Flowers for the Women Wearing Veils - Volume I — Page 96
! ! 96 14. Unitarianism : T he fourth modern religion is Unitarian ism. This is the religion of be nefit. They believe all religions are false. Whatever is most advantageous is right. This religion is a branch of Atheism. 15. The R eligion of Dev Samaj : T he f ifth modern religion is Dev S amaj. This is also an Atheist religion. The founder of this fait h rejects the worship of Allah but requires that he be worship ped. He asserts that as spirits rise in status, so does their influence. Thi s religion is an offshoot of Jainism. 16. Spiritualism: The sixth modern religion is Spir itualism. The followers of this faith profess that spirits return to this world, bringing news from the hereafter , even though the reality is that the [living] are curious to learn what happens after death. In addition to these, t here are thousands of other ancient and recent religions, but there is no trace left of them. After briefly discussing the se religions, I now turn to Islam. Even though I began my discourse with Islam , I saved it for the end, as it is such a great and majestic faith. Islam ic Studies 1. Knowledge about Religious Tenets (Ilmul Aqai’d): a. Belief in Allah : The first principle of Islam i c studies is the knowledge of tenets , of which the most important is the existence of God. This is no ordinary tenet. R ather, it is victim of much debate. For e xample, is God visible or not? Can one meet Him or not? What would be the signs of finding Him? How does He establish a relat ionship with humans? How does He express His love and anger? What is our relationship with God? Thus, the subject of God brings up many other qu estions. Last year at Jalsa Salana , I gave a speech on this topic which lasted nine hours. Often times , people do not understand the being of Allah. Then there is the tenet of His attributes , to which there are many aspects. H ow do God’s attributes relate with one another ? The se [questions] all come under this topic.