Happy Imamat day

[Amin C]

Awareness of your Center (Noor of Mowla)

(Excerpt from "The Book of secret.")

 

Man is born with a center,(Mowla) but he remains completely oblivious of it. (lacking conscious awareness of) Man can live without knowing his center,(Mowla) but man cannot be without a center.(Noor of Mowla) The center(Mowla) is the link between man and existence; it is the root. You may not know it, knowledge is not essential for the center to be, but if you do not know it you will lead a life that is rootless – as if rootless. (Mowla says in his Farman, "Man without a faith is worth dust on a street.) You will not feel any ground, you will not feel yourself based; you will not feel at home in the universe. You will be homeless.

Of course, the center(Mowla) is there, but by not knowing it your life will be

just a drifting – meaningless, empty, reaching nowhere. You will feel as if

you are living without life, drifting, just waiting for death. You can go on

postponing from one moment to another, but you know very well that that

postponing will lead you nowhere. You are just passing time, and that

feeling of deep frustration will follow you like a shadow. Man is born with

a center,(Noor of Mowla) but not with the knowledge of the center.(Mowla) The knowledge has to be gained.

You have the center.(Mowla) The center(Mowla) is there; you cannot be without it. How can you exist without a center?(Mowla) How can you exist without a bridge between you and existence?…(Mowla) or if you like, the word God. You cannot exist without a deep link. You have roots in the divine. Every moment you

live through those roots, but those roots are underground. Just as with any

tree, the roots are underground; the tree is unaware of its own roots. You

also have roots. That rootedness is your center.(Noor/Mowla) When I say man is born with it, I mean it is a possibility that you can become aware of your rootedness. If you become aware, your life becomes actual; otherwise your life will be just like a deep sleep, a dream. (Practicing Ibadat/Bandagi you become aware).

What Abraham Maslow has called “self-actualization” is really nothing

but becoming aware of your inner center(inner Noor/Mowla) from where you are linked with the total universe, (We live, move and have our being in God. We find this concept expressed often in the Koran, not in those words of course, but just as beautifully and more tersely... when we realize the meaning of this saying, we are already preparing ourselves for the gift of the power of direct [spiritual] experience. Aga Khan III, Memoirs of Aga Khan.) becoming aware of your roots: you are not alone, you are not atomic, you are part of this cosmic whole.(Noor of Mowla) This universe is not an alien world. You are not a stranger, this universe is your home. But unless you find your roots, your center,(Noor of Mowla) this universe remains something alien, something foreign.

Sartre says that man lives as if he has been thrown into the world. Of

course, if you do not know your center (Noor of Mowla) you will feel a thrown-ness, as if you have been thrown into the world. You are an outsider; you do not

belong to this world and this world doesn’t belong to you. Then fear, then

anxiety, then anguish are bound to result. A man as an outsider in the

universe is bound to feel deep anxiety, dread, fear, anguish. His whole life

will be just a fight, a struggle, and a struggle which is destined to be a

failure. Man cannot succeed because a part can never succeed against the

whole.

You cannot succeed against existence. You can succeed with it, but

never against it. And that is the difference between a religious man and a

non-religious man. A non-religious man is against the universe; a religious

man is with the universe. A religious man feels at home. (Because he always feel he is always with the Noor of Mowla. Remember the Farman, "In the time of difficulties you feel you are alone. But I want you to remember that I am always, always, a_l_w_a_y_s with you. Don't you forget that.) He doesn’t feel he has been thrown into the world, he feels he has grown in the world. Remember the difference between being thrown and being grown.

When Sartre says man is thrown into the world, the very word, the very

formulation shows that you do not belong. And the word, the choice of the

word thrown means that you have been forced without your consent. So

this world appears inimical. Then anguish will be the result.

It can be otherwise only if you are not thrown into the world, but you

have grown as a part, as an organic part.(Part of Noorani Light.) Really, it would be better to say that you are the universe grown into a particular dimension which we call “human.” The universe grows in multi-dimensions – in trees, in hills, in stars, in planets… in multi-dimensions. Man is also a dimension of

growth. The universe is realizing itself through many, many dimensions.(Avatars) Man is also a dimension (Avatar) along with the height and the peak. No tree can become aware of its roots; no animal can become aware of its roots. That is why there is no anxiety for them. (Only human being can become aware of Center/Noor of Mowla.)

If you are not aware of your roots, of your center,(Noor of Mowla) you can never be aware of your death. Death is only for man. It exists only for man because

only man can become aware of his roots, aware of his center,(Noorani status.) aware of his totality and his rootedness in the universe.

If you live without a center,(Mowla) if you feel you are an outsider, then

anguish will result. However, if you feel that you are at home, that you are

a growth, a realization of the potentiality of the existence itself – as if

existence itself has become aware in you, as if it has gained awareness in

you – if you feel that way, if you really realize that way, the result will be

bliss.

 

   

 

Best Wishes, Kind Regards & Ya Ali Madad &

   السَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ

(As-salāmu ʿalaykum)

 

Amin Chunara