SAI BABA AND ISLAM

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SAI BABA AND ISLAM

Prof. Zeba BasbiruddinSri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning, Prashanthi Nilayam

"I have come not to disturb any faith but to reaffirm each one's belief, so that

a Muslim may become a better Muslim ..." After reading these assuring words of

Baba, who would like to proclaim that mankind is lost? The Covenant, for me,

strikes a double cord. It reminds me of an ancient promise of the Gita and the

Quran that God guides mankind from darkness to light. Also, it brings home the

truth that in order to improve, one has to seek within one's self.

At Baba's Feet I have learnt many facts of my own faith. For instance, when the

cobwebs of cliches and external impositions are removed, one realises that all

search for the same meaning in life, all seek happiness that is unchanging.

Only one has to change the focus of one's priorities. This change of focus

happened to me several years ago with Baba's injunction: "You don't even know

your own religion, how can you know Me?"

That has been the beginning of an inward journey. Baba has always assumed a

presence that remains with me - the "I" in me. The meanings of several words

and concepts have appeared in a new light in the process of growth; for

example, surrender, ideal and the goal of life acquire a different dimension.

SURRENDER

The term surrender is the literal meaning of the word 'Islam'. Dissolution of

"otherness" from cosmic force is surrender. It signifies giving up the illusion

that man is merely a physical body. Is this not what Baba has been repeatedly

telling us? When the awareness is uprooted from the temporary and the transient

values and planted in the soil of the eternal, the process of surrender is

completed. In Baba's words it is ALLAH. Phonetically 'A' is Atma and 'L' is

LAYA. Hence Allah is a state of awareness where "otherness" merges into Atma.

Surrender also means, according to Baba and the Sufis, we seek Allah without a

desire for reward or fear of punishment. Baba has indicated how you become a

devotee.........when you surrender yourself completely and are ready to carry

out every command of the Lord." (Gita Discourse Page: 12) The devotee

concretizes this ideal and his life becomes a pattern for the community to

follow. In Islam this ideal devotee of the Lord is presented in the character

of Prophet Mohammed.

THE IDEAL

It is said that the character of the Prophet of Islam has been the Quran. In

other words the message in the book of Wisdom has been practiced by the

messenger. Humility, according to Baba, is an outstanding quality of man. The

Prophet, it is pointed out, "never has claimed for himself any leadership

except rendering truthfully whatever Allah has ordained." The Quran is also

full of examples of the Prophet's love of Allah. Baba has often related how the

Prophet desired to spend the last moments of his life remembering God instead of

advising his disciples.

Baba also corrected a Muslim devotee who referred to the Prophet having eleven

wives. Baba said, "No, he had only one wife - his love of Allah." Thus, in

Islam, while a simple and honest life is marked out for an ideal man, the core

of existence is always the love of the Divine. See ONE, say ONE, (Shabistari:

The Secret Garden) is the dictum. This whole-hearted attachment to the Divine

signifies both for Baba and Islam, the goal of life.

THE GOAL

Undimmed by any other concern the goal has always been stressed by the Sufis in

Islam. It is in essence a state of awareness, when darkness and light are

surpassed and the cosmos is taken into the heart, when only love exists, then

one has just touched the goal. This experience, variously named by

philosophers, is basically the same. One need not go to heaven. Its signs "are

everywhere in the world as well as within," says the Quran. "The whole world is

filled with God." Baba points out (Gita Discourses: page 247): "the multiplicity

of form in the external disappears." Both Baba and Rumi advise: "Keep the eye on

the Infinite." Surprisingly, the analogy used by them is similar - that of the

sugar in sweets and light in lamps. The use of "I" in the Quran and by Baba for

the personal aspect of God also is the same. At the same time He is impersonal

too. He remains "One without a second." (Gita

Discourses: Page 21). When correctly understood, this also is the meaning of the

first principle of Islam which declares:

GOD ALONE IS (LA ILLAH ILLA ALLAH)

http://www.cosmicharmony.com/Av/ShrdSai/ShSai.htm

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