FROM THE SPIRITUAL TREE

There is a tree beside my house. I call it the 'Spiritual Tree'. I derive spiritual inspiration from it. A tree is an evergrowing being that was initially a seed possessing the potential of becoming a full-grown tree. A seed takes food from the universe around it and then grows into a tree. The same is true with spirituality, the desire for which is intrinsic to, and an integral part of, the very nature of every human being. To realize this spirituality, man must derive spiritual food from the universe around him. A tree converts carbon-dioxide into oxygen; a spiritual person is one who can take positive lessons from negative situations. From this perspective, a tree is an embodiment of a spiritual personality. —Maulana Wahiduddin Khan

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GRATITUDE EVEN FOR LESSER THINGS

ONE of the teachings of the Prophet of Islam is: “One who is not thankful for getting lesser things will not be thankful for getting greater things.”

This saying enshrines a law of nature. The law of nature is that by remembering a lesser event, events of greater importance are recalled. Psychological studies tell us that there are many separate files in the human mind. For instance, the file of love, the file of hate, the file of acknowledgement, the file of oppression, etc. Data about all those things which are part of one’s experience are constantly being filed away separately in the mind. When a person is affected by some event, his mind is stimulated and the file on that subject is then immediately opened up and all the events of that nature get classified anew in the human mind.

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One who is not thankful for getting lesser things will not be thankful for getting greater things.

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This law of nature is of great importance in the matter of thankfulness and acknowledgement. For instance, you received a mobile phone today, you spoke to someone some distance away, then you thought that earlier I was faced with such difficulty in making contact with someone who was far away, then with deep emotion, you thank God. At that point, your mind will be jogged. Then the file in the mind will be opened up in which all the items warranting thankfulness become reminders of greater events when thankfulness was appropriate. In this way smaller incidents of thankfulness become pointers to a greater degree of thankfulness, to the point where finally a spring of thankfulness overflows in a person’s heart. This feeling of gratitude increases our attachment with God and ultimately causes us to reach the highest levels of realization.