God: From Seeking God to Faith in God

Faith

The best way to define faith is: the confirmation of an active conscience. Some scholars have regarded faith as merely confirmation – so do some hadith – where it means expressing the distinct, understandable base of the public. Thus, we can conclude that the main idea here is the confirmation of an active conscience, for conformation alone cannot make any effect in the mind; there is great difference between confirming something and making effect based upon it .  Most conscious, aware people admit the necessity of justice for individual and social human life, but few men have actually executed justice. Man will definitely be just if he considers justice as part of his own life.

The Necessity of Faith

It is sometimes asked whether man can live without faith or not. In response, we must first see what life means here. If it means endeavor toward satisfying natural, animal-like desires, faith is not only unnecessary, rather even disturbing. Those who claim that man has no need for faith are in fact referring to animal life.

But if life means paying attention to all human potentials and talents, man cannot definitely do without faith.

If man has faith, all his thoughts and deeds will be in accordance with the law. Such a man will do things out of eagerness and enthusiasm, not reluctance that will later make him feel guilty. 

There are three points of misunderstanding about faith nowadays:

1-Evil persons pretending to have faith. Machiavellians have no stronger tool for misleading others than pretending to have faith.

2-Mental errors concerning faith. Some people think that any kind of faith arises out of pure worship. In other words, the believer considers his every action or thought to be based upon worship.

3-Verbal manipulation. Instead of having faith in God and His prophets and considering the ultimate goal of the universe and obeying God's orders, some people confine faith to a series of concepts.

Nowadays, concepts like humanism or advocating science or freedom have become playthings in the hands of the selfish, who have deprived man of a series of realities, because they themselves have no faith in these concepts at all.

We must remember, however, that the three above-mentioned orientations cannot defy the necessity of faith for a human being who tends to live an interpretable life in this world.

The consequences of having faith are:

●Faith makes people be trusted by their fellow beings.

●Faith corrects man's thoughts.

●It makes man interpret and account for his life.

●It makes man morally dependant. 

●Faith has man abandon personal desires and turn to serving people socially.

●It provides man with internal, constant liveliness.

●Man finds innate dignity and elegance through faith.

●Faith makes man himself carry the heavy load of his life instead of imposing it upon others.

●ith faith, man is freed of mental anxieties and worries.

●aith helps man accomplish great achievements.

●t makes man feel greatness in the universe, and observe moral principles. 

If man's faith in God makes him constantly pay attention to God, he will always admit that God is watching him, and if man accepts God's continual supervision of what he does, the results will be:

1-Man will spend every moment of his life seeing God before him.

2-Man will act upon devotion and commitment, for he has realized without doubt that only God – and nothing else – can deserve to be man's goal in his deeds.

3-Man will make savings for his eternity in this world.

4-Man will avoid forbidden actions – even if they are not sins, like unsuitable actions or deeds based upon imagination or hallucinations.

5-Man will not waste his life.

6-It is only through recognizing God's constant supervision that man can harness his lusts and desires.

7-Such a man will realize that every action of his in this world leads to reactions.

اين جهان کوه است و فعل ما نداســوی ما آيـــد نداها را صــدا

(This world is like a mountain, and our actions are shouts; their reactions come back to us.) 

Jalal-addin Mohammad Molawi (Rumi)

8-Man will give up his far-reaching wishes, and will not allow baseless illusions replace facts and realities.

9-God's supervision makes man be patient and tolerant toward events.

10-Man will regard piety as the tool to pass the bridge of death.

11-Man tries to keep moving on the right path amidst all the dangerous cliffs and deviating ways full of thorns during his life.

12-Man considers every moment and aspect of his life as precious and valuable, and will not let apparently-fatalistic events disturb his life.

Such a man will adjust his life in a way that it seems he is on the verge of death: