Page 10 - Quranic Wisdom - New.indd

Introduction

The definition of spirituality given in the dictionary is—the
state of being opposed to worldliness. This definition is partly
true, for unworldliness is not just for the sake of unworldliness.
It is for the sake of a higher goal. And that goal is to develop a
spiritual way of life.
There are two kinds of spirituality—negative spirituality and
positive spirituality. Negative spirituality means renouncing the
material world, or leaving the society and settling in some jungle
or on some mountain. This kind of negative spirituality has no
creative role. It suppresses all the natural qualities of a human
being, who then dies without having made full use of his natural
potential.

Quranic spirituality is spirituality of the positive kind. It
means living in the world and trying to derive spiritual food from
material things as a matter of intellectual discipline. It means to
control rather than kill one’s desires.
The fact is that God Almighty has created a person with
great potential. It is not good to suppress this potential. One
should rather avail of this potential for the sake of personality
development. It means experiencing all the goods and all the
evils of society and trying to live with others without reaction.

Positive spirituality can be termed creative spirituality. For
example, there is a verse in the Quran which says with reference
to the believers that “they forgive people when they are angry.”
(3:134). It means that positive spirituality is based on the formula
of anger management rather than on trying to become a person
who has no feelings of anger. The formula for positive spirituality
can be summarized thus: turn your negative sentiment into
positive response; make friends out of enemies.

The formula for positive spirituality is based on the principle
of simple living and high thinking. Simple living and high
thinking are complementary to each other. Simple living saves
you from all kinds of distractions and high thinking saves you

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