Two Levels of Belief in God

The next point I wish to make is that, on the one hand, the Being of God is sublime, and cannot be seen by man’s physical eyes due to His being infinite and extremely subtle; on the other, our faith cannot be perfected or cannot be of any use unless we attain belief in God—at least as much as the faith we have in the material things of this world. Therefore, God has decreed in His wisdom that man should make progress towards Him to a certain level and then God will Himself descend towards man and raise man towards Himself. In other words, God has divided belief in two parts: one which man can achieve with the help of his own intellect, and one which is beyond the reach of reason alone, and attaining this part of faith requires Heavenly support to assist dry logic. God states in the Holy Quran:

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This means that human eyes are unable to see God or perceive His true Being. Therefore, God has made this arrangement, whereby He Himself reaches out to man; that is to say, He has Himself put in place a system that helps man appreciate and comprehend the knowledge of His existence. For, God is beyond the reach of man’s physical eyes yet He is Khabir [All-Aware] and knows that it is not possible for man to have a spiritual life without recognising Him. Therefore, God provides means from Himself that enable man to recognise Him, despite God being Latif [Subtle] and Unseen.

So [Eyes cannot reach Him] has been paired with the Divine attribute of Latif [Subtle, Incomprehensible] to show that logic alone cannot take one to God, as He is Latif; while [He reaches the eyes] has been paired with His attribute of Khabir [All-Aware]; i.e. He makes it possible for Himself to be recognised because He is Khabir. The two former attributes, [Eyes cannot reach Him, but He reaches the eyes], are logical outcomes of His latter two attributes al-Latif [the Subtle, Incomprehensible] and al-Khabir [the All-Aware].

Now, on the one hand we have in the Holy Quran the teaching stated above; and on the other, we see the Holy Quran directs people, time and again, to reflect upon this universe, the heavens, the earth, and other creation, and ponder whether this entire universe with its amazingly wise system could come into existence by mere chance. Certainly not! Rather all of this organisation cries out that there ought certainly to be someone who brought this entire system into being. Thus the Holy Quran repeatedly draws the attention of man to contemplate the issue of God’s existence and to discover the Creator through the study of His creation. This line of argument suggests that reason is enough and needs no heavenly assistance, whereas the verse referred to above tells us that the perception of God is beyond human capacity and, therefore, God Himself makes such arrangements, with the help of which man can acquire knowledge and understanding of God. The two statements seem to contradict each other, but on reflection there is no contradiction and both statements are correct in their own right. It is true that man can find his way to God with the help of reason, and it is also true that reason alone cannot grant knowledge and cognizance of God, but requires heavenly signs and corroboratory evidence in order to achieve these. The solution to this enigma is as follows: As stated above, belief in God is divided into two levels. The elementary level is one that is attainable with logic only. The second level (and that in fact is the stage called iman billah [belief in God] in religious terminology) is one that is unattainable with reason alone and God Himself grants special Divine help to reach it. The first degree of belief, which is attainable by logic and reasoning, can lead us only to the conclusion that there ought to be a Creator and Master of this universe, as this earth and the heavens could not have come into existence by mere chance, and so on. The second degree of belief leads one to the conclusion that there indeed is a Creator and Master of this universe, with multiple attributes, who can be found by adopting certain means. That is to say, the first stage is that of ‘ought to be’ and second that of ‘is’.

Now think hard, mere reason and logic can never lead us to the stage of ‘is’; reason and logic can only instil an understanding within ourselves that there ought to be a God. That is to say, logic on its own cannot grant us faith in God, but indeed logic can prepare us to accept faith; logic, as it stands, cannot show us God but can point us from afar in His direction; it cannot unite us with our God but can open the door for such a meeting; logic on its own cannot grant us the satisfaction concerning the existence of God, but can grant us the eagerness that is required to attain this satisfaction. Thus, logic and reasoning can grant us certainty that there should be a God, but cannot create certainty in our hearts concerning God. This is beyond the capacity of logic and reasoning. This is explained in the Divine philosophy of [the eyes cannot reach Him]. Therefore, logic and reasoning require special Divine support in order to progress from ‘should be’ to ‘is’. In other words, the limited vision of reason stops at the ‘ought to be’ stage and cannot proceed further until granted special insight by God. When such insight is granted, this unveils the reality about the existence of God. Those who were unable to recognise God before are enabled to behold the brilliant countenance of the Creator. As man attains greater and greater nearness to God, his comprehension of God becomes sharper and this knowledge and cognizance go on improving. There is no limit to this nearness or end to this knowledge and cognizance, for God is an Infinite Being and the cognizance of an Infinite Being cannot be finite or limited. That is why—along with every common man—Hazrat Khatamur-Rusul [the Seal of the Messengers], peace and blessings of Allah be on him, who was Sarwar-e-Ka’inat [the Leader of Mankind], offered the prayer:

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Meaning that, ‘O my Lord, increase me in knowledge’. And yet he is the one whom God directed to say:

Meaning that, I am the chief of all men but I take no pride in it. And about whom God said the following:

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Meaning that, this servant of Ours came close to Us, and became so near that he lost himself in Us. [O Allah, bless and prosper and shower Thy peace on Muhammad].

It is sad that most people believe that they have achieved all that there is to be achieved by attaining the elementary stage of belief. Even sadder is the fact that most people think that they have found God if their search for God leads them only to the stage of ‘ought to be’. There is no doubt that ‘ought to be’ is a stepping stone towards the stage of ‘is’ and, in the spiritual world, the preliminary awareness of God begins at this point. But if man stops at this stage, believing it to be the end-all and the purpose, this can prove to be extremely dangerous and disastrous for him. Many a time, stopping the search for God at this point can push a man forever into the darkness of atheism, and he dies in this state of ignorance. Because when he sees that despite all his efforts he failed to find God, and at most reached the notion that there ‘ought to be’ a God, dismayed, he considers his reason’s counsel as a deception, and ends up denying the existence of God. His condition is similar to that of a man who finds the door to a room bolted from the inside and waits outside, believing that there ought to be someone inside the room since the door can be bolted only from the inside. If such a person receives no response to his knocking, calling, and shouting for a long time, this will create doubts and suspicions in his heart—perhaps the door became locked due to some unknown cause, or maybe the one who bolted it died inside, and so on—ultimately, he would totally despair, and return believing that no one was inside.

So, concerning God, if the ‘ought to be’ stage of belief does not lead to the ‘is’ stage of belief, then the end result is nothing but despair and atheism; for, those granted with the ability to ponder will find it impossible to stop at that stage—they will either proceed further or after a while turn back in despair. However, it is a pity that there are many people in the world (nay, they are in the majority) whose eyes are covered with such veils of heedlessness that upon reaching the ‘ought to be’ stage they become content and believe they have recognised God and have achieved what they had set out to achieve. That is to say, out of their naivety, lack of awareness, and ignorance, they think it suffices to know that their ought to be a Creator of this universe; they do not determinedly explore that if there ought to be a Creator, then does He really exist or not, and if there is one, who is He, where is He, what are His attributes, how can we establish a bond with Him, and how can we know if He has any connection with us? Such people neither worry about making progress in their knowledge of God, nor turn back because of their false sense of security, till death overtakes them. They die in a state believing that they have reached their destination whereas they are still treading the path to God. Most of the people who claim to believe in God these days fall in this category. Alas! Unfortunate man! You traversed some distance in the weak and dim light of reason; but when the time came for you to bask in the rays of the Divine spiritual sun and— having initially recognised your Lord and Master from afar—to then (rather than stumbling) run towards Him eagerly till you become so near Him that His Holy attributes, like a mother’s lap, envelop you, you stepped aside and sat along the track in the dim light of reason, and spent your life there, thinking that you have found God. I cannot understand how your heart—endowed with such thirst for certainty by the Creator of nature, which cannot be satiated without true conviction, and wherein a fire of love and affection has been kindled that cannot be extinguished without the water of Divine love—find satisfaction without achieving its purpose? If you are not deceiving others, you are certainly deceived yourself. Remember that in some cases being deceived can bring you into the fold of criminals. Therefore, fear God and do not become the cause of your own destruction and the misguidance of others by sitting on the wayside.