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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%?
