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Faith and Doubt Fellow Travelers
Faith and doubt are twin brothers or sisters in the human condition. The Qur'an recognizes the capacity of the human being to believe or not to believe. Believing in the visible and the tangible is more widely acknowledged by most people when they are confined within their own mental estate. When they venture beyond their own world into the wide world of others where language and concepts rule, chances are one may claim belief when in actual fact belief is not the thing in place, social solidarity has become the mother of all faiths. This is true of religious belief as well as secular faith in ideologies.
There are a number of things to ponder about this revelation about Mother Theresa. To me such revelations are merely articulations of her spiritual journey which was unknown to all of us but a few who travel led along with her in their universe of fears and hopes, promises and anxieties. She was a human being and her belief is Jesus and Christianity most probably were reinforced by the element of doubt.
Without doubt the life of the believer is dull and unexciting. Doubt is a big amphitheater where men and women play gladiators with Satan's paper tigers. The believer who is confirmed in his or her faith is most likely to make the discovery of the scientifically alerted person when he or she knows the difference between a mirage and a body of water in his or her journey from one oasis to the next. One's oasis is the fountain of faith in the most Living God (Allah) and the heat and wind of the desert of daily life are the challenges that face us as we negotiate between the physical and the metaphysical. The faithful believer is someone who has learned to make the distinction between information, knowledge and wisdom. Information about the existence or non-existence of God is galore in our age of vast information. Knowledge about God is a combination of adventure and patience. This is why the Qur'an emphasizes patience as one of the ninety-nine names of the Creator. Without patience the Creator who is constantly disobeyed by his creatures could have pulled the plug of life and existence long time ago. For the faith who believe in the Last Days and Judgment the patience of the Creator is the source of this prolongation of our way of life in civilization and culture since the days of Adam.
Science is another quest of the human being that demands a great deal of patience. In order for the scientists to make breakthrough in their fields of endeavor much time and energy is required. With patience and persistence they became successful. By the same token, the believer in the knowledge of God should know fully well that their challenge is a tall order. The frustrations of the science in his experiments echo the frustrations of the believer trying to hold on to the tail coast of the Prophet or the leader of this long and arduous journey to the Beyond. Moving from information to knowledge one searches for the meaning in life through the collected knowledge of the faith community as well as the wisdom contained therein.
The point of conflict between the experimenter of faith in science and the believer in God is the lack of reinforcement for the deceased ones. Since no one has returned from the dead unless his metaphysics promotes a theological and ontological notion of reincarnation that grants multiple entry visas to all the faithfuls, those of the Abrahamic faith who know fully well that in this life all of us have a one-way ticket to the Beyond. Here information, knowledge and wisdom become the major points of convergence or polarities.
To return to Mother Theresa and her encounter with doubt, let me state here that in the Muslim tradition great thinkers such as Imam al-Ghazzali wrote long time ago that doubt is very much a part of our human condition and the believer whose mind is not captured permanently in the web of the Devil should be able to benefit almost always from these momentary encounters. I use the desert traveler and the oasis metaphor to convey his meaning. Mother Theresa was a human being and for this and other related reasons known only to her and her God I say peace and tranquility be upon her in her grave.
By
Sulayman Nyang
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September 2, 2007; 10:50 AM ET
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Posted by: Erica | October 19, 2007 10:58 AM
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All I know is that Falwell was the one they buried a coupla months ago,so I assume he was the one who died.
Posted by: yoyo | September 3, 2007 11:47 PM
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Yoyo
Holy Toledo! Holy Mackerel!
Don't ask me how, why and when a town and a fish became holy, but Pat Robertson is still alive after all. I'd forgotten it was Jerry Falwell who died last month.
Anonymous is right. I can't tell the difference anymore from Robertson to Falwell to Ahmadinejad. Those fellows who speak of Armageddon, End of Days, Judgement Day. Even Robert Spenser and Bernard Lewis spoke of Armageddon last year.
Gotta to build that bomb shelter below the basement now, stock up on 20 years' supply of food and water, and to practice holding my head under the table. As if all that will help.
Thanks again for reminding that Pat Robertson is still with us.
Best regards as ever
J
Posted by: Jihadist | September 3, 2007 11:26 PM
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Jihadist
I tried to break it to you gently
that Pat Robertson is still alive.
I kid you not.
Check his website or something. He's alive!
Honest to god.
Posted by: yoyo | September 3, 2007 10:39 PM
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Jihadist
You've really forgotten who died last month. Don't care whether it's Robertson or Falwell? They are all the same to you?
Posted by: Anonymous | September 3, 2007 9:47 PM
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Yoyo
Now that's terrirying! Upcoming resurrections of Robertson and Falwell that I don't know of? Is the Apocaplypse, the Armageddon soon to be? And Robertson and Falwell the Messiahs?
But wait, I saw a sighting of Elvis again at 7/11.
Best regards
J
Posted by: Jihadist | September 3, 2007 5:03 PM
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Jihadist
Reports of Pat Robertsons death are greatly exaggerated. If you run a check on him,i think
you'll find he is still breathing and has a pulse.
Jerry Falwell on the other hand is in bad shape eversince they buried him last month.
Posted by: yoyo | September 3, 2007 12:57 AM
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"The faithful believer is someone who has learned to make the distinction between information, knowledge and wisdom".
So well said and so rarely said. Thank you.
Even Christ experienced despair on the cross. That's one of the things that make his story so believable. Mother Theresa once said she did what she did because she had found a Hitler living inside her. That kind of excruciating self honesty is a hallmark of what it means to be a true believer. If Faith is easy, you're not doing it right.
Posted by: Steve W | September 2, 2007 11:59 PM
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Yes, may Mother Teresa, a very human being, finally lie in peace. I can see where the vents many expressed in On Faith threads when Pat Robertson died are coming from. But on Mother Teresa's doubts and her life, it is a bit excessive. She committed no murder, no genocide, no war among others. Nor did she ever urge on Armageddon among her fellow believers.
It does not take anyone much to see that an arrogant, stubborn, reckless head of state or head of government full of certainties instead of doubt, is more dangerous to the world than Mother Teresa.
It seems that some atheists/humanists have lost a bit of their cool reason on Mother Teresa, crucifying her for being both a selfish and selfless human being. We all are both selfish and selfless in varying degrees.
The notion of doubt about faith and beliefs was first espoused by believers, not atheists. Are some atheists extremist doubters, militant sceptics, blinkered cynics and/or closet misanthropes in demanding believers have 100% doubt? Ignoring a thinking human's propensity and tendency to have doubts about everything, and even to have doubts on their own doubts too is rather unrealistic.
Shame on some atheists for showing believers how far away they really are, from the humanism they claim they cherish when it comes to accept Mother Teresa as one who is human.
Thank you and best regards.
J
Posted by: Jihadist | September 2, 2007 9:20 PM
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