Spiritualism, What is Spirituality?, Spiritualism and Spirituality, Spiritualist Philosophy

What is Spiritualism?

In the modern era, man is surrounded with matter all around; the thoughts have been corrupted with the idea of the survival of the fittest in getting a maximum of matter in term of worldly wealth, and man has been succeeded in this regard but he has lost his self. Plainly man has done a business of getting worldly benefits on the cost of his inner-self. The man has lost this precious thing which is referred to as spirituality. It is a phenomenon associated with the human soul, which can be related to human beings as an opposing force against material and physical things.

“It is deeply religious, something relating to the spirit and sacred matters (The Merriam Webster).”

It is an elevated condition of a person to the surface where he is only focused on the higher, non-material realities of Divine existence. Spirituality is the opposite entity to materialism. Being a materialistic individual, one gives all his focus to worldly material things. On the contrary, a spiritual being is a higher individual who is only concerned with the non-material things and is always keen to associate himself with the Supreme God. He is one who follows the sanction of Qur’an: “Be devoted servants of God” (3: 79) (khan).

The spiritualism is a positive movement, which sets its positive set of principles and spread its positive message of love and oneness with God in society through Sufis. Sufi or dervish is a person who ultimately comes to know his inner-self and who manages to cope with one’s self (nafs). The knowing one’s self ( nafs) actually is following the path in order to get closer to God. In simple words, if someone could not recognize or experience God's closeness, the one's own self is responsible for this misfortune. The other aspect is the dominance of the nafs which brings anger, lust, and many other addictions that make human beings more miserable. Other effects include different states of consciousness such as boredom, anxiety, and depression so that a person feels himself a helpless victim of his own mind.