Every-thing in my view boils down to one simple equation. Does God exist for us? Or He doesn’t? For me He exists. And I decided about it more than five decades back. Even though my belief in God now is blind and rocklike, and it can not be disturbed or shaken by even the most savage onslaught of the tides of Reason, yet when I first vowed my firm allegiance to the Existence of an Almighty God, it was not without going through a period of questioning, doubt, uncertainty, fear and mental turmoil. I was lucky to find some very convincing answers to all the questions I had in my mind regarding the matters related to the “Natural”, the “Supernatural”, the “Earthly” and the “Celestial”. Let me state here that most of these “answers” sprang up from certain personal experiences which had no basis in the term Reason. I was quick to conclude that Reason had and would always have its limits, and to arrive at Truth through Reason required many a lifetime. Here I am now. A Believer. A Believer who says: “There is no God but God. And Mohammad (PBUH) is His Prophet.”A believer need not be a Muslim. But I am. The reason I am, is that in my view there has to be one God. And because He has to be One, He has to possess same Attributes and Qualities. God cannot be One and Many at the same time. God cannot be Creator and Created at the same time. God cannot be a Single Entity and a Family at the same time. Thus I arrived at the conclusion that it was God of Mohammad (PBUH) and Of Al Quran Who was the Real God. The One and the Only. Whom none had given birth to, and Who had given birth to none. Who stood Mighty in His Oneness. And Sublime. And Invisible. And with no shape. No limits. Who had created the Universe and all that existed and would exist from infinity to infinity. Everything, as I said, boils down to the recognition of this one fact. If I do believe that there is God, and that He is God of Mohammad Who has revealed Himself, His Will and His Guidelines in His Book (Al Quran), I simply have to believe that whatever He has commanded, ordained and prescribed for us in His Verses is final, irrefutable, undisputable and irrevocable. If anyone cannot make himself or herself come to believe in the Word of God, and if anyone considers the Word of God in conflict with his or her concept of liberalism, libertarianism, enlightenment and moderation, the best course for him or her is to declare his or her exact state of belief. A person is either a Muslim, or not. In between is nothing but void. And those who live in this void don’t have any right to decide about the destiny of 160 million Muslims of Pakistan.
(This Column was first published on 08-08-2007)
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