Reflections
of Peerless Men
Letter 155
Apercu
Discussion
Join
My Dear, whoever is
preoccupied with the past is acting out of privation and whoever is
preoccupied with what has not yet come (future) is acting out of
pretension and whoever is preoccupied with his own ‘present’ is acting
out of significant spiritual meaning; this was supported by the
pages (scriptures) of Prophet Ibrahim peace be upon him, “And this is in the Books of the earliest
(Revelation)—The Books of Abraham and Moses.” (Koran [87:18-19])
[1]
End.
Apercu
“If we take eternity to mean
not infinite temporal duration but timelessness, then eternal life
belongs to those who live in the present.” (6.4311, Tractatus
Logico-Philosophicus by Wittgenstein)
In Sufism two universes are
recognized. First, the Azal (Sempiternity) that is an eternal timeless
causeless endless and beginning-less realm often referred to as the
other
universe or the Hereafter. Second, the Mohdath, our world, which is
this
causal nascent transient and temporal universe with a beginning and an
end. Azal is not an infinite Mohdath as was astutely noted by
Wittgenstein.
Azal (Sempiternity)—where we
came from and where we are returned to, lacking discernible “before
& after” is in perpetual present. Our true nature is comforted in
abeyance in the present and troubled by both the memories of the past
and the anxieties
of the future.
Mohdath—where we are drowned
in finite nascence & transience, may be likened to a motion picture
i.e.
the sequenced frames of video are caused one after the other to appear
in our presence. As both Sheikh Ardestani & Wittgenstein noted, the
eternality of spiritual meaning and the everlasting escape from this
temporal life are offered to those who live solely focused on the
present.
The latter occurs when we ‘pause’
the video of life, and look for meaning in between the frames. All the
practices such as Dhikr (Remembrance), fasting, Ifteqār (Self imposed
poverty), Solitude, Silence and so on, are in order for us to pause and
focus on the
present.
If you carefully read Ardestani's
letter you see that he talks about “his own present”. Our past is
inexorably shared with others, our future is only certain as far as the
linkage with others but there is a ‘place’ within the present, if
unearthed, it allows being-ness without anyone or anything not even
one's own
Self.
[1] At
first, I did not get the application of these two verses of Koran. I
was not sure how Ardestani linked these two verses to the concept until
I read the previous two verses:
“Nay
(behold), ye prefer the life of this
world; But the Hereafter is better and more enduring.” (Koran
[87:16-17])
We prefer to regurgitate the
past and worry about the future making our Self ill with stress and
excessive precautions, yet we know for certain this world is temporal.
We observe the ceaseless biological blight & withering and we
observe the unnumbered Supernovas & Stellar collisions yet we see
nothing!
Everlasting is that other
universe the Azal (Sempiternity)! Indeed the focus and the meaning of
the ‘present’ here is the Ishārat (Hint, Pointing)
at the other world. Follow along the vector of the present and soon you
shall see the light from the Azal (Sempiternity). And this was
mentioned to Abraham & Moses…
©
2007-2002, Dara O. Shayda, Dr. Hind Rifai
