What is life all about? Life is about living and if a person is not in a vegetative state, he can do something about being alive. If life had no purpose or meaning to it, it would not matter what a person did, thought or how he would lead his life.
If life was the here and now such that non-existence existed before the person was born and non-existence will be the only outcome when a person dies, life can be driven by the ‘do it as one pleases’ attitude. That would be extremely dangerous because if one person is left out from claiming ‘king of the hill’ in wealth or other riches, he has been bested or cheated and should be allowed to do anything he could possibly do to reach the top including mass murder because it doesn’t really matter in the end especially if one doesn’t get caught.
What it really amounts to is that life has a purpose behind it. Life is a treasure according to all the Holy Scriptures but it is stated in different terms in the religious literature and deals with the treasures called virtues and the approval of the ONE GOD.
So life is like a buried treasure in one aspect: it needs a treasure hunt to uncover the treasure. A treasure hunt doesn’t need to be fruitless but it does require physical, mental and spiritual work.
Abu Huraira reported ALLAH’s Messenger (pbh) as saying: “Observe moderation in deeds (and if it is not possible, try to be near moderation) and understand that none amongst you can attain salvation because of his deeds alone.” They said: “ALLAH’s Messenger, not even you?” Thereupon he said: “Not even me, but that ALLAH should wrap me in HIS MERCY and GRACE.”
What good is the treasure, however, if one can’t do anything with it? Imagine being on a deserted island with the food and fresh water running out (state of life) and no hope for a rescue. Any treasure of jewels or money would be worthless because success means survival and drinking or eating money or jewels is not on the successful menu in the Hereafter as religious thinking goes.
People turn to religion for a variety of reasons of which some are logical and some are bizarre. Deep down inside there may be an uneasy feeling that just like a pregnant woman who has an urge to eat grass or dirt because of some strange chemical need of the body, religion or what people take to be religion also, in part, can function for the psyche of man in just this way.
How does that pregnant woman know what her body needs and why be attracted to certain kinds of dirt or certain kinds of food? The same can be said with religion. On the religious front that idea being presented here has not been proven scientifically but about pregnant woman and eating at times ‘strange things’ this has been well documented and proven scientifically.
If a person is driven by a higher sense or need factor that can explain somewhat scientifically not only why some pregnant women seek out and eat strange things the body actually needs or craves but also why some people just seem to be ecstatic (rapturous) when it comes down to performing freakish and strange religious behavior.
It is an opiate or a magnet that draws and binds one to a system even if the system in reality is farcical and totally erroneous. But that is not the purpose of this discussion except to show that one can be driven to do certain things based on DESIRES or URGES. TRUTH like science should not be based on urges but based on REALITY.
Say: “Everyone acts according to his own disposition but your LORD KNOWS BEST who it is that is best guided on the WAY.” Q (17: 84)
So the answer as I have stated before comes from the Quran in that a person is pre-disposed to move in certain beliefs or circles just like water is predisposed to run downhill in its natural state under natural laws. That speaks of the natural way but as psychologists have noted amongst certain people, there is a tendency for their life’s chain to be kinked in some places causing certain behaviors to come to the surface.
When the two are married together, i.e. , when the pre-disposed feeling is married to the ‘kinked chain’ effect, one can virtually throw TRUTH out the window because the person will seek out that which will comfort his ego and not necessarily the TRUTH. This is because it would require him to fight his nefs (soul) in a war. It would require, as the New Testament says, one to carry one’s own cross just like it requires one to become serious during Ramadan in Islam.
And he that does not take {up} his own cross {striving to be better for the sake of GOD} and follow after me, is NOT worthy of me {being with me in my dominion}. Matthew (16: 24)
The choice of the human being is to either give in to these ‘notions’ or to fight them using what is called reality and when something occurs that will completely overwhelm us, many call upon THE ONE GOD FOR HELP AND SUPPORT. This shows what happens when the VEIL of life gets striped away for a fraction of a second and reality surfaces. And as is noted in the Quran that when the danger is over, many go back to the old ways of rejecting THE ONE we called upon for safety sake when our lives were threatened.
HE it is WHO enables you to traverse through land and sea; so that you even board ships; they sail with them with a favorable wind, and they rejoice thereat {in feeling good about themselves}; then comes a stormy wind and the waves come to them from all sides, and they think they are being overwhelmed: they cry unto ALLAH, sincerely offering (their) duty unto HIM saying, “If YOU do deliver us from this {life threatening condition}, we shall truly show our gratitude!”
But when HE delivers them, behold! They transgress insolently through the earth in defiance of right! O mankind! Your insolence is against your own souls – an enjoyment of the life of the present: in the end, to US is your return, and WE shall show you the truth of all that you did. Q (10: 22-23)
Well this article is not about that but somewhat about people and their comfort zones with their religious affiliations. Religion is based on above all TRUTH or else it would be worthless. It is strange that what some people call Religious TRUTH seemingly comes in many packages featuring many contradictions and some of these contradictions are quite ludicrous.
At one time as Islam suggests, we were one community of souls. However, that was long ago and what we see today from religious points of view is as varied as the stars in the sky. This cacophony of ideas and philosophies, theories and hypothesis has given the term religion a circus-like affair quality as in showing a menagerie of beliefs. Some people have even taken this to show that there is a real lack of evidence for the reality of faith.
“… If ALLAH had so willed, HE would {now} have made {returned you back as a} a single People, but HIS Plan is to test you in what HE has given you. So strive as in a race in ALL VIRTUES. The return of you all is to ALLAH; it is HE that will show you the truth of the matters in which you dispute.’ Q (5: 48)
This lack of evidence hasn’t stopped the varied enthusiasts, however. It is human nature to feel that we want to believe (belong to something). The human brain is always trying to determine why things happen, and when the reason is NOT clear, the human mind tends to make up some pretty bizarre explanations to satisfy the mind and nurture one’s own personality so as to believe that one is on stable ground.
And our belief in the supernatural whether it is elves, jinn, various gods, superstitions, ghosts, monsters or the corrupt self goes all the way back to recorded human history. The one apparent reason is the human need to nurture its deep-set hungry ego about which we don’t understand much but which is a driving factor in the daily existence we call life.
However, we must not forget that there is a special place in the heart that feeds this corruption and if that is true then we have corruption nurturing corruption with the ego being something that can be manipulated by that unknown thing (place) in the heart.
On the authority of Abu Abdullah an-Numan who said, “I heard the Messenger of ALLAH (pbh) say, “That which is lawful is plain and that which is unlawful is plain and between the two to them are doubtful matters about which not many people know. Thus he who avoids doubtful matters {practices and philosophical wishful thinking} clears himself in regard to his religion and his honor but he who falls into doubtful matters falls into that which is UNLAWFUL, like the shepherd who pastures around a sanctuary and truly ALLAH’s sanctuary is HIS PROHIBITIONS. Truly in the body there is a morsel of flesh which, if it be whole, all the body is whole and which, if it be diseased, all of it is diseased. Truly it is the heart. (Bukhari and Muslim)
So we have presumably Fitrah and something that can be called anti-Fitrah. That is an important new issue and it can only be proven by the fact that the small undefined place in the heart will consume the heart in one way or the other. Either the heart will become all white even if it is all dark if that special place in the heart is white or the heart will become all dark even if it is all white if that special place is dark as is declared in another hadith.
Hence, this is how the small discussion about the Christ vs. the Anti-christ even unto the universal relationship of these two ‘SIGNS’ amongst mankind came about in the previous article. So once again in Islam, one can find depth upon depth. The error of course would be to overemphasize either of those two figures and morph them into something they are not. They are not gods nor can they be used as any such comparison unto THE GOD.
Of course we CAN’T pierce the veil that CAN’T be pierced (if we are true to ourselves) and find the UNSEEN. However, this small piece in the heart would seem to be a real determinate affair for us. Therefore, it is some type of foundation that we live off of which directs us into certain behavior patterns.
Personally, I am against waxing philosophical without using clear logic or without providing clear, provable evidence in the form of generally approved religious mainstream quotations and it is always best to say, “ALLAH KNOWS BEST.”
There is room in Islam for debate or perhaps the better word would be discussion. For example, there is the Good of Religion and the Evil of Religion not only among the various creeds claimed by mankind but also amongst the various sects within those creeds. Here I am speaking of religion in its generic terms NOT in the original form brought by bringers of true doctrine – the blessed prophets (peace and blessings be upon them all).
After all, what is a person afraid of anyway? He can only be afraid of losing his ego which if taken in an abnormal way, renders the ‘believer’ somewhat insecure, foolish and very unwise. Besides, with such an important topic and presumably according to the faithful from various religious factions on the importance of belief, it should be readily acceptable that people should ‘walk down the path of rightful understanding’ in order to feel secure in the knowledge and comfort that faith brings. Also, it is imperative that the real concerned believer understands that truth is far superior than fiction and a lot more sustainable too.
ALLAH enjoins: This way alone is MY RIGHT WAY. Therefore, you should follow this WAY and should NOT follow other ways lest they lead you astray from HIS {Most Perfect} WAY … Q (6: 153)
Let us now take a look at Christianity as well as Islam and see what can be seen.
The first argument that might be made by Christians is that probably after 50 to 60 years after the Ascension of Christ (pbh), half the known world was populated by Christians. Of course, I am speaking facetiously but many Christians are led to believe lots of fairytales that not only are ridiculous but are definitely NOT true.
It has been estimated that Christianity after 70 AC to close to 100 AC had as its numbers anywhere from 7,000 to a lot less than 10,000 people. So, roughly 40 to nearly 70 years after the Ascension, the ‘faithful’ including some divergent and foolish sects numbered a paltry figure – less than 10,000 people. In fact, this number would comfortably fit inside just one rather smallish town in modern America. That is, to say the least, quite embarrassing.
The vast majority of these Christians would most definitely take affront at modern day Christianity simply because they were hardly indistinguishable from their Jewish brethren. After all, this was a real Jewish religion or what can be said as a revival of the Jewish faith by Jesus (pbh) to separate it from the corruptions of the other Jews. This is also stated in the New Testament in various forms.
It is not palatable for many Christians to hear that those ‘early Christians’ would probably consider modern day Christianity as pompously paganistic and hedonistic. This would be because it is far off from what the people actually practiced in that bygone era, how they lived and what they did in their spare time even to their way of dress and manner of speech. Of course that was another time and another era but in truth those were Jews and not Christians as they did not think of Jesus (pbh) as being anything Christian-like at all.
Another argument the Christians use is that they have ‘records’ from some early sources like Polycarp of Smyrna and Papias of Hierapolis. People have been led to believe on the sly of course that these individuals had a direct relationship to the original Apostles. Actually, one can consider them only members of the third generation of believers who did not see the real Apostles. On all true accounts, they barely had any contact with the important people of the second generation (called Presbyters).
This does not in any way deny their validity but some of their beliefs or notions show that they probably were missing a few letters from their alphabet. Once again I am being facetious but when one considers that Polycarp had a notion that Jesus (pbh) may have stayed on Earth until he was around 50 years of age, it is imperative to walk gently through this minefield.
Besides, not much of their writing has survived the ravages of time. Church history is openly notorious about certain problems when it comes to people’s writings that may cause an upset to the proverbial applecart. In other words, troublesome writings can be conveniently lost if certain things would cause damage. Such actions are called in this world ‘damage control’.
I mention this only because of the illogical notion concerning those ‘saintly people’. If they were so saintly and so looked up to, then why weren’t their writings treated with more care and respect? It is just something to think about.
A Further argument can be that there are over 5,600 manuscript copies of the New Testament in the ORIGINAL GREEK LANGUAGE including some completed books and some that are represented by only mere fragments. These ‘copies’ include a small fragment of the Gospel of John found in Egypt dated roughly around 120 AC or roughly 90 years after Jesus (pbh) left the Earth.
A few small fragments exist of other ‘Gospel’ writings that could be associated with earlier dates and one could surmise that these very small fragments were written probably 35 to 55 years after Jesus (pbh) left the Earth.
The words ‘Original Greek Language’ is used by Christians as a badge of pride as well as for dating purposes. But what they don’t say is that the ORIGINAL LANGUAGE USED BY JESUS AND HIS IMMEDIATE FOLLOWERS WAS NOT GREEK!
The language of Jesus (pbh) and his Apostles was the language of the masses, the common folk, and that was Syriac which is a form of Aramaic. Much of it can be translated into Greek but some of the original flavor will be lost. The connections between pure Hebrew and Syriac will become distorted and we can see this from certain future so-called church ‘leaders’ that would go their own way such as Marcion.
Marcion knew of textual corruptions but he carried his notions to the extreme by declaring the Old Testament to be non-related to the ‘new reality’ in Christ such that the Old Testament had little or no value whatsoever.
The important thing in this argument is that when one replaces the originality of something, there will be more of an acceptance to what that replaced medium covers. The medium of the Greek language covered more of a philosophical-broad-pagan-earthly but dream-like quality of notions to it being of course a ‘worldly language for a once worldly power’. Does that make any sense? Probably it does not because it is my definition and would make more sense to me than to others.
However, what does make sense is that Jesus (pbh) had things to say about ‘worldly’ concerns/lifestyles that he solemnly rejected and asked his followers to turn away from them also. Now, is there a relationship to the Greek language and what he was talking about? To some degree, I would probably think so.
This notion which is so ephemeral does seem to be a sort of reality considering some of the expressions of Paul as to the ‘Greeks’. His notion is NOT against the Greeks as people but what might come from the ‘mixing of the leaven with the lump’ as written about in another article of mine. This mixing of the leaven with the lump was anathema to Paul and he has expressed his dislike for it – at least in what appears to be his original uncensored version. Now things may come a little bit more into focus when certain ‘facts’ are not swept underneath the table.
Your glorying is NOT good. Know you not that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?
Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
1 Corinthians (5: 6 and 8)
For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks (Gentiles) seek after wisdom {trying to delve too deep into matters that don’t concern them}:
But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness 1Cor. (1: 22-23)
Still, another argument is that the disciples proclaimed Jesus as ‘lord’ even if it was to mean they would end up being persecuted or berated in public. On the face of it, that argument seems strong but in reality (when one takes the time to patiently understand the term ‘lord’) the argument is extremely weak and in fact meaningless.
Let’s take a reality check on the above argument since most ‘born again’ Christians are very much in love with the word ‘lord’. Jesus (pbh) was alive and not a fictional character. Is that correct? Yes, that is correct. Even though Jesus (pbh) was alive, he is NOT THE ALIVE OR AL-HAYY. This is a term (AL-HAYY) which is used ONLY FOR THE ONE GOD.
So in this respect the understanding of the word ‘lord’ can be deduced even from the Bible/Quran complex as meaning vicegerent, master, ruler over a dominion, caretaker, avatar, khalifa – to mention a few that come to mind.
Those to whom WE have sent the BOOK study it {follow it} as it should be studied {followed}; they are the ones that believe therein: Those rejecting faith therein – the loss is their own. Q (2: 121)
So there is a difference between THE LORD and lord and the difference is NOT a subtle one when the scriptures are studied as they were meant to be studied. A living, one-celled amoeba is classified as a living thing and Albert Einstein when he was alive would have been classified as a living thing and we can compare the two on many fronts. However, there can be NO COMPARISON between THE ONE GOD and anything in the creation because HE SAID SO!
Say: “HE is ALLAH, the ONE; ALLAH, the ETERNAL, the ABSOLUTE; HE beget not, nor is HE begotten; and there is NONE LIKE UNTO HIM.” Q (112: 1-4)
The lesson to be learned here is that when a person uses the word ‘lord’ he is supposed to be bright enough to understand that there is TO BE NO COMPARISONS OR JOINING OF PARTNERS WITH THE ONE LORD. One would think that an average intelligent creature such as man would completely understand that point. But as history has told us, it is apparent that some people just don’t because they twist the mutashabihat from scriptures.
HE it is Who has sent down to you the Book; in it are verses fundamental; they are the FOUNDATION of the BOOK: others are mutashabihat. But those in whose hearts is a disease follow the mutashabihat seeking discord, and searching for its hidden meanings, but NO one knows their true reality except ALLAH. And those who are firmly grounded in knowledge say: “We believe in the
