If you read Colin Wilson you already know what I am talking about. He talks about some sweet extraordinary feelings a person sometimes reaches when s/he focuses on something very deeply and reaches to a very high level of consciousness. He calls it Faculty X. Very often we do things -especially when doing it the second time- like robots. We give little thinking on the task at hand. We let our inner robot drive our car from office to home and back again.

Abraham Maslow claims to discover that as well when he started to study the psychology of healthy and happy persons. He called such feelings as peak experience. Some might attain it through listening to music, or when giving alms to a poor, or saving a child from accident, etc.

I found no difficulty to connect dots and link this subject to numerous places from Quran or Hadith (i.e., traditions of Prophet Muhammad - peace be upon him). Here are few notes on that.

Quran wants us to concentrate, focus and disengage our inner robots when we engage with the Quran. Often we let our robot read the Quran while we wander our mind to each and all subjects except the Quran. Read for example, verse 47:24

Then do they not reflect upon the Qur’an, or are there locks upon [their] hearts?

That means, often our inner robots locks our heart and takes the driving seat of our mind while reading the Quran. No wonder why the Quran is not affecting billions of Muslim zombies these days!

When you force yourself and claim back the driving wheel, only then you would see the glory of the Quran affecting your heart, and as a by-product this sheer inner feeling (or Faculty X or peak experience) overflows to our outer appearance and reaction on skin or tears.

Read for example, the effect of the Quran on heart and skin in 39:23

Allah has sent down the best statement: a consistent Book wherein is reiteration. The skins shiver therefrom of those who fear their Lord; then their skins and their hearts relax at the remembrance of Allah . That is the guidance of Allah by which He guides whom He wills. And one whom Allah leaves astray - for him there is no guide.

Or read how when a Bible scholar reads about the Quran and starts to shed tears out of joy and faculty X effect. 5:83

And when they hear what has been revealed to the Messenger, you see their eyes overflowing with tears because of what they have recognized of the truth. They say, “Our Lord, we have believed, so register us among the witnesses.

Hence, these are not discoveries by Wilson or Maslow. Not being very lucky to get exposed to Quran and Hadith, they had to work hard to find it. How lucky then those amongst us who got the Quran and Hadith, but at the same time how unlucky if we always let our robot -and not us- who read the Quran and Hadith.

Speaking about Hadith, a copyrighted and patented term hadith used in this regard is the word taste of faith or in Arabic Ta’am al emaan. It is narrated in Muslim by the uncle of the Prophet Muhammad, Al-Abbas ibn Abdul Muttalib, that the Prophet Muhammad -peace be upon him- said:

He has tasted (the sweetness) of faith who: a) got pleased that Allah is his Lord, and b) Islam is his religion and c) Muhammad as the messenger

Similarly the word Sweetness of faith or in Arabic Halawat al emaan can be found in numerous hadiths. For example, narrated by Bukhari, Muslim and others through Anas ibn Malik, the Prophet said:

Whoever has three qualities, he has tasted the sweetness of faith: 1) When Allah and His messenger become more beloved to him than anyone else 2) when he starts to love another person for no reason except for the sake of Allah and 3) when he hates to return to disbelieve (and leave Islam) after he has been saved from it, as he hates to be thrown in fire.

The above evidences not only speaks about Faculty X, it gives much more details on its nature and how to attain them.

Sad that the mankind is sitting on such a huge treasure but neglecting it.