Spirituality in Modern Times

Several intertwining meanings make up spirituality today. Spirituality was previously seen within the realm of religious devotion from almost all religious traditions. In Buddhism, the spirit is looked at as an arena for spiritual growth through meditation and devotional practices that lead to a state of inner peace and tranquility. In the Christian tradition, spirituality comes through animating one’s life with faith through the application of the beliefs of and values of the tradition. The person of Jesus Christ is central to the Christian conception of spirituality, because he is the embodiment of the values of love and sacrifice, which are central to Christian beliefs. Likewise, Jewish spirituality comes from applying observing Jewish teachings in accordance with the Halakha; Jewish law. It is also loving and worshiping God faithfully. The Islamic tradition does not differ from the other Abrahamic faiths in its view of spirituality. In Islam, spirituality is God’s love and consciousness. The concept of Tawheed is central to understanding Islamic spirituality. The worship of one powerful God who is exalted from having any partners is seen as the faithful act of devotion to God. This devotion to the Sustainer culminates in a direct connection with him that uplifts the heart into a state of purification and soundness. In the Muslim Scripture, Judgment Day is described as “a day in which neither wealth nor children shall be of any benefit [to anyone], except one who comes to God with a sound heart” (Quran, 26:88-89). In a commentary on this verse, Hamza Yusuf, an American Islamic scholar mentions that “the sound heart is understood to be free of character defects and spiritual blemishes. This “heart” is actually the spiritual heart and not the physical organ per se, although in Islamic tradition the spiritual heart is centered in the physical.”

Modernity has often looked at religious spirituality as a decaying practice. This is mainly because religious traditions generally marginalized modernity. The twentieth century was the bloodiest century in the history of humankind. The wars that people were engaging in left little room for people to think about spirituality. Accordingly, spirituality, be it institutional or otherwise, witnessed a severe decline. As Chang Khong mentions in the opening chapters of her autobiography, social work that stems from spirituality is an efficient way out of the civil strife that communism and other political ideologies brought about.

I believe that spirituality goes hand in hand with religious devotion. The idea that one may achieve spirituality outside of a religion seems unlikely to be plausible. There are certainly spiritual people who are not associated with any religion. An example would be Sue Monk Kidd who, although Christian, went in pursuit of her own spirituality while detaching herself from the religious institution she belonged to. In my opinion, this type of spiritual quest is crucial for self-introspection and growth. It lacks, however, a substantial component in a spiritual journey. In fact, the spiritual journey that does not put God’s servitude at the vanguard of its priorities is less likely to be successful than the one that does. Seeking spirituality with an imperative other than knowing God is a vain pursuit. Thus, the centrality of the divine in any spiritual endeavor is pivotal.

There are several spiritual paths within Islam that deal with achieving Taq’wa or God’s consciousness. Among those paths there is Sufism. Sufism, also referred to as the “path of love”, was described by Mustafa Naja, an Islamic Scholar, as “absolute uprightness, being with Allah, having presence of heart in one’s slavehood [to Allah], and conformity to the Qur’an and Sunna [tradition of the Prophet Mohammad] in every breath, step, spiritual experience, and state.”

This type of spirituality which positions God’s servitude, worship, and consciousness at the top of its list of priorities may be achieved through the purification of the soul through prayer, kindness to God’s creation, fasting, and constant remembrance of God. In this way the “heart” becomes polished and pure.

In the Islamic tradition, there are several ailments of the heart that blemish ones spirituality. Miserliness, wantonness, hatred, inequity, love of the world at the expense of the Hereafter, envy, blameworthy modesty, fantasizing, fear of poverty, ostentation, relying on other than God, displeasure with the divine decree, seeking reputation, false hopes, negative thoughts, vanity, fraud, anger, heedlessness, rancor, arrogance, antipathy towards death, obliviousness to blessings and derision are but a few of the many ailments that can afflict the heart, preventing it from reaching its full potential. In this respect, the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) said: “surely in the breasts of humanity is a lump of flesh, if sound then the whole body is sound, and if corrupt then the whole body is corrupt. Is it not the heart?” Jesus Christ also said: “Blessed are the pure at heart, for they shall see God.”