God Is (Part 2)

One foggy day in London, a boy was flying his kite. London fogs are notorious for their density. At times you can see not more than a couple of yards ahead. And yet with the string of his kite in his hand, the jolly little fellow was thoroughly enjoying himself. An elderly woman who saw this little game could not make out what pleasure could it possibly be to him when he could not see his kite which was lost in the fog.

Hello Sonnie,” she exclaimed, ” What is the fun? Surely you can`t enjoy it when you don’t see the kite.”  ”But I can feel the pull of it alright,” was the urchin’s prompt reply.

This explains somewhat more approximately the growth of conviction in the heart of man as to the existence of some Supreme Power pervading this universe. God cannot be seen. Nor can we have anything more than a dim comprehension of Him through our reason. To be able to thoroughly enjoy the ” fun ” and to have a firm broad day-light conviction in His existence, we must like the London boy, ” feel the pull ” of Him.

Mahatma Gandhi whose illuminating article on this topic we quoted at full length in our last issue, has admitted with becoming modesty that we can reason out the existence of God only ” to a limited extent.” After giving his correspondent a number of arguments, he very rightly says, ” I confess to him that I have no argument to convince him through reason.” We must not be misunderstood to under-rate the value of reason in our quest after God. With all its limitations, reason is a very useful guide. It points the way to God. It is, so to speak, a finger post that comes to our rescue at the most puzzling cross-roads of theories and counter-theories. But when this much of its function has been said, all has been said. It can do no more beyond pointing the way. It does not, it cannot take us to God.

What is the highest pitch to which the flight of human reason can attain in its quest after God? That there ought to be a God. By its very constitution it is incapable of rising an inch beyond that.But a cold scientific ought to be  has nothing of the warmth and fervour of a living throbbing conviction. A faith limited to the stage of ought to be is seldom a driving force in the actual struggle of life. It is only when like the London boy every moment of your life you actually feel the ” pull of God ” when a living conviction dawns on your mind. You may reason out for a lifetime; you will not get out of the quagmire of doubts and uncertainties. One single ” pull ” from Him and the clouds of doubts disappear. It is broad day light. Your heart overflows with the sunshine of conviction.

You stand, as it were, face to face with Him. The erstwhile ” ought to be ” of reason is transformed into the is of personal experience.To further clear up the point, we must notice the gradation that is obviously there in the psychic phenomenon known as conviction. A conviction may be dim, it may be positive, it may be certain, it may be unshakeable. To illustrate the point, you read in your textbook of the existence of such a city as Paris. You have not seen it, yet you believe in its existence. You meet a Europe-returned friend, and he tells you of his own personal visit to that pretty town. Your previous conviction acquired through books decidedly grows in intensity. You personally undertake a voyage and visit Paris. This is a still higher grade of conviction. Perhaps a much dearer illustration to reveal the anatomy of the fact of conviction is that of fire. You see a column of smoke arise at a distance and you at once conclude that there must be fire over there. You approach the scene and see the conflagration with your own eyes. This gives you a much stronger conviction in the existence of fire. A still higher, in fact the highest stage of conviction is, however, reached when you have the misfortune to be enveloped by one of those raging flames. Then the fact of the existence of fire dawns on you with the fullest force.

And just so in the case of God’s existence. The numerous phenomena of Nature lead you to the conclusion that there must be some Mind working this stupendous machinery. From the law which we observe in Nature, we deduce the existence of a Lawgiver. The infinite chain of causation points to a First Cause and so on and so forth. But all these constitute one stage of conviction, the scientific stage of ”there ought to be a God”. It is useful in its own way, inasmuch as it puts us on the scent. But it is after all a very obscure, dim and distant vision of a reality. Then we come across someone whom we know to be thoroughly righteous. From his lips we hear of his own realization of God. We have no reason to disbelieve him. We have had a life-long experience of his unimpeachable veracity. He tells us how God spoke to him, how God’s word was fulfilled, how God came to his help in some straits. This is bound to give us a far greater conviction in the existence of God, but even this is limited to hearsay and is hardly worth the name of living conviction. Then perhaps in your life, you find yourselves landed in dangerous situations. All doors of human succour are banged on you. There is no one to hear your cry of distress. You find yourself lost in the sea of despair. You do not know what to do and where to turn for help to. When thus utterly helpless, thoroughly cut off from all human support, all of a sudden you experience a ray of hope brighten your heart, emanating from within. The gloom is gone. The fears are no more. The mountain of difficulties may be still there, but you hear a voice ”buck you up” and you feel within you strength unknown before. You may not be able to explain it. Your little philosophy may even scoff at such a thing. But the fact is there. Is there anyone among the great or the small, who has not had some such moment in his own life? This is what we mean by a ” pull ” from Him – this personal experience. At this stage, the conviction drives home to you, it becomes part and parcel of yourself. You simply cannot shake it, not for all the world that may be up against you. You get a new eye, a new vision. You may not be able to explain how, but you see the reality just the same. The blind man may scoff at us but those of us who have got the eyes to see would not for all his arguments that there is no such thing as sun – rather cannot run away from our own personal observation that the luminary does exist. Even so in the case of this spiritual experience. Once your eyes open to that Great Reality through personal experience, you simply cannot stake your conviction as to the existence of God any more than at noontide you can shake your conviction as to the existence of the sun.

In the terminology of Islam, these three stages of conviction are known as Zannul Yaqin; Ainal Yaqin, and Haqqul Yaqin. It is this last that at all counts in our daily life, that entirely re-castes our life. And this is attainable, not through any mental gymnastics of the mulla or the priest, but through personal experience of the nature described above – the ” pull ” of the London boy in this foggy world of doubts and dismay.

         M.Y.Khan

           (To be continued)

        (The Light – 25 October 1928)