The ascending pathways
Added March 31, 2007
In the summer of 2006, on a family trip across the country, we had the opportunity to hike some stunning trails in British Columbia. Some of these were grueling, leg-wrecking hikes, especially since we were accustomed to much shorter treks with only mild elevation gains. Yet the sensation of ascending to a mountain summit in a completely isolated environment (we were traveling early in the season, the trails only opened the day we arrived, and we hiked from approximately 4000 to 8000 feet in complete solitude) was simultaneously exhilarating and nerve-racking - this was true wilderness and sections of the trail were vertigo-inducing once we rose above the tree-line.
The earliest climbers in these peaks were first nations peoples. When,
beginning in the late 1700's, European and Canadian climbers raced
with one another to summit the tallest peaks in the Rockies they
sometimes came across the remains of abandoned first nations' shelters
and camps on the summits. These were the artifacts left behind by first
nations' explorers or warriors on spirit or dream quests. The symbolic
connection between ascending mountain heights and undertaking a
religious ascent (a spiritual quest) is one that arises repeatedly in
history and across cultures.
In our times this symbolic connection has transmuted into a commonplace
cartoonish cliche that everyone has encountered in some form or other,
whether in literature, in film, in jokes, cartoons, or comic books - a
wise man
sitting cross-legged on a mountaintop and a supplicant struggling to
the top to ask him the meaning of life. This cliche's origins, its
roots and its symbology however, are distinguished, deep, and profound.
"...and He has given you in the
mountains places of retreat...."
(Qur'an 16:81)
Moses ascended Sinai to receive the commandments. "And We called to him from the blessed side of the mountain" (Qur'an 19:52). Jesus led his disciples to isolated heights to witness his transfiguration. "Jesus took Peter, James and John with him and led them up a high mountain, where they were all alone. There he was transfigured before them." (Mark 9:2) The Prophet spent year after year visiting the stark peaks around Mecca until the revelation manifested on Jabal-e-Nur (the mountain of light). "And he witnesses him (Jibraeel) in the highest horizon." (Qur'an 81:23) The ascent of mountain heights unfurls symbolically as offering possibilities far beyond just a physical ascent.
Like the mystical alchemists who used the chemical transmutations of
the elements as a symbolic representation of an inner transmutation of
their heart and soul, the ascent of a mountain, the rise above the
forest line into the rarefied atmosphere and stunning beauty of its
heights, the sweeping, arcing view of the earth below - these are
representative of a parallel ascent within the nafs (the soul) and a
corresponding elevation in viewpoint, perspective, and personality.
The ascent of the physical mountain corresponds to the ascent of the
mountain of one's own being. The physical difficulties and trials of
the climb and the will and determination required to overcome them
parallel the difficulty of transforming one's inner world, one's
personality, of awakening one's metaphysical nature, and the will and
determination necessary to accomplish
this. The wise man proverbially encountered at the summit is no one but
your own self - but a
purified, elevated self - it is the self that knows truth directly, the
self that has witnessed to the reality of God's lordship (Qur'an
7:172), the self that is concealed within your being but which can only
be found by ascending to the summit, to the loftiest height of your own
being. When ascending, you are the supplicant seeking answers, your
desire for knowledge, for beauty, for truth, for throwing aside
shallowness and falsity propel you upwards - this desire must be
combined with will and determination, this will and determination
fortified through supplication and made real through action - until at
the summit of the mountain, at the summit of your own being, you become
the person you were seeking. Simultaneously you experience a
transformation and a realization - you have become what you sought -
this is God's gift to you - the unveiling, the revelation of your own
self to yourself in it's truest, most elevated form. "We will manifest to them Our signs on the
horizons and within their own souls until the truth becomes clear to
them." (Qur'an 41:53)
The compulsion to climb is perhaps impacted by this concealed,
invisible, symbolic reality. It is a search for beauty, for
accomplishment, for new vistas, new perspectives, new conquests - but
perhaps underlying it all is an urge which in our times is unconscious,
subconscious, unknown, but very real. Only the outward aspect remains
visible today as is the case with so many modern manifestations of
human activities. And so in the absence of the growth of inner
dimensions, the outer dimensions may also take on a fanatical,
compulsive,
extreme character, and satisfaction is sought through repetitively
seeking the summit. The climb may take on the aspect of a technical
competition or a somewhat extreme entertainment rather than
transformation or exploration - so each instance of achieving the
summit brings only a passing, temporary satisfaction since physical and
mental activity has become uncoupled from spiritual activity - and the
wise
man on the mountain mutates downwards into a comical faqir, a humorous
symbol of our inability to know our own souls.
The climber repeats the
physical climb in new locations seeking the material summits of this
world to recapture the intense feelings and the glory and benefits of
the first climbs. But eventually the pursuit of summits and the
feelings it
engenders must lose their freshness
and either sensitivity to the dangers, fear for one's mortality,
advancing
age, or death itself must draw one away from the activity - perhaps
never truly
having known either the substance of the mountain or that of the self.
-
Irshaad Hussain
Shards of Knowledge
What do we know
Intellect in Islam
Descent and Ascent
"The descent of all things from the divine stores and treasures,
above, to the natural world, here below – and likewise, the fall of man
from paradise to this earth – is not a downward movement that has as
its origin a physical place and that passes through physical space to
terminate at just another point in this very same physical and natural
order. This is because the origin of this descent is metaphysical and
its destination is physical. The intervening distance is such that it
is bordered by the spiritual heavens on one end, and by the natural
world on the other. For this reason, in measuring this motion, space
and time – which compose the necessary conditions of all motion and
phenomena in the natural physical order – are of no consequence. The
space and time of this world are themselves phenomena that appear only
after the descent and at the end of the line, so to speak. By the same
token, the ascent towards the Divine is neither physical in character,
nor can it be compared to any upward motions in the natural world....
Man’s ascension is a journey in knowledge and enlightenment. The path that leads from ignorance to knowledge is not a material one subsisting in time and space. Now, if a student travels to different places and spends many years in the acquisition of knowledge, this is only to meet the material prerequisites of the acquisition. Once the ground is ready and the conditions are met, knowledge is arrived at independently of time and space. In attempting to portray the spiritual journey of the wayfarer on the path, however, the above analogy of a journey from ignorance to knowledge lacks in lucidity. This is because the ignorant person apparently gains something in the end that he did not have to begin with. The wayfarer on the path of perfection, on the other hand, as he enters the spiritual realms or finally comes into the Divine Presence Itself, arrives at a Reality that was with him to begin with. This Reality gives subsistence to man when the latter depends upon and is connected to It....
The journey that believers and disbelievers make in their
ascension to the dominion above (malakūt) and the meeting with God is a
movement towards a reality that is not conditioned by material time and
space, but rather, encompasses them and nature as a whole. While in
nature they are heedless of it and when they reach this reality it is
said to them that nothing new has taken place, the only thing that has
happened is that the blinds that once covered their eyes have been
removed. To be sure, Reality is not covered by any veils. The veils and
impediments to the traveller are, in actuality, due to himself. The
movement of the wayfarer on the path then is nothing but the tearing
away of his own veils. The eschatological event, then, is merely the
sharpening of insight, the removal of forgetfulness, and the perfection
of awareness...."
(from "Existence and the
Fall (Hasti wa Hubut)" by Hamid Parsania - translated by Shuja Mirza)