Family of the Heart Seminar - June 05, 2005
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INTRODUCTION TO SEMINAR ON "MYSTERIES OF MYSTICISM" |
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by Najeeb Kazmi, June 2005
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Friends,
On behalf of “Family of the Heart” and myself, I would like to welcome you to the seminar, “Mysteries of Mysticism”. This is one of the seminars in a series aimed at creating an atmosphere of learning and dialogue on subjects of interest. Our last seminar on “Darwin’s Theory of Evolution and Religion” was a success and the dialogue which followed over the net was very enriching.
For the benefit of those who are not familiar with this forum, “Family of the Heart” is a group of people, who promote the cause of free thinking and dialogue. The only purpose behind the formation of this group is to promote genuine dialogue between different schools of thought. Our desire is to develop personal and affectionate relationship between friends rather than the one, based on religious, linguistic or nationalistic affiliations by breaking down walls of prejudice and intolerance and build bridges of compassion, creativity and dialogue. We hold regular meetings and seminars which turn out to be very productive and thought provoking with an atmosphere of cooperation rather than confrontation, acceptance rather than judgment, encouragement and inspiration rather than rivalry and jealousy. Regarding today’s seminar, we have a number of speakers representing diverse schools of opinion.
My name is Najeeb Kazmi and I am the seminar moderator. I will be introducing each speaker as we go along.
Abdul Mutaal is an engineer by profession, but since a long time he has been actively writing and working on a number of issues. I have seen him evolve from a passionate activist to a cool minded man of intellect in the last 32 years.
Farzana Hassan Shahid is the president of “Muslims against Terrorism”, Canadian Chapter and is also very active in many areas of social emancipation and women’s right issues.
Dr. Tahir Qazi is basically a medical doctor, practising his profession in the US. He is, however, a very well read and forward looking intellectual, who actively participates in events and issues which touch or lives. We welcome him here today.
Masud Shiekh is an active member of Family of the Heart and participates in intellectual discussions and brain storming. He will speak on a very philosophical subject.
Dr. Khalid Sohail is primarily a psychiatrist by profession. He has been writing poems, stories, travelogues, novels and essays for the last more than two decades which have been published in English, Urdu and Punjabi languages.
Mysticism is a way of life in which
a deeper identity is discovered and lived. This deeper identity, beyond the
already known personality, is in harmony with all that exists. This deeper
identity, or essential self, has abilities of awareness, action, creativity and
love that are far beyond the abilities of the superficial personality. 
Mysticism is less a doctrine or a belief system than an experience and way of
life. It is a tradition of enlightenment that carries the essential truth
forward through time. Its expression must not remain limited to the religious
and cultural forms of the past. The truth of Mysticism requires reformulation
and fresh expression in every age.
Throughout different ages, philosophers, scholars and men of letters have worked and contributed a lot to mysticism all over the world. Plato, Vedantic saints, Unity-loving Christians, Buddhist monks, Jainist monks, Muslim mystics who were the believers in the Unity of God (Wahdat-ul-Wajud), Theosophists and the modern humanists.
Basic principle of mysticism is that the Real and the Absolute be considered much beyond human imagination and thinking. Such a belief is sure to relieve men of the concept of a personal and impersonal God. The concept of a personal God leads to idol-worship while the concept of an impersonal God leads to duality.
The same personal concept of God gives birth to the belief about Heaven and Hell, miracles and supernatural elements. The priests on this plea, start meddling into the mundane and spiritual affairs of people. In this way, the concept of divine justice becomes a mockery. Mystic does not believe in the concept of a personal God, therefore he thinks that all such concepts and beliefs are inconsistent with reality.
In view of this contrast in human nature, there are people who feel compelled to think that if this universe had come into being under a plan, its system would have been based on justice and harmony, making no room for chaos and confusion. But, on the other hand, the design of the universe shows that there is a designer. The movement of the stars and the planets within their orbits; day followed by the night and night followed by day; the change in seasons; the procreation of living beings and their decay after a certain period of time the change of water into vapours and the metamorphosis of vapours into snow are some of the positive proofs that there does exist a force.
The order and disorder to be found in this world or the universe lead to two concepts. One of them is that although the forces of ‘good’ and ‘evil’ are in perpetual conflict with each other, there is a plan and a purpose in the creation of the universe. The other concept is that the creation of the universe is the result of an accident and, therefore, everything is accidental as such.
Mystics opine that every individual should be free with regard to his faith and belief. It is not the duty of a state either to propagate or safeguard any particular faith. Any intervention on the part of the state or religion or sect in the personal beliefs of an individual is infringement of human right and liberty. In the same way, the mystic is a votary of human rights and liberty. In the same way, the mystic is a votary of non-violence. He does not approve the use of brute force because violence breeds violence. To a mystic, bloody revolution is of no significance because anything, which is achieved through fear, is not lasting.
It is a well known fact that as religions unfortunately degenerated, similarly, mysticism also lost much of its light. Just as educated young people all over the world in general and sub-continent in particular are feeling disgusted with religion as a result of its exploitation at the hands of the clerics and obscurantist, mysticism, too, appears to have lost its charm and appeal.
Based on the true teachings of mystics, when the highest objectives of life are total unity among human beings, it becomes imperative to give precedence to right knowledge, self-reform and good behaviour. As the Great Saint and Mystic, Sultan-ul-arifeen Hazrat Sultan Bahu says:
[…..If one becomes a dervish without acquiring the right knowledge, he becomes an infidel. Should such a person pray for a hundred years, he will not understand God nor will the veil of error be removed from his eyes and his heart will remain a temple of ignorance]
The time, today, is limited and the subject is very vast, so I would like to request all the respected speakers to limit their deliberations to the allocated time of 15 minutes, and then we will take short questions from the participants. We cannot address all questions today, so, I suggest we continue our debate through our web site, online. Any and all of you are invited to join the dialogue.
Thanks you.
Najeeb Kazmi
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