The spiritual journey is a life-long journey.
Various stages of progress and development during the course of this journey
may be described as achievements but the fact is that ultimate distinction and
goal of this journey is never to be achieved in its totality. There is always a
stage beyond the highest point of achievement and there is always a peak higher
than that we set our feet upon. This has to be like that for the simple reason
that in this spiritual journey we travel and ascend towards God whose infinite
Being is, strictly speaking, beyond human comprehension.
Allah clearly states: Eyes cannot reach Him but He reaches the eyes. And He is
the Incomprehensible, the All-Aware. (Al-Anam 6: 104).
Man discovers God according to his own limited
knowledge and ability and along with the increase in his faculties of
understanding God, his realisation of God goes on attaining higher stages. This
point is well-epitomised in the Holy Quran. It says:
Every day he reveals Himself in a different state.
(Ar-Rahman 55: 30).
Apart from the depth of this topic of
spirituality the subject is so delicate that it is absolutely futile to attempt
to describe it without a real and personal experience in this field. If the
essence of spirituality is to know God and to actually attain nearness to the
Creator and Maker, then, undoubtedly, it can be described by someone who has
gone through all this experience and who can speak with the authority of
personal experience and conviction.
According to Islam, the example of the Holy
Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) is the best in every respect. He not only attained the
highest possible heights of spirituality but also became a means to attaining
all types of spiritual favours from God Almighty. A unique manifestation of this
is to be seen in this century by this humble self and in the last century in
the person of Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as), the Imam Mahdi and Promised
Messiah who enjoyed the distinction of being the most humble and the most
devoted servant of the Holy Prophet of Islam in the last century. Having
received the divine favours and blessings, he enlightened the world with the
deep insight and experience bestowed upon him in the field of spirituality. He
wrote more than 80 books expounding the Islamic teachings on various
complicated issues. One of his world-famous books is: The Philosophy of the
Teachings of Islam, in which he discusses the various state and stages of
spiritual life and their relevance to human life. He has stated that, according
to Islam, there are three states and stages of one's spiritual journey.
Firstly: Nafse Ammarah, i.e. the self that
incites to evil.
Secondly: Nafse Lawwamah, i.e. the reproving
self.
Thirdly: Nafse Mutmainah, i.e. the soul at
rest/ peace.
Explaining the first stage, the Promised
Messiah (as) says: It is characteristic of the human self that it incites
man to evil and is opposed to his attainment of perfection and to his moral
state, and urges him towards undesirable and evil ways. Thus the propensity
towards evil and intemperance is a human state which predominates over the mind
of a person before he enters upon the moral state, so long as he is not guided
by reason and understanding but follows his natural bent in eating, drinking,
sleeping, waking, anger and provocation, like the animals. When a person is
guided by reason and understanding and brings his natural state under control
and regulates it in a proper manner, that state ceases to be his natural state
and is called his moral state.
About the second stage, he says: This
reproving self is the second source of human state from which the moral state
is generated. At this stage man ceases to resemble the animals… It is so called
as it reproves man on vice and is not reconciled to man’s submitting to his
natural desires and leading an unbridled existence like the animals. It desires
that man should be in a good state and should practise good morals, and no kind
of intemperance should be manifested in any aspect of human life, and natural
emotions and desires should be regulated by reason. As it reproves every
vicious movement, it is called the reproving self. Though it reproves
itself in respect of vices, yet it is not fully effective in practising virtue
and occasionally it is dominated by natural emotions, when it stumbles and
falls. It is like a weak child who does not wish to stumble and fall but does
so out of weakness, and is then remorseful over his infirmity. In short, this
is the moral state of human self when it seeks to comprehend within itself high
moral qualities and is disgusted with disobedience, but cannot achieve complete
success.
How does one progress from the second stage to
the third stage of spiritual journey? At the stage of the reproving self a
person's condition is that he repents time after time and yet falls down and
often despairs and considers his condition beyond remedy. He remains in this
situation for a period and when the appointed time comes, a light descends upon
him at night or during the day which possesses divine power. With the descent
of that light he undergoes a wonderful change and he perceives the control of a
hidden hand, and beholds a wonderful world. At that time he realises that God
exists and his eyes are filled with a light which they did not possess before.
Describing this third and the final stage of
the spiritual journey, the Promised Messiahs explains: This is the stage
when the soul of a person being delivered from all weaknesses is filled with
spiritual powers and establishes a relationship with God Almighty without Whose
support it cannot exist. As water flowing down from a height, on account of its
volume and the absence of any obstruction, rushes with great force, in the same
way the soul at rest flows towards God. That is indicated by the divine
direction to the soul that has found comfort in God to return to its Lord. It
undergoes a great transformation in this very life and is bestowed a paradise
while still in this world.
May Allah (swt) guide us all in the right path.
Ameen.
--- Friday Sermon of 29 December 2017(10
Rabi’ul Aakhir 1439 AH) delivered by Muhyi-Ud-Din Al Khalifatullah Hadhrat Munir Ahmad Azim Saheb (atba) of Mauritius.