Mystical and Ghazali’s views on
Future World
NOTE-- Islamic tradition considers
Imam Al-Ghazali (1058-1111 AD) to be a
Mujadid, a re-newer of the faith-- who according to the prophetic
Hadith, appears once every century to restore the faith of the Ummah ("the
Islamic Community"). His works were so highly acclaimed by his
contemporaries that al-Ghazali was awarded the honorific title "Proof of
Islam" (Hujjat al-Islam).
"As you die continually[1]
when living, so do you live continually when dead; if not in this body, then in
the body of another form. But you continue to live in a body until dissolved in
God, which is to say until you overcome all change. The law of time is
repetition. What once occurred in time is bound to re-occur again and again; the
intervals, in the case of man, maybe long or brief depending on the intensity
of each man's desire and will for repetition. When you pass out of the cycle
known as life into the cycle known as death, and carry with you thirst
unquenched for the Earth and hungers unappeased for her passions, then will the
magnet of the Earth draw you again to her bosom. And the Earth shall suckle
you, and time shall wean your life after life, and death after death until you
wean yourself, once and for all, of your own will and accord".
Mirdad's
endorsement that ---You continue to live until dissolved in God" reasserts
Ghazali's understanding that there is an existence of a future world.
In Islamic
thought, there is a frequent mention of "Jannat" and
"Jahannam" for pleasures and painful experiences before the stage of
Maqam-e Haq.
Jannat is
Paradise, where those who have been good go. It is described in the Qur'an as
"gardens of pleasure" (Qur'an 31:8). Muslims believe they get to
Paradise by living religiously, asking Allah for forgiveness, and showing good
actions in their life. These good actions will be rewarded on the Last Day.
There are said
to be seven hells mentioned in Quran. Interestingly, the name Jahannm is used
both for hell as a whole and for one of the layers. Every layer is assigned to
a different group of denizens.
In Christianity, hells and heavens are
indicated to punish and reward the souls before they enter the "Kingdom of
God". In Vedic philosophy, they are referred to as Swarg or Narak before the soul can ascend to
the state of Brahm and Par-Brahm.
Saint Thomas
Aquinas answers the question, "Where do souls go after death"?
And since a
place is assigned to souls in keeping with their reward or punishment, as soon
as the soul is set free from the body, it is either plunged into hell or soars
to heaven, unless it is held back by some debt, for which its flight must need
be delayed until the soul is first of all cleansed. ... Sometimes venial sin,
though needed, first of all, to be cleansed, is an obstacle to the receiving of
the reward; the result being that the reward is delayed.
Guru Nanak Sahib
has explained the state of God in pre-creation and post-creation stages ( SGGS
PAGE 1035). First, "For endless eons, there was only utter darkness. There
was no earth or sky; there was only the infinite Command of His Hukam".
Then in the second state, when He created the universe-- He created Brahma,
Vishnu, and Shiva; He fostered enticement and attachment to Maya. In Jap Ji
(stanza22 SGGS page 5), Guru Nanak Sahib says -- There are nether worlds
beneath nether worlds, and hundreds of thousands of heavenly worlds above.
Additionally, in Jap Ji stanza 20, "you shall harvest what you plant. By
the Hukam of God's command, O Nanak, we come and go in reincarnation.
Mystically and
spiritually, the existence of the future world is an evidential statement.
Since it is beyond most ordinary people's understanding, Ghazali applies the
logic of denial till it is proven. Many astrologers predict what they don't
know with some probability. The chances of proving right and wrong both ways
are 50%. Some enchanters give charm to people with the thought of positivity of
auto-suggestion that their problems will be resolved. They get a hope of
relieving themselves from the predicaments.
Ghazali likewise
suggests letting the sincere seekers believe in the idea of the future life for
the time being, even with a half-baked faith in him. They might benefit if his
ideas are proven right.
When a man
realizes this world is a stage in the journey, the purpose of his coming here
is to attain the knowledge and love of God. When he experiences the
understanding of God, he is delivered from all pain and sorrow of repetitive
lives. As the Holy Bible mentions, he obtains rest and spiritual union in the
future world or attains everlasting life or eternal life.
The ninth Sikh
Guru also mentions (SGGS page1427) – "Like a dream and a show, so is this
world, you must know. None of this is true, O Nanak without God[2]."
A dream is non-reality, though understood as reality. This game of illusion
cannot be appreciated till God-realization dawns.
Mystics define
the process of "die to live" while in the human body to relish the
nectar of immortality or everlasting life. Hazrat Sultan Bahu says in one of
his couplets[3] –
"Those who realize the secret of God die before death and find everlasting
life". On the concept of Die to
Live, the book of Mirdad mentions a brief conversation between Mirdad and his
disciple Bennoon
"Mirdad: When one is dead to change, then one is born
to changelessness. Most men live to die. Happy are they who die to live[4].
Bennoon: Yet
dear is man's identity to man. How shall he sink in God and still be aware of
his identity?
Mirdad: Is it a
loss for the brook to be lost in the Sea and thus be aware of itself as the
Sea? For Man to lose his identity in God is but to lose his shadow and find the
shadow-less essence of his being.
Ghazali explains
"Die to Live" in his style— it happens that when a person becomes
breathless and is entranced, as sometimes happens in the first exercises among
the Sufis, he has a delightful vision of the state after death, notwithstanding
the animal spirit continues in the enjoyment of health. Yet if, while in that
state, fear and terror should predominate and deprive him of feeling and
motion, and if he becomes so far like the dead that he perceives no external
object, the same things may be revealed to him which are revealed to others
after death. After he returns from that state to the sensible world, it is
sometimes permitted that all he has seen should remain in his memory or that if
he does not remember it, traces of it should remain in his mind. He would
retain traces of despair, sadness, heaviness of spirit, suspicion, and
melancholy if he saw hell. If he has preserved these traces in the treasury of
his imagination, it is lawful for him to communicate them to others.
OPERATION OF THE
SOUL IN THIS AND FUTURE WORLDS
Ghazali writes--
There is a mystery regarding the future world, which the holy law has not
authorized to be explained or mentioned because it could not possibly be
understood. It is not named either in the Koran or in the Traditions. God
commanded the prophets not to inform the people of the essence of his
attributes, saying, "for they will not understand them, will accuse you of
falsehood, and will do injury to themselves."
Notwithstanding
the above, Ghazali attempted to elaborate in his inimitable manner the
functioning of the soul that operates in this world and future world. He has
divided the soul's operation into two functionalities: the "animal"
spirit's aspect, and the other is the "human" spirit.
He explains that
the nature of the soul is like a horse rider (human spirit), sitting on the
stallion (animal spirit) and moving towards the attainment of its target.
Should the (a) horse die on the way without achieving the objective, the rider
must be dismounted and look for another steed to fulfill that objective to
continue the journey. Or (b) if the horse and the rider attain the target, the
journey ends, then both are welcome there and rest in peace.
The combination
of horse (animal spirit) and the rider (human spirit) symbolize the journey of
the soul for God-realization in which there are multiple stages where the
phenomenal world and celestial domains intervene or act obstructionist as hells
or heavens for painful or joyous experiences, riddled with reincarnations in
various forms and bodies. The law is human spirit (the rider) must complete the
destined expedition, even if the animal spirit (the horse) must be changed
several times. Thus the human soul(s) has to adapt itself in other forms and
bodies, in the broad canvas of time and space, until it gets dissolved in God.
If we closely examine, we note that the being
is constantly mutating right from the fertilization in the embryo. Then, from
the new born baby to the boy, young man, mature individual, older man, and
older adult, the change is a continuous process where the old form is
constantly enveloped by a new form, while the old form withers away. Only the
soul, the micro-God, is the fundamental entity enclosed in the changing formats
of different bodies of men and other beings.
Animal spirit
and Human spirit
The seat of the
animal spirit of the soul is the human heart of flesh on the left side of the
body, whose pulsations facilitate the functionalities of all parts of the human
body, limbs, brain, eyes, ears, mouth to ensure its connectivity with the
physical world. The physician or a doctor can access knowledge about its
activities, diseases, and cure. It may
be compared to a lamp carried within a cottage, the light of which falls upon
the walls wherever it goes. The heart is the lamp's wick, and when the supply
is cut off for any reason, the lamp dies. Such is the death of the animal
spirit. The cause that throws a human constitution out of balance, such
occasion is the call of the Angel of death, a creature of God. Most persons
merely know his name.
The second kind
of spirit, the human spirit (and spiritual Heart is at the third eye), is not a
body susceptible to division. It is the seat of the knowledge of God. In the
heart of an enlightened man, there is a "window opening", so that he
knows, not by hearsay or traditional belief, but by experience, what produces
wretchedness or happiness in the soul just as clearly and decidedly as the
physician knows what produces sickness or health in the body.
Ghazali
amplifies--We thus possess two classes of qualities or attributes. One class of
the animal includes those resulting from the union existing between the body
and the spirit, viz: hunger, thirst, sleep, eating, and drinking. These
qualities become useless at death. The other human includes qualities belonging
solely to your human spirits, such as the knowledge of God and the love of God,
and the qualities that tend to secure these two, like gratitude, submission,
and supplication. These are qualities of yourself, which do not pass away with
death, but on the contrary, their fruits will be ever-growing and developing.
The human spirit is angelic and must therefore mingle with the original
Macro-God. If the world's influences operate with such power that you are
separated from your original spirit, then we will have to endure the torment of
separation and misery.
If a man is
paralyzed in an unconscious state, his animal spirit is said to cease
functioning appropriately. His attachments to the earth and material
possessions keep him in the body, which appears to be painful for other
relatives and other observers depending upon their attachment with that person.
However, his human spirit is still working within him, which keeps him alive
with other noble God-wards attributes that he may have cherished in life. An
individual lives in two dimensions depending upon the working of the dual
operations of the soul. The one is the external appearance, and the other is
the inner working of the unknown plane.
Death is not the
demolition of the totality of the body, as noted by observers, but merely
disintegration of five elements into their sources. The world is called
"village of the dead" at the level of human consciousness, but
metaphysically, it is bound to cast itself in another mold as per karmic
retribution. In that case, the human spirit ( horse rider) acquires a new
animal spirit (stallion) of a body commensurate with the onward journey in this
or other worlds.
WHAT HAPPENS AT
THE END OF HUMAN LIFE
Alluding to the
allegory of the horse and the horse rider, if a horse runs arbitrarily--
sometimes in the right or wrong direction-- and the rider is unable to control
the antics of the stallion willingly or unwillingly. He will also have to face
the corresponding consequences after the death of the horse (animal spirit). In
Sant Mat's philosophy, expectations and unfulfilled desires are called
"Sinchit Karma" or the "Stored Karmas". The following
configuration or the birth of the animal spirit will be carved out as Pralabdh
karma, from the hopes and expectations of the previous births (also called
Sanskaras) that are warehoused or stored. In contrast, the rest of the warehoused
Karma will remain in stock for future lives till dissolved in God. The next
form of a horse or the animal spirit will then continue to take the human
spirit forward or backward in the creation, depending on the pull of this or
the future worlds.
The terminal
desires or the cravings of an individual, which are the essence of his life at
the time of death, may not entitle to a human birth( or that is to say the same
mold or form the animal spirit. But the one where he can satiate his worldly
wishes to his satisfaction. In SGGS (page 526),[5]
there is the description by the Saint Trilochan as to how this law operates –
"At the
very last moment, one who thinks of wealth, and dies in such thoughts, shall be
reincarnated over and over again, in the form of serpents. O sister, do not
forget the Name of the Lord of the Universe. At the very last moment, he who
thinks of women, and dies in such thoughts, shall be reincarnated over and over
again as a prostitute. At the very last moment, one who thinks of his children,
and dies in such thoughts, shall be reincarnated over and over again as a pig.
At the very last moment, one who thinks of mansions, and dies in such thoughts,
shall be reincarnated over and over again as a goblin. At the very last moment,
one who thinks of the Lord, and dies in such thoughts, says Trilochan, that man
shall be liberated; the Lord shall abide in his heart".
From what has
been said, it follows that it is not necessary for the resurrection and
restoration that the spirit should possess precisely the original mold. This
mold changes even in this world. As further elaboration, if a person has
consumed or killed fifty chickens in his life, it may not be construed that the
individual must be cast into the mold of reincarnation of fifty chickens. The
Karmic Doctrine must ensure that the person is cast in a mold and manner that
he suffers the pain and agony equivalent to the extermination of fifty
chickens.
Ghazali writes
that many questions may be asked of those who say that the identical mold must
return and rise in the resurrection and that its absence can be tolerated in no
wisdom. They will find much difficulty in answering them. For example, one may
ask if one man eats another man, and the man eaten becomes a portion of the man
who ate him, will that portion rise with the eater or with the man who was
eaten?
Again, suppose
the hand of a thief has been cut off, and he afterward leads a life of good
works and enters Paradise. Must he enter Paradise, where nothing maimed, or
defective can enter, without his hand, or will he enter with his hand,
notwithstanding his good works were not performed when he possessed that hand?
Concerning the
blessed spirits, God says, "Think not that those who have been slain on
the divine road are dead: they are alive near their Lord and are sustained by
him." Regarding miserable spirits, the apostle of God came to infidels who
had been slain in the battle of Bader[6],
and called upon each by name, and said, "O ! such a one, son of such a
one, I have found the victory and triumph which my Lord promised. And you, have
you found that latter end and torment of which the Lord assured you, or have
you not found it ?. His honored companions, having remarked to him, "they
are dead, and how can they hear and how can they speak ?" The glory of the
world replied, "By the truth of God who has commissioned me to be a true
prophet, they are better able to hear than yourselves. There is only this
difference that they are not able to answer."
In brief, whoever
will study carefully the verses of the Koran, the Traditions and recollections
that have reached us respecting death, and will consider the well-substantiated
accounts of the movements of the dead in graveyards. He will know, in a manner
that should remove all doubt, that the dead do not become non-existent.
TORMENTS OF
GRAVE
The implied
understanding of "Torments of Grave" is meant to describe the painful
experiences of those attached to this world.
The prophet of
God said: "the world is the prison of the believer and the paradise of the
infidel." There are different degrees of such torments. It is in
proportion to each person's affection and love for the world and will come upon
some with great severity. Ghazali explains that pain in this world results from
an accident or incident of the body that passes from the body to the spirit.
Thus the spirit participates in the torment. But in the future world, the pain
has its home in the spirit itself, and hence it is excruciating.
WHO EXPERIENCES
THE PAIN OF WORLDLY SEPARATIONS IN THE FUTURE WORLD?
Assuming a
person sells his obedient slave to another man. After the sale transaction, he
feels that the slave was indeed very loving, genuinely loved him, and feels the
agony of separation from him like the stinging of the snake. The slave is
symbolic of this world, and the separation is the body's death. But the soul
carries the torment of the separation. The said soul is bound to reincarnate
from the future world to this world (slave) to get relief from the torture of
separation. Such is the effect of this world on the soul. It suffers in the
future world for the sake of attachment to this transitory creation.
Ghazali explains
that every sinner thus carries the instruments of his punishment beyond death.
Holy Quran says –"Verily you shall see hell; you shall see it with the eye
of certainty".
The fifth Guru
mentions[7]that
he may enjoy princely pleasures, regal pomp, ceremony, and issue unchallenged
commands. He may lie on beautiful beds, perfumed with sandalwood oil, but this
will lead him only to the gates of the most horrible hell.
WHO DOES NOT
EXPERIENCE THE PAIN OF WORLDLY SEPARATIONS IN THE FUTURE WORLD?
The faqirs can
escape hell who have disengaged or detached themselves mentally from worldly
possessions such as houses, family, wives, and children. Though faqirs may have
affection for them, their longing and yearning for God far exceed this
fondness. Ghazali explains that when an official is given a higher position in
the other city, he willingly accepts that new posting without a murmur, stays
happily in the elevated position, and forgets the past without remorse. Such
are prophets or saints who feel pleased to quit this material world.
Thus, the balance
of love between the this and future world determines the next direction of the
soul.
SPIRITUAL
HEAVENS AND HELLS
So long as the
soul remains in the regions of spiritual hells and heavens, it is bound by
cosmic time and space, which can only be experienced by mystics in their
highest state of consciousness. They spend time in these unseen regions
depending upon their karmic settlements. Then these souls descend in the
physical planes, reincarnated in different physical frames to face life in this
world. Thus, spiritual heavens and hells are part of the journey of the soul's
feeling unawareness of the Lord or sensation separation from God. Liberation of
the soul from all bondages of physical, astral, and all other metaphysical
planes is the soul's objective.
Some individuals
deny the existence of such heavens and hells because, logically, their
existence cannot be proven at our level of understanding. The operative aspect
of the Divine is a mystery. The entire process of reproduction in the womb, the
birth, growth, decline, and death, cannot be understood logically but must be
accepted. Why are there two eyes, ears, two nostrils, one mouth, and so on?
The word
"heaven" is mentioned 131 times, and "hell" is indicated
178 times in SGGS. For example, on page 71 (SGGS)[8]–
"Your limits are not known to any of the beings in the
"heavens", in this world, or the nether regions of the
underworld". On page 178 (SGGS[9])-- Even so, if they have not embraced
the love for the Supreme Lord God, then they shall surely go to
"hell".
Ghazali refutes
the non-maintainability of logic for heavens and hell by scholars and
philosophers when about 124000 prophets have confirmed their presence per the
holy Quran.
References---
Extracts of
Ghazali from
1 The Alchemy of happiness” based upon
turkish translation of Henery A Holmes.
2 The alchemy of happiness
published in 2018 by Blackmore Dennett.
3 Book of Mirdad
4 Sri Guru Granth Sahib
[1] The book of Mirdad chapter
20 “Where do we go after We die? On Repentance.
[2] जिउ सुपना अरु पेखना ऐसे
जग कउ जानि ॥इन मै कछु साचो नही नानक बिनु भगवान ॥
[3] मरण थीं अगे मर रहे , जिनहाँ हक्क दी रंज पछाती
हू( Sultan Bahu English translation RSSB page
[4] Book of Mirdad, chapter nineteen page 69-Self Denial is
Self-Assertion
[5] अंति कालि जो
लछमी सिमरै ऐसी चिंता महि जे मरै ॥सरप जोनि वलि वलि अउतरै ॥१॥अरी बाई गोबिद नामु
मति बीसरै ॥ रहाउ ॥अंति कालि जो इसत्री सिमरै ऐसी चिंता महि जे मरै ॥ बेसवा जोनि
वलि वलि अउतरै ॥२॥ अंति कालि जो लड़िके सिमरै ऐसी चिंता महि जे मरै ॥सूकर जोनि वलि
वलि अउतरै ॥३॥अंति कालि जो मंदर सिमरै ऐसी चिंता महि जे मरै ॥प्रेत जोनि वलि वलि
अउतरै ॥४॥अंति कालि नाराइणु सिमरै ऐसी चिंता महि जे मरै ॥ बदति तिलोचनु ते नर
मुकता पीत्मबरु वा के रिदै बसै
[6] The
battle marked the beginning of the six-year war between Prophet Muhammad and his
tribe for Medina with Qureshi
[7] [7] राज लीला राजन की रचना करिआ हुकमु अफारा ॥सेज
सोहनी चंदनु चोआ नरक घोर का दुआरा
[8] तेरा अंतु न पाइआ सुरगि मछि पइआलि जीउ
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