The man is in reality produced by divine breath in another world...

The man is in reality produced by divine breath in another world, and is not wholly homogeneous with the things of this world. He has a feeling of strangeness, and alienation with all other creatures here since they are all changeable, and perishable, and not worthy of indefinite attachment. The Man, however, has perpetual anxiety, and this is what draws him towards devotion, and worship of God, communion with Him, and proximity to Him, as his origin.

There are many parables in mysticism about returning to one's origin. Poets speak of a parrot brought in a cage from India always longing to break open the cage, and fly back home. Rumi tells the story of a reed which is cut off from its reed-bed, and you hear the moan of the pipe lamenting this separation, and longing for the reunion. Sometimes they compare a person to an elephant which must be constantly knocked on the head so that it gets no chance to think of its Indian homeland.

Most of these parables mean to say that a human being is anxious to return to the original world, and feels the pain of separation, and longs for a divine reunion. Imam ‘Ali, in a conversation with Kumayl Ibin-Ziad, declares that there is no one to whom he may divulge the secret of his heart. But, he says there are some individuals in the world who have attained the point of perfect certainty in knowledge, and feel that there is no space to separate them from the spirit of certitude.

That thing, namely contentment, which is difficult for pleasure-seeking men, and materialists to achieve, is feasible for them, and what is the source of obstruction for the materialists, namely acquaintance of God, is the means of companionship for the latter. Spiritualists go along with people, but their spirits soar high, and they feel connected to the physical as well as metaphysical worlds, simultaneously, going through the mystic, and devotional “pains”, and communions that ‘Ali had.

This love of God makes the devotee wholly unconscious of what goes on around him, and he does not feel any pain even if an arrow is being pulled out of his body. This pain of separation from God, and longing for divine proximity do not end until he attains his goal of joining God. The Holy Qur’an says the heart is soothed by one thing only, and that is the reminiscence of God. Rumi quotes the parable of a man who was constantly in communion with God, and kept on repeating the divine name.