Tuesday, March 19, 2024 | Ramadan 8, 1445 H
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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

It’s a question of faith; never go against its tide

Saleh
Saleh
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While I was enjoying a nice cup of coffee at a café in the Muscat City Center Mall with my cousin, a man walked towards us and sat at the same table. While we were chatting, his wife came over to say a few words to him. When she walked away, he turned to us and with a serious expression on his face, told us he was not very religious.


Perhaps the conversation he had with his wife prompted him to make the confession or he just wanted to take it out of his system. He explained he was always questioning his faith.


He was also, being brought up with devout parents, was not convinced by what they passed on to him. When I asked him what exactly bothered him, he answered me with a question, “Where is the address of the paradise? Where would it be?”


He then went on to question his own faith. In the next five minutes, we just listened and never contradicted him or argued about it. I personally took it all in my stride. The fact that he had to question his faith, at least to me, was a very simple matter.


He never allowed himself to go with the flow. For me the tide of faith goes only one way. It is straight with no meandering routes. It is easy to leave everything in the hands of God rather than speculate. That way, you have the peace of mind knowing that everything is taken care of.


When Sir Isaac Newton came up with the theory of gravitation, I bet he attributed it to the power beyond his rational thinking.


In the same context, when Kepler devised the planetary motion theory, he knew he was transgressing a force beyond his understanding. Again for me, the question of faith has only one answer. Never go against its tide if you want to live happily. If you do, then you will be swept aside and you would never be at peace with yourself. The powerful example happened a fortnight ago right here in Oman. When a man who lost his wife and five daughters in a fire blaze in Barka in a space of just five minutes, quickly came to terms with his problems with six simple words: “It is what God had planned.”


Otherwise, he would have banged his head on the wall and driven himself to insanity.


I also believe that all the suicide bombers reported in the media did not do it in the name of God but because they did not have faith in God. It is as simple as that.


Twenty years ago, I had a similar debate with a friend who almost strayed away in the question of faith. Later, he put himself back on the track. When I asked him why, he told me, “I do not want to take the risk of being in the Day of Judgment than realising it was true all the time and I rejected my faith. It would be too late to come back and correct myself.”


Back to the question of the address of the Paradise or Hell, as the man put it, we need not look too far. Scientists have already proved the vastness of the Universe. Surely, in that vast space where billions of galaxies run rampage, any place would be the address he is looking for.


Again, like my friend of two decades said, he would not want to be in a position when he is resurrected to be guided to the address where Hell is located just because he had a few qualms in his lifetime.


Saleh Al Shaibany


saleh_shaibany@yahoo.com


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