Five Senses & the Five Pillars of Islâm

Author: Amany Hussnein In a Hadith Qudsi, Allah says that if His servant tries to come closer to Him, by voluntary good actions, He will love him and if He loves Him, He will become the sight by which he sees, the hearing by which he hears and the hand by which he dares and forces and the legs by which he walks, and if the servant seeks His refuge, He will answer and if he asks Him, He will respond. This Hadith is telling us that by using our limited five physical senses to do acts of worship and servanthood, we can be provided with limitless spiritual senses that are originally the senses of Allah's Breath, those who represents His Command on Earth. The five pillars of Islam are God's given spiritual senses. By practicing these five pillars with our physical senses, with sincerity and faith our spiritual senses will evolve into real everlasting senses that can give our resurrected bodies, eternity, happiness and peace. (1) Shahâdah - Witnessing: I bear witness that La ilaha ila Allah, and that Muhammad is Allah's Rasul, messenger and servant. "Shahâdah" is our inner spiritual sense of seeing. Through the ayât (signs) in the Universe, we can witness Allah's ability, compassion, power, might, strength, etc. We can witness Allah's Attributes within everything. If our sense of Shahâdah/seeing of Allah increases, we can sense that He is watching us wherever we are, and we behave accordingly to that Watchful Eye. We can also witness His signs "ayât/clues" within ourselves that serves as guidance to us. To demonstrate this level of seeing, I like to mention this story about al Ghazâlî, the author of "Ihya' Ulûm ad deen/Reviving the Sciences of Religion". After he wrote thousands of pages trying to explain the mystery of Allah, life and the world, he was full of the sense of self-accomplishment. As he was sitting on the board of a river, a bird came and dropped from its beak a water drop that she picked from the river, and put on one of his pages. As the bird repeated this act, Al Ghazâlî realized in it a direct message for him from Allah. He realized that Allah was telling him: that the knowledge that He gave him was only like a drop from the ocean of Divine knowledge. This brought Al Ghazâlî to humbleness. This story illustrates to us how being God-conscious makes us see or witness the ayât of Allah in the Universe. They see Allah beyond everything, and that is the depth and meaning of the Shahâdah: to be always on alert and attentive to Allah's Presence, Message and Guidance. To be able to see with our inner most hearts, as the Qur'an speaks of real seeing and comprehension. This is the depth of the saying of the Hadith Qudsî: "When Allah loves His servant, He becomes the sight by which He sees". (2) Salâh - Prayer: It is obligatory on Muslims to pray five times a day. Prayer is our inner spiritual sense of hearing. It shows that we hear the call of Allah's Wish or Command for us. Then, by reciting the Qur'an we hear the Divine Words, message and Guidance. As our sense of spiritual hearing evolve, we become true slaves and servants of Allah, who submit to His Command. We become the tool, through which Allah answers the prayers of others. We hear humanity cry, and the cry of those in need and we respond as God's representatives. The visions of those true believers are what left after and is part of Prophethood. `Umar Ibn al Khattab could actually internally see the danger of the trap that was facing the Muslim army when he warned them "Ya Sariyatul Aljabal, irj`i irji`i": (O people who are walking by the mountain, return, return). Because there were people among that group whose spiritual sense of seeing was evolved, they could sense his warning and return upon his advise. This is the depth of the saying of the Hadith Qudsî: "When Allah loves His servant, He becomes the hearing by which He hears". (3) Sâwm - Fasting in Ramadan is obligatory upon every healthy, adult Muslim. Fasting is our inner spiritual sense of "Tasting". Through fasting, we taste the suffering and the pain of the hungry, homeless, lost and the poor. We also taste the sense of our spirits that don't eat or drink or get in intimate physical relations, but in a more refined and meaningful ways. We taste the spiritual food. We also taste the "sweetness" of our "faith" as the prophet said: "By Allah, there is a sweetness to Îmân". By resisting our egos and curbing its desires, that gives room to our goodness and beauty to manifest and be tasted by us and by others, we gain the faith in tasting the sweetness of our goodness in the Hereafter. Whenever anyone tries to harm us, we respond: "We are fasting", which means we can be patient in tasting the bitter taste of harm and life's afflictions. In a much deeper level, as that of prophet Muhammad (pbuh), Allah will make us taste the fruits and drinks of Paradise, as it was mentioned in the prophet's saying: "Allah feeds me and provides me with drink (while fasting)". (4) Zakâh - Giving Alms Giving Alms and Charity is our inner and spiritual sense of "touching". By giving food, water, a smile, care, help, respect, etc. we in fact are touching others spiritually with justice, compassion and love. These beautiful qualities are our very sense of touching. We touch the Hand of Allah through given our pledge to Him to give charity, and doing voluntary acts to show our Love to Him. People can touch Allah's Hand through touching the hands of His representatives, like when they gave their pledge to the prophet and the caliphs after him. What an honor that can be! This is the depth of the saying of the Hadith Qudsî: "When Allah loves His servant, He becomes the hand by which he dares (or force) with". When one gives in charity his whole being and life, then it will be Allah's Hands that throws the arrow, and Allah's Hands that make plants grow, through one's prayers and charitable giving. (5) Hajj - Pilgrimage Hajj is our inner spiritual most subtle sense of smell! Our five senses are not complete unless we go in the journey to the House of Allah, even once in our lifetime. When we die we return to Allah, to our Eternal Abode of Grace "Jannah" and so Hajj means we have to die before we die (as the hadith says). We have to detach ourselves from the temporary world, and get attached to the Eternal World, like we do in Hajj. We have to practice the Hajj internally all the time. We have to be in continuous repentance (returning) to the world where the hidden essence of our reality and state will manifest and live. The Rasul (pbuh) told us that after death, a pious God-conscious soul will have a beautiful fragrance, and the soul that denied and/or concealed the Truth will have an offensive odor. This is because every action we do, is restored inside our brain as electromagnetic waves, but also it is restored as chemical changes in the RNA of our cells, as recent scientific studies explains to us. Chemical changes are the cause of producing odors. Some reactions produce beautiful fragrance, but others produce offensive odors. This is done in a very subtle way, that our physical noses cannot sense, but our inner spiritual noses can. After death, the life's energy does not disappear, but it transforms to another subtler types of energy, and the subtle realities of our states will manifest within us, and will remain in us after resurrection for Eternity. Since, Hajj is the death before death, this means that our inner nose should be aware of the subtle odors that comes from our actions, emotions, and thoughts. There are saying of the companions of the prophets, in which they expressed that they were perceiving the fragrance of Paradise, that pushed them further and further to be devoted and give their whole life to Allah, and became martyrs. It is said that prophet Muhammad's fragrance was more beautiful than that of Musk. It is also said that between the prophet's platform, and his grave is a garden from Paradise. A garden with all of its beautiful subtle fragrances. When a person's Hajj is accepted, one returns as he was just given birth by his mother. Newborn babies are known to smell wonderful. Be restoring your original nature, as a spirit from Allah, you can restore your inner spiritual sense of smell and you can enjoy your eternal beautiful fragrance. Our physical five senses are limited and are just low reflections or shadows of our eternal spiritual real five senses. Our spirits have inner eyes, ears, skin, tongue and nose. These organs are the intention and qualities of our behaviors. If we use or depend only on our physical five senses, then we are missing our full potential. This limitation that people put upon themselves will degrade their spiritual experience. After their lives in the bodies end, and the physical senses are lost and buried, their spiritual senses become concealed and they continue to live in the environment their deeds, emotions and thoughts made for them. Because they caused atrophy to their spiritual senses, they will live in regret and suffering. They will say to Allah: "Why did you resurrect me blind and I used to have my sense of seeing in the lower life"", and Allah will reply to them: "So our signs used to come to you, but you chose not to see it". But, if we become aware of our inner spiritual five senses, use and depend on them more and more, then our physical five senses, will follow and become a reflection to more subtle and beautiful limitless senses. Then, when we leave our bodies, we are aware of our subtle spiritual senses, and we can continue to enjoy the sense of witnessing, hearing, touching, tasting and smelling in another formless non matter status. After resurrection, these non matter essences will dwell in our bodies, giving it an everlasting youth, beauty and health, and we will live in the Abode of Grace for Eternity, being able to witness Allah's Beautiful Face, hearing His speech, touching His Hand, tasting His fruits and smelling the essence of His Gardens. Contact Info of Author: NfrTt@aol.com published in www.crescentlife.com