Humans started worship gods as soon as they had become recognizably human.Thus religion is something innate in humans at one level - and also something cultivated at a different level, which is rather like art or poetry. At one level everyone can proclaim a belief, but real iman (faith) has to be cultivated – and not by therapy or new age yoga sessions. It takes a person greatest effort to achieve this strong and all-encompassing faith; this is not achieved by idle speculation about Holy Books – for this is irrelevant for a true mystic.
It was not tacked to a primordially secular nature by manipulative kings or priests but was natural to humanity. Indeed current secularism is an entirely new experience unprecendented in human history. We have yet to see how it will work. Our ethical secular ideal has its own disciplines of mind and heart and gives people faith in ultimate meaning of life that were provided by more conventional religions. It is impossible not to have a religion in this sense.
The greatest error of those who assume that God is an objective reality – a Being to be supported and fought against – is that they fight or support something that does not really exist. Here both sides of the argument are rather irreligious or faithless for they attach attributes to God, attributes that are human and emotional.
As Hadith Qudsi says “ I was a hidden Treasure and I yearned to be known. Thus I created people to be known by them”. There is no rational proof of God’s sadness; it can only be deduced from our perpetual longing for the embrace with the Absolute. Each human being is a unique epiphany of a Hidden God, manifesting him in a particular and unrepeatable manner.
