“Also through that insight of belief, connection, relation, bond and brotherhood, I felt and experienced in myself an infinite happiness at the happiness of all my friends –for whose happiness I would willingly sacrifice my life and immortality. For one kind friend is happy and pleased at the happiness of his sincere friend…”
Are we created in a way that the people related to us influence our lives? The ones close to us are our beloved ones and so we cannot ignore them, that is how we are created. Although, everything is beloved to us (from a creational stand point) but certain relationship such as close friends, relatives…become dearer to us.
- We are created with the capacity to be happy or sad with the feelings of the ones that we are closely related with.
How can we save ourselves from getting sad at the loss of a close friend?
We need to not attach ourselves to the friend itself but to the Maker of the friend. Nothing is going into annihilation in this universe. Anything which exists must come from a Cause/Source and this Cause must have the qualities to produce the results which we perceive as effects. Meanings and feelings come from a Cause which is not of the nature of this universe. We have to make existence reasonably sound to our human common sense. Any human reasoning that does not get satisfaction from our observation is false.
- Use logic (common sense) to solidify the meaning of your existence first and foremost.
People who do not expand the scope of their existence attribute the cause of the feelings and emotions as coming from this universe. They assume that existence consists of this universe only; they try to solve their problems within the universe and thus base their arguments on this assumption. This assumption becomes dogmatic because they cannot find a Cause of the feelings in this universe and so they refer the Cause as coming from a particle. On the other hand, there is another group of people that blindly claim arguments which are taken from religious text with no reasoning about them. As a result, the first group of people legitimizes their dogmas from the claims of the second group of people (religious imitators).
We must establish a solid understanding of existence. No one can find satisfaction by accusing others because that would be contradicting our humanity. Every reasoning comes to a conclusion which is belief. Whatever understanding we get from the scripture, we need to apply it to our existence to establish the truth within ourselves.
- Question the existence of feelings, emotions, attachments, phenomena and everything.
I am a human being and my common sense tells that dogmatism is not human. We need to knock down dogma, become free thinkers and start reasoning as follows: everything that exists must have a Cause of existence.
- We can solve all problems by not falling into any dogma.
Is there any sign that the Source of existence of any feelings is found in particles? No. A particle must have a Cause of existence. We initially do not know the Cause, we have to investigate. This cause must be explainable to me so within myself I should feel comfortable and become sure of its reality. Existence of a particle must have a Cause and the Cause cannot be another particle because nothing can give existence to itself. We need to refer any arguments at the existential level that is how we may reach a priori conclusion i.e. something cannot be the cause of itself.
Every phenomenon and object/event itself needs its own explanation for its existence, which we can all come up with by using our human qualities.
- We are given freedom to make decisions and come up with a conclusion for ourselves (freewill).
My responsibility is to:
- Be consistent within myself i.e. who am I, what values do I hold and what do I conclude?
- This is the core of religion or belief.
- Be comfortable within myself i.e. I can explain the existence of everything.
- That is how we can establish a belief system within ourselves.
Can we attribute the Source of existence of an object to its constituent parts? No. Quantum Mechanics’ findings include that an object cannot give existence to another object as the objects tend to disappear. We see demonstrations of it in the universe: tree blossom, night & day, season change… Nothing can sustain its own existence (lailaha) but we see that existence is sustained by the Source of existence of the whole universe (illallah).
Example: Hydrogen and oxygen combine to form water.
- What is the Source of existence of hydrogen?
- What is the Source of existence of oxygen?
- What is the Source of existence of the chemical reaction of hydrogen and oxygen?
- Particles are not the Source but they are employed to produce results. This is the order we observe in the act of creation.
- QUESTION THE SOURCE OF EXISTENCE OF EVERYTHING!!!
- Example: What is the source of existence of my preference?
If something gave existence to itself, it must have existed prior to giving itself existence. The things all together in this universe must have been given existence by something not of the nature of this universe itself. Thus, the Creator of the universe must have a different nature of existence that we cannot see the like of it in this universe. It has to be Absolute and Self Existing One.
Can the particle itself transform into another moment of existence? No. Yesterday is not the cause of existence of today; today is given existence. The whole universe together with its order is given existence at the same time and at the same moment by the same Cause.
- The Creator gives existence and we experience it as time.
- Time is the continuation of the act of existence giving.
- Time is observation of act of creation.
- The Prophet narrated that God says: “I am time”. This infers that what we observe is His act of creation.
Now, going back to the text, how can we solve the following problem?
Problem: My senses are related to my friends. I am made with a feeling of empathy towards creation. This sense is given to me by my Creator i.e. I do not want to be unhappy with the unhappiness of my friend.
Solution: Our problems are an invitation from the Creator letting us know that He is the Source of our feelings. He is letting us know that we first have to realize that He is the existence Giver. Only by connecting our existence to Him can we find total satisfaction in our being because He is Eternal and Absolute. Therefore, the only solution is to refer the sense of unhappiness to Him as He is informing us that we should not be helplessly sad at the unhappiness of our friend. He will take care of our needs as He has always done. Our feeling of sadness is a call from Him to search for a solution for our sadness.
- My Creator is the only Source of happiness; He is the Eternal Absolute One.
- This world is transient but the Creator is continuous.
- We are in need of satisfaction in our existence.
- Nothing else has the power to satisfy us (lailaha), only the Creator does (illallah).
- We are in need of security in our existence.
- Only by referring our feelings and senses to the Eternal Source do we get a sense of security in our existence.
God suffices us, nothing else can! I have a need and nothing in this universe can satisfy my need. The Creator of this need is revealing that He can satisfy my need; so connection with Him is the only Source of human satisfaction. This satisfaction is out there, it is observable and experiential.
No one can make sure that they have grasped the truth; therefore, we have to keep questioning the Source of our existence and use the abilities given to us. We have to renew our connection/conclusion with the Creator every day. We have to be consistent within ourselves that is islam which is belief i.e. total submission. We have to be aware of the existence Giver and not fall into any dogma.