Writer: S. Kyei-Faried (MD)
Introduction
Individuals have preferences and choices for which they are held responsible and accountable for their actions (deeds). There are many happenings that are outside individual control, largely controlled by traditional systems and states whose values are developed and using a combination of ignorance, beliefs, luck, knowledge, understanding, intelligence, attitude, practices, experiences, wisdom, enlightenment, and faith. Most things in nature are beyond human knowledge, understanding, and control, and have a significant influence on human life. This is a perspective on coming to the truth from a position of ignorance. Readers who wish to share their perspectives with me may use the email address kyeifariedsardick@gmail.com.
Ignorance
Ignorance is “the absence of fact” (fact or knowledge deficiency). All humans are born ignorant. The mind of children is the most fertile to take facts. Children fed with belief doctrines are taken away from the path to truth. “Out of ignorance, my people perish”- Jesus Christ (Hosea 4:6 KJV). “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do”- Jesus Christ (Luke 23:34 KJV).
Fact
Fact is “a thing known to exist” AND “has proof (evidence)”. Facts come out of experience or questioning observed phenomena in nature to obtain answers (studies; research). Rigorous approaches and methodologies are used in scientific studies to arrive at and validate facts. Facts may be physical, social, financial or economic. Fact is human-established, accumulates as knowledge, changes over time and has several dimensions based on perspective. New facts supersede old facts. Facts are not necessarily Truth and not nullified.
Knowledge
Knowledge is “aggregate of facts” (or accumulated facts). Knowledge is acquired only if sought, and takes us out of ignorance. “Seeking knowledge is obligatory upon every Muslim”- Prophet Muhammad. Knowledge is the starting point (lowest level) of the journey of education and to faith. “Exalted is Allah, the True King! And do not rush to recite the Quran before its revelation is completed to you, and say, ‘My Lord, increase me in knowledge” (Taha 20:114 Quran). A very knowledgeable person may not be highly educated. New knowledge enriches (clarifies; grows) existing knowledge without destroying it. “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil“- Jesus Christ (Mathew 5:16 KJV), “Are those who know equal to those who do not know?” (Quran 39:9). Knowledge makes us see good from evil (Genesis 2:9 KJV; Genesis 2:17 KJV).
Belief
Belief is (a) “setting aside knowledge, putting non-facts in its place and acting on it” or (b) “trusting someone as teaching facts and acting on it”. Almost all religious people are believers. Some believers have conviction.
Terrorizing Zionism, Crusading and Jihadism are products of category (a) believers with conviction, and are worse than the ignorant.
Category (b) believers make the enlightened their truth (supreme power) to worship. They experience a great deal of loss and despair when the light departs, some refusing to accept his departure, making an image of him to immortalize, so they keep worshipping him.
Many people are entrapped in a mental cocoon (mental cage) in which they have found “imprisonment comfort” to maintain their childhood doctrines and beliefs, which makes them reject facts and wisdom.
Those who fear a fall while walking never learn to run. Unless “reborn” (Born again like a child), believers cannot be doers of the word, be enlightened, and become faithful. A believer has to throw away indoctrinated non-facts to go back to ignorance to begin the journey from ignorance to faith. “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God”- Jesus Christ (John 3:3 KJV).
Practice
Practice is “doing”. Practice may be based on belief, ignorance, knowledge, or faith, and each has its consequences. Practice is a required point to reaching faith as it immerses the individual into reality. Knowledge without practice is dead. “Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves” (James 1:22-25 KJV). “Those who know what is good but fail to act, commit sin” (James 4:17 KJV).
Enlightenment
Enlightenment is “living in certainty”, attained by doers of the word who ponder (meditate) over nature, guided by sense, wisdom, and values. Enlightened people are not limited to any particular religion or school of taught. When the enlightened call on followers to believe in what they say, they follow it up with the need to seek knowledge, be doers of the word, to progress to have faith.
Birth and death seem to represent the beginning and end of life in the minds of many, but to the enlightened, there is no doubt that, even though people are dead, they live.
Faith
Faith is “a state of being one with the truth”. It is “being in the certainty of truth”. The faithful and the supreme power are one, they in it, and “it” in them. This interaction may be visualised on earth like “humans surrounded by air” and “breath air moving through the human body”. Faith aligns individuals with Truth and makes all things possible.
While schooling tends to fragment education into vocations and professions, and doctrines tend to segregate humanity into religious groups, sometimes with serious and conflicting beliefs and practices, all enlightened people are bound together in same faith: admit the oneness and universality of the supreme power, oneness of all things in nature, oneness of humanity, oneness of the word (reality), and oneness of enlightenment (prophethood). The faithful needs no verses and chapters of scriptures to talk truth.
As a teacher’s duty is to teach pupils to learn 1+1= 2 and not to whip (cane) those who answer 1+1=11, and a PhD holder is not expected to show off his academic credentials to Junior High School (JHS) students to demonstrate that “they are low” in the educational ladder, so do people with faith not argue or condemn the ignorant and believers; they “give to Caesar what is Caesar’s”- Jesus Christ.
People who have faith are few. “Many are called (Believers), a few (with Faith) are chosen”- Yesu Kristo. The torchlight that makes some people close their eyes (lose sight) and stand still, is the same torchlight that lights up the path of those ready to use light (insight) to move. That is why the faithful is rejected by his own people (e.g., friends, family), abused, harassed, tortured, persecuted by believers (wielding enormous power), excommunicated by religious leaders, and possibly crucified. “If someone has faith the size of a mustard seed, they can say to a mountain to move and it will, and nothing will be impossible”- Jesus Christ (Matthew 17:20 KJV; Luke 17:6 KJV). “As a matter of fact, the manifestation of heaven is a matter of faith”- Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (NOAH’S ARK).
Truth
Truth is “the supreme power” from which all things emerged, controls all things. and has fixed interactive dimensions. Truth is natural and supernatural.
Truth is named and characterised by different individuals, groups, religions, and societies based on their beliefs, knowledge, understanding, practices, experience, and faith. Name examples are “Nothing”, “Big Bang” (Science), Jehovah (Jews), God (Europeans; Christians), Allah (Middle East; Muslims), Nyame (Akans in Ghana, Africa), Deities (Asia; Africa), and many others. Some of the characterizations include Jehovah in Heaven who has no son but has angels; God in Heaven with the only begotten son Jesus Christ and has angels; Allah who has no son but has angels; “Big Bang” in the universe which has no son angels; Nyame in the universe who has no son angels; “Nothing”; and Deities in all matter and energy and has no son nor angels. It is not uncommon to observe hectic, unending individual religious groups’ arguments over the name and characterization of the supreme power as each tries to justify and impose their beliefs over the others. It is worthy of note that: (1) not all truths are revealed to everyone at all places at all times, (2) no one has appointed anyone “truth vanguard” to reward or condemn others on matters of truth. When people position themselves as markers, judging the “right and wrong” of others, they stall their own opportunities to explore, experience, and enjoy nature and its tremendous grace and mercies. (3) many people who live in truth and are “truth advocates” may have many truths not shared.
The following are examples of “statement of truth”:
- Humans do not control the world, and are not the most powerful
- There is a supreme power beyond human control. “Obi nkyerɛ Abɔfra Nyame” (No one teaches a child that there is a supreme power) – Akan Wise Saying
- Animals, trees, and plants have their own form of sense, instinct, and means of communication
- Civilization is harmony, love, closeness to nature, not technological advancement
- All things in nature have their freedom (dynamic entropy) and are used or experienced freely [e.g., air, sunlight and solar energy, water, soil (including its minerals and gravitational force), trees and plants, animals, humans (family, friends, neighbours), Nyame, and life.
No one knows the beginning of the supreme power, and if and how it will end. There are numerous philosophical and scientific narratives, books, and articles with the aim of proving the origin of the superpower and the creation or evolution of things in nature. Truth is always factual.
Miracle
Miracle is “any happening beyond human knowledge, understanding, and or control”, and is believed to originate from the supreme power. Quotations are usually made of miracles performed by Prophets to demonstrate their nearness to the supreme power. Many people pray and look forward to miracles for favours to change their circumstances. The miracles taking place daily in nature and in humans are usually overlooked, including the structure and forms of the variety of trees, plants, fungi, microbes, and animals (e.g., mammals, reptiles, amphibians, crustaceans, worms), and humans (e.g., birth, growth, organs and systems functions, and aging).
Luck
Luck is “Chance”. It is the probability that “success or failure” (or “good or bad”) occurs to us by Chance. Chance is out of nowhere, and not through one’s actions.
Probability is “how likely an event will occur”. It is influenced by the nature of the event (dependent or independent), prior knowledge, beliefs, possible outcomes, causal factors, and past experience. The bravest do not always win a battle, and the fastest do not always win a race; other factors, like luck, come into play.
Destiny
Destiny is a combination of “fixed pathways” inherent in genes, “individual choices,” and “external influences” in the environment, and the three influence each other in a variety of ways with no known predictable outcome probability.
Conclusion
No individual, community, society, or State is a master of all the variables that influence human survival and interactions, and has a right or authority to judge others or condemn them to eternal suffering.
Given the oneness of humanity, humanity with nature, and nature with the supreme power, we have no option other than to “Love all”, and “Hate None”- (Ahmadiyya Muslim Community mantra), live and let others live, respect cultural and religious differences, and show compassion. We are to peacefully coexist with one another, protect nature, and conserve biodiversity. We need to be content, show gratitude, and stay happy.
Unless the one who serves people with fish goes away, those taught to fish will not do fishing. Similarly, unless the Faithful (e.g., Master, Teacher, Messiah, Prophet) goes away, followers with light will not be used to move from ignorance to TRUTH.
