Session 45 Notes
We are often encouraged to be self-sufficient which is why most of us go to school in order to get some profession. Self sufficiency is usually seen as being healthy and financially secure to not beg from others or feed off others. The term “self sufficiency” is used in terms of our relationship with other people. Human dignity and honor necessitates that I shouldn’t be begging from anyone else. This means that I must take care of myself to be able to provide whatever I need for myself. However, can I claim to be self-sufficient in my own existence, in my own being? As far as our existence is concerned, nothing in the universe can claim to be self-sufficient because neither myself nor anything else in the universe can create anything out of nothing. Interestingly if we pay attention we will see that everything is provided to us, all our needs are created and provided. I am needy for the atmosphere to be created for me. I am also in need of the food to be created. That is why we must acknowledge our Creator to Whom we are completely dependent upon to fulfill our needs. We can never claim self-sufficiency when it comes to our relationship with our Creator.
In our relationship with other beings, we do not want to be beggars. Would anyone like to be a beggar asking from other creatures to provide for them? Human honor does not want this but wants to be self-sufficient in their relationship with other creatures. However, when it comes to our needs which are provided by their Creator and our relationship with Him is concerned the matter changes radically. Firstly, claiming self-sufficiency before our Creator and all that He is providing for us is baseless and also nothing more than arrogance. Secondly, expressing our dependence and neediness before the Creator of the universe does not contradict human dignity, on the contrary is an honor. For example, a person who works for a prestigious company feels proud of it, he does not say that “I am a part-time slave of this company 8 hours a day.” We can imagine how honorable a human being feels if he understands that he is a guest of the Owner of this universe. We are dependent on our Creator to create food, but as far as buying the food, we want to be self-sufficient, i.e. we want to have enough money to buy food. I must notice that the existential side of food is created for me by its Creator. For example, if I want to eat some blueberries. I should understand that their existence is given by the Creator of the universe. I must not confuse the self-sufficiency of buying them from the store where the blueberries already exist. As far as the existential side of the blueberries, I cannot create them but desperately need their Creator to create them for me. My need for the creation of blueberries is not against my human honor.
Some may confuse this honor where they need to request the creation of the blueberries by their Creator as something dishonorable, against their self-sufficiency. That is why some may reject their Creator as they feel humiliated to beg the creation of blueberries. They decide that they don’t need the Creator of the universe and can keep their human honor by being self-sufficient where the blueberries are from “nature”. They think that the believers in God have to beg Him to create the blueberries and thus humiliate themselves. They don’t have to humiliate themselves as they can just go and buy the “naturally created” blueberries.
For example, many Christians kneel, Jewish worshipers also do certain movements to show their humility. Muslims go to prostration in humility which may seem to some as humiliation. They say this goes against human nature. Let’s examine Figure 1 and see who is being humiliated. The picture shows a rich person kneeling and begging to a beggar on the street. The rich man in a way is humiliating himself by asking a beggar who cannot help or provide for him.
Figure 1
The blueberries in our example can be seen as the beggar as they are needy themselves, they need to be created as they cannot create themselves. The blueberry plant has no quality to produce and grow blueberries. The blueberries in their essence are begging their Creator to exist and are the beggars. I as a human being am also needy; I cannot beg the blueberries who are needy themselves but I must beg the absolute Being who is the Creator of the blueberries who is the Absolute Provider. I cannot claim that the blueberries are satisfying me because they have no quality, power, knowledge, or will to satisfy me; they are nothing more than dumb matter; but the conscious Creator of the blueberries is satisfying me. However, the materialist people say that the blueberries are satisfying them and thus they have to beg the blueberries, although the blueberries themselves are beggars, in need of being given existence. They thus put themselves in a position lower than that of a beggar and humiliate themselves in reality. If human beings prefer not to beg before God, they have to beg “nature” and ask nature to provide for them. They put themselves lower than a beggar.
In our practical life, I have to go to the store and buy food. I must be conscious that the store owner is not the owner of the food; he is simply storing it to make it accessible to his customers who would pay for this service. No one except the Creator of the universe can give existence to the food. I must acknowledge the Creator and Owner of the food.
Prayer is simply acknowledgement. For example, when I am sick, I ask for healing by acknowledging the One who is the provider of health. I do not pay anything for health. I just need to acknowledge Him who is so generous in His Provision. That is why my Creator has created me with this sense of honor which He doesn’t want me to lose. This prayer and acknowledgement of God doesn’t humiliate human beings. Belief in God requires prayers and acknowledgement which keeps human honor. In our prayers, when we bow and prostrate, I am just expressing my conclusion to my Creator that: “You are the One Who prepared everything for me. You are the One Who gave me existence, gave me consciousness, intellect and all other blessings.” Some materialists think that the five daily prayers are humiliating as believers are bowing and prostrating to something imaginary. Believers are not humiliated for being honest and for acknowledging God as the source of everything.
Whether I acknowledge the Creator of the universe or not, God does not humiliate human beings but continues to give them what they need until they die. At the end, one would be treated according to what they acknowledged in this life. If one was acknowledging nature, they would need to beg nature to fulfill their needs. That would be hell as one will not get anything from nature. God will say go and ask nature to provide for you. There are many verses in the Qur’an such as 34:22, 17:56, asking those who do not want to acknowledge the Creator of the universe to contemplate on what they are acknowledging instead of Him. Human honor and worth are determined by whom or what we communicate with through our interactions with the universe.
Our prayers determine our existential human value
Whether a person is a brilliant scientist or an ordinary human being, their belief sets them apart. Who is fulfilling their needs? Who is answering their hopes, prayers and requests? Accordingly, human honor is defined.
There are a few options:
A.) Nature is satisfying his needs: He will be beseeching “nature” to respond back to him with its unconscious determinant laws resulting from coincidence.
B.) Chance or luck: He pleads to a completely imaginary expectation which is uncertain, unknown and left to chance.
C.) The Creator of the universe: A conscious being who purposefully creates the universe and renews it continuously with His Absolute Power, Will, Knowledge… He creates human beings with countless needs, thus He is expected to fulfill those needs and desires. There will be a continuous communication between a person and his Creator through His work, the universe and through His speech, conveyed to His appointed messengers.
Let’s examine Figure 2 below which shows an accomplished mathematician who is honored by winning the Nobel Prize. The mathematician is happy as his findings support what is found in the universe. What was his prize for? The Mathematician was able to find what is happening in the working universe. The way the universe works matches perfectly with his equations. What is this mathematician in our example proud of? Rather than expressing his excitement about the compatibility of the human mind and the way the universe works he takes this miraculous creation for granted. He is also taking the orderly existence of the universe and the way the human mind works perfectly matching each other for granted, not seeing the source behind it. He is not questioning how this universe works, how his equations match perfectly with what is found in the universe.
Figure 2
Let’s say that there is some miscommunication or mismatch between what the human mind finds in creation, we would not be able to make any sense of anything. The human mind is created by the one who creates the universe. The human mind acts as the key to open and discover the mysteries of creation. The famous scientist Einstein mentioned that “The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility… The fact that it is comprehensible is a miracle.” Whoever made the universe gave us the mind and abilities to understand it. Unfortunately, the materialist people don’t look at this side of the matter. Some philosophers say that as they discover more about the universe it is becoming more meaningful. How can matter be so meaningful that human beings can understand?
Let’s examine Figure 3 showing an individual on his death bed being told that he has won the Nobel Prize. How happy can this person be knowing that he is going to die and disappear from existence?
Figure 3
How honorable is this person getting this Nobel prize knowing that he will become a dirt at the end anyway? The whole prize would become completely meaningless as this person would not enjoy this honor. If one does not acknowledge a conscious Creator, whatever he gains, he will lose everything and disappear from existence as a human being, becoming a compost only. Exactly, if a person believes that he is the result of random evolution of unconscious matter and at the end he will turn back to earth, and that is it. Does it make sense at all if someone believes that he is nothing but flesh and bone and then struggles in his life to understand the meaning of existence? Isn’t this an obvious contradiction for every human being? We must be honest to acknowledge our Creator as the One satisfying our needs. He is the One who honors us by providing everything that we need freely and especially guarantees that our human needs for eternal satisfaction will be met after our body dies.
Our deepest desires are actually signs: the One who gave them to us is the One who will satisfy them. But this requires us not to deny Him and use them to fulfil the purpose they are given to us. Think about it: if you gave someone a gift and they completely wasted it, would you give them another? If you gifted someone a laptop and they used it as a coffee table, you certainly wouldn’t give them a second one. Yet, the Creator has given us extraordinary tools such as intellect, consciousness, memory, and endless feelings. If we use these tools solely to satisfy basic bodily needs, on top of it claiming it all happened by accident, we fall lower than animals.