Thursday, August 11, 2011

Q&A = PRAYING WHILE GOING THETA

SMM to me

Assalamualaikum,
berkenaan artikel terbaru saudara, saya sangat tertarik untuk mengetahui secara terperinci kaedah yang dilakukan. saya ingin sekali merasa nikmat khusyuk tersebut tetapi agak sukar kerana saya tidak mengenali mana-mana guru yang mursyid untuk megajarinya. saya ada juga membaca dari buku tetapi sangat kurang maklumat yang diberikan. kebanyakannya hanya berbicara tentang fadilat dan kelebihan khusyuk bukan cara-cara untuk khusyuk dalam solat dan zikir. harapan saya agar saudara sudi berkongsi ilmu.

Terima Kasih.

My Reply..

Waalaikum salam,

Okay, I shall put it out in writing here. But first I have to tell you in advance that it's not going easy at first, but in the end its worth it. Secondly, I hope no one start accusing me of spreading false teaching here. You are completely at liberty to ignore the method I suggested here.

Disclaimer: what is written here is based solely on our understanding on how human mind work. Unfortunately neither I nor anyone from my group can support our method with any authority from any religious text or book. So please spare me from question demanding me to back my method with any kitab by prominent ulama.

From my group's point of view, theta stage can be achieved through rhythm, focus and understanding.

1. What is rhythm?

Rhythm means the rhythm which cause your brain to completely relax. That's being said we believe there's part of the reason why it's a good very idea to read Al-Quran in melody.

The best thing about Al-Quran it has a unique style. It has the simplicity and continuity found in prose, yet it is not prose. It has the beat, rhythm and poise of poetry, yet it is not poetry. It has the flow of tumultuous torrents and the vigor of pounding sea waves. Therefore people who often recites Al-Quran would eventually creates their or style of reading with his/her own distinct melody.

For example, the way
Sheikh Meshary Rachid Alafasy recite Al-Quran will have a different melody from how Syed Sadaqat Ali recite it. The same applies to you, you should find your own 'music' when reciting Al-Quran and performing dzikir.

If you have been reciting Al-Quran and dzikir regularly, then I bet you already have your own rhythm. Others might like to 'sing' it fast while you might prefers slow tempo (and vice versa).It's sort of like 'singing' which you should adopt one which fits your own liking. If you have it already, then stick with it. That melody contains a rhythm that will help you into theta.

2. What is focus?

Focus here means finding a suitable environment to disconnect yourself from surrounding elements. This is particularly important for beginners who will find it almost impossible to detach his/her senses from what's happening around him/her.

In the west, scientist had come up with an idea of having a so-called ‘Sensory Deprivation Tank’ in for meditation. This is actually a soundproof isolation tank first created John C. Lilly by which subjects float in salt water at skin temperature. One hypothesis behind the tank was if all stimuli are cut off to the brain then the brain would go to sleep. Lilly decided to test this hypothesis and, with this in mind, created an environment that totally isolated an individual from external stimulation.

Now for you however, there’s no need to build yourself a tank like this (even though I’m quite curious myself if this performing dzikir in a tank like this would be approved by the Fatwa council). In Islam we are encourage to perform Tahajjud in the dead of the night. In Al-Quran Tahajjud was mentioned as follows:-

“And during a part of the night, pray Tahajjud beyond what is incumbent on you; maybe your Lord will raise you to a position of great glory.” Al-Isra 17:79

“And they who pass the night prostrating themselves before their Lord and standing.” Al-Furqan 25:64

Also in hadith, Amr ibn `Absah claimed that he heard the prophet saying “The closest that a servant comes to his Lord is during the middle of the latter portion of the night. If you can be among those who remember Allah the Exalted One at that time, then do so” — At-Tirmidhi

It is clear that there’s something very special about praying in the dead of the night when the people around you had already asleep. There’s no television sound or the voice from your family members to distract you from focusing on whatever you’re doing. Therefore from a scientific point of view, praying in the middle of the night is as close as being in the isolation tank itself.

What I’m trying to convey here is that in order to go theta, you must find an ideal place to cut off your brain from others stimuli. My suggestion is to try performing dzikir in the dead of the night with the light off. However, if you’re Achluophobia like penguins (Penguin is joked to suffer Fear of darkness) then at least make sure as minimum light as possible.

Try to find the most comfortable way of sitting. I myself find it comfy enough cross-legged while my friend is known to sit on chair while performing dzikir after tahajjud.

2. What is Understanding?

This is the most important part because you cannot focus on what you’re doing if you don’t even now what you’re doing.. AND you won’t know what you’re doing until you truly understand whatever is actually happening.

For this article, what you must do is to understand the meaning of all verses and doa you are going to perform. This is so crucial I cannot even emphasize enough the need for it.

In its simplest meaning, it means that you have to understand the meaning of every verse. Let’s me give an example through my own experience.

In my case, I was told to recite the following verse on daily basis (not only after tahajjud):-

(a) Bismillah-6
(b) Al Fatihah
(c) Al-Ikhlas
(d) Al-Falaq
(e) An-Nas
(f) Ayatul Qursi
(g) Yaasin 1-10
(h) Al-Kahfi 1-10
(i) 1000 Dinar
(j) Salawat Tafrijiyah
(k) And a bunch other doa including dzikir.

(NOTE: This is my ritual which I’m sure different from yours. No need to follow mine. You should stick with what you have been doing all this time)

In order to sink myself into theta, I have to memorize the meaning of every sentence. For example when I pray “bismillah his sami ‘il bashir allazi lai sa kamislihi shai ‘un wahuwabikul li shai ain ‘aliim” then I have to train my brain to instantly know its meaning as “Dengan nama Allah yang maha mendengar lagi maha melihat tiada yang seumpama dengannya dan maha mengetahui pada setiap sesuatu”.

Similarly when I pray “iya kana’ budu waiya kana’ sta’in” I have to train my brain to instantly know its meaning as “Engkaulah Yang Kami sembah, dan kepada Engkaulah sahaja kami memohon pertolongan”.

This will be hard. In the beginning I even have to pause a moment after every verse because my brain was doing mental acrobatic trying to translate what it means in Malay.

You have to train your brain to know the meaning of each and every sentence and it will be difficult at first. I myself only manage to perfect it after 3 months. However, our brain has the ability to imprint something when it was repeatedly done. It’s the same with the first time we tried to text a message using a phone keypad. After a while our fingers can type an SMS very fast without thinking because our brain grew accustoms to the location of each letter on the keypad.

Through perseverance, you too will began to instantly recalled what every verse means.

This is when the magic will happen. Once you began to relax your brain with the rhythm and at the same time focusing on whatever you’re praying to God, you will feels as though you’re alone with HIM.

You no longer hear notice what is happening around. You no longer know where you are. Sometimes you do hear a sound of a car passing your house but it sounded from another world. At this point if you perform a doa, it feels like you’re speaking to him. This is the stage where some people start crying when they pray for absolution because it feels like begging from the higher order.

This is your brain going theta and you’re opening yourself to an inter-dimensional world. When you say something you know that Someone is actually listening. It’s truly a spectacular experience.

Try it, it may be taxing at first.. but in the end it will do you good.



A friend of mine, Pengikut Nabi Muhammad had re-published better articles about the benefit of Tahajjud. You can read it at http://insanberdakwah.blogspot.com/2011/03/kelebihan-tahajud.html

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