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on 16-07-2002 00:27
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By Steven Malik Shelton
The Islamic creed translated roughly into English from the Arabic reads;
I bear witness that there is none worthy of worship except God, and I bear witness that Muhammad is the messenger of God.
This simple yet profound concept and declaration is the very basis of reality. In fact, if one refuses to recognize and to act on this statement, this reality, then one is not sane. And his thoughts, movements, and actions are tainted with the stain of futility and psychosis regardless of any secular intellectual achievements or temporal wealth he may pile up in this fleeting world of wind, fire, and earth.
If he earns a dozen doctorate degrees, but does not discern the very foundation of existence he is still uneducated, because his knowledge is not based on reality, but on delusion and fantasy. And he is a lackey and a prisoner to false powers with no authority either to help him or to harm him. He follows the whims and lusts of himself and others, and although he may imagine himself free and autonomous, he can be likened to a ping pong ball being swatted about by shaytan and his imps and followers.
Man was created to worship and he will either worship the One True God {ALLAH} or he will worship his own foolish and frivolous desires, or conjure up false deities of stones, animals, wood, planets, stars, women, and men. Nevertheless, the intellect can still be utilized through the rational mind to liberate one from abject darkness, illusion, and delusion, into clarity, truthfulness, and light.
I have attended lectures where the speakers trumpet the benefits of worshipping the sun. They promote dogmas of ancestor worship and racial pride, to make their views more acceptable to their audience. Yet to worship the sun is not rational. The sun is merely one of countless celestial orbs which inhabit the vast universe. Scientists have estimated that there are hundreds of billions of them in our relatively small corner of the galaxy. In addition, the sun of our solar system is known by many astronomers as a dwarf sun. A very small sun when compared to some of the others which are zillions of times larger.
Everything in existence, except Allah, has only temporary validity. And is real only because Allah chose to give it reality. Yet apart from Allah, nothing in existence has reality and at some point will cease to exist. If we could remove the seductive illusion of time and space, and perceive everything without the structural limits and veils of matter, space, gravity, etc.; we would all see clearly the true reality and many of us would denounce our past and become devout Believers.
Human beings are spiritual as well as physical beings living in a physical and a spiritual world. The physical body houses the spiritual essence {the mind, the soul, the heart} and our physical bodies act upon our spiritual inclinations. Our spirits use our physical bodies for expression, and to manifest its desires. In order for a human being to maintain wholeness or sanity, he must not allow the spiritual self to become overwhelmed or ruled by the longings of the physical self which has a tendency to long for the various worldly delights and manifestations. The instruments of the self {the eyes} love to look upon the worldly embodiments of birds, mountains, trees, etc. The hands delight to touch the many worldly properties, The ears are enraptured by the delightful manifestations of sound. The taste buds are captured with tasty morsels of food and drink; and the sense of smell is enthralled and captivated by fragrances. Yet the sickness and the folly of the human being is that he is is ever aware of the reflections of reality, but often has but a weak perception of the Divine source of the reflective physical existence.
A man purchases a new automobile, and he becomes enamored with the new vehicle and its flashy physical embodiments. But eventually, at a point in time, the automobile will be reduced to a rusty worn out shell of steel slabs and dusty rubber wheels. The engine, the transmission, and all its other components will inevitably wear out, and the once new automobile will be reduced to an eyesore fit only for the scrap yard. And then the element of time is ,of course, erroneously blamed although time is nothing more than an illusion that has no reality in and of itself.
Man has invented a concept of time which enables him to better comprehend the function and distance of his world. And to man {a finite creature of wind, fire, and clay} the compartmentalization of his fleeting earthly existence into sections of time has its merits and advantages. This is essentially because human beings live in world of multiples, dualities, and contrasts. There is hot and there is cold. Some things are angular, while others are circular. There is up and down, in and out, light and darkness, soft and hard and so forth and so on. This can be confusing, so man has ingeniously invented a concept of time so that he can locate or make reference to a particular phenomenon or experience, and thus, better understand this spinning vortex of energy that we call life. Yet the Creator {Allah} describes time as a token, and He beautifully qualifies its significance. By the token of time, truly man is in loss-
except for those who have faith and do right actions
and urge others to the truth
and urge others to steadfastness
The Holy Quran Sura 103
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