Peace
In our Dua we say:
Allahuma Ya Mowlana anta salaam
Wa minka salaam
Wa Ilayaka yarjahu salaam
This means O Lord thou art peace
Peace comes from thee (you)
And Peace returneth to thee (you)
We believe that God is everywhere. He has no form and is also invisible. He is Omnipresent i.e. He is everywhere. He is within you, all around you and covers the whole expanse of the universe. Most of all HE IS PEACE.
Hence, if you want to get closer to him you have to bring yourself in an extreme peaceful mode. You are closest to God when you are most peaceful. So how do you get to be really peaceful.
Now let us think about it. How we can benefit knowing more about peace. In the day time most people are out and about working and involved in other kinds of activities. People are traveling via cars, buses, trains etc. and all these are producing sound and disturbing the peace which is in the atmosphere.
At night time the worldly activities reduce and you can experience some level of peace. Though it is not absolutely peaceful but it is relatively quiet. This is because even at night time there are human activities going on. They may be less, nonetheless they are there. So which time period is the window of most peacefulness?
In our ginans we have been given the understanding of the best time in the 24 hours which is most peaceful. The lines of Ginan go this way….
Khat gadi to pachali jaago,
Cheto muniwar bhai,
Jaagan hara tame jaagjo,
Noor Zahura thai
Tera sona bhalera nahi.
Khat means six. Gadi is a measure of time. In the past time was measured by pohor and gadi. One day was equal to 8 pohor or 64 gadi. 24 hours was divided by 8 pohor which came to 3 hours each. Then each 3 hours was again divided by 8 which came to 22.5 minutes. Hence each gadi was 22.5 minutes.
Pachali means last part of the night and Jaago means wake up.
The Pir in the above ginan explains us the best period in the 24 hours which is most peaceful. This means the last part of the night. (This time is between appx. 3.45 am to 6.00 am.) The day starts breaking at about 6 a.m. This timings were related to India where this ginan was composed. Be Alert oh learned one, wake up and remember your lord and come closest to the Peace and be blessed. Sleeping at this time will not do any good to your spirituality.
So, take advantage of this time period to come close to ONE WHO IS ABOVE ALL ELSE.
Best of luck.
Amirji
This jist of Ginan is written for the benefit of people who cannot read and understand Gujerati and other Ginanic languages used in the composition of Ginans and is written primarily for Shia Imami Ismaili.