In Islam there are five recognized pillars of the religion: lā ilaha illallah, muhammadun rasulullāh, there is no God but and Mohammed is his messenger; prayer; fasting; charity; and hajj, the pilgrimage which every Muslim is to do once in their lifetime if they can afford it, if it’s feasible.
But the basis, the bedrock, for all of these things is morality and the ability to do that which is correct; the ability to know the difference between what’s right and what’s wrong.
I was told stories of heroin dealers in certain parts of the world, Islamic parts of the world, who go and ask blessings from their local imam or shaykh for their ventures in this trade, a kind of bizarre use of God’s intervention, or an attempt at use of God’s intervention, to do that which is inappropriate. We as individuals have to adjust our behavior to that which is an aid to the world, to that which is a kindness to the world, to that which does good in the world.
Even though the qualities of Allah are not mentioned as the pillars of the religion, there’s no question that the understanding of these qualities and the integration of these qualities into our being is essential to the appropriate practice of the religion. Without that integration, and without bringing those qualities into our being, we can proclaim day in and day out “allahu akbar”, we can do the witnessing day in and day out, but if our morality is lacking, what in truth are we witnessing? What in truth are we saying?
Bawa would speak about the heart that is a rock and the heart that has melted and the difference between the two. The heart that is a rock can move through this world and cause all sorts of calamities to all of those around it without any effect on it because it has become rocklike, because of the longer has feeling, because it no longer reacts. But if the heart is melted, if the heart is soft, if the heart is gentle, if the heart has feeling, if the heart as empathy towards others, if the heart feels the pain that others feel, feels the hunger that others feel, then that heart cannot call calamity. It would be as if it were cutting itself, as if it were harming itself, so we as individuals who claim or attempt to be on the path of Sufism, the path of righteousness, the path of truth, the path towards Allah, must become soft in our nature, must become forgiving in our countenance, must become kind in our attitude, must become gentle in our way.
Without this, we turn our back on all of our proclamations of truth. We turn our back on our prayers. And we turn our back on whatever it is we proclaim that were part of that involves the truth.
