You think that the [pilgrimage] of Hajj will become abolished,
people will stop offering salah,
the mosques shall be demolished,
beards shall be severed,
the Imama’s shall be thrown away,
everything shall cease to exist,
no one shall recite the Qur’an,
no one shall recite praises [of the Prophet (s)]
and then this shall mean that the religion has ceased to exist,
has become deceased and has expired
however, that’s not how it is.
What is the Soul and Life of Islam?
The greatest favour of HDE Gohar Shahi upon us is
that the esoteric knowledge that had once become obsolete,
HDE Gohar Shahi revived the esoteric knowledge anew.
When the era of Ghaus Pak (ra) came about,
the religion had become extinct.
What is the extinction of the religion?
It is vital to understand this.
You see,
in the older ages, in the olden times,
if the poor would be deprived of food and they no longer had any grains,
if they had to starve,
then in order to avoid verbally telling their children,
‘we don’t have food at home today’,
instead they’d boil stones in a pan to give the impression that they were cooking,
and they’d say, ‘we’re still cooking food’.
Now, this would be a lie.
Similarly,
if you close your eyes and I merely gesture that I am eating by producing empty fingers towards my mouth,
then this wouldn’t be considered eating.
Or if I bring the glass closer to my mouth,
the act was right,
however, I did not drink any water.
In the same way,
when you abide by everything the religion prescribes,
however, your spiritual heart is not present [in that act], then the religion becomes extinct.
You think that the [pilgrimage] of Hajj will become abolished,
people will stop offering salah, right?
The mosques shall be demolished, beards shall be severed,
the Imama’s shall be thrown away,
everything shall cease to exist, no one shall recite the Qur’an,
no one shall recite praises [of the Prophet (s)]
and then this shall mean that the religion has ceased to exist,
has become deceased and has expired
however, that’s not how it is.
In the way that human being is a compound of the body and the soul,
[from which] if the soul departs, the body dies,
similarly, the soul of the religion of Islam is esoteric knowledge,
it is the revival of the spiritual heart, it is the expansion of the chest.
‘Affa man sharhallahu sadrahu lil islami, fahuwa ala noorin mirrabihi’.
So, what is the life of the religion?
The life of the religion is the rectification of the spiritual hearts of humanity,
of the revival of spirits of humanity, of the revival of hearts, of the purification of the lower selves.
So, when came about the era of Ghaus Pak,
it was in an era in which esoteric knowledge had become obsolete.
People were engaged only with materialistic rituals and worship of the religion.
Hence, Ghaus e Azam (ra) promoted Zikr e Qalb,
as much as he could.
He justified the importance of the spiritual heart,
that the rectification of the spiritual heart must be done.
Just study the book of Ghaus e Azam.
You’ll find that in every sitting [of Ghaus Pak], no matter what the subject matter is,
the end result and conclusion of that sitting,
of that gathering and of that lecture,
is the rectification of the spiritual heart.
So, Sayedna Ghaus e Azam (ra) said,
‘The foundation of [belief in] the Oneness [of God] is [in] the cleansing of the spiritual heart.
Until and unless all non-God has been extracted from your spiritual heart
and divine light is introduced, you cannot become a true believer’.
This is the real form of [belief in] the Oneness [of God],
for all non-God to be excreted from your spiritual heart.
And the excretion of all non-God from your heart shall be done with divine light enters your spiritual heart,
when our spiritual heart is revived.
The Qur’an stated, didn’t it?
‘Affa man sharhallahu sadrahu lil islami, fahuwa ala noorin mirrabihi’,
‘and those that have expanded their chest with the name of God,
they shall then begin to receive divine light from their Lord’.
Allama Iqbal also said,
‘Produce a conscious heart,
for as long as the heart is dormant, all efforts shall be in vain’.
For as long as the heart is not made conscious,
all strikes [made in zikr] of ‘Allah Hoo’ shall be futile.
First is the awakening of the heart, then the zikr shall be fruitful.
Ghaus e Pak revived the religion,
[whereas], HDE Gohar Shahi revived the esoteric knowledge, the esoteric treasures.
There was no longer any mention of spirituality,
all [Sufi] orders had become empty vessels,
be it the Qadiriyya Order,
the Chishtiya Order
or the Naqshbandi Order.
All had become empty within.
They were only verbally known as Qadris, Soharwardis and Naqshbandis.
In the previous eras, there used to be three types of Qadris
and not even one form of Qadri remains in the contemporary era.
There used to be Qadri Zahidis,
Qadri Sarwarsi and Qadri Muntahis, which of these remain today?
Then there were the Naqshbandis.
Those used to be known as Naqshbandis, upon whose hearts used to be inscribed the name of God,
because Bahauddin Naqshband (rh)
would inscribe the name of God upon the hearts of his disciples.
And then there’s the Chishtiya family,
they too became empty,
nothing was left.
And all these orders that had been maintained for so long,
[they] continued them with [empty] heirs.