classic Teaching, Navid Zaidi, Original Essays | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment