Q. One of my friends advised me to attend meditation session at an ashram. According to my friend it helps to keep mind cool and fresh etc. Is meditation possible in Islam, too?
(Mohammed Sulaiman Shariff; msshariff@hotmail.com )
A.
Yes, meditations help relieve mental fatigue. The primary stage of almost all meditations involves a practice of driving all thoughts away. Coupled with straight-back postures and breathing exercises it aims at providing rest to mind by keeping the thoughts away. Then in the next stages of meditations recommended by different groups, the thoughts and philosophies of the group concerned are injected into mind. It hypnotises the mind in accepting the suggested thoughts. The peace of mind and metal relief is achieved mainly because:
- The practice of driving all thoughts away at the primary stage of meditation has already healed the stresses.
- All meditative practices involve moral teachings in the form of suggestions. A meditator who has already experienced relief from mental fatigue develops a faith in the instructor or Guru who is teaching him and starts accepting new morals and good values suggested at the meditating sessions. This further relieves the mind of stresses.
- At some stage of every meditation, philosophies of the respective groups are introduced in meditative suggestions. The meditator is by now in trance and he easily accepts these ideas by heart. When discarding all rationality and debates of ideas associated with an average man, he accepts one line of thought his life becomes harmonious and he experiences a recurring and permanent peace of mind in life.
It is the third stage of meditation that is dangerous. The meditator is brainwashed into believing in the philosophy of the Guru leading him in the meditation. Nowhere is this transformation phenomenon more visible than in Brahmakumari Ashrams who teach meditations, they call Rajyoga. In their meditations, the subject is asked to concentrate on a small red bulb ahead. In the background above is a picture or sketch of Brahmakumari founder Baba Lekhraj referred to as Brahma Baba in their vocabulary. This sketch also resides in the subconscious of the person in trance. There are scientifically designed lighting effects and after a while the whispering suggestions of Didi (the teacher at the Ashram is a lady called Didi) reverberate in the mind of the person in meditation. He listens and takes to the suggestions gradually. Then he is asked and taught to repeat those ideas and suggestions of Brahmakumari faith himself over and over again, while meditating. This is the process of self-hypnosis and autosuggestion. True it gives peace of mind and consequently heals many a disease but I have met scientists and engineers at Brahmakumari centers who start believing absurdities like the life cycle of the world is 5000 years and same events repeat after every 5000 years with same persons. Even the doctors among them start believing that in Kaliyuga (after about 30 years hence, according to them) the conceptions in the wombs will be possible by Yoga-Bal (the power of meditation) and the conjugal relationship or male sperms will no more be needed for childbirth.
A Muslim need not go to any Ashram for meditation if he knows how to perform Salat. Salat is a meditation of the highest order but most Muslims have forgotten it. They read Namaz or recite Namaz or even offer Namaz but they do not meditate in it though it was pre-requisite. A Salat does not even start without the state of meditation. The Prophet (Pbuh) instructed a person in Salat to meditate upon the presence of God who is watching the devotee. A state of trance is reached when he really meditates upon it. Then comes the voice of The Word of God from the lips of Imam. If he really started Salat with a state of meditation, the voice of Imam seems to be coming from a spiritual source. The words of Qur'an (if he knows Arabic) work as suggestions in a trance and he gradually starts believing in the orders and teaching of those words. There are repetitions of Allahu Akbar and the Tasbihaat of Ruku' and Sajda etc. They all work wonder in a state of trance. They are autosuggestions. An individual Salat (Sunnah and Nafil) is based completely on autosuggestions where there is no outside voice but his own recitation works as autosuggestion. Remember what Qur'an said about Zik'r (Remembrance and not merely chanting)? "Beware! In remembrance of Allah do hearts find peace" (13:28) Salat, while offered properly and associated with meditation of Allah's presence and His watchfulness is the remembrance of the highest order and must provide peace. Qur'an proclaims: "Recite what is sent of the Book by inspiration to thee and establish Regular Salat: for Salat restrains from shameful and unjust deeds; and remembrance of Allah is the greatest (thing in life) without doubt. And Allah knows the (deeds) that ye do." (29:45)
Qur'an announces that Salat will prevent you from shameful and unjust deeds. Please note that it is not said that a person offering Salat should restraint himself from committing shameful acts and unjust deeds. Salat will restraint the devotee from evil. On the other hand we observe people involved in shameful acts and unjust deeds though they may be regular Namazis for years! The claim of Qur'an cannot be false. They in fact did not offer Salat in the prescribed manner. It is high time that camps of teaching Salat with meditation be organised. Alas all our books of Salat procedures, Salat taught to the children by elders in their homes and even Salat taught by Mullahs in Madrasas is comprised of recitation and postures only. There is no meditation and hence it is neither providing peace of mind nor restraining from unjust deeds.
