How to cultivate foremostness?
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Every waking moment is a test and we have two choices. Respond in love/balance (ALLAH), respond in fear/imbalance (satan).
The disbeliever will on average respond in fear/imbalance. One who is submitting will respond with one or the other depending on how strong they are. One who is foremost in submission will choose love 100% of the time.
This is love for ALLAH, who gave us life when we had none, and this is the question of the test - will this creature who had no existence whatsoever prior to this be grateful for what they have been given OR will they purchase the illusion of the temporary and forget that they had nothing to begin with.
Often the love/balance path is very easy, in some situations it becomes harder, and in a few situations you are totally putting your life on the line for ALLAH.
I meditate often and find a lot of spiritual peace. However I don't always have the strength to viciously defend the truth at all costs. For example if someone is getting robbed by 10 people, I am rather unlikely at the moment to go flying in and save them. Or on another level, society as a whole lacks the collective testicular fortitude to stand up to the powers that be despite it being 99% of the population against 1%.
Another one is, let's say your friend does something wrong/evil/whatever. Because you are connected to them, there is a tendency to cover for their faults. You aren't as likely to call them out on it because the deed seems "minor" when in reality it is anything but.
ALL responses of fear are driven by the idea that you are going to lose something you never had for keeps to begin with (life, material possessions, pride, ego). The test of a true muslim is, are you willing to give up EVERYTHING for He who gave you that everything and can give you much more in its place?
How do we cultivate the tendency in the soul to choose the strong path of truth?
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The most important example Right now, all who recognise al-quran being the very foremost criterion are in a very very special position in modern life. The world is at a tipping point and we desperately need peace before the fruits of greed & truth-denial ravage the earth. Although we are not prophets, to hide the truth in fear of punishment by fellow humans is to spread falsehood.
This includes people from all walks of life, you will be amazed how many "hardcore Sunni" folk are secretly truthful muslims simply lost and waiting for a sign that what they know inside of themselves stands free, that it doesn't matter if so and so said something, what I see right in front of me now clearly disagrees and is more truthful.
As people who have this knowledge setting us free, we have a burden of responsibility to free anyone we can from the clutches of delusion. Quranists have been imprisoned in Egypt for standing up for this and it begins. The example of Firon punishing the magicians of his palace for accepting islam is what I mean. Who can sincerely testify that no amount of worldly torture is comparable to the punishment of ALLAH almighty!