There is inherent contentment in a created being such as a bird...

There is inherent contentment in a created being such as a bird, but man has the consciousness of contentment. Furthermore, he has the light of consciousness of consciousness. This establishes man as the highest of creation. Man is conscious of the consciousness of happiness. He is conscious of the consciousness of unhappiness. Surur cannot be passed on, it has to be earned. If one has grasped the way to its attainment one will constantly seek after it in one's life.

It has nothing to do with time or place. Often, an ignorant man returns to the lake or the mountain top where he had spent a holiday or had had a good time, thinking that he can reproduce the inner state of a momentary opening of the heart. He yearns for the upliftment of joyfulness. This perverted seeking is found among the inspired souls of people such as artists and composers.

In the biographies of these madmen, one will find that they often go back to the same mountain spot or shack, to live for the rest of their lives in a romantic illusion so that they can reproduce their creative moments. But creative moments are moments of detachment from this world. It simply happened that he was there in that chalet on that mountain top. He yearns for the moment of joy he experienced but cannot retrieve it. He thinks joy is prescribable or describable but it is not.

"The path of those upon whom Thou hast bestowed favors. Not (the path) of those upon whom Thy wrath is brought down, nor of those who go astray." (al-Fatiha: 7) Look at what has caused you trouble and kept you from joy: attach­ments, expectations, desires and fears - guard against these and you are already in the garden. The root of the word surur is also connected with the word mean­ing the cutting of the umbilical cord of a newborn baby.

It is a joy ; because the child is no longer dependent on a thing called 'womb.' The cutting heralds his outer independence and leads him to the possi­bility of understanding that he is dependent only upon Allah. It is the beginning of a journey of joyfulness during which the child may begin to recognize that he is a child of Truth and Reality and that he is born by the grace of Allah, while the mother was the instrument within whom he had dwelt before birth.

The potentiality of his existence before conception was in the knowledge of Allah and became an expression, a manifestation. Sarir ( thrones, bed, singular of surer) is a symbol of relief from outer troubles and a means of joy.