GOD, PROPHETHOOD AND LIFE AFTER DEATH
Unseen but Comprehensible
WE live in a materialistic world where symbols, richly representative of life’s realities have been given concrete forms. Those who are sincere in their search for truth will look deeply into things and recognise their significance. They will find a great diversity of proof of God’s existence that will satisfy their intellectual curiosity and silence their skepticism. Tentative beliefs will get converted to unshakable conviction.
A Likeness of God
A Likeness of God is to be found in man, even as the existence of man is proof of the existence of God. What is the nature of God? He is a live, self-sufficient Being, with a mind that is all-knowing, eyes that are all-seeing and ears that are all-hearing. His power is infinite, reaching the furthermost corners of the universe, and no object of His will, great or small, can escape its force. And quite independent of all objects of creation, God has His ego
Man may not be omniscient and omnipotent, but he certainly thinks, sees, hears, has a will, acts of his own volition and understands quite precisely what is meant by the ‘ego—the ‘I’. To believe in God is to have faith in a higher form of the ‘I’. Man’s experience of himself, his attributes, his characteristics, make it possible for him to comprehend the eternal Being who possesses these very attributes and characteristics but to a superlative degree. This is the Being whom we call God, or Allah.
Our present world is a natural model where we can understand supernatural realities.
If one is sure of one’s own existence, why should one not be sure of the existence of God? Here am ‘I’, sitting in one place, observing the universe. Why, then, should there not be a Being greater than I am, situated elsewhere in the universe, watching over it? We direct the movements of machines in outer space by remote control, so why should we have any difficulty in accepting that there is a God who controls the universe? Man metes out punishments and gives rewards as per his concept of justice, so why should there not be an all-powerful God who administers reward and retribution according to his unique concept of justice?
Indeed, believing in God is no different from believing in one’s own self. It is no more difficult for man to accept the existence of God than it is for him to accept his own existence. Belief in God is doubtless an extraordinary feat of the imagination, but it is no more extraordinary than believing in man. Once one has accepted one such extraordinary phenomenon, what is there to prevent one from accepting another?
A Likeness of Prophethood
“This is London, here is the latest news.” These words are uttered by a news reader sitting far away from us in London. We cannot hear him directly, but the moment we switch on our radio sets, the voice comes over so loud and clear that the distance between the broadcasting station and our home seems to have shrunk.
This purely physical phenomenon gives us an idea of prophethood. As in the radio, the prophet provides a link between us and God’s ‘broadcasting station’. The prophet ‘picks up’ words coming from God Himself and relays them to us.
We direct the movements of machines in outer space by remote control, so why should we have any difficulty in accepting that there is a God who controls the universe?
But for the prophets, we would not be able to hear the words of God. So prized are radios and transistors for the information and entertainment they bring to people that there is hardly a home in the entire world without one. How wonderful it would be if people were to realise the importance of divine ‘broadcasts’, and listen to the prophets with the same rapt attention. They would be influenced and would follow them sincerely. The functioning of prophethood is not any more difficult to understand than the workings of a radio. One is powered by electricity, the other by the sheer divine revelation.
A Likeness of Life After Death
People are conscious of what is visible, audible, tangible and interpret them through the senses. They feel they know as much about it as is humanly possible to know, and do not suspect that another world might exist in their midst—of which they know nothing. Switch on the television and you see a hitherto unseen ‘world’ on its screen. Darting figures, a hubbub of voices, rows of houses, mountain scenery—visual and auditory inputs that make their impact on viewers.
The experience of television is an analogy of life after death—a world beyond our world, just as complete in every detail as the one before us. It shows how another world can exist within the present world, yet remain outside the range of normal human sensitivity unless we are tuned to it. The world on television is present before us, but becomes visible only when the set is switched on. In like manner, the world of the hereafter is already omnipresent, but will impinge on the senses when ‘switched on’ for us by God.
Scientific concepts are often demonstrated and understood through models. Our present world is a natural model where we can understand supernatural realities. Our world is in a way, a reflection of these. Through serious contemplation on the world around, one will find answers to everything.
Belief in God is doubtless an extraordinary feat of the imagination, but it is no more extraordinary than believing in man
God, divine revelation, and life after death are concepts which we cannot grasp with our limited vision. They lie in the unseen world. But there are many things in this very world, which cannot be seen with the naked eye. In fact, all higher realities are of this nature, and are accepted solely on the basis of scientific ‘clues’. The same applies to divine revelation and life after death. True, these cannot be seen, but there are clear indications throughout the universe which provide convincing proof of their actuality. If we think seriously about them, we have no option but to accept them.
Nation Building
The process of building a nation is like growing a
garden. If you start by sowing seeds, you can grow
a beautiful garden; but if you start with the garden
itself, you will not reach your desired goal