By February 22, 2014 Read More →

Saturday Discussion – 22 February 2014

Topic: 17th Word, Pg 226

Belief causes the faculty of will to be employed in God’s name, and makes it sufficient before everything it may face. Like when a soldier employs his insignificant strength on account of the state, he can perform deeds thousands of times greater than his own strength.

What does belief mean?

– At its very core, it is acknowledging the Creator of everything

How does belief affect my faculty of will?

  • According to the text, it claims that belief makes the faculty of will everything sufficient
  • Why? Because belief converts the faculty of will into a tool that suffices me in all situations since it connects me to a conscious, meaningful will behind existence.

How does the nature of unbelief make something insufficient?

Without belief, I cannot attribute any meaning to events, people, things, and creation. My incoherent understanding of the universe makes me attribute existence to accidents. The lack of a conscious creator behind creation affords me no way to rationally make sense of that which I interact with.

Everything happens randomly and there is no will behind the existence of anything.

For example, scientists observe and find laws within the universe but the laws themselves cannot be challenged and are attributed as ‘just accidental beings’

  • The fact that I have to be bound to these rules, which came into existence randomly, means that I cannot communicate with these “happened to be rules” and feel essentially ‘jailed’ within claws of these unconscious “giants.”

BELIEF: Universe has an order and it is the result of a conscious choice

  • Why am I like this?
    • Because my Creator preferred me like this
    • Living with this awareness at every moment is challenging; that is our nature as humans.
    • We have to keep reminding ourselves and persisting in the struggle of remembrance

UNBELIEF: Universe comes into existence by chance

Our belief, at any one point of time, lies somewhere between these two extremes of BELIEF and UNBELIEF.

Why does unbelief make me despair?

  • Everything is accidental and transient
  • There is no explanation
  • If something ‘bad’ happens, I say that I am unlucky
  • But why am I unlucky?
    • I cannot provide a satisfactory meaning to the way I am

If there is no Creator, there is no meaning in the whole of existence and we will be harming ourselves and our reality.

Calling ourselves ‘lucky’ or ‘unlucky’ is an attempt to attribute some meaning to the reality we experience. But ‘luck’, as we know, has no real existence and it inadvertently makes me angry with beings. If I have heard of God, as the Creator of the universe, then my anger goes to this God without realizing what I am referring this term of ‘luck’ to.

Analogy: I am in a locked room within which everything is so wisely arranged

  • The fact that the room is working perfectly, the locking of the door must also have a wise meaning (BELIEF)
    • Similitude: We cannot go beyond this universe

We are locked within physical limitations that work

Perfectly.

  • UNBELIEF says: Everything is working perfectly, but the door is locked accidentally.
    • I am imprisoned and there is no conscious choice behind all the actions.
  • BELIEF says: The fact that everything is working so perfectly, the locking of the door must have a meaning.
    • I am within the realm of my Creator’s Will.

Only if I am aware that my desires are the results of a Conscious Choice, choice of the Creator, who put me in this ‘prison-like’ place (body/universe), the existence of my physical body makes sense.

Belief: No part of your existence lacks wisdom. Everything is consciously and deliberately prepared for you and you are a product of a conscious choice.

By recognizing His ownership and wisdom, we are no longer in despair.

Can you find any evidence that our existence is the result of an accident?

  • No.

The messengers have been sent to convey meaning to our existence, but do we listen?

We have to realize that this world is a prison for the capacity of my soul

  • If there was no akhirah (eternal life) there is absolutely no purpose for my life
  • This universe would be meaningless and suffocating
    • Why?
    • Because the universe itself will disappear and rot away
    • What’s the point of my existence if everything will come to a meaningless end?

But from what I observe, the whole world is prepared with so much meaning and consciousness. As such, I cannot accept that the creation has been created meaninglessly.

  • It goes against my human nature and desires that have been given to me!

Unbelief is the result of us justifying an inconsistent interpretation of existence

  • Through the lens of unbelief, since I cannot see the consistency in creation, I try to find ways to justify my transient existence.
    • I will die and my elements will return to nature. That is the extent of the reason for my existence.
      • Within this explanation that elements will return to nature, is the underlying expectation for creation to never end (eternity).
    • BUT, am I limited to my elements?
      • Even if my physical form may never disappear but what about my spiritual self?

As humans we are not just flesh and bones.

  • My human abilities are looking for a satisfactory answer for my present being
  • At this very moment, I want to be free and satisfied

Wrong way of questioning: “Why does God need to put me in a training centre?”

Correct way of questioning: “Why am I put in this training centre?

Ask things from your perspective, not from someone else’s because only your perspective is real for you.

Analogy: It seems that the seed is subjected to such harsh treatment in the soil because of all the heat, decomposition, etc.

  • But the seed has a purpose and those processes lead to a plant.
  • The seeds need to be subject to those treatments.

Similarly, my soul is undergoing a treatment here on earth, so that I may learn how to be with my Eternal Lord.

  • By acknowledging His ownership and mastership, I am ridding myself of ignorance

The wise act of creation is teaching me what is going on in my life

  • I am in the womb of this world, being made ready to be delivered (death)
  • Death is the moment of meeting; It is not the end of my existence.
  • My human qualities are waiting for eternity, and death is the beginning of eternity

Belief is what DOES NOT contradict your humanity/being

  • It is not culture

*But be careful not to reduce your humanity to a bunch of atoms.

One can treat others only as much as one is aware of “who I really am.”

  • As much as I am aware that I am sign/trust (amanah) through which I can acknowledge my Creator, I will interact with the rest of creation with that consciousness
    • My emotions have been given to me. They are not mine. Hence, I should be using them as their Creator would want me to.
  • The human spirit is given directly from the Creator and represents His qualities

Analogy: Everything in a building is from the decision of the architect BUT the building itself is not the architect.

  • Similarly, everything in humans is from the Creator BUT humans are not the Creator.
  • We can describe the qualities of the architect, as much as we study the qualities of the building
    • Similarly, I can appreciate the qualities of my Creator as much as I am aware of the qualities within me!

All the qualities we are given are signs of my Creator

  • Whatever you desire in this world, is a sign of your Creator’s desire

You can understand who you are as the representative of God because you are equipped with all the tools to know Him.

  • We have to converse with the Creator by realizing that all our human qualities are a reflection and representation of my maker.

Value of existence: Everything is the result of the Will of the Creator

  • All my feelings represent Him and I have to act in His name
  • If you see yourself as possessing all the qualities of your Creator, you will see the same in the rest of Creation and will be engaged in a conversation with Him.
    • First we have to speak to ourselves (acknowledge yourself and the kind of qualities you have been given)
    • Only then can we speak to the Creator (through creation)

082.006

image

Sahih International: O mankind, what has deceived you concerning your Lord, the Generous,

082.007

image

Sahih International: Who created you, proportioned you, and balanced you?

As a result of the separation of state and religion, students are taught that everything happens by accident. If everything happens by accident, you are inadvertently being taught to be selfish.

  • Why?
  • Since there is no meaning to existence, the only thing that you need to be concerned about is what YOU desire and what YOU want.

But then, students are also taught to be kind to people because it is the ‘right’ thing to do.

  • How can there be a ‘right’ thing to do if everything is meaningless?
  • The foundations of meaningless existence are in contradiction with need for morality, and hence why we find the world immersed in immoral actions.

Existence is meaningless. But your actions have to be meaningful. MAKES NO SENSE!

Might is right or right is might?

  • As a society, we have not established what is right
  • We claim that we are the products of accident and if so, there can be no right

If you don’t establish your worldview on the basis of God, the purposeful Creator, you are bound to contradict your own values!

  • You cannot expect a person who attributes his existence to accident, to act in a meaningful way
  • I cannot accidentally be conscious because there is no conscious source in this universe to attribute existence to.

In the hands of unbelief, free will (choice: choosing to do something based on your own desire)) is the source of disaster. However in the hands of a believer, free will (choice: choosing to do something based on awareness of the Creator) is the source of absolute freedom and perfection.

Belief causes the faculty of will to be employed in God’s name, and makes it sufficient before everything it may face

  • Free will provides a perfect understanding of existence

Example: You believe that everything is deliberately created in this world.

  • You have a desire for a perfect life
  • You have free will to choose
    • I am aware that whatever I choose is going to be created by my Creator
      • If we accept that an Absolute Wise Creator has given me free will, and that which will be created is by the same Wise Creator, regardless of what is created, I am at peace.

When I want a cup of water, I am aware that He creates my desire for want of water and He creates the water itself.

  • The One who responds to my needs, and the Creator of my desires is the same source.

If I desire something, it is from Him.

  • He gave me the desire consciously because He consciously creates
    • When I get the water, I am grateful to Him
    • But if I don’t get the water, I know that He consciously decided not to give me water
      • Knowing that He acts with perfect wisdom, I am at peace with His creation.
  1. My desire for water is created by my creator
  2. The water is created by my creator
  3. The lack of water is ALSO created by my conscious creator

Both the presence and absence of water are equal.

  • They are both the result of the will of the conscious creator

When I use my free will, it becomes a tool of hope NOT disappointment

  • I am aware that when I am not given water it is not because of a lack of power, wisdom, knowledge of the Creator because He is Absolute
  • I am being trained to communicate with Him

There are always 2 ways to communicate

  • Creation of something is the means of acknowledging the Giver as the Provider
  • The non-creation of something (also a result of the conscious, deliberate choice of the Creator) is the means to acknowledging that I am the needy one

I cannot take anything that I am given, for granted because my free will has no power to create

-My free will is given to me ONLY as a means of communicating with my Creator

Me getting something is not guaranteed

  • When we don’t get something, it reminds me and teaches me who my Creator is. That’s particularly true when we realize who the Creator of everything is

If we are aware that this world is the result of a Conscious being, everything (both existence and absence) is the result of the choice of the Wise Creator to teach me who the Creator is.

If the desire has been given to me, He has given it to me deliberately and consciously.

  • I have to look for the wisdom behind the desire
  • It would be a contradiction to be given a desire for water if there was no water at all
    • If I don’t get water, it is because it is being consciously held back for a purposeful wisdom

My responsibility lies in acknowledging that both the water AND the lack of water is created by the Creator.

  • It is not about the ‘water’ itself

There is no Absolute within the created world. But the Creator is Absolute.




Tags: , ,

Post a Comment