Is Allah Being Honest With You?

Every morning we wake up. In the absolutely present moment, we experience what is around us. We have memories of yesterday, we dream about tomorrow. 

We never for one moment think that we have just been created, memories and all. We know we experienced what our memories are repositories for, we don’t doubt it for a second. 

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What if I told you that you had been created for the first time in your current absolutely present moment, reading this very line. That you had not existed prior to this moment. You were only just created with your memories and all to give the illusion that you had existed prior to this moment. I might be helpless in proving this to you but you might also be helpless to prove otherwise. 

If you were created in just this moment, with your sworn testimony that you had existed prior, you would feel deceived wouldn’t you. You would feel tricked. 

If I now told you that you were right, and that all your memories were authentic and that you had experienced everything that your memories held. You would now feel joyful. You would feel valued, and respected. You would feel that you could exist in a useful and productive way, learning from these authentic memories and charting the future on this basis with your imagination. 

Isn’t then this value, respect and joy, how you should be feeling every moment? Every moment carries with it authentic memories after all. 

Allah has created you in an authentic and honest way, he has not tried to deceive you in the least. By creating you with ‘honesty’, he has shown you the value of living honestly, in a genuine way. It is this honesty of Allah that you are enjoying in your present moment, having recognised that you are indeed experienced, as far as your authentic memories are concerned. 

By creating you in this way Allah has shown you the path by which you need to explore your existence. This universe has to be approached with the honesty and integrity by which you exist in your present moment. You can see it is not befitting that you deface the present moment by being insincere. Rather you should continue in the flow of the present moment by being honest, genuine, and sincere. 

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Look at Allah for a moment. He has created many creatures in this world, and each of them feel that their memory serves as a guidance to them in their present moment. You can now appreciate the level of honesty and integrity that Allah interacts with. 

This same integrity and honesty should be reciprocated by us when we talk to Allah. Absolutely nothing, no belief, should interfere with our honesty when we interact with Allah. We should know that at the highest level, Allah requires us only to be genuine, honest and sincere. Adorning yourself with beliefs such Prophethood or the divine books come after this. Meaning that you should only adorn yourself with any belief if you have been genuine, honest and sincere with Allah with respect to it. 

It is not that you adorn yourself with beliefs, in a divine book for example, and your knowledge of Allah is shaped through that belief. Rather it must be the opposite, that you develop your belief in Allah through your knowledge, experience, common sense and conscience, which allows you to interact with Allah in an honest, genuine and sincere way. It is then your perspective on other beliefs (for example prophethood and the divine books) which are shaped by your firmly grounded belief in Allah. 

If you allow other beliefs to dictate your relationship with Allah, particularly beliefs which are historically generated, with all the deficiencies that such beliefs are associated with, then your relationship with Allah will be restricted by the breadth of these beliefs. As such, your ability to interact sincerely will be restricted by your restricted relationship with Allah. 

I am not saying that the beliefs of any particular group are wrong for them. I am simply saying that a genuine, honest, and sincere relationship with Allah requires unrestricted access to Allah and that approaching him with other beliefs already in place does not provide the idealistic unfettered access required… You may, and the vast majority of people may have approached Allah in this way – establish a whole host of beliefs and then view Allah through that lens…You may feel you have a wonderful perception of Allah… and I’m sure you all, being wonderful people, really do have a wonderful perception of Allah… but doesn’t Allah deserve to be appreciated directly… without the limitations of humans and literature? 

Now for something to think about: Some of you would say that if it were not for such and such person, or such and such book, you would have been misguided, you would not have known Allah. But does this really make sense in a world created by Allah and surrounded by Him in every conceivable sense, with no option to even escape? I mean, how exactly would you have avoided Allah?! Let’s not worry about ourselves and our sisters and brothers in humanity, after all, there is thankfully no place without Him.