“A Sufi Is a Son or Daughter of the Present Moment”

By Sumit Paul, New Age Islam 19 July 2022 We All Tend To Think Too Much Of Our Future Which Adversely Impacts Our Present ------ “Ik Pal Ki Palak Par Hai Thahari Hui Ye Duniya/ Ik Pal Ke Jhapakne Tak Har Khel Suhana Hai” (the world rests on the eyelid of time/ until it winks, everything seems so sublime). This profound couplet from Sahir's quill for the film 'Dhund' (1974) has always got me thinking. Because, this couplet encapsulates the Sufi wisdom of the famous aphorism, 'A Sufi is a son or daughter of the present moment.' Upanishads also state, Vartamaanasya Sampramanasya (Only the present is real) and it's a known fact that Sufis imbibed the spirit of Upanishads. Not just Sufis, but all humans must stop dwelling upon the past and future. Omar Khayyam says, “Enjoy the moment that you've at your behest/ Future will easily take care of the rest " (British Persian scholar Sir Andrew Simpson's translation unlike those of Edward Fitzgerald, who distorted Omar Khayyam’s Rububiyat and its essence). When Fariduddin Attar began to write his treatise on Ramz -e- Khudi (Mystery of Ego/Self) and equated that with the idea of Khuda, a wet blanket tried to dampen his zeal by commenting that this work would take minimum fifty years for completion. Attar said, 'I'm focused on this moment. I don't think of next five minutes, let alone next fifty years.' Needless to say, he finished his Magnum Opus well before the stipulated fifty years. Had he dwelt upon too much of future, he'd have lost sight of the present and would never have been able to complete his task. We all tend to think too much of our future which adversely impacts our present. Future is always in the womb of uncertainty and past is forever buried in the sands of time. What we all have is this very moment, the Eternal Eureka moment that's available to all of us. Socrates knew that he'd be executed sooner or later. Yet, he was unfazed because he knew that he at least had a week before his death. So, he started learning a difficult musical instrument because he didn't want to waste the present moment/s, thinking unnecessarily of a deadly future. A 9th-century Muslim commander was captured and thrown into slammer. He was unable to sleep because he was certain that he'd be tortured and killed the next day. But then, deep inside, he heard the words of his Sufi teacher, “A Sufi is a son of the present moment." At that moment, it dawned on him that his fearful thoughts about the next day were merely thoughts, not real. Only the present moment was real, and with that awakening, he was able to fall asleep. Morning came and in lieu of being killed, he was exchanged for a prisoner from the opposing side. For us, too, a more hopeful morning dawns when we repeat that Sufi mantra and open ourselves to the truth that only the present moment is real. Ludwig Wittgenstein said the same thing in his recondite tome " Tractatus " that future is logically and illogically abstract and the past is meaningless. Ergo, concentrate on the present to make the future concrete. By the way, this is the 100th year of this most complex book. Existentially speaking, the flowering of human existence is an outcome of moment/s. Jaspers calls it, Non-futuristic evolution. It means, if you try to evolve at this very moment, you needn't worry about your evolution in future. In other words, your future evolution is a shoo-in. So, zero in on the present. We all can evolve if we consciously and cautiously stay focused on the present. Ezra Pound concurs with Rumi and says, “Time Past and Time Future, all are a Moment's adventure." So very true. Make this moment the very best. You needn't worry for the rest. An Urdu poet summed it up, 'Na Maazi, Na Mustaqbil/ Imroz Hai Meri Manzil' (Neither past, nor future/ Today's my goal). ---- A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul is a researcher in comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He has contributed articles to world's premier publications in several languages including Persian. URL: https://newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/sufi-moment-omar-khayyam/d/127515 New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism