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 which everybody faces. 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 dies (fana).

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) - like a phoenix rising from the ashes. 

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. 

We have defined two levels of the self for the sake of simplicity but actually 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 and discover a new level of the self. The deeper we progress inwardly, the more refined and subtle our external attachments become. Detachment is the path towards true 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. Modern education and success are not real signs of human maturity. 

Notes

1. 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