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THE NECESSITY OF RELIGION
"In the Name of God, the Merciful,
the Compassionate
God, there is no god but He, the
Ever-Living, the Self-Subsistent."
An allegory to understand the nature and
the worth of religion to man
To understand the world and the spirit
of man in it; to understand the nature and the worth of
religion to man; to understand how, if there were not the True
Religion, the world would become the darkest dungeon and the
unbeliever the most unfortunate of creatures; to grasp why it
is that belief in the existence and Unity of God and reliance
upon Him open the secret sign of this universe and saves man’s
soul from the darkness—read this allegory:
Once upon a time, there are two brothers
who set off on a long journey together. One is self-indulgent
and clever. The other is self-disciplined and wise. After a
while they come to a fork in their road where they see a wise
old man. They ask him which way to take. He tells them that
the right fork requires obligatory observance of the law which
governs that road, but that this burden of observance brings
with it a certain security and happiness; while the left fork
promises a certain kind of freedom it represents also certain
danger and distress. "Now the choice is yours," says the old
man.
On hearing this, the well-disciplined
brother takes, in reliance upon God, the right fork saying
that he accepts dependence on law and order. The other brother
takes the left fork just for the sake of freedom. Seemingly,
he is comfortable but in truth he feels no tranquillity
inside. He reaches a desert. Suddenly he hears the terrible
sound of a beast, about to attack him. He runs away and,
happening to come across a waterless well sixty meters deep,
jumps into it. Half-way down, his hands meet a tree growing
out of the walls of the well. He clings on to it to save
himself from falling further. The tree has two roots. Two
rats, one white and the other black, are gnawing away at them.
The man looks up and sees that the beast is waiting at the top
of the well. He looks down and there is a horrible dragon
almost at his feet, with its large mouth gaping to receive
him. Having time to do so, the man looks more closely at the
wall of the well and notices that it is all covered with
laboring insects. He looks again at the tree. It is actually a
fig tree but it is a miracle of a tree in that it has a great
variety of fruits growing on it, such as walnuts and
pomegranates.
There, hanging in the well, he cannot
understand that all that has happened to him is in any way
special or meaningful, that the scene and the events in it
cannot be merely coincidental. That there should be, must be,
some secret to it all, that behind the scene and the events
there must stand an arranger and doer of all—none of this,
alas, even occurs to him due to his lack of
reasoning.
Now, although this man is inwardly
distressed about this situation and his spirit and heart are
complaining, his evil-commanding self pretends to itself that
there is nothing to complain about and so he pays no attention
to the weeping of his heart and spirit. The man pretends to
himself that he is in a garden, having a nice time, starts
eating all kinds of fruits—for free—but some of which, it will
turn out, are poisonous and harmful to him to consume in this
way.
In a sacred tradition (a saying from the
Prophet, the wording of which belongs to the Prophet but the
meaning to God) God says, "I will treat My servant in the
way he thinks of Me." This wretched man in the well sees
every event that befalls him as no more than itself, as having
no further weight or significance—and, for him, so it is. He
does not die but he does not live well either. He persists
merely, in an agony of suspense.
Let us now recall the other brother. He
is the wiser of the two and, because well-disciplined, not
suffering anxieties. He always thinks of the good, affirms the
law, and feels himself to be secure and free within it.
Whenever, on his journey, he enters a garden and comes across,
besides lovely flowers and attractive fruits, ruined or ugly
things in it, he is able to turn his mind to that which is
good and beautiful. His brother cannot and does not do the
same; he has concerned himself with evil and therefore cannot
find ease in such a garden. The wise one lives according to
the saying, "Look on the good side of everything," and is
therefore generally happy with everything.
On his way he too reaches a desert, just
as his brother did, and a beast shows up. He too is afraid but
not as much as his brother, because he is sure that the beast
must be in the service of a certain master. This disciplined
man also jumps down a well that happens to be there and,
halfway down, catches hold of the branches of a tree. He too
notices a pair of rats gnawing at the two roots of the tree.
Looking down, he sees the dragon and, up above, the beast
still waiting for him. Just like his brother, he finds this
suspense a strange situation to be in. But because he is wise
and self-disciplined, he infers that all these strange
happenings are arranged by someone and constitute a sign. He
thinks he is not alone and that he is being watched and
examined by someone. He understands that he is being directed
and guided in some way as a test and for a purpose.
He is curious about the one who arranged
all these events and asks, "Who is it that desires to make me
know him?" Even in his curiosity he is patient and
self-disciplined, and so this curiosity arouses in him a love
for the owner of the sign. This love, in turn, builds in him
the desire to understand the sign and meaning of these events
and the will to acquire good qualities that will please the
owner of the sign.
He observes that the tree from which he
is suspended is a fig tree but one that bears almost every
kind of fruit. He is no longer afraid; he understands that
this tree is actually a sort of catalogue of samples of the
fruits belonging to the unseen owner, which the owner has
prepared for his guests to his garden. Otherwise, one tree
would not bear so great a variety of fruits as this one does.
He starts to entreat earnestly and, as a result, the key to
the secret is inspired in him. He declares:
"O owner of all this scene and these
events, I am wholly in your hand. I take refuge in you and I
am at your service. I desire your approval and I desire to
know you."
Following this prayer, the wall of the
well unexpectedly parts and a door opens onto a wonderful,
pleasant garden. Indeed, the dragon’s mouth has been
transformed into the door, and both the dragon and the beast
become two servants inviting him in. The beast even changes
into a horse for him to ride on.
And so, O my lazy soul, and O my
imaginary friend! Let us now compare the positions of these
two brothers, so that we can see how good brings good and evil
brings evil:
The interpretation of the
allegory
The unfortunate traveler who took the
left way, the way of self-trust and self-willed freedom, is
about to fall into the mouth of the dragon; he is continually
anxious. He suffers loneliness and considers himself a
prisoner facing the attacks of wild beasts. Furthermore, he
adds more to this distress, eating apparently delicious but
actually poisonous fruits which are only presented as samples,
not intended to be consumed for their own sake but to persuade
the consumers to seek out the originals and become customers
of them. This unfortunate one changes his day into darkness;
he himself does injustice, changing his situation into a
hell-like one, so he does not deserve pity, nor does he have
the right to complain to anyone.
In contrast, the traveler who took the
right way is in a fruitful garden with servants all around
him. He studies every strange and beautiful incident in
fearful awe, and sees himself as an honored guest, taking
pleasure in the strange and beautiful servants of his generous
host. He does not eat up the fruits on the fig tree. Rather he
only samples them and, understanding the reality, he postpones
the pleasure of eating them up and enjoys the
anticipation.
The other is just like a man who denies
his favored situation in a summer garden surrounded by
friends, and instead, by making himself drunk with foul
intoxicants, imagines himself to be among wild beasts in
winter time, and complains thereof. He does himself injustice
and insults his friends, so deserves no mercy. The brother who
took the right way, the way that accepts trustingly what is
given and observes the law, sees and accepts the whole reality
and for him it is beautiful. In doing this he respects the one
who possesses reality, and that is why this brother is
deserving of mercy. By this we may understand, at least in
part, the meaning of the Qur’anic decree, "Whatever of good
befalls you is from God, and whatever ill befalls you is from
yourself."
When we reflect upon the differences
between the two brothers we see that the inner-self of one
prepared a kind of hell-like situation for him, corresponding
to his own attitude to reality. The other’s potential
goodness, positive intention and good nature led him to a very
favored and happy situation.
Now, I say to my own inner-self as well
as to the inner-self of anyone who has read thus
far:
"If you desire to be like the luckier of
the two brothers, follow the guidance of the Qur’an." The
details of the allegory could be explained at very great
length, but the gist of it, roughly, is this:
There are two ways before
everyone
One of the brothers is a believer who is
good-hearted and the other is a blasphemous unbeliever. Of two
ways, the one on the right is the way of the Qur’an and faith,
whereas the other is the way of unbelief and rebellion. The
garden on the way is human society and civilization, which has
in it both good and evil, cleanliness and pollution. The
sensible person is he who acts according to the rule: Take
what is clear and pleasant, and leave what is turbid and
distressing, and goes on his way with tranquillity of
heart.
The desert in the story is the earth,
and the beast that turns up unexpectedly is death. The well is
the life of man, and sixty meters in depth is our average life
span corresponding to sixty years. The tree in the well is
life itself; the two rats gnawing its roots are day and night.
The dragon in the well is the grave opening onto the Hereafter
and, for a believer, becomes a door to the Garden. The insects
on the walls of the well are the troubles people face on this
earth. However, these troubles are but gentle warnings from
God for a believer, to prevent him slipping off into the sleep
of heedlessness. And the fruits on the tree, as we have
already indicated, are the bounties of this world presented as
samples from the blessings of the Hereafter, inviting
customers towards the fruits of Paradise.
(There is only one tree in the well but
there are various fruits on it. This shows the seal of
Divinity Whose unique virtue is "to create everything out of
one thing" and "to change everything into one thing." He makes
various plants and fruits from one soil only, creates all
living things from one drop of water, and nourishes and
sustains alike all living things but through diverse kinds of
foods.)
To return to the allegory, the sign
shows the secret will of God in creating. This sign is opened
with faith and the key is: O God, there is no god but God;
God, there is no god but He, the Ever-Living, the
Self-Subsistent.
For one of the brothers, the mouth of
the dragon changes into a door to the Garden. This is a sign
that for the other, as for all unbelievers, the grave is the
door to a place of trouble, the belly of a dragon. For
believers, however, it is the door to the eternal Garden,
which is the blessing of God for the faithful followers of the
Qur’an.
The beast changes into an obedient
servant, a disciplined and trained horse. This means that, for
unbelievers, death is a painful detachment from loved ones, a
kind of imprisonment after leaving (for them) the
paradise-like earth. For believers, on the other hand, it is a
means of reunion with the friends and companions who have
already gone to the Hereafter. It is like going into their
eternal home of happiness. It is for them a formal invitation
to pass into the eternal gardens from the prison of the earth.
It is an occasion to receive the wage which will be bestowed
out of the generosity of the Most Compassionate and Merciful
One for services rendered to Him, and a kind of retirement
from the burden of life.
In sum, the one who chooses the
transient life as his aim puts himself into Hell even though
he stays in what appears to him paradise on earth. By
contrast, the one who aims at the eternal life will find peace
and happiness in both worlds. Despite all troubles, he still
thanks God and will patiently conclude his stay on the earth
which, as he properly comes to understand, is merely a waiting
room opening up to heaven.
O God, make us among the people of
happiness, salvation, the Qur’an, and faith! Amen. O God,
bestow peace and blessings upon our master Muhammad, and upon
his family and Companions, to the number of all the letters
contained in the words of the Qur’an, reflected by leave of
the Most Compassionate One in the waves of the sounds of each
word recited by reciters of the Qur’an from its first
revelation to the end of time, and have mercy on us and on our
parents; and have mercy on all believing men and women to the
number of those words, through Your Mercy, O Most Merciful of
the merciful. Amen. And all praise be to God, the Lord of all
the worlds. |
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