Humanity before divinity

It is as important to think about the development of personality as it is to think about spirituality. Man was created to become human. There are four grades of evolution. A person is either born in one or grows towards it. The first grade is called Ammara in Sufi terms. It denotes a person who is coarse and crude, thoughtless and ill-mannered. Ill manner is connected with ill luck, so such a person is a failure.

When a man is a little more evolved, there comes a civilised manner, a refinement. This is called Lauwama. In the third stage, Mutmaina, the person is considerate, kind and tender-hearted. In the fourth stage, Salima, the person has an even greater charm of personality: displaying calmness, gentleness, forgiveness and understanding of all beings. Only such a developed person is entitled to embark on the spiritual path. The modern way of recognising the wrong kind of equality has taken away the idea of better personality. If a person has no ideal before him to reach up to then he has no way in which to progress.

There is the story of a dervish who was standing in the middle of the road when a royal procession came along. First the pages who ran before the procession pushed him and said, “Don’t you see the king is coming? Away!” The dervish smiled and said, “That is why.”

Next, the bodyguards too found him in the way. They said, “Move aside, the procession is coming!” The dervish said, “That is why.” The courtiers who followed also saw the dervish and repeated the same statement. Again, the dervish said, “That is why.” Finally came the king. Seeing the dervish, he greeted him first and the dervish said in reply, “That is why.” When a curious bystander asked, the dervish explained, “You can see, that is why they are what they are!”   

The writer took Sufism  from India to the West.