ESOTERIC LIFE
Man in this world has an outwardly life related to his body. He eats, drinks, sleeps, moves, and walks but at the same time also possesses a spiritual life in his inner essence. While he lives in this world, at the same time within his inner essence either journeys towards prosperity, perfection and enlightenment, or moves towards adversity, cruelty and intense darkness; either journeys on the righteous path of humanity and ascends towards God, or deviates from the righteous path heading towards darkest valleys where he wanders in darkness becoming eventually lower than animals; either marches up on the steps of perfection towards enlightenment, joy, perfection, and God’s Countenance or falls into intense darkness for eternal punishment.
Although, majority of people are ignorant of this reality but it does exist.
God-Almighty said in Holy Quran:
They know only some appearance of the life of the world, and are needless of the Hereafter.
Quran, 30:7
But being knowledgeable or ignorant does not change the reality on the Day of Resurrection when the dark curtain of materialism are rolled up from the human eyes thus, enabling him to witness the reality and his own state of affairs.
The God-Almighty said in Holy Quran:
(And unto the evil-doer it is said): Thou wast in needlessness of this. Now we have removed form thee thy covering and piercing is thy sight this day.
Quran, 50:22
Therefore, from the above quoted verses it may be inferred that affairs related to the Next World all along did exist within human inner essence right here in this world, but unfortunately man was ignorant to realize it. However, since in the Next World all the materialistic curtains of ignorance shall be removed from his sight, he will be forced to see these realities clearly over there. We may therefore conclude from the above mentioned verses and traditions that the human-self earns things while living in this world, and these earning shall remain with him eventually determining his ultimate destiny in his eternal abode. Following are some examples.
God-Almighty said in the Holy Quran:
Every soul is a pledge for its own deeds.
Holy Quran, 74:38
And said:
Then every soul will be paid in full what it hath earned; and they will not be wronged.
Quran, 3:161
And said:
God will not take you to task for that which is unintentional in your oaths. But He will take you to task for that which your hearts have garnered. God is forgiving clement.
Quran, 2:225
And said:
God tasketh not a soul beyond its scope. For it (is only) that which it hath earned, and against it (only) that which it hath deserved.
Quran, 2:286
And said:
On the Day when every soul will find itself confronted with all that it hath done of good and all that it hath done of good and all that it hath done of evil (every soul) will long there might be a mighty space of distance between it and that evil
Quran, 3:30
And said:
Whoso doth right, it is for his soul, and whoso doth wrong, it is against it. And Afterward unto your Lord ye will be brought back.
Quran, 45:15
And said:
And whoso doth good an atom’s weight will see it then, and whoso doth ill an atom’s weight will see it then.
Quran, 99:7-8
And said:
And that man hath only that for which he maketh effort, and that his effort will be seen.
Quran, 53:39-40
And said:
And whatever of Good ye send before (you) for your souls, ye will find it with God.
Quran, 2:110
And said:
The day when wealth and sons avail not (any man). Save him who bringeth unto God a whole heart.
Quran, 26:88-89
The Holy Prophet said to one of his companions:
Oh Qais! You will have no other choice except to live with a companion in your grave. He is alive and you will be buried with him. If he is good and honourable, will make you honourable, and if he is low and mean, you will become low and mean as well. After that on the Day of Resurrection you will be associated with him and will be reprimanded. Therefore, be careful and try to select a righteous companion for yourself, because if he is righteous – you will develop affection for him. If he is corrupt he assured that all the fear and punishment inflicted upon you will be through his existence. That companion is nothing but your actions and deeds in this life.
Jameh al-Sadat, vol. 1, p-17
Imam Jafar al-Sadiq, the eighth Ahlulbayt said that God-Almighty once said to the righteous people:
Oh my righteous servants! Utilize My worship’s blessing in this world so that you could be benefited with them in the Next World as well.
Bihar al-Anwar, vol. 70, p-253
Imam Ali said:
Continuation of invocation (zikr) is the nourishment of human souls.
Gharar al-Hukm, p-764
He also said:
Don’t forget invocation (zikr) of God-Almighty because, it is the illumination of Hearts.
Gharar al-Hukm, p-479
The Holy Prophet had said:
On the Day of Resurrection the people will reappear in faces that the faces of monkeys and pigs are far better than theirs.
Qurrateh al-Ayoon, p-479
Heart in Quran is not the pine-shaped physical heart located in the left side of the chest, which support the animal life system by continuously pumping fresh blood into various parts of the body. We have erroneously translated the word ‘qalb’ used in Quran as ‘heart’. What is meant by heart is the same “Celestial Jewel” which controls the degree of human-ness within a human being.
This qalb or heart possess the higher Self that has been described in such detail in scriptures related to Muslims. However, what they didn’t know till now is that this higher self is controlled and contained by the Devatas, who are none else but the Ahlulbayt.
See the following verses from Quran that the Muslims would truly understand only now.
Which is the true spirit hath brought down, upon the heart, that thou mayest be (one) of the warners.
Quran, 26: 193-194
And whosoever believeth in God, He guideth his heart. And God is knower of all things.
Quran, 4:11
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We gave you long quotes from Self Building to show how much of importance Islam has given to this subject. It is unfortunate that despite such levels of stress on the subject of self building, Muslims are seldom found talking on the subject. The reason is that most Muslims have discarded Ahlulbayt from their lives who were living examples of highest levels of spiritual excellence. Ahlulbayt were the Divine Role Models. Of course, there is a segment of Muslims who still holds on to the Ahlulbayt but they have been misled by the Forces of Darkness to merely eulogize Ahlulbayt and seek no lessons from their teachings.
We saw from our study of Upanishads earlier that two things are pre-requisite for attaining salvation. One is identification of the rope or devatma-sakti that is the link between man and God and second is karma (amaal) i.e. good and esoteric deeds. Forgetting the divine role of Ahlulbayt as the link between man and God, most Muslims are far removed from realizing the truth. Hindus who talk of two things essential for salvation too know nothing about the role of devatma-sakti in leading us to salvation and hence their concept of spirituality too is wayward. Some talk of merely meditating in the blank to attain salvation, some say salvation is nothing but knowledge but do not know what that knowledge is and most have ceased to tread the path of salvation as the definitions of salvation that are given to them do not appeal to their reason.
We have quoted from Quran earlier which talks of the need to tread the steep ascent, when both path of good and evil have already been told. It is time to understand that Zulmat or Forces of Darkness or misguidance will be defeated the day mankind cognize the Forces of Noor and their role in leading us to salvation. Mankind has been created with the express purpose of passing the test. Test is of first identifying the torchbearers to the path and then treading the path. And Forces of Darkness would never want that to happen because their doctrine is to misguide and when mankind cognizes the torchbearers, these forces will get defeated.
Zulmat has deviated each of us from the true path, so that those who know of the need to develop self do not know of the Manifest Self with whom the self has to attain union and those who know of the Manifest Self do not know the identity of the Devatas, while there are some who are aware of Paramatma but know nothing about the Brahman (Absolute God), who ultimately shall be worshipped through the path shown by the Paramatma and Devatas. It is time now to make a sincere endeavour to identify the knowledge that is so essential for us and then tread it to pass the test desired of us.
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