This dunya is symbolic

WHAT ARE SYMBOLS?

Lol i like the exMple of maplins

But yeah i have to agree that symbols and names have the problem u stated...namely...once u name something (or categorise it)...it is no longer the same thing...only (at best) a resemblance of it

Its also ironic

Cos we live in the physical dunya which is filled with symbols

And this is actually one way which shaytan misleads mankind...through reinterpreting symbols to invoke hatred...just look at how the term muslim has been relabelled in ppls minds...

So...i agree with u alot on that

However....we do need symbolism (cos even words are symbols)

And its a primary way of communicating....even if it is a risky one (look how often someone is misunderstood when they say something...sometimes its interpreted wrongly)


SO ARENT SYMBOLS THE SAME AS THE REAL THING?

all those names...resemble some part of the true essence it is trying to describe (or symbolise)

CAN SOMEONE KNOW SOMETHING FROM ITS SYMBOLS?
Only if the person is already familiar with the thing being symbolised

Like...if they know (3arif)...and not just know of (3ilm) via symbols

Otherwise
Its like
The mind is trying to grasp what it cannot

Like an ear trying to hear what light is...as being described by someone with eyes

It simply beyond the ears scope

Yeah...its interesting
Try teaching the idea of colour to a blind person

They may "understand"

But they wont truly know it till they see


SO THEN WHY USE SYMBOLS?

and appreciate that a name is only a way to draw attention to something that can be understood quickly.
It's not meant to tell you everything about the thing

There lies the secret of symbols

Why do we use them?

Size

Its quicker to pass on info

But the trade off is..loss of information


DO WE NEED TO USE SYMBOLS?

In fact..just occured to me

Look at the best communicated message we have

The quran

It passes on so much information in the words and also encoded in the structure, order of words, choice of words, etc...whereas most ppl only encode information in words

But then even still...to explain all that "hidden" or embedded information...we must have books of tafsir...and they are huuuge...and not even exhaustive..none of them cover all the info...and we cant know it all

Like alif lam mim?

Or the meaning of 3arsh (throne)

Etc

Thanks again bro
Uve kinda opened my eyes to something deep

That i only see and hear symbols..cos that is the nature of this world

And that the truth..the reality..is something my brain cannot rationalise as it does with symbols

Phrase summarising tasawwuf

"I want..." is doubly bad
Because it contains:
"I" (the selfish ego) and
"Want" (a lowly desire)

Will powerless

Salaam

If you think u have will power try this:

1) Take a plate or cup in ur hand
2) stretch out ur arm while holding the cup/plate in the air
3) hold it perfectly still
...no movement
...no shaking
...focus...concentrate
...use all ur will power
...
...
...
...
So
...
...
...
...
Could you do it?
...
...
...

No?
..
.
So that shows you how powerful ur will power is

La hawla wa la quwata illa billahi l3aliyu l3adheem
Theres no might or power except by the High Tremedous God

Wa huwa 3ala kulli shay'in qadeer
And He is in control of everything

His will power beats yours every time

So why not focus on Him
And not ourselves

Peace Nd love

Exerpts from "The alchemy of Happiness", al-Ghazali

POWER OF SOUL
Those souls which attain a special degree of power not only rule their own body but those of others also... these souls differ from common folk in three ways:
1) what others only see in dreams they see in their waking moments
2) while others' wills only affect their own bodies, these, by will-power, can movies bodies extraneous to themselves
3) and the knowledge which others acquire by laborious learning comes to them by intuition
...
THE REALITY OF THE THRONE (ARSH) AND FOOTSTOOL (KURSI)
Similarly, when God wills a thing it appears in the spiritual plane, which in the Qur'an is called "the throne (al-3arsh)" from the throne it passes, by a spiritual current, to a lower plane called "the chair (al-kursi)" then the shape of it appears on the "tablet of destiny (al law7 al ma7fudh)", whence by the meditation of the forces called "angels", it assumes actuality, and appears on the earth in the form of plants, trees, and animals, representing the will and thought of God"
...
WHY FOLLOW PROPHETS & LAW
Such worship and constant remembrance of God implies a certain degree of austerity and curbing of bodily appetites. Not that a man is intended altogether to abolish these, for then the human race would perish. But strict limits must be set to their indulgence, and as man ins not the best judge in his own case as to what these limits should be, he had better consult some spiritual guide on the subject. Such spiritual guides as the prophets and the laws which they have laid down under divine inspiration...
...
WHY AVOID SINS
Some, on the other hand, believe in God and a future life but with a weak belief. They say to themselves "God is great and independent of us; our worship or abstinence from worship is a matter of entire indifference to Him" Their state of mind is like that of a sick man who, when prescribed a certain regime by his doctor, should say "well, if I follow it or don't follow it, what does it matter to the doctor?" it certainly does not matter to the doctor, but the patient may destroy himself by his disobedience.
...The law does not tell us to uproot these passions, but to restrain them within due limits..."
...
THE REALITY OF THE SOUL
The proper nourishment of the soul, as above shown, is the knowledge and love of God, and to be absorbed in the love of anything but God is the ruin of the soul. The body, so to speak, is simply the riding-animal of the soul, and perishes while the soul endures. The soul should take care of the body, just as a pilgrim on his way to Mecca takes care of his camel; but if the pilgrim spends his whole time in feeding and adorning his camel, the caravan will leave him behind, and he will perish in the desert
...
THE REALITY OF THE WORLD (DUNYA)
Jesus (peace be upon him) saw the world revealed in the form of an ugly old hag. He asked her how many husbands she had possessed; she replied that they were countless. He asked whether they had died or been divorced; she said that she had slain them all. "I marvel" he said "at the fools who see what you have done to others, and still desire you"
...
MEDICINAL JEWELS WITHIN THE WORLD
...Although we have said so much against the world, it must be remembered that there are some things in the world which are not of it, such as knowledge and good deeds. 
...He recognises that knowledge of God and worship are medicinal, and that ignorance and sin are deadly poisons for the soul.
...
LOVING THE WORLD MORE THAN GOD
suppose a certain king has been celebrating his sons marriage. in the evening the young man goes off with some companions and presently returns to the palace intoxicated. he enters a chamber where a light is burning and lies down by his bride. in the morning, when soberness returns, he is aghast to find himself in a mortuary of fire-worshippers, his couch a bier, and the lady which he mistook for his bride was the corpse of an old woman beginning to decay. On emerging from the mortuary with his garment all soiled, what is his shame to see his father, the king"
...
STRIVE
God says, "O ye believers, be patient and strive against your natural desires, and maintain the strife manfully"
...A certain sheikh once had a disciple whom he favoured above his other disciples, thus exciting their envy. One day the sheikh gave each of them a fowl and told each to go and kill it in a place where no one could see him. Accordingly each killed his fowl in some deserted spot and brought it back, with the exception of the sheikh's favourite disciple, who brought his back alive saying "I have found no such place, for God sees everywhere". The sheikh said to the others "You see now this youth's real rank; he has attained the constant remembrance of God"
...
WOMEN
The prophet (s.a.a.s) one day asked his daughter Fatima (a.s.) "What is the best thing for women?" She answered "They should not look at strangers, nor [let] strangers [look] at them".
...
DEATH
When the angel of death (a.s.) came to take the soul of Abraham (a.s.), he said "Have you ever seen a friend take his friend's life?" God answered him "Have you ever seen a friend unwilling to see his friend?" Then Abraham (a.s.) said, O Izra'il, take my soul"
...
LOVING GOD MORE THAN THE WORLD
...there are some, notably the faqirs, who have entirely disengaged themselves from love of the world. But even among those who have worldly possessions such as wife, children, houses, etc., there are those, who, though they have some affection for these, love God yet more.
...
PURE LOVE FOR GOD
God said to prophet David (a.s.) "That servant is dearest to Me who does not seek Me from fear of punishment or hope of reward, but to pay the debt due to My Deity". And in the psalms it is written, "Who is a greater transgressor than he who worships Me from fear of hell or hope of heaven? If I had created neither, should I not then have deserved to be worshipped?"
...mere knowledge is not enough, unaccompanied by love, and the love of God cannot take possession of a man's heart till it be purified from love of the world, which purification can only be effected by abstinence and austerity.
God said unto Jesus (a.s.) "O Jesus, when I see in My servants' hearts pure love for Myself unmixed with any selfish desire concerning this world or the next, I act as guardian over that love." Again, when people asked Jesus "what is the highest work of all?" he answered "To love God and to be resigned to His will"
...The remembrance of God should always remain fresh in a man's heart without effort, for what a man loves he constantly remembers, and if his love is perfect he never forgets it.
...he will love the Qur'an, which is the Word of God, and Muhammad (s.a.a.s), who is the Prophet of God...
The Prophet once asked God and said "O Lord, who are the ones who Love You? And the answer came "Those who cleave to Me as a child to its mother, take refuge in the remembrance of Me as a bird seeks the shelter of its nest, and are as angry at the sight of sin as an angry lion who fears nothing"

Excerpts from "The beginning of Guidance", al-Ghazali

HADITH ON GOOD CHARACTER

The messenger of God (peace be upon him) said:

"Imitate me, even if you fall short somewhat in what you do.

O Muadh,

1) guard your tongue from slandering your brothers who know the Qur'an by heart

2) attribute your sins to yourself and not to them

3) do not justify yourself and blame them

4) do not exalt yourself above them

5) do not mingle the work of this world with the work of the world to come

6) do not act arrogantly in society so that men avoid you because of your bad character

7) do not whisper to one man while another is also present

8) do not magnify your importance above other men so that you lose the good things of both this world and the world to come

9) do not tear to pieces people's characters so that on the Day of Resurrection the dogs of Hell tear you to pieces in Hell. 

God Most high says (Q79:2) "By those who draw forth" -

do you know what these are, O Muadh?

I said: what are they O messenger of God (may you be ransomed by my father and mother)?

He said: The dogs in Hell drawing the flesh from the bones

I said: O messenger of God (may you be ransomed by my father and mother) who is able to acquire these good qualities, and who will escape from these dogs?

He said "O Muadh,, it is indeed easy for him whom God makes it easy"

...

HADITH ON TAQWA

He most high said:

"I am the companion of the one who remembers Me"

Excerpts from Deliverance from Error, Al-Ghazali

TYPES OF SEEKING TRUTH

"various seekers (after truth) as comprising four groups:

1) The Theologian (mutakallimun), who claim they are the exponents of thought and intellectural speculation

2) the Batiniyyah (Shi'a), who consider that they, as the party of authoritative instruction (ta3lim) alone derive the truth from the infallible imam

3) the Philosophers, who regard themselves as the exponents of logic and demonstrative proof

4) the Sufis / Mystics who claim that they alone enter into the 'presence' (of God) and possess vision and intuitive understanding"

...

TYPES OF KNOWING TRUTH

Certainty (yaqeen) reached by demonstration is "knowledge" (3ilm)

actual acquaintance with that state is "immediate experience" (dhawq)

The acceptance of it as probable from hearsay and trial (or observation) is "faith" (imaan)

...

RISKS OF KNOWLEDGE

Satan,to impress you, rehearses the excellence of knowledge, the high rank of scholar and the Traditions (hadith) about knowledge from the Prophet and others. He thus diverts your attention from sayings of the Prophet (s.a.a.s) such as the following:

• Whoever increases in knowledge and does not increase in guidance, only increases in distance from God
• the most severe punishment on the Day of Resurrection is that of the scholar to whom God gave no benefit from his knowledge
• O God I take refuge with You from knowledge which does not benefit me, from the heart which does not humble itself, from the act which is not lifted up, and from the prayer (dua) which is not heard
• During my night-journey I passed some groups of people whose lips were cut by fiery scissors and I said to them, "Who are you?" and they replied "We used to command others to do good and yet ourselves did not do it, and to prohibit others from doing evil and yet ourselves did it"

Death

Why is sleep considered a minor death.
Although the body is still alive
The external senses are all cut off. no sight. no hearing. no smell. no touch. etc.
The same thing will hhappen when we die.
Our soul is disconnected from the physical dunya.

And yet it still experiemces things.  dreams for example.  near death experiences of people reported clinically dead for some time return to life and report visions and travelling experiences..some so realistic that they completely change their way of life.

There was even an experiment condicted on a person who jad all his sensory perceptions severed from his brain. he began to have vivid experiences.

Is the key to rememberimg our spiritual reality cutting off the external senses (via meditation for example)?

Self purification

Flies only come to rotting unclean places because there is something for it...but in clean places there is nothing for it so it will fly past and not stay

So we should seek to purify our bodies so flies stay away

And purify our characters and inner desires so that the invisible flies (jinn) have nothing to play with