Monday, February 4, 2008

Body vs. Spirit

We are taught by our Creator in the Last Testament sent by Him to Mankind that when Iblis or Satan was asked by God to bow down to Man in the form of Adam(pbuh), Iblis refused to do so and argued that Adam(pbuh) was created from clay whilst he(Iblis) was created from fire.Iblis thus understood himself to be superior to Man.

The Last Testament, the Qur'an, however explains thus the creation of Man:

"Behold!thy Lord said
To the angels: I am about
To create man from sounding clay
From mud moulded into shape:

When I have fasioned him
(In due proportion) and breathed
Into him of My spirit..."______Surah Al Hijr Ayat 28&29 (15:28&29)

What Iblis failed to understand or perceive was that Adam(pbuh) was not just created from clay but that God had breathed into him of His spirit and that Mankind therefore does not just consist of clay but contains something that God had breathed into him of His spirit that renders Man deserving of being bowed to by Iblis and the angels.

The clay was used to constitute Man's body and if Man had been left in that state without having been breathed into by God of His spirit, then indeed might Iblis have been right and Man be undeserving of being bowed to by Iblis and the angels.

Presently when we view one another,does our vision of the other cease at the perimeters of that other's body? Or are we able to extend our vision beyond the confines of that other's body into the realm of his spirit---one that God had deemed worthy of Iblis and the angels bowing to? Do we see him in essence in his bodily-form or do we see his essence as spirit? If we see him in essence in his bodily-form ,then does not our sense of vision extend no further than that of Iblis? Are we then no more deserving or perhaps even lower than Iblis?

We should hence ask ourselves : "Do we merely see the 'clay' or do we see what God had breathed of His spirit in that body of clay?"

Therein perhaps lies the answer to Man's quest for peace and harmony in this world.Therein perhaps lies the means to end Man's propensity for racism, discrimination, envy and selfishness. If we can train ourselves to habitually view others not in their bodily-form but as one containing something that God had breathed into of His spirit, can we then discriminate against and harbour ill-feelings towards him into whom has been breathed of the spirit of God?

Clay is clay and unto the earth it shall return but our spirit having been vested with a vestige of the immortality of God shall in time transcend the dimensions that demarcate this sphere of illusion into the sphere of reality, where Man being in essence spirit shall begin to understand the essence of Reality and begin to truly understand the things that he used to do.

How truly it has been said:

"Remember always that we are not so much
humans seeking a spiritual life as we
are spirits for now having to lead a
human life."

No comments: