The Growth of Spiritual Disciplines Four Birds 2:260

Allah said: Embrace and understand with the mind the meaning of the possessor of wings that fly in the air; Then cause them to lean in a particular direction and lean close to you; Then make and produce something from a portion of it upon every mountain. The wise, ancient people used a bird to describe the highest form in the evolution of man’s spiritual movement. A bird is from the category of things that possess wings that fly in the air. You can learn many things from the bird about your own human potential. The bird breaks the gravitational pull from the earth when it flies in the air, so it is not held down by materialism like over-consumption. Also, it flies on the currents in the air, so it has the power to ride the air of emotionalism, like what is popular today. The African-American still exists in America as a baby with its navel cord attached to its mother, still depending on other people’s establishments. We have not developed our own taste, our own voice, and our own vision for progressing our self and our community. The African-American does not make any movement until they are moved by the winds of emotion and they get caught up in the air of emotionalism, unlike the bird. The wind of emotions, the popular personalities, the movies, the television programs, or the challenges of this world should not direct your spiritual life. The tendency in the human being is spiritual, which is to believe in Allah, and it does not depend on material wealth, power, or academic knowledge to develop his own authority. Allah has given every human being his provisions in four measures, but it will not be realized until his nature and what he needs to survive in the world come into his consciousness. To achieve this consciousness, man has to be the best in life responding to the guidance of Allah from His Book and His Prophets. Then, a new life will be born, and a new world will come up from people who will eventually become established. They will know that their own authority did not make them, but the spirit of Allah and His guidance is what made them. This is the picture that we are given of Prophet Muhammed when he was moved in his spirit to go up in the mountain by himself ascending like the bird. He ascended up the mountain where he received the light to move humanity from the ignorance into enlightenment. In the Mountain of Light, he responded to the guidance of Allah which began to feed his heart, to cultivate his mind and broaden his vision. He got an insight into the workings of human development. We must go to our own authority and develop the spiritual discipline, which is the greatest muscle, greater than the physical muscle. A portion of the bird is your spiritual discipline that needs to be cultivated to have control over yourself. To be successful you must cultivate your spiritual discipline otherwise you will fail like the saying, “He who causes it to grow succeeds and he who fails that corrupts it”. This discipline is a training that acts in accordance with rules which are exercises that develop or improve a skill. So whether it is the discipline of education, the discipline of government or the discipline of economics, etc., if you can develop one portion, for example, education, then it will set the pattern for the other three portions. Prophet Muhammed went to the mountain and came down with the discipline of education (read). Prophet Moses went to the mountain and came down with the discipline of law (rulership of his surroundings). What will you develop on your mountain?