Belief in God vs Believing God

God's Teachings

In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful:

“O you that believe! Fear Allah and believe in His Messenger,

And He will bestow on you a double portion of His Mercy;

He will provide for you a Light by which ye shall walk

(Straight in your path), and He will forgive you (your past);

For Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.”

(Quran 57: 28)

There is a dichotomy in the minds of many believing souls, of which they may not be aware. It is the misunderstanding that “believing in God” is the same as “believing” God. This may come as a shock to many believers, but these two concepts refer to vastly different stages of faith.

Believing in God is the first step, the awakening in the soul that leads you towards a God-conscious life. It is an introductory phase in your search for truth and real knowledge. This comes about as a realization that there has to be more to life on earth than just careless play and amusement. There is an insatiable hunger within for tangible knowledge of your reality of being, your purpose of life, your humanity. It is the point when you realize that the “knowledge” that has been foisted upon you, so far, is nothing but a lot of speculative junk, devoid of true substance; disconnected from the universal scheme of things. This “knowledge” leaves you ignorant of your reality; who you are and what is your purpose of life. It leaves you earthbound, trapped in the harsh struggle for material subsistence with no concept of a higher purpose or exit strategy. It holds out no promise of a “future”; you live; you die; finito! You become another lump of dirt.

 Your whole existence, according to this “knowledge”, is merely a product of chance. Somehow you simply arrived in this time, on this planet, for no other reason than to claw and struggle to the top of the food chain. And after you arrive, then what? Indulge in distractions for your own amusement and self-gratification until your body can no longer sustain itself and dies; another useless, ungrateful airsucker who lived and died without ever knowing why it existed in the first place. During your lifetime, you may even dabble in “religion”, but on your terms. If the “religious dogma” does not conform to your desires, or attempts to censor your activities, then you openly ignore it. You may even profess “belief in God” but, by your actions, demonstrate that you do not “believe God”. You reinterpret or ignore every command you dislike that emanates from your scriptures and act immorally to achieve your goals, despite the tenets of your scriptures. You justify your actions with the observation that “everyone else does it.” You live your life according to the trend of the majority of society and try to fit in, despite the still small voice within you crying out for answers to reality.

Believing God is the phase where you live according to the tenets of your scriptures. It is the stage in life where you have come to the realization that revelation is not for comparison with your opinions but for direction of your life and actions. The scripture becomes your educational source. You are no longer in competition with your Creator. You are now in submission to Him and allow yourself to be taught by Him. You are willing to discard the speculative, error-prone, earth-bound education you had been previously given and the haphazard actions stemming from it. You no longer mentally subject God to your will; you subject yourself to His Will and hold yourself accountable to Him for your actions and intentions in life. You embrace the purpose and guidance He gave you through His message and His prophets. You reject what He condemns and you practice what He recommends. You remake yourself gradually into the creature that He tells you, through His message, that you were created to be. You believe in the promises He makes to you in His message. You become a “fan”, a believer in the message of your Creator, and dedicate your life to pleasing Him. This does not imply that you recluse yourself from other human beings. On the contrary, it inspires you to reach out to other humans and encourage them to adopt the message of the Creator. 

 

Believing God is a gradual process. It does not happen immediately that you start “believing in God”. It is an educational process that culminates in an unshakeable Faith in the veracity of the teachings of the prophets of God. Like any other educational process, you have to develop faith that the information you are receiving comes from a credible source and is reliably accurate. It requires you to study and ponder over the information you receive and apply its recommendations in your daily life. It also requires you to develop the recommended mindset to fully absorb the implications of the teachings you receive. A closed mind is no friend to an open book; you have to be willing to discard previously-accepted views and inclinations that are inconsistent with the new knowledge. Faith, like most human characteristics, is developed step-by-step. As you replace erroneous knowledge with scriptural knowledge, it becomes increasingly harder for you to indulge in old, harmful behaviors and your life and character changes. You will begin to evaluate your old indulgences by new scriptural values and, over time, shed the incompatible ones. Scriptural knowledge clearly defines the features and characteristics that a human being needs to develop to claim its humanity and the rewards of cultivating them in this life and the upcoming future that God promises us. 

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The Destructive Nature Of Atheism

 In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful:
"Those before them (also) rejected Revelation, 
And so the punishment came to them from directions
They did not perceive."
(Quran: 39 : 25)

Ignorant societies reject revelation but create and nourish a dearth of conflicting philosophies in the name of tolerance. Most of these philosophies are not only useless, but deliberately destructive in their objectives. Take, for instance, the philosophy of "Atheism": the claim that there is no God. While pandering to the ego of its practitioners, it unleashes on the rest of society the most unsavory characteristics of Human degradation and negates the basis of Life itself; worship of the Creator of the Universes and all lifeforms and gratitude to Him for His Beneficence. It instills in its supporters the crudest form of ingratitude and irresponsibility to God and Man and allows them to unconscionably violate every social edict for their own benefit.

"Atheists" have no basis on which to build their lives. Without the acceptance of the idea of a Creator of the environment, they constantly misunderstand the concept and purpose of life and humanity's relationship to the rest of Creation. Without a concept of responsibility and gratitude towards an Omnipotent Master of the Creation or respect for His Revelations, they degrade the very environment and resources which humanity needs to survive. Without a deep-rooted understanding of the inter-connection and interdependence of all life in the Universe, they create blindly destructive and deeply conflicted social systems. Using arbitrary values such as race, skin color,material wealth, etc., they discriminate against and classify other humans into haphazard classes. With blind bravado, they unceasingly challenge the very forces that make life possible here on planet Earth, thereby creating a life of conflict in an otherwise welcoming environment.

Put in proper perspective against the backdrop of the Universal environment, the very concept of "atheism" is ridiculous beyond belief. Notwithstanding the obvious miracle of human existence in the first place, only a fool (no matter how "educated") would ignore the intelligent planning that matches humans with Earth's nurturing environment. Our very existence here on Earth, given the myriad of inhospitable universes that we now know surround us, is way beyond the computations of mere Chance, despite what die-hard atheists would have us believe. Today's atheists may be unaware that they base their philosophy and entire lifestyle on a speculative treatise by Charles Darwin, an English geologist from the 1800s. He only lived 73 years in the Universe, but had the audacity to propose theories of the origin of all life-forms on Earth. His theories were adopted by the so-called "scientific" elite of his time and became the bedrock of atheistic philosophy. Given the speculative nature of "higher education" and the irrational teachings of the Christian Church in his time, it is not difficult to understand the atheistic embrace of his theories in Europe.

The modern atheistic movement was itself a knee-jerk reaction to the violent, irrational dogma and stranglehold of the Christian Church in Europe. As is so common in ignorant societies, it began as a "fashionable" concept among the "elite educated" and, over time, trickled down to the "uneducated" masses as a "scientific" philosophy. Atheism became a badge of honor for "educated" Europeans because it was based on "scientific" research as opposed to "religious" dogma of the Church. Nobody paid any attention to the glaring inconsistencies in the new philosophy nor the untenable assumptions made by it. As long as it opposed accepted Church dogma with "scientific" terminology, proof was inconsequential. Atheism thrives on "obfuscation"; diverting attention from proven fact. It's signal triumph was convincing society to accept inconceivable aspects of time, such as assigning events to billions and millions of years before they could happen. This allowed the advancement and acceptance of irrational postulations, surpassing those of the Church! These speculative assumptions slowly crept into Western education and increasingly became established as "scientific" facts, leading to the befuddled mess we accept as education today.


Bolstered by its success with the masses, atheistic thinkers continuously seek definitive methods for crushing the stranglehold of the Church over Western society. Atheism was promoted as a triumphant signal of freedom from the domination of irrational Church Dogma. The battle is no longer surreptitious, but openly engaged. In America, atheism gained a significant legal foothold in the educational system in 1968 and has been furiously gaining ground ever since. No public school in America is beyond its influence. Americans are largely unaware of how deeply this philosophy has pervaded the social and educational fabric of the society. As recently as 2005, the theory of evolution, the flagship of atheism, won another legal victory over the Christian educational concept of Intelligent Design, a Bible-derived construct, placing atheistic philosophy on equal footing with all of America's Christian philosophies.

Atheism is a force created by the deviations of the Church and it is fed by its lust to destroy its creators. As long as its Christian detractors confront it with their adulterated reinterpretations of the Bible and continue to lie about revelation, they will lose the entire war. Atheistic philosophy has so deeply infiltrated America's educational system that children are being stripped of their relationship ties with their own family members. Kids killing their parents is now commonplace. Kids are being effectively deprived of any sense of purpose or future, resulting in increased suicides and killings among children. Without a relationship with God, humanity has no reason to exist; no purpose for seeking excellence. America's continuing social decline is proof of the destructive effect of atheistic philosophy and its derivatives. With its Christian philosophy proving useless, Islam is its only hope because atheism cannot obfuscate the clear message of the Quran:
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful:
"Allah! There is no god but He - the Living, Self-subsisting, Eternal.
It is He who sent down to thee (step by step) in Truth, the Book,
Confirming what went before it;
And He sent down the Law (of Moses) and the Gospel (of Jesus)
Before this, as a guide to mankind.
And He sent down the Criterion (of judgement between right and wrong).
Then those who reject Faith in the Signs of Allah will suffer the Severest Penalty;
And Allah is Exalted in Might, Lord of Retribution."
(Quran: 3: 2-4)

The Contradictions of Life

No Resolution Without Allah

Human life is full of obvious contradictions. History has proven that the only sureties in human life are decay and death. Immediately following our birth, we all begin a slow process of decay that culminates in our demise. Despite this obvious pattern of life, we turn a blind eye to the process and engage in building material cocoons in attempts to prolong our physical lives and defeat death. Our medical establishments dedicate themselves to seeking ways and means of cheating death and preserving our physical bodies. Our technological industries create gadget after gadget in search of the “next big thing” to resolve our problems. “Science” has been “close” to finding answers to our social problems for centuries.  Yet invisible forces relentlessly continue to ravage our bodies from the inside out in incomprehensible ways, destroying every vestige of power we think we possess. Even our acknowledged “wisest” philosophers succumb to these forces and have no defense against their relentless assault. 

Throughout the history of human existence on Earth, we have recorded the rise and fall of human civilizations. All of them battled and failed to overcome the mysterious forces that relentlessly lead us into reluctant decomposition over the length of our existence. Wealthy nations fared as dismally as poor nations. Yet, despite all these records, human beings, as a species, continue to instinctively crave material possessions and this earthly life with all its contradictory promises. Impressive “intellectuals” and “philosophers” have spouted “their” resolutions to humanity’s problems for centuries to no avail. Esoteric philosophies have fared no better than “radical” ones in attempts to create “Paradise” on Earth. Yet human society continues to promote and grasp at shallow, ignorant, intellectual trends, each making unattainable promises. We stubbornly and contemptuously reject the obvious solution to our dilemma because it is too simple and “unscientific” for our taste. It clashes with our inflated opinions of human “independence” and “autonomy”.

The futile “war “on aging is noteworthy comment on the folly of human society. Humanity has chosen to accept illusion over reality. Millions of dollars are thrown away daily in pursuit of the fountain of youth to halt the march of time by people who know the effort is futile.  Man’s inhumanity to Man is a continuing testament to ignorance. Wars of domination and aggression are becoming increasingly more destructive to our living environment as individuals try to impose their dominance over others for greater personal material gain. Corporations have now replaced governments in the quest for dominance, overtly destroying the remaining semblance of human consideration for financial gains. Our very global environment is now in blatant jeopardy of destruction by those who seek to fashion it into their earthly paradise.

Allah, out of His boundless Mercy, has voluntarily shown us the way to live in this earth environment. He has told us through His Revelations and prophets, if we want to listen, the realities of this stage of Life. Man’s prolonged search for a workable philosophy to produce peace and happiness on this earth is futile unless it embraces wholeheartedly the instructions of Allah. Man, with all his ignorance and arrogance, cannot devise such a philosophy without the input of the Creator. We do not have adequate information to independently create this philosophy. We cannot control the invisible forces that exist and influence the universal environment.  To benefit from and in this stage of life, we must accept the Creator’s educational information.  Human society has continuously rejected Revelation and the prophets of Allah out of pure arrogance and human history is littered with the unsavory results. It is time for us to quit the fallacy of thinking we don’t need Allah’s guidance in our lives and societies. As a noted individual once cautioned: "those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Isn’t it about time that thinking men and women everywhere abandon the conjecture of Man and return to the guidance of Allah?

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Black Muslim Vs Muslim

I very recently discussed the topic of Black Muslims and Muslim Blacks with some Christian brothers. They wanted to know if the Nation of Islam was the same as regular Muslims. When I told them that Black Muslims (as members of NOI call themselves) are not Muslims, they were thoroughly confused.  This article is designed to remove that confusion from the minds of those who sincerely want to know the difference between Black Muslims (NOI) and Muslims.

1.       The Nation of Islam (Black Muslims) is purely a racially-biased, American organization, created in America about 1934 by Elijah Muhammad (originally named Elijah Poole of Detroit, Michigan).

2.       His “… mission was to restore and to resurrect His lost and found people, who were identified as the original members of the Tribe of Shabazz from the Lost Nation of Asia. [The lost people of the original nation of African descent…]”. (1)

3.       Black Muslims believe that “The Honorable Elijah Muhammad identified the Master as being the answer to the one that the world had been expecting for the past 2,000 years under the names Messiah, the second coming of Jesus, the Christ, Jehovah, God, and the Son of Man. When the Honorable Elijah Muhammad asked Him to identify Himself He replied that He was the Mahdi. He signed His name in 1933 as Master Wallace Fard Muhammad [emphasis mine] to express the meaning of One Who had come in the Early Morning Dawn of the New Millennium to lay the base for a New World Order of Peace and Righteousness on the foundation of Truth and Justice; to put down tyrants and to change the world into a Heaven on Earth.” (1)

4.       Their core belief “12. WE BELIEVE that Allah (God) appeared in the Person of Master W. Fard Muhammad, July, 1930; the long-awaited “Messiah” of the Christians and the “Mahdi” of the Muslims.” (2)

Islam, to the contrary, is the name of the universal lifestyle practiced by billions of people worldwide for more than 1500 years. It was propagated and established by Prophet Muhammad Mustafa (peace be upon him) of Arabia, who brought the Quran to humanity. Practitioners of Islam are called “Muslims”, not “Islamists” as is the current American coinage. To be accepted as a Muslim, there are several core principles that one must understand and uphold.

1.       You must truly believe that there is no other God (Creator, being worthy of worship) than Allah and Muhammad Mustafa is His final prophet and messenger.

2.       You must not worship other beings or associate any other "gods" with Him (especially impersonations of Allah).

3.       You must accept the Quran’s instructions as the Laws of Allah and the Hadith (teachings of the prophet) as the indisputable explanations thereof. These two sources are the foundation of the Islamic life; anything else is a corruption.

4.       You must practice the obligatory duties as ordered by Quran and Prophet Muhammad (pbuh).

5.       You must accept Islam without reservation and discard conflicting pre-Islamic beliefs and practices.

The Nation of Islam, as an organization, has done a lot of uplifting work in the Black communities of America. That, however, does not make them Muslims in the true sense of the term.  In the light of Islam, they are comparable to every other socially responsible organization in the nation which is striving to clean up communities and help people. Their call, as they define it, is not to Islam. They neither preach Islam nor practice it; therefore, they cannot truthfully call themselves “Muslim”, nor can they truthfully call their lifestyle “Islam”. Using the term “Allah” does not change their philosophy because their definition of it is totally contrary to the Quran’s.  This is a commonly-used Arabic term familiar to both Arab Muslims and Christians and does not legitimize the philosophy of the Nation of Islam. It can, however, confuse people who are unwilling to enquire about Islam outside of racial boundaries and prejudices.

America today, as every Western society, has a visible population of Muslim Black people. Because of its ingrained racism and “Christian” prejudices, American society has chosen to dismiss Muslim Blacks as being affiliated with the Black Muslim organization (NOI).  However, this misinformation can be easily cleared up by those of us seeking correct knowledge about the lifestyle of Islam. A simple library or internet search should point you in the right direction. Or better yet, visit a Muslim mosque (not a NOI facility) and ask for some information.

Refs: (1) excerpted from NOI website, "History of NOI";

           (2) excerpted from NOI website, "What The Muslims Believe"