RIAD, MARRAKESHThe ninth-century sage Rabia Basri was looking for a lost key under a streetlight. Her neighbours turned out to help, but without success. Finally, they asked where she might have dropped the key, so that they could better focus their search. “Actually,” said Rabia, “I lost it in my house.” Bemused, they asked her why she didn’t look for it there. “Because,” she said, “there’s no light in my house, but out here the light is bright!” The neighbours laughed, and Rabia seized the moment to make her point. “Friends,” she said, “you are intelligent people and that is why you laugh. But tell me: When you lose your joy or peace of mind because of some disappointment or hardship, did you lose it out there (gesturing around her) or in here (gesturing to her heart)?” We tend to lay blame on our external circumstances and seek superficial solutions, but the truth is that we lost our peace and joy inside ourselves. We avoid looking inside us, where the light is dim.
All spiritual paths journey inward beyond the veils of the self/ the ego and into the center of one’s being. We define our center with the concept of who we are: what we own and what we do. Really, it is neither of these things. After toiling against the veils of the self, that which detests change, prefers comfort, judges and labels, favours action based on what society thinks over what one’s true self thinks, our false self diminishes and our center, that which is breathed into from God’s spirit shines and comes forth. And it is all tenderness, purity and love.
“He Who has created all things in the best possible way. He commenced the creation of man from clay; then produced his seed from an extract of base fluid; then formed him and breathed His Soul into him and gave you hearing, sight and hearts. What little thanks you show!”
Quran [Prostration 32:7-9]
