Pillars of Belief – Part 8

The Seedbed of Light, The Third Treatise

The Necessity of Resurrection

Belief in God requires believing in Messengership (page 52)

“Know, O friend, that belief in God, the Prophet, Resurrection, and affirming the universe’ existence require mutual belief. There is a perfect relation between these pillars of belief, for believing in one requires believing in others. The universe explains the absolute necessity of God’s Existence and God’s Existence requires Messengership and the other world.

Infinite Beauty or Grace demands universal servanthood—those graciously created and subsisted to observe Its subtleties and love It; eyes to gaze upon It with appreciation; and the existence of a beloved servant (a Messenger) who will love It, make It loved by others, and through whom It will make Itself known. Thus, the Messenger, through his servanthood, functions as a mirror reflecting the Beautiful One, and through his Messengership, calls others to observe Him. A treasure replete with miracles and most precious jewels will be exhibited by a goldsmith, who will describe it with all of its hidden subtleties.”

Gist of Worship: When we like something, we respond through acknowledgment: “This is given to me by the One who gives existence.” Beauty/Grace cannot happen to be haphazard. Everything is a deliberate act of creation. If we enjoy a bouquet of flower, we need to respond back because someone is entertaining us with grace. Just as a bee will enjoy the pollen of a flower, similarly, human beings enjoy the beauty of the flower.

• The sense of enjoyment has no Source of existence in this universe.

When you see a baby smile, is the baby doing it by herself or is she created to be this way? In any situation, we have to search for the Source of existence of our innate qualities which corroborates with the universe.

Existence consists of qualities, not particles. Some may accept existence of matter as being eternal. If matter is eternal, how do you explain the existence of its qualities? Look at a flower, its beauty vanishes as soon as matter dies. Hence, matter and its qualities cannot be eternal. They are continuously subject to change and thus renewal.

Also, the essence of the matter and its properties belonging to it that we observe cannot be analyzed separately. Materialist Philosophy does not discuss existence of anything. The possibility that things may be given existence is closed under philosophy and sciences. Yes, atoms are moving but how do we explain existence of repulsion and attraction (what we refer to as order in creation in these classes)?

Religion is one’s own reasoning and conclusion. It is justifiable. That is, we need to question the existence of anything we experience i.e. matter and its qualities. Example: How do I explain the existence of atom? How do I explain the existence of expansion? (Referring to big bang theory which claims that the universe came into existence as a result of expansion and the expansion still continues).

Once we recognize the existence of matter and its qualities, the One that gives the qualities needs to be acknowledged. We need to think outside the box.

Here is what thinking outside the box is:

• What is smell?
• Are it the photons causing the smell?
• Know that by putting a name/label, we think we solve problems.
• What is nature?
• Did nature teach a spider on how to get its prey?
• What is a table?
• How do I explain the existence of the table?
• Existence! Existence! Existence!

“Khalaqa” (creation in Arabic) means coming into existence. Every moment, existence is subject to change. If you take existence for granted, you can never find the One that gives existence, God.

We can only acknowledge the Creator as much as we have trained our capacity of awareness. Just as one can only repay as much as they have to someone they owe money to, similarly, the Creator does not expect more acknowledgment than one’s capacity. The more we use our capacity, the more it extends.

• Since human acknowledgment is endless, worship is nothing but exhorting oneself to conscious response.

What is Messengership?

Messengers demonstrate universal human qualities at the utmost level. That is why they are appointed as the representors of the message of God (scriptures such as Quran, Bible, Torah…). One can only know the message demonstrated by the Messenger as much as they have exhorted their human qualities.

• Messengership means representing human qualities at the highest level.
• Companions were in acknowledgment of the message by exhorting their human qualities as demonstrated by the messenger. Additionally, they were sincerely supporting the Messenger with spreading the message.

As a result, we get the message through the companions of the Messenger as well. There is no need for us to reminisce that we were not born into the Prophetic era. Regardless, what matters is how much you are aware of your human qualities and use it to acknowledge the qualities around you and thus, acknowledge the Giver of the qualities.

Prophetic mission is to make Divine Being known to us. Messenger is not a stranger, s/he represents what we are i.e. through being aware of our qualities and the qualities we observe around us, we get to acknowledge the Source of existence of all the qualities we experience and observe. That which we acknowledge is what we refer to as God. We all have the potentiality to acknowledge the Source as represented by the Messenger but we might have not practiced it in full.

• Everyone’s level of acknowledgment is different; there is no end to it.

We are always under the teachings of the Prophets as far as our realization of the message is concerned. Your Creator makes Itself known to you because you request it i.e. as much as you consciously utilize your human qualities. Example: When learning Chemistry, you enroll in the class. Similarly, when you acknowledge the Source of your existence (i.e. Creator), you get to know the Creator better.

• Belief system is given to us and we have to ask the One that has given it to us to improve our potentiality to acknowledge It, the One i.e. the Source of one’s existence.

We need to be grateful for being given existence, once we realize that we are given existence:

• “O Source of my existence! You gave me existence with consciousness that I do exist and I am aware of it.”

In conclusion, the Prophets make us realize qualities of things so we may attribute it to its Source i.e. the Creator. Who can represent the Source of Existence of endless qualities we observe here? A messenger employed by the Source of existence to do so. Can we know the reality of anything in this universe without messengership? No.

When you are attracted to the flower, in fact, you are mesmerized by the beauty of the flower. That is, you do not love the flower but the beauty of the flower because beauty is a quality. So, it seems that you get to love the flower because of its quality. Then you know that the flower is subject to perishing and if you love the flower only, you are bound to get hurt. In order to solve this, you try to attach yourself to the quality of the flower. But you are well aware that the quality will also vanish once that flower is gone. That is, you will not be able to experience the quality as soon as the flower starts dying because its beauty also fades away. Trying to figure out solutions to this problem, you conclude that the flower is given existence together with its qualities. You go on saying: “Why would someone introduce me to objects and its qualities that are subject to perishing i.e. transient? In fact, everything here is transient. I cannot go on living my life loving one flower after the other. That endeavor is very stressful and tiresome i.e. I would not know if I will have enough money to buy flowers every other day or whether there will be flowers accessible for me to buy all the time. Also, I do not know if I will be given the energy to go to the flower shop. Thus, I need to find a satisfying solution, one that does not require me to be dependent on transitory beings:

• I know that I cannot love the object because it perishes + I cannot lose myself in its quality either. INSTEAD, I need to USE the quality to find the One that gives it its qualities. I need to praise and acknowledge that One. That is, I am made to find You through these riddles i.e. objects and qualities that I experience. I want You only and I need You only, the One that makes me experience the qualities and its transient nature.”

Furthermore, when you say that you love the flower, you are implying that you love God. Just be mindful of what you mean so it becomes an acknowledgment of the Source of your existence instead of nothingness.

Finally, we get to know matter through its qualities and we get to know the Creator of the universe through the qualities that It displays on the matter. That is to say, I get to know the Creator through the qualities that it displays in me and within me.