Paradox for a modern age: a god-eat-god world - no metaphysics
required
Added May 03, 2007
Here is a paradox for a modern age which seeks to do away with the Divine, to remove it from their frame of reference and erase it from the public sphere: "Those who have no belief set up rivals to their Lord" (Qur'an 6:1). But how can those who disbelieve in God set up rivals to their God?
When we do away with God, when we eliminate connection with the unified
domain of Spirit, we make this whole lower world, this vast
ever-shifting multiplicity into a plurality of rivals to the Divine. In
the absence of one God, entire pantheons of conflicting, battling,
rival gods appear in the form of an endless abundance of
systems and
ideologies. A ceaseless, multitudinous, up-swelling of mini-idolatries,
each of which have their moment of existence, their small or vast group
of adherents and worshipers, their limited moment in the sun before
they are displaced by other gods more recently born. Continuous
distraction, continuous conflict and battle for advantage, for
hegemony, endless desires, perpetual
change, a world where men are as gods, where even the creations of
their minds are gods if only for a moment in time, before they are
displaced by new gods - no metaphysics required. What activity, what an
immeasurable, self-perpetuating
frenetic domain this world "free" of one God and frothing with the
incessant motion of a kaleidoscope of new gods, appears to be. A
god-eat-god world
where no god goes unchallenged and no god endures.
The seemingly vital life and activity perceived by those who favor this
brave new world free of constraint, is simply the psychic
apperception
of the speed and motion of an accelerated fall away from the Divine,
away from transcendence - of the rapid collapse of matter upon itself
when the energy, the light, the Divine spirit that supports it departs,
and matter, left to itself, rushes towards its destiny, its
disintegration. It is a state of blind free-fall in which those falling
to their destiny imagine that they are weightless, gloriously free of
gravity's
influence, of its supposed "oppression", unaware that its invisible
force is
unabated, unchanged, and that it is their own perception of their state
and destination which is
flawed. They perhaps continue in this mistaken apprehension until their
impact
with the fate towards which they plummet.
The phrasing of the Qur'anic verse is interesting - it states that
those without
belief set up rivals to "their Lord".
The absence or rejection of belief has no
impact on the reality of the situation - God remains their Rabb (Lord)
whether acknowledged or not. He encompasses
all systems and He has set
the rules by which all systems operate and by which they will be
judged. The change brought about by the disbelief is simply the
emergence of
an idolatrous impulse which turns the human focus downward entirely
towards this lower world, and towards the self and its numerous
manifestations and creations - a process of mental self-veiling, of the
donning of blinders which block all vision except that which looks down
away from God.
The next verse confirms this self-idolatry by reminding mankind that
God created them of earth, of a base clay - just as they in the past
created their idols and artifacts from clay, from inert matter. It is a
reminder of humble origins and of the fact that our clay without spirit
is inanimate, dark - so our material foundation must not be our
exclusive focus. "He it is Who
created you
from clay, then He decreed a term...." (Qur'an 6:2) So there is
a term,
a set of conditions or a period of time after which the matter from
which we are made will inevitably return to its constituent components.
Devoid of the ruh (spirit), it will decay downward - the once living
limbs, organs, and cellular material eaten away from the inside, the
flesh consumed and transformed by multitudinous organisms frothing in
miniature motion, engaged in a vast feast that will continue its
frenzied repast until the return to the earth is accomplished. Even
death and decay are replete with activity.
So also with a society - once it has broken its bond with higher
principles, turned away from that which sustains and generates its
existence - once it has consciously, purposefully, determinedly cut the
cord of
spirit and shown its back to God, it has embraced spiritual death. It
continues on as a
conglomerate entity but it has unleashed from within its own guts all
manner of activities that were once held at bay. All the forces of
decay, which drag downward, which work remorselessly to return it to
its worldly origin - to
earth, to clay, to dust, to inert components - begin their feverish,
tireless consuming
task, dismantling its organizing structures and vital principles, till,
over time, only a society's bones, it's ruins and artifacts
remain as traces.
"Travel in the land, then see what
was the end of those who threw aside the truth." (Qur'an 6:11)
-
Irshaad Hussain
Questioning all that we once held dear
We have adorned for each society their acts
Shards of Knowledge
What do we know
Intellect in Islam
After the Fall
"To lose knowledge of God and then to forget Him, in its own turn, leads to oblivion regarding both the truth and reality of man. It is to forget the fact that he is a bond and connection with God. It is also to forget that the world is a sign of God. It is in this way that, all at once, man finds himself situated in a world whose true reality he is oblivious of.
The new world that man finds himself in after the Fall, is a world
hidden and buried under the veil of a deceptive and false self. In
other words, (man's interaction with) the world is now itself false and
deceptive.
The consideration of the self as an independently existing reality
leads to a similar belief about other things. This is because this
consideration is as a “veil” and screen, behind and due to which the
infinite reality of being disappears. After its retreat, all existents,
which were once united in lieu of their common bond with this one
single reality and appeared as its aspects and emanations, now
materialize as independent and multiple existents.
Upon leaving his true and original home and divine abode, man finds
himself in a strange world in which he recognizes neither himself nor
any single thing around him.
He feels himself alienated from God and creation. This is despite the
fact that man’s false “self” is in the centre of this world. In other
words, even though this new world begins with the “self”, this self is
really on the periphery, as it gives rise to a multiplicity which puts
it on par with all other existents. Being a stranger in a strange land,
man is afflicted with restlessness, anxiety and fear. Now these
attributes spring from the very heart of the “reality” that man has
himself fashioned and conjured up, hence they persist so long as the
false reality persists....
Fear and anxiety issue from the very depths of the false existence and
reality that the estranged man, deprived of divine flashes and
inspiration, creates and appertains to himself. While man in his
distance from the Divine Presence continues to engage in inane
thoughts, he refers and relates that which has its roots in his own
soul to the environment – something which actually lies on the level of
his veiled “reality”. Consequently, even though he himself is the
veil and covering for the outer world, he sees the outer to be a veil
and impediment for himself. Hence instead of attempting to change his
own state and soul, he goes about trying to change his environment."
(from "Existence and the
Fall (Hasti wa Hubut)" by Hamid Parsania - translated by Shuja Mirza)