“In my lifetime, I have always believed that God was Truth. Today I have found that Truth is God.”—Mahatma Gandhi

What is faith? How can it be tackled? And can we refer to ourselves as people of faith in this ever-pragmatic world that we inhabit? Does my religion have supremacy over yours? Are we at an ideological clash of no meeting point with “the other?”

Obviously, these questions are not to be tackled in one article, but they are certainly questions that we all face in our daily lives. Whether we choose to ignore them, or tackle them is what divides us into those who reason and those who submit. It divides us between those who attain faith through knowledge, and those who believe because they were told to. And we are thus divided.

In his famous book Faith and Belief: And the Difference Between Them, former Harvard theologian William Cantwell Smith asserts that today’s world rarely has people of faith, but rather we are people of identity. Muslims for example, are more pre-occupied with their Muslim identity as opposed to their Islamic faith. Let’s examine this with closer detail using the following example:

While with friends in Kuwait this past December a continued discussion unfolds among my friends and I as to the role of religion in state affairs. While I advocate for “little religion is best religion in state affairs,” my friends seem to submit to the following logic: God’s law is supreme to man’s law and that is the law we want. The interest that I have with this perspective is not its validity (which is certainly arguable) but rather on the validity of its usage.

For the most part, most of my friends who advocate for “Gods law” are those who do not abide by God’s commandments. They rarely pray, they never face-up to the challenge of fast, and have never visited the holy land while they are able to. To them, since it’s Gods law, it is THE LAW and therefore cannot be questioned. But my response to them has always been: How confident are you that this is God’s law? What makes it supreme? Have you tested the latitude of your faith? The answer is almost always the same-BLASPHEMY!

Here I think it is important to refer to the initial quote of the Mahatma: To me blasphemy is not the questioning of religion, but blasphemy is the ignorance that comes with submission. A person who is of faith due to strong conviction and after much examination and reasoning is of stronger bond to God than those who submit because they were told to.

Let us examine here the term religion in Arabic: Religion is called din with the root word of dayn (or loan). The idea therefore is that we owe God a great debt, which we must repay by becoming loyal servants. So the question is: How do repay this loan? Consider this example:

If I were to borrow a book from OZM (an active member of buzberry’s team) he would expect that I were to read it. I didn’t. I returned the book and therefore no longer owe OZM anything. Until he asks about it’s content, and then I stand in bewilderment and shame, not knowing how to answer. OZM in turn, asks “MHG, if you had no intention of reading the book and understanding it, why did you borrow it?

That is a good example of faith: I can pray, I can fast and I can give alms and perform my duties as prescribed by God but that is no measure of my faith. Yet those who pray, fast, give alms and perform their religious duties with knowledge and better understanding of it are of higher faith and to me, closer to God.

God does not ask us to submit, he refuted that upon the inception of Islam. Blind submission was a characteristic of the Jahilya (old age), which Islam came to overtake. A person of faith is a person who puts their humanism first. Understands that various cultures and religions only ENRICH our lives and has always been and shall continue to be, a contributing factor to the progression of humanity.

Those of faith and those of submission are at a clash. It is a clash that breads others: Peacemaker vs. Terrorist, Intellect vs. Fool. We all seek the way to God and therefore we are…Divided for God.

But to me the way of reason is the way to attainting (or refuting) faith and is the true way to God. To refute God out of conviction, knowledge, and solid reason is far better than submission and zealous. A person of intellect can interact with another person of reason and intellect regardless of faith. But a person of religious zealous shall always be at a clash for they are not persons of faith but of misunderstanding.

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MHG