SPIRITUAL%20ENLIGHTENMENT%20AND%20IMAMAT

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SPIRITUAL ENLIGHTENMENT AND IMAMAT

• A presentation by
• Kamaluddin Ali Muhammad
• Karimabad, Karachi 08-11-2008

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ENLIGHTENMENT

• Mawlana Hazar Imams prayers on enlightenment
• Body and Soul. Body temporal, soul eternal.
• Value of human-being is due to soul
• Laqad khalaqnal insan(sura-95)
• Nafakhtu fihi mir-ruhi(1529)
• Ginan Bhaio bharame na bhulie

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MEANING OF GHAFLAT

• Dhan dhan sami raja tu sirjanhar
• We are spiritual being having physical experience
  and not the other way round.
• Meaning of term ghaflat (forgetfulness) Inna
  kunna an hadha ghafilin (7172)
• Wala tuti man aghfalna(1828)

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MEANING OF DHIKR

• Meaning of dhikr/zikr (remembrance)
• Fa dhakkir innama anta Mudhakkir (8821)
• Re-member, re-cognition, re-mind, re-minder
• Wadhkur rabbaka fi nafsika(7205)
• Qiyamaw wa quudaw(3191)
• Rijalun la tulhihim tijaratun wala baiun(2437)
• Fadhkuruni adhkurkum (2152) explanation

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SCOPE OF DHIKR

• Udhkurullah dhikran kathiranhuwalladhi
  yusalli(3341) explanation
• No limit or time bar to dhikr and Tasbih
• Anytime, anywhere, too much dhikr
• Make it a way of life
• Protect the spark from storm of materialism
• Nourish the spark with dhikr

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BODY, MIND AND SOUL

• Strengthen your body with exercise, enrich your
  mind with vast study and uplift your soul with
  prayers and virtues.
• Imam Sultan Muhammad Shah (s.a.)
• With prayers for the soul, exercise for the body
  and with goodwill and cooperation in the mind you
  will always succeed.
• Mawlana Hazar Imam, Mumbai, 9-8-1957

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BALANCED LIFE

• Meaning of balanced life and how it can be
  achieved
• Knowledge / understanding
• Commitment
• Practice
• Spending quality time
• Detachment

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ROLE OF IMAM

• Imam as spiritual master/guru/murshid
• Guidance according to time to the best possible
  way of success
• Blessings and grace

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SPARK

• This fraternity is absolute and it comprises men
  of all colors and all races black, white,
  yellow, tawny all are the sons of Adam in the
  flesh and all carry in them a spark of Divine
  Light. Everyone should strive his best to see
  that this spark be not extinguished but rather
  developed to that full Companionship-on-High
  which was the vision expressed in the last words
  of the Prophet on his deathbed, the vision of
  that blessed state which he saw clearly awaiting
  him. (Imam Sultan Muhammad Shah, Islam- the
  religion of my ancestors, p.12)

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SPIRITUAL PROGRESS

• However you must never forget that if material
  conditions change, spiritual conditions are not
  limited to this life and it is more essential to
  excel in spiritual progress. Ultimately you will
  find that it is your work for the next world that
  will help you in your worldly affairs
• (Imam Sultan Muhammad Shah 18th October 1956)

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RIGHT SPIRITUAL CONTACT

• In this connection also, I must tell you that
  while the material conditions of life change, the
  spiritual conditions which are not only limited
  to this life but go beyond are based on one
  fundamental principle, namely the search for
  enlightenment by the right spiritual contact with
  the light of your holy faith.
• (Imam Sultan Muhammad Shah 10th October 1954)

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Material intelligence and spiritual enlightenment
- 1

• But, as I have explained in my Memoirs for the
  whole world to understand there are two worlds -
  the world of material intelligence and the world
  of spiritual enlightenment. The world of
  spiritual enlightenment is fundamentally
  different from the world of intellectualism and
  it is the pride of the Ismailis that we firmly
  believe(continue)

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Material intelligence and spiritual enlightenment
- 2

• that the world of spiritual enlightenment has
  come as a truth from the inception of Islam to
  this day with the Imamat and carries with it as
  one of its necessary consequences love,
  tenderness, kindliness, and gentleness towards
  first, our brother and sister Muslims of all
  sects and, secondly to those who live in
  righteousness, conscience and justice towards
  their fellow men. (continue)

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Material intelligence and spiritual enlightenment
- 3

• These religious principles of Ismailism are
  well known to you for you have heard them from me
  and through your fathers and grandfathers and
  from my father and grandfather until I fear that
  by long familiarity with these teachings some of
  you forget the necessity of re-examination of
  your heart and religious experience.
• (Address of Platinum Jubilee Ceremony, Cairo,
• 20-02-1955.)

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IMPORTANCE OF IBADAT

• I would like you also to have it clear in your
  minds what is essential in our practice. It is
  not only Dua, it is not only presence in
  Jamatkhana, it is not only service to Imam and to
  Jamats, but it is also Ibadat
• (Mawlana Hazar Imam, Ismailia Association
  audience, Karimabad, Dhaka 05-12-1964)

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DIN AND DUNYA

• The new millennium will give rise to a number of
  challenges and opportunities as the frontiers of
  science and technology are extended. I would like
  my spiritual children to remember that while our
  Tariqah enjoins an understanding of these forces
  and their creative harnessing, it also emphasizes
  balance between Din and Duniya. Wherever you are
  in time and place, strive to live always by the
  ethics of Islam and be regular in the practice of
  your Faith for it is only the life of the soul
  which is eternal.
• (Taliqah Mubarak, 10th July 1997)

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MATERIALISTIC LIFE - 1

• The unadulterated pursuit of material well-being
  must never be allowed to become the exclusive
  objective of life. If this does occur, it
  engenders an evil vacuum of destructive forces.
• I therefore, particularly urge upon my Jamat a
  renewed commitment to that balance which I have
  so often pressed upon you as between the
  spiritual and the material facets of this life on
  earth. (Continue)

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MATERIALISTIC LIFE - 2

• Build the edifice of your future wisely. Build
  upon prayer and brotherhood for they are timeless
  and it is only the life of the soul which is
  eternal.
• (Silver Jubilee Message, 10th July 1982

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Sunless day of despair

• The day we no longer know how, nor have the
  time nor the faith to bow in prayer to Allah
  because the human soul that He has told us is
  eternal is no longer of sufficient importance to
  us to be worthy of an hour of our daily working,
  profit-seeking time, will be a sunless day of
  despair.
• (Mawlana Hazar Imam, Peshawar University,
  30-11-1967)

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