Without the creative power of Truth, nothing but GOD could subsist for even an instant. And that means faith in GOD must be as sensitive to all forms where His Light is immanent in the same way as our pupils open wider and take in more light the darker our surroundings become.
That is because AL-LAH indeed interpolates the night into the day and intromits the day into the night, and verily AL-LAH is Hearing, Seeing. (Q22:61)
ذَلِكَ بِأَنَّ اللَّهَ يُولِجُ اللَّيْلَ فِي النَّهَارِ وَيُولِجُ النَّهَارَ فِي اللَّيْلِ وَأَنَّ اللَّهَ سَمِيعٌ بَصِيرٌ
Faith that fails to see the Light wherever and however it appears is, at the very least, impaired. In terms of spiritual vision, such blindness can lead to bigotry, fanaticism, and associating GOD with what we alone possess.
On the day We gather all of them, then say to those who made associates [with Us], “Where are your confederates that you alleged?” / Then they will have no guile [left] except to say, “By God, our Lord, we never were associators.” / Look at how they lie about themselves, and gone from them is what they used to fabricate. (Q6:22-24)
وَيَوْمَ نَحْشُرُهُمْ جَمِيعًا ثُمَّ نَقُولُ لِلَّذِينَ أَشْرَكُوا أَيْنَ شُرَكَاؤُكُمْ الَّذِينَ كُنتُمْ تَزْعُمُونَ
ثُمَّ لَمْ تَكُنْ فِتْنَتُهُمْ إِلاَّ أَنْ قَالُوا وَاللَّهِ رَبِّنَا مَا كُنَّا مُشْرِكِينَ
انظُرْ كَيْفَ كَذَبُوا عَلَى أَنفُسِهِمْ وَضَلَّ عَنْهُمْ مَا كَانُوا يَفْتَرُونَ
Faith in One GOD is more than just a matter of claiming to be a monotheist. How many are the Jews, Christians, and Muslims who have turned their particular religion into a members-only club for God! They forget that He is the Creator and Sustainer of every single human being, and that each soul is directly and constantly linked to Him, regardless of his or her faith (which is why denial – kufr – is so immensely and immediately hazardous for every single soul). Forgetting this universal presence of the Divine, they recreate Him in the image of their own narrow ethnic or cultural community. In other words, they associate GOD with themselves and their badges of belonging. (How often have I heard preachers mindlessly spouting in their sermons, ‘Islam says . . .’ or ‘Christianity tells us . . .’!) Islam in the Qur’an means submission to GOD; it is not the same as the racial and cultural brands or interest groups so casually assumed today.
The verses above warn us of the fate of pseudo-monotheists . . . and they are legion. Consider the billions of Christians who claim to be monotheists and yet believe in the Trinity. What about the billions of Muslims whose blood boils at foreigners’ denigration of the Prophet, the Companions, or this or that saint or scholar, but who have no emotion left for the Lord Who is flouted, evaded, or ignored in a thousand different ways in their own countries? And then we have millions of Jews who believe that God can only be found within the confines of one special race or land. Of all of these, and many more – the vast majority of mankind, in fact – it can be said,
They have not valued GOD at His true value. (Q22:74)
مَا قَدَرُوا اللَّهَ حَقَّ قَدْرِهِ
From Qutailah, a woman from Juhainah, [it is reported] that a Jew came to the Prophet (may GOD bless him and give him peace) and said, “Indeed you [Muslims] are attributing rivals [to GOD] and indeed you are ascribing partners [to GOD]. You say, ‘What AL-LAH wills and what you will,’ and you say ‘[I swear] by the Ka’bah’”. So the Prophet (may GOD bless him and give him peace) ordered them to say when they swear, ‘By the Lord of the Ka’bah’ and to say ‘What AL-LAH wills, then what you will.’ (Sunanun-Nasa’i, Book 35, Hadith 13)
عَنْ قُتَيْلَةَ، – امْرَأَةٌ مِنْ جُهَيْنَةَ – أَنَّ يَهُودِيًّا، أَتَى النَّبِيَّ صلى الله عليه وسلم فَقَالَ إِنَّكُمْ تُنَدِّدُونَ وَإِنَّكُمْ تُشْرِكُونَ تَقُولُونَ مَا شَاءَ اللَّهُ وَشِئْتَ وَتَقُولُونَ وَالْكَعْبَةِ . فَأَمَرَهُمُ النَّبِيُّ صلى الله عليه وسلم إِذَا أَرَادُوا أَنْ يَحْلِفُوا أَنْ يَقُولُوا ” وَرَبِّ الْكَعْبَةِ ” . وَيَقُولُونَ ” مَا شَاءَ اللَّهُ ثُمَّ شِئْتَ ”
From this tradition, we learn that (1) habits of speech need to be corrected to avoid accusations of association (shirk), that (2) even the Prophet (may GOD bless him and give him peace) could accept a reprimand from GOD, on the tongue of someone not identified as a Muslim, and correct his course accordingly, that (3) monotheists may only make GOD the subject of their oaths, and that (4) there is only One Will, and all other wills must be regarded as subordinate and subsequent to His.
In the same way as our individual wills are more or less in accordance with the One Will of GOD, so are individuals’ versions of faith more or less authentic affirmations of faith in GOD, even when He is explicitly denied. In affirming anything, as we humans cannot help but do, we are affirming as absolute a shadow or reflection of the Glory that pervades the universe of values and ideals emanating from Him. The more reasons we have for rejecting God, or believing in something that appears to us as other than Him, the greater we demonstrate our trust in Reason, a divine trait derived from His Unicity. Ultimately, humanity is one, and its faith, however refracted, is in the end only a mirror of its Final Object. The very strength of our denial, however perilous it may be for us as individuals, only serves to strengthen our inevitable realization that Faith, too, is One.
The GOD You Already Know 