- Sunset @ Cox Bazaar Bangladesh ©SadhanaYoga
I cannot adequately explain what Allah is; In Bradaranyaka Upanishad, when Yajnavalkya was questioned by his students to describe God, he could only say, “It is not this and it is not that” (neti, neti, neti).
Allah is the creator, without which we would not be here, he is in my heart, he is my soul, without him I do not exist.
He is without form; he is colourless, characterless and formless, my Universal Spirit is omnipresent and omnipotent and like cosmic energy and indescribable. For a Muslim to even try to imagine what Allah looks like is unimaginable yet unnecessary, as he is formless but he exists.
We fear him and love him. I know that when I perform my prayers, my meditation, reading my scriptures, when I talk to Allah he is there, guiding me in my journey and even when I do wrong I know that he will forgive as long as I learn from my mistakes. As with Patanjali’s Yamas and Niyamas, or Buddhas Four Noble Truths we also have our ethics and codes of practice that we try to adhere to and it is hard at times, but knowing that Allah is in our heart makes can make it easier – as we have seen above, due to kleshas (obstacles) such as avidya (ignorance), asmita (ego) etc that can cloud our judgements and lead us to sway ‘ off the path’.
Therefore, we follow 5 basic principles of Islam
- Believe in the oneness of God
- Perform daily prayers
- Fast during Ramadan
- Almsgiving
- Pilgrim to Mecca.
This will lead us to our path of peace on this life and the next.
As Muslims we believe in the Atman and after death the soul passes on.
Most Merciful
“Say (O Muhammad): He is Allah, (the) One. Allah the Eternal Absolute [Allah- the Self-Sufficient Master, Whom all creatures need]. He begets not, nor was He begotten. And there is none co-equal or comparable unto Him.” Qur’an: 112: 1-4