“A Sufi Is a Son or Daughter of the Present Moment”
By Sumit Paul, New Age Islam
19 July 2022
We All Tend To Think Too Much Of
Our Future Which Adversely Impacts Our Present
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“Ik Pal Ki Palak
Par Hai Thahari Hui Ye Duniya/ Ik Pal Ke Jhapakne Tak Har Khel Suhana Hai” (the
world rests on the eyelid of time/ until it winks, everything seems so
sublime).
This profound couplet from Sahir's quill for the film
'Dhund' (1974) has always got me thinking. Because, this couplet encapsulates
the Sufi wisdom of the famous aphorism, 'A Sufi is a son or daughter of the
present moment.' Upanishads also state, Vartamaanasya Sampramanasya
(Only the present is real) and it's a known fact that Sufis imbibed the spirit
of Upanishads.
Not just Sufis, but all humans must stop dwelling upon the
past and future. Omar Khayyam says, “Enjoy the moment that you've at your
behest/ Future will easily take care of the rest " (British Persian
scholar Sir Andrew Simpson's translation unlike those of Edward Fitzgerald, who
distorted Omar Khayyam’s Rububiyat and its essence).
When Fariduddin Attar began to write his treatise on Ramz
-e- Khudi (Mystery of Ego/Self) and equated that with the idea of Khuda, a
wet blanket tried to dampen his zeal by commenting that this work would take
minimum fifty years for completion. Attar said, 'I'm focused on this moment. I
don't think of next five minutes, let alone next fifty years.' Needless to say,
he finished his Magnum Opus well before the stipulated fifty years. Had he
dwelt upon too much of future, he'd have lost sight of the present and would
never have been able to complete his task.
We all tend to think too much of our future which adversely
impacts our present. Future is always in the womb of uncertainty and past is
forever buried in the sands of time. What we all have is this very moment, the
Eternal Eureka moment that's available to all of us.
Socrates knew that he'd be executed sooner or later. Yet, he
was unfazed because he knew that he at least had a week before his death. So,
he started learning a difficult musical instrument because he didn't want to
waste the present moment/s, thinking unnecessarily of a deadly future.
A 9th-century Muslim commander was captured and thrown into
slammer. He was unable to sleep because he was certain that he'd be tortured
and killed the next day. But then, deep inside, he heard the words of his Sufi
teacher, “A Sufi is a son of the present moment." At that moment, it
dawned on him that his fearful thoughts about the next day were merely
thoughts, not real. Only the present moment was real, and with that awakening,
he was able to fall asleep. Morning came and in lieu of being killed, he was
exchanged for a prisoner from the opposing side. For us, too, a more hopeful
morning dawns when we repeat that Sufi mantra and open ourselves to the truth
that only the present moment is real.
Ludwig Wittgenstein said the same thing in his recondite
tome " Tractatus " that future is logically and illogically abstract
and the past is meaningless. Ergo, concentrate on the present to make the
future concrete. By the way, this is the 100th year of this most complex book.
Existentially speaking, the flowering of human existence is
an outcome of moment/s. Jaspers calls it, Non-futuristic evolution. It means,
if you try to evolve at this very moment, you needn't worry about your
evolution in future. In other words, your future evolution is a shoo-in. So,
zero in on the present.
We all can evolve if we consciously and cautiously stay
focused on the present.
Ezra Pound concurs
with Rumi and says, “Time Past and Time Future, all are a Moment's
adventure." So very true. Make this moment the very best. You needn't
worry for the rest. An Urdu poet summed it up, 'Na Maazi, Na Mustaqbil/ Imroz
Hai Meri Manzil' (Neither past, nor future/ Today's my goal).
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A regular
columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul is a researcher in comparative
religions, with special reference to Islam. He has contributed articles to
world's premier publications in several languages including Persian.
URL: https://newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/sufi-moment-omar-khayyam/d/127515
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