If life is briefly described, it can be said that life is an expression of emotions. Life flows through countless emotions and travels upon the current of the senses. Controlling these emotions is also possible only through the senses.
For example, a man feels thirst. Thirst is a demand, and to fulfill it the senses guide us. The senses tell us this water is hot, this is cold, this is bitter, this is sweet. The act or demand of thirst is fulfilled by drinking water. Recognition of water itself is possible only through the senses. One demand is thirst; another is hunger.
To desire someone is one kind of demand; to wish that someone desires us is another. If all these demands are gathered together, their name is life. When they are separated and examined, we realize that every demand is distinct because different measures and proportions work within each one.
The proportions at work in thirst are not present in hunger. Therefore, hunger cannot be satisfied by drinking water alone, and thirst cannot be quenched by eating food. Each sense perceives and understands every demand in its own way.
In human life, one of the greatest demands is love. Love is an essential demand without which life remains incomplete. The senses give different forms to this single emotion. They tell us this woman is our wife, this girl our daughter, this woman our mother. When we say love, our mind forms a general image of affection, but when understood through the senses, the form of love changes though its meaning remains one.
A woman is a woman in all conditions, but the senses classify her differently. They tell us she is a sister, a daughter, a mother, or a wife. As man and woman, both share common attributes, but within those common attributes the senses reveal that an order and law exist.
This means that the foundation of human life rests on two pillars: emotion and senses. As long as a person remains confined to the circle of emotions, he is no different from other animals. But when he understands emotions through his human senses and uses them to fulfill those emotions, he rises above the level of animals.
Animals also share emotions and senses, but the difference is that a goat or a cow cannot give meaning to its sensations. Its knowledge is limited to fulfilling its immediate needs: it knows that drinking water quenches thirst and eating leaves satisfies hunger. It does not care whose water it is or who owns it. It simply responds to instinct and fulfills it.
By contrast, when a human feels a need, he understands through his senses how that need should be fulfilled. Because Allah has given humans knowledge through their senses, they have become distinguished among all creatures, and this distinction makes them responsible beings.
All creation shares the same natural demands for survival. Man feels hunger and thirst just as animals do, yet man is aware of his demands and senses as separate functions. This awareness raises him to the rank of the most honored creation.
To understand the law of the senses is to enter spirituality. Spiritual knowledge teaches and demonstrates how senses and emotions are created. Within the human body a machine of countless mechanisms operates. Some parts create senses, and some create emotions. Allah has granted man the capacity to understand how these parts are fitted within him and how, through them, emotions and senses are formed.
In terms of emotions and senses, humans and animals share a common field. But a goat does not have the capacity to understand the mechanism that forms senses. If a person, like a goat, does not understand the divine system installed within him, his status is no higher than that of a cat or dog. For hunger afflicts both, and both fill their stomachs. Thirst afflicts both, and both drink water.
By instinct, a human nourishes and loves his offspring, just as a cat loves, feeds, and teaches its kittens how to live. From a spiritual perspective, if a human performs only the same functions as an animal, his worth is equal to that of the animal. A human is superior only because Allah has granted him the knowledge of the system…the divine machinery—within himself.
By Khawaja Shamsuddin Azeemi RA, from his book: Ṣadā-e-Jaras — The Sound of the Bell.