3. ALIENATION - THE FALL

 

The Quran tell us that man was part of the harmony of the Universe, but he rebelled and cut himself off from this harmony. This kind of harmony is or was still found among the so called primitive tribes found in many isolated parts of the world. It is supposed by some people that all humanity was in this state in the past, that they represent the childhood of humanity, an age of innocence. That it is the development of human culture, technology and organisation over the centuries which has caused the loss of this innocence. In view of the many psychological, social and environmental problems which these developments have created for mankind today, and which threaten their very existence, it has been suggested that humanity should return to this kind of life. But it is not possible to go backwards because these developments have introduced new factors which affect the future. Nor is it compatible with the religious aim or the process of evolution which require increasing knowledge, responsibility and control. It is the arising of problems and their solution which fuels evolution.

A reading of the Quran indicates that the Fall of man and his gradual re-ascent was inevitable, predicted and part of the Grand Plan. The Universe itself arose by disintegration from a state of Unity and is evolving upwards again. It is known, also, that many civilisations have existed since very ancient times and that they have degenerated. It may, therefore be the case that some of these tribes are the result of degeneration rather than being relics of a bygone age. The idea that change is always everywhere an upward evolutionary process is no longer compatible with modern knowledge. Nor has there been a thorough analysis of what the real causes of the human predicament are.

The main cause according to the Quran is given in the following verse:-

"And be not ye as those who forgot Allah, therefore He caused them to forget their own souls. Such are the rebellious transgressors." 59:19

The Fall of man can be regarded as a state of being in which man is cut off from Allah, the ultimate Unity, and therefore, from the Spirit of Allah within. In effect it consists of being cut off from one's own true self and, therefore, from Reality. All human problems, psychological, social as well as physical and environmental can be traced to this single condition.

The Fall can, however be understood in a number of ways:-

1. The Universe, and all things in it, including man arise from an ultimate Unity by a process of disintegration or involution followed by evolution back to unity. The fundamental particles differentiate from a homogeneity and then unite progressively through atoms, cells, organisms, communities and so on until the Absolute unity is restored. man is part of this process. He comes from Allah and must return to Him.

2. The forces which animate and energise man come from above, that is from Cosmic and Solar radiation and descend to produce him physically. Man, therefore, comes from above but is now limited by his physical body and material environment.

3. The expulsion of man from Paradise refers to the loss of the state of innocence and harmony in which he existed in primitive times,

4. The child is born innocent and in a sate of perfection but cultural conditioning, upbringing and the experiences in the world corrupt and limit him. He has become imprisoned in a crust of of conditioning.

5. Psychologically man has a great number of faculties which lie dormant. Only a few of these are ever used and they are used to a limited extent owing to the narrowness of his interests.

6. Man is internally organised as a hierarchy or pyramid such that each lower level is controlled by a higher. But the 'self', the centre of control and awareness, has descended this ladder so that instead of consciously controlling himself, he is being controlled from unconscious levels.

7. Man, owing to the misuse of his creativity, has invented fantasies, lies, and illusions. He has formed attachments, addictions, obsessions and habits which restrict him. He has, therefore, created an alternative subjective world in which he lives, and alternative gods which he serves and worships.

It is probable that all these meanings are included in the notion of the Fall and that they are all inter-dependant. Here we shall consider the psychological and social implications.

"Surely We created man of the best stature, then We reduced him to the lowest of the low, save those who believe and do good works, and theirs is a reward unfailing." 95:4-6

"By the Sun and his splendour, and the Moon as she follows him, and the Day when it reveals him, and the Night when it conceals him; by the Heavens and its wondrous structure, and the Earth and its expanse, and the Soul and its proportions and order, and its conscience of what is wrong for it and what is right for it; he indeed is successful who causes it to grow and he indeed is a failure who stunts it." 91:1-10

"Oh, but man is a telling witness against himself, though he tenders his excuses." 75:14-15

"Nay verily man is rebellious that he thinks himself independent." 96:6-7

"He thinks that his wealth will render him immortal. Nay, but verily he will be broken to pieces." 104:3-4

"Nay, but those who do wrong follow their own lusts without knowledge." 30:29

"Nay, but you do love the fleeting Now, and neglect the hereafter." 75:20-21

"Man prays for evil as he prays for good; for man was ever hasty." 17:11

"He is successful who grows, and remembers the name of his Lord and prays. but you prefer the life of the world although the Hereafter is better and more lasting." 87;14-17

"He who does right it is for his soul, and he who does wrong it is against it." 41:46

"Whatever of misfortune strike you, it is what your right hands have earned. And He forgives much." 42:30

"Man is self-destroyed: How ungrateful." 80:17

 

The Spirit of Allah in man refers to his real self, the centre of integration, the source of his higher faculties, namely consciousness, conscience and will. It is these faculties which keep him in contact with Reality. To loose contact with Allah is to loose contact with oneself as well as reality. He who is not conscious, for him nothing can exist, neither himself nor the world. Nor can he control anything. He is reduced to an automaton.

The word "Alienation" is used in Psychology to refer to the condition in which a person is cut off from his own real or natural self, from reality and from the society and other fellow beings. In order to understand how this can happen we must refer to the distinction, already described, between the Essence, the Personality and Volition; between what is inherent, acquired and cultivated.

 

Hunger for food, for instance, is built in, but the kind of foods we may like or dislike depend on the tastes we have acquired. The amount and quality of food we requires to live depends on our genetic make-up and will vary with the work we do and the conditions of work e.g temperature, humidity etc. But we may have acquired habits of eating only certain things at certain times or places and in certain quantities. The desire for food may be associated with the detection of a certain aroma of cooking or the mention of foods. Thus a distinction arises between needs and wants. This applies also to a great range of other things. Desires may be quite different from needs, and may even turn out to be harmful, some of them quite lethal. Man dislikes bitter things in the natural state, but many people have acquired the taste for such things, beer for instance. Some people like to receive or inflict pain. Attachments, habits and fixations are formed. This is a property of the mind not of the body.

One of characteristics of human beings is that they seek not only (a) to fulfil needs as animals do, but also (b) seek that which is beneficial and enhances, (c) they are capable of weighing up the benefits of one thing against another, (d) taking into consideration the needs or benefits of others.

Greed, therefore, refers not to wants which have gone beyond needs as usually supposed (the good things in life are not forbidden in Islam), but wants which ignore needs, which do harm to oneself or others, and which sacrifice a greater for a lesser good. This requires ignorance, obsession, addiction or attachment. The object of desire may be regarded as exerting a hypnotic effect on a person in that his consciousness is restricted to it and it now controls him. It, therefore, affects thinking, motivation as well as action. Habits, automatisms and conditioning may be regarded in the same light. Pride, prejudice, fanaticism, vanity, gluttony, lust, laziness, envy, the obsessional desire for pleasure, excitement, wealth, power, prestige and attention are also forms of greed or addiction which are connected with fear, anxiety, phobias, leading to fantasies, illusions, delusions and hallucinations. All these conditions cause a suspension of the human faculties for consciousness, conscience and will.

Man is a social creature. The child particularly is dependant on the adults. It learns by imitation, trial and error, instruction, approval and disapproval, punishment and reward, training, association between the data of experience, and the channelling of effort. Learning depends on what is perceived to be (not necessarily actually) advantageous or disadvantageous, the intensity (strength), extensity (number of repetitions) and cotensity (the number of links) of stimuli. What a person learns, his acquired patterns of behaviour, because of its social advantages may, therefore, turn out to contradict and conflict with other instincts and inherent tendencies. Indeed, as suicide shows, it may even contradict a person's self-preservative instinct.

The acquired characteristics tend to form a layer or crust around the Essence. It has also been called "rust" or "veil" in the Quran. (83:14-15 50:22). A conflict or contradiction now arises between the personality and the essence.

Conflict constitute a problem which must be solved. If they are not solved because of laziness, cowardice, ignorance, lack of ability or greed then mental suffering results. But the human psyche is constructed to avoid pain. A contradiction constitutes a stimulus whose function it is to arouse us to find a solution. And this consists of removing the problem. There are three methods of doing this - attack, defence, or escape. We can destroy the source of the problem, erect defensive barriers against it or run away from it. The solution depends on intelligence, knowledge and motivation. affected by personality traits. Each of these solutions could be either objective, subjective or perverse. That is they can solve the real problem, or solve it only in fantasy, or by creating some kind of deviated behaviour. Earning a living, for instance, solves the problem of need objectively, but theft solves it perversely because it creates other problems which also need to be solved. They could be solved purely in the mind. Awareness could be repressed by creating some kind of defence mechanism or an elaborate world of fantasies. The mind protects itself from such conflicts and contradictions by erecting mental barriers. This is also a solution, but a negative one.

We also need to understand the difference between the Conscious, subconscious and unconscious minds. These differences are now well established in Psychology. It has always been understood in Religion.

 

The word "mind" is used to refer to patterns of behaviour rather than to the physical structures of the brain. It refers to the flow of energy, to the programming, the software, to use an analogy from computers, rather than the hardware. Consciousness refers to awareness, and should not be confused with mind (thinking, feeling or action), which we may or may not be aware of. We are not normally conscious of our inner physiological organs and processes, the function of our cells and all the chemical activities within us. Nor of the atoms of which we are formed or the processes within these. Yet they all affect us. We are seldom aware even of our thoughts, feelings, actions, postures and memories. We are not aware of most of the forces, material, mechanical, gravitational, electro-magnetic and cosmic, which impinge on us, producing all kinds of effects.

But we are capable of becoming aware of some of these when we turn and concentrate our attention on them. The processes which we are aware of constitutes the Conscious mind. The processes which we can become conscious of, but are normally not conscious of, constitutes the Sub-conscious mind. The processes within us which we cannot normally become aware of constitutes the Unconscious mind. It is not difficult to see that consciousness is comparable to a tiny circle of light in a much greater circle of shadow, the sub-conscious. And this in turn is a small part of the darkness, the Unconscious. The human Unconscious mind can be regarded as a part of a Collective Unconscious. The Collective Unconscious refers not only to the processes which all human beings have in common by virtue of the fact that they are human, but also the interaction between them. The Collective Unconscious may be regarded as part of the Universal Unconscious. The existence of a Collective Consciousness and a Universal Consciousness is much more controversial and depends on how these terms are understood.

A human individual is said to have a single consciousness, but this depends on a great number of inter-connected cells. A community, and the whole human race, are also like inter-related cells and often act in unison. The culture of a community is obviously a single thing which differs from that of others. The acceptance of the existence of a Universal Consciousness depends on whether we regard consciousness as a purely human characteristic or whether we see it as an aspect of all things to various degrees. There seems to be no reason for making such a distinction. Consciousness may be connected with an electromagnetic or a quantum field in the brain or even the whole body. There are similar fields associated with this planet, the Solar system, the Galaxy and the whole Universe. The complexity of the interactions in the planet and the Universe are no less than those in the human brain. It is possible, therefore, that there is Consciousness associated with each of these levels and that there is a Universal Consciousness. The religious position is that there is.

Evolution or development for man means that his consciousness and control should expand. The possibility of expanding our consciousness so that it includes the sub-conscious mind and even the unconscious gives rise to the notions of self-consciousness and super-consciousness, each having degrees. Lower degrees of consciousness, sub-consciousness, pre-consciousness refer to animals, plants and minerals. Man ought to be self-conscious. There can be no self-criticism of opinions or motives or self-control without it. Externalisation due to attachment to the external senses, and through them to objects, has severely restricted the capacity for self-consciousness.

The world we see must be divisible in accordance with these levels of consciousness. There is a part of which we are quite unconscious, another of which we can become conscious if we turn our attention to it, and there is a part which we are conscious of, both external and internal to us. The world we see is partly created by us since it depends on both external and internal factors and on influences coming from the world we are unconscious of. Apart from selecting and interpreting the data of experience according to our motives, assumptions and habits, we also organise the data in various ways and use our imagination to fill in gaps. This World differs both from the Subjective World of images in our minds and from the Objective or Real world. To see the Real world requires acceptance of an objective set of motives, assumptions and activities, ones that conform to Reality, and this is known as Surrender.

The child, when first born, is conscious of very little. Consciousness develops gradually. It has three aspects, external (awareness of the events in the environment), physiological (awareness of bodily processes) and internal (awareness of its own psychological processes). It takes time before it can distinguish between the three, and to develop the distinction between "I", "Mine" and "Not-I". The child, however, does not exist in isolation but is formed by interactions with parents and the rest of the society. It is given a set of behaviour patterns which control and channel some of its more primitive impulses. Both these primitive impulses and the conditioning mechanisms (called the Id and the Superego respectively by the psychologist Sigmund Freud) are generally suppressed into the sub-conscious mind. The primitive impulses may then emerge into the conscious mind in a disguised form In order to by pass the conditioning mechanism.

Consciousness is not static, but varies in intensity, stability and degree of integration. It varies during the day, as in sleep, reverie, wakefulness and concentration, and many states between these. It varies during ones life time. It changes and develops through education and research. and advances in knowledge over the centuries. It can be developed and expanded through exercise and various techniques. Things within the subconscious can become conscious, and what we are conscious of can be suppressed into the sub-conscious to varying degrees of permanence. Things in the unconscious can enter the sub-conscious and vice versa. There is a constant exchange between all these levels. There is a similar traffic between the Universal, the Collective and Human Unconscious. Forces from the unconscious enter into the sub-conscious and from there into consciousness. They get translated or interpreted according to the level they are in. Some of these are experienced as dreams and visions or felt as inspiration or revelation. Others are responsible for the symbols and myths which are found throughout the world. These may, therefore, well refer to objective truths but not in the same sense as the ordinary conscious mind thinks, and not necessarily.

Stimuli, as well as obstructions and distortions exist which regulate the inter-changes, the channelling and the development of consciousness. Alienation refers to such obstructions. Ideally, the human consciousness should be like a clear mirror which reflects Reality. This requires complete passivity of the individual. It requires the state of Surrender. But this is very seldom the case. Various techniques of meditation are used by different sects to explore the sub- or un-conscious mind for the purpose of self-knowledge and self-development, but this is usually subject to distortion by factors coming from the conscious or subconscious mind such as expectancy, prejudices, wishful thinking and rationalisation.

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Alienation has many consequences. Of these only some of the major ones will be described. They are:-

1. Inner Conflict or Self- contradiction.

2. Unawareness or loss of consciousness.

3. Disintegration and Isolation.

4. Mechanisation.

5. Substitution.

6. Attachment.

7. Self-punishment

 

Most human actions flow automatically from the inherent and acquired parts. The Volitional part, though it is a product of the inherent and acquired parts is capable of affecting and modifying the other two. The essence can only grow through deliberate learning, When there is no such conscious process then there is merely an accumulation of habits, associations, fixations. The data of experience fails to be processed, digested and assimilated. This is probably what is meant by Karma in Hinduism, deposits of memory which form fixations or complexes which maintain a repeating cycle of events. Man is programmed by the environment and his own actions and reactions. He becomes a machine which is controlled by whatever accidental stimuli may arise in the environment and activate these complexes. Past experiences determine his present state, and the present state determines his future state. But past experiences also control the interpretation of all new experiences. Thus man becomes a slave to circumstance. His experiences and actions become cyclic because he is trapped in a vicious circle of habits.

"Allah coins a similitude: on the one hand a mere chattel slave who hath control over nothing, and on the other hand one on whom We have bestowed a fair provision from Us, and he spends thereof secretly and openly. Are they equal? But most of them understand not." 16:75

 

There is no way out of these vicious circles or fixations except by dissolving them. A person ought to follow his own essential nature. The environment, the parents, or the Society creates the Personality. Thus these complexes tend to be reproduced and transmitted down the generations. The Religious discipline has been introduced to counteract this conditioning process. It should, therefore, be evident that religious indoctrination, or brain-washing, is a self-contradictory process. This is not to say that the personality has no valuable function. We do have to live in this world and act with respect to it and learn from it. The problem is that we allow the personality to act by itself, like a machine without control and without using it for our own essential growth. It becomes more like a parasite. We ought to be in control of it rather than the other way round.

There are three ways in which human beings are enslaved:-

1. The formation of habits in thought, feeling and action. This prevents conscious and intelligent action and adaptation to the variety of circumstances. It creates standardised reactions.

2. Addictions. There are addictions to external foods, drugs, alcohol etc, but also to internal substances such as sexual hormones and adrenalin. Thus people may be addicted to sexual activity or to violence and dangerous situations. They may be addicted to certain kinds of stimuli, situations or persons. Addictions to forms, processes or systems of thought are also common.

3. The narrowing down of consciousness due to Fixations. A form of hypnosis. The data of experience is then not available for manipulation. A certain number of experiences cling together as if they were one unit. They cannot be analysed and re-arranged.

Conventional Psychology, while recognising the inherent and acquired aspects, neglects the Volitional. This makes it very mechanistic in outlook. Human potentialities are not taken into consideration. It is, therefore taken for granted that the only way in which behaviour can be transformed is through external methods, either by genetic engineering, drugs or through methods such as training, indoctrination, reward and punishment, bribery and threat, coercion, the use of force, conditioning techniques, and organisation. The whole of present civilisation is based on this attitude. It is true, of course, that training makes for efficiency and this has a commercial advantage. It also has a social advantage in that it produces an order in which certain possibilities exist. There can be no manufacture or trade where chaos and crime exist. Psychologically, it has little advantage since it negates intelligent behaviour. The fact is that the Past is not immutable. It can be changed by the reinterpretation of the data of experience and by deliberate conscious observation and action, that is, by Effort and Striving - and by what is called the Greater Jihad in Islam. This is not done, however, by the use of what is wrongly called Will Power, i.e another subjective desire, but intelligently by opposing an automatically arising idea or tendency with one which is consistent with a more comprehensive system.

 

One of the consequences of alienation is the loss of contact with inherent instincts and faculties, and the capacity for perception, discrimination and appreciation of significance. Like animals man, too, has the capacity to sense what he needs, what is good or bad for him. Greater consciousness ought to have given him much greater discrimination in this respect, but in fact, he has lost this awareness. Those who have been cut off from their essence are referred to as "asleep", "blind and deaf" or even "dead".

"The similitude of the two parties is as the blind and the deaf (on the one hand), and the seer and hearer (on the other). Are the two equal in similitude?" 11:24

"Is he who was dead and We have raised him unto life, and set for him a light wherein he walks among men, as him whose similitude is in utter darkness whence he cannot emerge? Thus is their conduct made fair seeming for the disbelievers." 6:123

The last part of this verse refers to the process of rationalisation or self-deception, also referred to as the whispering of Satan. It is also referred to as "Inner Lying" or Hypocrisy. Objective reasoning consists of gathering relevant data, processing it, reaching conclusions and acting on these. But this processes is reversed in the case of rationalisation. A person has certain obsessional desires or addictions and is compelled by these to behave in certain ways. He now finds excuses for this behaviour. He invents reasons. He may even become quite blind to certain facts and invent or pervert others in order to do so. He suffers from fantasy and cannot distinguish between these and reality to various degrees. The world he sees is an Illusion or Mirage. He becomes uncertain, confused and bewildered.

"..like one bewildered whom the devils have infatuated in the earth..." 6:71

Having lost contact with his spirit it becomes impossible for him to be objective, to see the truth.

"Nay but those who do wrong follow their own lusts without knowledge. Who is able to guide them whom Allah hath sent astray? For such there are no helpers." 30:29

"And who goes farther astray than he who follows his own lust without guidance from Allah. Lo! Allah guides not wrongdoing folk."28:50

 

The un-assimilated data of experience tend to form clumps, fixations, complexes or separate egos which may be:-

(a) mutually exclusive, (b) overlap each other. (c) be loosely connected.

The result is that the conscious mind becomes unstable, variable and disintegrated. One way of looking at this is that human beings are constructed like a Hierarchy or pyramid in that there are several levels. There are a number of centres of control at the lower levels which are themselves controlled by a centre at a higher level. Ultimately, at the apex there is a single centre of control. But if this become inactive, then the centres at the lower levels become independent and uncoordinated just as would happen in any commercial or political organisation.

"Allah coins a similitude: A man in relation to whom are several part owners, quarrelling, and a man belonging wholly to one man. Are the two equal in similitude? Praise be to Allah. But most of them understand not. " 39:29

 

Though a man appears to be physically one, psychologically he is several people. Inner conflicts between them causes confusion, suffering and ineffectiveness. He has several personalities which may become active each in a different situation. He will undergo changes from one personality to another entailing changes of opinion as well as behaviour. If there is a weak link, one personality with whom the individual identifies himself will see the other as existing outside itself. In severe cases this leads to hallucinations, compulsive and psychotic behaviour. But its less severe forms are universally present and not generally recognised because of this. The inner conflicts and tensions between these egos create a great deal of doubt, indecision, anxiety and instability.

Inner conflicts due to self-contradiction produces suffering. The mind protects itself against such suffering by suppressing it. This constitutes another conflict at another level. Such protection may take the form of escape, attack or defence. Escape into fantasy or into alcoholism and drugs, excitement or any other distraction. Attack takes the form of aggression in order to justify oneself. Fanaticism, obsession and persecution is often the result of the need to convince oneself of the truth of what one is advocating, and the desire to remove the sources of doubt. Defence consists of erecting barriers, "forts" inner, psychological, social and outer environmental ones. Fences, national borders, class, group and race distinctions etc may be such defences. Cultures and Ideologies may also have this function. The behaviour of some people is specially designed to distinguish them from or protect them from others.

Inner conflict also produces Guilt-feelings. As this is most uncomfortable, people wish to eliminate them. This can be done either by compensation e.g self-punishment, making amends or suppression. Self-punishment often takes the form of what is known as accident proneness. A person has many accidents causing injury to himself, or gets into situations of suffering and adversity, or makes a great number of mistakes which spoil his success. A closer examination shows that though all this seems to be merely a question of chance he is doing this himself quite subconsciously. The individual is not aware that he is, in fact, causing his own accidents, disasters, failures and adversities. He may provoke others to harm him, for instance, and make his friends into enemies. The punishment is essential for his mental health. A person may make amendments by having subconscious compulsions to please or serve others. They may even make a nuisance of themselves in doing so without regard to the wishes of the so called beneficiaries. They are not in fact doing it for anyone else but for their own relief. Self-punishment is aggression turned inwards. It is one way of solving the problem of contradiction. A great amount of human behaviour can be explained by this. Self-mutilation is another type of self-punishment. Many religions incorporate this.

All these are according to the laws which govern the mind. The results are, therefore, formulated as Divine Punishment. There is an inner observer in man from which it is not possible to escape. The unconscious mind does, indeed, record everything a person does, thinks or feels and reacts accordingly.

"We have caused all that ye did to be recorded." 46:29

"And every man's augury have We fastened to his own neck, and We shall bring forth for him on the day of resurrection a book which he will find wide open. (And it will be said to him:) Read thy Book. Thy soul suffices as reckoner against thee this day." 17:13-14

"Lo! There are above you guardians, generous and recording, who know all that ye do. The righteous verily will be in delight, and the wicked verily will be in hell." 82:10-14

"Oh, but man is a telling witness against himself, although he tender his excuses." 75:14-15

"And every soul comes, along with it a Driver and a Witness. Thou wast in heedlessness of this. Now We have removed from thee thy covering, and piercing is thy sight this day." 50:21-22

 

A person's actions produce changes in the environment. These act as causes for further changes in the environment and stimuli to actions, and so on. In so far as a person lives in a closed system, the effects of the actions must eventually return to him. But every action also modifies the individual himself. These changes affect further actions which will produce further changes internally and externally. And so on. The events in the environment produce effects on the individual, only in accordance with how he deals with them, how he interprets them. The individual is, therefore, a centre of control within the whole environment. He has the capacity to harm or benefit it and himself. But alienation renders him ineffective. In one sense it may be said that he is no longer responsible for either the good or the evil which befall the environment or himself. But he is responsible in so far as he has the capacity to take control and does not.

Prophets, saints and preachers or other altruists and philanthropists are attacked, ridiculed and criticised, often most violently. Jesus and others were crucified. The motives behind this seems to be that if you can get rid of those who make you feel guilty or who prevent you from suppressing your guilt feelings, then you can get rid of your suffering. It is also possible to defend oneself by means of specially constructed arguments, excuses, rituals such as hand-washing, in order to absolve oneself. It is possible to escape by refusing to hear or read anything which may remind a person of his guilt feelings. The data of experience when properly assimilated would all form a single complex system. It is necessary, in order to prevent anything from reminding one of what one does not wish to be reminded of, to ensure that there is no complete assimilation. The data must falls into separate compartments to stop awareness of contradictions. People go to great lengths to ensure that they will not hear or see certain things, using very devious devices, diversionary measures and deliberate misunderstandings. The result is deliberately maintained ignorance and stupidity

Diversionary methods include talking non-stop to prevent others from doing so or to prevent oneself from thinking, changing the subject, blaming others, the use of "red-herrings", that is, some other object of attention. Substitution is a most effective mechanism since it gives the illusion that the problem is being adequately dealt with. People substitute for real needs with invented ones. They find false substitutes as the objects of their fear or anger, love or desire. In particular they substitute for the real self and for religion. Since opinions can be formed through all these different motives and processes, it is absurd to regard them as objectively valuable. Opinions are more useful as indications of the persons own subjective state.

"As for the disbelievers, whether you warn them or not, it is all the same to them; they believe not. Allah has sealed their hearing and their hearts and on their eyes there is a covering." 2:6-7

 

The human mind works according to the Principle of Similarities. It may also be called the Principle of Justice. This requires that similars should be treated similarly, and dissimilars according their degree of dissimilarity. If this were not so we would not recognise anything and there would be great confusion. In so far as each experience is separate from another, we would be unable to recognise things as being the same. But this depends on the capacity for discrimination, and for synthesis and analysis. As these capacities vary between people then perception and behaviour also varies.

Since a human being is an object in his own experience as are other people, then a person will normally treat others as he would treat himself, and treat himself as he treats others. Indeed, in so far as life is life he would also treat all living things in the same way. We cannot directly experience the feelings or inner state of other people. But if we see that there is a similarity between our outer state, X1, and the outer state of someone else, X2, and if we have a good awareness of the connection between our outer state, X1, and our inner state, Y1, then we will also have sympathetic experience of the inner state of others, Y2. The organic logic behind this is quite simple ;- Since X1 ~ Y1, and X2 ~ Y2 and X1 ~ X2, then Y1 ~ Y2. This depends, of course, on our degree of consciousness. It also depends on the interest or love which directs our attention. Community life depends on this. Psychopaths are people in whom this mechanism is defective. It can hardly be denied that a large proportion of humanity, particularly those in power are psychopaths to various degrees. But normally, he who judges himself harshly or leniently will tend to judge others harshly or leniently and vice versa. Thus, the intolerance which he shows others will also be connected with severe guilt feelings and vice versa. If he forgives others he can also forgive himself. As this, too, is a psychological law, it can be formulated in the words : Allah forgives those who forgive others.

Alienation causes the disintegration of the community.

Class, group, race and other distinctions have appeared in mankind. These cannot be sustained without inventing some kind of Differentiating Device, a barrier or obstruction. This is a source of many illusions and delusions. It also interferes with discrimination, because invented differences cannot be distinguished from, and take precedence over, real ones. It is not difficult to see that this will destroy the Principle of Similarity, causing malfunction of the rational faculty. This will, in its turn lead to all kinds of other maladjustments. The individual, in fact, harms himself. The restoration of psychological health requires the abolition of class distinctions.

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Alienation has five aspects.

1. Separation, from reality 2. Separation from the environment, 3. Social separation from ones fellows, 4. Inner psychological separation from ones potentialities and purposes. 5. Inner compartmentalisation.

The outer, the social and the psychological states are interlinked and reflect each other. Inner conflicts spill out to create social conflicts, and vice versa. Both reflect and are reflected in the conflict between man and the world of nature. Consider, for instance, how erosion of the soil by deforestation, pollution by chemicals and factory waste, the depletion of resources, the destruction of the ecosystem, and the artificial interference with foods have brought a considerable amount of trouble to man himself. This conflict with the environment is a reflection of the inner state of greed, which is a separation from ones real needs. This same greed also causes social conflicts. The anti-social criminal is probably the social equivalent of physical cancer, and both are equivalent to the psychological fixation or complex. A fixation or complex is a bundle of ideas or experiences which has not been assimilated and exists as a separate entity in the psyche having its own life. Rebellion, therefore, refers to all these states. The word 'possession' is appropriate in this connection.

Being separated from the inner self a person is separated from that within him which is more universal, that which he has in common with others, and links him to others. The individual becomes isolated. He feels weak and vulnerable in relation to the rest of the world. He becomes defensive. His relationship with other people becomes complicated because he needs to establish a status of significance or superiority for himself. Certain rules of behaviour, conventions, have to be set up in order to create security. When these rules are flouted the insecurity caused tends to provoke great hostility. But quite apart from socially recognised conventions every individual has his own rules by means of which he tests others and through which he allows others to approach. All these absorb a great amount of energy and time. They have been called Games and Pastimes and have recently been studied by Psychologists.

The socially or officially recognised Sports, all of which exist by virtue of rules, have as their main function the counteracting of the barriers between people. But in order to do this they create opposing teams. The barriers or hostilities are removed between members of the same team by transferring them to the opposite team. The common experience of an enjoyable game or the exhaustion caused by its strenuous efforts, however, counteracts this to some extent. Business, Politics and most other fields of human interaction are largely games of this kind.

"Naught is the life of the world but a pastime and a game. Better far is the abode of the Hereafter for those who keep their duty. Have ye then no sense?" 6:32

"Know that the life of this world is only play, and idle talk, and pageantry, and boasting among you, and rivalry in respect of wealth and children; as the likeness of vegetation after rain, whereof the growth is pleasing to the husbandman, but afterwards it dries up and thou sees it turning yellow, then it becomes straw. And in the Hereafter there is grievous punishment, and also forgiveness from Allah and His good pleasure, whereas the life of the world is but a matter of illusion." 57:20

 

Alienation from Allah or the Spirit within is also known as "spiritual death". He who does not have an "I" is psychologically dead. That is, he does not possess anything of which it could be said, "I think, I feel, I do, I know, I am...". Nothing can exist for an "I" that does not itself exist. A person becomes a machine.

Loss of contact with ones Self, therefore, creates a feeling of emptiness, insignificance, non-existence and vulnerability. This generates anxiety. The fear of death is always within him, but he suppresses it. This leads to all kinds of risky behaviour. Much of his behaviour can be understood as an attempt to overcome this emptiness and fear, to establish some kind of significance for himself. Unfortunately, this usually takes illusory forms.

One way to overcome this deficiency is to form attachments to sources of power and significance. Greed and avarice, attachment to things, is one result. This device has been very widely adopted and has many forms. The person identifies himself with a group, a cause, to some hero-figure, to someone possessing wealth, power or prestige, or to an ideology. He looses his independence in return for significance. These groups may be political parties, clubs, teams, cults, crowds, unions and so on, each of which strive to establish their own separate identities, often leading to bizarre and anti-social behaviour. Conflicts between them is inevitable.

The individual takes his thinking, motives and behaviour from this group or some other source, newspapers and magazines, for instance. He has little of his own. The isolated individual would never behave in the manner in which he behaves in a group. The worship of the rich, the powerful and the famous breeds servility and arrogance at the same time. It also leads to imitation and gullibility. Film Actors and popular singers who supply a world of fantasy particularly become objects of adulation. We now obtain a self-propagating circle. These idolaters become prone to exploitation by others who obtain their own power, wealth and prestige through the adulation of others. The person adulated, however, is himself a victim of the adulation. He develops false fantasies about himself.

Let it not be misunderstood. It is not being asserted that some people are not admirable and do not possess remarkable abilities and that others should not try to improve themselves. But there is a lack of intelligent discrimination. There is no doubt that most of the secular achievements of a nation depend on the incentives provided by greed, lust, pride and so on. But these are also at the same time the causes of the conflict, injustices and suffering. What is being pointed out here is that this is not being done in an objective and rational manner after thought and consideration. It is taking place quite automatically as a result of inner compulsions. There are causes here not reasons. The individual is a slave of these mechanisms not the master of his destiny. He has no control.

Other results of the fear of non-existence are the need to boast or diminish others, to seek status, publicity or fame, to accumulate goods and property, to indulge in extra-ordinary behaviour in order to attract attention, to be controlled by the good or bad opinion of others, in short, to do anything which will produce an impression in the eyes of others so that it can be accepted as a reassurance that one really exists. The self-preservative instinct has been threatened and the attack/defence/escape reaction is activated. Aggression, cowardice, anxiety, fear, suspicion, greed, hatred, isolation are results of this.

"He thinks that his wealth will render him immortal." 104:3

 

The word "wealth" here is understood as referring to all external things not connected with the Essense of man, namely material possessions, power, prestige, popularity, family, opinions, prejudices, posturings, artificial modes of behaviour etc.

Again, it is necessary to exercise discrimination. Human beings are social beings and will be affected by each other, The question is whether these are intelligent or mechanical affects. It is probable that the unreasonable pursuit of wealth, prestige and power are the result of the need for security or significance. When all do this then each must compete with and fear others. Paranoid tendencies create the need to erect psychological, social and physical barriers to various degrees. The pursuit of pleasure may be a form of escapism or the search for reassurance that one is alive.

Prejudice, the clinging onto some un-supported opinion, and disbelief, the rejection of some well-supported idea, are usually produced by some motive. It is convenient and gives a person a feeling of significance, security or love. But if he were to examine it, which self-interest prevents, he would find that, in fact, it does no such thing. Indeed, a person may have an inkling of this, and he has to suppress it by adopting extreme measures to support and reinforce the prejudice or disbelief. These motives, and the ideas with which they are associated, prevent a person from even looking at or recognising contrary evidence. The search, selection, interpretation and organisation of the data of experience is affected by this.

We are not speaking here of people who have sincere beliefs or doubts. It is, however, doubtful how sincere a person can be. Sincerity implies that there is a correlation between the inner state and the outer manifestation. If people are not even aware of their inner motives there can be no real sincerity. Hypocrisy is likely to be the common state. Superficially is another. The word sincerity is normally used to describe the state of a person who does not consciously set out to deceive others, but this is not a useful way of defining the word. He may be deceiving himself and sub-consciously, others. Sincerity is more likely where a person has no involvements either with the object he is looking at or to the listeners to whom he expresses an opinion, or with his own psychological mechanisms. Cynicism, scepticism, confusion, fantasy and gullibility also have the same basis.

 

Human beings have three fundamental needs which are associated with the three instincts, namely security, love and significance. The three are inter-dependant and connected with the Self. When they are not satisfied the individual seeks substitutes. The child who received no love, will later seek consolation in eating too much, drinking alcohol or using psychotropic drug, seeking pleasure, or he may fanatically and ruthlessly seek power or wealth or success in some endeavour, regardless of its effects or value. The lack of love causes loss of self-significance and insecurity. Insecurity is often interpreted as a lack of love and significance. And loss of self-significance is interpreted as a loss of love and security.

One of the main results of the loss of self-significance is the construction of the ego, a substitute self. Pride, vanity, greed and selfishness are its attributes. In a sense it can be regarded as a parasite which usurps the basic instincts and the urges contained in the human being. It narrows down psychological functions. Activities which are not mere habits or conditioned reflexes, but which have a motive can be regarded as ego-supporting activities. This may well consist of fantasies, illusions, acceptance of the opinions of other people, or associations with things a person surrounds himself with. It inverts the natural tendencies for fellow feeling, love, faith and hope. A person may construct psychological defences to isolate and protect himself from others or escape into fantasies. The barriers he constructs may be a mask he presents to others, and perhaps even to himself. It may take the form of a set of reactions and behaviour patterns to keep others at a distance. Barriers are also constructed by nations. These barriers are not the effects of international conflicts, but their cause.

The inversion of the normal vivifying impulses of hope, love and faith create fear, hate and greed respectively. Fear (anxiety), because it demands self-protection, breeds greed (attachment, addiction, obsession, lust etc) and hatred (aggression, spite, destructiveness, violence, antipathy). Greed and hatred in their turn produce more fear e.g fear of loss of what one is greedy for, and suspicion of the hatred, retaliation and greed of others. The three reinforce each other.

The absence of hope, love and faith appear as hopelessness (depression, despondency, anxiety etc), apathy (disinterest, indifference, purposelessness, lack of motivation and enthusiasm) and confusion (doubt, indecision, cynicism, scepticism etc). People who are deprived in this way have to escape into fantasy, dreams, illusions, hallucinations and delusions, or into alcoholism, drugs and other distractions which reduce consciousness. All these symptoms can be found in varying degrees in all people. In severer forms they are the symptoms of all psychosis.

We have another vicious circle here. Life is very complex and difficult with many injustices, trials and stresses. Therefore, people wish to escape from it. But this escape not only prevents the problems being solved, but the very methods of escape adopted create most of the conditions people wish to escape from in the first place. Rational and objective thinking become quite impossible under these circumstances.

Fear, tension, anxiety releases adrenaline. The function of this is to create readiness for action, to fight, escape or defend. It withdraws blood from the surface and various organs such as the digestive system and concentrates it in the muscles. It raises blood pressure, the respiration rate and rate of the heart beat. It narrows down and concentrates attention on the source of the fear. Prolonged or frequent fear creates a habit for fear. Continuous tension is exhausting. It will, therefore, cause malfunctions in the circulatory, digestive, respiratory and nervous systems. It also debilitates the immune system. Proneness to infectious arises, and organic diseases as well as social (moral) and psychological diseases will result. It is probably true to say that the real cause of all diseases is to be found just here. The function of a disease is to break down any malfunctioning organs. If this is true, then all conventional forms of treatment will merely get rid of symptoms. The causes being still present, new diseases will continually appear.

 

The most important effect of fear, hatred and greed is fascination or hypnosis. There is a generalised fear and this must find an object to focus on. Any object will do. Attention is concentrated on the object of fear or desire, to the exclusion of other things. The object controls the person. Consciousness then becomes like a narrow beam of light with which we must see in a dark room. Attention becomes selective. It sees only certain things, suppressing others and perverting still others, filling the gaps in information with inventions. Illusions, delusions and hallucinations are results. Since these exist precisely because they are thought to be real, it is difficult to know what is true or not. The fact that others cannot see something is no argument since all hypnotists know that the inability to see something can also be induced.

Motives of self-interest pervert the thinking process. Rationalisation, excuse making, compensation, substitution, distortion, exaggeration, diminution, invention, suppression, projection, introjection, false association, referring, diverting and so on are a few of the mental mechanisms which govern thinking and are well known to psychologists. It is these which religion attribute to Satan. Though Satan may be thought of as a symbol it nevertheless stands for something which is very real indeed. It is not something that is confined to the mind of an individual, but has an objective existence in so far as it affects the whole population. What is more the personal devils of the people cooperate with and reinforce each other. Groups, nations, mankind, behave collectively in a different way from the individuals in it, because differences are cancelled out and similarities are reinforced.

 

Alienation, the Fall, therefore, causes physical, social as well as psychological diseases.

"In their hearts is a disease, and Allah increases their disease. A painful doom is theirs because they lie." 2:10

"And We reveal in the Quran that which is a healing and a mercy for believers, though it increases the evil-doers in naught but ruin." 17:82

"Say unto them : For those who believe it (The Quran) is a guidance and a healing. As for those who disbelieve, there is a deafness in their ears, and it is blindness for them. Such are called from afar." 41:44

"Surely We have prepared for the unbelievers chains and yokes and a burning fire." 76:4

 

Those who do not use their spiritual faculties are described by three notions:- Chains, yokes and fire.

(1) The chains represent a cause and effect chain to which a person is bound and from which he cannot escape. It is the same as the wheel of Karma in Hinduism. One person affects or does something to another, he reacts and affects others who also react and so on. In a closed community this sequence of cause and effect returns to him. He bears the consequences of what passes through him. There is no intervention of intelligence in this. A person may, however, refuse to react. He transforms the energy within himself for his own growth and he also at the same time stops the entire causal sequence and transforms the society.

(2) The yokes are things like habits, customs, obsessions, addictions, superstitions which limit a person and imprison him.

(3) The fire is the hate, spite, envy, anger and suffering which all this brings about.

 

Some of the consequences of the Fall, from a higher level to a lower level of functioning, as described in the Quran, are as follows:-

Rebelliousness - that is, the unintelligent desire to opppose and flout. Negativism. (96:6-7)

Argumentativeness and self-opinion. (18:5)

The pursuit of wealth as a means to immortality. A futile goal. (104:3 17:100 89:20)

Mistaking desires for real needs or benefits. (30:29 3:14 17:11 57:20)

Reliance on speculation, fantasy, wishful thinking, guesswork instead of knowledge. (30:29 53:28 10:37)

Sacrifice of the future and of higher values for present gratification. Action without considering consequences. (75:20-21 76:27)

Impatience. (70:20 21:37)

Ungratefulness. (10:13 11:9-10 7:10)

Anxiousness and despairing. (70:19-21 30:36)

Self-destructiveness. (80:17 74:19-20 75:14 -15 41:23)

Some of these seem, when looked at superficially, of small significance. But they have far reaching consequences. Consider, for instance, the "love of the fleeting Now". The present state is experienced much more vividly than some idea of the future, probably because the physical condition has a greater significance than the mental where the future exists. Some of the consequences of this are:-

1. The majority of man kind, even in the more prosperous countries, are interested not in education or self-improvement which have future benefits but in instant pleasures, in entertainment, in popular music, sport, gambling, sexual adventures, alcohol, drugs and gossip. This diminishes their abilities and awareness and makes them easy victims of exploitation and oppression. They have little control over their lives. They create their own suffering.

2. There are economic consequences. People live on credit, exchanging their future for present gratification. Most nations have huge debts. A worldwide disaster is threatening because the debtor nations may be unable to repay the loans, leading to the collapse of the World Financial System. Those who have saved their money for their old age will find that they have lost everything. Inflation in prices is linked with interest rates. This is because the addition of interest increases the price which stands for no increase in production.

3. There are ecological consequences. Pollution, wastage and exhaustion of resources. The forests, for instance, are being cut down faster than they can grow. The result is erosion and weather changes. There are floods, droughts, destructive storms worldwide with increasing frequency. Even earthquakes may be connected with mining operations or with weather changes.

4. There are social changes in that the desire for personal pleasure leads to neglect of responsibilities towards parents, children and neighbours. There is increasing selfishness, isolation and social disintegration.

5. Psychologically it means loss of the ability to control oneself and channel ones energies in intelligent and useful directions. Impulsive actions are undertaken without considering long term consequences. This has the most terrible results in the field of politics. Most of the political troubles today are the consequences of past policies.

6. Everything is constantly changing. But the mind focuses on the "now" and makes it permanent. The result is that what we see is something unreal. Not only has it ceased to be, but it is seen in isolation without its relationship with other things. It produces a fixation in the mind and obstructs adaptability.

7. Whereas man is to be distinguished from animals by being rational, the fact is that human beings do not behave rationally. They are motivated not by needs but desires which often have little connection with need or purpose. In fact the pursuit of these creates the social and physical conditions which injure physical, mental and moral health. It creates deprivation and frustration. People pursue that which they must inevitably lose on death. There is little doubt that boredom in the absence of rational purposes causes people to use these ambitions and hobbies as pastimes.

Many people are prepared to admit that all this is true, but unless they are actually aware at the time when they themselves are in this condition they are unlikely to do anything about it. It is easier to see defects in others or talk about them. Pride will not let one see it in oneself, and laziness prevents one from doing anything about it. Nor can these defects be seen as such except when they are compared to the Ideal. Indeed greed, lust and pride are seen as virtues because they provide the incentives for a Capitalist system. This is why the Quran sets the two conflicting conditions side by side, hoping, no doubt, that the problem will be seen and the solution sought.

 

Further information on the condition of man is given in the following verses:-

2:86, 6:71, 6:124, 7:71, 10:37, 11:24, 12:53, 16:96, 17:14, 25:43, See also:-2:59 2:79 3:71 18:46-47 24:39 28:50 40:39 and 42:36 59:2 62:5 70:19 75:20 75:14-15 83:14 96:6-7

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