Султанская традиция: путь к Богу лежит через самоанализ и признание собственных пороков

“Yesterday I polished my mirror, made it bright and placed it before myself. I saw so many faults of my own in the mirror That I forgot other people’s faults completely,” wrote Persian master Hazrat Ruzbehan Baqlī, the renowned 12th-century Sufi saint celebrated for his ecstatic mysticism. Spiritual masters have always emphasised upon humility and the transformative power of self-reflection. In the 15thcentury, Saint Kabir, the widely loved Indian mystic, sang of the significance of introspection. He observed, “Bura jo dekhan main chala, bura na mileya koye. Jo dil khoja apna, Mujhse bura na koye.” (I searched for bad people in this world, but I found none. When I looked inside my own heart, I realized no one was worse than me.) In the Sufi tradition, the seeker strives to find his true self. As the Sufis say, to know oneself is to know the Divine. Mevlana Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi, the 13th-century Persian Sufi mystic loved globally for his writings on divine love and inner transformation, believed in spiritual unity and the oneness of mankind. He wrote, “The mirror of the soul has no limit. If you see a stain upon your brother's face, know that the stain you see in him is your own reflection in the glass. ” Sufi masters have guided their followers that spiritual clarity comes from inner cleansing. Through dhikr (constant remembrance of God), the seeker is able to cleanse his heart and mind. When the seeker stays humble and surrenders himself to the Divine Almighty, his heart shines with the light of divine awareness. In the 14th century, Lalla Ded (Mother Lalla), the mystic poet of Kashmir, sang of a seeker’s search for the Divine, including the efforts towards self-questioning and self-awareness. She observed, “"I searched for my own self until I was weary; I thought to myself, 'No one is as flawed as I. When I swept clean the dust from my own eye, I found the divine right inside my house." The Divine Beloved dwells in a purified heart emptied of ego and filled with divine love. Baba Bulleh Shah, the legendary 18th-century Punjabi Sufi poet, humanist, and mystic, sang, “You read thousands of books to learn knowledge, but have you ever read your own self? You run to enter temples and mosques, but have you ever entered your own heart?” Sufi saints lead us on the path of humility and compassion. They teach us that we limit our spiritual growth when we judge others. We move on the path towards God when we learn to love his creation with acceptance and understanding. The more we learn to refine our inner self and confront our own imperfections, the more we become accommodating of the faults of others. When we work on inner cleansing through dhikr, self-reflection and honest introspection, the veil of the ego drops. Through clarity of conscience and purity of intention, we regain simplicity of heart – so essential on the path of God. Sufis have regarded true humility as a state of being in which one is surrendered to the Almighty. It is the blessed state in which only God exists. A seeker asked a Sufi master, “What is ultimate humility?” The master replied, “It is when you walk out of your house and see everyone you meet as better than you.” The seeker protested, “But what if I see someone worse than me?” The master smiled: “The moment you judge, your ego is speaking. True humility is not thinking less of yourself — it is not thinking of yourself at all.” Hazrat Makhdoom Jalaluddin Bukhari, the celebrated 14th-century Suhrawardi Sufi saint, said that a man reveals himself through his conduct. “One who is endowed with inner enlightenment and plenitude adopts humility and lowliness. And he who is devoid of it, adopts conceit and vainglory,” said Hazrat Bukhari. True spiritual progress begins when we stop blaming others and start holding ourselves accountable for our life and actions. Sufi saints say that man himself is the architect of his happiness or his misery. Even in the midst of a crowd, a man may choose inner peace and solitude by staying anchored in his being, his self. Hazrat Farid ud-Din Attar (1145-1221), a revered Sufi master of the 12th century, wrote of a dervish who spent hours in solitude staring into a small handheld mirror instead of mixing with the crowd at the bazaar. When asked about his strange choice, the dervish replied, "When I look at the people in the market, I am tempted to judge their greed, their loudness, and their pride. But when I look into this mirror, I do not see them—I see my own eyes, which have looked at evil, and my own tongue, which has spoken ill. The mirror forces me to attend to the house I actually inhabit." One’s own self is the first and most honest audience before God. One can find God through the path of devotion, self-awareness and surrender to the Divine. When one looks outward at the bazaar and the crowd, one invites judgment. One is also filled with base thoughts, and starts noticing others’ greed, pride, and noise. The rightful path for a seeker is to look inward and engage in self-examination — recognizing one’s own faults and taking responsibility for them. As Hazrat Attar wrote, “For five years I was my own mirror, and I polished that mirror with every manner of godly service and obedience.” An ordinary mind may wonder how to traverse the path to God, but the seeker knows the secret: It is total submission to the Divine Almighty with the heart full of the magnificence of His Glory. Hazrat Ibn-E-Ataullah Sikandari, the prominent 13th-century Egyptian Islamic scholar and Sufi master, observed, “Real humility is the one which arises from the contemplation of His Sublimity and illumination of His Attribute.” The seeker acknowledges that whatever good exists in the self is merely a reflection of Divine qualities, not personal possession. Solitude with God in dhikr, meditation and contemplation illuminate a seeker’s path to God. Disclaimer: Views expressed above are the author's own.