PLACE FOR ACTION, PLACE FOR RESULTS
Spirituality means building a divine personality in this world, so one can be truly successful in the world to come, by obtaining a place in Paradise in the period of life after death.
This world is where an individual engages in actions, and the Hereafter is the place where he will receive the fruits of his actions. A concise and initial portion of a person’s life is spent in this world. And then, he is taken to the next world, where, according to his actions, he will get a place either in Paradise or live in eternal deprivation.
In this scheme of things, the present world is a place for the test. An examination hall is always for tests, not for enjoying the results. A student who seeks to build an ideal world for himself in the examination hall will fail to do so. The person who wants to make an eternal palace of joy in this world will not obtain his goal—because the present world has not been made for this purpose.
Wise is he who understands this difference and performs righteous actions in this world, hoping for God’s blessings in the Hereafter.
In this matter, an intelligent person adopts the same principle as a student. When a student sits in an examination hall, he focuses all his attention on answering his test paper correctly. He does not attempt to build the palace of his dreams there.
Building a Divine Personality
An understanding of God’s creation plan should govern man’s relation to this world and the Hereafter. According to this, man has to spend a brief life before death preparing for the Hereafter in order to obtain a world of eternal joy in the period of life after death. One who discovers God and builds a divine personality while living in this world of tests will find himself in eternal Paradise. When a heedless person enters the next world, he will find that this heedlessness cannot be compensated for. He will face eternal deprivation as he will not be able to return to the present world and be given a chance to live again.
Spirituality is about training oneself for the world that will come after death. Spirituality is about building a divine personality. Through spirituality, a person makes himself so capable of developing a divine personality within oneself that he can genuinely succeed in the world that comes after death. Spirituality is the crux or gist of religion. Spirituality is the training ground where people develop a divine personality to obtain a place in Paradise in the period of life after death.
Spiritual Progress
What is spiritual progress? Spiritual progress is another name for bringing about divine awakening in one’s inner personality. For example, physical food makes a man’s physical body healthy. Similarly, through spiritual ‘food’, in the form of specific sublime experiences, called Rizq-e-rab (Provision of the Lord) in the Quran, man’s spiritual being is made healthy.
It was July 16, 2004. There was a power cut, and the ceiling fan had stopped. I was sitting in my room in severe heat. I stayed in that condition for a long time, till finally the electricity resumed and the fan started moving.
This was a moment of sudden experience for me. The fan began to move, and my body felt cool. I felt as if suddenly the period of trouble had ended, and the period of comfort had arrived. At that time, I remembered a tradition of the Prophet in which it is said that the world is like a prison for the believer. When a believer’s death comes, he will suddenly find himself in the gardens of Paradise. The trouble-filled stage of life in this world will suddenly get over, and the age of comfortable life will begin at that moment.
The divine feelings hidden in my nature arose when the above incident happened. A material occurrence got converted into a spiritual experience. My heart prayed that God might bless me in just the same way. When I depart from the world, may it be like moving from a period of trouble and entering a period of comfort and peace!
Spirituality is an intellectual journey that lifts man from a material world and transports him to a world of meaningfulness. This journey happens at the inner level. Other people do not visibly see this journey happening, but the spiritual traveller himself experiences it deeply.
Spirituality makes a person an actual human being. If a person’s life is bereft of spirituality, there is no difference between him and a beast.
