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asim

PAKISTAN
Topic initiated on Friday, February 20, 2004  -  5:51 PM Reply with quote
Fear Vs Love and One Vs Many


During listening to one of his lectures, Mr Ghamidi presented a view that triggered my interest.

Anthropologists say that concept of God originated in the feeling of fear in man. Man, during its hunter-gatherer stage, feared forces of nature, so to please them it started worshipping them. Hence originally man had a multitude of deities. Then at later stages some group (Israelites) brought out the idea that one of these gods (conveniently theirs) is more powerful than all the others.

Hence through this process man gradually come to think of the existance of only one god.

Mr Ghamidi says that since his inception, man has idea of one god and it was only later that this idea got corrupted and man starting worshipping several gods wielding different powers. In this reference he quotes the 'Qol-e-Alast' verses from Quran. Secondly he says that concept of God was not due to fear but has its origins in the feeling of love in mankind for a creater.

Hence his ideas are quite in contast to established views of Anthropology. To support their thesis social scientists/historians present examples from different eras of human history and draw inferences from the cultural remains/artifacts of various civilizations. A good example of this view is represented in a historical novel by James A. Michener "The Source".

Mr Ghamidi's approach is fresh and original. But for it to merit serious consideration among learned circles it needs to be supported by references from human history.

I would love to have your views on this matter.

Regards,
Asim Vardag
Jhangeer Hanif

PAKISTAN
Posted - Monday, February 23, 2004  -  12:19 PM Reply with quote

In simple words, Anthropologists have failed to understand the true nature of ‘the emotions of fear’ of God. It also seems to me natural for them to make such a mistake. Many a time, when you delve deeper into some hot issue you are under so many social pressures and scientific advancements that you hit again and again at the point which is getting an uproar around you in ‘the world of knowledge’. Ultimately, the process of deliberation which could have been so natural eventually becomes artificial. To give you an example, I will bring to your notice one of our common experiences. There are times when it seems so difficult to us to recall what is so familiar to our memory; we push our memory and try and try to recall but ‘what we could have been able to recall in an instant because of its familiarity’ appears to be so ‘distant’ to our brain. We fail and we have to say: It is in my sub conscious but I am not getting it . This shows how sometimes familiar notions turn into distant items because of artificial thinking. This is why when we leave our memory in its natural flow ‘the desired file’ opens automatically and we suddenly remember. Perhaps, a sort of this experience happened in case of our Anthropologists.

The question is: ‘What is the true nature of fear of Allah then?’ This fear is nothing other than a manifestation of the love of the Lord. This is so natural to love someone from the bottom of the heart and in loving so, fear to lose them; fear to face their anger; fear to have your ties severed with them. Thus where there is love there is fear. Take for instance the example of mother and son in the same scenario. The amazing fact is that the converse is not true, that is to say, love translates into fear but fear does not translate into love. This is why I assert, as Javed Sahib, that the origin of our relationship with the Lord is love and not the fear.

Similarly, the theory of moving from multiple gods to One God is also flawed.

zest

PAKISTAN
Posted - Thursday, February 26, 2004  -  4:48 PM Reply with quote

Some scholars hold it isfear of being robbed of things we love and not the fear of the mere presene of the natural or supernatural sources that leads us to God first. That is why, they say, that love for God was created in man's heart on the blessings granted him. Since he was introduced to the blessings before he lost them the sense of gratitude and love for the bestower should come first than the fear of losing them. Unfortunately i do not know what Mr Ghamidi's view is in this regard. Or i am missing something? Please shed some light.


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