To Be Truly Spiritual, One Has to Be Human-Centric
By
Sumit Paul, New Age Islam
19
February 2024
"The
so-called spirituality is the realization and synchronization of all the finest
human qualities and traits. There's nothing transcendental to it."
Madalyn
Murray O'Hair, a famous female atheist from the US
"
Your personality is spiritual."
"
If a person has realised it, their greatest asset is their spirit of true and
pure love—whether that love is for Allah Almighty or humans."
Thanks,
Mr Ghulam Ghaus Siddiqi. This is a very succinct way to encapsulate an
individual's whole persona and I liked it.
In
fact, we all need to become spiritual in a humane and humanistic manner. Well,
most of us are spiritual because of our love for god/Allah and our respective
faith/s. There's nothing wrong. But, 'spirituality' right from the beginning,
has always been a misunderstood and misused word. Today, spirituality has
become synonymous with religiosity. In fact, spirituality has become a
euphemism for religiosity. This is the relegation of the word 'spirituality'
which has nothing to do with any esoteric belief/s or supernatural phenomena.
In his
seminal essay, ' Camus: A 'Spiritual' Atheist, ' Conrad Clinz defined the term
'spirituality' by divorcing it from any kind of perceived divinity. French
existentialist Camus was the greatest spiritual person despite being an avowed
atheist. How? To be spiritual is to be aware of your own existence. In other
words, spirituality is existential awareness. It's the realization of one's own
self. When one's aware of one's own existence, he or she is aware of the
existence of all that he or she can relate to. Clinz further says, "
Camus' existential awareness tied him with the existence of all creatures. He
never cared for Books and Gods. But he cared for humans. He, therefore,
understood spirituality far better than all the so-called spiritual people put
together."
Because
of his love for mankind, Camus could talk of all creatures as if they were his
existential extensions and offshoots. This is called spirituality. This
dovetails you to all and sundry and doesn't exhort you to tie your
apron-strings to someone up in heaven whom you never saw and who'll never
appear before you in any form at any point in time.
So,
why waste your love, empathy and piety for something you only heard about but
never saw? And if you say that you experienced it, then it could be a
hallucination. Even if there's something up there, can you relate to IT the way
you relate to your fellow humans and love them? So, why not focus on getting
connected with those you can relate to? Here, I'm not bothered about whether or
not there's any Supreme Power hidden in the Universe. My point is: Every
individual's spirituality is his/her relatability to the world and people
around. What's the use if one loves an unknown and unseen god but doesn't love
the humans which are very much visible?
Most
of the people who call themselves 'spiritual' are god-centric or sect-centric.
But to be truly spiritual, you've to be human-centric. Your unconditional and
overflowing love for all creatures makes you a loving and spiritual person.
The
problem with our age and with humans is that we've belittled everything down to
a cult. Today, spirituality is a cult. Kabir's wisdom is relegated to a cult.
Vipul Rikhi's book cultifies Kabir's teachings. 'Liberal' Islamic scholar Javed
Ghamidi doesn't approve of the construction of a Hindu temple in the Arab
Peninsula because somewhere he's a part of a cult, called Islam. Can these
people be called 'spiritual'? Nope. They're all cult-followers and worshippers.
But a truly spiritual person will never look at Kabir through the prism of a
panth/sect or cult and a genuinely spiritual Muslim will never care for what's
being built in an Arab country or in India. Nor will a truly spiritual Hindu
ever care for constructing a temple in Abu Dhabi. That's a sheer waste of money
and an outright religious ego-trip of a megalomaniac. Today, political
religiosity is being projected as spirituality. Alas, hardly any of us has
imbibed the spirit of spirituality. Be humans, love your fellow humans. This is
the essence of Humanity and the crux of Universality.
…
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 the
world's premier publications in several languages including Persian.
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