A few days ago, I was watching a video of the former batsman of the Pakistani cricket team, Inzamam-ul-Haq. He was talking about the time when they were playing a tournament in Miami, Florida where Brian Lara also came. The Tableeghi Jamat (An Islamic missionary group) asked Inzamam-ul-Haq to preach to him, so they invited Brian Lara and they told him about Islam. He was listening to what they were saying very carefully and attentively. He listened to them for a couple of hours, then they had dinner. After the dinner he was going back to his hotel. On the way, Inzamam-ul-Haq asked him what he thought. Brian Lara said, ‘What you told me about the religion of Islam is wonderful but I will convert to Islam if you give me one example of a Muslim who practises it. I don’t see it in you or anybody else.’
This is the case with all the religions now. Until sometime, I thought people should practise what they believe, but then I realised they do not have power to practise what they believe. The inclination towards practising what you believe has to come from within you. Something inside you has to be willing to accept those sets of beliefs. Your inside is materialised; it is still under control of your carnal and monetary desires and love of the world. You can’t really practise it until your inner is spiritualised.
The change will come when your inner is spiritualised.
Muslims are not what Islam wants them to be today because the spiritual system in that religion has been destroyed a long time ago.
It is the spiritual system in the religion that will keep your men and women intact with the teachings of that religion.
You begin to practise your beliefs when your inside - your heart and your Nafs (Self/Ego) – is purified.
I have seen a lot of individuals who claim to be spiritual people. However, their lifestyle, thought-process, behaviour and conduct are really bad. They’re not up to the spiritual standard. His Divine Eminence Lord Ra Riaz Gohar Shahi has mentioned qualities of the devout. When you have become a sincere devout and a spiritual man, you behave accordingly. You adopt a spiritual lifestyle. You do not hate or hurt anybody. You do not deprive people of their rights; you do not deprive anybody of their belongings. You do not hurt anybody’s feelings - I have seen people who claim to be spiritual but ‘round-the-clock they hurt feelings of others and they do it on a regular basis. They don’t even realise what they are doing.
When you hurt feelings of a spiritual man, God doesn’t like it. God confiscates all the divine light that you might have engrossed in you. So, as a result of your misconduct and misbehaviour with a man of God, you end up losing all your divine light and your spiritual status. Then what happens is your character is demonised: you think you are a spiritual man but you behave like a demon.
The Story of Bayazid Bastami
His Divine Eminence Gohar Shahi has mentioned an incident of a great saint: Bayazid Bastami. His Divine Eminence said that there was a man who did not like Bayazid Bastami; he hated him. Oftentimes, this man would speak ill of him. When Bayazid Bastami came to know that this man spoke ill of him, Bayazid Bastami started to send him money. That man received money on a regular basis and at the same time, he would speak ill of Bayazid Bastami. One day, his wife scolded him.
She said to him, ‘What kind of a man are you? He sends you money you receive it. You use it, but you don’t stop talking bad about him. You are taking favours from him and at the same time, you are speaking ill of him. That’s not fair. Either you should stop receiving money or if you want to receive money, then don’t talk bad about him.’
Then he stopped talking bad about Bayazid Bastami. When he stopped talking bad about him, Bayazid Bastami stopped sending him money. When he did not receive money, he went to see him.
He asked him, ‘When I talked bad about you, you would send me money. But since I stopped talking bad about you, you stopped sending me money. Why?’
Bayazid Bastami said, ‘When you started talking bad about me, because of what you did, my sins started burning; God would wash away my sins. So I took it as if you were my servant and you were doing a great service to me. You were talking bad about me and my sins were burning. Now you are not talking bad about me. I am no longer receiving a service from you so I am not giving you money.’
And what happens today? For example, when you talk bad about me, I will talk bad about you. If you say that I am evil, I will say that you are the father of evil.
But a spiritual man does not respond to any bad thing with another bad thing.
If somebody does bad to you, you shouldn’t be doing the same. Why? Because if you are a spiritual man, you would hate to do bad.
After this story, His Divine Eminence Gohar Shahi said, ‘Those who talk bad about men of God, about good people and those who allege people for false, they are those who have Nafs-e-Ammarah (The Commanding Self).’
I noticed that when Nafs is on the way of purification, you do not have the urge to talk about people. When your Nafs is really dirty and filthy you have this itch: you want to find faults with everybody for except yourself. It is an evil attribute. Look around you and see people, and you will find out how many good and bad people are around you when you see them finding faults with the entire universe - but how dirty filthy are they, they don’t want to know it. This one particular evil trait of talking bad about people behind their back [is enough to recognise a person as not spiritual]. Even if a spiritual man spots something wrong in you, he wouldn’t publicise or advertise it. He thinks to himself, ‘Maybe he will correct himself later. Why should I publicise or advertise it?’ This happens only when you are spiritualised and when your heart and Nafs are purified.
I want you to know that you will recognise people in the light of HDE Gohar Shahi’s teachings. Don’t wait for me to say it; I give you the tools of spirituality because you must know your friend and foe.
If you make friends with a man who is not a spiritual man, his company will destroy your spirituality.
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