Life and Teachings of the Prophet Muhammad
11. The Concept of Spirituality in Islam
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2. On the path of spirituality one cannot be one’s own guide. And
one certainly needs a guide. This guide is the Quran. It is an
authentic, and carefully preserved book of God. That is why the
Quran can be trusted as a guide by the spiritual traveller. After
making the Quran one’s guide, one can set one’s spiritual
journey on the right track.
3. This spiritual journey demands a change in lifestyle. This
lifestyle for a spiritual traveller may be put briefly in these
words: ‘Simple living and high thinking.’ Simple living means
limiting one’s worldly requirements to the minimum,
assiduously avoiding comfort and luxury. That is why the Sufis
used to wear coarse clothes as a symbol of the simple life. It
helps the traveller in his spiritual journey. High thinking means
that his thoughts are not embroiled in material things. By
engaging one’s mind in higher realities, one becomes a
recipient of divine inspiration. This inspiration of divine light
comes to his mind uninterruptedly, igniting his whole existence.
4. The Quran attaches great importance to reflection and serious
thought. There are a number of verses in the Quran that
indicate that innumerable signs of God are extant in the
heavens and the earth. The observance of God’s signs is the
greatest source of spirituality.
Spirituality called
Rabbaniat
in the Quran, involves focussing
the mind on higher, non-material realities. Materialism is the
opposite, indeed, the anathema of spirituality. For attaining
spiritual states one has to rise above material things, and focus his
