Loopholes in Religion

[psyah]

Re: Loopholes in Religion

@MangoMan

These are the things I find difficult to understand:

Why do we need to limit the spectrum of questioning? To protect our beliefs? So that the views held by our ancestors for thousands of years do not get shattered? I mean, it does make sense if we are being protective of our religion. After all, we love it. But then lets just say that: No questioning of religious beliefs. Why are we seeking ONE TRUE religion then? If we don’t put a religion to test using all the possible lines of reasoning, how can we convince others of ONE TRUE religion then?
Your reasoning starts from a point where you have already made a conclusion and you are trying to justify it. But what about those who were born with different beliefs? How can they test the validity of religions? And if indeed your religion is THE TRUE religion, then are they not disadvantaged? Because if they are also told that they have their own limited spectrum in which they are allowed to question, then how will they ever find this TRUE religion?

Again, I find this analogy a bit too simplistic: an analogy which suits the answer you want to hear, not an analogy you should make in order to understand something and then to be ready to accept whatever is the outcome of the analogy. Here, no children of God is adamant on killing his siblings. Here, God can burn his beloved ‘children’, in hell forever even if they are perfectly fine with each other but just do not recognize him using their ‘limited intelligence’ given to them by him.

Wa’alaikumuSalam

… Indeed you have asked the question and nothing is happening. In order to gain insight on this - a different part of your faculties of reason need to be employed … not your mind but your heart.

Then do they not reflect upon the Qur’an, or are there locks upon [their] hearts?
Surat Muhammad [47:24] - The Noble Qur’an - ??? ???

Sometimes consulting your heart for a soundness is the sort of thing required. We are asking “What does God get out of worship?” - the answer is clear - recognition of His Majesty by creatures who decided to do so without obligation and without the clarity that other creatures may be given (like angels) … By trying to go further we are making the mistake of assimilating ourselves with God. It’s not that we cannot ask the question … but by asking it we set ourselves up to failure - where we will not be given an answer. Because we have no reference point. We know (or believe) that we were sent messengers so that we can be taught to turn to Him and these were sent out of His Mercy for us. And anything we say about Allah (SWT) must be backed up - or it is just whimsical. But to go further is a form of hesitance with the answer to the previous question.

Discussions like this usually have several points that are rigged by being posed as intertwined… Does God Exist? If He does, then what what is our purpose? Well then why does He need us to worship Him? What does He get out of it? (The last question is an assumption - it fails to recognise that God does not need us)

The point is as we work our way into the minutia we are providing ourselves an “Out” - we are not interested in being convinced - but looking for more reasons not to be … so the line of questioning has already started where ‘a conclusion has already been made’ too. It is the conclusion of resistance. We need to concern ourselves with - Does God exist? Once that is finalised in our hearts then we simply submit to Him. Asking further questions means that we in truth are not content with a simple matter of Existence … It should be stressed - The reason why His Existence is elusive in the sensory meaning is both because our senses just could not fathom Him and secondly then we would not have true choice. So CHOOSE … A or B … It is totally your choice. For sure once I FEEL in my heart that God Exists then the question of “why” He wants me to do certain things is irrelevant.

Regarding the position of Love and Justice - these are to be viewed in parallel … but not dependent. So in the context of Love, love is there for us and in the context of Justice there is justice there too … The position of a true believer is not to be too content with the Mercy of Allah (SWT) that it beats him down to being dormant inactive, second guessing and giving himself excuses, nor should we be people so afraid of His Wrath that it beats us down with despair and we never think that we can be saved. We should be somewhere in between these two positions.

The wisdom behind that is in both cases we are prejudging the Judgement of God - we are taking out of His Authority of Judgement and pre-judging ourselves to being let off or being punished. Let’s leave that part for God? Also both of the positions lead to inaction with respect to our duty to God - whereas the third position (in between) is one of hope; that we will be saved and the hope that we will not be punished. It is a healthy position - providing us the impetus for our design purpose - which is worship.

I can recall little children asking the question “why”, “why” in a sequence to all the responses their mothers give them … at the end the mothers say “it just is - right - no more questions - or you won’t get a sweet” … reason and being reasonable goes hand in hand … yes we use reason to arrive at sound conclusions - but sometimes we need to double take on our own line of questioning - are we being reasonable?

All analogies to the side … We need to recognise that the gravest sin is to deny God … either His Existence or of Him sharing any of His Attributes with another. It is worse than a murder. The One who Created us has the unique authority of defining to us the scale of morality and how good or evil an act is … Our mental faculties and life experiences in the modern world teach us otherwise … they have taken the Attribute of Judge from Him and done shirk with themselves of it … People believe they have the right to decide what is evil or good rather than the duty to know what God has said is the criteria of good and evil.