SPIRIT OF ISLAM FEBRUARY 2018

5 Spirit of Islam Issue 62 February 2018 FROM THE EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Dr. Farida Khanam has been a professor at the Department of Islamic Studies at Jamia Millia Islamia in New Delhi. A Study of World's Major Religions, A simple guide to Sufism are two of the books amongst many others, of which she is the author. She has also translated many books on Islam authored by Maulana Wahiduddin Khan. Currently, the chairperson of Centre for Peace and Spirituality (CPS International), an organization founded by her father Maulana Wahiduddin Khan, she is a regular contributor of articles to journals, newspapers and magazines. Dr. Khanam has edited Maulana’s English translation of the Quran and has also translated his Urdu commentary of the Quran into English. Under Maulana Wahiduddin Khan Peace Foundation, along with the CPS team, she is designing a series of courses on peace- building, countering extremism and conflict resolution. THE CULTURE OF SPIRITUALITY W HAT is spirituality? Spirituality is an experiential state of being. It is non-material and intangible, yet it is the inner essence of everything, like the nectar is to the flower. Nectar can be found only in a flower, but spirituality is omnipresent. You can extract spirituality from all things, even from wood, thorns and stones. But this requires a creative mind. The honeybee can extract nectar only from flowers, but a prepared or creative mind can extract spirituality from everything—even from abstract ideas. Art is everywhere but it requires an artist to discern the artistry, and he can do so only if he has a truly prepared mind. Those who want to live in a state of spirituality must prepare their minds. It is futile to try to discover spirituality directly from the external or physical world. For example, you observe a thorn, then you see a flower and the branch of a tree. Then your mind is aroused and you start thinking. An idea takes shape and your mind is further engaged. You think that, in reality, the flower and the thorn are the same. Both spring from the branch of a tree, but both reflect their own inner power which allows them—both deriving from the tree—to assume their own distinctive shapes by availing of their separate energy sources. The same is true of spirituality. Spirituality is a creative phenomenon. It is the mind that creates spirituality, as it is the mind that gives birth to an idea. Just as after a very delicate process, the bud—potential flower—is converted