Motive, Reason and Action
Question:-
In many of your articles you say
that reason is driven by motives. Can you explain where motives come from, if not
by reason? How do we choose our world view and basic assumptions? Are our
choices based on motives? If yes, what are the motives based on? Are they
psychologically driven? If yes then how do they arise?
Answer:-
We have three genetically built-in
faculties for thought, feeling and action and these can be enhanced, mutilated,
or directed by environmental influences (physical or cultural) or through
personal efforts.
Thought depends on input of data
through the senses, both outer (sight, sound, taste, smell, touch) and
physiological (kinaesthetic = muscle sense, sense of balance and orientation)
and psychological (those connected with awareness of inner pain, sensations,
feelings and thoughts).
The data so received is processed.
But the processing depends on our motives that come from our instincts,
desires, emotions and feelings.
There are three main sets of
drives - self-preservation, the socio-sexual and the self-extensive. Apart from
this we form habits and attachments, addictions, fixations, phobias, suggestion
and hypnosis that drive the thought processes. All these apply to desires,
positive and negative - likes and dislikes. These are obviously not thoughts
but drive thoughts. Thoughts are a form of action that takes place within us
rather than with respect to the outer world.
Human
beings function at three levels:- (a) the spiritual (consciousness, conscience
and will), (b) the mental (thought, feeling and action) and (c) physical
(senses, instincts, reflexes). These correspond to each other. We can,
therefore, speak of three levels of motives. At the mental level the basic
drives become associated with certain experiences that channel their energy.
For instance, the self-preservative drive which leads creatures to seek food is
channelled into seeking a paying career. At the Spiritual level the idea of
self can extend to persons or things other than one’s own body and this
leads to seeking things that benefit others as well. At this level the
motivating faculty is Conscience. We have natural love, sympathy and compassion
built into us. This should be distinguished from that which has been socially
conditioned into us and is falsely called conscience and has been called the
Superego. It is mental construct. Both these should be distinguished from personal
preferences of likes and likes that arise at the physical level.
The
higher faculties at the spiritual level including conscience can be repressed
or atrophied and usually are to various degrees. The drives can malfunction or
become distorted. For instance, the socio-sexual drive can become selfish so
that a person, instead of seeking a family, seeks his own sensual pleasure. The
self-extensive drive that seeks to overcome limitations can be diverted by the
socio-sexual drive to seek power and dominate over others. Or it may become
selfish and seek wealth. The socio-sexual drive, instead of forming attachments
to spouse and off-sprigs, may form all kinds of other attachments and
obsessions. It can also be sublimated through the self-extensive to love of
mankind or science or for God. So, apart from the primary motives we get
secondary, tertiary and even fourth level motives in great numbers.
In order to think correctly we
need correct motives. i.e. we must have love of Truth and as Truth is defined
in Islam as the Word of Allah, we need love of Allah to reach truth. All other
kinds of thoughts are inventions.
Question:-
So how do we get the motive and
drive for love of Allah?
Comment:-
The love of Allah IS the motive.
We either have it naturally to various
degrees or we have to cultivate it. It is an aspect of the Spirit. As man has
been expelled from Paradise his spirit is
dormant. He needs the religious discipline to reactivate it. As the Quran
says:-
"Say: If you love Allah
then follow me, and Allah will love you and forgive you your sins, for Allah is
Forgiving and Merciful." 3:31
"The dwellers of the
desert say: We believe. Say: You believe not, but rather say, 'We submit'; for
faith has not yet entered into your heart; and if you obey Allah and His
Messenger, He will not diminish aught of your deeds; surely Allah is Forgiving,
Merciful. Only they are the believers who believe in Allah and His Messenger,
then afterwards they doubt not and struggle hard with their wealth and their
lives in the way of Allah; they are the truthful (sincere or righteous)
ones." 49:14-15
"O you who believe!
Respond unto Allah and His Messenger when He calls you to that which quickens
you; and know that Allah comes in between a man and his own heart; and that He
it is unto Whom you shall be gathered." 8:24
Question:-
Can we conclude that love is the
driving force for unity and that Absolute Unity is Allah? And that Love in man
is natural or needs to be cultivated? Someone said that the highest form is
love is to surrender. To surrender (Islam) is the path to God. So is the reason
for people who take the wrong world view basically that they do not truly love
(surrender) or that they love (surrender to) the wrong thing? Is that the
reason they make wrong assumptions? Can you elaborate on the difference between
love for creation (material, ideas etc) and the Creator?
Comment:-
Yes, love binds together and that
leads to Unity. Yes love is natural as is faith and hope but they are spiritual
impulses. Love will vary according to degree of consciousness, from love of
oneself, either one's body, mind or soul, to love for spouse and children, to
love of relatives, to love of the community, to love of mankind, to love of all
creatures and creation in proportion to the similarities and differences, and
finally to love of Allah.
It is then clear that people who
love some object, cause, nation, or institution etc. love less than Allah and
cannot possibly see Truth, but have biases towards partial truths. They will
also see the world in a disintegrated way as there are many objects etc. in it.
This means that their perception, motives and actions will also be
disintegrated and their development will be lopsided. As the Quran says:-
"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 know not." 39:29
"Allah coins a similitude:
(on the one hand) a (mere) chattel slave, who hath control of 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 ? Praise be to Allah! But
most of them know not." 16:75
They will not achieve inner unity
but will have several different centres or complexes within themselves, between
which there will be inner conflicts, resulting in suffering. And there will be
impulsiveness, mechanicalness, automatism, instability and inconsistency
because their opinions and behaviour will vary from circumstance to
circumstance as they will derive from different centres. They will be different
at home, at work, with friends and public, and will be subject to moods and
they contradict themselves at different times. Consciousness will be narrow
because while one part is conscious other parts are not. They cannot then have
insight or be sincere. Indeed one part might see the other as something
external to them and this leads to the idea of "possession",
compulsion, obsession and to hallucinations.
Of course all this has degrees
from mild to severe.
So Shirk and Idolatry are no
trivial things.
In my view, Islam defined as
"surrender to Allah" is more than love. This is because it means identification
with Allah by removal of one's own ego or separate self, where as in Love there
is still a distinction between the Lover and the thing loved.
However, the different degrees of
love described above are really the results of the identification of oneself
with the thing loved. A person who loves his wife and children for instance, is
a person whose ego has grown to include them in his idea of self.
Question:-
I assume that you talk about
"identifying with Allah" without believing that you become Allah or
becoming aware that you are Allah?
Comment:-
Surrender means giving up one's
own ego. So there is only Allah. You do not become Allah. But Allah works
through you - you are a limb or instrument.
Question:-
Someone said that this
identification which some Sufi's call Wahdat al Wujud (Unity of Being) should
not be taken literally and should correctly be understood as "Unity of
Perception." Not seeing anyone but Allah. That is because according to
orthodox Islamic doctrine Allah and His Creation (different beings) are
separate and will always stay separate even in paradise.
Comment:-
Yes, Allah, the Creator is
separate from His Creation and this creation is bound by time, having a
beginning and will have an end. Allah is not bound by Time, but is Eternal and
He surrounds all things. Therefore, Creation can be regarded as within Him,
like thoughts in His mind (symbolically speaking).
It all depends on what we are
speaking of, body, mind or spirit. Obviously we do not become one with Allah
bodily but are already one with the Universe in that the same materials, forces
and laws flow through us and connect us with other things. But we are not aware
of this. We could become mentally aware of this.
The Spirit of Allah is within a
person. (Quran 32:9). To surrender to Allah is also to act from that Spirit. We
could identify ourselves as that Spirit rather than as a body or mind. After
all if we are not conscious then nothing can exist for us including ourselves.
We would merely be a machine.
According to Sufi doctrine there
are stages of the manifestation of the Divine:- Ahdiyat, Wahdat, Wahidiyyat,
Arwah, Mithal, Ajsam, and finally Insan Kamil.. A developing soul can reaches
Wahdat, but to reach Ahadiyat is to be annihilated. At that level,
Absolute Unity, only Allah exists and there can be no other separate
individuals.
"Everything will perish,
except His countenance. His is the command, and unto Him shall you
return!" 28:88 Also 55:27
This may be what Buddhists call
Nirvana.
The Soul
which refers to organised spirit is of course personal to individuals and
different in each and to say that it will exists in Paradise forever may imply
that it will not reach the final level. On the other hand if it does and merges
with the Absolute then it can also be regarded as Eternal.
"How can you disbelieve in Allah, when
you were dead and He made you alive, and then He will cause you to die, and
then make you alive again, and then to Him will you return?" 2:28
"Lo! we are Allah's and lo! unto Him we
are returning." 2:156
See also
2:46, 2:245, 3:83, 6:36, 41:21 etc.
Question:-
Islam teaches that loving others,
yourself, parents, children, family, friends and even nature is good.
Brotherhood is good and a means to Allah. To serve Allah you must serve your
fellow human beings. Islam does not propagate the monastery. To concentrate on
Allah and worship alone on a mountain and forgetting your worldly
responsibilities is something bad. At the same time it says love of things of
this world even one's children can make you forget Allah. How is this paradox
explained?
Comment:-
We love or should love things
because they are creations of Allah. So there is no contradiction. The love of
Allah must be supreme and all other loves must be subordinate or means to it.
To love something apart from Allah is idolatry. The brotherhood of Muslims
exists because all have surrendered to Allah. Therefore, they are at one with
Allah and with each other. If A is at one with B and B is at one with C then A
is at one with C and also at one with ABC.
Yes, monasticism is forbidden.
57:27. We have been sent into the world to learn. The world itself contains the
events, challenges, and trials by which development takes place, just as
muscles grow by exercise against resistance. 2:155, 3:142, 11:7
We are also required to act as
Vicegerents, i.e. agents of Allah. 2:30, 6:166
And we are required to encourage,
stimulate, reinforce and mutually support and co-operate with each other. 3:103
All three duties are nullified by escape
into monasticism or hermitage. The idea that we are sent into the world and
want to escape from it is a contradiction. However, occasional retreat for
short times into special places or groups of intensive spiritual discipline is
not forbidden.
Question:-
Is this a result of the paradox of
Allah being both Transcendent and Immanent at the same time? How is this
paradox explained?
Comment:-
Allah is also personal because His
spirit is in us.
Draw a large circle. Call it A for
Absolute.
Within this draw a smaller circle.
Call it U for universe. There is an area in A outside U, call it T for
Transcendental. So A is T + U.
Within U draw a still smaller
circle. Call it M for man. There is an area in U outside M, call it E for
Environment. So U is M + E.
And A is T + E + M
Surrender,
Islam, can mean that:- (a) M subordinates himself consciously to A. (b) M
gradually expands in consciousness. (c) The barriers, the circumferences that
separate M from A should dissolve.
Question:-
You said: Love is natural as is
faith and hope but they are spiritual impulses. What is the relation between
love, faith and hope? I understand love is an impulse that leads to unity. It
makes you identify with the rest of creation. Do these other impulses have the
same effect? Do they in some way correspond to the triad of body, mind and
soul? Islam emphasises gaining knowledge. How do love, faith and hope relate to
knowledge?
Comment:-
Yes there is a correspondence
between the triad, spirit/mind/body and the triad faith/love/hope but they are
not identical. That is, there is not a one to one correspondence between them,
but a similarity between the relationship between one triad and the other.
Spirit, for instance, is not faith or vice versa. But it is possible to see
that the spirit contains the triad faith/love/hope. The lower triad can be said
to derive from the upper. Mind can be described by a triad
intellect/feeling/action. Body can be described as having the triad
sensation/processing/reaction. All these various triads correspond to each
other. We can divide all things into such triads and they will all corresponds.
We can call these elements the Active, the Mediating and the Passive factors
respectively. At the highest level we have Creator/Creation/Creature which leads to
Observer/Observation/Object.
Faith, Love and Hope are motives
essential for living in an intelligent conscious manner as opposed to behaving
mechanically or like an automaton. They are inter-dependent aspects of the
spirit and may be regarded as the same thing seen from different angles. They
correspond to consciousness, conscience and will.
(1) Faith refers to perception and
knowledge and confidence in it so that action is based on it. If there is no
faith in something then it can be asserted that it is not knowledge.
Love refers to feelings and
produces interest and connectivity.
Hope leads to action. If we have
no hope we will not act.
But it is obvious that all three
are required for any conscious behaviour whether it is pursuit of knowledge or
social relationships or crafts.
(2) The absence of faith is doubt,
cynicism, scepticism and confusion.
The absence of love is apathy,
disinterest.
The absence of hope is
hopelessness.
(3) The inversion of faith is
superstition, illusion, delusion.
The inverse of love is hate,
aggression and destructiveness.
The inverse of hope is despair and
depression, fear and anxiety.
(4) The misdirection of faith is
superstition.
The misdirection of love is greed,
obsession.
The misdirection of hope is in
reliance on false things e.g. chance as in gambling or false authorities,
leaders, ideas, and so on.
It is not generally understood
that all mental illnesses contain these ingredients. Therefore, systems that
inculcate faith, love and hope such as the Quran are correctly said to be
healing systems.
Question:-
All
Monotheists, including Muslims, would argue that moral principles are
appreciated by religious revelation. Which raises the unanswered question, how
does one objectively choose which?
Comment:-
How do
you choose anything? You study the alternatives to determine which is
comprehensive, self-consistent, best connected with Reality, enabling you to
adjust to it in a harmonious manner and fulfil your potentialities. The Islamic
position is that all religions are one and came originally from God through
Messengers (2:213, 5:48, 10:48, 16:36, 5:69, 22:76, 14:4). But they have
undergone corruption owing to misunderstandings and adulteration from
extraneous worldly influences. It is only necessary to remove these and purify
religion. However, this is done by the last Messenger who also adapts it in
formulation and practice to the needs of the conditions of the times.
“Say, O people of the scriptures, ye
have naught of guidance till ye observe the Torah and the Gospels and that
which was revealed unto you from your Lord. That which is revealed unto thee
(Muhammad) from thy Lord is certain to increase the rebelliousness and
disbelief of many of them. But grieve not for the disbelieving folk. Whosoever
believes in Allah and the Last day and does right, there shall no fear come
upon them nor shall they grieve.” 5:68-69
“Lo, those who believe, and those who
are Jews and Sabaeans and Christians - whosoever believes in Allah and the Last
Day and does right - there shall no fear come upon them neither shall they
grieve.” 5:69
When
personal prejudices are not mistaken for them as usually happens, then there
are four ways in which we come to moral principles:- (1) By social conditioning
by parents, teachers and other authorities. (2) By study of scriptures
containing the revelations from God. (3) By sincere prayer for guidance from
God which would overcome personal prejudices and preferences and allow
acceptance of what is consistent with one’s nature. (4) By following a
discipline that uncovers one’s own inherent conscience. The first cannot
be regarded as true conscience as it does not allow intelligent conscious
behaviour, but is rigid and may well not be moral at all. The second requires a
previous acceptance of the scripture that might be insufficiently studied,
misinterpreted and misapplied. The third is conditional on a person’s
real sincerity, absence of self-deception and willingness to pray for guidance,
neither of which may or may not exist.
Only the fourth gives true morality. As the Prophet is reported to have
said “All are born Muslim (i.e. according to the nature made by God) but
their parents (elders or social authorities) make them into something
else.”
"Then set your purpose for religion as a
man upright by nature - the nature made by Allah in which He has made men;
there is no altering (the laws of) Allah's creation; that is the right
religion, but most people do not know" 30:30
"And the soul and Who fashioned it, and
enlightened it with what is wrong and right for it! He indeed is successful who
causes it to grow (or purifies it)! And he indeed is a failure who corrupts
it!" 91:7-10
"Who made good everything that He has
created, and He began the creation of man from dust. Then He made his progeny
of an extract, of a fluid held in low esteem. Then He fashioned him and
breathed into him of His spirit, and made for you the faculties of hearing, and
sight and heart; little is it that you give thanks." 32:7-9
"Surely, We have created man in the best
of moulds. Then We reduced him to the lowest of the low; Save those who believe
and act right; for theirs is a reward unfailing." 95:4-6
"O you who believe! Respond unto Allah
and His Messenger when He calls you to that which quickens you; and know that
Allah comes in between a man and his own heart; and that He it is unto Whom you
shall be gathered." 8:24
"The dwellers of the desert say: We
believe. Say: You believe not, but rather say, 'We submit'; for faith has not
yet entered into your heart; and if you obey Allah and His Messenger, He will
not diminish aught of your deeds; surely Allah is Forgiving, Merciful."
49:14
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