Before COVID and Delta and Omnicron, I used to go to the nearby Sufi Mosque regularly for Friday prayers and for Saturday zikr , whenever there were no social commitments in the community. As I began to grow and develop my inner life, I got to the point where I would celebrate if there was no Saturday social invitation because I could go and soak in the beautiful presence of our sheikh and the community that has been built to learn about the treasures of faith.
During the COVID era, which we are still in, we were lucky that the community continued its teachings and gatherings virtually. While it is not as rich and satisfying as the interpersonal gatherings, it became even more important in learning how to deal with the pandemic. The abundance of teachings available virtually have multiplied infinitely since the COVID era, and brought teachings of all types to our fingertips, whether we want to write a book or develop as human beings. And while we continue to fear the future impact of social media on our younger generations, we should pause to appreciate the positive impacts as well, which one day hopefully will outweigh the negative ones.
As my friend Samena joked, those of us nearing seventies or eighties have received our boarding passes for the return trip to where we came from and are just waiting for the flight announcement. And every negative health incident -while reminding us to try to do better- also reminds us of the cycle of life, and the fortune for making it thus far. For us the inner life becomes an important focus, even though most faith traditions try to teach us this awareness from the beginning of life, or at least the age of puberty. I love nothing more than exchanging the profound personal insights with select family and friends and appreciating the calmness that the Unseen World brings to us.
At Friday’s noon prayer khutba (address) our Sufi teacher described faith in the most beautiful way, and one that helped me grasp the different levels of spirituality in Islam. He described Islam as the outer layer of the religion, which protects the inner layers Iman and Ihsan. So Islam is the rituals, customs, rules of how to pray, give of one’s wealth, help the poor, the rights and responsibilities towards others and community, state, etc. So it is visible to others. The next layer is Iman, which is the faith or as secular scholars would call it spirituality= the belief in a greater power and is invisible to others. The outer layer protects the inner layer of faith, which in turn protects the next layer and the core, with is ihsan. Ihsan is to act so that we beautify everything and everyone. So it is about the actions that human beings are truly capable of and have the potential for, including all the values we so miss in this era: kindness, mercy, selflessness, generosity, abundance, humility, patience, and a love for all Creations, which are universal to all traditions in all corners of the world. In a way, it is the purity of our intentions that then translate into our beautiful actions and love. In an age where religion is being shunned by many and blamed for the hatred and violence around the globe, we would do well to seek the inner core in each tradition and rather than differentiate spirituality and religion, as Lisa Miller does in her book “The Awakened Brain”, we see the harmonious relationship. And this is where we would find the unity that interconnects us all, and the beauty that is possible for human society as we face unprecedented global challenges while we have unprecedented technological tools.
Be First to Comment