By: Sadruddin Noorani, Chicago, USA
We all have values that we aspire towards, that serve as a reminder that faith is as much about how comfortable we are with ourselves and the way we treat fellow humans, as it is about daily acts of devotion. Let’s think about compassion, and specifically about developing compassion towards ourselves.
There is a hadith of the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) which says:
“All that is in the Revealed Books is contained in the Qur’an. All that is in the Qur’an is contained in the Fatiha and all that is in the Fatiha is contained in the Bismillah.”
From this statement, we can begin to understand just how important a phrase such as “In the name of Allah, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful,” can be.
A Bedouin once asked how the basmallah could be bestowed upon him. The Prophet replied, “Have compassion on yourself and on others and the basmallah will be bestowed upon you.” Compassion, like gratitude and humility, is not just about the way we act towards each other, but is also an attitude, which shapes the way in which we relate to and think about the Divine in our lives.
In the Qur’an, compassion often takes the symbol of water. We can see this in Holy Qur’an – 11:52 where Allah speaks to us, saying:
“And O my people! Seek your Lord’s forgiveness and then turn to Him in repentance; He will send on you clouds pouring down abundance of rain, and add strength to your strength.”
Here water could be likened to God’s Mercy. In response to our request for forgiveness, Allah responds by showering us with His Compassion. Water is a beautiful metaphor, for there is nothing as soft and yielding as water. At the same time, it is powerful enough to wash away entire continents. And yet, water, like compassion, is necessary for life. According to the Qur’an, wherever water falls, life flourishes. The Earth was parched, says the Qur’an, but Allah sent down the waters of mercy and the Earth became “clothed in green.” If one way of understanding water is as the water of Divine Mercy, we begin to read these verses and the role of Compassion in creation in very different ways. Likewise, the person who practices compassion is blessed with authentic strength and at the same time blesses the world with life-affirming grace, mirroring in his own actions, the Divine Impulse.
To develop and grow compassion for ourselves, we must embrace not only joys of life, but also its sorrows. Our uncomfortable feelings must be embraced with mercy and gentleness. We tend to avoid, deny, and minimize feelings that make us feel threatened. Unpleasant feelings such as anger, sadness and jealousy are difficult to accept because we see them as separate from ourselves, and yet they are part of the human experience. When we acknowledge them, and envelop them with mercy and gentleness, we allow them to heal and become part of us. The teachers of many spiritual traditions have believed that the more sorrow carves into our being, the more Joy we can contain. We should not run towards pain and suffering, but we should equally not run away from them. It is precisely in those times immediately after we feel most abandoned, most hurt, most unhappy with ourselves and our actions that we feel the flow of Divine Compassion and Mercy operating around and within us, rather than ignoring our pain or flagellating ourselves with self-criticism. We are warm and supportive when confronted with the imperfection of life rather than cold or harsh. Start with approaching whatever emotional experience you have been through with balanced awareness, curiosity, and detached interest.
When Moses (Hazrat Musa) (peace be upon him) was asked by God (in Chapter Taha) to deliver the Israelites from bondage in Egypt, his first prayer was not one of practical assistance, but rather, “O My Lord! Open up for me, my heart!”
In Hadith-e Qudsi, God tells us through the Prophet:
“Neither Heaven nor Earth can contain me, but the heart of a true believer can contain me.”
In this hadith, the Divine resides within the human heart. And if this same heart is also the source of Compassion, we must do our best to keep our hearts clean and pure. The mystical tradition of Islam is about polishing one’s heart. One way to do this is through the regular practice of zikr, remembrance, or through the more sustained practice of worship-prayer (ibadat-bandagi). For in doing so, and with regularity, we expand our hearts, and allow them to become sensitive to the Divine within us, while also being able to be compassionate to ourselves, which is strongly associated with psychological well-being. Higher levels of self-compassion are linked to increased feelings of happiness, optimism, curiosity, connectedness, as well as decreased anxiety, depression, rumination, and fear of failure.
Previous post: Basmalah – Bismillah
Ismailimail 