In sufi tradition, Muraqaba (Gnosis of Self) is the name of that contemplation through which man is able to gain the knowledge which is the primordial knowledge of his Ego, Self, or Soul.It appears that the person performing Muraqaba is simply sitting in a pose with his or her eyes closed. However, merely shutting the eyes and assuming a specific pose does not serve the purpose. Muraqaba is in fact an angle of perception through which the person doing the Muraqaba frees himself or herself from outward senses and begins their journey in the inward senses.
Now we are going to look into whether or not the Muraqaba-like conditions or states exist in us, without adopting the specific pose of Muraqaba.
Freedom from outward senses happens in our daily life, both involuntarily and voluntarily. For example, we go to sleep and while sleeping our brain disconnects from outward senses. It is true that this disconnection is temporary however; this condition could not be termed as anything but disconnection from outward senses. Hence, we can say that Muraqaba is in fact a way of imposing a state of sleeping without going to sleep.
Every human being, from the time of birth to death spends life in two states. In other words, in the human mind there are two types of conditions that prevail every moment of our life. One of these conditions or state is wakening and the other sleeping or dreaming. In the wakening state, they are trapped in Time and Space while during dreaming they are free from the confines of spatiotemporal limitations. This freedom of Time and Space is sought through Muraqaba by converting the state of sleeping or dreaming into an awakened state. Because during Muraqaba, a person goes through the same conditions that he or she goes through while sleeping or dreaming.
In order to enter the unseen world (al-ghayb) or to behold anything beyond Time and Space, we have to first free ourselves from the clutches of spatiotemporal restrictions. This is only possible when the vision that sees Time and Space frees itself from its boundaries. To activate that vision, certain exercises have been created through which even if the human mind is not totally free at least it is able to come close to it.
Now the next question is to how and when the human senses could be freed from that restriction. One example is the state of dreaming. Sleeping actually is getting freedom from the diurnal senses, which are Time and Space. When we go to sleep then our senses are transferred to a realm where the state of Time and Space do exist but not in the chronological order in which we spend our life. The Second way is that while wake human mind could focus on any object with full concentration. For example when we read an interesting book, we often lost track of the time. When we finally look at our watch, we then realized that so much time had elapsed, though we were not aware of it.
In the Quran, the event of Moses receiving the Torah is mentioned in the following verse, And We promised Moses thirty nights and fulfilled it in forty nights.
Day and night are mentioned in Quran in the following verses, And We enter night into the day and let the day enter into the night.
We take the night out of the day and take the day out of the night.
We cover the day onto night and night into the day
When we contemplate these verses of Quran, we realized that day and night are in fact two senses. In other words, our life is divided into two senses. One of the senses is day the other one is night. During the day senses (diurnal senses) restricted with Time and Space while during night senses (nocturnal senses) we are free from these restrictions.
The Divine Statement that We promised Moses thirty nights and fulfilled it in forty nights is interesting. Because Moses did not simply spend forty nights there, his entire stay was forty days and forty nights. It was not that he was spending the nights at the place and coming back during the day. He did spend his entire stay at the Mount. Interestingly God did not mention days in the verse instead mentions only night. It clearly suggests that during those forty days and forty nights, Moses was under the influence of nocturnal senses. The same nocturnal senses, which free us from the restrictions of Time and Space.
Hence, anyone who would impose the nocturnal senses during the period of day and night on themselves would be free from the confinement of Time and Space. This freedom from spatiotemporal restriction is the way to exploring the unseen realm and getting intuitive information.
During a battle, an arrow injured Amirul Momineen Ali ibn abi Talib. It had entered his thigh and the pain was excruciating. The surgeons could not operate on it. Because of extreme pain he would not let them even touch it. One of his companions suggested to surgeons that they wait until Imam Ali began his prayer. When Imam Ali began his prayer, the surgeons were able to operate on him without him showing any sign of pain. By the time he was done with his prayers, Imam Ali realized that the surgeon had already performed the surgery and the wound had already been stitched.
This event is another example of the negation of Time and Space. When Imam Ali started his prayers, his senses went from diurnal state into nocturnal state. The moment his mind entered the nocturnal senses his focus was shifted away from the diurnal senses (restriction and pain). The foundation of Spirituality is based on the reality that Man has two senses, two brains, and two lives. Just like the two sides of a coin, it has two sides.One life is restricted; the other one is free. Constrained life is day, wakefulness, and consciousness. On the other hand, free life is the name of night, joy, peace and the contentment of the heart.
What is Muraqaba? Muraqaba is Sufi expression of meditation. Sufi is a Muslim mystic who believe in personal communication with the God through spiritual pleasure, intuition, faith or sudden insight rather than through rational thought. The chief objective of Muraqaba is to understand the spiritual mysteries of Self, Universe and to experience an eternal life in union with God.
Muraqaba improves human memory, mental concentration in and boost spiritual energy in individual. You feel good and glow by the mystic enlightenment of Muraqaba. Muraqaba can help you to develop paranormal abilities like extrasensory perception and clairvoyance as well. But uncertainty, perplexity, depression, anxiety, and other psychological disorders are its deficiency as well. For beginners, creating a picture of Blue Lights is the initial exercise of Muraqaba because Blue is considered as the color of spirituality, obedience and peace.
Only 15-20 minutes of meditation is recommended. After the preliminary period of 90 days, you can increase the interval if you like. The best time for doing exercises of Muraqaba is before the sunrise and after the sunset especially before going to bed.
Primary level of Muraqaba includes “mystical understanding of light, Invisible Light, heartbreaking sound of Cosmos and Names of God for getting an association with attributes of God.”
Moderate level of Muraqaba includes “Death for getting acquaintance with life after Death, Heart for getting acquaintance with Spiritual Heart, Unity for getting acquaintance with the reason behind cosmic unity (God's will), nothingness, Annihilation of Self, and getting acquaintance with the alpha and omega of universe.”
Highest level of Sufi meditation includes "focus of mind on spiritual teacher to make the transfer of spiritual knowledge possible from master to student, focus of mind on prophet to make the transfer of private religious knowledge from prophet to student possible and above all focus on the Mind of God by following the life Hazrat Muhammad (peace be upon him)."
// adopted from article Sufi meditation by Sufi-Master Khwaja Shamsuddin Azeemi, the Patriarch of the Sufi Order of Azeemia. may God sanctify his station.
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