In a recent post from The Hundred Letters, Sharafuddin Maneri described the spiritual process as having three steps, the first being the path of Law; by observation of the law, by fulfilment of it, the seeker overcomes the fierce identification of the ego with the physical senses.  By this, in Maneri’s words, the ego becomes a heart. This is certainly not the end of the journey, but one who has made this step will see the world in quite a different light. One enters a world of admiration and praise, of love, of which the average person is mostly unaware.

But what is meant here by ‘law’?  What law or laws should we observe?  ‘Law’ is a word that gives mixed feelings; we may recognise the need for the regulation of life, and we react strongly when we feel we ourselves are victims of injustice, but seekers also long for freedom, and we often see that the laws of society are arbitrary impositions.  This may make us think of the question that was asked of Jesus about the payment of taxes to the Romans, which was considered in this post.

Without doubt Sharafuddin Maneri, as a devoted Muslim, was speaking of the Islamic religious law called Sharia.  This is the comprehensive system of rules and obligations transmitted to the faithful by the Prophet Mohammed.  As Sharia touches all aspects of life, to observe it carefully means complete immersion in the spirit behind the law, and, supposing that one has the correct attitude, to follow it would encourage a profound transformation. But what can this mean for non-Muslims? Is there some other law to be followed?  Or should there be some sort of non-religious adoption of Sharia, in order to progress? In this ‘age of the individual’ very few want to accept any law except one they make themselves, which perhaps they change from day to day, according to their impulse.

We should remember that the word ‘law’ is used in two senses.  One sense is the legal code of behaviour, for the violation of which penalties are imposed.  History gave us, for example, the codes of Hammurabi and of Moses, but everyone today lives in complicated webs of law; park your car in the wrong place, and you will be punished.  But the other sense of the word is for natural functions or relationships, such as the laws of thermodynamics, or the laws of motion described by Isaac Newton; this kind of law is not a code we can choose to follow or to disregard, but an absolute description: a reality, a truth. As Hazrat Inayat Khan explains in this post, human laws ideally should be based on the spiritual realities which have been perceived by the illuminated souls.  Since these come from a realm beyond form, the wise have always struggled to express them in a way that is comprehensible to the world, and whatever they have given us has been liable to misinterpretation.  Jesus gave his disciples a new commandment: to love one another as he had loved them, an instruction that seems clear, and yet if we look at what various religious authorities have made of it from time to time, we can wonder what happened to the love of the Master.

Hazrat Inayat Khan spoke at length about these inner ‘laws,’ mentioning what he called the law of reciprocity, the law of beneficence and the law of renunciation.  To throw more light on this theme, we will offer some excepts of these teachings in future posts.