Prayer (dua) is a natural utterance for one who has a spiritual bent of mind. However, without realisation, prayer is only a repetition of words. The prayer that comes from a realised soul is prayer in the real sense. The prayer, devoid of maarifah (realisation), is nothing but lip service; it has no value. Prayer is a form of worship, and the real form of worship is one in which the realisation of God is an integral part.
Prayer is of two kinds. One is that which requests God to fulfil some need of the suppliant concerning some personal problem he is facing and entreating God to provide a solution. Another form of prayer is that the person praying projects his problem as the problem of God Himself.
The first kind of prayer is the result of human needs. However, the second kind of prayer comes from a person’s heart with deep God-realisation. The second kind of prayer is the result of the discovery of God at the level of realisation. This kind of prayer comes out of the heart or mind of a person only when he has some exceptional experience of God’s nearness.
Source: The Spirit of Islam
God Almighty has created man as the superior form of life. He has provided him with all those favourable things that form the life-support system. He created the earth, which is the only planet favourable to human life. He gave man a mind with enormous potential. It is the miracle of the mind that man was able to create a civilization. All the sciences are but a product of the workings of the mind.
In such a situation, it is but natural that man must acknowledge the Creator by saying, Alhamdulillah: ‘All Praise is due to God, the Lord of the Universe.’ (1:2) Without this acknowledgement, man has no right to live on this planet earth. It is this acknowledgement that gives one legitimacy to live on the planet earth and enjoy all the bounties created by God in this world.
Source: Quranic Wisdom
The universe is the mirror of God's attributes. Here, God's attributes are reflected through His innumerable creatures. The existence of the created realm provides ample evidence of the existence, power and greatness of the Creator who brought this realm into being. If your sensitivity is alive, you can find God all around you. You can see God everywhere. God's universe will then become for you living proof of God.
The various forms and activities of living beings are a clear announcement that the Creator of this universe is a living, and not a lifeless, Being. When the sun appears in the morning and things that have been covered by the darkness of night become visible once again, it seems as if God has opened His eyes, that God sees the whole cosmos through His eyes. When a river rushes ahead, tumbling down from the mountains, it loudly declares that the Creator of this universe is a living, active Being. When a tiger pounces on and grabs its prey and brings it under its control, it announces, as it were, that its Creator is a Being who has everything under His control. The astounding expansiveness of space tells us that the Creator is an Unlimited Being.
Witnessing the existence and glory of God in His universe enkindles in an individual faith in Him. At the same time, it makes him face questions of enormous, existential import. If God is, then why does He not directly reveal Himself in this universe? Why do evil and suffering exist? Evil is rampant in this world. Oppression is rife. People are always at each other's throats. All of this happens day in and day out in God's world. So, why doesn't God stop the oppressors or stand up for the oppressed?
The answers to these questions can be understood only when you understand God's creation plan, the scheme that the Creator has devised for His creatures. This world is a temporary one. Life here is short-lived. We are here in this world in order to be tested. This world is a field, as it were, where different plants have been given the chance to grow in order to see which of these will turn into fine trees, and which into weeds. After this, the fine trees will be provided many fine opportunities to flourish, while the weeds and thorny bushes will be uprooted.
Source: Man and God
Man was placed in a world that manifests God’s attributes. There is food for God’s realisation in everything in this universe. Under the guidance of the Prophet, man can attain the realisation of God by pondering upon God’s creation.
However, history tells us that it has not been possible to fulfil this purpose of creation. Unfortunately, man leaves this world without properly utilising his mind, yet the Quran tells us that God’s signs are so numerous that, even if all the trees could become pens and all the seas, or even the double of all the seas, could become ink, the signs of God could not be enumerated (31:27). These signs are, in fact, signs of realisation. In this way, we find that the signs of God have yet to be written, that is, have yet to be discovered.
Source: Discovering God
The physical universe is the subject of scientific study. But what is the physical universe? It is the creation of a Creator. The study of the universe is, in an indirect way, the study of the work of the Creator. In this sense, modern science is modern theology. Evidence of God is spread throughout the expanding universe.
The issue of God is the issue of the Creator of the universe. It is the very existence of a universe that necessitates thinking about the existence of its Creator, or in other words, God. The universe, or the world of nature, is the subject of scientific study. Indeed, all the branches of physical science focus upon the world of nature.
It is a generally accepted fact that the world of nature cannot be discussed as if it were a journalistic issue. This is true also of God, for God is a scientific subject. Thus, only the scientific method can be applied to the study of God, or the Creator.
Although the existence of God is not a direct area of enquiry in the field of science, it is fully related, albeit indirectly, to the subject of science. Scientific studies have only confirmed that there is a supreme factor behind all the events in our world. Science calls it the law of nature. But this is a matter of nomenclature. If it is given religious nomenclature, another name for this supreme law of nature can be ‘God’. If not directly, then indirectly, God is the greatest finding of science.
In this way, we can discover God by studying His creation.
Source: Leading a Spiritual Life
The Quran says that God is the light of the skies and the earth. This means that the world is entirely an expression of divine attributes. A sensitive heart will see reflections of God in everything that exists here. The entire cosmos is a table spread of divine sustenance.
If faith in God gives someone the sensitivity that true faith in God engenders, he will see God's light everywhere in the universe. When the breeze touches him, He will feel that he is experiencing the touch of God in the softness of the breeze. In the flow of a stream he will see the mercy of God expressing itself. When he hears the chirruping of birds, his heart will witness a soul-stirring tune played on a divine musical instrument. When he smells a fragrant flower, it would be like bathing in divine fragrance.
For a true believer, the entire universe is a table spread of divine sustenance. Every single thing in this world has been made in such a way that on seeing it, a person can draw a lesson. Those who truly love God can experience these divine states.
The Flame-of-the-Forest is a tree that bears amazingly beautiful flowers. When autumn comes and its leaves fall, the tree appears like a dry stick. But then a silent revolution happens. It sprouts brilliantly-hued flowers! What was a dry stick is now laden with stunning flowers. It seems as if God has specially sent His beautiful umbrella for something that was thought to be a useless stick.
This happens so that some servant of God may see it and exclaim, “Lord! I, too, am a Flame-of the-Forest tree. If you want, you can cause beautiful flowers to bloom on me! I am a dried stick. If you want, you can make me green! I am leading a meaningless existence. If you want, You can fill my life with meaningfulness! I am standing on the edge of Hell. If you want, you can admit me into Heaven!”
Source: Man and God
Everything in the universe sends out the message of God-realisation in natural terms as if the entire universe is an excellent library of God-realisation. When a thinking person reflects, he discovers incredible miracles of creation, from his existence to the rest of the universe. Then, he spontaneously calls out that, without a doubt, there is a Creator of this universe and that he should acknowledge Him and surrender before Him. The library of the universe is an absolute treasure of the realisation of God. Belief in God is another name for this conscious discovery. This belief, or realisation, is an intellectual revolution of nature that transforms man’s entire personality. With this belief, a new spiritual (Rabbani) personality emerges. The realisation is the beginning of faith. It means trying to recognize God through the observation of His creation. By discovering signs in the creation, we can discover God. Another name for this is conscious discovery of one’s Creator.
Source: Discovering God
The realisation of God means that man discovers God by deeply pondering upon and contemplating His signs rather than by rumination upon His being. (Al-Mufradat fi Gharib al-Quran, al-Raghib al-Isfahani, p. 331) These Signs of God refer to the Signs in the universe or God’s creation. Modern science is another name for discovering these Signs of God in creation. The most significant source of achieving the realisation of God is the contemplation of the creation of God. Science has provided a vast library of unlimited supporting data for contemplating God’s creation for seekers of maarifah. Man can discover the Creator by pondering upon His creation and finding the unseen world in the seen world. For if there is creation, there must be a Creator.
Source: Discovering God
Throughout the Quran there are numerous verses enjoining the reader to observe and reflect on the universe and the phenomena of nature. A verse in chapter 3 says:
There are signs in the creation of the heavens and the earth, and in the alternation of night and day for people of understanding. (Quran 3:191)
This is because the Quran wants people to discover God through study and contemplation. God should be an intellectual discovery for believers.
God wants that people should stand on self-discovered faith and does not want faith to be imposed upon them. He has given intelligence to human beings so that they can evaluate and make a self-discovery of the truth. The spirit of enquiry is essential for this self-discovery.
Source: The Seeker’s Guide
No, science actually supports religious truths, like the existence of God. The modern age was regarded by some as anti-religious. They went to the extent of calling it the Age of Atheism. Certain people asserted, on the strength of scientific findings, that modern research had destroyed the foundations of religion quite definitively, saying: “Science has shown religion to be history’s cruelest and wickedest hoax”. But today, science, which was supposed to have brought religion to an ignominious end, has at last been turned against the atheists. Science itself has brought a revolution in thinking.
The reason certain people said that science has shown religion to be a hoax, as in the pre-Einstein era, people held that the concept of God pertained to the unseen world and that since no direct argument was available to prove it, belief in God was illogical. They considered all the relevant inferential and indirect arguments as scientifically invalid. But now the whole situation has changed. Today, science holds the inferential argument as valid.
With the splitting up of the atom, it has been proved that nothing is really observable, and the existence of anything can be established only by means of the inferential argument, not the direct argument. We have to then say, if the inferential argument is valid with regard to the unseen micro-world, it is also valid with regard to the existence of God and other religious truths. Bertrand Russell admitted the fact that the argument centering on design propounded by theologians seeking to offer evidence for the existence of God is scientifically valid. If we believe in the universe—the creation of the Creator—through the inferential argument, we also have to believe in the Creator, God Almighty. Science itself has razed the walls of atheism to the ground. Today science stands in support of religion.
Prophet Muhammad and his Companions ushered in the monotheistic revolution in the 7th century in the wake of Islam. This monotheistic revolution continued to predominate for one thousand years. Then history witnessed a new age—the age of atheism. It was in the 18th and 19th centuries that it reached its culminating point. During this epoch, it was asserted, on the strength of scientific findings of that time based on the direct argument that only those things exist that can be seen, and as God is invisible, we cannot believe in His existence. The argument often offered to negate the existence of God was His being invisible.
But new scientific investigations, carried out at the beginning of the 20th century, with the splitting of the atom, and the acceptance of the inferential argument as a scientific argument turned the tide against the credibility of this position. It became apparent and accepted that there are many aspects of nature that are invisible yet they exist. One of the books written on this new world discovered by science is Science and the Unseen World by Sir Arthur Eddington. Now the world is witnessing the same momentous revolution in thinking toward monotheism, as took place in the seventh century with the advent of the Prophet of Islam. God himself has razed the walls of atheism to the ground and science stands ready to bear out His word.
A spiritual atheist is spiritual only in the partial sense. Because spirituality needs a basis, and in atheism or the philosophy of atheism there is no basis for spirituality. Spiritual atheism is like a rootless tree. Religion gives us a basis for spirituality. For example, life is full of disadvantages. When an atheist faces these disadvantages, he may fall prey to frustration. However, a believer will not become frustrated, because his belief in God provides him unlimited conviction and trust, which an atheist does not possess.
It is a fact that God is All-Powerful and man is completely helpless. But this reality does not dawn on man till he faces problems and shocks that he cannot manage. When a state of helplessness is awakened in man, he realizes that God is All-Powerful. When this discovery becomes a part of human thinking, penetrating to the innermost recesses of one’s psyche is genuine realisation.
Maarifah or realisation of God is, therefore, a discovery of one’s helplessness in relation to God. When man becomes fully aware of his own helplessness, he comes to acknowledge God’s bounties in the true sense of the word. Having discovered God as one’s Creator, Sustainer, one’s whole being turns toward God. His soul lies prostrate before God. When all these feelings find verbal form, they are called praise and gratefulness to God. God is the greatest being of the universe. Yet, in a universe visible to all, God’s supreme glory remains invisible. Realisation of God is to discover this hidden greatness. This realization finds expression in words such as ‘Praise be to God—Lord of the Worlds.
Source: Love of God
Man’s life has been fashioned in such a way that he continuously lives in a feeling of dependency. This feeling of helplessness persists in every human being. It forces man to clutch onto a support that is more powerful than him; one that can deliver him from his weakness. It is this feeling of helplessness that drives Man in his search for God. Man needs such a God before whom he can pour out his feelings of gratitude; on to whom he can entrust all his affairs; in whose faith he will find succour even at times when there is no one to help him. Man desires a God he can trust, who will grant him success after every disaster, and who can remove all difficulties from his path. Man’s feeling of helplessness can never be overcome unless and until he discovers this God.
The state of helplessness makes you competent to pray. When a person is in a state of helplessness, he calls out to God with prayers that invoke divine help.
Source: Discovering God
The spectacle of the universe leads to the discovery of two important things. First, the existence of an All-Powerful God, who is its Creator as well as its Sustainer. If one can bring to mind this scene of the massive universe, one’s heart will testify that the universe itself is proof of its Creator. And, secondly, the utter helplessness of man. God is an indispensable need of man. Without God, man’s very existence is impossible. When one discovers this reality, one would race toward God and call out wholeheartedly, “God! Please help me! Without You, nothing is possible for me.” In this vast universe, it is God who is man’s support. He alone can help us cross this river of life and lead us to the other shore safely. Belief in God is everything for man. Without this belief, man is nothing at all. For each one of us, our nature is continuously calling out to us, telling us that we need God, that without God, our life cannot be complete, and that without God’s help, we can never be truly successful.
Source: Love of God
The greatness of a machine is a demonstration of the great engineering mind that prepared that machine. So is the case with the Universe. The Universe is so great that even the most advanced telescopes cannot fathom its expanse. This mind-boggling greatness of the Universe is undeniable evidence that there is a Great Creator who created it and is sustaining it in the most perfect manner! Such scientific discoveries impart two lessons. On the one hand, they strengthen the conviction that this Universe has an all-powerful Creator. On the other hand, they highlight that this all-powerful Creator is so Merciful that within this custom-made universe, He created planet Earth perfectly designed for mankind. This realisation inculcates modesty in man, which is a destroyer of all kinds of evil within man.
Source: Discovering God
Once a man has put his trust in God, he finds that all his problems can be appropriately solved and that, in order to do what is right, he no longer feels any hesitation in embarking on courses which had previously struck him as too difficult, unpleasant, or even dangerous. He is then armed with the knowledge that engaging in right action gives one strength, and that adopting the wrong course can only bring about one’s downfall. Right action will take him closer to God and wrong action further away from Him. One who deliberately turns away from his Saviour will find himself in the hands of the devil, whereas one who turns to God will be given shelter and support, and guidance as to the correct response to give in any situation calling for principled behaviour. Those who turn to Satan seldom realize that they are launching themselves on the downward path to self-destruction. Man has only to turn to Him to receive divine succour.
Source: The Spirit of Islam
The Quran states: “Put your trust in God.” (33:48) One who discovers God as the All-Powerful Being and discovers his own helplessness, places his complete trust in God. Those who put absolute trust in God do not fear anything or anyone. The faith that God, a Live and All-Powerful Being, is always there to help one, makes one bold in the face of every other power. A person’s greatest strength, when faced with an enemy, is fearlessness. Have no fear of any foe, and he himself will start fearing you. Trust in God means, in effect, trust in the laws of nature. Following the laws of nature designed by the Creator is the only practicable course to adopt in this world.
Source: Discovering God
When one believes in one God, one puts his complete trust in Him. One believes that nothing can happen unless God wills it. Life and death are entirely in His hands. They remain content because they believe that power, wealth, and success come from God alone. He gives them to whom He wants and takes them away from whom he wants. Trust in the oneness of God brings about a unique blend of submission to God with human dignity and freedom.
Source: The Spirit of Islam
A believer should have absolute trust in God; his Guardian and Protector. Only then can one do everything for God’s sake. Only then can one submit to God in the true sense. A believer is like a small infant who owes everything to his parents and his life revolves around them. A believer’s life should reflect and revolve around God. He should fear and love God alone.
Source: Simple Wisdom
