As the school was finishing a previous session, I had a lot of spare time and resumed my spiritual quest. I ended up on the "mucusless diet," among other things, and would eventually, upon arriving at my permanent station at Barksdale Air Force Base, become involved with transcendental meditation. As my involvement with meditation deepened and my reading texts related to eastern mysticism progressed, I was feeling increasingly unfulfilled. I wanted to know God, but I found myself on a path that was leading to an enhanced knowledge of self. Perhaps this was God's way of introducing Himself to me. It is said that he who knows himself will know God. In any case, I gradually become disillusioned with eastern mysticism. I had been attracted to religion looking for a means to make things better for people, I found the eastern approach to be very selfish. It was everything for me, but nothing for the people.
-Imam Zaid Shakir, "The Making of a Muslim" in Scattered Pictures: Reflections of An American Muslim, p. 16-17
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