In Search of a Deeper Islam: Entering the Prophetic Path

This is a short talk called "In Search of a Deeper Islam: Entering the Prophetic Path". Bismi-Llah, Al-Rahmani, Al-Rahim. All praises due to the One who is a Being, but not through the phenomenon of being, a Being that created in us consciousness and awareness, and which gave us the ability to reflect. That Being, which is the Originator of all causes and thus caused us to be here, in this time and at this moment, and salutations to his first creation, the light, the intellect, the pen, and the Prophet, Muhammad and his purified progeny. May we be purified and forgiven, so that we may meet them at the pool of Kawthar.

The Prophetic way of being consists of four dimensions. The first three dimensions pertain to this existence and focus on the perfection of beautiful conduct, or Ihsan. The science of beautiful conduct itself is a vast realm of understanding where the Muslim continually realises and realises again the meaning of their own selves, as they progress through ever more refined stages.

The fourth dimension pertains to the inner connection to that reality, which is absolutely transcendent. And without that inner connection, we are in effect detached from the one true reality that illumines all lesser, darker realities, those lesser, darker realities, including ourselves.

The Prophetic Path provides the means by which we can maintain and strengthen the fourth dimension of our being. It offers a doorway to that reality that underlies all of material existence, a reality that permeates material existence and cuts through it. Standing on the prayer mat and engaging in Salah is an example of how this path offers us a means of ascension.

By means of the three dimensions of our earthly existence, we are then able to turn through our intention to the One true reality, seeking it out with that transcendent aspect of ourselves in order that its light may illuminate us.

What the Prophetic Path teaches us, then, is not only what is necessary for being a true servant of Allah, Subhana wa Ta'ala, it also teaches us how to develop a certain faculty of perception, which becomes the foundation of our entire being. It is by this faculty of perception that we perceive the reality of Tawhid. This faculty of perception, as the Masters of the Path have said, is what is called the eye of the heart.

Some scholars have said that the heart lies between the intellect and the soul, or the 'Aql and the Nafs. The heart is the centre of our being, not only physically but existentially, and if we are firmly rooted in it, then we are able to enter the gateway of the Prophetic Path and uncover the 70 thousands veils that lie between us and Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala.

In our world today we often prevented from exploring the depths of our own being. Some people ask how they can come to know themselves more deeply, to enhance their cognition and acuity, their ability to perceive what is revealed of reality. It goes without saying that quality of contemplation rather than quantity of Qur'anic chapters read, lectures attended, raka'ts performed is the key, and perhaps it is quality of contemplation that we have lost the ability to know and understand.

Of course there is the famous Hadith: one hour's contemplation is worth 70 years of prayer. But how many of us take that seriously enough to practise it? Contemplation is the heart of the Prophetic Path, just as the heart is the centre of our existence. Contemplation should be at the heart of our worship in our endeavour to know ourselves and that which created us.

Why is the Prophetic Path universal? Because it is the path to our primordial state of being, and it is in uncovering our primordial state of being that we begin to realise the truth of our existence. As we know the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, said that we are all born Muslim, but that it is only our culture that makes us Jewish or Christian.

We can reflect upon this in a broader sense. Any aspect of our culture that is not rooted in, and does not derive from our primordial way of being, only serves to take us away from that. The Masters say that the heart is a mirror in which the Divine Attributes are reflected. They also say that the universe is a mirror which reflects the Divine Attributes. In contemplating the attributes of the universe, we are able to realise the Divine Attributes. But let us think about this in a slightly different sense.

When we think about reflecting upon the universe, we are thinking about its creation in its pristine state. But what about the miniature universe that we have created for ourselves? What about the world of values, images, messages, and expectations which societies around us create? These values, images, messages, and expectations arising from the desires and anxieties of a society that is driven by the Nafs.

We live in a materialistic world, bombarded by advertisements appealing to our most basic, unthinking desires, or disturbed by noise that is designed to entertain and distract, or pressured by expectations of families and clans to conduct our lives in such a way as to protect and preserve their social honour and prestige.

What is it that creates this materialistic world? And what is it that keeps it going? It is created by those who know the nature of the Nafs rather well, and who seek to profit from it, and it is kept going by those whose nature is seduced by it, and who believe that it can offer them what they need.

It is a world in which we seek to survive, not through Tawakkul, through perfect trust, but through anxiously trying to serve the needs of our Nafs. And it is anxiety that obscures like a cloud the light of Imam, and darkens the light of the heart.

This is why an increasingly commercialised world, causes distress to the one who is seeking the way back to a pure, authentic way of being. The pathway back to that authenticity becomes a battle-zone of aggressive distractions, relentlessly dragging the attention away from its state of contemplation.

The delineations of the Prophetic Path become obscured by a world that seeks to substitute authenticity with false values, images, messages, and expectations, that have been generated by a culture driven by the Nafs.

In order simply to enter the Prophetic Path, one must sift through the debris of the artificial universe which has been created around us, and search out that pathway of light which seems to appear, and then disappear and then disappear. Its light is like a voice which we strain our ears to hear a voice which, in fact the heart yearns to hear.

In the midst of a life of distractions and obligations, we go to and fro in search of this beautiful voice, which, when heard unravels all the knots of our being, dissolves the darkness in which we find ourselves, and silences the noise that contrives to bar our way to the Divine. As the Qur'an says, "truth obliterates falsehood"(21:18). Chapter 21, verse 18.

And indeed, it is in the midst of this existential chaos that glimpses of the light of the Truth can be seen. And in the midst of this chaos, these glimpses still have the power to show us the way.

It may be asked why talk about entering the Prophetic Path, especially when it seems that all of us have done so?

Perhaps it could be said that entering the Prophetic Path does not merely mean consciously affirming that La Ilaha illa Allah, Muhammad Rasul Allah. Entering the path in fact, takes a lifetime, for this path is forever unfolding before us. It takes courage and a clear resolution to embark upon it and to continue, for embarking upon it also means being prepared for necessary losses, the falling away of the situation in which we have been caught, and which has been created around us by worldly values.

The disruption, and we could even say destruction of the false realities which have made up our lives and which for some time we believed to be true. The structure of our lives in which we have lived, perhaps uncomfortably, but with which nevertheless we are familiar, is altered irrevocably, and we face the disconcerted consternation of those whom we are loath to hurt.

When the Divine Light tears through the fabric of our lives, and illuminates our heart, awakening our consciousness, our intellect, and we come to realise without a doubt that this Divine Light must be the one and only basis of our lives. This also means facing the consequences of beginning to live differently.

It means facing the consequences of thinking differently. In changing ourselves, we change our society. We live in a world where in most countries the Prophetic Path has more or less been abandoned. Or we could say that those who are dedicated to living by it and establishing its reality in this material realm are few. In living by the Prophetic Path, we reintroduce it back into our society. In being connected to this gateway to the Eternal, we ourselves become the gateways to the Eternal.

In connecting to the One transcendent reality through the fourth dimension of our being, we introduce this connection into the material world. As the Masters say, man is the Barzakh between Heaven and Earth. Man is the bridge between these two. Man is the point of connection. In entering the Prophetic Path and endeavouring to go ever further into it, we change the universe around us.

How can we turn back the tide of a materialistic way of life that virtually wipes out all knowledge of the transcendent reality and all means to that knowledge?

We can look at the early Muslims and see that although their number was not great, what they did still had a profound and transformative effect upon the world's civilization. History was changed forever, not only through their determination, but through their allowing the overwhelming light of the Divine to shine through their very being. For it is this Divine Light which awakened them and provided them with the inspiration necessary for cutting loose anything that might prevent them from articulating and embodying the Prophetic Path laid out before them by the lamp of guidance, the Holy Prophet peace be upon him, and his Holy progeny himself.

We seek a deeper way of living Islam, particularly in this world where the vibrations of Islamic history are few, the air is dry, the atmosphere strangely empty. It does not resonate with Dhikr. The roads of our cities are not humming with the active remembrance of the Divine. We are often weighed down by the weight of other people's souls, and we crave a universe that will enable us to ascend.

We long for that station of light where our soul is no longer burdened by the darkness of a stultified society, a society that is essentially aimless, which exists for no apparent purpose other than for itself. Yet in embarking on the Prophetic Path with the aim of disappearing into that Sublime and Sacred Light, we must also be prepared for bitter battles with our own selves.

We ask ourselves, how can I progress as a human being along this path? Perhaps combating the myriad distractions and the weight of other souls is easier than combating our own faults and desires. And perhaps the bitterest of battles is letting go of that which comforts the Nafs, but which harms it and obstructs its progression toward Allah, Subhana wa Ta'ala.

The bitterest of battles is to let go of that to which the soul is attached. Severing such attachments can be equated with annihilating that part of the soul. But as Imam Al-Husayn, alayhi as-salam, said: "death is better than dishonour". The one who treads the mighty Prophetic Path is the one who guards his honour, even while a part of him is undergoing the experience of the death of a part of himself.

Tolerating such tests with patients can be likened to drinking a draught of the bitterest medicine, and this is what we need to be prepared for, if we are to find a deeper Islam.

We know that Prophet Musa alayhi as-salam, asked to see Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala. Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala, showed him the mountain in a state of annihilation, and Prophet Musa alayhi as-salam, himself underwent annihilation (7:143), chapter seven, verse 143. This is what we must be prepared for if we are really, truly to enter the Prophetic Path.

Travelling along the Prophetic Path is a process of continual and ongoing surrender. An expanding of the awareness to the needs of those around us. A giving of the self in order to overcome the Self's desire to take. It is reaching into the heart and bringing out its compassion. And by doing so, softening the heart's boundaries and overcoming any tendencies for it to constrict.

A deeper Islam means renewing our Shahadatain, at each stage of the Path, so that we ourselves may be renewed again through each new realisation that is revealed to us through our endeavours to embody it. It is an ongoing journey into the soul. It is through concentration and contemplation, mental detachment from the barrage of distractions, an enhancing of one's attachment to the One reality that transcends all fleeting, inferior, inferior realities.

It is being prepared to transcend the limitations of oneself, even against our desires to remain within limits, because of the illusory sense of safety that they provide. It is therefore taking a step into the unknown with courage and trust, in order to ascend and return more perfectly to our Fitrah, our primordial state of being in which we witnessed perfectly the Oneness of the Divine. Allahumma salli ala Muhammadin wa aali Muhammad.