Youthful Faith
1. YOUTHFUL FAITH
"Everybody is born pure and on a disposition to Islam; only afterwards his elders in particular and the community he or she lives in general change the child's disposition by their artificial, uninformed and misguided ideas and beliefs often concreted into habits and traditions" That is what the Messenger of Allah sws says in effect about people. Accordingly Allah says Islam, which is based on the belief and perfection of Allah, is the only religion acceptable to Him and He informs us about the Path to Him through His messengers, also called prophets, He says Islam is "The inborn disposition on which Allah created mankind. Allah's creation cannot be changed" (Fitratallahillati fataran-nasa alaiha, la tabdila likhalqillah) (30: 30)
Many worthy Muslim scholars and scholarly true and great Sufis (for ignorants can only become part successful as good believers since their many shortages of knowledge let them down- see what Allah says "Of His servants only the knowledgeable (ulama) fear and revere Him" (35: 28)),.. yes many worthy Muslim scholars and especially true and great Sufis among them insist that barring genetic and birth accidents all children with a future normality in front of them have a disposition to believe in Allah's unity and perfection if properly and methodically inculcated with this true faith and exercised in its moral and ritual requirements. Surely some will be high and some will be low achievers in their religious life but is that not so in every field of learning and endeavour, like sports, skills in mathematics or music or handicrafts etc?
Now I refer all my dear readers to their early childhood experiences up to secondary education and perhaps the college/university. Except a few strange, unsocial types how was your friendship with your neighbours' children, your classmates or dormitory peers? Despite all those occasional hostile or resentful or jealous episodes, that spontaneous youthful optimism and sincere social bonding were there, weren't they? Who does not remember his or her youthful social experiences, those neighbours' children or class mates with whom one played many excited and delicious games and competitions despite some rare occasional break-ups and fist-ups? But more than these, who does not dreamily miss their playful and sometimes mischievous adventures with their elder and younger siblings and their experiences with their elders like parents, teachers and other benevolent and jolly authority figures, again except some possible rare psychopaths among them?
Then we grow up and become more and more independent. At this juncture a strange transformation gradually sets in regarding some of us, whether for the majority or not
is both difficult and unhelpful to say.
As these some new independent grown-ups take their lives into their own hands their relationships with their former peers and elders begins to cool, even to become irrelevant. They simply begin to feel self-satisfied and emotionally disinterested, turning their attention instead to new acquaintances and associates with whom they hardly plan to develop profound emotional attachments with like love, loyalty, solidarity and sympathy. Instead their relations consist of one of mutual calculated and automated flattery posing as good manners but their hearts cannot remain more distant and cool, their ultimate aim being mutual exploitation as long as needed and possible.
Suddenly their warmer, more humane and faithful former friends and blood relations find them increasingly more disinterested in and independent of them and if these old friends push for explanations or probe for a renewal of the old warm relationships they find to their heartbreaking disappointment that their good old friend has disappeared except in flesh and bone and is replaced by a chillingly cool, distant and disinterested stranger.
Now this is when and where the people of paradise and of hell begin their separation and drifting apart. A child who rejects and drops his or her parents and instead prefers the company of other selfish and proud peers, an old friend who pretends not to recognise another old friend who has been materially less successful, a son or daughter who replaces his or her loyalty and affection of his or her parents and other family members with that for a spouse (wife or husband) and for the latter’s' satisfaction neglects his or her filial obligations to the former... all such breakaways from past and worthy sympathies and defections into selfish and proud associations of new and largely faceless and faithless acquaintances... these all are signs and symptoms of alienating oneself from Allah and making it into the territory of the ego where Satan is the master and ruler. Allah commands that we keep faith with our blood relations and brothers and sisters in faith (al mu'minun w'al mul'minat) and He accordingly says:
"Whoever splits up with the Messenger of Allah (Islam and its obligations including brotherly and sisterly relations befitting true believers) after the Guidance has become clear to him and instead follows a path other than that of the believers- We turn him to the direction he turned to and cast him into Hell- and what an evil destination is that!" (4: 115)
Now everything that is in the world to come (al akhira, hereafter) has a representation in this world. Hell which is a place of extreme, unrelievable suffering is represented, among other things, in the psychology of godless, selfishly ambitious people who burn in their ambitions, anxieties and the sometimes subconscious self-disgust they are gnawed at all the time. You see, they have a guilty conscience, those men and women who, for the sake of worldly goods, comforts, thrills and greeds, offend any noble and sacred human values both genetically and socially inscribed on their hearts which heart then begin to bleed, to be inflamed with corroding infections like a hundred unjustified angers, envies, jealousies and guilty aims and plans. They not quite successfully hide their inner moral doubts and emotional turmoils behind a facial mask of pretended calm and charm unaware that some tiny muscles which control their aspect and others which control their voices give the game away for all who have the acumen to see through such pretences.
For example it is well-known among people with a certain level of life experience that bad women (I mean professional prostitutes) have a crackling, deteriorated voice; they talk too loudly, too much and laugh at things which only spoilt, silly yet basically unhappy children would. They dress flashily and gaudily in a bad taste, their makeup is excessive and clumsy all of which betray a perhaps largely subconscious self-disgust and a tragic mourning of lost honour and innocence. In other words to compensate for their inner misery they have to make a show up of a rampant outward happiness. People of high perception (like especially talented and informed mature people- which include true Sufi masters) can tell all 'born politicians' (who are excellent in appearing to believe what they don't and to be what they are not), born tycoons and born crooks and criminals... all from clues betrayed by their way of standing, walking, talking, dressing and facial expressions.
They can also tell false Sufis who otherwise charm thousands if not millions. All such sick characters are not the happy and accomplished fellows they so skilfully masquerade as; they are very insecure and paranoid and are ready with conspiracy and revenge of any degree of foulness and cruelty if they feel crossed or blocked. In other words they are walking and talking hells burning themselves and others who is unlucky enough to cross their path. A fellow Sufi narrated to me the story of such a false Sufi master: This humble man (I mean the fellow Sufi) had committed the mistake of solving an organisational problem which troubled the organisation concerned which problem the false Sufi could not solve. Because this success made the humble man a star in the eyes of the disciples of the false master this false master employed a team of gangsters to drive away the humble man from the organisation he had saved and also for the humble and honest man to cough up what he had supposedly stolen from the organisation. The trumped up accusation of corruption and the subsequent torture and blackmailing of and the extortion from the bright, humble and honest man was a deliberate ploy to discredit the humble man so that he could not make a comeback! Similar tactics are rampant also among politicians, tycoons and- guess also whom- gangsters! It is not for nothing that Allah the All-Knowing and Wise said in His Holy Qur'an:
"Thus We appointed the great ones in each community from among their criminals in order that they conspire therein. Yet, they do not conspire but against themselves but they are not aware" (6: 123).
In short, self-alienated, friends and relations-deserting, worldly power and goods-hungry people are emigrants to hell which already begin to burn in their pride and greed-filled hearts.
You know that the second Most Beautiful Name of Allah, that is to say after 'Allah', is 'al Rahman' and the next is 'al Rahim' and these two come from the verb root RHM from which comes- guess what- 'al Rahm', the womb, the motherly organ which conceives and nurtures us for a long time and at great pains and sacrifice until it, with a last heroic if greatly painful effort it ejects us into this world of tests where Allah gives us chances and guidance to prepare for the glories and joys of still another and infinitely more magnificent and pleasant world called al Jannah (Garden of Bliss). Now because we derive from wombs and kinships are based on the blood which the womb combines from both parents, Allah is very emphatically demanding that we observe blood kinship rights under all circumstances. As a result, an eternal and inalienable obligation falls on us to care about and if and when necessary look after our blood relations at the top of which are our mothers, then fathers, then grandparents, then siblings, then uncles and aunts, then cousins, nephews and nieces. Even when they are non-muslims or total infidels, we owe them this obligation when that obligation will not clash with our inter-Islamic obligations, like defending Islam and Muslims against these non-Muslim relations who are acting in a hostile capacity. If not acting as active enemies they are entitled to our care and help. In fact in ever-expanding rings of kinship relationships ultimately right the way through to our ultimate parents Adam and Eve do we owe these kinship obligations to all men and women and child of the world.
Actually our explaining and offering them Islam is one of the inalienable obligations we have towards them. Since people are normally positively influenced by kindness, showing all possible and feasible forms of kindness to each and every human being is definitely the most essential ingredient in the formula to be used for the Islamisation of ourselves and through us the whole of mankind. We owe each and every son and daughter of our ultimate parents Adam and Eve a duty to honour and care. This is best expressed in the verse of Allah in His Qur'an when He All-Gracious, All-Merciful describes His Chosen Beloved our master Muhammad sws the Messenger of Allah when He addresses him "Wa ma arsalnaka rahmatan lil-alamin" (21: 107) which means "We have not sent you except, out of Our Loving Mercy, as a body of loving mercy to all mankind". Since we have to emulate Allah's Messenger sws in every possible merit to the best of our ability EACH OF US ALSO MUST TRY TO BECOME AN EMBODIMENT OF LOVING MERCY TO ALL MEN, WOMEN AND CHILD ON EARTH given the opportunity and context. Nothing can win people to Allah's Way of mature moral perfection (Sabil al Rushd) than acting lovingly and mercifully towards all who need it and who does not need and love to be appreciated, complimented, respected and served when in need?
Making a full swing to our main argument: Our greatest loyalty is due to our Creator and Greatest Benefactor, namely Allah the Most Sublime and Great. But He as the Ultimate is in no need of anything from us; we cannot feed Him because He needs no food, we cannot help Him because he needs no help, we cannot protect Him because He needs no protection. What He wants from us- and that for our own salvation and own good- is feeding, helping, protecting etc fellow creatures whenever feasible and possible to whatever degree we can. Since "Charity starts at home" we must begin with our near and dear and in expanding successive stages reach as far and wide as we can to the whole of humanity. Now please listen to this: THE GREATEST GIFT PEOPLE NEED IS LOVE AND RESPECT. It is often the case that, for example, when someone in need is offered help in a way that hurts his pride, he refuses to receive it or even if he accepts it out of sheer necessity he will be heart-broken and lose his faith in humanity which may turn him into a bad person further down the road.
Our near and dear ones and good old friends are even more sensitive in this respect: we need to make them always feel loved, appreciated, remembered, treasured, respected and missed if absent for a while. When you do not ring your old parents, elder relations and closer friends on the occasion of a holy day like eid, like Lailat al Qadr etc., when you do not give gifts to those who rightly expect it or render help to those who need it but just ignore them or pretend not to know or to forget that that kind of respect and consideration are due, all these neglects and failures arrive at the Door of Allah Who said in a Hadith al Qudsi "O rahm (womb or blood-ties) I join those who join you and I cut off those who cut you off"! Which means what we do to other servants of Allah whether joyful or hurtful is first and foremost received by Allah. In another hadith we have "Charity handed to a needy person falls right into the Hand of Allah before falling into the hand of that person". Now listen to this which follows from what we just said: Hurt unjustly caused to any servant of Allah impacts Allah before it impacts the servant! For example, when you hurt the feelings of a parent, or somebody with some past kindness to you or somebody who under Allah's Law is entitled to some kindness from you- no matter his faults and shortcomings otherwise (for who is perfect besides Allah? even prophets are not compared to Allah)- yea, no matter what faults or shortcomings are in them- yes, when you hurt that other person, Allah receives the hurt on Himself and the least retribution He will direct at you is distancing you from Himself which is the worst disaster to happen to anybody. As a result, the hearts of disloyal, unfaithful, drifting away, cooling off relatives and friends, beneficiaries and benefactors are actually and more primarily drifting away and cooling off from Allah Himself. All creatures are gradated manifestations of Allah one way or another; the contrasts they make throw light on the Majesty, Loving Mercy (Rahmat) and Wisdom of Allah. Read if you wish:
"They all are various grades with Allah. Allah is a Seer of what they do" (3: 163), and,
"The seven heavens and the earth and all that are in them celebrate His glories but you are unable to understand their celebrations" (17: 44).
You see, the universe, both in all objective/material and subjective/psychological senses is are manifestations of Allah in a way only He knows how. Read if you wish:
"He is the First (Before) and the Last (After) and the Outer (Explicit) and the Inner (Implicit) and He is the Knower of Everything" (57: 3)
If you cannot see Allah staring back at you with a demanding message in the face of your mother or in the person of an old loyal friend or in the face of a starving orphan in a far away land and so on and so forth, that means you are blind to Allah whatever amount of Islamic knowledge you might know (and most of us know almost next to nothing), you are in hell, in fact you are a hell-in-waiting inside yourself though you may think that you are alright.
Incidentally, we may answer the question "When and how a man or woman can shake off his or her alienation from Allah?” The answer is: "When he or she realises the true nature of things as revealed by the above two verses from Allah: All persons and events surrounding us are wisely and with good and benevolent reasons created by none other than, All-Knowing, All-Loving Merciful, All-Wise Allah and whether we know it or not these persons and events are shouting out at the top of their existential inner voices the glories of Allah for those who have the inner ears to hear them. Once we can see that all are from Allah, in Allah and to Allah we should lose most of our misunderstandings, anguishes, angers, resentments, desire for revenge and instead for the first time in our life enjoy the Cosmic Spectacle of the universal and incessant glorification of Allah by all His creation. Look at this wonderful verse just to get only one idea how all are for Him with all their hearts but mostly without realising except only too lately: The Day of Resurrection is:
"The Day when He calls you and you respond to His Call with praising Him while at the same time thinking that you remained (in your dead state) just a short while" (17: 52).
Can you imagine- these dead people might have been total, unrepentant unbelievers and sinners; yet they wake up from their death by a Mighty, Irresistible, Single Call from their Almighty Lord and jump up back into life and immediately shout out His glories! Had Allah not been the most precious thing in their souls despite them not realising it while living on earth before how could they rise with such fullness of glorifications stocked in them to full capacity?
Who is then a truer friend among friends and a truer relative among relatives and a truer believer in and worshipper of Allah and a truer follower and lover of the Messenger of Allah than one who never outgrows but indeed enhances all his childhood warmth and joy of loving his or her blood relations as tenderly and anxiously as ever, and his friends and benefactors similarly? Who is a more beautiful and handsome a youth than an old man or woman still blushing and giggling with the loves of his or her childhood, a man or woman who never dries up and grows old at heart despite growing old in body and who is nearer from and dearer to Allah than such a servant who has such an incomparable paradise in himself or herself, so fresh, so happy, so ready with words of affection and acts of kindness and full of an inalienable innocence that will never go away?
If you have lost that youthful innocence, that youthful wonder about everything and love for all people in the order of their past memories with and their rights on you, then forget about your any formal religious performances and any accumulated soulless knowledge and the formal compliments or flattery you receive from others as superficial as you but sit down instead and putting your head between your hands weep and cry for your lost innocence and lost love for the worthiest things in life.
May Allah never abandon us to our egos but keep us ever youthful in our worthy affections, appreciations and friendships the most of which are due to Him. Amen.