Self-Knowledge Through Suffering

Bismi-Llah, Al-Rahmani, Al-Rahim. Allahumma salli 'ala Muhammadin wa Aali Muhammad. Assalamu alaykum to everyone who may be tuning in to this video, and greetings as well to anyone who may be tuning in. This is going to be just a few reflections to continue with the discussion on embarking on our spiritual path.

In the previous few videos, I have talked about how a lot of the texts that have been written by mystics, focus really upon the ecstatic encounter with the Divine, and this is seen as the ideal goal to reach, or we could say even the ideal experience to have in relation to the Divine. There are some theories that this idea of annihilation in Allah, otherwise known as fana', or fana' fi Illah, may have derived from the Greek idea of an ecstatic encounter with the Divine that was called Henosis, excuse me if I am not pronouncing it correctly.

So there is a lot to look into with regard to the concept of Fana'. It has entered into the Islamic mystical and spiritual tradition and has been considered by many as a part of that tradition. But it seems that Fana' was only really mentioned with an attachment to that concept of annihilation in Allah around the time of the minor occultation, and inshaAllah, hopefully, I will go into that more later. I will try to provide the references for that below this video.

Of course, the words 'Fana' have been mentioned by the Ahl Al-Bayt and the Imams of Ahl Al-Bayt, alayhum as-salam. But whether the term 'Fana' was used with the same idea behind it, as it was used later on during the time of the minor occultation, when the Sufi tradition really began to take off, that needs some very, very careful discussion and consideration and weighing up.

Like I was saying, a lot of these texts, they focus upon, of course, the struggle of the soul, the Jihad an-Nafs, and the journey towards perfection. And once the human being has reached this state of perfection, then when they have this ecstatic encounter with Allah. So what happens if you don't have an ecstatic encounter with Allah? Does that mean that you are not worthy? Does that mean that you are not close to Allah? Does that mean that you are not a master of the path like these masters or these people were considered?

What has struck me over the years, like I have said in previous videos, is that, yes, these itineraries written by these people who say they have had an ecstatic encounter with the Divine. Yes, they do say that the journey towards the Divine is perilous. The most perilous thing on this journey towards the Divine is the ego of the person who's going on that journey, the Nafs, the soul, the desires of the human being. And this can create many obstacles for the person, or it can even completely derail them from this path. So all the masters of the path, they say that this path towards Allah, towards the Divine, is full of challenges and perils. But like I said, what they don't do is to highlight in detail what you do when you are going through one of these difficult stages.

I am sure most people watching this video will probably feel that they have more difficult stages in their lives than ecstatic encounters with the Divine. We are living in very spiritually dark times. There is a lot of confusion around. There is a lot of anger. There is a lot of hysteria. There is a lot of fear because people don't know who exactly is in control, who exactly is controlling or generating crowd reactions to certain events. We are finding out on social media, and in media in general, that there are many psy-ops, psychological operations being played out on global populations So we don't exactly know where the truth lies.

What is the truth? There is a lot of discussion about this, and this creates a lot of psychological stress. It is difficult for adults to deal with it. I really don't know how the younger generations deal with it. People under 20, I really don't know how they deal with the stresses of today. If you are under 20, and you are watching this, I will be interested to know what you think of the era in which you are growing up in today. I was going to talk about finding knowledge in the darkness, finding knowledge in loss.

So rather than focusing on this journey towards the Divine that is said to be the journey towards perfection, and this ecstatic encounter with the Divine, there is instead, like as it has taught by the suffering of the 'Ahl Al-Bayt, the family of the Holy Prophet, in fact, the Holy Prophet and his family, may Allah's blessings be upon them all. There is within their suffering a teaching.

I have had, again, like I said, people ask me, why did they suffer in the way that they did? Why did Allah make it for them not to be able to become the rulers that they should have become? Why was there so much suffering and difficulty involved in their lives? And one teaching that I have taken away from this, especially from the suffering of the Ahl Al-Bayt, alayhum as-salam. One teaching that I have taken away from their suffering is that the Self, the true Self does not lie within suffering. What we see in the teachings of the Ahl Al-Bayt, alayhum as-salam, is that they were speaking from a part of themselves that had transcended the difficulties that they were experiencing, the suffering that they were experiencing. At the same time, there is a knowing to be gained from the suffering that you experience.

There is the presence of the Divine within what feels like the absence of the Divine. Many people who are going through struggles, and pains, and difficulties breakdown of marriage, illness, loss of business, loss of house, war, famine, unexpected difficulties that might completely throw someone's life into a direction that they never imagined. All of these things can sometimes make people think, well, where is Allah? I am feeling lost. I am feeling confused. I am feeling in need of help. I am at sea. I am particularly with those who are suffering from emotional exhaustion. Emotional exhaustion can make people feel that they have entered into a very long, dark tunnel. That is emotional exhaustion. And that can take two, three, four, if not more years to recover from. So where is Allah in all this?

People going through that will feel like, well, I am far from having an ecstatic encounter with the Divine. All I feel is that I am just struggling to get through this swamp. I feel like I am walking through this murky swamp that seems to have no end. And on top of that, I feel like there is no one around who can really help me. So on top of that experience, I am also feeling totally alone in that experience. There is within that experience of emotional exhaustion or the breakdown of our preconceptions, the shattering of our hopes, the complete redirection of our lives in ways that we may not have foreseen that can create a sense of shock.

There is within that, knowledge. There is knowledge within that sense of being in a dark tunnel, walking through a dark swamp. And there is a lesson within that. That experience is speaking to us and communicating to us. So rather than fighting it or feeling like you are somehow a failure on the spiritual path or feeling like, Oh, I am a mess and I need to get my life together. Or feeling like I thought I knew which direction I was going in, but life has shown me how wrong I was. Can I trust myself? Can I trust my judgment? Can I trust other people around me? Can I trust Allah? Some people have reached that point where they say, I have to confess, I feel I can't even trust God.

So there is within all that, like I said, a communication that is coming from the Divine. So the communication from the Divine is not in the way that we would expect, which might be through feeling blissed, blissed out. We have plenty of videos on YouTube, people feeling blissed out because they are doing their meditation, and they are doing their mantras, or they are doing their Dhikr or so on. And this feeling of blissed out makes them feel like they are close to Allah, they are close to the Divine.

But we can also be close to the Divine within, like I said, When this experience of turning within, questioning the Self, when life is turned upside down, which is the phrase I was looking for earlier, when life is turned upside down, and you are not even the person you thought you were. That is the opportunity to dive into the experience of knowledge. And we do that through intention. You make an intention that I am turning within, and I am going to delve deeply within myself, and contemplate upon the depths of myself, in order to discover, in order to discover the me that I didn't know before, or the aspect of myself that I didn't know before. I am going to go within to contemplate upon the situation that I have found myself in, to examine my thinking, to examine the way I respond to different situations in life, to examine whether all these little micro decisions and thoughts that I have had in my life may have led me into this situation.

This is not to blame anybody, but this is rather to say that our thought patterns and our behaviour patterns and our intentions affect situations that we end up in or how we respond to those situations. So periods of what seem to be like spiritual darkness, periods of emotional and psychological exhaustion, are times in which one can turn within, and listen to what our soul is telling us, and to listen to what the situation is telling us as well. So gaining knowledge comes from listening to the message that we can intuitively sense or pick up from a situation that we are in.

So this is just some thoughts that I am having in June 2020, just slightly after lockdown. And InshaAllah, I will be loading up more videos. Thank you for watching. As-salam 'alaykum.