On the other hand, faith has a definitely spiritual aspect that is correlated in the Qur’an with a surprising number of other terms used to describe an active mental life. Consider these two passages – first a set of four verses (Q30:21-24),
And of His signs are His creating mates for you among yourselves that you might find repose with them, and having love and mercy come among you. Verily in that are signs for those who think. / And of His signs are the creation of the heavens and the earth and the variety of tongues and colours that you have. Indeed in that are signs for those who know. / And of His signs are that you dream by night and day, and that you seek His bounty. Verily in that are signs for those who hear. / And from His signs He lets you see the lightning bolt in fear and hope, and sends down water from the sky to bring the earth to life when it was dead. Indeed in that are signs for those who have intelligence.
وَمِنْ آيَاتِهِ أَنْ خَلَقَ لَكُمْ مِنْ أَنفُسِكُمْ أَزْوَاجًا لِتَسْكُنُوا إِلَيْهَا وَجَعَلَ بَيْنَكُمْ مَوَدَّةً وَرَحْمَةً إِنَّ فِي ذَلِكَ لآياتٍ لِقَوْمٍ يَتَفَكَّرُونَ
وَمِنْ آيَاتِهِ خَلْقُ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالأَرْضِ وَاخْتِلاَفُ أَلْسِنَتِكُمْ وَأَلْوَانِكُمْ إِنَّ فِي ذَلِكَ لآياتٍ لِلْعَالِمِينَ
وَمِنْ آيَاتِهِ مَنَامُكُمْ بِاللَّيْلِ وَالنَّهَارِ وَابْتِغَاؤُكُمْ مِنْ فَضْلِهِ إِنَّ فِي ذَلِكَ لآياتٍ لِقَوْمٍ يَسْمَعُونَ
وَمِنْ آيَاتِهِ يُرِيكُمْ الْبَرْقَ خَوْفًا وَطَمَعًا وَيُنَزِّلُ مِنْ السَّمَاءِ مَاءً فَيُحْيِ بِهِ الأَرْضَ بَعْدَ مَوْتِهَا إِنَّ فِي ذَلِكَ لآياتٍ لِقَوْمٍ يَعْقِلُونَ
followed by a parallel verse in the same Surah (Q30:37),
Do they not see that GOD enlarges sustenance for whom He wills and limits it? Indeed in that are signs for people who have faith.
أَوَلَمْ يَرَوْا أَنَّ اللَّهَ يَبْسُطُ الرِّزْقَ لِمَنْ يَشَاءُ وَيَقْدِرُ إِنَّ فِي ذَلِكَ لآياتٍ لِقَوْمٍ يُؤْمِنُونَ
The acts of thinking, knowing, listening, and intelligence are mentioned as correlates to the final form of deliberation, the act of believing. The refrain of Verily in that are signs for those who . . . connects all of these as mindful responses that are in harmony with each other and with the external and internal worlds that they face.
In the Qur’an, therefore, faith is much more than the farcical whimsy of Dodgson (“. . . six impossible things before breakfast”), the proud irrationality of Tertullian (“I believe because it is absurd”), or Kierkegaard’s passionate embrace of the impossible (“. . . the only thing that can save him is the absurd, and this he grasps by faith.”) Faith does not live at the margins of our lives, in the fiery declamations of sermons, or in the aphorisms of scholars. It is something even more common and compelling than it is in the Qur’an, which refers to faith and the believers on almost every page. We do not have to reach far out of ourselves or deep within to find faith. From the moment we put our feet on (what we believe to be) the floor until we lay our head on (what we trust is) our pillow, and with every plan, opinion, decision, and emotion that forms in our mind or springs from our lips, we are affirming the reality and rightness of what is and what should be. We are all believers, and the one world we most definitely inhabit is the one we ourselves have made – the world as we believe it to be.
Does this give us eternal licence to believe whatever we want? Of course not. The bubble of belief we thought to be so vital to our continued sense of self eventually bursts, and the Truth that we had fended off for so long with our personal concerns, comfortable habits, and precious theories of everything rushes in. Then, once again, we have faith, but it can no longer be described as ours. Faith and knowledge finally converge, and what we had of either suddenly seems as nothing.
The likeness of this world in the Everafter is that of one of you who dips his finger in the ocean. Then let him see what he takes out of it. (Sunanu Abi Dawud, Book 37, Hadith 4247)
مَا مَثَلُ الدُّنْيَا فِي الآخِرَةِ إِلاَّ مَثَلُ مَا يَجْعَلُ أَحَدُكُمْ إِصْبَعَهُ فِي الْيَمِّ فَلْيَنْظُرْ بِمَ يَرْجِعُ
The GOD You Already Know 