God is a Metaphor

Dear Dr. Sohail,

I have a question for you.

Allah in Arabic is a combination of two words. Al which means what is and lah which means what is not.

Muhammad (PBUH) didnt say God, Kuddah etc neither did Jesus of Nazreth. You must know that in times of jesus or before , Roman kings used to claim they are son of Gods. So God was more of an empror and ideed a metaphor.

However elah and Allah have entirely different connotations.

So my question is do you know what Muhammad meant when he said `Allah is one` . What was Muhammad really referring to?

Allah is a very specific word a phenomenon never to be used for idols or even persons. None ever claimed that ``I am Allah``. As the word which means what is and what is not (every thing) can simply be not used. It is very defined expression and at the same time very simple expression and definition of God which is quite different than the representaions you put forward to defend secular athiesm. Since you are writing articles not purely on psyciatry, are you not delving into a bit of philosophy. If you are, then why would you present an argument based on misunderstood notions and cleche`s as if you are being part of the same confused audiences you in the first place wanted to help out with this article.


Thanx

Re: # 181
dear mamoon...thank you for your keen interest in the article. you have raised a number

of questions in your letter. i have no idea what mohammad meant by...allah....i am not an

arabic or islamic scholar. i know there are polytheistic traditions...monotheistic

traditions...and secular traditions...abrahamic tradition that mohammad followed was the

monotheistic tradtion

i am of the opinion that one can have

.... a religious attitude towards life....and have a blind faith in one`s religious tradition and

believe in a creator and prophets and consider holy books as divine revelations....

since there are not only different rather contradictory interpretations of scriptures

associated to GOD they cannot all be true

....a secular attitude towards life....based on history and science and philosophy ,,,,and

consider different religious traditions as part of mythology....and accept scriptures as

wisdom literature....after reading quran when i read old testament i was amased how many

stories were similar....now i realize that they are all part of middle eastern tradition.

....joseph campbell shared in his books that there are seven mythologies that different

cultures have created and in each culture there are different names for that GREAT

MYSTERY that we cannot understand rationally and logically...in middle east it was called

ALLAH....in other cultures that muystery has different name.

i am just presnting a theory...you do not need to accept it....

maybe you can read my dialogue with khurram in this discussion...that might clarify some

of the questions you are asking.

my request to all believers in GOD is to share with me their encounters with GOD...being a

student of human psychology i have a great interest in such mystical encounters....if they

did not have any encounters that means that their belief is based on a blind faith...and if

they were born in a different culture then they would have accepted the faith of that family

and culture as most people die with the same faith as their parents had....i think time has

come that we critically challenge the faith we were born in....what do you think? if you

were born in a christian or a jewish or a hindu family what would you have believed in?

most muslims that i met never understood the meaning of the holy book they believe

in...how sad...don`t you think people need to understand the book they would like to follow

in their life and discover the right interpretation. i read interpretations of maulana maududi,

ghulam ahmed pervaiz, abul kalam azad and many more and they all had different

interpretations.....now i realize that in wisdom literature different interpretations is a

positive thing but if you want to make a law then we all need the same interpretation. now i

believe that religion needs to be a private affair and state law needs to be based on secular

and humanist priciples so that all citizens have equal rights and privileges.sincerely sohail

If God is a metaphor, idol-worship is also a metaphor. It is not the pure stone that one worships but the spirit of god in the cut-stone that has a metaphorical connotation.

There is a story. Vivekananda asked an atheist king to spit on a photo of himself. The king could not do it. The photo is after all just plain paper. Yet, that paper carries a spirit (an image) and that is the mataphorical truth.

I liked this artile.

V.S.Gopalakrishnan

Do you think the miracles performed by the prophets, and the scriptures they got from God are lies?

How do you explain scriptues telling people about many unknown realities years and sometimes centuries before human intellect developed to the height where it could understand and vrify these phenomenons?

How do you explain the constant failure of humans in meeting hte challenge of the quran to produce a chapter like it? How do you explain that some human could write a book so high in literary standards that is still cannot be explained or reproduced by the highest scholors of that language?

The science people refer to for showing that religion and God arent real itself is always based upon unprovable or unknown assumptions. One cant prove or exen explain what ``charge`` is yet people use electricily. Amost in every century some great so called established laws of science take a turn and are proven to be wrong. Using such flawed and incomplete tools to dismiss the idea of God which is but natural in people is just an expression of being biased, stubborn and ignorant.

no offense brother but the truth is what it is :)

Re: # 178
dear imransuhail...did i read it right that you called me...biased, stubborn and ignorant.

how sad. i respect your views even if i disagree with you....sincerely sohail

Re: #175 SaimaShah,

Et tu! Chowkie #1!

``God ....is a name for what we do not know``

What does this mean?
Is it something like this.....
We don`t know what causes earthquakes. So we say God causes earthquakes. Later we find out what causes earthquakes. So, we don`t say anymore that God causes earthquakes.

Is that what you mean?

Enjoyed this deeply. What I`d like to add is also that no matter whether we see ourselves as believers or unbelievers, agnostic or atheist, we create God. It isn`t just the prophets who create God, but we all do. God is not just an abstract idea of an external entity, it is a name for what we do not know. How we react to the unknown, with what courage we face uncertainty, how we do it, is our definition of God. The definition of a personal God, overlooking our lives, (like an icon on our desktop) helps to connect with our deepest sense of self and consciousness. Religion is delightful because it is like a riddle to solve the great mystery of life--which is a gigantic puzzle about the nature of physical, mental and spiritual reality. I hope that before I die, I am one step closer to experiencing my true self. I know that it does not lie within this body, but somewhere close, like a computer program is distributed between interfaces and memories, I too am distributed in the various experiences of mind, body and emotions. Perhaps spirit is the synergy between these. To find ourselves is to find God. Different religions have a different myth but the connecting feature is spirit. There are many such ideas and features e.g.:
1. Spirit
2. The idea of goodness
3. The idea of sacrifice
4. The idea of being irrevocably connected to God.
5. The experience of love
6. The sense of separation from the True One

Re: # 175
Dear Saimashah...thank you for your thoughtful comments. When you use the word `spirit`

are you using it as the essence of human beings or as a separate`entity` that existed before

birth and will survive after death. What do you consider the basis of your life choices...your

own experiences and your own truth or faith in religious doctrines presented by prophets

hundreds of years ago as their truth? thanks once again....sincerely sohail

Re: # 176

Dear Dr Sohail,

Enjoyed the question. Am I rational, empirical and self reliant, or do I need a vastly revered authority figure...:)

Ok here is a frank reply:

1. The question whether the spirit is the essence of human beings or whether spirit is a sep entity--doesn`t it also remind you of the divide between polytheism and monotheism. Maulana rumi and the sufis, saw life as a separation from the One. If so, than God is the sum total of human energy, a sum total of all living consciousness and is distributed among us all. Perhaps this explains the time-space continuum. . This idea very similar to the romantic idea of Gaia, life force or what have you. It is the only explanation for the continuous sense of separation that people have felt down the ages. I have all sorts of odd reasons for thinking so. From Rumi to the nature of technological evolution and discovery. Why did humans invent so many communication devices? What is this need and drive to communicate? Why do people want love.
2. Do I believe in my own truth or in others truths. My own for sure. I am fascinated by the connection of poetry to religion--all religious texts are poems. Their writers had vast mystical inspiration--perhaps their spirit could tap into the higher consciousness or altered reality that we find so difficult to do. So I find them gigantic puzzles to analyze and synthesize.
3. Once upon a time, a couple of years ago, I wrote this. You may see it as a mystical experience or not:

I woke from a long deep sleep, very awake and alert as though there were two minds in mine. One had suddenly been uncovered and a little uncomfortable. The new mind was very detached and different. It was almost disdainful of my lived experience. It knew beyond a shadow of doubt that I was not. I tried to work that out in some rational way, but it was impossible to stop knowing this. I simply did not exist. I was but a memory strung together to be a life and something was recording me. I felt that I was not inside my body really, but just a recording machine whose job it is to witness everything that this woman feels. And that is the odd one. Feels. The purpose it seemed to say, was not to succeed, but to garner happy feelings. And I remember asking this mind inside mine, `but what?? what about goodness, success, duty etc. etc.` ` Your task it said is to find happiness. Otherwise you will die and all your memories. Goodness is happiness. Duty is happiness. You are nothing but the sum total of your experiences.` ``What will happen to me if I don`t get happy or am not good, I asked.`` `Your life will be useless and all your memories erased.` ``And what is your purpose?`` No answer. ``And what do you need from me``. `Your goodness and happiness`. Why? Because we all die if no-one is happy. `Why is happiness the key`. ``Because that is the nature of the experiment.`` ``If you are happy, we all live, if you are unhappy, it (the experiment) dies.``

Upon reflection, I saw the same idea reflected in many religious myths, reincarnation, heavan or hell etc. Something dreadful will happen if humanity is not good, we will revoked, finished. I guess our consciousness dies, thats pretty sad. I asked it again. ``So Is there life after death.` `There is no death, only submission if you are good and happy. You will be taken in, and your memories will become one.` I was sad, because I truly don`t want to lose my self. But the thing laughed and said, `Do you really think you are you?` And I said, `no I guess not.` `` Enjoy this woman you live as, if you do you will be, otherwise your memories will be erased.`` I had no chance or energy to ask more questions. Day faded into night.

Re: # 194
dear saimashah....i like your creative and mystical approach to life and religion and

scriptures...and enjoyed your creative writing piece....wish you all the best...sohail

Dr Sohail,

Great article, thanks

Re: # 173
rf786...thanks for the appreciation....sohail

Regarding your article God is a Metaphor, true, I too learnt metaphors in language class, English language to be exact. Not from psychiatry books, and never from psychology books. Though why should you make it seem as if ” concrete” was directly opposite to a “metaphor”! There could be variations of softer image in the “ concrete “reality . However a metaphor does take away the heavy weight from such words like “ faith” and’belief’! If you take away the ‘concrete’ way of looking at certain higher thought; faith and belief start flying around like mere clouds around a simple ‘metaphor’! Now I’m really interested in the use of “abstract Thinking” as a measure of mental and emotional maturity. Really now there otta be a proper psychological test to ascertain whether a patient can take it. I mean if a patient is really mature and Can take it when he is told the truth about say, a fatal disease! Just See how people blindly follow the demands of modernity. They all wear a certain “positive-ness” and as if it is a fashion they challenge the Doctor, “ C’mon Doc, tell me how long do I have to live!” and the doctor just as main stream, honestly tells the patient how short he is expected to live. Then the carefully cultivated veneer of being positive, collapses. The patient is a nervous wreck. Each sign and symptom is that of impending death. How many deaths will such anxious patients die! ? Such patients who we couldn’t see through behind their apparent maturity modernity and even responsibility, attitude? Imagine what-happens to the family who depend upon such personalities, life has such a flat effect when such charming personalities, crash and agonisingly go into oblivion....

Re: # 171
dear foggy1....can you share your belief about GOD.....and HIS/HER role in your life and

how your philosophy is different than the belief of family and community you grew up in....

sincerely sohail

Aricle with some brief exposition of abstractness but sufferred from pshycological dilemma of falling fr the same trap mr.Sohail accused less abstract minds fall for when they try to literally interpret God and his doings.

God is on average a largely misunderstood cleche and not strictly a scientific metaphor. Only if linguistic diversification is an outcome of metaphor, indeed then word god is a metaphor symbolising a phenonmenon.

Unfortunately Law, legal or social, follows law of averages. If every one is so logical to understand the abstract philosophy of God and not only that but act in the society with utmost coordination and good faith, no authoritarian cleche`s and interpretations to the Man`s intellectual contact to Nature (GOD) be needed.

As a researcher one needs to look into patterns to understand the emphasis on theology in older times which ended up being one of the key contributions to human society and its developments (I am talking about prophets: again a metaphor in the context of this discussion).

Now if athiest believes in nature in contemprary times he believe in God (the misunderstood cleche cum metaphor). Nature is an expression which brings more such Words, expressions and feelings only to define the abstract phenomenon in a different yet more scientific manner.



The expressions ``Messenger of God`` or message of God sounds the same as law of nature or natural event.

Now God /Nature does not work in complex and mostly contradictory manner but human society does follow exactly such trends. Less scientific mind or a scientific mind but a politically twisted mind may manipulate, complicate, misrepresent or confuse simple ideas for some self interest. A quality exercised by most human beings irrespective of power or no power, and this is just one of the practices of futile complexities, just as a matter of routine, one may witness every day.

I listen to Bulle shah, and his poetry shows that his abstract understanding about life was something of extraordinary stature and exceptionally well defined. He was a philosopher of extreme logic. Now if every human being reaches this level I agree with Mr. sohail humans would not need to practice less abstract, much defined, many times repressive and mostly confined ways to reason nature.

I agree these days scientific innovation has helped many of us to have a well developed understanding of GOD. But first only few could benefit but most still live in repressed environments where explaintions of their plight are merely utterances of confusion not only by the repressed ones themselves, be it the repression of mind or body, but the confusion entail socalled doctors of the system too.

So in my view believing in nature is again believing in the metaphor God, which is a philosophy of life, rather than an identity, but mostly embracing the new cleche/and less of a metaphor than GOD is understadning the secrets of this universe and our own existence though in a less abstarct manner than what some thing a poet like Bulle shah would believe in.

So let us not confuse God the metaphor while trying to make a comparison of philosophy and ignorance, and our behavioral constraints which makes many of us less logical sometimes consiously and sometimes unconciously.

sattar:
i get mad-retarded in those moments, i can`t even think straight, let alone to call up my imaginary buddies from childhood. (but i got you)