“Whatever purifies you is the right path; I will not try to define it.” Rumi
THE son of Adam is not released from the motion or stillness and you are in one state or the other either doing good things or sowing the seeds of seeds of wretchedness and damnation.
The good characteristics are like light and clarity and if they reach the heart, they purify and illuminate the heart, while foul characteristics are like smoke and darkness, which distort the glass that restrict one to see with clarity.
The Prophet (PBUH) said,
“Follow the bad deed with a good deed, so that it wipes it and acts like oxidation or polishing,” Quran says, on the day of judgment no one will achieve salvation until you come to ‘Allah Suban a Tallah ‘with a sound heart.
“A day when neither son nor wealth, shall be of any avail except, he who comes to his Lord with a heart pure of substance and sound of construction.
“ (As Shu’ara 26:88) Rumi tells us, “The ego is like a flame of a candle, you need the flame to find your way in the dark, but once you come in the land of radiant sun, the radiance of the sun dims the light of the candle.
The flame exists, but it is annihilated.
Marry your soul; the wedding is the way, every day every hour, make effort to align with your soul.”
The Prophet (PBUH) said, “Every day I am enlightening my soul or diminishing my soul by the choices I am making.
” Quran tells us, when you have negative evil thoughts and engage in negative actions, you rust your heart.
The Prophet said, “For every rust there is polish and the polish for the rust of the heart is remembrance of God.
” Can I use God’s solvents to polish my heart?
Yes, I can and these are patience, love, compassion, generosity and gratitude.
Cleanse your heart from the negative thoughts and behavior, that is when you bring a pure heart to God, a ‘Qalbe Saleem’ it reflects the sublime face of Allah in the polished mirror and you will achieve salvation.
The Prophet (PBUH) said, “Surely in the breasts of humanity is a lump of flesh, if sound then the whole body is sound, and if corrupt, then the whole body is corrupt.
Is it not the heart?
” Jesus said, “Blessed are the pure at heart, for they shall see God.
” What you can offer God in return.
Rumi says, “Everything you have already belongs to Him.
What is the point of bringing gold to the goldmine, water to the ocean, or taking spices to the orient?
It’s no good giving my heart and soul, because you already have it, so I brought you a mirror, look at yourself and remember me.
” The other gift you can take to God is righteous deeds and acts of service.
Quran says, ”God endows with love those who engage in righteous deeds.
” (Surah Maryam 19) The sages tell us that whatever you accumulate in this world can only take you up to the grave, but what takes you beyond is your righteous deeds.
Therefore, Qalbe saleem means going beyond the ego, polishing the heart and righteous deeds are the steps, which can take one closer to God.
Living an upright and ethically superior life in submission vis-a-vis Allah’s commandments seems to be a non-negotiable precondition to attain closeness with God.
“Isn’t it strange?
” remarks Rumi, “That we are being dragged out of our fiery furnaces and smoky hell into paradise and the fragrance of the eternal rose garden, and all we are doing is howling and lamenting.”
Imam Ghazali wrote a short letter about the ‘Anka’ Phoenix.
It is a bird, they believed appeared once in 500 years.
He says in the story how everything in the world has kings, the ants have queen, so the birds all got together and said, “We don’t have a king so we need to go and find the king.”
They agreed it must be the ‘Anka’, so they all set out in his search.
It is an incredibly hard and difficult journey; and the birds have a horrible time and many perish in the pursuit.
There are storms, there is wind, they all want to give up but they keep going with the support of each other.
In all the religions of the world, it’s called the community of believers, people who support each other, reminding each other to stay on the right path, the spiritual path, because it’s so easy to fall away.
The birds started their journey flying in a formation, the first ones, and their wings creating space in the air for the next ones to fly easy.
The ones at the very end have a very light trip and so they rotate.
That is how the birds make transcontinental migrations and cross-oceans, but they do it working together.
This is the metaphor Imam Ghazali is using for the people, who set out in search of God.
Though individually everyone is doing his private work, but it is also a collective effort.
Finally, the birds meet the Phoenix.
They tell him, look how we struggled to reach you and faced so many difficulties.
The Phoenix says, “Do you think I would have invited people, who were not willing to undertake this arduous journey.”
The birds say, “But we did it ourselves.”
Imam Ghazali says that is still the ego.
The ego has not been given up.
The last thing to go as per Imam Ghazali is the love of leadership, the ego, “I did this.
Look at me, I am right at the door of God,” and Imam Ghazali says, “You can’t get in until you give up even that.”
—The writer is the author of 6 books including, ‘Islamic Spirituality and Mysticism, the path and Destination.
An Account of the mystics of Islam. ’(muhammadtahir50@hotmail.com)
