Maulana Wahiduddin Khan I Speaking Tree Website I Monday April 22, 2013

The true Islamic concept of spiritualism is based on the concept of dualism or the duality of reality- that the Creator and the creature are completely separate from one another. God, according to this concept, has a real and eternal existence based on tawheed or monotheism.

According to monotheism, God is One and has no partner. He created all things and has complete control over the universe. As the Creator of all things, He is distinct from all He has created. His creatures, in their seemingly independent existence, totally depend upon the will of God. The sole possessor of all power, God has created man to live for a specific period of time, during which he is sent into this world to be tested.

God in Islam is a real and independent personality. Man should serve Him and submit to Him alone. Though He cannot be seen, He is so close to man that He hears and answers him when he calls upon Him. He is alive and self-sustaining, self-perpetuating. He has knowledge and takes decisions. He rewards and punishes.

According to the Islamic concept of spirituality or Rabbaniyat, the target of the spiritual quest of man is that the creature - man - has to discover and realize God - his Creator, to whom he is accountable, and make contact with Him through the process of contemplation or tafakkur or tadabbur or tawassum as mentioned in the Quran. That is to say that God is the treasure house of all virtues. And when man's contact with God is established, through contemplation, in the world of his feelings, at the psychological level, an unseen, inner revolution is brought about which is called rabbaniyat or spirituality. In this matter the relationship between God and man can be likened to an electric wire and the powerhouse. When the wire is connected to the powerhouse, electricity is produced, and the place is lit up. In this way, light is the result of the wire's connection to the powerhouse of God.

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Human nature is like an inflammable element. When an inflammable element like petrol comes near fire, it is ignited. Similarly, human nature is awakened when it comes in contact with God. This finds expression in the Quran in these words:

"God is the light of the heavens and the earth. The metaphor of His light is that of a niche in which there is a lamp, the lamp inside a glass, the glass like a brilliant star, lit by a blessed tree, an olive, neither of the east nor of the west, whose oil would well-nigh glow forth even though fire did not touch it. Light upon light! God guides to His light whom He wills. And God sets forth parables to men, and God has knowledge of all things." (24:35)

This is a compound simile. 'Light' here means the guidance of Almighty, 'niche' means the human mind and 'lamp' denotes the capability to receive divine inspiration. Glass and oil elaborate upon this receptivity. 'Glass' shows that this receptivity has been lodged in the human mind; protected from outside influences, and clear oil indicates that this receptivity is very strong and is eagerly waiting to receive inspiration.

This verse makes it clear that, on the one hand, is God, the source of inspiration, and on the other, is the consciousness of spirituality (God-consciousness) with which man is born. In this way when these two things come together, Islamic

pirituality or rabbaniyat comes into existence. This is indeed another name for the awakening of God-consciousness. When it reaches its highest stage the believer's realisation of God comes to that point where he begins to feel consciously in his worship that he is seeing God and that if he is not seeing God, God is seeing him. If the first type of experience is called direct spiritual experience, the second-type may be termed indirect spiritual experience.

Therefore, the concept of spirituality according to Islam is explicitly that of the duality of reality or monotheism and in it man's quest is to discover reality - God through the process of contemplation (tafakkur and tadabbur) and to make contact with Him to receive spirituality or rabbaniyat from Him so that he can live a God-oriented life.