The Spring Within: Unlocking Knowledge from Your Own Heart
Socrates was a very great teacher and philosopher who was given a cup of poison. His method of teaching was not like ours. Our educational method is that of Plato and Aristotle. Socrates' method was not this. Socrates' method of teaching was to bring out the knowledge that exists within a person. He would give it a linguistic form. He would bring the words from a person's heart and onto their tongue.
Teachers of today, or teachers of the past, or teachers of the Aristotelian method, try to bring things from all over the world and put them inside us. They gather things from here and there, both relevant and irrelevant, and stuff them into us. Socrates did not do this. He did not study books, read history, listen, collect facts from here and there, make notes, and then start pouring them into the minds of students.
He used to say that this is an impossible task, it cannot be done. And whatever you put into a person's mind from the outside will not stay inside. And that is exactly what happens. Whatever is put in from the outside is useless and empty; nothing comes of it. It is just like pouring water into a leaky pitcher, and it keeps flowing out from the hole. The human brain is like that, the human mind is like that. Whatever you keep pouring in from the outside keeps flowing out. Otherwise, whatever we study, if all of it were to remain in our being, what would every human being be?
If all these sciences were to remain within us, they would flow out. We had a teacher in school, may Allah keep him happy if he is alive. He used to say that these two ears of yours, which are exactly in line, in a straight line, the wisdom of it, as he used to say to scold us, is that you put in from one ear and take out from the other. That is why they are in a straight line. And we do exactly the same thing. You say anything, advise anything, we listen from one ear and take it out from the other.
It is one door and another door. In Urdu, "dar" and "darwaza" both mean the same thing. In Persian, "dar-o-darwaza" is a Persian idiom. "Dar" is for entering and "darwaza" is for exiting. Entrance and exit. There are two separate doors. You come in from here and go out from there. Similarly, one ear is for listening and the other ear is for taking out. He used to say this ironically. Even if we don't believe in it, practically this is what happens.
You listen yourself, in your whole life whatever you have heard, whatever good things you have heard, whatever good deeds, whatever advice you have heard, is anything of it still remaining? Nothing is left. The human mind is like a basket. Can you bring water filled in a basket? You cannot bring anything in a basket. But that which springs forth from within, it is also in tradition, that acquire knowledge in such a way that a spring bursts forth within you. And its method has been told. What is that method? Sincerity (Ikhlas).
"Man akhlasa lillahi arba'een sabaha" - Whoever dedicates forty mornings with sincerity to Allah, and this is a very difficult task. A life-threatening task. Human being, a life-threatening task. Forty days of sincerity for Allah, a person cannot maintain sincerity for Allah even for forty minutes. If someone gets so much power, so much willpower, that they become pure for Allah for forty days, only for God, then what will be the result? The result will be that after this retreat, after forty days of sincerity, God Almighty will cause springs of knowledge and wisdom to flow on his heart. He does not need books anymore, he does not need libraries, he does not need any lectures or listening. A spring has started flowing from within him. "Yambo Yanabi," springs of wisdom burst forth from within a person. If a person shows sincerity to Allah for forty days. But this is a very difficult task.
It is that cup that reaches the lips, and from there life also reaches the lips. Our revered teacher, Hazrat Ayatollah Hassan Zadeh Amoli, may Allah grant him health and well-being, this sentence of his was often with his sweet speech, that if you try, if you make an effort, then you will reach some result. But when will this happen? He used to say, jan be lab, jam, jam means the cup of knowledge, the cup of gnosis, the cup of wisdom. Jam be lab mi rasad, when does jan be lab mi rasad? When life reaches the lips. Then the cup also reaches the lips. This struggle, this effort makes a person jan be lab. This forty days of sincerity makes a person jan be lab. Life reaches the lips, but at that time great pleasure is felt because the cup is also at the lips. At that time, springs of knowledge burst forth from within a person.
This is from within, the being of Allah gives knowledge to a person from within. There is a knowledge that we fill within ourselves from the outside. If there is no forty days of sincerity, then keep studying and teaching for forty years, even in the end, one does not understand what is right and what is wrong, what is forbidden and what is permissible. But if you show sincerity for forty days for Allah, then so much struggle is not needed.
Speaker: Syed Jawad Naqvi
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