Our God — Page 31
Introduction 31 1 اَنَد ىّٰلَدَتَف َناَكَف َباَق ِنْيَسْوَق ْوَا ىٰنْدَا Meaning that, this servant of Ours came close to Us, and became so near that he lost himself in Us. اللّھم صل ّ علی ٰ محمّد ٍ وبارك وسلّم [O Allah, bless and prosper and shower Thy peace on Muhammad]. It is sad that most people believe that they have achieved all that there is to be achieved by attaining the elementary stage of belief. Even sadder is the fact that most people think that they have found God if their search for God leads them only to the stage of ‘ought to be’. There is no doubt that ‘ought to be’ is a step- ping stone towards the stage of ‘is’ and, in the spiritual world, the preliminary awareness of God begins at this point. But if man stops at this stage, believing it to be the end-all and the purpose, this can prove to be extremely dangerous and disastrous for him. Many a time, stopping the search for God at this point can push a man forever into the darkness of atheism, and he dies in this state of ignorance. Because when he sees that despite all his efforts he failed to find God, and at most reached the notion that there ‘ought to be’ a God, dismayed, he considers his reason’s counsel as a deception, and ends up denying the existence of God. His condition is similar to that of a man who finds the door to a room bolted from the inside and waits outside, believing that there ought to be someone inside the room since the door can be bolted only from the inside. If such a person receives no response to his knocking, calling, and shouting for a long time, this will create doubts and suspicions in his heart—perhaps the door became locked due to some unknown cause, or maybe the one who bolted 1. S u rah an-Najm, 53:9–10.