The activist wants to change the world.
The sage withdraws from the world and wants to change himself.
“Yesterday, I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today, I am wise, so I am changing myself”
- Rumi
“Your own Self-Realisation is the greatest service you can [offer] the world” (Ramana Maharshi).
From a spiritual perspective, we cannot have a truly positive influence upon the outside world without going deeper into the self. This primarily involves detachment and mindfulness.
Some degree of spiritual awakening should occur before social action. "Before doing, one must be", says the proverb. It should be remembered that the Chosen One ﷺ spent much of his early years in solitude within the cave of Hira before he was called to change his family, society and the greater world:
"O thou hidden in thy cloak. Arise and warn" - Quran 74:1-2.
Detachment from the world precedes engagement in the world.
"There is no true engagement without detachment"
- Shaykh Abdal Hakim Murad
Notes
* Few will journey far along the Path, but in the end, what may truly matter when facing Judgment is where we have fixed our gaze and set our intentions.
* Obviously the social activist gains more publicity than the contemplative who withdraws from public gaze. In our tradition, we are told that the folk of Allah (awliya Allah) are always hidden.
“Verily my friends (awliya) are under my domes, and only I know them.”
- Hadith Qudsi
* The macrocosm (external world) is dependent upon the microcosm (internal world).
"... God will change the external situation of whoever reforms his internal state"
- Muhammadﷺ1
"... God will not change the situation of a people until they change what is within themselves"
- Quran 13.11
“What is realised within the microcosm (internal world) radiates into the macrocosm (external world) by reason of the analogy between all of the cosmic orders”
- F. Schuon
(Source: Spiritual Perspectives and Human Facts)
References
1. Narrated Ibn 'Amr. Quoted by al-Hakim. Validated hadith.
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