All religions and creeds teach the lessons of surrender and submission. We have been taught since childhood to show patience and tolerance to situations and people who somehow challenge our accepted ways and beliefs. To have trust in God and faith, and under all duress show preserverance, dignity, and acceptance of what is. If I have learned one thing in my life it is this; keeping faith in God in hard times, believing from my inner core that things would change and God would eventually come to help. It may sound blasphemous to some of us, for we are not allowed to acknowledge our doubts and misgivings in public. We must show that we still trust in God when deep within us we are failing in doing just that. How easy it is for other people to reassure us in times of distress for they are merely observers of 'suffering' and not 'sufferers' themselves.
How do we actually learn the art of 'acceptance'? acceptance of what is, and that whatever is is the perfect way. It sounds much like the message of Taoism, and indeed it is. This is what Islam advises us as well if we care to see it that way. Karen Armstrong in her biography of Prophet Muhammed stresses this aspect of Islam and the Prophet's character. His staunch belief that despite everything God will come to his help, and also if God doesn't in the way he desires, then God in his infinite wisdom, is doing what is best for him. Armstrong reflects this 'internal and very personal struggle' of the Prophet. We are used to textbook versions of Islamiyat taught in schools where the Prophet is painted in ways which seem remote and distant. His struggles as a man, as an individual, as a human being are glossed over and it seems to us that such things come easy to Prophets. But, it is not so. Armstrong strongly portrays the constant battle with nerves and with belief in the success of his mission that Prophet Muhammad faced continously in his effort to relay his message to the people of Arabia. He was human in all his fears and doubts, but somehow kept faith.
Abraham, another Prophet, had resolute belief in God's purpose. Keirkergarrd, the Dutch philosopher, has written about the 'feelings' of Abraham when he was going on the three day journey to sacrifice his son at the mount. He argues that Abraham went up the mount with the knife not as a potential killer for he knew, he 'absolutely believed' that his God would never ask him to kill his only son. It was his deep belief in the wisdom, the unquestioning of ways of his God that reassured him that he would not be asked for the actual sacrifice. He knew and accepted his God's test of his faith.
There are numerous stories in religious and mythical lore that tell us to 'keep our faith' in difficult times, but how do we do that exactly is my question? How? when things are falling apart and life is giving way, how? is it evidently possible for an average person to believe that eventually all will settle and better things would come to pass? Is it only a matter of faith? Iman? Am I lacking in it to show doubts at times when things don't go my way or is it a natural human response?
What does this 'keeping the faith mean'? in real terms? I want to know. Does it mean that in my heart when waves of depression and anxiety overwhelm me, when I feel scared to death of my very own shadow, when tommorrow means another fight and a new battle, when I feel I am left in the dark, abandoned and forgotten, there is another larger than my imagination intelligence that is making sure that things are going the way they ought to be going in. That God, that omnipotent and omnipresent power, is telling me that what is, is the best and perfect way to be, and I merely need to accept it?
To my meagre and very limited understanding I am beginning to get this message through the vapors of my misty knowledge that the more I feel I am being tried and tested by circumstance - the more things are the way they ought to be. All I need to do is to accept my situation through absolute submission and surrender. For there are more things in this world than are thought of in [my] philosophy.
Comments
Post a Comment