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It is said that in order for man to live he must be bound
to some set of beliefs. The beliefs or doctrines that are imparted to the
child's mind and that develop within it through the agency of I he environment
that surrounds him or through the upbringing of his parents, are what his
religion becomes. The foundation of all points of view is based on this
principle. Without it, impressions, incidences, and states and perceptions find
no place in the system of doctrines. All our philosophies and the entire
physical sciences are established on this conclusion, but when we ponder upon
the mental and inner life of man we find a distinctive difference in the
personal incidences, as opposed to the apparent or outward ones, and we are
forced to admit that a very small portion of life comes within the circle of
rationality. Everything that one believes in is there as a result of thoughts
and perceptions inherited from parents and heard and seen in childhood. When we
try to resolve the same issue in a logical way, we are disappointed to see
that, although intelligence is highly respected and revered, in reality it is
powerless, because when it is proofs and arguments that come under discussion,
mere word play does not resolve the issue. When we think about beliefs and
doctrines on the basis of intellect or logical reasoning, we obtain nothing but
disappointment and failure. There was a time when much was written in an
attempt to prove the existence of God. Many arguments were compiled in prose
and poetry and an entire group of people was dedicated to
spread to others those arguments and that style of thought, but as human
conscious took a turn and rejected the centuries-old rationale, all those
writings, speeches and hefty books were put away on the shelves of oblivion.
This happened because the next generation could not find the proof it sought
regarding the truth] of religion. As a result, they lost faith in religion and
the young generation started to say that, 'The God that is mentioned in
religion, if He indeed exists, is not the God that our ancestors thought of.'
When a thinker dives into the sea of reflection, he concludes that no person
can explain the reason for his religious beliefs, because describing the reason
would require intellectual arguments.
Despite all this, in this hustling and bustling life, we
are certain that no individual can establish life on the right pattern without
a set of beliefs. Belief is usually understood to mean that a person declares
[faith] in a transcendental being in whose hands resides the entire system of
universe and who can make anything happen as He wishes. Lack of belief or wrong
belief makes one think that everything that is present is a result of unplanned
coincidences in nature. Whether it is belief or lack of belief, in either case,
man is forced to think beyond his personal self-regarding the inner
world. We say that declaring one's lack of belief is also a declaration of a
belief. If a person rejects the being of God and the existence of God, We
consider him to be of atheistic beliefs. As long as we possess a philosophical
style and a logical reasoning regarding religion and God, we cannot arrive at
any conclusion, because in order to understand the transcendental being, we
must possess transcendental consciousness. Thus, what is proven is that the
real foundation of religion, truth and the transcendental being is our
subconscious belief and our vajdaan ['spiritual intuition']. When we advance in
vajdaan, nature becomes our guide and intellect follows. It has been observed
that those, upon whom the world of vajdaan had been illumined, did not waver
even the slightest in their belief or their way of thinking regardless of how
strong an argument was presented before (hen) to disprove the existence of God.
This reality guides toward the fact that vajdaan is a realm in which truths are
reflected every moment and in each instant. The one who travels in the realm of
vajdaan is able to see that which the one cloaked in intelligence cannot. When
basic human instincts [‘jibillat’] are compared to
nature ['fitrat'] it appears that the basic human instincts keep one restless
while nature bestows man with peace and joy. This is because nature is linked
directly to the Creator of the universe, and that Creator is all peace and
mercy.
When our children do not find peace in the religion they
follow as their ancestral inheritance, they rise in rebellion. Peace is a
reality—a reality through which the entire universe is tied together. Reality
is not fiction. Now, the crucial question is this: Which power is it within man
that is protected from wear and tear, from the changes of increase and
decrease, and from destruction? That power, that being, is each person's own
spirit. As a generation, if we introduce our children to the spirit present
inside them, they will become friends of God. It is the declaration of God
that, 'God's friends neither fear nor grieve.' All of life's joys—mental,
physical and spiritual—remain with them.
KHWAJA SHAMS-UD-DEEN AZEEMI
Science has made immense progress, yet many believe that, even with all of the modern tools at our disposal, human beings function at no more than 10% of their mental capacity. This leads to the question of what exactly it is that comprises the remaining 90%. Yet another question that arises is this: If it has taken man four and a half billion years to be able to apply only 10% of his ability, how long will it take for him to make use of the remaining 90%?
