لطفا منتظر باشید ...
In the Name of Allah The Beneficent The Merciful.
MAN AND
RELIGION
Man's Need For
Religion
Ever since the history of mankind began, man
has been practicing different forms of worship and
piety. There was no nation on the earth unattached
to a religion and performing its rites in one way or another. This
is because piety is an instinct, a natural feeling deeply rooted in
man's being. It can neither be hushed, nor muted in an individual's
conscience, nor can the human conscience be prevented from sensing
it, or going towards it.
Yet, the instincts of piety
and worship have not always been guided by soundness and purity;
rather they, in most instances, have been deviated expressions and
abnormal practices of worship; religion, in its pure state, is that
which is represented by monotheism, the path announced by the
prophets and heralded by the apostles, for maintaining the correct
mode of worship and to lead the caravan of mankind towards the
shores of worship and to lead the caravan of mankind towards the
shores of goodness and peace.
So, the observer of
the history of religious myth, and of devious worship in man's life,
finds a variety of religious expressions. He finds heliolatry,
astrolatry, idolatry, zoolatry, worship of monarchs,
etc.
Analyzing the rise of these deviated religions,
and studying the elements which conspired in developing them, one
finds them all connected to a superstitious interpretation of the
universe and the afterlife. This in turn discloses the lowness of
those peoples knowledge and their ability to fabricate fancy fables
that stemmed from their own ignorance and superstition. These rites
also illustrate the social customs and the imaginative traditions of
those peoples, and their stifled mental and moral
capabilities.
History is full of such religions,
rituals and superstitious rites. Taken as a whole they reveal man's
ignorance and the lowness of his conscience and feelings in such a
way as to cause both astonishment and disgust. Some used to slay
their sons in sacrifice to their imagined gods, presenting them as
offerings at the alter of a false sacredness. They supplicated and
requested the idols grace and the blessings of those stony, silent
structures.
History tells us of many ignorant
nations, peoples and civilizations such as the Babylonians, the
Sumerians, the Chaldeans, the Pharaohs, the Greeks, the Assyrians,
the Persians, the Romans, the Arabs (of Jahiliya). History also
stresses that all those exterminated nations had some sort of
worship, religion, and rites which they used to practice, but they
were unnatural, superstitious and deviated
forms.
The Glorious Qur'an notes abundantly the dark
and tragic side of the lives of the perished primitive ignorant
groups. It draws our attention to the missions of the messengers and
prophets, the inviters to true worship and the saviors and reformers
of humanity as a whole.
Considering these facts and
other historical evidences, we realize that the existence of
religion and worship in the course of man's history is clear proof
that religion is not a passing phenomenon, nor is it an imaginary
compensation for his sufferings from the hardships of his painful
life. Neither is it an expression of his failure in understanding
the universe and life and in logically and scientifically explaining
them; nor is it an opiate for the downtrodden and subjecting them to
the injustice of oppressors and exploiters as Marx, the founder of
Collapsed Communism, asserted by saying that "Religion is the opium
of the people".
All these assumptions and biased
interpretations, which are being presented by the propagators of
materialism and infidelism, with the purpose of falsifying the
objectives of religion and destroying the mental and spiritual
fundamentals on which it is based, are but futile and refutable
allegations which are disproved by objective historical
evidence.
Herein, we reiterate some of the numerous
and most important realities that the mind has but to accept
1. The Natural
Proof:
By this mean man's instinctive inclination
towards religion. This is an inborn proclivity (tendency) found in
man since his existence on earth. It explains the genuine driving
force and the inner compulsion present in man's constitution,
pushing him towards worshipping a being greater than
himself.
He feels the mighty superintendence
dominant over the whole of existence. He feels the need to be
patronized, to appeal to something grand and holy, to whom man may
expose his desire for worship. This exercise grows and changes man's
internal being in an attempt to understand the existence of a truth
that is the greatest truth. This practice is accompanied by an
anxious quest for this truth, which fills man's soul and attracts
him to it, as he feels its richness and the possibility of its
filling up all the dimensions of the vacancy, contrasted with his
own feelings of deficiency. He feels its superiority over the whole
world, whose boundaries he is inclined to cross and beyond which he
wants to eternalize his being. This world is unable to respond to
the truth which is much more eminent than this tangible world,
comprehending that this truth has all the ability to satisfy his
innate longing which presses upon both his conscience and
sub-conscience.
This innate feeling is a true
objective one, because it is a natural instinctive tendency. Its
existence in man is supported by three objective facts. They are:
Thinking of the abstract of time and place, as well as
of the attributes of the tangible world.
The inclination to sanctify the Perfect Absolute,
seeking to come under His greatness and to feel small in His
Presence.
Feeling imperfect while imagining the idea of
perfection, searching for it and wanting to march in its
direction.
All these feelings are accepted scientific facts
proved by psychological studies, in the same way as the intuitive
truths and the verbal utterances coined by man to refer to these
essential, innate feelings are. If we comprehend
that being religious is a native force deeply rooted in man's self,
we will also comprehend that man's devotional tendency is a fact,
not legend or superstition. This is because man's natural genesis
knows nothing of superstition, nor of legends.
It is
in this respect, as it is in respect of his other instincts and
tendencies born in him, such as the instincts driving him to
knowledge, sex and food. The mythical and legendary
aspect of human life, expressed through different forms and peculiar
rituals, appears only when man suffers from a state of loss and of
deviation from the true Allah. In this condition man's imagination
plays havoc and he draws a picture of religion and of god as was
typical during the era of Jahiliyah (Pre-Islamic Ignorance). The
Qur'an, confirming this fact, says:"They are Hanifs (tend) to
Allah, not polytheists", which Imam Al-Sadiq(A.S) explained,
saying that. Allah's creation never changes. He has made them to
instinctively know Him."
Imam Ali(A.S), in a
speech explaining piety and the inborn inclination to worship Allah,
explicitly says:
size=3> "Allah sent prophets - after Adam - with
revelations to guide mankind, when many people broke their given
promises to Allah and went against their word, forget their duties
and divine rights and began accepting others as their gods and
worshipping them, Satan had instigated them to give up the ways of
Allah and forsake His worship. Allah sent His apostles successively,
one after another, so that they may remind the human beings of the
duties which nature has cast upon them as part of the plan of their
existence and in redemption of the pledges made by their souls in
the spiritual world on the day of creation. These Prophets were to
draw the attention of humanity towards the blessings and bounties
bestowed by Him, to convey His message to them, to teach them to
intelligently and wisely use the treasures hidden in their
intellect..." He further adds"The best thing that the
beseechers plead with Allah the Exalted is faith in Him and His
Messenger and fighting (the Polytheists) for His sake, as this is
the highest degree of Islam, and the word of unity which is in the
innate nature..."
2. The Scientific
Proof:
By this we mean the testimony of the sciences and
knowledge, presented through their programs, ways of thinking,
conclusions, and the results of their researches, which have
discovered the composition of matter and the nature of life, and
which interpreted the genesis of the universe and existence. All of
these are reason enough to believe in a Creator, Innovator,
Organizer, and Manager of this universe, and to reject the idea of
things happening at random, haphazardly and by mechanical evolution.
These concepts of things happening at random are the results of the
preaching of the apostates and materialists, in the adolescent
period of science, as a theory explaining existence and
life.
3. The Historical
Proof:
This can be discerned in the long history of
religion and messages; in the numerous prophets and messengers, ever
since the dawn of humanity till this day. Mankind, even during the
darkest periods of ignorance and blindness, and with every era and
generation, has beheld some guiding prophet, a preaching messenger,
and a changing message, as an expression of Allah's grace, His
beneficency to His servants.
This successive coming
of the prophets, spread over a long time, generation after
generation, alongside man's progress, and parallel to his historical
existence, is an explicit proof of the truthfulness of the prophets
mission and the soundness of their preaching. Otherwise, there would
not have been such an such an enormous number of prophets during
different historical stages, all of them proclaiming a similar truth
and forwarding the same principles.
It is incredible that so great a
number of men, in diverse ages, nations and places, should falsely
claim to be prophets, and yet they should all be identical in their
message. Were the preaching of those prophets false and groundless,
contradictions and differences would have been quite obvious in
them. Every message would have borne its special specifications,
contradicting those of the other, and the objectives of those
prophets and their concepts of Allah, religion and the hereafter
would have also been contradictory.
Actually, it is the contrary
that we see. We discern a unity of call in the messages of all those
prophets; the call to believe in the Oneness of Allah, to have
faith, to believe in the other world, to be interested in reforming
mankind and in correcting its conduct and the order of its life.
This confirms the unity of the source, Allah, and the unity of the
call and goal.
4. The Objective
Proof:
This proof can be inducted by scrutinizing the
message of religion and monotheism, and the final code of divine
laws (the Islamic laws). By induction and studying the Islamic laws
individually, in detail and aims, one can recognize the truth of the
divine message, and discover its humanistic and reformative side,
its keen interests in the welfare of man and in delivering him,
regardless of color, social position, time and place. Then, one
would realize the falsity of the accusations attributed to religion,
as a consequence of explaining it vis.a.vis the ignorance of the
materialist interpretation, some aspects of which we related
earlier.
We know religion to be a message of deliverance, a call to
salvation and luminous sign on the dark road. Its purpose is to save
mankind, to break the bonds of slavery and open the channels of
light and a happy life before a straying humanity.
Those who follow the
Apostle-Prophet the Ummi, (one who neither reads not writes), whom
they find written down with them in the Torah and the Gospel (who)
enjoins them good and forbids them evil, and makes lawful to them
the good things and makes unlawful to them impure things, and
removes from them their burden and the shackles which were upon
them; so (as for) those who believe in him and honor him and help
him, and follow the light which has been sent down with him, these
it is that are the successful."
Holy
Qur'an[7:157]
"But the chiefs of those who
disbelieved from among his people said: We do not consider you but a
mortal like ourselves, and we do not see any have followed you but
the most abject among us, at first thought, and we do not see in you
but the most abject among us, at first thought, and we do not see in
you any excellence over us; nay, we deem you liars.
He said: O my
people! Tell me if I have with me clear proof from my Lord, and He
has granted me mercy from Himself and it has been made obscure to
you; shall we compel you to (accept) it while you are averse from it
? And, O my people! I ask you not for wealth in return for it; my
reward is only with Allah and I am not going to drive away those who
believe; surely they shall meet their Lord, but I consider you a
people who are ignorant: And, O my people! Who will help me against
Allah if I drive them away? Will you not then mind? And I do not say
to you that I have the treasures of Allah; and I do not know the
unseen, nor do I say I am an angel; nor do I say about those whom
your eyes scorn (that) Allah will never grant them (any) good.
Allah
knows best what is in their souls - for then most surely I should be
of the unjust." Holy Qur'an[11:27-31] "And do
not drive away those who call upon their Lord in the morning and the
evening, they desire only His favour; neither are you answerable for
any reckoning of their, nor are they answerable for any reckoning of
yours, so that you should drive them away and thus be of the
unjust." Holy Qur'an[6:52]
Thus, the Glorious
Qur'an presents verses speaking of the aims of religion, of its role
in man's life, of its attitude towards the poor and the deprived who
are the followers of the prophets, and the first to respond to the
call of Faith, the call of rescue, liberation and delivery.
It also
clarifies the attitude of the proud, arrogant and influential
against the weak, and the calls of the prophets and their
objectives. It likewise registers the prophets reactions towards the
proud whose thoughts are filled with conceit and haughtiness. In
this way the Qur'an proves to us that religion supports the weak and
the deprived, and is the power that strikes justly and sincerely at
the greed and the pride of the criminal despots, so that we may
realize that religion is not a means of persecuting the poor, nor is
it the peoples opium, a passing phenomenon in man's life, or a
social activity, like other costumes and traditions which appear for
a short span or specific period, then disappear altogether without a
trace.
Nor is it an illusion used by man to convince himself of
another world that compensates for his failure in this present
one.
Religion is a law inseparable from man's nature
just as the laws of physics and life are inseparable from matter and
living beings.
This is because the Creator of the world has given
man the longing for his Creator and directed man towards
Him
Then set your face upright for religion in
the right state - the natural disposition...
"
Holy
Qur'an[30:30]
Yet, this natural or inborn disposition, as
such, is subject - through ignorance and obstinacy - to deviation,
impurity, and diversion from the path of true religion, as is the
case with many of man's instincts and inclinations which deviate
from their natural orbit, causing man, to follow diverse types of
harmful and perverted customs. Hence the coming of apostles and
religions to set right such deviations, restore man's natural
inclination to Allah, the Exalted, and satisfy the natural instinct
in man for truthful worship upon which rests mankind's happiness.
This natural inclinations is, actually, the starting point for
receiving the principles of religion and adhering to
them.
Once again we repeat here that this natural
disposition in man cannot be looked upon as a legendary or mythical
idea, since legends and myths are the offspring of an invalid
imagination and illusion that subvert man's thinking.
Man's native
inclinations are a true case, met in the world of reality by an
actual existence to which they turn, and which is the source of its
satisfaction. Thus, the existence of Allah and worshipping Him
becomes an outstanding fact, a counterpart of which, inside man, is
the deep tendency to worship and the natural direction towards this
Great Originator.
Superstition and myth originate
when man is ignorant of his actual destination, and his mind is void
of any clear vision. The Glorious Qur'an calls such deviation of
beliefs as.
they are gone away from us, nay, we used
not to call upon anything before...
"
Holy
Qur'an[40:74]
Have you then considered him who
takes his low desire for his Allah, and Allah has made him err
having knowledge...
"
Holy Qur'an[45:23]
Aan
when Abraham said: My Lord! Make this city secure, and save me and
my sons from worshiping idols: My Lord! Surely they have led many of
mankind astray; then whoever follows me, he is surely of me; and
whoever disobeys me, You surely are Forgiving, Merciful."
Holy
Qur'an[14:35-36]
Thus, the Glorious Qur'an considers the
abnormal and superstitious expression of man's ignorant inclination
as erroneous and straying, since it is imaginary, and unreal, and a
wandering expression that would not realize man's objective. Hence
the saying of the Qur'an:
"...they are gone away from us, nay, we used
not to call upon anything before...
"
Holy
Qur'an[40:74]
Mind's Need For
Religion
It is not possible to separate man's way of
thinking from his way of living and his dealing in life. Man is a
wise and understanding being who thinks for himself, wants to
comprehend his surroundings and tries to know the beginning and the
end of everything, in order to be able to understand the mysteries
of the world and the beings around him. He tries to discover:
How did this world begin ?
Where is it going to ?
Why is he here in this life ?
What is the goal of his existence ?
Where will he end to ?
What does life itself mean ?
How should he conduct his life
?
Man has always been looking for
convincing answers to these questions. The answer to them either
leads him to happiness and welfare, or wretchedness and
misfortune. The answer, though short in their form
and brief in their expression, are yet great in their meanings,
important in their reality and deep in their
effects. It is these answers which define how man
should live, behave, understand life and estimate the importance of
his own existence. By providing correct answers one
may resolve an important crisis of thought- the crisis from which
man has long been suffering, unable to find correct answers he has
been tormented by anxiety and uncertainty and forced to wander
through as abyss of erring.
Therefore, the right
answers form the basic principles of the philosophy of life, and
soundly evaluate life and man's existence. The correct answers to
these questions have always been confined to two contradictory
theories, both in their truth and in the resulting constructions
that are based upon them. The two answers are: The first given
through religion, lighting the path of righteousness and faith with
rational proof; the second given by error and denial, aiming at
envoking mist to obliterate clear visibility, to envelope man's
conscience and prevent is from directing itself towards Allah, the
Beginning and the End of existence.
Religion's answer offers,
through its call and message, and interpretation of the universe and
life, and an explanation of man's existence, and of his links with
them; while the other answer bases its explanation in retort to the
idea of faith, denying its reasoning and explanation. Religion bases
its interpretation and viewpoint on believing that this universe,
life and man have a Creator, a Lord, a God head; and that man's
existence on this earth is neither a meaningless and aimless one,
nor is it random happening.
Life and man have their goals and values
exceeding the time span of man's existence on the earth's surface.
He has a supreme objective to pursue, embodying it through his
attitudes, his deeds and his general activities in a world that goes
beyond perception and the time spent in this world. It is the other
eternal world and the eternal extension of the
absolute:
"Whoever disbelieves, he shall be responsible
for his disbelief, and whoever does good, they prepare (good) for
their own souls". Holy Qur'an[30:44] "And all
have ranks according to what they do
"
Holy
Qur'an[6:132]
In this way, religion presents to man a correct
explanation of his existence, and gives him a lasting vision that
plucks out the roots of his doubt, mental anxiety and fear of
perishing, losing, and uselessness in this
life.
Thus, by this explanation, religion opens to
man the door to the expanses of life. He, then organizes his life
according to a perfect and unified ideological basis, taking him to
results and objectives in life free of disorder, contradiction and
objectives in life free of disorder, contradiction and
disappointment.
It offers him, besides other things, a sound
ideological program, perfect in its order and movement, leading him
to understand life and to adhere to a defined and explicit
conduct.
The believer believes in the existence of a
Just, all-knowing, all-powerful and Wise Creator. He further
believes in the Day of Judgement and in the responsibility rested
upon him for all of his deeds, and he expects rewards on the Day of
judgement for his good deeds in this world. Therefore, he behaves
according to this belief, and on this basis he forms every detail of
his life, such as his ideas, attitudes, feelings and relations,
formulating them within this unified ideological
frame.
What a wonderful expression is used by the
Qur'an in reference to this fact, describing the faithful elite who
recognize the value of life and know the meaning of existence.the Holy Qur'an says:
and reflect on the creation of the heavens
and the earth: Our Lord! Thou have not created this in vain! Glory
be to You; save us then from the chastisement of the fire:
"
Holy
Qur'an[3:191]
As to the answer of the second group, it is the
viewpoint expressed by the disbeliever's. They view this world and
this life only from inside, disregarding all ties and connections
with the invisible world and the Creator, having built their opinion
on a faithless interpretation denying the existence of the Creator,
the Innovator; they have sentenced mankind to lasting annihilation
and transformation into dust, mixing with the elements of the earth,
(lost in every nook and cranny) without return or resurrection.
In
this way the living feelings of man are pushed down to lowest pitch
of death, despair and eternal destruction. It is a disaster that
befalls the optimistic and hopeful feelings, and man becomes a prey
of despair, goes astray, and submits to decay and decline.
Life
becomes an arena for conflict and a chance to partake of transient
sensual pleasures and appetites, accompanied by a complete death of
any feeling of happiness or knowledge of the meaning of life. Life,
to them, is but a period of futile misery, with no hope or
expectation and since there would be no other world, no divine
justice, no punishment, no reward, no responsibility, no
retribution, and no immortality, man is reduced to the level of the
plants of the earth and the worms of the ground.
Thus, this
interpretation has done away with all human
values. There is no doubt that man has never been
subjected during his lifetime to a more dangerous catastrophe than
the deluge of this devastating one which sentences him to live and
die within this terrestrial prison, returning to the terrible soil
of destruction. So, what would, then, life mean ? What would be its
value? Why does not man do whatever he wants, even if such practices
meant misery for others and ended their lives with the most horrible
types of torture? They say that man's life does not go beyond this
limited secular period, which is lost in the timelessness of the
universe, which swallowed millions of generations and consumed the
entire ancient humanity. How wonderfully the Qur'an illustrates this
tragedy of the intellect which the rejecting and ignorant mind
imagined, while trying to fabricate its argument and speak its
ideology:
Far, far is that which you are promised
with. There is naught but our life in this world; we die and we
shall not be raised again.
"
Holy
Qur'an[23:36-37]
And how exact is the Qur'an in drawing the
tragic picture to which this miserable, straying man
reached:
(as for) those who have lost their souls,
they will not believe.
"
Holy
Qur'an[6:12]
Say: Shall We inform you of the
greatest losers in (their) deeds? (They are) they whose labor is
lost in this world's life and they think that they are well-versed
in skill of the work of hands. These are they who disbelieve in the
revelations of their Lord and the Day of Resurrection We assign no
weight to them.
"
Holy Qur'an[18:103-105]
So, as the Qur'an
describes them, it is these folk of disbeliever's who have lost
themselves, and lost their lives, turning life into a hell of
misery, instead of making it a blessing and full of happiness, just
because they deceive themselves with their distorted understanding
of life and existence, and think that it does them good, while
actually it takes them away from the path of Allah and His message.
They think that they have discovered the right path and have put
their feet on the right track. But it is this self-deceit to which
the Qur'an refers by saying:
The life of this world is made to seem fair
to those who disbelieve, and they mock those who believe
"
Holy
Qur'an[2:212]
So, what other disaster to which man is
subjected can be more devastating than losing oneself, leading to
the loss of humanity, the loss which befalls man because of this
mental wandering, ideological abnormality, and systematic
deviation.
Therefore, no sane man doubts the
necessity of abolishing this ideology and changing this
materialistic way of comprehending life, and resorting to a
realistic way of thinking, that is coordination with the cosmic
reality of nature, thought and society.
This way of
thinking is not to be found except in mental reasoning, through
mind's innate originality and exact theoretical activity. Mind is
the actual thinker, the conscious power that moves according to the
general universal existence, and co-ordinates with it, since it a
part of it the highest example of its movement and
order.
this is why the Qur'an addresses the mind and
argues with it as it is the only force in harmony with the logic of
the Qur'an, and is able to comprehend its course and hear its call.
It says:
thus do We make the signs distinct for a
people who understand.
"
Holy
Qur'an[30:28]
Most surely there are signs in
this for a people who reflect.
"
Holy
Qur'an[39:42]
When the mind is given freedom of thinking and
contemplation, away from influences, deviations, and factors of
misinterpretation, it will be able to discover the mental climate
which assists its growth and to properly understand life. That
climate is the way of the Qur'an and religion. Only under its light
the mind can explain life and estimate it as required. In this way
man would discover his inefficiency ad his need to follow the path
of religion and to be guided by it.
Conclusion
Finally we conclude that there is no substitute
for religion, and that man cannot make a civilization that is
capable of offering him prosperity and peace, away from religion and
the message of Allah.
Once you accept the
necessity of religion & want to know more about the true
religion
click
here.
The above
article is extracted from "Man And Religion" Published by Al-Balagh
Foundation.
