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Life is beautified by the seasons of spring and autumn. While flowers bloom in spring, in autumn, tree become bare of leaves and ready themselves to welcome the arrival of new flowers and leaves. Though both seasons come and go, trees remain where they are and bear fruit. In every fruit there are countless trees connected to the one tree that bears it. This single tree is an instrument of life for all other trees and continues to play the sound of life through them, while remaining soundless.
Everyone has seen bamboo. Bamboo is grass that behaves like tree, which is round in shape and hollow on the inside. Due to its unique structure, bamboo is used to create musical instruments, and the flute is the most distinguished amongst them. Nature has established a connection between the hollowness and roundness of a flute such that, when a flautist blows their breath into its hollow core and expertly places their fingers over its holes and lifts them, the melody that disperses out of it turns a listener’s inner world upside down.
The essence of the life of bamboo lies in the sound produced by a flute. The shell of wood displays its inner essence and becomes subservient to the sound.
Respected readers! You have observed a flute; it has a triangle and circles in it. In Sufism, while a triangle is associated with creations, a circle is a spiritual perspective to understand the All-Encompassing Attribute of the Creator of the universe, God Almighty. This All Encompassing Attribute of God has embraced every creation.
The mouthpiece* (The mechanism in the mouthpiece of a flute is established upon the triangular system) of a flute is a semicircle, which means, it is a triangle. When the flautist wants to display the images (creations) of emotions that is within them, they blow their breath into the mouthpiece (triangle). A creation is expressed through something that is also a creation, and hence, the flautist transfers images through their breath (sound) into the triangle (mouthpiece) of the flute. From this point on, the journey of a circle takes the waves of the images and passes them through the roundness of the flute; entering one aperture after the other, it moves forward and finally, exits the flute. The breath remains encompassed by the circles even in its exit.
The intention of relating the account of a flute is to understand that everything (triangle) exists because of a circle and, everything also manifests within a circle. If there were no holes in a flute, the breath blown would not express its highs and lows through these outlets, and though the instrument would ‘play’, it would be soundless.
Contemplation is habit. If we think about something and seek it, we will witness it. We observe that life is simply air entering one’s body as breath and existing inside them with various meanings. If we consider the shell of the flute to be like mankind, and we incorporate a system into them – a system that we know as the system of the flute – we realise that we are all shells like the flute, and it is the process of breathing which announces or broadcasts life.
While mankind is made up of soil, a flute is an individual made out of wood. However, we wood is also created out of soil, the origin of both the flute and mankind is one. The body of mankind comprises of pores, and so too does the body of the flute, and when life is blown inside both, sounds flow out of them through the highs and lows of the breath. It is through the rise and fall of this one breath, that various sounds are demonstrated.
What is sound? It is an instrument. The high and lows of sound are very pleasing and stir hearts, making one’s eyes water with laughter, but also fall in tears like raindrops.
Each of God Almighty’s creations are complete in every aspect. Contemplation, thoughts, and intellect demand to know what sound is. The sound of a flute, the voice of a cuckoo, the chirping of sparrows, the rustling of leaves, the highs and lows of the sounds of the wind, the restlessness in the waves of the ocean, and the waves embracing each other and then scattering while succumbing to the mirage of separation; all are instruments and sounds. The base of sound is ‘Kun’ and there is an echo in it. This echo is the formulae of creation for all creatures.
A spiritual order (Silsila) is a caravan in which there could be hundreds or thousands of individuals, however, the here is only one chief. The entire caravan treads upon the path that the chief chooses and operates through a collective programme under the chief’s guidance. I the people of a caravan are subjugated by the mind of their chief, they remain a part of the caravan. However, if their minds are distracted, they do not reach their destination and become one among those who lose their destination. One refers to the chief of the caravan as a Sufi, Mentor, Teacher, Guru, and Murshid.
A Sufi immerses in thoughts such as, what is life and what is transference from one place to another?
The spiritual elaboration scribed on the pages of history is that things disappear behind the curtain of the consciousness, and are transferred into another consciousness, that is, the subconscious. When a Sufi ponders upon the various creations, inevitably their mind stops at a point where they realise that life, is in fact, an introduction to The Creator. This introduction is a formula that is evident in every creation, and for mankind to familiarize themselves with it, the Creator of the Universe, God has bestowed approximately 12 trillion capabilities upon them. Through the knowledge bestowed by God, and their affinity to the Last Prophet – Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) – a Sufi acquaints themselves with many of the 12 trillion capabilities that a common man is unaware of.
Beloved friends, I am grateful that you deliberated on this ‘Message of the Day’. Now please continue to read the summary:
Mankind is a dumb and deaf figurine and their status is akin to the shell of a flute. In the same way a flute is nothing but a piece of wood until breath is blown into it, if mankind is unaware of the 12 trillion capabilities that are inside them, their status is that of a mere garment of clay.
The journey of becoming a flute from bamboo is not an easy one. A bamboo does not transform into a flute until it endures injuries and scars. When one submits themselves to their Murshid and accepts each trial that is sent their way with happiness, they become a flute, which emanates melodies that evoke the inner turmoil of union and separation. Just as a piece of wood becomes a flute, and then realizes its capabilities in the hands of an expert master, in the very same way, when an individual or a spiritual student follows the footsteps of their Murshid, then the Murshid blows a melody into them that makes them aware of their inner capabilities. After this, students become harmonious with the instrument of life. A poet said:
“What an instrument,
The instrument of life is,
It plays and is soundless.”
May God protect you.
KHWAJA SHAMS-UD-DIN AZEEMI
Articles of 'MESSAGE OF THE DAY' from Qalandar Shaoor Monthly
