Shaksiyyah
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Godliness
Fear is an expression of
self-preservation Worship
Godliness
Godliness is a natural deep-rooted instinct and a feeling of the need of Directing Creator regardless how this Directing Creator is defined. This feeling came into existence ever since man did, be he is a believer in God or an atheist, a believer in matter or in nature. This-feeling is inalienable, since it has existed with man from birth. It is coherent with his formation and can neither be shaken off or separated. Its expression is the sanctification of what man believes to be the Directing Creator, or what he imagines is established by the Directing Creator. Sanctification may have its whole aspect, it is then worship, or it may be a reduced picture; in which case, it is glorification and exaltation.
Sanctification is the zenith of sincere respect. It is innate and is manifested in several forms; the highest being worship in its different aspects. It is not a result of fear but of godliness. It cannot be an expression of fear since fear is an expression of flatter or defense or escape. Such an expression contradicts real sanctification and godliness. It is then an independent instinct completely different from that of self-preservation. This is why we find that man is godly. Ever since God created him on his earth, he had been worshipping the sun, the stars, the fire, the idols, and then God. All nations and at all ages have worshipped some god. Even people whose rulers compelled them to abandon godliness refused to do so, in spite of the force imposed upon them, and accepted all sorts of persecution. No power on earth has been able to divert man from being religious or to stop him from scarifying and worshipping the Creator although it succeeded for a certain time to repress his feelings. This is because, as stated previously, godliness is a natural expression. Whatever infidelity and mockery of worship is expressed by some apostates, this does not mean absolute ungodliness but the abandonment of the worship of God to creatures, and the sanctification of nature or heroes and the like, using wrong and misleading explanations. Hence apostasy is more difficult than faith because it is the diversion of man’s instinct and real tendencies. This needs great efforts because it is excessively difficult for man to abandon the properties of his nature and instincts. This is why when renegades discover the truth, feel the existence of God, and mentally perceive the conclusive evidence of God’s existence they hasten to rejoin faith. Only then they do feel at ease after having removed the dreadful nightmare off their chests.
The faith of those converted and their likes will be strong since it springs from a feeling leading to convinced and a firm comprehension of God’s existence.
Fear Is An Expression Of Self-Preservation
Fear is a serious problem from which weak and under-developed nations suffer.
Should fear haunt a person, paralysing his memory, and his faculty of distinction, then, life would be his noblest qualities disappear and he would b somehow mentally deranged to the extent that he will unable to judge things.
The most dangerous kind is the fear from delusions and ghosts as if when seeing a tree, man imagines it to a ferocious beast, or, if he sees a column, he takes it to be a ghost of which he should run away. Such kind of fear is restricted to those whose brains are weak either because of incomplete development of the brain, thus remaining like the brain in children, or because of not having adequate information for linking it with the facts. This is remedied by thorough discussion and explanation in order to enable them to comprehend the true nature of things or by conveying to them ideas related to objects they fear, provided that such ideas produce them a sensory effect. Through this treatment they either get cured by eradicating the fear altogether or gradually reducing it until complete recovery.
A common sort of fear is that resulting from the failure to balance between, the results of carrying on an action or of abstaining from doing it. Both as of this fear are harmful. The error in balancing leads to fear of simple matters and of causing tremendous danger as the fear that the despot ruler will harm individuals and consequently the nation and such; as the of death by a soldier in the battlefield, which leads to the destruction of the whole army with the soldier being one of that army; the fear of prison, because of an ideology, advocated by a person, which leads to the loss of the ideology -a result more painful than prison.
Such a fear is most dangerous to a nation and might lead to destruction if not to annihilation.
However, at times, fear is useful. Fear of real danger is often fruitful and necessary. To take it lightly is harmful and unacceptable, whether those dangers concern the individual himself or his nation. In such fear is a protector.
Hence it imperative to explain the dangers concerning the nation for the purpose of reckoning with them and for enabling the nation to defend itself and overcome these dangers. The fear of God and of His punishment is fruitful and necessary and is the loyal guardian.
Thus, this kind of fear is the best for the soul. It is useful and advantageous. It should exist and should be formed, for it is the loyal guardian, and assures the taking by man of the straight path.
In consequence, fear is part of the human instinct. It is its concepts that either stimulate or expel it. As we have seen before, it is most dangerous at times and most beneficial at others. To avoid its dangers and then benefit by its fruits, man should submit to the real conceptions, namely those of Islam, not only in connection with these cases, but in connection with all the aspects of instincts.
Worship
Worship may not be left to the whims of intuition, nor may it be offered according to man’s imagination. The mind should participate with intuition in order to determine who should be worshipped. For intuition is liable to err, and more often than not, it leads man to worship things he has to destroy, or to sanctify despicable things.
Intuition alone leads to worshipping other than the Creator, or to superstitions which alienate from rather than lead closer to the Creator. For intuiton or conscience is an instinctive feeling, or a feeling that takes shape in front of a sensory fact and responds to it. It might be a thinking that raises such feeling.
Should man’s spontaneous reaction to this feeling be devoid of thinking, error and erring probably would result. You may see at night for example, something which you imagine to be an enemy. The instinct of self-preservation expresses itself in the form of fear. And, if you respond to this feeling and react by screaming or running away you will be wrong and ridiculed by the others. But when you use your mind and reason out of this feeling before reacting, you will know what is to be done.
The ghost be a lamp-post, a tree, or an animal. Then your fear vanishes and you either keep on your way home or climb a tree for refuge. Thus man should not lose his nerves through sheer impulse of intuition. Rather, he should use his brain... Worshipping therefore, should be offered in accordance with the guidance of the brain, so that it may be submitted to whom nature guides to be worshipped the Directing Creator.
Further Reading: 1- Proof of the existence of God. 2- Proof of the Quran. 3- Islamic Aqeedah
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