There is a saying of the Holy Prophet Muhammad:

``No one shall enter the kingdom of heaven who was not born twice.''

(Maktubat of Shaikh Ahmad of Sirhind, the Mujaddid Alif Sani)

The meaning is that a person has two births. The first birth is the physical birth. When a child is born, his parents name him after a prophet, saint or other righteous person. The second birth takes place when a person becomes an adult. At that time, he has many aspirations and desires, and that is the time when he is subject to attack from the devil, then does his spiritual and real birth take place. He is given a name again by Almighty God, in the spiritual world, corresponding to the work he does.

Two types of believers

Among the believers, such persons are of two kinds. Firstly, those who are pursued by the devil at the time of their spiritual birth, who tries to mislead them. The believer engages in prayer and cries before the Lord God that He may protect him from the attack of the devil and grant him to do good. In the Holy Quran, believers of this kind are compared to the Pharoah's wife, Assiyya. Just as she remained firm on her faith in God and Moses, despite persecution of all sorts by the Pharoah, similarly a believer of this class stays away from evil and sin despite the full assault of the devil. In the spiritual world, such believers are given the name Assiyya, as the Quran says:

``God sets forth an example for those who believe --- the wife of Pharoah who said: My Lord, build for me with Thee a house in heaven, and save me from the Pharoah and his doings, and save me from an unjust people.''

(The Holy Quran, 66:11)

In this verse, God has given the example of those believers who are not yet free of the grip of base passions, but, like the Pharoah's wife, pray and strive day and night to be free of this grip. This state of soul is known as the self-accusing soul.

Believers named `Mary'

The second class of believers are those who are pure from the beginning, and protected from attacks of the devil. Due to the high degree of goodness and purity in them, God has compared them to Mary, as that is their name in the spiritual world:

``And Mary, daughter of Amran, who guarded her chastity, so We breathed into him Our Spirit [i.e. bestowed Divine revelation]. She accepted the words of her Lord and His books, and was of the obedient.''

(The Holy Quran, 66:12)

This is the example of those believers who possess the contented soul. Note that the gender in the words ``breathed into him'' is masculine, so that the example refers to the believer. The believer who reaches this rank receives the word of God, and his being is indeed a proof of the truth of the Books of God.

The Holy Prophet's saying

This verse of the Quran is supported by the following Saying of the Holy Prophet:

``No child is born but the devil touches him when he is born, and so he cries due to the devil's touch, except Mary and her son.''

It is not the physical birth of a child that is meant here, but the spiritual birth of a man. By ``Mary and her son'' are meant believers having these qualities. This is also the meaning explained by the famous classical commentator of the Quran, Zamakhshari:

``Its meaning is that the devil attempts to mislead every child, except Mary and her son because they were both pure. The same applies to everyone who has their qualities.''

(The commentary Kashshaf, vol. i, p. 302)

Hence, in this Saying of the Holy Prophet, it is not the two individuals Mary and her son who are meant, but two kinds of people who have the qualities of these two.

Sufis and the two births

The Sufis accept the two births of man. Suharwardy, founder of the famous Sufi order, wrote:

``The disciple becomes a part of the master, just as a child is a part of his father in his physical birth. Thus is the disciple born from his master, in his spiritual birth.''

(`Awarif al-Mu`arif, vol. i, p. 45)