Islam, In the Name of God, Most Merciful

"...Can any intelligent person accept that the vast scheme of being... should be based on aimlessness and purposelessness?" The Seal of the Prophet and His Message by Sayyid Mujtaba Musavi Lari

About the author, Lari is the son of the Persian Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Asghar Lari, grandson of Ayatollah Hajj Sayyid Abd-ul-Husayan Lari. Writing in another of the books, The Seal of the Prophets and His Message*, from a collected set, the younger Lari, Sayyid Ali takes up the subject of the prophets and shares with his reader an insight into them, and their meaning within the Islamic faith; for that matter, he gives an indication of the meaning of 'prophet' within all of the monotheistic world. Writing in a beautiful and provocative way, Lari challenges his reader to consider a deeper, fuller meaning of man's relationship to god and prophet.

"In the world where our existence unfolds, we have never heard of or seen an organization, or administration that is left to its own devices without a [proper] supervisor responsible for it." As human society is highly social and structured, Lari writes that there must be an intelligent, creative being who has given each creature, in his own kind, a proper and fitting degree of perfection. How then, he muses, can a person, such as a prophet, who may play such a central role in the life of natural man, man of the original face if you will, be overlooked as a credible and viable source in the evolution of a human being? Lari writes, "...Can any intelligent person accept that the vast scheme of being... should be based on aimlessness and purposelessness? So just as the orderliness of life springs from the Creator, the same may be said of the whole scheme of being, including the existence of the human being."

"The question," Lari suggests is directed at thoughts of "punishment and reward here." He writes, "A God who holds back nothing in order for every creature to attain its perfection cannot possibly be indifferent to the human being's attaining the degree of perfection suitable to him. He [God] guides the human being to material perfection... to his true perfection... ." The Quran [Koran] states, "We will give help to both groups, those who worship the world and those who seek the hereafter, so that none should remain deprived of the favor and generosity of their Lord." (17:18)

It may be deduced from various writing in the Quran that the mission of the Prophets is clear and mandated from heaven, so that they may purify and conclude differences among human beings. "It is He who sent a great Messenger among the unlettered Arabs, one from among them, who might recite to them the verses of God's revelation, purify them from the filth of ignorance and evil characteristics, teach them the Law contained in His book..." (62:2) Thus writes Lari, "the Prophets came in order to convey to human beings Divine knowledge, free from all forms of illusion and error. They came to proclaim to the human beings a series of truths which a person would never have attained unaided, such as matters lying beyond the natural realm, like death, the intermediate realm and the resurrection."

One of the very most fundamental tasks of the Prophets is then to bring the excesses of that which causes the human being trouble and torment in his [natural] rebellious spirit, under control and reduce them to order, so as to pacify its rebellious tendencies... in the 'school of the prophets,' pleasures are not negated." Their essential value remains intact. For Prophets are the source of virtue and the emerging of human ethics, nurturing and curing the spirit of man in such a way that through realization, each man attains a greater and deeper knowledge of truth and ethical values. In imitation of the Prophets a may may then engage in the struggle against the dark forces, those which hinder his development as a creature in truth and holiness. Divine guidance is essential to all human development in matters of spirit and morality.

*This volume is published in several languages from the original edition, Khatam-i anbiya va payamash, first published in Farsi. The English translation used here is by Hamid Algar copyright 2000, The Islamic Education Center, Potomac, MD.

Uniquely You

Emotions, and the openness to the inter-twining of them  to discern a sense of deep spirit, a personal sense of the uniquely form  you, is a central task in the spiritual life.
As many religious thinkers have written, it is in the opening of the self, the stillness of the mind that what is essential arises, that enlightenment becomes possible; yet it is not as a striving or as a goal, but as the natural result of a lived life.
By experiences we learn the meaning of ourselves in the world; the oneness of all in our place is what Moore in his books seeks to examine.

He writes that it is not intellect ultimately, but living knowledge that makes a self. Yet, he does at times, fall into philosophical banter. That is his background and his training.
As a Roman Catholic,Moore came of age in the time before the "great transformation" of the Church, before Vatican II, before the rise of Pope John Paul II. His experiences may be unlike other's. Despite this, he offers valuable wisdom about the simplest and yet most complex of life, the human mind.
Writing in his book, The Care of the Soul Moore addresses the deep soul as found in the "emotions, relationships and culture... a way to be spiritual that is honest, close to physical life and emotion... [not]the opposite of spirituality [which] is escape... [Life] is to be made sense of in the depths of experience, in the never ending efforts to make sense of life, and in the ordeals that can be seen as spiritual initiations rather than failures to achieve a self."

In his book, Thomas Moore allows, he searches out within the great tangle of human emotion, of perceptions and feelings, the great  impossible, the paradoxical, and the apparent failures that seem to comprise one's life.
He recommends in response to human emotional suffering "a shift from cure to caring." Trying to be cured might be another type of perfectionism. In the human life, when seen as a sort of comedy, we all fail, we all fall on our faces. Taking ourselves so seriously, we forget that it is human to fail, it is human not to be perfect. 
And it is human to love, even that what we don't fully understand, even that we see as lacking, like a child; still we love, in full knowledge of imperfection. In doing so, we may ultimately learn of a holy foolishness which broadens and deepens our spirituality, making the self more resilient, more durable in the process.

One of the ways through this life process is by emptiness, Sunyata. Moore describes the empty self as not a loss, but a liberation, an opening for the possible. "Spiritual emptiness doesn't lead to resignation, or depression... it gives hope, frees us from anxiety...free from having to be in control."
Yet emptiness doesn't work if it becomes a project, to be controlled and directed. Emptiness is an active stillness, an allowance of what is, or may be.
 It is the perception that an angry bull is charging to you in an arena and stepping aside rather than confronting as it passes by. "Emptiness itself has to be empty." As a way, it is both an art and a practice.