“He is with you wherever you may be.” (57:4)
“We are closer to man than his jugular vein.” (50: 15)
“In whichever direction you turn, there is the face of God.” (2:109)
“God encompasses all things.” (4:125)
“All that is on earth shall pass away, but the face of the Lord shall abide,
suffused with brilliance, majesty and glory.” (55:26-27)
Thus meditation means forgetting all else besides God and is an intense
remembrance of Him. Those who have undergone rigorous training under
the guidance of a spiritual mentor may achieve this even when not in their
teacher’s presence.
Although these practices set Sufis apart from the body of the community,
they nonetheless always remained an integral part of it and played a major
role in shaping the popular face of Islam. In general, the Sufis looked upon
themselves as Muslims who take most seriously God’s call to perceive His
presence both in the world and the self. They tend to put more stress on
looking inward than outward, on contemplation over action, spiritual exercise
and development of the self over dry legalism, and cultivation of the soul
over social, worldly interaction with people. Sufism considered itself, and
does so today too, a science of how to attain a direct knowledge of God and
a personal experience of the Divine.
The aim of meditation in Sufism is to activate spirituality. As the Sufis
believe that the heart is the centre of spirituality, it is the heart then that
needs to be activated by turning to the practice of meditation. Once the
heart is activated, a Sufi can reach his goal.
As already mentioned above,
dhikr
may take a very vivacious and
Th e Su f i C on c e p t o f Me d i t a t i on 212
