A Logical Question To Everyone...........
Throughout time immemorial,
man has been in search of the truth. The truth, relative to
physical phenomena and
spiritual experiences, has lead mankind to a winding course.
Sometimes, confusion
and disorientation of the principles of life, unfortunately, can taint
this course. Religion
and philosophy are the historical vehicles for the search of truth.
While religion
presents the Divine aspect of the purpose of life, philosophy is a human
attempt to gain a
higher intellectual knowledge of oneself, morality, and the underlying
meaning of life. The
current tendency to separate science and religion imposes
disgraceful
restrictions on science to achieve even more prosperous horizon. This book
incorporates theology,
natural sciences, and philosophy in an attempt to satisfy the
eternal quest for the
search of the ultimate truth.
It is easy to go
through life avoiding difficult questions about our origin and our
destiny. It is easy
not to talk about dying, or why people suffer. However, life would not
be the same if there
were no questions and answers. It is important to have an accurate
understanding of our
origin, and yes, its pursuit is worthwhile. Everyone needs a sense
of identity, purpose,
and personal goals. This is impossible without a sense of origin.
What a person believes
about human origin will condition that person’s life style and
affect one’s ultimate
destiny. Our origin goes back, perhaps, tens of thousands of years,
and our destiny takes
us from the present time to eternity. Although our life on this earth
spans through,
perhaps, 60 or 70 years, we are heavily involved with this short time
while neglecting our
origin and destiny.
Sometimes we have very
interesting and yet vital questions that linger in our
minds:
- • Why do humans suffer and how can one be happy?
- • What is the purpose of this life?
- • What will happen to us after death?
- • Does God exist?
• Were we created or did we evolve from apes?
• Why do we have this huge universe?
When one asks these
questions to anyone, one gets different answers such as:
- • I do not care, and I just want to enjoy my life.
- • Leave me alone. I am trying to survive.
- • I do not know. I never thought about that.
- • I know that God exists, but I am confused with all those religions. I do not know which one is right. I will try to live a good moral life, and that is it.
- • I know that God exists, but I am not really doing a good job in preparing myself to meet Him. Maybe I will do that when I retire and have more time.
Only a small
percentage of people know why they exist, and they are living their
lives the way it is
supposed to be. Those are the people who understand their priorities
in life and act
accordingly. Those are the people who appreciate human knowledge and
know its limitation.
Those are the people who realize the difference between science and
reality. Einstein said
“One
thing I have learned in a long life - that all our science,
measured
against reality, is primitive and childlike... Science without religion is
lame,
religion
without science is blind.”
In the present time,
it seems that science and technology have an answer for
everything.
Consequently, many people may tend to think that they know everything. If
you ask one of those
persons about life and how it started, the answer will be quick, and
most likely will be:
life started as an organic substance that came to earth through a
comet that collided
with earth billions of years ago. Life after that evolved according to
Darwin. Ask him again
about human behavior, and he will start referring to Freud. Then,
most people tend to
think that we know all the answers about everything. The reality is
that we know very
little about few things. And if you don’t believe this statement, just ask
a pharmacist how
aspirin works, a brain surgeon how the brain works, or a
psychoanalyst how we
dream.
One of the top
priorities of anyone in this life, regardless of one’s wealth or social
status, is to make
one’s house comfortable. The English language provided the word
“home” to emphasize a
feeling of comfort, security, peace, and love in a house. Humans
spend a lot of time
and energy to change a house into a home. If someone plans to
move to another house,
he usually reserves his energy and money to the next house.
However, everyone
knows that all our homes are temporary, and sooner or later
everyone will move to
another house or home called “the grave.” Should we not be wise
and invest a little
bit in making sure that this grave is a home? Should we not make sure
that this home will
have "light and heat"? Would we not like to have this grave as a
piece
of paradise? Ancient
Egyptians dramatized this concept 5000 years ago. They did not
just build graves;
they built pyramids. The fourth dynasty pharaoh Khufu (also known as
Cheops) built the
great pyramid of Giza, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world,
as his tomb. The
pictures of this tomb do not do the pyramid any justice. This pyramid is
much larger than
anyone would think. It covers 13 acres and contains more than 2
million blocks of
stone. This proves that what the ancient Egyptians experienced in their
daily life was just as
important as what awaited them beyond the death’s gate. They
firmly believed in an
afterlife that was not all that different from the normal life. This
concept of ensuring
comfort in the afterlife, although practiced by polytheists, had its root
in the original
monotheist religion, perhaps by Enoch (Prophet Idris in Arabic). Some
scholars believe that
Prophet Idris was the same as the ancient Egyptian god Osiris.
The questions, that
everyone should ask, are:
- • Should I invest heavily in a home that I will live in, perhaps, for tens of years, or in the home that I will live there for, perhaps, thousands of years?
- • How can I make this home for thousands of years extremely comfortable?
The Quran goes one
step further than that by labeling life in the grave as only a visit,
which indicates a
short stay, compared to eternity.
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