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September 09, 2005

their eyes were watching God

ignorant people have various perverted beliefs about religion, since they base their decisions about what is right and wrong upon their primitive rationale rather than on the Qur'an. mostly they gather these beliefs from their parents or other people immediately surrounding them, who influence them deeply during their early years. yet these beliefs, especially the ones regarding the existence of Allah, misguide them all through their lives.

many people, who in fact do not really deny the existence of Allah but have a wrong perception of Him, share the basic mistake of those who deny Allah. they do not deny creation, but have superstitious beliefs about "where" Allah is. most of them think that "Allah is up in the sky." they imagine that Allah is behind a very distant planet and interferes with "worldly affairs" only once in a while. or, perhaps, that He does not intervene at all: He created the universe and then left it to itself and people are left to determine their fates for themselves. still others have heard that in the Qur'an it is written that Allah is "everywhere", but they cannot perceive what exactly this means. they think that Allah surrounds everything like radio waves or like an invisible, intangible gas. for some, on the other hand, Allah evokes the image of an old wise man.

however, those who interpret and evaluate all happenings according to the Qur'an have an accurate grasp of Allah. such people understand that the entire universe has a single Sovereign, that He changes the entire physical world, including all human beings, as He pleases, and that He is not confined to a particular place and time. they know that even a dust particle, invisible to the naked eye, is under His control. Allah's existence encompasses all things and "reason" apprehends this. as the verse suggests: "Allah is nearer to man than his jugular vein" [QS Qaf 16]. just as He has created this all-pervading order, He is the One Who also maintains it incessantly. He encompasses all things and all places as stated in the Qur'an:

To Allah belong the East and the West, and wherever you turn, there is Allah's Countenance. Allah is All-Embracing, All-Knowing. [QS al-Baqarah 115]

To Allah belong whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth. Allah ever surrounded all things. [QS an-Nisa 126]

posted by pastimati at 7:03 AM