Monotheism in the Quran

(part 8)

Why Some People Ignore Allah and Religion?

The answer to this is as follows.

1. When we say that man can recognize Allah through the construction of a cell or an atom it is only meant for those who really want to believe in Allah but not for those who do not have the intention of doing so at all. To illustrate this point the following examples can be cited:

(i) Look at a man who roasts and broils meat on a gridiron and who cuts several livers in a day into slices for roasting but does not know the various veins and arteries embedded in it because he had nothing to do with knowing those blood vessels.

(ii) Look at a man who is busy from morning to evening in selling mirrors to his customers and who has dishevelled hair and who never cares to groom it despite looking at the mirror several times in the day as he is only concerned in selling the mirrors and not grooming his hair.

(iii) When a man is busy cleansing with his handkerchief the glass of his watch and we ask him the time, he sees his watch again, because he was busy cleansing the watch and had not noted the time.

(iv) Look at a carpenter who makes a ladder but never does he himself mount it but for the sake of demonstration he does so several times in order to satisfy his customers.

From the foregoing examples we can conclude only one result that unless man wishes to know a thing or to draw benefit from it, he would not know it nor would he draw any benefit from it. Similarly, people do see the signs of Allah closely and minutely yet they do not have belief in Allah, because just by merely looking at the signs their intention is not to recognize Allah .

2. We all know that when from the very beginning we are favored with a blessing we do not realize its true significance and hence it loses its freshness. Similarly, when we see the signs of Allah everywhere we do not care to think about it or to realize its import because from the very start we had become used to them and as such they seemed to have lost their novelty. Take an example of the thumb of your hand about which you have never been thankful to Allah because it has been there since your birth. But suppose this thumb is bandaged for a while or is completely detached from your body, you will see that without it you cannot even button your shirt! (You can yourself imagine it while reading this instance).

Since the continuity of bounties leads to the forgetfulness of Allah misfortunes come to us as a warning. The Holy Qur'an says that sometime Allah inflicts hardship upon man so that he may return to Allah and ask Him for His forgiveness. The Holy Qur'an repeatedly reminds mankind to remember Allah's blessings and bounties and we often find in the supplications of leaders of religion that they enumerate one by one Allah's bounties and benevolence, for example they say: ' It is You, O Allah Who has elevated us from lower position to a higher status, from ignorance to knowledge, from small quantity to a larger quantity, from poverty and indigence to richness and wealth and from illness to health".

3. People ignore religion because many innovations have been introduced into it by ignorant friends and wise enemies.

4. Environmental Influence: The cause of man's deviation from religion and religious commands is the problem of the environmental influence. Man by his very nature and instinct dislikes the act of stealing and considers misappropriation as a bad thing, but when he is in an environment which is dominated by thieves and usurpers, he too adopts their habits.

5. Sometimes indifference to religion is due to shirking responsibility, because accepting religion means binding oneself to accept various religious restrictions and obligations. Hence some people shun religion since they want to be free from all restrictions. They do not realize that to be so free as to abstain from following Divine commands means that they have accepted all other restrictions and all sorts of servitude. He who does not accept to be the servant of Allah is a slave of everybody else, and he who does not obey His commands must obey the commands of everyone else. He who leaves Allah and turns to others is as if it were like one who falls from the sky to the earth. He becomes a prey to the vultures before whom he falls down.

6. Enmity: There is a certain group of people which harbors grudge and indulges in prejudice and selfishness. Such people oppose and criticize things for the sake of opposition and thereby disregard the Divine commands altogether.

7. Lack of Proper Preaching: It is also lack of proper preaching or preaching in a wrong way which makes people indifferent to religion .

8. Necessity of Religion: Man does not live without a code of conduct but the question is how he can achieve his object in life for his success, prosperity and progress? He has, therefore, three following alternatives before him:

(i) To chalk out his line of action according to his own inclination and adaptability.

(ii) To fashion his conduct in accordance with the wishes of the other people.

(iii) To submit himself to the obeisance of Allah and seek only from Him his code of life.

(iv) The first course of action is defective because human intelligence has its own limitations and man himself is well aware of his lapses and failings. The instinctive passion drags man towards disaster and calamity at every moment. Under such a situation will it be possible that man can still be guided by his defective thinking and limited knowledge which can one way or the other lead him to prosperity or misfortunes?

Source: imamalmahdi.com

Other Links:

The Islamic Hijab

Dhikr: Remembrance of Allah   

Monotheism (Advantage of Discussion about the Outlook on Universe)  

Monotheism, the First Principle of Divine Outlook on Universe  

Monotheism (What is Natural Disposition?)