“Man Inclines toward Evil” By Mohammad Abdullah Ansari The Qur’an says that man inclines toward evil. Most people (Muslims) read that and accept it and then go on with their lives just like before. The fact is that that has very profound meaning and is more than just a fact, it’s the basis for action. Every fact or direction that Allah indicates in the Qur’an or in ahadith, is carried out or exists in scientific terms. In other words, the language of religion only talks about the end result or the obvious reality, Allah doesn’t do things directly, everything happens through processes from the almost direct, like He says in the Qur’an that if He didn’t pit one group of people against others the world would fall apart (I’m paraphrasing of course). We can see in history how even bad situations were used to redirect humankind. There are many examples of this in history – most conflicts in the world are between bad and badder. How is that? Allah made us bad? No way. Then how? Well, first we need to understand that the fact noted in the Qur’an is not just a fact, every fact in the Qur’an is an injunction, an order to action. If we are as humans inclined toward evil, it’s our job to fight against our evil or incorrect nature. And also, that implies something not often considered, awareness, we have to be aware of the nature of our nature. We have to know ourselves (self/nafs) and further, the Prophet said, “Know yourself (nafs) and you’ll know Allah”. By really knowing ourselves through constant observation and vigilance, then fighting against our incorrect inclinations we reveal our divine nature (We made man in our images, it says in the Bible) which is expressed in the 99 names or attributes of Allah which are all contained within each of us. Scientifically, where do all these negative inclinations come from if not from Allah? A variety of places. One is DNA. We have characteristics of all our ancestor flowing through our vanes, in our cells and the marrow of our bones. Could be some good there but also a lot of errors that we have to pay for. So, contrary to popular opinion, in a way, we do have to pay for the sins of our fathers. Then there is the indoctrination and influences direct and indirect of our families, society and culture, all of which is the result of accumulated habit. The general culture is a mixture of good intentions and nafs/ego producing something more negative than positive. We think that we are our own men, individuals, not influenced by others. Nonsense. But even worse or more insidious, the biggest part of the influence doesn’t reach us directly, it comes secretly and invisibly (to the outer eye). The unseen reality of our existence (al ghraib) is an interlocking mass of energy fields which resonate with frequencies in each of us according to certain circumstances. If you believe that this life on earth is only a temporary phase of a larger eternal life, then you must believe that all these that happens here during this stage of our existence has only a relative reality and relative importance. All classifications, black, white, American, Mexican, farmer, lawyer, whatever, are false temporary conditions fabricated for our education (We made you different nations and peoples so you would know each other – Qur’an). To fulfill our mission in this life which is to know Allah, we have to fight against the nafs (Jihad al-Akbar). That means against every inclination that doesn’t originate from Allah. Identification with any group, directly for psychological reasons or indirectly by way of invisible energy fields, is an obstacle or barrier which obscures our true nature and our ultimate goal of “seeing” and knowing Allah. We have to develop a dual nature. Participating in the day to day life of this world on one hand but being constantly in a state of vigilance, watching ourselves from our spiritual selves, observing and constantly making adjustments according to the Criterion (Qur’an). Please don’t think that I’m talking metaphorically, we have a spiritual self, a real self, and we can come to know the real self. In the process of coming to know the real self we also become more sensitive to the forces that are acting upon us and seeing and knowing these forces we can learn to resist them and thereby move even closer to the real self. People think that this way that I’m talking about is unnatural and too difficult and so hard that one can never enjoy life. On the contrary, everything is a matter of habit. Once you make a habit of being aware, it becomes easier and easier and then the big pay-off, life becomes easier and incredible more interesting. The Prophet (saws) said, “This life is a dream, when you die, you wake up”. He also said, “Die before you die”. Kill (or dominate) the nafs, and wake up now, in this life time. Ali (as) said, “Work now, relax later”. This life, in which we have free will and can personally determine the nature of the rest of our existence (eternal life), is super important – if we don’t do it here, it’ll be too late later after we die in this life. There’s no time to waste, not even a moment. Every minute counts. We have to work on ourselves in this life so we can relax a bit in the next. The Ansariyya Sufí Tariqa mojamadabdula@gmail
Posted on: Mon, 02 Dec 2013 19:11:33 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015