Let us look at a number of ways that we are blinded, particularly compared to the believers described in (Q17:107): Truly those imbued with knowledge previous to it, when it was read to them, would fall upon their faces in prostration;” and (Q5:83): 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!”
1. Distance in time from revelation There are times in history when the appearance of a prophet, a miracle, or a divine revelation produces a surge of faith that gradually dissipates over time. As faith declines, so do the virtues that spring from faith, such as loyalty, honesty, and frugality. This fading effect can go on indefinitely, as mentioned in these two hadith:
I heard ‘Imranab-nil-Husain (may GOD be pleased with them both) say, the Messenger of AL-LAH (may GOD bless him and give him peace) said, “The best of my community is my generation, then those following them, then those following them. Then truly after them are people who testify without being asked, who betray without being entrusted, who vow without performing their vows, and among whom fatness is prevalent.” (Sahihul-Bukhari, Book 62, Hadith 2)
سَمِعْتُ عِمْرَانَ بْنَ حُصَيْنٍ ـ رضى الله عنهما ـ يَقُولُ قَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم ”خَيْرُ أُمَّتِي قَرْنِي ثُمَّ الَّذِينَ يَلُونَهُمْ ثُمَّ الَّذِينَ يَلُونَهُمْ ثُمَّ إِنَّ بَعْدَكُمْ قَوْمًا يَشْهَدُونَ وَلاَ يُسْتَشْهَدُونَ، وَيَخُونُونَ وَلاَ يُؤْتَمَنُونَ، وَيَنْذُرُونَ وَلاَ يَفُونَ، وَيَظْهَرُ فِيهِمُ السِّمَنُ”
From Az-Zubairib-ni ‘Adiy, who said, “We came to Anasab-na Malik and complained to him about what we suffered from Al-Hajjaj [a ruthless governor]. He replied, ‘Be patient, for verily no time will come upon you except that what is after it is worse until you meet your Lord.’ I heard it from your Prophet (may GOD bless him and give him peace).” (Sahihul-Bukhari, Book 92, Hadith 19)
عَنِ الزُّبَيْرِ بْنِ عَدِيٍّ، قَالَ أَتَيْنَا أَنَسَ بْنَ مَالِكٍ فَشَكَوْنَا إِلَيْهِ مَا نَلْقَى مِنَ الْحَجَّاجِ فَقَالَ ”اصْبِرُوا، فَإِنَّهُ لاَ يَأْتِي عَلَيْكُمْ زَمَانٌ إِلاَّ الَّذِي بَعْدَهُ شَرٌّ مِنْهُ، حَتَّى تَلْقَوْا رَبَّكُمْ”. سَمِعْتُهُ مِنْ نَبِيِّكُمْ صلى الله عليه وسلم
In this way, the same God Who was obviously true for a previous generation can be lost in the mists of time to the point of seeming to disappear. It is, of course, not God Who is lost, but those whose imaginations fail to retain the Light of GOD in the darkness of these latter days.
2. Distance in space from revelation An analogous tapering effect occurs geographically. Even with the advent of global information networks and seemingly immediate access to the lived realities of other countries, physical proximity still counts for a lot in how we experience the world. When we come to a land or site we consider sacred or holy, or where revelations took place even millennia before today, we suddenly begin to feel something of how it must have felt then. The terrain, the light, the air, and the odours all convey a ‘sense’ of how things were that no amount of reading or imagination can produce. Lacking all that, the ‘truth’ associated with that place somehow seems less real . . . as if God were more present ‘there’ than ‘here’. Reason tells us that this is nonsense, but our other faculties fail to follow suit.
3. Non-theistic culture Although the character traits of God, namely the absolutes by which men and women live their lives, is easily recognizable in every human culture, large swathes of the world are not attuned to monotheism or, in many cases, any kind of theism whatsoever. One might say that ‘God’ is the default reference point for much of the Islamic world and in Christian regions that have not entirely embraced secularism, such as Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa, while much of East and Southeast Asia, for example, tends to downplay the existence of a Supreme Being in its own characteristic forms of spirituality. Modern Western culture is likewise shedding its spiritual tradition of faith in One True God in favour of various secular and eclectic alternatives. It is far more likely, therefore, that a person in Japan or Norway, for example, will think that God is hiding than someone in Yemen or Nicaragua.
4. The urban environment Human handiwork is so prevalent in cities’ landscapes that one may easily conclude that God is no longer important; everything one needs can be invented, redesigned, manufactured, reorganized, and managed by man. The rhythms of nature are superseded by clocks and schedules; air conditioning and central heating minimize the power of the seasons; systems and concepts relegate subtlety, nuance, compassion, and intuition to the margins of our lives; trees, birds, and breezes are hemmed in by paved roads and modern office towers. In such a setting, it is easy to discount or ignore the constant presence of God.
5. The intellectual environment Rummaging through the toolshed of one’s brain for a God-shaped object will disclose only clutter and cobwebs, and turning God into a talking point or a debate topic will likewise raise nothing but dust if disconnected from the life of the spirit. The modern academic stance of detachment is eminently suited to missing what is most important about GOD; either He seizes your heart and demands attachment or He is like nothing to you, at most a stick-figure caught in the conceptual webs you are busy spinning. The latest strands are “tendencies to self-referentiality, epistemological and moral relativism, pluralism, and irreverence”2 – hardly fertile ground for discovering one’s Lord and Creator.
2 From the entry in Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmodernism
The GOD You Already Know 