Does anyone here meditate?

How has it benefit you?

Do you have a routine?

Any advice to beginners?

All comments welcome!

Interesting question

Meditation and contemplation is an important act of worship for muslims and many great Islamic saints did do contemplation. The goal being self discovery, understanding the world we live in, understanding our creator, taking into account of what we have been up to in our lives etc. Contemplation is one of the highest form of worship for Muslims and its merits are very high.
This is derived from the following verses of the Quran.

3:189 To Allah belongeth the dominion of the heavens and the earth; and Allah hath power over all things.

3:190 Behold! in the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the alternation of night and day,- there are indeed Signs for men of understanding,-


3:191 Men who celebrate the praises of Allah, standing, sitting, and lying down on their sides, and contemplate the (wonders of) creation in the heavens and the earth, (With the thought): "Our Lord! not for naught Hast Thou created (all) this! Glory to Thee! Give us salvation from the penalty of the Fire

So Muslims are encouraged to make use of their knowledge of Physics, chemistry, Biology, Mathematics and many more as a means to understand the ability of the Creator, faith coupled with knowledge leads to certainty. Throughout the Quran there are many encouragements for muslims to pursue branches of knowledge which leads to understanding of the creations from intellectual perspective and spiritual perspective. So yes Muslim do hold contemplation with very high regard. Indeed the is a higher use of knowledge than just getting a job serving an employer and earning a living, it is to expand your thinking capacity into understanding the world around you. Many of us have knowledge but very few of us really appreciate it.

The clasical routine, i hear, is to sit alone for an hour or 2 a day in the room and start this thinking process As for me personally i try to keep my mind busy all the time always thinking about things from what i experienced when i was young, to what i observe everyday, to what i see others experiencing, to what could happen in future. It can open a deep insight into the understanding of so many different things from: why you had almost no food in the house on 11th of april 1983, to why you grew up in a certain place, to how the structure of human bones satisfies the engineering principles of stiffness and damping and so many other things. Some of these discoveries could be for sharing and some could be personal.

Point is every aspect of life has a purpose no matter how meaningless it might appear and the journey to discover that purpose is contemplation.

Last edited on Tuesday August 3rd, 2004 15:51 by flow-unclever