Die Before Death

“Die before death” 

    - Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم

The spiritual master Ibn Arabi (d.1240) distinguishes between a compulsory return to God and a voluntary return. The compulsory return occurs at physical death. The voluntary return is only achieved by the few who are with God in this life having already died in the sense that their ego (nafs) has been deprived of its nourishment and perished (fana).

Within the human being, there is a constant battle between the ego (nafs) and the Spirit (ruh). Whichever one you feed will determine who is uppermost and victorious.

The ego (nafs) - the outward personality - is nourished by outward phenomena and its identity within it. The Spirit (ruh) - the innermost Self- is empowered through mindfulness of its Divine Origin. Spiritual warfare (jihad) refers to the constant battle between the two. 

The victorious are those who overpower or slay the ego (fana) which leads to a kind of resurrection or renewal of Life. The Quran speaks of the Saint as "he who is dead and whom We have brought to life, making for him a light whereby he walketh among men" (6:122). 

In today's world, you are advised to "Be yourself", "Love yourself" because "You are perfect just the way you are." This is a complete inversion from traditional wisdom which always advised us to slay the lower self (nafs) in order to realise the higher Self (ruh). 

Modernity no longer believes in a higher Self and a lower self or a higher world and a lower world. Everything is flattened out in a systematic process of banalisation. In their view, reality is simply what it appears to be. 

Notes

1. There are many levels of the self. The outermost self is the most vile in terms of its outward attachments that serve as it's life support. When deprived of its external food it dies and we move deeper into ourselves. The deeper we progress inwardly, the more refined and subtle our external attachments become. Detachment is real maturity. Just as the child reaches maturity when it is weaned from the mothers milk, so also does the soul reach maturity when it is weaned from the world.

2. In the Vedanta, we are told that the bliss of Liberation (moksha) is usually experienced after death. Only the jivan-mukta experiences something of it in this life.  

"The jivan-mukta is 'Liberated in life'

The sufi has 'died before death'

This is essentially the same thing. 

To die before death is to be liberated in life" 

    - Anonymous