Spiritual Reality of the Inward and Soul

The body consists of four elements:  air, water, earth and fire. Therefore, it has a solid material existence. Consequently, matter makes everything it needs, and it derives pleasure and satisfaction from it. For example, the body needs food for strength and survival, clothes to cover itself, a house to live in, and a partner to propagate the species. All of these and similar needs are related to the body. Man strives to meet these needs throughout his life. He worries about earning wealth and raising his children. Concerns like better education for his children and a better future surround him.

Even if one has enough wealth and means, he still demands and lusts for more comforts. He maintains relationships, builds status in society, or improves his job or business. If he prays, he does so out of obligation. His prayers lack the passion of serving and loving Allah. Even during prayers, his attention remains on worldly concerns. Therefore, all things related to physical needs and pleasures keep man away from Allah.

Hence, true believers should never forget Allah by engaging in these things. One must fulfil all duties and rights, but they should not turn them into their religion and faith.

The body contains his esoteric being, inward and soul. Each of them has different demands and needs.

Self

Self creates desire and lust in man. This self tempts man towards evil and by doing so makes him neglect Allah. Satan uses this self to take him away from Allah. A person remains oblivious to Allah’s Essence and His remembrance until he corrects his self and makes it obedient. But when one cleanses the self and raises it from the lowest level of the ‘inciting self’ (an-nafs al-ammarah) to the ‘self at peace’ (an-nafs al-mutmainnah), he gains salvation from the dominance of carnal appetites.

Al-Ghazali

Al-Ghazali says about Inward:

• My dear! If you want to understand yourself, then know that Allah created you in two parts. One part is the physical body, which you can see with your eyes. The second part is the spiritual existence, called the inward, which you can see only with the esoteric eye. This spiritual existence is your reality. Everything other than this spiritual existence are its subjects, soldiers and servants. This reality is called inward. Inward is the reality of human. This reality is sometimes called the soul and sometimes qalb. Qalb is not the physical organ located on the left side of the chest, as that exists in both animals and dead people. The heart can be seen with physical eyes and anything that can be seen with physical eyes belongs to the physical realm. On the other hand, inward cannot be seen with physical eyes and belongs to the universe of command. The physical heart is the inward’s vehicle and weapon, and all organs of the body are its army. It is the king and superior of the body. Only the inward can attain Divine gnosis and behold Allah’s unparalleled beauty. Allah ordered the inward to pray. Everything Allah says is for it. Reward, punishment, misery and happiness are for it. The body depends on the inward for everything. Realizing its reality and attributes is key to attaining Divine gnosis. My dear! Try to recognize it as it is a fine gem that is from the angels. Its origin is the Divine court. It came from there and will return there. It is a traveler in this world. (Kimiya-e-Sa’adat)

Superiority of Man

Therefore, man’s true reality, importance and status are by virtue of his inward. He is above other creations because of his inward. As bestial soul and self are present in every living being. No living being other than human has the privilege to have the Divine Essence manifest in them. This is because the other living beings do not have an inward. The inward gets close to Allah or far from Allah, not the body. It is the believer and the disbeliever. Punishment is for the inward and reward is for the inward. Word of Allah is sent to the inward. Allah says:

• And indeed, this Quran has been revealed by the Lord of all the worlds. The Trusted Spirit (Gabriel) has descended with it, upon your (pbuh) (most illumined) heart so that you may be a Warner (to the disobedient). (26:192-194)

The Holy Prophet said:

• There is a piece of flesh in the body if it becomes good (reformed) the whole body becomes good but if it gets spoilt the whole body gets spoilt and that is the qalb. (Sahih al-Bukhari 52)

The piece of flesh mentioned in this Hadith means inward not the heart that we feel beating in our chests.

Al-Ghawth al-Azam says:

• If your inward becomes good, surely all your body will become good because the inward is the king of the body, so when the king becomes good, the subjects also become good. (Al-Fath ar-Rabbani, Section-29)

He also says:

• When the inward is good, it becomes closest to Allah. And when it follows the Quran and Hadith, it becomes closer to Allah. When it is close to Allah, it becomes wise and knowing. Then it becomes aware of everything. Whether it is good or bad for it, for Allah, or for anything else or for right or wrong. (Al-Fath ar-Rabbani, Section-59)

Sultan Bahoo says:

• The inward is a vast and great kingdom. Both the worlds along with their creations can be contained in it but the inward cannot be contained in both the worlds. (Fazal-ul-Laqa)

ہر کتابے نقطہ از دِل کتاب

دِل کتابے دفتر حق بے حساب

Explanation: Every book is a dot in the world of inward as it has encompassed countless books of Truth. (Mehak-ul-Faqr Kalan)

Kaleed-ul-Tauheed Kalan

• The writer says that there are two basic kinds of the inward; the filthy inward, which is surrounded by satanic thoughts, sensual desires, worries of worldly accidents and is ill with different spiritual diseases. It is incurable and remains deprived of the gnosis and Kindness of Allah unless it returns towards Allah with perfect sincerity and refers to the spiritual guide who is the spiritual physician, for the treatment of its diseases. Whoever does not go to the spiritual physician, blackness of his inward increases day by day due to the spiritual diseases, eventually it is seized. Allah says;

فِیۡ قُلُوۡبِہِمۡ مَّرَضٌ ۙ فَزَادَہُمُ  اللّٰہُ  مَرَضًا

Meaning: In their inwards is disease, so Allah has increased their disease. (Al-Baqarah 10)

You should seek excellence in knowledge for the sake of gnosis of Allah whose medium is the perfect spiritual guide. The spiritual guide who is the possessor of contemplation of Ism-e-Allah Zaat is the source of salvation during life as well as after death. It is said about the spiritual guide;

اَلشَّیْخُ یُحْیِی الْقَلْبَ وَ یُمِیْتُ النَّفْسَ

Meaning: The spiritual guide gives life to the inward and death to the innerself.

The other kind of inward is that which has been purified by the invocation of Allah and has become sacred and desirable in the court of Allah. It is blessed with the Divine secrets of gnosis and is filled with the light of Allah. The possessor of such an alive inward is eternally blessed with the Divine presence. (Kaleed-ul-Tauheed Kalan)

Allah’s Essence

Allah’s Essence is present in every human. However, the Holy Prophet called the true believer’s inward as Allah’s throne because a true believer has a pure inward. When the inward is pure, Allah’s Essence manifests in it. But the inward’s purification is possible only in the company and with the grace of the perfect spiritual guide who is the man of Divine Essence. The inward that gets rid of apprehensions through company of the perfect spiritual guide and Ism-e-Allah Zaat, attains eternal life and salvation. This inward beholds Allah’s beauty and achieves Divine presence. As the Holy Prophet said about people with living inwards:

اَلصَّلٰوۃُ دَائِمُوْنَ فِیْ قُلُوْبِھِمْ

• Meaning: They eternally pray in their inwards.

This alive inward will help on the day of judgement when every relationship or connection will be useless. Allah says:

• The Day when neither wealth nor sons will profit. But he alone (will be the gainer) who appears before the presence of Allah with an inward protected (from) and pure (of all evils). (26:88-89)

It is the inward that is blessed with His presence. After gaining presence, one gets satisfaction and pleasure in worship. And he genuinely feels the closeness of Allah. The Holy Prophet says:

• There is no salat without the presence of inward.

A person will be deprived of seeing Allah by being blinded in the eyes of his inward. Allah says:

• So the fact is that it is not the eyes (of such people) that are blind, but the hearts (inward), which are in the breasts, turn blind. (22:46)

This is why Saints focus more on the inward than the outward. If the inward is correct, the outward will automatically correct itself. Therefore, a person should correct his inward before his body and actions. Attaining Divine gnosis with a pure inward is compulsory.

Soul

Man is alive because of the soul. It is due to the soul that he lives, moves, sleeps, wakes up, eats, drinks and performs his every action in this world. Therefore, the soul is the real thing in this outward body. This material body made of four elements is only the soul’s cover. Allah did not command the prostration to Adam’s body; He breathed His Soul into him, brought him to life, and then commanded prostration. Allah says:

• So when I accomplish the perfection of his (physical) constitution into his real being, and breathe My (divine) spirit into (the inner self of) this (human physical) organism, then fall down prostrate before him. (15:29)

That is why the real greatness is for the soul which Allah created by His command. It shares the same characteristics as Divine light because the Divine light is like an ocean, and the soul is like a drop or wave separated from it. Man is alive due to the presence of this drop (light) in his existence. At the time of death, this soul returns to its Lord and we say ‘Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji’un’ meaning: “Indeed, to Allah we belong and to Allah we shall return.”

Journey of the soul

The soul was in the realm of Divinity in the form of the Divine soul. This Divine soul beheld Allah without any veils in the realm of Divinity. The Divine soul descended into the realm of power and gained the cover of the kingly soul. When it descended into the realm of angels it gained the cover of the celestial soul. And then it came to the physical realm and gained the cover of the bestial soul. The soul descended step by step and became restless and imprisoned in this material existence. It finds peace only when it ascends and returns to its original homeland, the realm of Divinity, the same way as it descended. So this realm is like a moment for the soul. The confinement of time and space exists only in the physical realm, whereas other realms are free from these limitations.

Returning to the realm of Divinity from the physical realm is not an easy task. It is very difficult to assess the vastness of the physical realm visible to the physical eye. So, what can be said about the vastness of the spiritual realms! Let us imagine a diagram of the vastness of the physical realm! We will do this based on how far human thought and understanding have progressed.

Vastness of the Universe

Our planet Earth is revolving around the Sun and takes 365 days to complete one revolution. Mars is the closest planet to Earth and takes 687 days for revolution. The closest planet to the Sun is Mercury and takes 88 days for one revolution. While Venus takes 255 days. Similarly, Jupiter takes 12 years. Therefore, planets closer to the Sun take less time for one revolution and planets farther away take longer. If we consider one revolution to take one year, then one Jupiter year is equal to 12 Earth years.

Likewise, this solar system is located in a galaxy called the Milky Way. It contains many other systems like ours. According to research, the Milky Way galaxy is approximately 100000 light years in diameter. Meaning that if we travel at the speed of light, we need 100000 years to travel around the Milky Way.

There are countless galaxies in the universe, the closest galaxy to us is Andromeda. The distance between the Milky Way and Andromeda is approximately 2.5 million light years. Light from stars, planets, or galaxies takes millions of years to reach us. We only see them once the light arrives. It’s possible that the planets and stars we see shining today no longer exist. They may have perished or fallen into a black hole. Therefore, the time of every planet and galaxy is different and this law of time and space works only in the cosmic universe. Hence, the vastness of this universe can be estimated.

Allah says:

• O company of jinn and mankind, if you are able to pass beyond the regions of the heavens and the earth, then pass. You will not pass except the Sultan. (55:33)

Sultan refers to strength and power. It also means the Universal Divine Man. This universe is so vast that an ordinary person might not see Earth entirely, and Earth is a small planet in our solar system. Now, we’ve discovered planets millions of times bigger than the Sun. Therefore, it is impossible for a human being to leave the universe with a material body. But with the help of Sultan (the Universal Divine Man) one can travel this universe spiritually. The soul is related to the universe of command. And the universe of command is a realm of light. So, as long as man does not escape the confines of the universe, he will not reach the Realm of Divinity, the station of no station. When the soul escapes this existence and the physical realm, it is freed from the limits of time and space.

Just like it descended crossing all the realms and reached the physical realm, the soul should ascend from the physical realm back to the realm of Divinity. These levels of spiritual ascension are covered spiritually. Man cannot travel this spiritual journey until he is accompanied by Sarwari Qadri perfect spiritual guide. Sarwari Qadri perfect spiritual guide is manifestation of the Essence. He is the Sultan who frees the body from pleasures, the soul from lust, and the heart from fears. The soul is also freed from all physical and spatial limitations. So the journey and destination of Divine closeness becomes easy for this person.