Submission To God The Sunday Guardian | September 26,  2010 | Page 14

The Quran advocates the culture of spirituality. a Quranic spirituality has nothing mysterious about it. It is a well known discipline. It is only an alternative name for intellectual development. The formula for Quranic spirituality is expressed thus in a Quranic chapter: “Become men of God” (3:79). Becoming a man of God means adopting a God oriented life. The God oriented way of life is a complete way of life. It calls for the use of all human faculties. It means God oriented thinking, God oriented speech, God oriented behaviour, God oriented morality, etc. The God- oriented life is another way of saying the spiritual life. In this verse, the Quran uses the word al-rabbani. It means a spiritual person or a rab-oriented person. In fact Islam is a religion of spirituality. Islamic spirituality is based on contemplation. It is mind based rather than heart based. When you think about the truth and you discover it, then you become a spiritual person. When you ponder over the world around you, when you thinking goes beyond your immediate surroundings, you discover the truth that is beyond you, beyond time and space. You become conscious of yourself as well as your Creator. This is the beginning of the spiritual process. Islamic spirituality is God -centred, not self- centred. When you discover your Creator, you establish communication between yourself and your Creator. It is like establishing a connection between the electric bulb in your room and the powerhouse situated outside your room. Just as the electric connection illuminates your room, so also does the divine connection illuminates your whole personality. Then you become Rabbani or a man of God.