Candle Posts :: Motivational Gems for Higher Spiritual Enlightenment

:: Candle Post #48 :: Why Is It Necessary To First Die Spiritually? ::

Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim
In the name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful.

Ya Ali Madad. Monday, June 8, 2009, marks the 39th day of our 40-day project entitled "Welcoming NOOR Mowlana Hazir Imam (a.s.) to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada". Click here to view the activities for each of the remaining days.

In this project, we have learned a lot about bandagi. However, let us ask a practical question: "What happens if we do not perform bandagi?". To understand this clearly, we need to know about physical death, spiritual death before physical death, and the purpose of spiritual death. Let us study the following:

Part 1: What is the difference between a physical and a spiritual death?

We have often going to funeral services and have seen people who have died physically. Dead persons cannot tell us their life experiences because they are dead. We can read about their lives but sooner or later, their faces and memories either disappear or remain in the vast body of literature. Physical death is involuntary and nobody can escape it.

In contrast to a physical death, there is a spiritual death which occurs when a person is alive. A person has to prepare and strive to be on the path of higher spiritual enlightenment to experience a spiritual death. Thus, a person who experiences a spiritual death is shown higher spiritual realities, blessed with certainty of gifted (or inspired) knowledge which is full of wisdom, and the recognition of God while he/she is physically alive on this earth!

Part 2: What is the purpose of spiritual death?

'The purpose of spiritual death is gnosis (marifat), in which are hidden the secrets of spiritual peace and eternal salvation.

Spiritual death which occurs due to special ibadat (bandagi), spiritual exercise (dhikr) and mortification of the canal self (slaying of nafs-i amara, the soul which commands us to do evil acts), in the light of guidance of the True Guide (Holy Imam), is the introduction of the spiritual events and experiences, in the sense that, by it (such spiritual death), all the doors of the recognition of the self become unlocked. Thus, this voluntary death becomes the means of obtaining the realities and gnosis (marifat), and the spirit and the spiritualism, and the secrets of recognition of God.'

(Source: Recognition of the Imam. Part III. p. 16)

Part 3: What happens if one does not practice bandagi?

'Is anyone exempt from the universal law of death? The answer is mentioned within the universal law itself that, no soul, i.e. human being is above this law. Since no door of (higher) spiritualism can open without the voluntary, spiritual death, and since according to the Holy Qur'an (30:42), sleep contains a kind of death, and the physical death is a complete freedom for a haqqiqati mu'min only, then think well how necessary is the spiritual death for a real mu'min. Thus it is clear that the (spiritual) death is the door of the spiritual world, without entering through which, neither spiritual progress nor eternal life is possible.'

(Source: Recognition of the Imam. Part III. pp. 16-19)

Plese note that the physical death is a complete freedom for a person who is a haqqiqati mu'min. Therefore, all murids have to first become haqqiqati mu'mins by practising the faith completely and with conviction!

We are linked to Holy Imam through a luminous (noorani) bond. If we practice bandagi, then the Holy Imam perfects his light in our personal worlds by opening the doors of spirituality (ruhaniyat) and luminosity (nooraniyat)! This was the main reason for including the practice and knowledge of bandagi in this 40-day project.

Application of the Above Knowledge

Our Pirs have taught us to worry and take care of our souls, convert the spiritual status of our souls from murids to haqqiqati mu'mins, and continually seek salvation. It is better to conduct the spiritual search here while we are physically alive.
Our Holy Imams have continually taught us that bandagi leads to higher spiritual enlightenment provided all the other conditions of dua, dasond, dhikr, unconditional service, good deeds, ethics and knowledge are met. They have also taught us that the weight of bandagi is greater than the weight of all the wealth of this world because it is the rocket which propels us into the spirituality (ruhaniyat) and luminosity (nooraniyat) of the Holy Imam!
O our Mowla,
All murids, all mu'mins and all souls of all grades supplicate to you,
O beloved, welcome to the 'Edmonton' of our personal worlds!

Ardent Supplications:

Ya Ali, Ya NOOR Mowlana Shah Karim Al-Hussaini Hazar Imam, create Sunshine in our hearts, light in our foreheads, and bless us all with the inner vision of the Truth!

Ya Ali, Ya NOOR Mowlana Shah Karim Al-Hussaini Hazar Imam, grant the global Jamat luminous (noorani) and spiritual (ruhani) tayid (help) to advance materially, spiritually and intellectually. Ameen.

Haizinda — Qayampaya
(Our Present Imam is Living and His NOOR is Eternal)

Rakh Mowla je Noor te Yaqeen (Certainly, we trust in Mowla's Light only),
Noorallah Juma
SalmanSpiritual.com
Monday, June 8, 2009

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