Spiritual Progress
What is spiritual progress? Spiritual progress is another name for a spiritual awakening in one’s internal personality. Material food makes one’s physical body healthy. Similarly, the spiritual existence of a person becomes healthy through such refinements as are called spiritual divine food. (The Quran, 20:131)
It was July 16, 2004. It was a very hot day in Delhi. The light went off for a long period in the afternoon. The ceiling fan stopped. I sat in my room in that heat of July. For a long time I stayed in this condition. Finally the light came back on and the fan started functioning.
It was a sudden experience. The moment the fan started rotating the body cooled down. It seemed as though the hour of distress had come to an end and comfort had been restored. At that time, I was reminded of two traditions of the Prophet of Islam in which it is spelled out that the world for a believer is a place of great difficulty or distress. (Sahih Muslim, Hadith No. 2956) But when the believer leaves this world after death, he will find himself all of a sudden in the gardens of Paradise. (Sunan Ibn Majah, Hadith No. 4262) The difficult worldly life of afflictions will all of a sudden come to an end, and exactly at the same time the phase of comfort of the afterlife will begin.
When I had this experience, the latent spiritual feelings hidden in nature were awakened. A material event had transformed into a spiritual event. These words came to my lips: “May God do the same for me when the time comes for me to leave the world.” Then it should be a moment when all of a sudden it is akin to leaving a period of affliction and entering into a period of comfort.
Spirituality is indeed an intellectual journey, a journey which takes one from materialism to a world of meaning. This journey takes place at the internal level. Others are not apparently able to see or understand this journey, but the traveller feels it deeply. Spirituality makes one a human being. The person whose life is devoid of spirituality, is no different from the animals.
