Are We Making Spirituality Too Difficult?

I've been thinking about something that happened in a conversation a few months ago, and I want to share it with you.

You know as seekers on the spiritual path we make things really hard on ourselves? I've been watching this in my own life.

We treat spiritual actions like tests we might fail We punish ourselves thinking discomfort equals devotion We turn our inner voice into a harsh critic that never seems satisfied.

It makes spirituality feel like constant struggle.

Something about approaching our spiritual practice this way seems off. I got more clarity when I was in conversation with a scholar about the purpose of life.

A Conversation That Shifted My Perpsective

A few months back, I was in a group discussion when someone asked the question we've all wondered about: "What's the purpose of life?" You know how those moments happen - suddenly everyone gets quiet and you realize you're about to hear something important.

He quoted a verse from Surah al-Mulk: "God created life and death so that He may see which of you is most beautiful in deeds."

Most beautiful.

I'd heard this verse before, but it usually got translated as "best in deeds" or "most righteous." This scholar emphasized beautiful. And something clicked for me.

Maybe the struggle isn't supposed to be about making life harder. Maybe it's about making life beautiful.

If my spiritual practice is making things harsh or joyless, maybe I'm approaching it wrong.

There's this Sufi Comic on this this topic called "Mirroring God's Beauty."

Art by Charbak Dipta

Something I Learned About Arabic

I discovered something interesting recently. In Arabic, the word "husn" means both beauty and goodness. They're not separate ideas. Doing good things, goes with doing things beautifully.

One of God's names in Islam is "Al-Jameel" - The Most Beautiful. I've been wondering what that means for how I live. Not just trying to be good, but trying to reflect something beautiful.

Even the Quran is always presented beautifully - in recitation, in writing, in decoration. Like the form and content work hand in hand.

How This Changed Some Things for Me

Once I started thinking this way, some things in my life began to shift.

With parenting, instead of just correcting my kids or teaching them lessons, I started wondering: how can I create beautiful moments with them?

At work, I still care about getting things done well, but I also find myself asking: is this approach beautiful? Are we solving problems in a way that brings some harmony into the world? Sometimes the beautiful solution turns out to work better anyway.

Even with Sufi Comics, I realized I wasn't just trying to share correct information. I was trying to make wisdom beautiful and accessible.

This feels different from the way of thinking about spirituality as constant struggle. It makes spiritual practice something to look forward to.

Now instead of asking myself "Am I being good enough?" I'm asking "Am I doing things beautifully?"

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