Religion Is Tough for Whom?

From the Editor

Mountains, seas, forests, deserts are all there regardless of whether we like them or not. You may choose not to go see them or live near them, but you cannot change the fact that they exist out there. Same applies to the truth. As a reality outside of you, it stays there quietly, and it maintains its rule even if you turn away from it with dislike or close your eyes whenever it catches your eye. You are cold in winter time; you sweat in summer time. Because you feel cold or you sweat, it doesn’t mean that these seasons are doing anything wrong. They continue to do their jobs disregarding your grievances. They continue to do the favors you do not immediately realize. We manage to have a peaceful, healthy, and satisfying life as long as we live in harmony with the nature and stop complaining and trying to transform it. Otherwise, if we confront it and go out of the way, the moment we think we have corrected one problem, we find out that we have had tons of new problems.

I believe the same is true for religion. How the order in nature keeps running free from our self-centered whining and complaints (thankfully), so does the revelation –which explains the spiritual, moral, and social order of existence-, keep declaring the truth, independent of how our egos will judge it. How the man has challenged the nature throughout history and struggled to subjugate it, he also manipulated the revelation; he twisted it, distorted it and tried to make it fit into his liking. Except for the final revelation. Who knows, perhaps the Lord of the universe took the final revelation under His protection since the world of existence is taking its final turn now. He thus helped the man once again, at a time when standing before Him is so close, and He made guidance possible for those who wish to be guided by untouched truth.

Truth is tough. Because it doesn’t always please us. It hurts. It leaves us hang in midair. On one side, there is the desire to live in limitless freedom doing whatever we want, and on the other side there are necessities and responsibilities that come with the truth. A hiker cannot sleep until noon; a farmer cannot go on a holiday on the warmest days of summer, and so on. Of course you may choose to sleep until noon, and spend the winter skiing and the summer swimming. In that case then, that will mean you are not going to aspire to the harvest.

From this point of view, religion is tough, too: It demands you to manage your time, your wealth, your desires. It demands you to overcome your weaknesses, fill up your heart with faith, and trusting Allah, let go of your worries. There is no other way of constructing your piety.

In the beginning, declaring the truth of the religion in all its purity and simplicity was hard on the Prophet (pbuh), too. He has felt this pain for months, and with the guidance of our Lord (swt), he did not let the delicacy and kindness of his personality overshadow the message of Allah. He kept this delicacy and kindness within the frame of interpersonal relationships, yet whenever declaring the truth is concerned, he succeeded in not aiming at earning anybody’s sympathy whatsoever.     

O today's man who considers feeling good as a standard of truth! You are not the measure of truth. You are a part of the truth. When you accommodate yourself to its integrity and seek the truth instead of placing yourself above it, only then will you be able to rise in accord with the existence; otherwise, you will tumble down from one pit to the other. Perhaps this is what is called "gayyah" [Quran 19/59] and tumbling down has already started.