I’d like to ask what is your stance on Sufism? I feel closer to God through sufi music, probably because I understand the language and it penetrates through out the soul. Anything conveyed through music, sufiyana kalam effects me immensely.
I have always been regular with my prayers, but (i don’t know how to say it I feel so ashamed) i don’t get the ultimate essence in namaz probably because I don’t understand what I am reciting?:(
I read Rumi. Allama Iqbal, Bulhe Shah and their poetry sung by folk artists just engulfs me and gives me such pleasure and I can almost feel Allah all around me. Naturally if this experience is so elevating that I fail to find this kind of pleasure in other rituals.
I would never miss a namaz, it’s a part of me but I don’t get connected through it.Recently I have started feeling even more connected through my creative side. I write, I paint, music is an integral part of me and all this take me in to this trance. I start lighting candles instinctively. Things I heard ages ago have all started making sense. You know how it’s said ‘Anul Haque’. I get such vivid dreams of numbers flashing at me and just green color and often feel a presence in half asleep state.
No one can understand what goes inside my head and I don’t blame them.
You think am just finding an escape? Shortcut?
But shortcut from what? my thinking seems to be taking a shift. I look at Allah SWT outside religion. He is becoming beyond everything now? What ever I learnt till now had put him in this circle of religion, I couldn’t look outside it. Now I feel him all around, He has become apart of me.
You know how they say you can actually experience God beyond 7th plane? we as humans are on the 3rd plane. and through meditation which is basically Khushoo Khuzoo, we can become one with Him.
I hope I am making sense? see how Rumi became a Sufi Dervish from a mevlana. No doubt Mevlanas are epitome of knowledge but you become a hermit out of love, and that love I can feel now.
You know how you become a doctor through knowledge and information but you become a messiah through passion and love. I don’t want to be any of that. But i want this state to continue, there’s a lot of love and peace here and a much greater meaning to God.
I don’t want to be disobedient. I am just trying to find Him.
Answer
Salam
When we approach religion, we are looking for the truth. We want to know who created us, why did he create us, what does our creator expect from us, what is going to happen after death, if he has expressed himself, where is the text, what does it say etc It is a mental and spiritual quest that inclines us to look for the truth. If we get a message which satisfies us adequately, answering most of our questions, we try to understand and follow it.
Mental and spiritual satisfaction are a consequence of this process. Satisfaction is not the ultimate goal but a bye-product of reaching the destination through this quest and the consequential efforts it entails.
One can get satisfaction through other ways too. At times good music satisfies you; at times it is good company that does it; on other occasions helping out someone can also satisfy you; you can also get a temporary feeling of elation through drugs. Some of these means are not evil. However, none of them should be the end for a seeker after truth.
Sufism in my opinion is a way of achieving spiritual elation which is parallel to God’s religion. The two follow two completely different paths. If they apparently converge at some points it’s not because the two are the same. It is simply because it is in the nature of spiritualism, of which Sufism is a part, that it adapts itself according to the local religions and conventions. We therefore find spiritualism in Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism too. Each brand of spiritualism has its own apparent form which is in accordance with the local customs and religious traditions. However, the ultimate goal of all brands of spiritualism is to become a part of God.
According to the Sufi view there are several paths leading to God and all are correct. One should not criticize the other path because that too is equally valid. What we find in the Quran on the contrary is a condemnation of the existing form of Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism etc
While the Quran wants us to become a servant of God to achieve the paradise, Sufism wants us to follow its suluk to achieve the goal of getting back to where we originated from (God). Striving to achieve the paradise is a lowly objective which doesn’t befit the Sufi whose high target of getting back to the origin and becoming a part of God is far superior.
And only God knows the best.