Our God — Page 27
Introduction 27 Two Levels of Belief in God The next point I wish to make is that, on the one hand, the Being of God is sublime, and cannot be seen by man’s physical eyes due to His being infinite and extremely subtle; on the other, our faith cannot be perfected or cannot be of any use unless we attain belief in God—at least as much as the faith we have in the mate- rial things of this world. Therefore, God has decreed in His wis- dom that man should make progress towards Him to a certain level and then God will Himself descend towards man and raise man towards Himself. In other words, God has divided belief in two parts: one which man can achieve with the help of his own intellect, and one which is beyond the reach of reason alone, and attaining this part of faith requires Heavenly support to assist dry logic. God states in the Holy Quran: 1 اَل ُهُكِرْدُت ُراَصْبَاْلا١ٞ َو َوُه ُكِرْدُي َراَصْبَاْلا١ۚ َو َوُه ُفْيِطَّللا ُرْيِبَخْلا This means that human eyes are unable to see God or perceive His true Being. Therefore, God has made this arrangement, whereby He Himself reaches out to man; that is to say, He has Himself put in place a system that helps man appreciate and comprehend the knowledge of His existence. For, God is beyond the reach of man’s physical eyes yet He is Khab i r [All-Aware] and knows that it is not possible for man to have a spiritual life without recognising Him. Therefore, God provides means from Himself that enable man to recognise Him, despite God being La ti f [Subtle] and Unseen. 1. S u rah al-An‘ a m, 6:104.