Day 15 - A Crash Course in Depth

Like any religion, Islam has several levels, but unlike most religions, the levels are clearly defined, build upon one another, and are bascially:

Ritual --> Realization --> Relationship

The first level of Islam is the actions of being Muslim. It means incorporating the Five Pillars of Worship into life, which are the ritualistic elements:
1. Making a public statement of faith that there is no God but God alone, and Muhammad was his messenger.
2. Praying five times daily
3. Contibuting at least 2.5% of your income and assets to charity
4. Fasting from dawn to dusk each day for the 30 days of Ramadan
5. Making a once in a lifetime pilgrimage to Mecca.


The second level, deeper and going beyond the ritual, is intellectually embracing the beliefs of Islam and changing your thought patterns. It is believing the foundational beliefs of Islam - and belief requires agreement with your mind. I think about people who believe things without knowing what it is they believe exactly.

Believe (verb)
to have confidence in the truth, the existence, or the reliability of something, although without absolute proof that one is right in doing so.

Believing requires abandoning passivity and embracing and active engagement of your thoughts, to allign with that which you're believing in. It involves the intellect, and the action of aligning your thoughts with a set of tenets that are not inherent in human existence.

The third (and deepest) level is the heart. It is the emotional investment in belief. It is the hardest to do, but it is the most important level, if you truly want to know God. For Muslims, the third level is Sufism - the heart of Islam. It is the conceptual framework of the religion and builds the bridge between the intellect and actions to the intangible creation of a relationship between yourself and God.

Note: When I say "sufism," I am simply referring to the original meaning of the word, not the group of people who identify themselves as Sufis necessarily. A "sufi" in the purest sense of the word is simply a Muslim who seeks direct experience of Allah. There are Sufi orders, and a group of people who identify themselves as Sufi, but I was just referring to the raw meaning of the word.

Only when you reach the third level can you truly understand the deep compassion and love within Islam, and, while you can live your life disregarding this level, only when you reach it have you begun relationship with God.