Spiritual Health Learning Community Center
Exploring Life's Horizons
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Whoever seeks Me, finds me. Whoever finds Me, comes to know Me. Whoever comes to
know me, loves Me. Whoever loves Me, that person I kill, and whomever I kill, I owe that
person blood-money, and to whomever I owe blood money, I am the recompense for that
blood-money. - [Hadith Qudsi - Allah is speaking through the mouth of the Prophet
Muhammad (Peace be upon him)]
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Faith
From the perspective of Sufi masters, faith means something
very different from what many people understand by that
word. For practitioners of the Sufi path, faith is alive,
dynamic, growing, rich, transformative, subtle, deep, wise,
aware, and penetrating.
If, however, one were to ask people to characterize the
notion of faith, many of these individuals probably would
come up with something along the following lines. Faith is a
strong belief or opinion about the correctness of something.
Such people, or, at least, some of them, might characterize
faith as blind, dogmatic, antiquated, closed, infantile, static,
primitive and irrational.
For many people, issues of faith conjure up images of
superstition, myths, and magical thinking. As such, faith
becomes something one resorts to when certain things
happen in one's life, much as someone might knock on wood
or throw salt over one's shoulder under certain
circumstances.
Other individuals consider faith to be something which, like
myths, may bring meaning, order and purpose to a person's
life but has little to do with reality. Such people also might
contend faith is like the magical thinking which takes place
at certain stages of childhood. In magical thinking there is a
sense one merely has to imagine something in order for this
act of imagination to induce reality to conform to the
character of what has been imagined.
Many people consider faith to be, for the most part, relatively
harmless, perhaps even beneficial. Faith is something that
gets one through the day.
Different people rely on various things to see them through
the difficulties of day-to-day life. For some people, faith is the
boat in which one rides out the inclement weather and storms
of life.
On the other hand, faith also has the capacity to be a very
dangerous commodity in the wrong hands. Millions of people
have been impaled on the faith of the true believers across
history. Issues of faith have torn apart families, communities
and countries.
In point of fact, faith of one kind or another, plays a central
role in the lives of everyone. This faith may not be spiritual in
nature, but it is a species of faith.
Faith is a relationship between, on the one hand, what is
known or understood in the present, and, on the other hand,
how what is known now will carry into, and unfold within,
the unknown future. Faith is the projective map which links
our past experience to the future and links the known to the
unknown. Faith is the way we orient ourselves in the present
on the basis of past experience in order to be able to engage
whatever transpires in the future with a sense of commitment
and purpose.
Even in a mundane, non-spiritual context, faith is more than
just a belief. There is an intensity of conviction in faith which
is not necessarily present in belief.
In the case of faith, of whatever species, there is a readiness
to act on the basis of that in which one has faith. On the
other hand, one may have many beliefs on which one is not
prepared to act.
On the basis of past experience, one may have faith in one's
family or one's country. One is convinced one can rely on
them in a variety of ways. One is sure they will respond in the
future as they have responded in the past.
Consequently, one goes about one's present life with an
orientation rooted in one's understanding of these aspects of
past experience. One is prepared to engage the future on the
basis of this understanding.
Sometimes, our family or country breaks faith with us. A
spouse engages in adultery. A child gets into trouble with the
law. A country engages in certain brutal domestic or foreign
policies which one never thought would have been possible.
One's faith has been undermined. One no longer knows how
to look to the future. One no longer knows how to orient
oneself in order to prepare for engaging life as it plunges into
the unknown.
On the basis of past experiences, one has developed
relationships of faith with many dimensions of one's day to
day life. Indeed, one's whole life is shaped, colored and
directed by a spectrum of faith relationships.
Neighbors, friends, acquaintances, doctors, business
associates, teachers, community leaders, scientists,
newspaper columnists, television personalities, athletes, store
employees, and so on, all interact to form a complex web of
faith relationships in our lives. We establish a range of strong
and weak faith links to different parts of our world.
There is much we do not know about even those with whom
we interact on a consistent and intimate or close basis. There
is even more we do not know about many of the other people
who touch our lives in one way or another.
Nonetheless, on the basis of whatever direct and indirect
experience we have, we trust some people, and we do not
trust others. We have faith in some people, and we do not
have faith in others.
Whether our judgements about people are correct or
accurate is not at issue here. As a result of whatever
evaluation of, or critical reflection of, our experience with
others that takes place, we spin our threads of faith which
attach us, however strongly or tenuously, to those around us.
Those threads will be broken or reinforced or will barely be
attached depending on what happens in the future. The winds
of change will affect the web of faith one has spun.
A neighbor is indicted for embezzlement. A teacher is
accused of sexual improprieties with a student. An unsavory
person saves someone's life. A leader resigns under a cloud
of scandal. A manager decides to deal more humanely with
employees. A friend is fired for incompetence or dereliction
of duty. One's spouse wants to give the marriage a more
committed effort. A religious leader checks into a substance
abuse facility. An enemy asks for one's forgiveness. An
athlete is accused of shaving points. An acquaintance one
hardly knows shows incredible kindness in a time of need. A
scientist fudged data in a series of experiments.
We shape our lives on the basis of the opinions, beliefs,
conclusions, assessments and judgements we make
concerning the events of our day. We vote for people, avoid
people, gossip about people, abuse people, condemn people,
make friends with people, marry people, divorce people,
value people, and marginalize people all on the basis of the
character of the faith which is generated by our reflections
on impressions derived from our experience, direct or
indirect, with others.
Even the lives of scientists and physicians are shaped by
many elements of faith. A doctor, for example, has faith in
her or his abilities as, say, a surgeon despite the fact there
may have been questionable judgement calls or mistakes in
the past.
A scientist has faith in the work of other scientists and relies
on that work to inform and frame his or her own research. A
scientist does not have time to replicate every experiment
performed. They have faith other researchers are reporting
on their work in a forthright, honest manner. Yet, there have
been more than a few scandals, both historically as well as in
the present, in which scientists, both famous and unknown,
knowingly have put forth spurious research material.
A scientist has faith in the equipment used to make
measurements or to detect the occurrence of certain
phenomena. However, the scientist may have only limited
knowledge of how the equipment actually produces its
results. Instead, they may be relying on what technicians or
company representatives or other scientists are telling them
about the reliability of such equipment.
A scientist or medical practitioner may have faith in the
methodology of science and research because of the many
valuable results which are produced by following that
method. However, just as using the method has led to many
blind alleys in the past, there is no guarantee one will obtain
important results in the future.
Not every scientist wins a Nobel Prize or makes important
contributions. A lot of research is neither here nor there as
far as value is concerned.
Moreover, there are many areas, such as morality,
mysticism, religion and creativity, which seem to be totally
impervious to the quantitative techniques and methods of
science. In addition, many non-linear phenomena can only be
roughly approximated, if at all, by scientific methods. Yet,
most of life involves non-linear systems.
Nevertheless, one goes with that in which one has faith. As
long as the quantity and quality of positive experiences
exceeds the quantity and quality of negative experiences, one
will tend to keep faith with various judgements one has made
on the basis of experience.
Throughout the foregoing, there have been persistent themes
of experience, change, growth, learning, judgement,
reflection, critical assessment, and dynamics juxtaposed to
the issue of faith. Faith, even in a mundane sense, has been
shown to have potential for subtlety, complexity, nuances and
richness. Faith is something which is very much alive for
most of us and central to the way we engage life.
Sufi masters maintain that faith in a mystical context is quite
consonant, in its own manner, with all of the foregoing.
Spirituality is rooted in, and permeated by experience and
our understanding of that experience.
We have a relationship with God. God is interacting with us
all the time through a variety of experiential channels both
within us, as well as outside of us.
We have dreams or mystical experiences or enter into certain
spiritual conditions and states. We have interaction with our
spiritual guide. We read sacred texts, or we learn about the
lives of great mystics of the past.
We talk to other people, both within and outside of, the path.
We try various kinds of practices and see what effects or
results ensue.
We attempt to live in accordance with the spiritual teachings
of the path and take note of the problems and benefits which
may arise. We reflect on the experience of other people
whom we know and whom we have come to trust.
Our life is like a scatter diagram of experiences.
Consequently, we try to generate the hermeneutical
equivalent to a regression line in statistics. We attempt to
plot a life line which comes closest to representing the central
trends of our scattered experiences.
This regression line is our link of faith with our experiences.
The slope of the regression line is a ratio of what has been
experienced to our assessment of that experience.
We extrapolate and interpolate with respect to the future on
the basis of that regression line’s slope. As new experiences
and assessments are added, we stay with, or plot a new,
regression line.
According to Sufi masters, the more one experiences the
states, stations, tastes, expansions, contractions and so on of
the path, the deeper, richer and stronger will one’s faith
become. There is nothing blind, dogmatic, closed, irrational,
or static about this process.
As one learns, grows, develops, changes, and matures on the
path, the structural character of one’s faith undergoes
growth, maturation, development and so on. This
transformation of faith is a function of one’s own direct
experiences and the teacher’s guidance in helping one to
come to an understanding of the significance, value and
meaning of such experience.
As is the case with all mundane species of everyday faith, so,
too, mystical faith weds together knowns and unknowns. On
the basis of what is known or understood, one develops a
commitment to certain dimensions of what is unknown and
unseen.
As faith develops, the horizons of the unknown may be
pushed back to varying degrees. However, the horizon
symbolizes the inexhaustible nature of existence and our
relationship with God. No matter how much we advance
toward the horizon, the horizon always recedes into the
distance.
God willing, we increase in spiritual understanding, insight,
wisdom and knowledge, but there will always be unknowns
which modulate our interactions with Divinity. Nonetheless,
we continue to use what we know as the basis of our
orientation toward what is unknown.
When we have faith in God, we rely on God to be our trustee
in all affairs. As we acquire enhanced degrees of faith, our
faith is transformed, God willing into a certitude that God
will never abuse our faith or trust. This certitude is based on
reflective experience and not on blind, unthinking, dogmatic
belief and opinion. Unfortunately, a lot of people confuse
being convinced of something with being certain in the
mystical sense. Mystical certitude is a function of direct
demonstration and experiential evidence of a sort that brooks
no doubt as to its authenticity and truth. The experiences are
overwhelming and incontrovertible in nature, and, more
importantly, they are corroborated in independent ways by
other people and other experiences.
To be convinced of something, however, merely means one
has a strong opinion. Furthermore, this strong opinion is
often held in the absence of any direct experiential
demonstration.
In addition, such an opinion of conviction often is rooted in
an interpretation of experiences which leaves room open for
considerable doubt. An individual might acknowledge the
legitimacy of such doubt under these circumstances if the
person meditated on the matter very much or with any
degree of rigor, care and consideration.
However, all too frequently, people of strong convictions,
whether spiritual or non-spiritual in character, are
uninterested in entertaining any doubts concerning their
firmly entrenched beliefs. On the other hand, with
practitioners of the Sufi path, the examination and
exploration of doubt can lead to some very beneficial insights
and understandings. One is encouraged to work with doubt,
not to deny and repress it.
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