These “Ideas”, therefore, are simply a transitional framework – and I do mean ‘work’ – by which I hope to better appreciate and understand the greater framework of AL-LAH. Simply wanting to understand, however much I may want it, is no guarantee of actual understanding. We can pray for enlightenment or Paradise, but to claim it is just another scheme to advance one’s illusory sense of self as someone special or entitled.
It [the promise of AL-LAH to those with faith] will not be as you wish. (Q4:123)
لَيْسَ بِأَمَانِيِّكُمْ
The desert Arabs say, “We have believed.” Say, “You do not believe, but say, instead, ‘We have submitted;’ faith has not yet come into your hearts.” (Q49:15)
قَالَتْ الأَعْرَابُ آمَنَّا قُلْ لَمْ تُؤْمِنُوا وَلَكِنْ قُولُوا أَسْلَمْنَا وَلَمَّا يَدْخُلِ الإِيمَانُ فِي قُلُوبِكُمْ
In other words, contrary to modern popular advertising that claims ‘you can be whatever you want’, I have to face the grim reality of being out of sync with the Qur’anic frame, or at least the picture traditionally associated with it, and confront my lack of understanding. I must honestly acknowledge the gaps between what I actually affirm, as evidenced in how I think, feel, and live, moment by moment, and what constitutes real faith in GOD.
Faith without the conceptual framework to corroborate it soon becomes the basis of a double, dissociated life. I see it every day among the Muslims who constantly read the Qur’an and remain (blissfully?) unaware of how little of it they actually adhere to or implement in their daily lives. My situation is not much different (but without the bliss), which is why I continually remind myself: It will not be as you wish.
Intellectual ruthlessness, one could say, is what compels me to this practice of self-conviction – both accusing and convincing myself of what the claims against me will be when I finally face the Truth. By enunciating these “Ideas”, I am striving to erect a scaffolding for the real work that is going on inside. Once the building is complete (and it will not be until GOD calls for it to end), then these “Ideas” – these scraps of mental lumber temporarily tied together – can be discarded. In the meantime, they are the only semi-coherent frame I can honestly say I understand.
Time and time again in the Qur’an, we read of prophets and role models (including Maryam, the mother of ‘Isa, on whom be peace) who, when chosen for their faith, sought to understand as well, to make sense of the messages conveyed to them.
When Ibrahim said, “Master, show me how you bring the dead to life,” He said, “Have you no faith?” He answered, “Certainly [I do; I only ask] in order that my heart may be at peace.” (Q2:260)
وَإِذْ قَالَ إِبْرَاهِيمُ رَبِّ أَرِنِي كَيْفَ تُحْيِ الْمَوْتَى قَالَ أَوَلَمْ تُؤْمِنْ قَالَ بَلَى وَلَكِنْ لِيَطْمَئِنَّ قَلْبِي
In other words, a faith that is grounded in what the mind can see and hold conceptually is a firmer faith, one that can take root in all the faculties of the human being instead of huddling, like potted plants, in the sectarian hothouses, shrines, and churches of our world. A strong frame for our faith is not only a good defence, a bulwark against the secular storms that assail all believers nowadays, but also reliable armour for the times when we advance into enemy territory. Even the Prophet (may GOD bless him and give him peace) put on armour before going into battle. In this era, for believers, the supreme battle is intellectual and spiritual, but our so-called leaders are mostly unprepared to wage the only war – the jihad of the mind and soul – that can make a difference to the majority of mankind nowadays.
The retreat of faith in God from the foreground of human endeavour to its margins and wastelands is in large part due to its inability to provide a viable, intellectually formidable account of why it should be at the centre of our lives. Modern science, for its part, has done much worse, but seems brilliant because it has substituted an account of how things are for the vastly more important question of why things are. To souls that hunger for spiritual bread it has given nothing but stones . . . and then, in the voices of secular materialism, boasted about the culinary qualities of stones.
The GOD You Already Know 