Journey Towards Insight By Sufi Teacher
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Adam and Eve
When God pours ladles full of sunshine upon the ocean, the ocean sends droplets of water to spread that sunshine into the expanses of the atmosphere. There, according to a process, these droplets of water become clouds that shower upon the earth, irrigating the entire earth. When Adam was thrown upon the earth, he lamented, ‘how will I meet my nutritional needs?’ Allah said, ‘We have made the earth a reservoir of resources for you. Open up the belly of the earth; you will be provided for all your needs.’ With the blessing of his Lord, Adam dug the earth, and therein he found all things necessary. The essence of the story is that as a person sows, so does he reap. Adam and his wife, Eve [‘Havva’], were living a carefree life of luxury in heaven but, tired of the monotony, they committed a mistake and, as a consequence, heaven rejected them. Indeed, heaven is a composite of a certain character, and when this specific character broke apart, earth became the abode of Adam and Eve.
This world is a world of duality. No character of the earth is free of this duality. The fluctuation of the weather between hot and cold, happiness overshadowed by sorrow, sorrow being overpowered by happiness, honour followed immediately by disgrace, health, sickness, love and hatred, night turning into day, and day becoming night—all of these dualities are the contrasting faces of each character. If this contradiction within the life of duality is not understood, it is not possible to understand anything at all.
Unless I understand what disgrace is, it would be a futile attempt for me to understand honour. In the same way if I do not understand what hardship is, any talk of happiness would be meaningless for me. When we ponder this world of duality, only one conclusion arises: that duality is rooted in the body. As long as bodily incentives and activities are present, duality is present. Happiness and sorrow, health and sickness, heat and coolness, love and hatred, selfishness and sincerity, all are related to the body. The body itself is based upon duality: One body made up of the particles of the earth; the other made of the lights of the heaven. The body made of the particles of the earth is the physical body, and the body made up of the lights of the heaven is the spiritual body. Man spends his life alternating between his physical and spiritual body. To escape from the physically constrained thoughts, it is not the material body that one needs to abandon, but material thoughts. The physical body must be trained so that it can accept [the presence of] these dualities at the same time. The duality of happiness and sorrow is only due to the material body. But if the qalander conscious activates within a person, all the dualities, though remaining present, lose their meaning. And, temporarily, they can even be eliminated.
In each instant of his life, man may be subject to confined perceptions. Yet man may also be free within his confined perceptions. In such cases, impressions of sadness and grief do not affect him. He does not remain happy either, as the other face of happiness is sorrow. His eyes are not attracted to the glitz and glamour of the resources adorning the earth, as far from it all, very far from it indeed, the glory of heaven stands before his eyes. Just as here, confined within matter, he eats bread, in the same way, it is easy for him to free himself from this matter and partake of fruits from the gardens of heaven. When an individual gains awareness of the duality, and becomes complete in self awareness, a new path, a new way, a new style of living is revealed to him. Such a person is called a free man, possessing a qalander conscious. A free man looks at all things with the same perspective, whether it is stones or whether it is gold.
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About the Book
Science has made immense progress, yet many believe that, even with all of the modern tools at our disposal, human beings function at no more than 10% of their mental capacity ., This leads to the question of what exactly it is that comprises the remaining 90%. Yet another question that arises is this: If it has taken man four and a half billion years to be able to apply only 10% of his ability, how long will it take for him to make use of the remaining 90%?
The history of the rise and fall of nations clearly shows that the nations that dedicated the highest degree of energy and resources to the pursuit of knowledge were the ones able to advance the frontiers of progress.
There are those among scientists and intellectuals who retain a strong measure of compassion for Allah’s creatures. Those among them who wish to follow this tender calling of their heart and save God’s creatures from misery and insecurity can only do so by attaining and applying spiritual knowledge. But in order to do this, they must demonstrate a sincerity and purity of intention that is untainted by material desire.
My purpose of writing Journey Towards Insight is to shed light on those obstacles that prevent man from encountering and embracing his true-self (i.e., his spirit)—obstacles that have deprived him of his peace of mind, obstacles that have imprisoned him in the shackles of his emotional burdens, obstacles that have turned his life into a living hell. This book attempts to explain how we, as individuals and as a nation, can attain peace, for it is peace that the greatest of all blessings.
Those who establish a relationship with Allah are endowed with His attributes, the chief among which is service to humankind.
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About the Author
Mr. Khwaja Shamsuddin Azeemi is one of the most eminent scholars of Sufi thought alive today. Over the course of a career that spans nearly four decades, K.S. Azeemi has written over 48 books and more than 60 pamphlets on the subjects of Sufism, mysticism, spirituality and parapsychology. Twenty-five of books have been translated from his native Urdu into other languages, including English, Russian, Arabic and Thai. Mr. K.S. Azeemi has been a guest on numerous television programs in Mr. K.S. Azeemi is the Head of 91 Muraqabah Halls [“Meditation centre”] throughout the world. These are places open to all human beings who seek communion with the one God known by many names. This exceptional scholar and human being has devoted his life in fostering peace, tolerance and forbearance, and to calling mankind to aspire to higher spiritual values. Those who allow themselves to be touched by his powerful teachings have emerged transformed by the encounter. In one of the noblest passages of the sermons gathered in this volume, K.S Azeemi writes: “The manner of speech and the style of teaching of human beings, whose physical needs are connected to their spiritual states, points to the fact that human beings contain within them an awareness of the relationship between the body and the soul. When the system connecting the body and the spirit is activated, one feels immersed in feelings of joy and selflessness, and looks upon one’s brothers and sisters, and indeed upon all of God’s creation, with the eyes of a mother gazing lovingly upon her very own children.” Journey Towards Insight by Sufi Teacher