Answered by Sidi Wasim Shiliwala
Question: I find myself discouraged and puzzled by deep spiritual concepts such as “Annihilation” and “Ecstasy”. How can we understand these ideas given our physical and contextual limitations?
Answer: Walaikum As-salam,
May Allah bless you for your question! You raise an important point: it is indeed very difficult for us as students to comprehend some of the deeper and more abstract concepts related to the religion and our relationship with Allah. Most of us are striving to firmly establish our prayers and remembrances of Allah (adhkar), so we find it very daunting when we hear scholars speak of the profound spiritual benefits of those acts.
So rather than confuse ourselves in trying to comprehend the spiritual experiences being described, we should seek to find practical import and inspiration from them. We might not understand the realities of the spiritual states of figures like Imam al-Ghazali, but the path to reach these heights is clear, simple, and accessible to all: increase in our knowledge of Allah (through creedal knowledge) so that we can faithfully follow his commands (through legal knowledge) with sincerity and pure devotion (through spiritual knowledge).
Until we master our own prayers and fill our lives with the remembrance of Allah, some of the more abstract ideas of Islam’s spiritual masters – with regards to reaching Allah, experiencing “annihilation”, and so on – will remain puzzling and unclear. To strike a rough comparison, it is like the experience of a young girl reading about a mother’s love: the realities of what the mother experiences for her children are far removed from the reader’s everyday life. She can’t understand what the mother is talking about, and won’t be able to empathize with it until she herself experiences motherhood. Similarly, most of us cannot identify with deep and abstract concepts in the spiritual sciences because we haven’t even fully realized our love of Allah and His Prophet (may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him).
The factors you mentioned above further complicate our comprehension of spiritual concepts. Since we are physical and mortal creatures, our understanding of Allah’s might and majesty is necessarily limited. Similarly, our personal experiences and contexts serve as obstacles in our attempts to understand the spiritual writings of past scholars. Confronted with these difficulties, we might ask: how could anyone in our day and age even dream of reaching these lofty spiritual states?
Despite this understandable sense of frustration, there is still much reason to be hopeful: there are many honest and sincere Muslims who, through hard work and struggle, continue to reach high spiritual ranks. Moreover, they would be the first ones to say that it is not the spiritual experiences, concepts, or language that is sought, but rather that Allah is sought. In other words, true happiness begins and ends with one’s obedience to the One and True Lord. Everything else is secondary.
Furthermore, many books in the spiritual sciences, such as Imam al-Ghazali’s Revival of the Religious Sciences (and his summary of it, 40 Foundations of Religion), were written to aid us on this path by teaching us practical religious knowledge in an inspiring manner. As we read them, we shouldn’t get sidetracked by expositions on deep spiritual concepts that might confuse us, but we should rather focus on those practical pieces of advice which we can implement in our daily lives. While not as intellectually stimulating or exciting as reading about discourses on the hidden realities of existence, this approach will insha’Allah inspire us to increase in our acts of worship and to pray to Allah in a sincere and focused manner. These benefits alone are worth more than an entire library’s weight in gold.
And Allah knows best, and only He gives success.
Wasim
Checked & Approved by Faraz Rabbani
Related Courses:
Excellence in Faith & Action (from Ghazali’s 40 Foundations of Religion)
Purification of the Heart & Praiseworthy Character (from Ghazali’s 40 Foundations of Religion)