This question was asked by a companion in Hunza, the valley I am residing in these days.
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Question: I seek your opinion on a matter. It can be said that there are two kinds of people in the world. The people who follow a religion, and people who don't follow a religion. Who do you think is right?
Response:
There are two things that matter, and they have nothing to do with religion per se, although a religion may be a reminder of those truths. The first thing is this intense inner feeling that there is something good, something right going on in this world. That there is something that is making flowers bloom and babies grow; something that is taking you from here to there on this road we are sitting by. You can feel and sense that thing. You know it--you don't have to be a certain kind of plant or animal or human to know it or to claim it. You know it. When you really love it, you know it, you believe in it, it even lends a spring to your walk--it is that real, and that tangible. When you don't believe in it, when you are angered at it, your actually body will feel hate and you may even slump.
The feeling of and a sense of that Thing is not claimed by any one person or a religion. Anyone can feel that. This is the first of the two matters I am speaking of--you can call this Man's relationship with God, or Whatever you choose to call that Thing that is giving a spring to your body, that is holding you up, that assures you your life, your existence, your security, your sustenance. It was here before you, you did not make it nor can you kill it out of existence, and it will outlast you.
The other matter is the matter of ethics (in dealing with the Other). "Do unto others as you would have them do to you." "We are all related in a fundamental manner." This is the basis of sound, fair, and correct (human-existence) interaction.
There are people who affirm this (in thought and action), and people who don't. The truth is, that people who affirm to both these matters may outwardly be subscribing to a religion, or they may not. In fact there are those who lay claim to a religion, but are some of the worst offenders on both these counts. And there are those who will call themselves atheists or nothing-in-particular, but they are in reality familiar with and practicing these matters. They are the true believers. It may be that some of them are surrounded by those (religious or not) of a vile understanding, and therefore they wash themselves off any kinship with the latter. They then say, "I do not believe in the god that you believe in!", because the latter are believing in their own illusion, their own selfishness or cowardice, their own hideousness.
We are Muslims, and in our scriptures is the story of Abraham. He was an 'atheist' from the point of view of his people, for he refused to subscribed to their gods.... which were, by the way, based on previous prophets and messengers such as Noah by some accounts.
In outward form, Abraham was an atheist, a denier, an outlaw. Inwardly, he was the truest believer of the lo--he witnessed for himself!
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And therefore a man today may call himself a believer and religious, but may in fact be a concealer and represser of truth, a liar. And a man may have no attachment to any outward religion, but may embody the real truth of the matter.
-end-
rn
Thursday, December 05, 2013
Karimabad, Hunza
