Faith is the spark that leaps the gap from what is partially real to what the believer deems to be more or completely real. The believers commonly referred to in the Qur’an are those who cultivate this spark and train it to leap towards GOD. They recognize in doing so that they are falling short, so they keep struggling with their faith. Polytheists, idolaters, and hypocrites – the vast majority of humanity – are also engaged in acts of faith. But the conclusions that they leap to are not GOD the Absolute All, the One Truth; rather they are semblances and shadows, combinations of lesser absolutes that have won the people’s credence by various tricks of poor lighting and false promises.* It is these artificial substitutes – corrupted versions they defend as satisfactory and final – that comprise the ugly side of faith condemned by today’s atheist writers and speakers.
* The reader should remember, once again, that evil and falsehood are not existents or real things, but the absences or gaps that faith has to leap past in pursuit of the Truth Beyond. Satan has been granted the power to conjure up simulacra out of this void that appease the ego’s need for easy terms and shortcuts – a spiritual equivalent of fast food.
The meeting of our finite with the Infinite, of our shadowy, evasive self with the blazing, uncompromising Light, is sure to be agonizing and unsustainable except for the briefest of glimpses. Even at partial intensities, as we see from the verses above, such encounters result in fear, tears, trembling, and other involuntary bodily reactions. However much we may desire to believe, few of us can handle ‘the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth’ for extended periods without some sort of shade, like the tinted spectacles I wear to protect my eyes from sunlight. Honest admission of this shortcoming in us renders it forgivable, another item in the list of sins that we pray will be erased from our record on the Day of Judgement. But even that admission, and that prospect of a Judgement they cannot control, is too uncomfortable for some. Satan, meanwhile, offers a number of cheap substitutes – ‘real’ bargains for those who think they can settle for any ‘truth’ in place of Truth.
From Jabir, who said that the Prophet (may GOD bless him and give him peace) said, “Verily Satan has no hope of being worshipped by those who perform the ritual prayer, but [does have hope] in causing discord among them. (Jami’ut-Tirmidhi, Book 40, Hadith 37)
عَنْ جَابِرٍ، قَالَ قَالَ النَّبِيُّ صلى الله عليه وسلم ” إِنَّ الشَّيْطَانَ قَدْ يَئِسَ أَنْ يَعْبُدَهُ الْمُصَلُّونَ وَلَكِنْ فِي التَّحْرِيشِ بَيْنَهُمْ ”
And do not let your hatred of a people who prevented you from [going to] the Sacred Mosque make you transgress. Aid one another in uprightness and devoutness; aid not one another in wrongdoing nor in enmity. (Q5:2)
وَلاَ يَجْرِمَنَّكُمْ شَنَآنُ قَوْمٍ أَنْ صَدُّوكُمْ عَنْ الْمَسْجِدِ الْحَرَامِ أَنْ تَعْتَدُوا وَتَعَاوَنُوا عَلَى الْبِرِّ وَالتَّقْوَى وَلاَ تَعَاوَنُوا عَلَى الإِثْمِ وَالْعُدْوَانِ
How can destructive, satanic feelings such as anger and loathing find a home in the hearts of believers? All impaired or unholy (not whole) forms of faith are experienced as insecure, and expressed in some kind of warped behaviour, such as wrongdoing and enmity. Faith in GOD is serene and whole because it works from an awareness that only nothing can hinder it. One who has seen the nothingness of nothing is secure in her faith. She realizes that GOD the Omnipotent will not let anything real stand between her and GOD. With that realization, she experiences the beauty of an unconditional trust in the Unconditioned Absolute, and of His Love and Trust in us.
The GOD You Already Know 