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From: jnawaz@skat.usc.edu (Jemshed Nawaz)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.islam
Subject: Re: Is there something more to Islam than mere rules?
Message-ID: <1990Dec13.070445.19927@nntp-server.caltech.edu>
Date: 13 Dec 90 07:04:45 GMT
Sender: bes@nntp-server.caltech.edu (Behnam Sadeghi)
Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
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Approved: bes@tybalt.caltech.edu

Since some people are so interested in the spiritual aspect of Islam,
I have decided to post some parts from a chapter (the chapter itself
is pretty long) in Ahmad A. Galwash's "The Religion of Islam" Vol II.
The chapter is called (you guessed it..) "Spiritual Aspect of Islam".
The rest of the chapter may follow later on (when I'm done with the
finals). So here goes....

		THE KNOWLEDGE OF SELF
		---------------------
Nothing is nearer to man than himself, and if he knows not himself he
cannot know anything else. Knowledge of self is the key to the
knowledge of God: The Holy Prophet says: "He who knows himself well,
knows God". In the Koran we read:-
	"God will show men His signs in the world and in themselves
	that the truth may be manifest to them" (XLI:53)
	
	Now if one says "I know my self" meaning his outward shape,
body, face, limbs and so forth, such knowledge can never be a key to
the knowledge of God or the truth. Nor man's knowledge as to that
which is within only extends so far that when he is hungry he eats,
and when he is angry he attacks, will he progress any further in this
path, for the beasts are his partners in this capacity.
	Real self-knowledge consists in solving the following
problems:-
	What is man in himself and from whence he is come? Whither is
he going, and for what purpose has he come to tarry here a while, and
in what does his real happiness and misery consist?
	Some of man's attributes are those of animals, some of devils,
and some of angels, and he has to find out which of these attributes
are accidental and which are essential. Till he knows this, he cannot
come to real knowledge of himself.
	The occupation of animals is eating, sleeping and fighting.
Therefore, if man is an animal, let him busy himself in these things.
Devils are busy in stirring up mischief, and in guile and deceit; if
he belongs to their species let him do their work. Angels comtemplate
the beauty of God, and are entirely free fom animal qualities; if he
of angelic nature, then let him strive towards his own origin, that he
may know and contemplate God, and be delivered from the animal
thraldom of `passion' and `anger'. He should also dicover why he has
been created with these two animal instincts. Whether they should
subdue him and lead him captive or whether he should subdue them, and
in his upward progress, make of one his steed and of the other his
weapon.
	The first step of man's knowledge is to know that he is
composed of an outward shape, called the body and an inward entity
called the heart, or soul. By "heart" is not meant the piece of flesh
resting at the left of our bodies, but that which uses all other
faculties as its instruments and servants. In truth, it does not
belong to the visible world, but to the invisible, and has come into
this world as a traveller who visits a foreign country for the sake of
trade and will presently return to his native land. The knowledge of
this entity and its attributes is the keynote to the knowledge of God.
To this the Holy Koran says:-
	"We (God) have not created Jinn and Men but that serve
	Me"(LI:56)



-------------
Jemshed Nawaz