Aloneness of Working for Allah
Dr. Pasha
(Bringing Islam to the World One Concept at a Time!
Taking the Qur'an to Every Home and Heart that Needs It --
And which One Does Not?)
Aloneness sometimes may be the earned lot of those who may claim to be “Working for Allah.”
That means those men and women who have dedicated themselves to doing everything in their power to “Take the Qur’an to Every Home and Heart that Needs It – and Which One Does Not?”
At times, and in some cases, it may actually be an upgrade from God of the status of some of these men and women in life – how they live their life in this world.
Did you see I did not say "Loneliness"? That is a very different thing.
Loneliness is a psychological state of some morbidity. It is pathology of some kind.
And it arises from a sense of loss and deprivation. And it diminishes life and its richness and mars its fuller enjoyment by affected individuals.
And there is behind it a feeling of being denied a desired object or outcome in life.
And often it is externally imposed – meaning when people deny you their company or withhold from you their attention or their esteem and affection.
But aloneness is different. It is a choice.
It is a personal and social outcome – and state of living – which people choose for themselves.
It is a form of self-imposed solitude, as the poet said:
O Solitude!
Where are the charms that sages see in thy face?
It is learning to live with oneself, in conscious preference to living with all others.
It is Khalwat, in contrast to Jalwat.
And it is Wahdat.
It is Hijrat – leaving the world behind. But it is not Furqat.
It is not separation or parting of ways.
You are alone in terms of the denizens of this world – the world we see; the world of our senses; the world of immediate experience – Aalam Ash-Shahaadah.
But you are not really alone.
You are not alone in terms of the other world and its radiations – Aalam Al-Ghaib: the unseen world; the world that ordinary human experience cannot map or measure or access or even imagine.
You are now in tune with this other world. And the doors of its Anwaar and Tajalliyyaat are thrown open around you.
You can feel its breeze on your cheeks and you can glimpse the display of fireworks and the dance of rainbows yonder – beyond the Seen and the Visible and the world of the senses.
Angels of Allah are with you. And what is more, Allah is with you.
Ask Khosroe Dehlavi and he will tell you:
Khuda Khud Meer-i-Mafil Bood
……………………………………..
Shab Jaaye Ki Man Boodam.
What a place! What a state of being!
What a party!
Who would want to leave that party and go out looking for ordinary human company or crowds?
Human companionship, fraught with myriad problems and home to more challenges and difficulties than anyone can imagine.
And yet, coming out of your party of one, emerging from your seclusion and solitude, and your self-imposed and almost cherished aloneness, and engaging with the world is what Islam is all about.
Islam forbids withdrawing from the world and from turning your back on the world – and on humanity and on your family, relatives, friends, visitors and callers – and mandates that you be an active, involved, caring and responsible part of your world: of your society; of your neighborhood; and of your human and non-human surroundings and environment.
That is what Islam requires of every one of us.
While lesser humans may at times find it difficult to break the hold of their learned aloneness, once they have gotten used to the taste of it, prophets of Allah, Alaihim Assalam (Allah bless them all!) are in and out of it with the utmost ease.
And they do this all the time without even being seen to be doing so.
In reality, their Jalwat is Khalwat. And their Khalwat is Jalwat.
Hear Prophet Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, point this out in the clearest terms you can imagine:
Tanaamu 'Aanaaya wa Laa Yanaamu Qalbee.
Paraphrase of this Hadith Sharif:
“My eyes sleep but not my heart.
And hear him announce to the whole world that he sees behind him just as clearly and easily as he sees in front of him!
END
