Paradox of Life

Life is full of paradoxes: day and night, small and big, one and many, up and down, sweet and sour, good and bad, right and wrong and so on. Truth is that paradox is the very definition of this world, and more appropriately, believe it or not, paradox is the charm of this life. The problem lies with us, who have twisted our minds and want to change the nature and be the God.

If there were no light there would be no life and if there were no night, there would be no romance. If everyone in this world were rich there would be no activity hence boredom would kill us. If there were no mountains the flat land would not look that beautiful and vice versa. If there were no average looking people, there would be no appreciation of beauty.

Would we like to flatten all the landscape, or do we want to have only monotonous days without having the beautiful nights? Do we want to always have the feeling of a full fat belly and miss the excitement of the want of great food, fruits and drinks which a so-called poor person does have? Suffering is not what we look forward to, but ups and downs give us the meaning and feeling of joy and happiness.

Finally if there were no “bad” how we would know about “good”? Probably “right” and “wrong” are two sides of the same coin, it’s just the look and feel that makes it look good or feel bad. That is the paradox of this life and that is the puzzle and charm of this world. We can’t avoid contradiction as it is what this world is all about, what we don’t want is the domination of the evil and extreme.

Voices and Sounds

Voice is one of the human attributes and a way of our expression. Different sounds convey different meanings and a language is set of certain sounds. Some people are unfortunate enough not to have this wonderful attribute and some are so lucky that their voice calms down disturbed souls and provides peace and pleasure to many people.

There are different sounds for different purposes and occasions which convey the state of our mind and body. There is human voice and then there are sounds and sights of this world. There is sound of music and musical instruments and there is sound of thunder and thunder storms. All convey different events and happenings around us, causing either happiness or sadness.

There are voiceless people and then those whose voice is suppressed. There are sounds produced by people after eating up to their throats and there are sounds coming out of the bellies of those who haven’t eaten for days. There is noise of explosions and missiles and there is cry of innocent and oppressed children of God. There is sound of terror in the voice of a cruel person and there is a weak whose cries echo up to the sky.

Finally there are voices of love and passion, which make us feel so good and great that we forget all other charms of life and just wait for a single word and call from the beloved. As the great Sufi Shah Latif says: “My beloved once called me with passion and all my life I just remember only that one”. Further he says: “There is bawling in the desert, is it cry of a hurt person or cuckoo’s call? probably it’s lover’s valor and voice”.

         ،حبيبن هيڪار منجهان مِهر سڏ ڪيو

!سو مون سڀ ڄمار اورڻ اهو ئي ٿيو

          رُڃُن ۾  رڙ ٿِي ڪن ڪويلِ ڪُوڪ؟

! ولولو ۽ ووڪ آهي تان عِشق جِي

Who are Good People

Good people are everywhere, in all walks of life, in all religions, in all colors and races. We try to unite ourselves on the basis of religion, race, language etc but those unions do not necessarily mean that we are gathering around the good. Fine folks abound, but we have to cross some boundaries to reach them which we are either shy or not willing to do. Just as good people are everywhere similarly bad guys are all over too, in all offices, cultures and creeds.

We should be very clear that goodness is not limited to one race or religion. A person can be good irrespective of his/her beliefs and looks. On the contrary those who are supposed to be good and great could actually be bad and worse people. If we are looking for good people then we will have to look only for goodness and think outside the box in which we have been living with limited local view of nice and ugly.

Neither stupidity nor goodness has boundaries, then why we support and save bad people just because they belong to us, our religion or race? This is the basis of discrimination and cause of most of the evils. On one hand everyone wants justice and peace, on the other hand we support and save such satanic people and ideologies which cause lawlessness, oppression, and injustice resulting in human suffering and persecution.

Religion and Peace

If all the religions and philosophies preach peace and forgiveness then why is there more violence in the name of religion and the philosophies. Why is this anomaly and contradiction between the theory and practice? Either the religions and philosophies are preaching hate, or we interpret them wrong way or are we not following them at all ? I think a religion or a philosophy which claims to be universal and for all humans, cannot preach hatred and violence. If it does, then it is a cult not a religion.

Some people interpret and implement the holy scriptures and doctrines in such a way that suits some vested interests and the regimes who want to extend their power and grip over people to rule with an iron hand in an autocratic setup, in the name of religion and philosophy. Such people have been using the religion, race, color and creed to justify their inhuman actions, to achieve their own objectives and implement their personal agendas in the name of God, nationalism, and patriotism.

The third reason for not achieving peace is that many of us consider our traditions, myths and culture as our religion. Most of us do not know and practice the true religion, but we can’t stop talking about our great beleifs and imposing them upon others. In that process we try to push our culture and self-defined religion onto others forcefully, by-passing all the norms of life, tolerance and civility. This causes lots of problems, backlash and reaction which ultimately results in conflict and chaos.

What is Sufism

Some have fashion as style and some have religion as style, Sufism is spirituality as style. There are various ways and reasons you could practice a religion or a philosophy: by following the tenets of faith strictly;  by doing good deeds in expectation of a return; obeying the laws and rules because of fear of the Lord. You may keep doing arithmetic of good and bad deeds done, to calculate the rewards. Sufism is a step ahead, where we do deeds just for the sake of love and goodness without concerning ourselves with gains or pains.

Sufism is about synchronizing ourselves with the Nature. Sufism is not about living a secluded life. We have to live our lives and have to perform all the normal duties. We can’t give up this world and live in a jungle to find refuge in solitary life. Neither we can be a mere materialistic machine. Also we have to pacify our soul to have a peaceful and happy life. We are humans, the special species who have to live a balanced life in between these two extremes.

Sufism is not a religion, it is an approach or style which can be stretched to blend with almost any religion or philosophy. Since Sufism is about spirituality, it is practiced in various forms by various people of different faiths. As the truth can be only One, therefore we should be able to find it from various angles. That is the beauty of spirituality and that is the beauty of the truth. Therefore Sufism provides platform for creating synergy and harmony among all of us.

Are All Humans Equal?

Sometimes we wonder if all the humans are equal. Some of us are very nice gentlemen and some of us are cruel and crazy people, are we all the same humans or are we totally different beings. More we look at the differences in knowledge, character, color, language, religion, culture and geography; we feel that we are very different. Some folks possess Godly attributes where as others seem to be masters of Devil. But when we look at the basic traits, it seems like we are all the same humans at the roots. Then what makes us similar and what makes us different?

We are all humans, the difference lies with the various states or stages of development in which we are. Different people give different names and meanings to those stages and states of the mind. Some categorize people with the titles of barbarians and the civilized ones; others caliber them as ignorant and the intellectuals. The religious people divide them among the sinners and the pious. Whatever measuring mechanism we choose, there certainly are some stages into which we all fit. There are levels and stages for physical and spiritual development, the more advanced level we are at, the more happy and good we would be.

Some people spend their whole life living through only one stage, others cross multiple stages during their life times. The real celebrities are those who get to the end of the stages and reach the truth. The lowest level of a human being is probably that of an animal and the highest stage could be that of ecstasy, in which we cross all the dimensions to see the reality of this universe. How do we cross those stages and how we can reach the climax, is the topic of every religion and philosophy. Sufis generally describe four stages of development: Shari’a, Tariq’a, Haqiq’a and Marif’a.

Nasut is the natural human state in which one lives following the rules of the shari’a; Malakut is the nature of angels, to reach which one treads the tariqa, the path of purification; whilst Jabarut is the nature of power, to attain which one follows the way of enlightenment, ma’rifa, until one swoons into Fana, absorption into Deity, the State of Reality (Haqiqa), often called in the literature `Alam al-Ghaib, ‘the (uncreated) world of the mystery’. (Trimingham, The Sufi Orders in Islam, p.160).  Shah Lateef has pointed to the same steps of purification through the character of Sohni (the beautiful):

ساري سِکُ سَبَقُ، شرِيعَتَ سَندو، سُهڻِي
طرِيقَتان تِکو وَهي، حَقِيقَتَ جو حَقُ؛
مَعرِفَتَ مَرَڪُ، اَصلُ عاشِقنِ کي

Life is Plus and Minus

Life is plus and minus which eventually becomes zero or nothing. We start with zero, have pluses and minuses and ultimately end up where we started with, the zero, the end. There was nothing before and nothing after. Along the way we grow from child to a big one and then from big being we turn back to be a small one again. We gain few things and then lose few others. We get some happiness and at times lose some joy. We also add up and subtract sorrows during the life time. We add and subtract friends, relatives and other things in the due course of our lives.

Our birth also happens with plus and minus chromosomes. Some of us are males and others are females. There are haves and have-nots, poor and the rich. We never stay the same, we either keep gaining or losing something in life, be it age, happiness, people or things. That is the dynamism of this world and that is the name of the game, the life. Those who stay put, are stagnant, stale or bored, no matter what situation they are in, good or bad. We need dynamism, change and movement in life that’s what defines events, opportunities and progress.

Fact of the matter is that we cannot avoid these pluses and minuses in life since it’s out of our control, whether they be for good or bad. We can only strive to make a difference which we should, but probably we gonna succeed to a certain level. The lesson we should have learned from this life is that it’s dynamic and ever-changing so we should adapt to it rather than expecting that it will adapt to our aspirations, and we can’t depend upon the miracles. This world can’t be Heaven because it’s not. Let’s be realistic, let’s face it and let’s live our life happily and nicely as much as possible!!

Dimensions of Beauty

There are many dimensions to beauty, like features, manners, knowledge, looks, color, voice, character, luster, power and others which we don’t know of. We fall for something or someone if it has any one of the attributes of beauty. Many people become crazy and lose their senses if they just find any one of these attributes in a person. If there are more than one such attributes in a person or thing, the attraction and madness for that multiplies.

Beauty starts with simple things; common people possessing simple attributes. Then slowly it progresses into a more sophisticated version of beauty with added attributes which can be acquired with time. As the number of attributes or dimensions of beauty in a person increase, he or she becomes so enticing, magical and pervasive that he/she attracts people like a magnet. Great people have always attracted masses because they had those attributes and elements of beauty in them.

Leaders, saints, spiritual personalities, thinkers, teachers, guides and people who influence others, had as much power and control as much they had attributes of beauty in them. There are few people who possess extra-ordinary dimensions of beauty and to see and feel such a beauty one has to pay attention to and appreciate that. Such was the case with prophets who possessed extra-ordinary knowledge, wisdom, vision, talk, ideas and attributes which are not found in common people.

Sufi Shah Lateef describes the beauty of the prophet like this:”When he looked with his mesmerizing eyes, the Sun dimmed and the Moon shrunk; stars and galaxies felt the intensity of the glow, and the pearls turned pale before his beauty!”)

کَڻِي نيڻَ خُمارَ مان، جان ڪيائون نازُ نَظَرُ؛

سُورجَ شاخُون جَھڪِيُون، ڪُوماڻو قَمَرُ؛

تارا ڪَتِيُون تائِب ٿيا، ديکِيندي دِلبَرُ؛

جَھڪو ٿيو جَوهَرُ، جانِبَ جي جَمالَ سين

Greed and Lust

Almost all of the man-made suffering can be attributed to greed and lust. Greed is an unending want of material things and the lust is unending want of non-material things. Always looking for more and better things is not a sin or crime, rather a sign of progress. But when we start hurting others and when we turn from human beings into selfish beings, that results in human suffering. When we work very hard to achieve those things, it only could hurt ourselves, but when we start crossing the moral limits then we start hurting other people which is not acceptable.

From our personal lives to the public affairs, we experience greed and lust. We fall into it because of the want of things like: luxury, power, superiority, peace of mind, body needs etc. We become greedy and lustful because we think that worldly things will make us happy and satisfied. We think so because we are short-sighted and don’t see the big picture. This is understandable because we are part of a small planet which is so tiny that it is invisible in this universe and on top of that our mind and knowledge is limited by our senses.

What make us truly happy are actually the ideas not the things. This becomes clearer when eventually we achieve every possible material thing; we then realize, that is not it. We need material things only for our survival in this world. As far as the real joy and peace of mind is concerned, that only comes from ideas, and we are part of a big idea. As big of an idea we have, more happy we would be. If we are narrow-minded, our world would be a limited and shrunken one even if we have many things. Our mind would still feel that we don’t have enough, which results in the want of more, resulting in greed and lust.

Dead and Alive

There are different forms of the matter which make things alive or dead. In reality it is the awareness which determines how alive or dead a thing is. Apparently an stone is the least alive thing, where as a person may be considered the most alive object in this world. What if the awareness of both is the same!! then probably there is no difference. There are people who are very much akin to dead things because they don’t have feelings, knowledge or any awareness.

Some people are more aware and some are less. The more awareness we have, more alive we are. If we don’t have any feelings then we are dead, even though we may be walking and talking. This life gives us more senses than non-living things to feel and realize the truth and our own self. We are more aware than animals and animals are probably more aware than plants. But how aware we are? we don’t know. Do we have all the senses to see and realize every thing?

Sufi Shah Latif said that those who died before death, won’t cease to exist with the death; and those who lived before they were born, they will always be alive.

مَرڻا اڳي جي مُئا سي مَرِي ٿيندا نه ماتِ

هوندا سي حياتِ جِيڻا اڳي جي جِيا

Life is the realization of truth and death is un-awareness of the same. We just run into the cycles of life and death based upon our level of awareness of the reality. Some know a little, some know more and there are those who know it all. Those who know everything are never dead. If we can’t find truth, we keep rotating in the cycle of life and death. The refinement process goes on till we are purified to enter the Heaven or in the Sufi terms, achieve the eternity.