(Original article: Mystic Living Today, May 2024)
Nassir H. Sabah
I am often asked in discussions with friends or when talking to an audience to summarize my worldview, based on having been studying the Quran, physics, and biology for many years. Here is a summary of my worldview that I find rational, coherent, and simple:
- I firmly believe that there is a one and only God who created the universe and is the guide and sustainer of everything in it.
- My belief in the existence God is predicated on the Quran being of superhuman origin, based on: (i) numerous verses that refer explicitly or implicitly to physical phenomena that were only observed or explained by science in modern times, and (ii) a large number of numerical relations, varied in nature, that cannot possibly all be coincidental or of human origin. This was explained in the article “Is there objective Evidence for the Existence of God?”, Mystic Living Today (MLT), Jul 2023.
- The essence of God is beyond human comprehension and understanding. We can only think of God’s manifestations and attributes, as explained in the article, “How Should We Think About God?”, MLT, Nov 2023. Nature and all its laws are but a manifestation of God, who guides and sustains everything through these laws, and everything glorifies Him by being governed by these laws. Although the Quran refers to many of God’s attributes, the most consequential is His infinite loving-mercy (“rahmah” in Arabic).
- God, in His infinite loving-mercy, created humans to attain eternal bliss in Heaven, which is the purpose of life. This is the sublime expression of God’s loving-mercy towards humans and is the ultimate reward that one can aspire to. The bliss in Heaven is primarily spiritual, beyond human imagination, and incomparably more rewarding and everlasting than anything that can be attained in this worldly life.
- Had God wished He could have made humans angel-like, full of goodness and free from evil. But life would then have no meaning. In his omniscience and wisdom, He created humans with a wondrous conscious self having the propensity for righteousness and wickedness, free will, and astonishing mental capacities in order to receive His revelations, bear witness, through contemplation and scientific discovery, to His manifestations in the marvels of His creation, and to choose the right path of serving Him as His agents-inheritors on Earth.
- Serving God to receive His mercy and attain eternal bliss in Heaven means reflecting what can be humanly reflected from His glorious and perfect attributes, the most consequential of which is His loving-mercy, as mentioned before. Humans should therefore conduct themselves virtuously towards all around them: other human beings, other forms of life, and the environment.
- This worldly life, with its attendant evil and suffering, has therefore been made a trial for humans to follow the right path of serving God.
- Virtuous conduct is fostered through a spirituality that is the quality of being predicated on a sense of close connectedness to God Almighty.
- Embracing this spirituality involves continual, comprehensive, and fulfilling self-development – spiritually, psychologically, morally, and intellectually. This self-development is the benefit in this worldly life that one derives from serving God and is what gives meaning to life and makes us better human beings.
- Self-development can be simply assessed by the answer to the question that one should ask oneself every day: “Am I a better person today that I was yesterday?” The answer to this question is the measure of real success in life.
For me, this worldview has proved very convincing and satisfying.
