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The Shari'a: A Spiritual Path?
Arabic has a most intriguing word for "soul," and it is nafs. Intriguing because the same word also means "life," in the sense of a single human life, a bodily life. As such, nafs also means "body." Oddly enough Ð at first glance Ð nafs refers to both the body and the soul. The mystics recognized this dual meaning, and used nafs to refer both to the higher, divinely-oriented tendency of humanity, as well as to the lower, materially-oriented one. This dual, diametrically opposed usage of a key word is not the result of ambivalence or ambiguity in the language of the Qur'an. For in fact, there is no dichotomy to begin with. The bifurcation between bodily and spiritual life lies not in reality, but in our own dualistic perception. The reason why there is only one word for both soul and body, is because in reality, they are both one. If indeed we seek purity, then we must know that there is no purification of the soul without the body. If we seek order, then we must know that there is no discipline of the inner life without discipline of the outer life. This intrinsic connection is exemplified in the most mundane aspects of `ibadah: we physically wash our limbs in order to prepare our souls for worship; we suffer hunger and thirst in order to fortify our faith; and we give away our money in order to purify our reliance upon our Lord. The shariah, in fact, is not at all the externalistic system of rules that the phrase "Islamic law" connotes. The rules that comprise the shariah, that theoretically govern our actions, are like the continents upon the earth's surface. Deeper than the shallow glance, is the place where the shariah does its real work, where it functions to shape the individual's nafs so that he or she can truly become a mu'min, a keeper of the primordial covenant. It is in those depths, that each of us grapples with the shariah, parts of ourselves pulling us ever downward into darkness, parts of us pulling us upward toward the light and the breaking surface. The truth is that the arduous process of acting rightly in the world, happens mostly on the inside. The shariah is, in reality, a spiritual path. Previous story: What Our Artists Teach Us Next story: July & August 2003 Gathering Recaps
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