When reading the quran, we can understand history, stories, characters, rules of what to not do and what to do. The religion is a set of rules and recommendations of the boundaries of our life, and also the recommendation of what postive actions to take.
There is a question that remains… the question is why? There are two ‘whys’ that need to be answered. The first ‘why’ is why does Allah swt recommend for us to live our lives this way? The surface level answer is obvious, to do good, is so that we all can live in harmony, peace, patience and justice.
The deeper why, is why is this world set up this way? Why isn’t just everyone good? Why aren’t humans just made to act in a good way? Why do we choose to do evil? Why is it doing good is challenge? Could Allah not have made the world in a way where good was the only option to us?
When I was younger, the ‘why’ was an irrelevant question. Since the scriptures do not give us a clear answer as to why, for me, it was information we didn’t need to know.
As I have gotten older, and I have more life experience, I now see that this concept is difficult to understand. I do not understand exactly why we are betrayed by those that once loved us. I don’t understand why people are jealous and have evil intentions. I know see that as we get older, we become more able to ask this question and give some answers. This is where the concept of spirituality comes from. I created this blog to attack it.
However, in my older age, when you have obtained blessings from Allah, you start to love the world. You start to enjoy this world. You start to identify with this world. Once that happens, you wish to hold onto it. Once that happens, you try to figure out what you are spiritually doing wrong, that made you lose the people and things in this world you love.
Then you start to explore the concepts of religion differently, you try to answer the why question, in order to obtain the answer to the riddle. So that you can apply this wisdom and attract and keep the things in this life you want. For men, this will be money, power, love, relationships, health, and so on.
Spirituality teaches men that in this world, you are supposed to let go of what you want, what you love, and then if you do that, you will obtain it. That is where spirituality turns into evil. If the purpose of this life is to reach heaven, then exactly why do you even want to maintain your wealth, health and relationships? The truth is, Adam did nothing wrong, and his love for Eve betrayed him. Prophet Yousif, did nothing wrong, and his brothers betrayed him. Prophet Abraham did nothing wrong, and his tribe betrayed him. Prophet Muhammad did nothing wrong, and his community, friends, and wives betrayed him. Prophet Lut did nothing wrong and his wife was one of the evil ones.
Spirituality will teach you that if you were disconnected from the world, connected to Allah, you will not repel what you love. But the truth is, evil will always happen, and you will be betrayed even if you are living life spiritually correct.
You may love your job, relationship, health, and still be tested with these things of no fault of your own.
Let’s take a trivial example. Let’s say you are playing basketball. Anyone who has played sports can relate. Some days you are just on, everything works, your shots always go in. And on other days, you may feel the exact same, but most of your shots miss. What is your lesson? Is it your inner need to make those shots? Or is that a cope after the fact? Someone who plays for thousands of hours will tell you, your attitude or spirituality has nothing to do with it, the only thing that could help is practice. The more muscle memory you have, you put the odds in your favor, however even then bad days may happen. Life is like that.
It is true, if you are connected to God, people in relationships may be more drawn to you, but they can also equally be drawn to you if you were connected to something else like secretly taking naps. This is because, the more likely explanation is that people value what is scarce. Does the connection to God make you more attractive or is it your scarcity? Are there not atheists that do well in relationships? How about in business?
The spirituality explanations are just more fog in our vision in real life. The reality is, for those of us that have experienced being alone and broke, the only wish we had was for life to end. We were entirely connected to God, and still we had poor or spotty luck in making money and relationships. Its only when we finally got a win, did we enjoy the blessings of God. These blessings can come and go without any warning.
Allah says in the quran:
“To Him belong the keys of the heavens and the earth. He extends provision for whom He wills and restricts it. Indeed, He is Knowing of all things.” -Qur’an 42:12
Here we see that Allah makes it clear, giving in rizq is only in Allah’s domain. Also, getting or losing risq is not necessarily a sign that you are doing something right or wrong:
As for man, when his Lord tests him and honors him and favors him, he says, ‘My Lord has honored me.’
But when He tests him and restricts his provision, he says, ‘My Lord has humiliated me. -Qur’an 89:15–16
It is not our job to question why or how we get blessings:
He is not questioned about what He does, but they will be questioned. -Qur’an 21:23
No where in the Quran does it say there is a way to act that guarantees blessings in this world. Rather, the Quran tells us the opposite. We think that our blessings are a direct relation to our behavior or spirituality, however this is a mystery. This mystery has made it so that we began to speculate. The reality is, nothing in this world will bring us any sustained happiness. The fact that you have gained any happiness from blessings, by definition means that you have lost focus of your purpose in this life.
The question is then, why do we even want blessings if we are not supposed to bask in it? Does it feed our pride? How much does our vibration attract what we are owed? Is getting what you are owed something to be happy about?
Again, in the basketball example, if you train more than anyone, and you win championships, your happiness may be limited. You expect to win because you have sacrificed the most. The championship win does not give you happiness more than the work you had to put in. It may give you a feeling of accomplishment, but that is it. Anything more than that, and you are stagnating. Speaking about getting rewards is meaningless, speaking about giving and doing good and giving charity, is everything. That is why Allah swt encourages this. You will get rewards that honor your effort, but it pales in comparison to the effort you did. The effort itself is the reward.
In conclusion, I want to leave everyone with the idea that this life is a mirage. You are here to give and do good. Anything you obtain is not meant to feed you and nourish you, rather it is God that nourishes you so that you can give. Your value is only based in what can you do and produce in terms of goodness. You otherwise have no inherent value. The spirituality teachers are selling you a method in how to obtain a trophy, but the trophy itself has no inherent value, and focusing on this is fruitless and doomed to lead to unhappiness and failure.
Spirituality teachers are good at one thing. And its what not to do. Do not be married to the outcome. Give for givings sake, irrespective if you will get anything back, your reward will be in the hereafter. There is no amount of meditation, giving good vibes to saints, or amulets that will help you achieve anything when compared to a person that gives so that others can receive dignity, peace, and prosperity.
Whether you are chasing work for money, or chasing good vibes for money, you are still chasing money and it will always lead to one who is unable to do good. Desperation for blessings is the root of all evil.
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