To Syed Rafey: My reaction to your mail

Submitted by Plato (United Arab Emirates), Jul 2, 2007 at 09:00

Hello Syed, your words are in inverted commas and you wrote:

"---I am a Muslim from Karachi, Pakistan.

Syed, what we see are not sad Muslims, but angry, furious abusive Muslims. It would be good to see more sad Muslims come out and expose their sadness about the harm their brethren are doing all over the world.

"---In my perspective, as there is no system of justice in place anywhere in the world. So instead of killing, I will make sure all that these faces and issues will be safely "Hijacked from West" and they surrender to One True God - Allah. And I ask Allah to help me. I hope you will help me in making this Hijack.---"

It is obvious that you have no clue about the rest of the world when you say there is no system of justice anywhere. It will improve your perspective if you do a little research on the justice systems of other nations. It is also obvious there is no system of justice in Pakistan from the injustices legally imposed on women and minorities.

"---Let's understand basic need of every human soul. Every human soul wishes to surrender. That is why religions exist right! It is delicate; so many "minds" never get a clue and they pass from this world without noticing it.---"

Just because you wish to surrender to some unseen being does not mean that others want to. There is only one religion that wants surrender that I know of and that is Islam. The others have no such requirement. You also contradict yourself by on the one hand saying every 'soul wishes to surrender' and then saying 'so many minds never get a clue'.

"---And all religions teach humans (in different ways) to lean their heads and surrender to something all Mighty and some value system. Surrender to all Mighty makes human soul satisfied. And it is hard wired in all humans' souls that they will get peace by submitting (surrendering) to divinity.---"

You have got the Islamic values of surrender and submission in your head. Most religions don't teach that nonsense about surrendering to an almighty, though they do teach value systems. If as you say surrender and submission are hard wired how come there have been atheists and agnostics ever since civilisation arose? There are plenty of atheists and agnostics in the world today. Hard-wired brains cannot do anything but what they are wired for. And by submitting to anyone or anything you get to be a slave not peace.

"---Humans cannot stay happy and satisfied life without surrender, and also humans cannot live without freedom. These are two contradictory ideas, but this state of surrendered freedom is possible to attain.---"

Syed, you cannot have your cake and eat it too. Muslims are trying to do it all the time without much success. Surrendering yourself to someone and claiming you are free is an exercise in futility.

"---To make long story short, if you surrender to something "All Mighty", it is possible to have your freedom intact while you are surrendered also. A really satisfied state for any human soul to be!---"

If you consider that surrender to an almighty who threatens you with hell and bribes you with paradise is freedom you are welcome to it but don't expect too many takers.

"---So, in short perspective is "Human must surrender but NOT to any other Human, And only to all Powerful and all Mighty God – Allah, to protect his/her freedom".---"

Is Allah (you are talking of Allah aren't you?) running a protection racket? He seems to be if what you say is correct. What you are saying is humans will have their freedom (from what, who?) protected if they surrender to the almighty and if they do not the almighty threatens to toast you in hell."---Now Let's Get To Basic Need of Body – Food & Water

Congratulations for a great discovery. As a student you seem to have some pretty good teachers.

"---So normally people (except those who are highly conscious) go for fulfilling the needs of body first, before addressing the needs of soul.---"

People with lower levels of consciouness realise that if you don't take care of the body first you won't have a soul to worry about pretty quickly. And what is the soul? You have revealed that many feelings, like that of the need to surrender to an almighty are hard-wired into us, so is the brain the seat of the soul? When the brain is damaged or dead where do those feelings disappear from the body?"---Talking About Need of Body Is Simple

If 'mostly people are not "conscious", then isn't that the natural state for people? And you are right people don't have the time from their daily struggle to live to speculate about something called a soul which idle people with enough 'quality' time on their hands are trying to convince them exists. I can bet you several Pakistani rupees that people would rather spend more quality time taking care of their bodies rather than spend time worrying about an insubstantial soul."---Talking About Need of Soul Is Delicate.

If the almighty has to hold out threats of burning you for ever in hell or give you visions of wine and women in paradise to make you surrender to him, it is not much of a freedom.

"---It is an issue of doing "One Big Justice" to human soul and providing him right "food". It requires conscious soul and egoless personality who do not wish to make other humans to surrender their freedom in front of him/her (leaving surrendered soul hungry and more violent and unfulfilled!).---"

You have me confused there. Who is supposed to do this big justice, the soul to itself?

"---If you have hungry soul, even talking (leaving debating aside) about needs of human soul will create sadness in other human hearts (or perhaps frustration and anger in unconscious minds).---"

This statement of yours has me sad also as I am unable to understand what it means."---Reactive Souls Cannot Help You in True Surrender

You have not told us what this soul food is, but I suspect it is surrender to an almighty. I have already given my reaction to it.

Your foray into religio-psychology and the religio-economics is a bit over the top for me to comment upon. I leave it to braver souls than I who have read and understood them.

Those souls, who do not get "food for soul" for long time, become truly reactive (i.e. unsatisfied). And only if All Mighty wishes someone else has to feed their souls and calm them down through talking, writing or just holding hand or hugging.---" Talking about right model to surrender is a delicate subject like soul. It's delicate because a little "inside reaction" could end up in making one human to surrender in front of other human (certainly not required) and could snatch his/her freedom.While it will lead to the way of true surrender to all Mighty if understood correctly. A surrender where person's freedom stay intact.---" As mostly people are not "conscious", so they "think more" to feed stomach (and ways to comfort body). Though you have seen that all humans wish (rather love) to talk and sometimes even debate about moral value system (i.e. right model to surrender All Mighty). But in reality unfortunately, they have very little quality time to understand the true way to surrender to All Mighty. In this model of living, where soul remains hungry (which basically means unsatisfied), talking about right model to surrender is like untrained extra playing with two sided razor sharp sword in the middle of battle field.---" Let's get to another basic first. You need food and water to survive. If you do not have food you will die. And you don't want to die. And if you die, you will have no soul left within you.These basics are hard wired in all human brains!---" I am a student and not qualified to talk on this subject. But I have a perspective about all the incidents that made Muslims like me sad around the world and I want to share it with you.---"

---

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".