Response to Walter

Submitted by Shazia Khanum (Canada), Sep 23, 2005 at 09:38

Walter, Muslims believe that the Qur`an today is the same as the one Muhammad left behind.

I for one respect the views of those who disagree with the above statement and understand why they reject it.

Things got messed up mainly because man has within him an entity what we call the self. The self can reflect a spectrum of many patterns and degrees. Here is the range:

Lowest ---------------- Highest

with shades of gray.

At the lowest end, the self is the most treacherous and tyrant and acts on selfish motives. At the highest, it is in unific equilibrium and awakened, and reflects the light that emanates from the soul. My personal understanding is that while the Qur`an has been preserved, many who became Muslims at the time of the Prophet quickly succumbed to the lower patterns of their self and created a situation that was totally out of balance.

Three of the community leaders, Umar, Usman and Ali, were assassinated and those who took powers did not reflect the above-mentioned prophetic light. But they needed some legitimacy to rule since there were many pious people who did have some influence on the masses. And in order to provide legitimacy, they concocted many statements and attributed them to the Prophet Muhammad.

Walter, it is not an easy task for an individual and society to train the self so it reflects the highest of the qualities: selfless-ness, lack of arrogance, lack of self-worship, absence of revenge, forgiveness, compassion, justice, etc. The temptations to go the other way are too many. Controlling the ego and acting out of it is not easy.

Having said this, there is knowledge (as opposed to "information") that has been passed on from one heart to the other in what are called in Arabic, Khaniqahs -- a sanctuary where the Sufi masters teach self-knowledge, transmit light reflecting off of their hearts.
This type of khaniqah set up is not exclusive to the Muslims. Followers of other paths have them too. As a matter of fact, self-knowledge is not exclusive to Sufi Islam. It's universal. This is alluded to in the saying of Ibn 'Arabi, which I have quoted and commented on in another post, and for which the traditionalists, traditionists, the Wahhabis, the Salafis, and other literalists condemn him.

Walter, the faith is universal and is within us already. Every human has access to it as each one of us has an entity called ruH (spirit; soul) that reflects the Reality and shines its light on to the self. All one needs to do is to remove the veils from the self so it mimics the highest qualities that the soul is shining upon it. The soul (spirit) and the self are like the sun and the moon. When the self is not covered with arrogance, self-ego, and other coverings, it has no choice but to shine the light that is coming to it from the soul. Sadly, this cosmology is lost to many Muslims, who collectively are in darkness today. We see this darkness in places where the Muslims are in majority.

Since everyone has the potential to succumb to her lower self, even Sufis are prone to it. This happens to those who are not watchful and start worshipping themselves.

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