The Sunday Guardian | December 01, 2024

There is no set course for attaining realization of God. It is not that one who begs for it will automatically achieve realization. Such thinking is a diminution of realization of God. The truth is that realization is a creative process. It takes an original mind to attain God-realization. Realization is a tempestuous experience. One achieves such realization through personal discovery. What is achieved through the utterance of ritual formulae may induce some kind of psychological state but it cannot be true God-realization. The realization of a God Who “manifests Himself in a new state every day” (55:29) cannot be had by blindly following any particular set course.

What is called creative thinking in secular terms is, in religious terms, called ijtihadi or creative thinking. Ijtihadi or creative thinking means discovering the hidden meaning in the statements of the Quran. The discovery of such meaning is possible only through ijtihadi or creative thinking. This same thinking opens the door to an elevated realization of God.

The Quran tells us that it has been revealed as a divine book, so that one may ponder over its verses. (38:29) This reflection based on such contemplation is the other name for God-realization. In the attainment of creative realization, the Quran has the status of a book of guidance. The basic principle of realization has been laid down in the Quran. To discover the hidden meaning by contemplation in consonance with this basic principle is a matter of individual judgement. The door of elevated realization opens through this creative process.

Source: Discovering God