Chapter Adiyaat – Part 2

100:1 “By the war horses which run swiftly to the battle, with a panting noise (breathing heavily;)”

Why are the war horses described as running swiftly to battle?  What does war-horse represent?

• The human being.
• I am running in some battlefield – why do I need to run swiftly?
• A side of me wants to tackle and find opposition to the expectation to fulfill my needs? Do you really experience such a conflict within yourself, what is it?
• What do we need? Anything we are striving for? Why are we in the battlefield?
• Do we find ourselves in the battlefield?

In a battle there must be some enemy –

• Enemy threatens that peace of mind, security…
• What causes friction for us to prevent the peace and security?
• What prevents us from achieving our goals? That I must fight against?

What is possible for me that prevents in achieving the goal? 

• Answer by audience: doubts that prevent us -How do we fix the doubt? Do our research. Investigate the nature of things.  Do we need to battle with this?  Not necessarily.

What do you want to achieve in this world?

• Answer by audience: Human expectations, peace of mind, security – get only if I battle with myself?

What is my battle-filed?

• The constant struggle of my consciousness (spirit) to discern truth from falsehood.

Is the battle with something external?

• Battle is going on within us. Human beings defend themselves against the battle. Where is the battle? What human beings need to do in order to have peace of mind, content with oneself.
• For example, if you are a thief and have stolen something. Do you have peace of mind?
• You may want to defend yourself – justify your stealing by deeming it right and necessary.
• Everyone wants to be right – comfortable in what they do.
• If I do something against my consciousness – my consciousness tells me that you have done something wrong. If I want to gain peace of mind, I defend myself against my consciousness.
• Does conscience mislead human beings? No, innately conscience never misleads us.
• In order to justify ourselves, we fight against consciousness, which makes us realize what our conscience offers us. We think that we are fighting for the truth. In fact, we may be fighting against our consciousness.

My Creator is offering something against my ego-centered ambitions, – how can I approve it or follow it?

• Conscience = revelation, God’s guidance
• When we do something wrong – we declare war against our conscience. When you are right, you are relaxed, there is no war. If there is war, it means that you are fighting against your conscience.
• First obtain self-satisfaction without any conflict and then worry about others.

Historically – the people are trying to fight the messenger – the one who brought the message.  The same battle is going on within ourselves as well which is why all these psychological problems and uncomfortable in one’s existence is prevalent.

If you are not comfortable within yourself, then you react and run swiftly to the battlefield with a panting noise.  Example: “You cannot insult my religion, prophet”. This person is not comfortable within himself and thus reacts.

Did the prophet react to the counter arguments?  He presents the case when the conditions allow them to do so without any reaction.

• Turning blind to our reality – no satisfaction
• Ignorant, negligent to the contradiction within ourselves, although we know it is there.
• Mercy is such that we are not comfortable with our existence by contradicting the reminder within ourselves: Conscious. Example, when the engine is not good – it will make some noises and hints that something is not right or check engine will go on, which represents the conscience of the car.

Human being always tries to find out any excuses to justify themselves against their conscience.

As soon as we realize, not entirely clear but something makes us feel uncomfortable, then that is the sign for rectification.  e.g. A lie, immediately makes me feel uncomfortable.  I don’t need to follow any religion to realize this, it is within me. Religion is out there to help me find the way to tackle with my problems, with my internal conflicts.

• Human beings are made able to realize when they are not comfortable, not at peace. Everyone has those problems. For example, I may have some ambitions that are made up, not real, and I cannot really achieve them because ambitions do not have an end. My consciousness tells me that those ambitions are not real. This is where the discomfort happens.

We are growing in this world – experiencing all these. If we constantly lie, we are constantly in conflict with ourselves, one may claim to be apparently comfortable. Pretend to be happy and soothe themselves to shut down their conscience. Physical life becomes no longer bearable.

Why do unbelieving bother to defend their unbelief? As long as you don’t follow what your conscience tells you, you have to go into the battlefield.

The truth is that my consciousness is aware of the need for Eternal Security and Perfection.  Consciousness is also aware of when I try to seek Eternal Security from the universe through false ideas or interpretations.

• Without listening to your consciousness, you cannot get peace of mind at all and do not feel security within yourself.

Can the universe really satisfy my human expectations which desire Eternity?  No, nothing satisfies me here.  Only a One that has brought me here must be able to satisfy my Eternal hopes and expectations.

How can I get Eternal satisfaction here?

• By acknowledging the Source of my existence. Listening to one’s own consciousness which is aware of what is truth and what is falsehood.
• Consciousness reveals to you the truth. It is direct revelation from the Source of your Existence.

You must be honest with yourself for consciousness to function.  Mostly, we are quick to blame others and external factors for our own shortcomings and failures.  However, when you truly listen to your thoughts free from any biases, then you can recognize what your consciousness is revealing to you or communicating with you.  That is the only way to receive revelation which is direct communication from the Creator.

There is wisdom in having acquired some sort of pollution from societal influences or the fulfilment of our egoistic desires because that is the only way to distinguish true from falsehood.

• Without struggling to find the true nature of our existence, we cannot make any progress in our humanity.

No one ever makes the case so clear for themselves i.e. I still do not want to submit to the truth.  We have to be careful not to cover the truth.  If I want to have peace of mind, I have to reflect on: “which kind of false ambitions or expectations do I have?  I must be honest within myself i.e. what am I expecting from life, is it true or not?  Admit that: “what I am expecting from this life on earth is not true, no one is perfect”.  When I fail specially to relieve myself from my ambitions – hard to do but then I should accept that these ambitions are not mine to fulfill. Ambition does not mean to be rich or successful in career, ambition here is to satisfy oneself in the wrong way. What is the wrong way? Contentment or satisfaction going against your conscience. Here, ambition means to satisfy yourself in the wrong way.  What is the wrong way?

• Attempting to gain satisfaction by going against your consciousness.
• Unless you accept that you are a created being and you can only accept satisfaction by acknowledging that your Creator provides everything for you.
• If one’s mind is in obtaining objects themselves only, rather than acknowledging its Source of Existence, then one can never gain satisfaction from anything of this universe.
• Human consciousness only feels satisfied when it submits itself to its Source of Existence. Then, we do not have to fight in this world to get worldly objects for their own sake. We will try to satisfy the needs of our body, but the purpose must to experience the Presence of the Qualities of their Creator manifested in them and get to know the Eternal Source of Existing reminding you His love and concern for you need. While we are benefiting from the objects of this world, we have to utilize them to get to know the Eternal Source of Satisfaction. As soon as we use the objects of this world they disappear. In this way, they announce to us that they are not the ones who satisfied us but the One Who gave them existence is the only One that satisfied us. This process is what our conscience lets us be aware of the desire to seek the eternal satisfaction while living in this everchanging temporary creation.

Why are we after material means to gain Eternal Satisfaction as opposed to submitting to the eternal source of existence?

The more secular we are, the more unsatisfactory we are with our professions.  The objects do not have any effect on one’s existence.  The problem is that our object of satisfaction is in the world, but consciousness wants to have full satisfaction which is infinite and endless.  Who can provide you infinite satisfaction?  The universe?  No.  Hence, unless we submit ourselves to the Creator and understand that everything is provided by Him, only then I get satisfaction in my existence.

• By obeying your caprices, rather than the will of the Creator, you will be in trouble.
• If you do not submit yourself to your Creator, then you will always be in war with your Creator, and replace Him with the universe itself.
• While I am living in this world, I will have to obey His order and be aware that He is the One who will satisfy me while I communicate with Him in this world.

How do you practically communicate with the Source of your Existence in this world?

• Through following the order, He has established.
• When you obey the order with the consciousness that this is the requirement of my Creator to communicate with Him in this physical world, then you may not obtain objects physically or the physical results but do obey the order properly as that is worship and acknowledgment about the Source of your Existence.

Let say that your friend is ill, and you do everything you could within the order of the universe to save him/her and the friend dies, do you feel guilty?  No.  But if you neglect to follow the order in the universe, then you feel guilty.  You are conscious that this order has been established by your Creator, the conscience urges you to help your friend and you say that I will do my best to obey my Creator’s order.  Also, if you do not acknowledge that the order belongs to your Creator and the Creator of your consciousness, and your friend dies, what happens to you?  You get angry with the Creator of death and you start complaining though you do not acknowledge Him as the Creator of everything in existence.  Whatever is created, you must follow the order in order to fulfill your responsibility and be conscious that this order has been prepared/put for you to communicate with the Creator of the order through obeying the order.

Let us study Jacob’s prayer which means that when we pray, it is for our own sake that we pray, not that God will change His mind.  By obeying the order, I am obeying the Order-er, the One that puts the Order in place.

• The best prayer is – besides verbally – is to acknowledge the order and follow that order.

Verse 12:68 “And when they entered from where their father had ordered them, it did not avail them against Allah at all except [it was] a need within the soul of Jacob, which he satisfied. And indeed, he was a possessor of knowledge because of what We had taught him, but most of the people do not know.”

When Jacob’s sons went to Egypt to bring goods to Joseph, Jacob asked them to enter from different doors because they had lots of goods and there was a famine in the area.  What does it mean?  It is our need within our own soul.  When we are supposed to do something, in order to accomplish our aim, we ask God or supplicate to Him.  This does not have any affect in the way that God creates the result.  What is important is to obey the order being conscious that by obeying the order you are obeying the will of the Order-er.  Who has established the order here?  The One who has created the universe.  When you obey the order, what are you obeying?  The Source of your Existence.  

·         If you do any actions in this world with this consciousness, then you will never contradict yourself.  Example: If you do not prepare yourself for an exam and you get a bad result, then do you feel comfortable?  No.  Immediately you invent excuses to justify yourself.  You still know that you had to study and so you are in a battle within yourself by saying that I do not need a degree to be successful in life although you know that you have to study.

Embattled within oneself. Not feeling comfortable – working hard to combat against the truth.  The people who reject message they receive from their conscious, they must run into the battle swiftly to defend themselves and find out excuses to invent excuses to justify themselves.  That is why, unbelievers are working harder than the believers to attack the truth because they do not feel comfortable within themselves by trying to justify their denial of what the conscience constantly reminds them.

·         Similarly, whatever we invent that we need for ourselves, when it is not met, we start fighting: why did I not succeed in getting it?  You start justifying yourself and go into a fight and say that I will not submit to what my conscience tells me.

Example: You are trying to learn how to solve the equation in a right way. Do you feel conflict within yourself?  No, the more I study, the better I get at solving and feel satisfaction within.  It is not this war/struggle we are talking about.

If you want to learn:

·         What is the purpose of my life?  What am I doing in this world?  Why am I struggling for something which is not worth at all?  What is the truth?  I must understand the truth.

·         Go in front of a mirror and say to yourself:  Who are you?  What are you doing in this world?

Failure is with you.  Not everyone reaches the conclusion immediately.  It takes time and it is a process.  What I am expected to do?  I will make one step ahead today, let me analyze my false/artificial ambitions which are not according to the awareness of my conscience.  For the rest, you can pray: “O my Creator! Please give me success to receive guidance.”  This prayer will not make God’s mind change but within yourself you know what you are supposed to do i.e. my Creator established the rule within the universe and created my conscience within me, so that I have to choose to be in harmony with my conscience.  If I do not succeed today, I am sure that as long as I try, then my Creator will provide a means for me.  Because of this comfort, you go ahead more steps further as a result of your consistency within yourself.

These artificial ambitions are the source of psychological problems and secular psychology only provides temporary numbness to our human problems.  Physical disability is something different.  Finally, we ourselves and our egoistic caprices run into the battle with the Source of our Existence.  These artificial ambitions cannot be our reality.  His Mercy does not let me go ahead with my mistakes: “I know something is wrong with me and I am not satisfied with it.”  It is the Creator’s Mercy who does not let us proceed in the wrong way.