Seven Steps to Spiritual Intelligence

Musharraf Hussain

• Publisher: Kube Publishing Ltd
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9781847740786
• eBook ISBN: 9781847740809
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Islamic Theology

"When you are spiritually intelligent you become more aware of the big picture, for yourself and the universe, and your place and purpose in it."—Tony Buzan

How do we develop a spiritual intelligence? How do we change ourselves so that we can live by the universal spiritual values?

Seven Steps to Spiritual Intelligence tells us how to do do so, while also summarizing fourteen centuries of spiritual wisdom in Islamic literature, from the great scholars and Sufis of Spain, Morocco, Turkey, and India.

Musharraf Hussain, PhD, OBE, is the director of the Karimia Institute in Nottingham, United Kingdom. He has written numerous books on Islam including The Five Pillars of Islam and Seven Steps to Moral Intelligence.

Chapter One

The Meaning and Scope of
Spiritual Intelligence

In affluent societies, both East and West, surveys repeatedly show that people are surprisingly unhappy. The apparent joys of consumerism, consumption and material wealth in the affluent society mask the shallowness of worldly life. A young man told me, ‘I’ve got emptiness deep inside,’ as he described his feelings; others often tell me that they have ‘a deep void’ or that ‘a chunk is missing from my soul’. Linked with today’s materialism is celebrity culture, which replaces true role models with movie stars, singers and footballers. One of the more honest celebrities, the British comedian Russell Brand, remarked that ‘Celebrity in itself is utterly, utterly vacuous: after becoming famous you realize you need nutrition from a higher source.’ Here he is acknowledging and recognizing that there is something far greater and more satisfying than fame and wealth. However, in our stubbornness, we do not easily admit that there is more to life than wealth and fame. Instead, our egos can seek out immediate and instant pleasures in the forms of alcohol, drugs, sex, popular music and film, and even gluttony to satisfy our physical desires to fill the void within us, but only temporarily. And so we are beguiled. To avoid the void, we need to ask ourselves what is missing from our lives.

We all live such busy and frantic lives that we tend to become unconscious of the background noise around us and go on ‘autopilot’. In our spiritual lives too, there is a low level of awareness of our reality; this is akin to the blindness often used in the glorious Qur’an to describe disbelievers, or those who reject the reality of God and the Hereafter. This state of blindness also hinders us believers from performing our duties attentively. So what can open our eyes to our reality?

At the very crux of a fulfilling life is the central human need for positive relationships with oneself, one’s family and one’s Creator. This human need for positive relationships is dramatized in Pinocchio, the well-known children’s story. Gepetto is an Italian woodcarver who creates Pinocchio the puppet who comes to life. Pinocchio is a jovial character getting up to all sorts of boyish mischief, and the story grips our attention as he has one adventure after another. We identify with the parental care and concern of the ‘father’ Gepetto, as well as with the waywardness and the unclear direction of the boy. At one point in the story, lost in himself, Pinocchio turns to his ‘maker’ Gepetto saying, ‘Papa, I’m not sure who I am. But if I’m alright with you then I guess I’m alright with me.’ This innocent remark embodies a profound truth about relationships: with oneself, with one’s Maker and with others. Human beings are social animals depending upon each other for psychological and physical support as well as the spiritual link with their Creator.

Only spiritual intelligence can fill the ‘void’

The scenarios posed above rouses the following questions: what is missing from our lives? What can open our eyes to reality? Who is our Creator? The answer lies in spiritual intelligence, the journey to deeper layers of meaning and purpose in life and is a peculiar capability bestowed upon the human being by God that makes him more than just a biological creature dependent on material things. Ralph Waldo Emerson, an American philosopher of the nineteenth century, was a Unitarian or believer in the oneness of God; he cogently summarised spirituality as ‘the relationship with God, nature and humanity’. The most comprehensive term used in Islamic literature for the subject of spiritual intelligence is found in Sufism, the science of spiritual excellence and purification (ihsan and tazkiyah); it explains the inner dimensions of Islamic teachings. One of the first books written on this subject was the letter (risalah) of Imam Abul Qasim al-Qushayri (d. 1072). In it, he quotes extensively from various Sufis to explain the subject. For instance, he quotes Muhammad al-Jurayri’s definition of Sufism, ‘It means taking every sublime moral characteristic and leaving behind every lowly one.’ He also said Sufism means maintaining a vigil and awareness over one’s states and holding to correct behaviour. For Samnun, it means that ‘You possess nothing and nothing possesses you.’ For al-Junayd, it means that ‘You are solely with God and you have no other attachments.’ Ahmad ibn ‘Ajibah said, ‘It is the knowledge through which one attains Divine nearness, purification of the self and ridding oneself of moral vices and developing moral virtues; it starts with knowledge, continues through constant action and results in obtaining Divine proximity.’

Sufism is the knowledge and understanding of self-purification and personal and moral development that leads to outward and inward happiness.

The dictionary definition of spirituality

The English word ‘spiritual’ comes from the Latin spiritus, meaning breath. ‘Spirituality’ means concern with the spirit as opposed to matter, concern with sacred or religious things, the holy and the Divine, concern for a relationship with the soul, and not with external realities. The Qur’an mentions the Divine breath as giving life to the body of Adam, And I blew my breath into it (al-Hijr 15: 29). In other words, the Divine breath is what gave Adam life and links and connects the human being to his Creator’s breath that lives in the heart of man.

Spiritual intelligence is most important

In The Power of Spiritual Intelligence, Tony Buzan elegantly explains the purpose of this spiritual intelligence: ‘When you are spiritually intelligent you become more aware of the big picture, for yourself and the universe, and your place and purpose in it. Spiritual intelligence is considered by many to be the most important of all our intelligences and has the power to transform your life, civilization, the planet and the course of history.’ This inner aspect of human life is not easy to explain in words, and sometimes poetry can be a useful way into understanding and expressing spiritual intelligence. Rumi provides us with a poetic definition:

O God, show us everything in this house of illusion as it really is,

No one who has died is sad as a result;

His grief is that he has not sent enough for the Hereafter,

He has left the prison behind and finds himself in open fields filled with delight.

From this place of mourning, the dungeon of pain he has moved to Paradise,

A seat of truth not a palace of falsehood, a precious wine not whey.

Here Rumi has effectively paraphrased the blessed Messenger’s famous prayer, ‘O Lord, show me the truth as it really is, and give me the power to follow it, and show the world to me as it really is, and give me the capacity to avoid it.’ (Tirmidhi)

In another place Rumi explains the illusory nature of the material realm: ‘If anyone were to tell a baby in the womb: outside is an ordered world, a pleasant earth, wide and open, brimming with thousands of delights and delicious foods – mountains, gardens and fertile fields, its wonders beyond description, why do you stay here drinking blood, in this cramped cell of filth and pain? Unaware of the realty, the baby would turn away in utter disbelief, the blind having no imagination. It has never experienced anything beyond the womb, and cannot visualize such a place.’ The reason why the world is called illusory is that it gives the impression of permanence, of being an everlasting destination and that is false, for only the Hereafter (al-akhirah) is permanent and everlasting.

Spiritual intelligence is the knowledge through which one attains Divine nearness, purification of the self and ridding oneself of moral vices and developing strong character; it starts with knowledge, continues through constant action and results in obtaining Divine proximity.

Defining the scope and nature of spiritual intelligence

Spiritual intelligence is the knowledge and understanding of the meaning and purpose of life, and undertaking practices that enhance connection with God and help to acquire the status of God’s representative on earth (khalifah). For the German philosopher Immanuel Kant, ‘Man is dependent on God’ and ‘needs to believe in a creator in order to function properly’. The Ultimate Reality is God, the Creator and Lord of the universe. The glorious Qur’an intimates that They only know the outer surface of this present life and are heedless of the life to come. Have they not thought about their own selves? God did not create the heavens and the earth and everything between them without a serious purpose and an appointed time….’ (al-Rum 30: 7–8) Therefore, spiritual intelligence is an essentially reflective and active expression of Islamic beliefs of the oneness of God, guidance through the prophets and scripture, and in the life hereafter. That is why spiritual intelligence cannot be regarded as separate from Islam; rather, it is the essence, core and crux of the Islamic way of life.

Spiritual intelligence is about the big questions of life

Spiritual intelligence helps us to understand the human being’s relationship with God, the motivation to love and obey Him so that one lives in conformity to the Divine will, or a sense of God-consciousness where one lives in the Divine presence. The Messenger

alluded to this particular meaning of spiritual intelligence in a tradition known as the Hadith of Gabriel, in which he called spiritual intelligence ‘ihsan’, and defined it as ‘worshipping God as though you see Him; if you cannot see Him, then remember He sees you’ (Bukhari). Islamic teachings provide a clear methodology for developing spiritual intelligence, ways of drawing closer to God, with the purpose of achieving the Lord’s pleasure (ridwan Allah), Paradise and, eventually, the Beatific Vision in the Hereafter. Spiritual intelligence is not about manners or even moral values of compassion, generosity, love or patience; it is about the right kind of consciousness and awareness of the reality around us. It provides answers to the big questions of life, birth, death, suffering, and good and evil; in short, it is concerned with the meaning and the purpose of life.

Spiritual intelligence puts humanity in touch with reality

Spiritual intelligence shows how to express one’s relationship with God; the different modes of prayer, singing and reciting litanies, night vigils, fasting and giving charity are ways of growing spiritually. The Prophet of Islam often sought the Lord’s help by means of these words: ‘O Lord! Help us to remember You, thank You and serve You.’ No wonder Telhard de Chardin, the famous Western writer on spiritual intelligence, concludes that ‘We are not human beings having a spiritual ex...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Preface
• 1. The Meaning and Scope of Spiritual Intelligence
• 2. The Essentials of Spiritual Intelligence: The Prerequisites for Ihsan
• 3. The Spiritual Intelligence of the Beloved Messenger
• 4. The Seven Steps of Spiritual Intelligence
• 5. The Seven Ranks of Spiritual Intelligence: Charting the Spiritual Journey
• 6. The Benefits of Spiritual Intelligence: Love of God and Strong Character
• 7. The Masters of Spiritual Intelligence: The Friends of God
• Select Bibliography