The material in this blog is now available at amazon.com under the title: Ideas Inspired by the Qur’an.
Given the prevalence and inevitability of faith – we all believe in something – on the one hand, and the likelihood of error in our faith – what we believe is almost certainly a long way from the truth – on the other hand, the bewildered believer will probably just throw up her hands in despair and say, ‘Whatever!’ or ‘Who cares?’ This reaction is, of course, encouraged by atheists who like to point out that if you are guaranteed heaven in one faith you are, by that very choice, destined to hell in all the other faiths. If there are, say, a hundred different faiths available, commitment to any one of them condemns you to perdition in the other ninety-nine. The difference in odds between 99:1 and 100:0 is so small that you might as well abandon the idea of getting the ‘right’ faith altogether and just go with whatever you like.
In recent centuries, the ‘teaching’ of faith in the various traditions, including Islam, has only helped to confirm this distorted and degraded presentation of what faith means. The first step, and the worst, in my opinion, has been to equate faith with religion, as a subject that can be taught. The proliferation of beliefs, sects, and cults has only tended to confirm the sense that faith in its various forms is a commodity than can be marked down and discounted, like brands of cereal arrayed on the supermarket shelves of our mental life. When faith has been trivialized and compartmentalized in this way, is it any wonder that modern ‘consumers’ will ridicule and reject it, or furtively maintain it in a dark cubbyhole of their souls while the public faith in physicalist ‘science’ and economic ‘common sense’ struts around unquestioned?
This can only take place because we have very little conception of what faith means in the Qur’an, and have repackaged it as a set of propositions or preferences. Faith has been torn out of our hearts and thrown into the streets of polemics and debates. A similar job has been done on God as an idea, a toy for philosophers and undergraduates. At this level, there are lots of things that look more important than ‘God’ or ‘faith’. But ask today’s atheist debaters what they really care about, what would make them rejoice or cry to have or to lose. Whatever answer you get, if they are honest, will be their statement of faith, their non-negotiable ne plus ultra. There you will come face to face with their god or gods.
Take, for example, the love of one’s own children. No atheist concerned with his reputation will easily confess to total unconcern for his children. Even if he had never intended to become attached to them, that core concern will probably strengthen its hold on him over the years, intertwining with his character and becoming an integral part of who he is. He may even be proud to admit that love for his children publicly as proof of his humanity and honour – possibly in a debate to prove that God is not necessary to ensure high moral standards in the world. The faith that he disdains in others has taken that form in him. It has penetrated to the very core of his being, and he would stake his life on it. Or if nothing matters more to him than his own survival, that would be his god. Or maybe, instead, he cares most about his legacy. Then that would be his afterlife, the final affirmation of his raison d’être.
The pinnacle of faith is an affirmation of what your life is about, and what would make losing it worthwhile. If the answer is ‘nothing’, then it is your life and nothing more that is the ultimate object of your faith. At this level of importance, there is no facile faith switching or modern belief shopping. When we talk about faith in its highest form, we are talking about your essential values, who you essentially are, and whom you take to be the ultimate authority, be it yourself or some other god or God. No wonder, then, that in the Qur’an, the discovery of faith is often portrayed in terms that are sudden, visceral, and unarguable.
And when they hear what was revealed to the Messenger, you see their eyes aflow with tears from what they recognize as Truth, and they exclaim, “Our Lord, we do believe, so enter us among the witnesses!” (Q5:83)
وَإِذَا سَمِعُوا مَا أُنزِلَ إِلَى الرَّسُولِ تَرَى أَعْيُنَهُمْ تَفِيضُ مِنْ الدَّمْعِ مِمَّا عَرَفُوا مِنْ الْحَقِّ يَقُولُونَ رَبَّنَا آمَنَّا فَاكْتُبْنَا مَعَ الشَّاهِدِينَ
Say, “Believe in it, or give no credence. Truly those imbued with knowledge previous to it, when it was read to them, would fall upon their faces in prostration.” (Q17:107)
قُلْ آمِنُوا بِهِ أَوْ لاَ تُؤْمِنُوا إِنَّ الَّذِينَ أُوتُوا الْعِلْمَ مِنْ قَبْلِهِ إِذَا يُتْلَى عَلَيْهِمْ يَخِرُّونَ لِلأَذْقَانِ سُجَّدًا
Such a reaction is not confined to human beings. The jinn (genies) respond to Guidance when it is recited to them (Q72:13), and even the customary order of the cosmos is thrown into confusion when the Truth in its dreadful entirety is unleashed, as in (Q81:1-14; Q84:1-5),and (Q59:21), which follows:
If We had sent down this Qur’an upon a mountain, you would see it humbled and in pieces from the fear of GOD.
لَوْ أَنْزَلْنَا هَذَا الْقُرْآنَ عَلَى جَبَلٍ لَرَأَيْتَهُ خَاشِعًا مُتَصَدِّعًا مِنْ خَشْيَةِ اللَّهِ
The physical response, be it tears, prostration, or disintegration, is only a sign of the respondent’s internal state – a combination of enlightenment, awe, and anguish. The mind, however well prepared, is swept away, as a dam would be by a deluge it was never designed to hold. The inner transformation is so overwhelming that it must be expressed, like a river overflowing its banks. This natural reaction to the Truth, however, can easily be diverted, simulated, softened, or reinterpreted by Satan – hence the title of this Chapter, ‘The Perils of Faith’.
The GOD You Already Know 