Muraqaba is a sufi term that means fear, to inspect, to watch over, to take care of, to control, to look at one’s inner world, to be entranced, to think of the aim at all times, to look at Allah with the heart at all times, to keep the soul under control in order to protect the heart from bad deeds, to know that Lord knows every state of a person, to dismiss everything from one’s mind and be ready to receive inspiration from Allah by kneeling down and closing the eyes.
The gist of the teachings of the prophets of Allah is that man after negating the fictional sight, should equip himself with that sight which witnesses the reality. Entering into one after leaving the other or getting something after quitting the other is only possible when we can disunite ourselves from that which is to be quitted. This act of disuniting ourselves, in terms of spirituality, is called negation. And when a person manages to negate himself, the world of realty is witnessed by him.
Muraqabah is the first lesson of self-negation. Performance of Muraqabah is such an act which has no logical explanation except that there are two types of sight functioning simultaneously in man. One is limited and cannot see without a medium and the other one is unlimited and needs no medium to behold.
How to do we See?
Space having dimensions is the medium. The material eye cannot see beyond the limits of space and if space is removed it will not be able to see any thing. This can be proved by performing a simple experiment Just focus your eyes on a point steadfastly so that there should be no movement in the eyelids and the eyeballs. When the eyes will cease to move there would remain nothing before the eyes save light and empty space. Law:- In fictional senses the operation of sight takes place when the eyeballs move and eyelids are blinked.
If the eyelids of a person are stopped from moving, within few seconds, he will not be able to see anything except darkness. The act of blinking of eyelids slightly strokes the eyeballs which helps in transferring the images of the external objects to the screen of our mind.
Process of Vision in Muraqabah?
When someone sits for Muraqabah and closes his eyes, the movement of eyeballs and eyelids remains in action. Although the blinking temporarily stops when the eyes are closed, the movement of eyeballs does not stop and with the movement of the eyeballs the eyelids also keep on moving which replaces the movement of the blinking, that is, the transfer of images keeps on taking place on the screen of the mind.
The person doing Muraqabah focuses his mind on one single point. The point in this case is usually the concept of his spiritual mentor, that is, he focuses all his witnessing abilities with concentration in thinking about his spiritual teacher, in order to get the image of his mentor on the mental screen, as long as he remains in the state of Muraqabah.
Law:- The properties, characteristics and potentialities related to an image also transfer on the screen of the mind when the image is formed on the mental screen and the mind perceives them accordingly. For instance, a person is looking at fire. When the image of fire transfers on the mental screen the warmth and heat of the fire is perceived by the mind.
A person who is present in a garden enjoys the freshness and coolness of trees and plants present in the garden to create their image on his mental screen. Similarly when image of the spiritual mentor transfers on the screen of mind, the Presented Knowledge which is operative in the spiritual teacher, also transfers with it and the mind of the student gradually assimilates the same. ‘Be!’ What is to ‘be’?
The program present in the mind of the One who uttered ‘Be’ should come into being, spiritually. When the program took the shape and form of incorporeal manifestations, The One who commanded ‘Be’, appeared before the spiritually displayed world so that the ignorance could change into knowledge and awareness.
We know, the sight gets activated when a focal point to concentrate is available to it. In that stage of creation, the focal point was the Creator and the Divine Planner. After coming to this world the focal point undergoes a change but the law remains the same. Just as the reality is transpired upon the mental screen, the hypothetical and temporary senses are also carried to the screen of the mind. It is only that the constraints of short lived and temporary states of mind keep us incarcerated in the limiting senses.
Muraqabah, thinking about the spiritual mentor, an attempt to concentrate and focus our thoughts on someone, so that his image could recurrently reflect upon the screen of our mind, we are liberated from the limiting senses.