Realization of God

Realization of God, maarifah is the essence of religion. God-realization is the spirit of Islam, it is the life of Islam. It makes one’s Islam a living thing. The action done with God-realization is like a green tree, whereas any action without God-realization is like dried up wood. Islam begins with the discovery or realization, maarifah of the existence of God and the realization of one’s relation with God. Another name for this discovery is faith, iman in God. Whenever one receives this kind of faith, it necessarily begins to express itself in his life. One’s thinking, one’s speech, one’s behaviour, one’s worship, everything is a reflection or an expression of this discovery. The truth is that one’s level of God’s realization equals one’s Islam, and the level of one’s conscious discovery equals the level of one’s external action.