Principles of Islam
53. Spirituality
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reach such a low ebb mentally and emotionally,
that, spiritually, they become incapable of making
progress.
Life’s experiences for both the spiritual and the non-
spiritual are like the grasping of a rosebush. On
each branch are beautifully shaped and coloured
blossoms whose scent refreshes from afar the weary
in body and spirit. But also on each branch are the
inevitable thorns. The spiritual individual will
carefully avoid the thorns in order to take
possession of the blossom, or if by accident, his
hands are pricked by the thorns, he dismisses it as a
trivial matter. But the unspiritual person, in his
unseemly ways will rudely grasp both thorns and
flowers, and will recoil in anger and dismay,
baulked of his prize, and burning with resentment.
Where spirituality makes the best of life’s
experiences – although there is no rose without a
thorn – the lack of spirituality makes the worst of
them. Where spirituality implies elevation of the
soul, the lack of it implies the baser instincts of
jealousy, greed, selfishness and exploitativeness.
