What is Wisdom? – Part 9

Continents are divided into countries; countries are divided into states; states are divided into groups. Regardless, what is the motif behind these divisions? It is mostly to get an authoritative status to establish power that satisfies the ego. When you feel powerful, you use it to feel secure within you and for political reasons.

The Twelfth Word: page 146, Third Principle

“Philosophy accepts force as its point of support in the life of society…”

Philosophy: any interpretation of human existence without taking notice of the Creator or without assigning our existence to its real Owner. A person who does not heed to the revelation, “the message” brought by the Prophets, will never realize the purpose of his/her existence. We have to pay attention to the message if we are convinced that we have a “cause/source of existence” in this universe.

If someone does not accept a Creator, he relies on himself/his own power. Power may extend to family, tribe, country or nation. The attitude goes as follows:
If I am powerful, I can protect myself and I can impose my own rulings on others. If am not powerful, I cannot guarantee my security in this world.
Should we have a point of security in our lives? Yes. Can we secure our existence? No.
There is a contradiction: we want to secure our existence but we cannot secure it.
We try to get “security” either through “individual power” or through the “power of a community”.
Even animals need security; their behavior is innate to them. We, human beings, we acquire the behavior to secure our needs.
Our “need” for security is “legitimate”. How can I secure this “need”? We have to look for a solution to secure our “existence” and then talk about securing our “lives”. Our life is confined to this universe because when we die, our body transforms from animate to inanimate existence in this world. It still exists but not as our body anymore. How about my human soul?
How can I secure my existence eternally? We usually avoid looking into this because we cannot find any permanent solution to secure our existence by ourselves or by any other means within this universe; but the innate need yearns for securing my existence. The solution requires us to submit to the One i.e. the Source of existence. This submission or assigning our existence to its Creator, the Absolute Source of existence, is mostly feared among secularist ideologists.
We always have to speak from our perspective: I am given existence, my existence does not belong to me or to the elements of the universe, since the elements of the universe are also given existence; therefore we must all belong to an Absolute Source. The Absolute it is something beyond our capacity to understand what is not of the nature of this universe within the context of this universe. But I am sure of its existence because I cannot explain my own existence without attributing it to the existence of its Absolute Source.
The essence of the Absolute by its own definition of being the “Absolute” is indescribable.
When we realize that we do not own anything, that sense is beautiful.
Sense of disowning connects us to our Creator because we can attach our being to Him alone. If he creates us as a baby, we feel comfortable; if he creates old age for us, we should again feel comfortable because our existence belongs to Him.
I do not belong to myself, can I be self-sufficient? No. Since I have a Creator, then I should let Him manage my existence.
The Source of security can only be sought after when we realize that we cannot guarantee our own existence: that is the point of support of our existence (noktah istanadiya).
If we do not have a point of support to protect our lives, everything becomes meaningless. Can we trust the universe to protect us? No. People who do not accept the Creator are bound to rely on internal power (individual) or some external power (state, tribe, community, family…).
Either way, the “external power” is just like “internal power”. Ultimately we are relying on an ephemeral individual power.
There are no enemies out there, the enemy is within you. Example: we set boundaries where we do not want people entering our territory. When they enter, they become enemies.
We create our own enemies through false concepts. For example: you are the top performer at your company, a new associate comes in and performs more or less better than you; then he/she becomes your competitor which leads to enmity. We should be responsible for our own self.
Those people who do not believe in a Creator have to rely on their imaginary power.

Religion does not impose on us to believe in God; it invites us to investigate. It asks us to question our reality so that we may search for a Creator. We either believe in the revelation or we do not. Religion is something abstract; it does not force us to believe blindly in a Creator. There is an apparent contradiction when we say: “I do not know why I believe in God but God asks me to believe in Him”. In our existence, we are just establishing the reality of our belief. We cannot arbitrarily assume that we “believe in God”. “Believe in God” should be our conclusion. The Qur’an encourages us to investigate and guide us how to do this; our reasoning is to be based on our own decision. We have been given the criterion within ourselves which we have to use to make the distinction between “right” and “wrong”.

You are free to approve /disapprove or imitate “belief”. If you conclude that your existence belongs to the One who creates the universe, then you start extrapolating the meaning of existence according to the Giver of existence who is “Absolute”; now, that is your conclusion. Therefore, we cannot claim that our religion requires us to have “security” by believing in God without really being satisfied. Because of the baseless assumption of “belief”, our questions and reasoning may seem “artificial”. We are here to use our human qualities and we have the ability to monitor our feelings and make sense of our existence. We need to establish the certainty in our conclusions.

Being “weak” or “powerful” is not the point; we have to be “powerful” in terms of “relying/trusting” on the “power of the Creator”. It is as if the Creator says to us: “you are powerful if you are just i.e. man of truth”. The Creator does not care about our artificial power; on the contrary, He cares about our truthfulness in accepting the reality and submitting to the truth. That is called “justice”.

Should I follow the truth or my power? We cannot rely on our “power” to protect ourselves and our properties; we have to rely on the “truth”. We need security for our personal lives and so we have to be “man of truth”. We need to establish the “right” base. Example: If there is a piece of land that you purchase, the “truth” is that the land is allotted to you within the property of God. This is “your right” assigned by your Creator. Here, if you understand your existence and if you believe in a Creator, you will be “man of truth” which is based on your level of understanding the reality of your existence.

The Quranic view offers us to rely on the truth whereas the materialist view/secular ideas offer us to rely on materials as a source of “power”. If you want to follow the truth, you have to look for the truth. What can be the Source of the “truth”? Is it my idea, your idea, the secular ideas or the truth taught by my Creator? I am looking for guidelines to organize my life and I say that whoever made me to follow the truth must be the Source to teach me because I do not know. My cells cannot teach me, the galaxy cannot teach me, bottom line, I cannot find the Source of the truth in the universe. The Creator who created me with the need to follow the truth must show it to me, it is innate to us. I am given the capacity to confirm the truth that He shows me. Without using my freewill I cannot get His guidance.

Looking for the truth is not subjective but defining certain things as the truth is subjective.

Starting from the practical side of any matter makes us blind to our reality. We need to first establish the foundations of belief firmly: Foundations practical side confirmation.

The Prophet (pbuh) was attacked several times in Mecca, did he retaliate? No. Only after the Prophet was given the permission to defend himself against the attacks, then he defended himself. Similarly, if someone attacks you, it is right to defend yourself (that is innate) but it is wrong to rely on your “power”. Relying on our own power is not the truth: we have to work on becoming “man of truth”. While we are defending ourselves with our material means, we are still asked to rely on God’s power and act as He showed us how to act in the “right” way without using our own judgment. As a result of which the “Holder of the truth” will protect us if we act in His Name.

Question: How do you handle “fear” in order to feel “secure”?

The sense of “security” and “fear” are given to us to be used to connect with the Creator. The existence of “fear” is a sign teaching us something. We cannot get rid of fear; it is good because if we make a mistake, fear jumps in that we have done something wrong. When we have a “fear of making a mistake”, it helps us to stay on the “right path”, which is how we are made. Our ultimate purpose is not to overcome fears. The ultimate purpose of fear is to get to the way of securing our existence i.e. attaching our being to an Eternal Source. Materialist views that do not take the existence of the Creator into account while reasoning about the sense of fear that they are created with. They rely on their own “power,” rather than being “right,” so they pile up “ammunitions” to guarantee their security. This does not resonate with “man of truth”.

“…It considers its aim to be “benefits. The principle of its life it recognizes it to be conflict. It holds the bond between communities to be “racialism” and negative nationalism”….

Benefits: interests of the self/nation.
Any Atheist idea seems to be reasonable to become an “individualistic”.
Negative nationalism: national interest comes before the individual benefit. You can kill one person for the benefit of one million people with justification. For example: some king killing his brothers because of the fear of having a conflict with his brothers to rule the kingdom. Is this partial or relative justice?
If you kill one man unjustly, it is as if you killed all mankind (5:32), even it is for the benefit of whole humanity. These are the principles of the Quranic study of justification (Adalaa haqiqiya), the criterion to which is based on the “truth” (haq).
The Quran claims that God created the universe with truth. If you insult one particle, you have insulted the whole universe, including the Creator. By transgressing the right of one particle, you deny God. Therefore, look for the truth even if it goes against your “individual” interest; you have to follow the truth and never get carried away by egoistic desires.

“O you who believe! Be ever steadfast in upholding equity, bearing witness to the truth for the sake of God, even though it be against your own selves or your parents and kinsfolk. Whether the person concerned be rich or poor, God’s claim takes precedence over [the claims of] either of them. Do not, then, follow your own desires, lest you swerve from justice: for if you distort [the truth], behold, God is indeed aware of all that you do!” Nisa (4): 135.

“…Its fruits are gratifying the appetites of the soul and increasing human needs. However, the mark of force is ‘aggression’. The mark of benefit since they are insufficient for every desire is ‘jostling and tussling’. While the mark of conflict is ‘strife’. And the mark of racialism since it is nourished by devouring others is ‘aggression’. It is for this reason that it has negated the happiness of mankind.

Soul: egoistic desires.
Human needs: desires to have more.
Artificial need is “created” through our egoistic desires.
If you have power and think that you are powerful, you become aggressive. If you are “man of truth”, you cannot use your power to transgress others.
Aggression is inevitable if you follow your egoistic desires.
The desires do not have any limit and we always complain that life is ‘conflict’.
We think that our nation is the best. Even the poorest countries have some sort of national pride in order to justify that they are the best.
We need to follow the truth and become ‘man of truth’.