Carpe Diem

It's difficult to carpe diem (seize the day) when you've got essay and exam overload.

Now I'm back at uni I'm surrounded by student zombies whose lives have been reduced to eating, *occasionally* sleeping and revising, revising, revising. It's a life that is so focused upon the short term gains that it becomes difficult to remember a world outside your designated revision area. Hence the lack of day-seizing.

It's tradition with me to sit down with whoever's close by when coming to exam time and complain about the approach to education that we currently have in place. Seeing as no-one is around at the moment, I thought that my blog would be the ideal place this year.

I'm standing back and having to witness a system which merely encourages us all to study to pass exams, rather than study for knowledge. There's no value left in education nowadays, and it disgusts me that I'm abiding by such a system which day-by-day is destroying the potential that lurks behind my mind and the minds of so many around me.

I didn't start thinking like this for no reason. It has a cause: Secondary school (or, "high school" as the Americans call it.) During my time at school I came across the so called "academically outstanding" girls who, for example, were studying Biology up to their A-Levels. Yet regardless of the "knowledge" that they had acquired, they still chose to participate in destructive activities such as smoking, drinking excessively etc. Everything that they were learning was going in through one ear and out the other. What was the point in learning what they weren't going to put into practice? Why learn something that has absolutely no effect on your own life? They were great at getting As in their exams, but when it came to practicing what they had learnt, they failed miserably.

At uni things aren't really as bad. A lot of the people I've come across are feeling a similar sense of frustration towards a system that solely takes into account the final grade of a student rather than their effort all year round, or even the knowledge that they've put into practice.

But during exam time even the ones who are frustrated with the system, including myself, suddenly have to close their minds to the rest of the world. The problem is, the more we end up focusing on one aspect of our life, the more we forget how valuable the rest of our life is. For "Carpe diem" is just another way of saying live each day as your last: Every second that ticks by is a step closer to death. (I recommend the film "Dead Poets Society" to illustrate my point.)

Unfortunately until the system changes, I'm going to have to be a part-time sheep and conform. The best I can do is repeat over and over in my head the following words:

"If you study to remember you will forget. But, if you study to understand you will remember."

*Sigh* Back to revision.

Faith. It's all about faith.

OK, so let's see if I can do this...

"...The meaning of "void" is a place without any spatial object in it. Now "place" and "a spatial object" are in that type of relation where one does not precede the other, so that if there is place there is, necessarily, a spatial object, and if there is a spatial object there is, necessarily place. It is therefore not possible for a place to exist without a spatial object; whereas by "void" a place without spatial object is meant. It is not possible for absolute void to exist."

Recently I’ve been reading "On First Philosophy" by Yusuf al-Kindi (a.k.a. “The Philosopher of the Arabs,”) for an Islamic Philosophy essay. The extract above is one of his easier concepts.

A lot of Muslims completely disregard so-called "Islamic Philosophy," and argue that Islam and philosophy just don’t go. They argue that it is ultimately impossible to use reason to prove that there is a God etc. Now, personally I'd been trying to understand their perspective, because to be honest, I'd been using a heck of a lot of reasoning to prove in my mind that there has to be a God. Of course revelation played an important role too, but so did my own reasoning.

The quote above sparked off a discussion and I figured that I shouldn't let such a discussion go unrecorded… so here it goes:

To put it in the simplest of terms, the above quote eventually implies that there is no such thing as void, and therefore something must always have existed = God. For existence cannot come into being without something to have always existed. You can't get something (e.g. the world) from nothingness; you can't have existence from non-existence. This is pretty much the reasoning I'd been using for the past five years to make sense of God's eternal existence.

Problem.

As it was pointed out to me, Yusuf-al-Kindi's thoughts are flawed, and therefore so is my own reasoning. Al-Kindi is restricted to using the laws of physics of this world to "prove" that there is a God. The ideas of existence and non-existence, void etc. are all just part of the laws of physics that we understand in THIS world. However, the laws of physics in other universes and worlds may be different, so that such reasoning cannot be applied universally, so to speak. Basically for the ultimate proof of God's existence, we need to find proof that is universally applicable. Eventually whatever reasoning I may use "prove" that there is a God, will always be counteracted by an opposing theory. After all, everything, including reasoning, has been made in pairs. Whatever reasoning I use to argue that there is a God; there will always be opposing arguments.

A while back I saw a documentary based on the life of Einstein. The one thing that really stuck out for me was that he had devoted his entire life to finding the "key." In other words, his whole life was dedicated to searching for the formula for creation itself. In essence this is also what Islamic Philosophers were doing. They were trying to use reasoning to understand the Creator and the creation- it was just another way to use rationality to show that there is a God.

I was then reminded of a story about the Prophet 'Isa (Jesus, peace be upon him,) where his disciples had requested food straight from Paradise. God agreed to send the food to them, but said very clearly to 'Isa (PBUH,) that if any of his disciples were to disobey God now, after clear proof had been given to them of His existence, then there would be no mercy for them:

“Behold! The disciples, said: "O Jesus the son of Mary! Can thy Lord send down to us a table set (with viands) from heaven?" Said Jesus: "Fear God if ye have faith." They said: "We only wish to eat thereof and satisfy our hearts, and to know that thou hast indeed told us the truth; and that we ourselves may be witnesses to the miracle." Said Jesus the son of Mary: "O Allah (God) our Lord! Send us from heaven a table set (with viands), that there may be for us - for the first and the last of us - a solemn festival and a sign from thee; and provide for our sustenance, for thou art the best Sustainer (of our needs)." God said: "I will send it down unto you: But if any of you after that resisteth faith, I will punish him with a penalty such as I have not inflicted on any one among all the peoples."” (The Holy Qur’an, 5:112-115.)

Woah.

Now for Muslims God is believed to be THE MOST Merciful, so what made the disciples any different all of a sudden? Why was it that God would punish the disciples if they resisted faith and acting upon it now? Well, the fact that they now had CLEAR proof that God exists. If they chose to disobey God despite PROOF of His existence, why then should He forgive them?

So, back to Al-Kindi and all those who wanted to prove that God existed- well, if they ever did find proof, then no man would have the choice to not to believe in God. Is it not that choice, and freedom to believe or not believe in Him what makes us human? If that freedom is taken away, then essentially there is no excuse not to believe and no excuse not to act on that belief. To believe in a religion or in God isn’t a matter of reason or even revelation, it’s a matter of pure faith.

The works of those people who tried to make sense of creation wasn’t in vain. Regardless of anyone’s view on Islamic Philosophy, there is no doubt that a lot of their ideas can be used to enhance one's faith; as it has done in my instance. But at the end of the day, it's my faith that makes me believe, and no one can take that away from me except God Himself.

Conclusion: No one will ever be able to PROVE the existence of God in this life. Believing in Him is just a matter of faith. As it is said in the Qur'an:

"It is not required of thee (O Messenger), to set them on the right path, but God sets on the right path whom He pleaseth. Whatever of good ye give benefits your own souls, and ye shall only do so seeking the "Face" of God. Whatever good ye give, shall be rendered back to you, and ye shall not be dealt with unjustly.” (The Holy Qur’an, 2:272)

“We sent not a messenger except (to teach) in the language of his (own) people, in order to make (things) clear to them. Now God leaves straying those whom He pleases and guides whom He pleases: and He is Exalted in power, full of Wisdom.” (The Holy Qur’an 14:4)

And so forth.

My reason, and therefore philosophy enhances my understanding of my faith, as does revelation and therefore theological understanding. But the truth is, without my FAITH, I'm nothing.

A Little Out of it at the mo

Written two years ago but I see it today. As I sometimes say: Don't judge my religion by its followers. We rarely do justice to the faith anymore.

I'm working on another post which will be up soon Insha'Allah.