.In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful
The Importance of Religion and the Search for It
Religion is not just necessary, but it is a very significant part of our lives. Human beings would find it very difficult to live without religion or spirituality. A lot of time, money and contemplation have been spent on religion. Holy wars have been waged and lives have been lost for the sake of religion.
The essence of Religion is the craving need of a supreme being to be trusted in for mercy, sustenance and care. Moreover, religion acts as a light to guide people through the tunnels of life and bring them to light at the other end. Not only is religion important to guide people through life, but it is also necessary for people to reflect on the meaning of life and what they really want out of life.
Thus, man has recognized the importance of religion since time immemorial.
Allah, Glory is to Him, has ordained that man should live on earth. As a result, Adam and Eve had been descended from paradise to earth: (Allah said: “Get ye down, with enmity between yourselves. On earth will be dwelling-place and your means of livelihood for a time” * He said: “Therein shall ye live, and therein shall ye die, and from it shall ye be taken out at last”). Qur’an: Al-A’raf, 24, 25.
However, Divine Mercy has been behind the spiritual guidance of man on earth. (We said: “Get ye down all from here; and if, as is sure, there comes to you guidance from Me, whosoever follows My guidance, shall have no fear, nor shall they grieve”). Qur’an: Al-Baqarah, 38.
Allah, Most High, kept His promise and sent His messengers conveying His guidance to humanity. For instance, to settle disputes between Abel and Cain, a sacrifice was summoned from each: (Recite to them the truth of the story of the two sons of Adam. Behold, they each presented a sacrifice to Allah. It was accepted from one, but not from the other, said the latter: “Be sure I will slay thee.” “Surely,” said the former, “Allah doeth accept the sacrifice of those who are righteous.”) Qur’an: Al-Ma’ida, 27.
Thence, guidance continued from Allah, Glory is to Him, through His messengers to the various nations: (Then sent We Our messengers in succession: every time there came to a people their messenger, they accused him of falsehood: so We made them follow each other in punishment: We made them a tale that is told: so away with a people that will not believe) Qur’an: Al-Muminun, 44.
Nonetheless, some people, owing to sheer vanity and arrogance, did not believe in those messengers who conveyed monotheism. Moreover, with the passage of time, even those people who once believed relapsed and forgot these religions, and hence they started to fetch what they could adopt as a religion.
Ever since his advent on earth, man had been bestowed with multiple blessings, and plagued with fatal ordeals and militant animosities. It follows that, he became keen upon gaining benefits and dismissing harm. Thence came man’s endeavour to control this benefit-harm equation whose limits vary inversely, whereby benefits and harm are mutually exclusive; they cancel each other. Thus man grew food to get the utility of diet satisfaction and simultaneously get rid of hunger and weakness. He manufactured weapons to gain security and avoid his enemies (beasts before man). He took medicine for the sake of defeating disease and acquiring health. This is not to neglect mentioning the other multitude of benefits and harm that besieged our ancestors and made them tremendously busy throughout their lives.
After having constituted his society, man was empirically engaged in forming social institutions by which he could run his affairs. Some institutions were meant to yield benefits, such as grouping for hunting and farming, and for providing commodities and services. Other institutions would eradicate harm, such as law courts held by tribal leaders to implement justice and inflict punishment upon wrong-doers
Man’s treatment for his affairs was characterized by the scientific methodology, however humble it was. As he began with science and experiment in Paradise, so did he continue with the same method on earth. (And He taught Adam the names of all things) Qur’an: Al-Baqarah, 31.
Of course, the ultimate target behind his scientific conduct is to remain alive; it is the aspiration for immortality. True enough, man succeeded, through science, in manufacturing tools and apparatuses that enabled him to gain benefits and escape harm. He was able to enjoy considerable welfare.
Nevertheless, there prevailed a sole enemy which was so invincible that man could not conquer in spite of the sufficient knowledge and science that man possessed. This dominant enemy was- and still is- Death, which neither surrenders nor fails to keep its appointment.
The dominant reality of death drew man’s attention to investigate the ultimate target of his existence on earth. Man’s existence can in no way be absurd. The notion of cause-and-effect lead him to believe in prior knowledge (axioms) as regards his existence. The ridiculous and primitive creed that “wombs give birth, and the earth swallows corpses by death” did not appeal to sophisticated men. Therefore, man began to seek the absolute power that created him and that is authorized to determine man’s existence and end.
Man noticed that some criminals, by way of evasion and deception, escaped punishment. This drawback of human justice made man get aware of the inevitability of the existence of a supreme court that is absolutely sanctioned and powerful enough to render rights to people. Therefore, for the sake of absolute justice man began to look for supreme authority of religion.
As for science, although it facilitated life, it was not exempt from deficiency and indulging into intricate matters in several fields- particularly the origin of life. For instance, science has stated that a living thing is mainly composed of water. Water, itself, is a compound of two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen- chemically referred to as H2O. Each atom contains protons and electrons. Each proton and electron is made of tiny quarks. Thus, science has dragged man through corridors of infinite puzzles; it has lead him from intensity of concrete objects to the subtlety of abstraction; it has lead him into succession of endless causes, until, finally, he has reached All-Supreme Cause, Who is the Creator and Sustainer of the universe.
All the human experience and knowledge mentioned above motivated man to look for religion so as to solve all his problems, and to obtain benefits in this life and hereafter. Consequently, the journey of the search for religion had an early commencement.
Unless man had gone astray and forgotten the heavenly religions, he would not have been under the tedious task of searching for religion. However, man’s empty-heartedness and epistemological arrogance, stubbornness and vanity deceived him and made him grope his way towards religion by way of pure rational methodology of self-reliance in seeking God. So, philosophy was directed towards heaven and metaphysics. We can trace diverse philosophies that indulged into metaphysics feeling the way towards religion.
:A) Orphism era
Therefore, throughout history man has been engaged in the search for truth via religion of whatever kind. This search for god had started since time immemorial. Yet religious epistemology and literature in Europe had only took shape in Orphism era (eighth century before Christ). At that time Greece had started to worship the God Orpheus the Poet and the God Dionysus. Then came Homer, who wrote the “Iliad” and “Odyssey” in which the gods were humanized and depicted in human beings with all their qualities of anger, hatred, jealousy and wickedness.
In the age of Pythagoras (530 B.C.) and Heraclitus (530 B.C.- 470 B.C.) and others, philosophers started to investigate the origin of life, wondering whether it originated from water or air. Thus man came to worship nature, recognizing it to be too powerful to be defied.
Moreover, this Pythagorean School of Philosophy had a trend of spirituality which administered self-mortification through saying prayers and supplications and indulging into meditation. However, historians did not explain from what heavenly religion had these prayers been derived and to which god been duplicated.
:B) Humanistic Trend of Thought
1. Stoics and Sophists:
Stoicism is a philosophical school that appeared within the framework of Hellenistic culture in the 4th century B.C. Stoics adhered to human thought, so, they highly estimated logic, and they were materialists in their conception of nature.
Then there came the humanistic trend of thought headed by Socrates (470 B.C – 399 B.C), Plato (427 B.C – 347 B.C)and Aristotle (384 B.C- 322 B.C). They claimed that truth is only obtained through contemplation and mental thinking and logical approaches. They vehemently refuted the opinions of the Sophists led by Protagoras (490 B.C- 420 B.C) and Georgias (485 B.C- 380 B.C). These sophists claimed that: Nothing (meaning Reality) exists, and if it did exist, it cannot be known; or if it exists, and can be known, it can not be communicated to others; and that Man is the measure of all things. Their views resembled those of the Skeptics who adopted epistemological skepticism.
2.Hedonism:
Later on, Stoicism paved the way for Hedonism initiated by Epicurus (341 B.C – 270 B.C). For Epicurus, the purpose of philosophy was to attain the happy, tranquil life, characterized by ataraxia—peace and freedom from fear—and aponia—the absence of pain—and by living a self-sufficient life surrounded by friends. He taught that pleasure and pain are the measures of what is good and evil; death is the end of both body and soul and should therefore not be feared; the gods do not reward or punish humans; the universe is infinite and eternal; and events in the world are ultimately based on the motions and interactions of atoms moving in empty space. It is this hedonism that laid the foundation of Pragmatism, which observes reality in terms of material utility and benefits.
C) Some Earthly Eastern Religions
However, the Eastern Nations had preceded the West in formulating their own religions. Only through contact with the east had the west took attention to the necessity of having religion. It is worth noting that we have called them Earthly Religions because they are not Divine Revelations descended by Allah, Most High.
Of all the eastern ancient religions, suffice it to mention the following two:
1. Zoroastrianism:
It is a dualistic ancient Iranian religion which was fully shaped in the 7th century B.C.. Its creation is credited to the mythical prophet Zarathustra. It has the main doctrine of constant struggle in the world between two opposite elements: good, personified by the god of lightness Ahuro (Mazda), and evil god of darkness Angro (Mainyush). It also holds the belief of resurrection, judgment and retribution in another world.
2. Buddhism:
Buddhism is a religion which preaches relief from suffering through the negation of desire and the achievement of the supreme enlightenment known as nirvana. It originated in India in the 6th century B.C. by its founder Siddhartha- called the Buddha (enlightened one). Buddha believed in incarnation, and he denied resurrection and the existence of God, the Creator.
Paradoxically, these snobby atheistic philosophies coincided with a lot of Heavenly Revelations and Religions. In other words, all this tedious search for religion and all this bewilderment in western philosophy took place during a time when, simultaneously, heavenly religions existed; and some heavenly messages were sent to people long before these philosophies came to exist. For instance, The Torah was descended to Prophet Moses in 1316 B.C; succeeded by Prophet David (973 B.C); then Prophet Solomon (932 B.C); then came Prophet Elias (800 B.C); succeeded by Yunus “Jonah” (700 B.C). It was in Jonah epoch that Greek philosophers commenced thinking on religious matters.
Unfortunately, the outcome of all these philosophies is crude infidelity and polytheism.These philosophies did not recognize the Heavenly Religions conveyed by Allah’s prophets, and their thinking came independent of these religions. The reason might probably be that these Divine Revelations took place in the Middle East, which was beyond the reach of these philosophers, who were overseas- taking into consideration that contact between nations at that time was not so easy, and that overseas civilizations were not accessible to the nations of the West.
Another reason might be that these prophets or messengers were sent solely to the their peoples in the specified areas.
A third reason was that the common trend of human religious thought was relapse. That is to say, in every time-span between each two messengers people relapsed into religious ignorance, and tend to forget all about belief and religion. However, to the good fortune of man, Allah, Gracious and merciful He is, exempted such nations from blame and accountability: (Nor would We punish until We had sent a messenger to give warning) Qur’an: Bani Isra’il, 15.