“Everything on the Earth is perpetually vanishing, but the face of your cherishing Lord remains full of splendor and grace.” Qur’an
According to the mystics, it is possible for the human beings to be everything in a completely different dimension and consciousness. When a seed is broken, there appears to be nothing inside, however this nothing has within it the essence of a tree. Billions of years ago prior to the big bang, nothing was the essence of everything. A situation in which no law of physics works is called personal destiny in Sufism, which cannot be comprehended by any human being. God watched the magnificence of this essence, wanted this perfect treasure to be known and therefore created the light and shape of Himself. This complete shape reflected the Godly consciousness. The Islamic religion calls it the light of Muhammad (PBUH) but in reality, it is the light of all the Prophets and the light of the perfect man.
This Godly light formed with the divine laws is the essence of all creatures and the everlasting flame of light. We cannot recognize this essence with our existing senses that has the flawless shape of God. It is not like any shape or substance that can be touched and seen. There is also spiritual existence of human beings within this light. God when He wants something to become says, ‘Be’ and it immediately becomes. This ‘be’ command has been given to the Almighty spirit in the world that is the abstraction of the abstract. The Almighty spirit received the command, descended and the universe started to form. Within the first second of this bang, atoms were formed and with the uniting of the atoms, the suns, stars and the world was composed.
The Almighty spirit descended from the Supreme Being to the world of nature and entered into substance. However only human beings were created in the shape of God, i.e. God gave human beings a soul from himself. In other words, human beings have a spiritual structure that is not part of this world and universe. According to Sufism, this spirit forms the real self of human beings and it descended by decrees to this Universe from other worlds, from the world of spirits and angels and it became apparent by wearing the apparel of this world and Universe. It is very natural for the spiritual presence not belonging here to yearn for its own homeland. Human beings equate themselves with their own body in the concrete world. There is actually the longing of separation behind the yearning felt for goods, property, positions, fame and power. One day this pain and separation envelopes and embraces the self so much that it starts crying and lamenting. How could it not cry, the place left behind is the presence of unity with Almighty God.
Quran states, “Every Human being has to taste death and in the end unto us shall be returned back.” Quran considers death not as annihilation, but as a man going back to his Creator, returning to his origin, thus attaining real and eternal life.’ Our Holy Prophet(PBUH) said, “Believers (Muslims) never die, but are transferred from a world, which is temporary to a world which is ever lasting.” In the metaphorical story of the flute in Masanavi narrated by Maulana, man too is in exile, while living in this world. Death takes him to his real home and Lover. It is an interesting analogy to see how you make a reed flute. You go to a place, which grows bamboos (nayastan where the reed grows). You cut the reed, bring it home and then empty out its inside and make it hollow. Rumi says, “Just like the reed, we have to be made hollow and for that one has to be willing to let everything go, which blocks or act as a barrier, just like a metal rod, which we put on fire, press it against the reed, six times on one side and one time on the other. Every time the reed touches, the rod there is a hole and when the reed is ready, you blow into it and you will hear a haunting beautiful sound.
Maulana calls himself a reed flute. The reed has a plaintive, sorrowful almost mourning, but very dignified sound. What does the sound tell us, it is complaining of separation? Maulana says in the story of the reed, “Every one listens to my sound, but no one asks me the mysteries in my heart. Everyone listens to the sound, but no one recognizes my home sickness.” We in our lives all suffer from multiple separations; we have an existential separation and anxiety. We are separated sometimes from our loved ones. Maulana starts with a lamentation, complaining of separation. He says,” I miss my God, my country, nobody understands me. I am all alone. Every one projects his own ideas on to me.” Malauna suffers separation from his homeland. He was not born in Konia, but in Khurasan region. He misses his homeland. Then he remembers the Prophetic Hadees, which says, ‘Hub-al-Watan min al-eman.’ Love for one’s homeland is part of faith.
Maulana says, “The homeland which the Prophet (PBUH) is talking about is homeland above in heaven, not Turkey, Iran or any other part of the world.” The reed flute is the symbol of this soul that has separated from its real homeland. The reed flute with its sad moving and melancholy sound is expressing its yearning to God to be united with the reed bed from which it was separated. Maulana says, “I said to this reed flute that cries and moans, what is the cause of your suffering, who are you complaining about?” It said, “I was cut from the reed with sweet lips; it is the pain of separation that makes me lament.” —To be continued.
—The writer is author of various books based in Rawalpindi.
