Human Longing for Spirituality By Dr. Shahid Athar

Man is not only a social animal, but in fact a spiritual one, too. This spirituality stems from the fact that he was created by God who had blown His spirit into him. Thus, while our body is a container of the soul, which is from earth and is attached to earthly matters, the soul, which is the essence of the spirit, always longs to be united with Whom it was separated from. The soul always longs to return to the Creator as stated in Qur’an “to God we belong, to Him is our return.” During our life on earth, the soul and the body are again united but then there is a temporary separation during death with the final union to take place in the life thereafter. Thus, spirituality is recognizing the presence of God within us.


One of the meanings of the word “Islam” is surrender and human life is nothing but surrender. We had no choice when our souls were created, nor did we have a choice when our souls were united with the flesh in our mother’s womb, nor did we have a choice living as a fetus, and after birth we were helplessly dependent on our parents and others around us without any choice. The Qur’an states “when God comprehended in His design, heavens and earth and asked them to come together willingly or unwillingly, they said we come together in willing obedience.” (41:11) Humans longing for union with God are no different from a child who gets separated from his mother in a mall and then finds her and runs back to her, into her folds. It has been said that it is not man who is the seeker but it is he who is being sought. For this union of soul to take place with its Creator, one must achieve the state of peaceful bliss. As the Qur’an states “O soul at rest, return to thy Lord well pleased and well pleasing. Enter as My servant, enter into My heaven.” (89:27-30) Just like the lost, small child in a crowd who is looking into other faces, looking for his parent, we look into different faces or earthly manifestations of God in the form of His reflection. We consider them to be reality, to some degree, and sometimes we get so attached to them as reality that we fall in love, until we realize that they were only a mere reflection and that we must go to the true source of that light. Thus, our acts of worship, whether they are fasting, prayer, pilgrimage or good deeds like charity, are only keys to the door that will unlock the house where my beloved resides.