Need for Spirituality

I feel that many people today who profess membership of a religion fail to profess spirituality. 

By religion I mean Argyle and Beit-Hallahmi’s (1975, p. 1) definition: “a system of beliefs in a divine or superhuman power, and practices of worship or other rituals directed towards such a power.” To be religious for many people is simply to have certain beliefs and to perform certain rituals. I pray, therefore, I am religious. I fast, therefore I’m religious. I believe in God, therefore I’m religious.

This approach falls short of religion because religion must include spirituality. By spirituality I take Armstrong’s (1995, p. 3) definition: “the presence of a relationship with a Higher Power that affects the way one operates in the world.” The way one operates in the world is the difference between success and failure. Belief and ritual do not always lead to ethical living and practice. Many religious people (i.e. people who believe in God and pray, fast, and perform pilgrimages) are arrogant, envious, jealous, bitter, angry, unremorseful. These things are spiritual diseases—diseases of the heart, the spiritual heart.

Spirituality is the purifying of the heart—the ridding of the diseases that inevitably plague and darken it. Thus, spirituality is the core of religion. If I believe in God, I must believe that this God wants me to be a certain way, to think of myself and others in a certain way. This way of being and thinking is spirituality, or being spiritual.

In Islamic civilisation, spirituality came to be known by the term tasawwuf (Sufism). Imam Malik, the founder of one of the four Sunni schools of Islamic law, is reported to famously have said: "man tasawaffa wa lam yatafaqqa faqad tazandaqa, wa man tafaqqaha wa lam yatasawwaf faqad tafassaq, wa man tasawaffa wa tafaqqaha faqad tahaqqaq." This means, "whoever studies jurisprudence [tafaqqaha] and didn't study Sufism [tasawwafa] will be corrupted; and whoever studied Sufism and didn't study jurisprudence will become a heretic; and whoever combined both will be reach the Truth."

The practitioners of tasawwuf came to be known as Sufis. While much maligned by the reformist Salafi movement which emerged over the past few centuries from Saudi Arabia, Sufis continue to exert influence on Muslim life in all parts of the world. This is not surprising considering the boom in the self-help genre in modern culture over the past few decades. People in the modern world are suffering from the after-effects of too much interaction with technology and less communication with the Divine. Spirituality, or Sufism, redresses this problem.

The self-help genre in today’s culture has led many people to leave behind religion. This move is unhelpful. People are thirsty for depth in daily life. Religion provides depth by giving meaning and purpose to life. Spirituality is a component of religion. It is possible to work on one’s ego without being a Muslim or Christian or Hindu, but working on one’s ego has the ultimate aim to polish the heart to reflect the Divine Truth. Without this ultimate aim, one’s spirituality is deficient.  

May God grant us religious, spiritual lives. May He purify us from vile traits and adorn us with noble character. Aameen.

References

Argyle, Michael & Beit-Hallahmi, Benjamin (1975). The social psychology of religion (Wholly rewritten ed). Routledge & Kegan Paul, London.

Armstrong, T. D. (1995). Exploring spirituality: The development of the Armstrong measure of spirituality. Paper presented at the annual convention of the American Psychological Association, New York, NY.