What is the practical understanding of Kalima in Sufi way?

  

 Rohtas Fort (via Wikimedia Commons)

The method of the Sufi teaching is different from the conventional academia, as it involves not just the mathematical meaning of an idea, but the experiential conceptualization of an idea and its grooming into belief. We are discussing how a Sufi disciple deciphered the meaning of Kalima by the metaphor of world.

A Sufi master assigned the recitation of Kalima to his disciple who was worldly man. The disciple could not continue the incantation, and forgot the lesson. But, the lesson has never stopped, and beads kept on falling along the thread of his life, as the master’s glance of benediction (Urdu: Nazr-e-Karam) continuously remained upon the disciple’s heart. The day to day experiences in the life of disciple molded his heart into a bowl to be filled with the realization of the meaning of Kalima. In his ordinary course of business, he faced some crises, forcing him to take a right decision on each such occasion of conflict and agony. In the initial phase, he got disappointed to see the world full of injustices, which took him to realize “La Ilaha” (i.e., first part of Kalima: “there is no god”) that the unjust practices and people of this world are not God, therefore, God is not responsible for these injustices, but the man himself is all cause of this all injustice. The order of this unjust world is inferior and defective. In the second phase, he realized the meaning of “Illallah” (i.e., second part of Kalima: “But the God”) that the true and rightful order is that of Allah, who is above the heavens and pure from all defections of this unjust world. The two parts “there is no god” and “but Allah” jointly mean to differentiate the just from the unjust, and the right from the wrong. This is the spirit of Tawheed (the Shehada or testimony that Allah is the exclusive Lord), who is pure and right. The third phase, enlightened the meaning of “Muhammadur Rasoolallah” (i.e., third part of Kalima: “Muhammad PBUH is Allah’s prophet”) that the Order of Allah is the prime solution of all injustices of this world, and it will have to be brought through the Islamic way of life and governance (“Shariah”).