Many humans traverse from their homes to work long shifts only to come home and

sit in front of a television and then to repeat this monotonous lifestyle. It is

reminiscent of Bill Murray in the movie Groundhog Day, except that reality does, in
fact, yield a new day. As some say “Different day, same @*#%”
Our minds may be occupied with thoughts of a promotion, purchasing a new house, a
car, or even a fancy holiday, but our thinking rarely goes beyond these worldly
inclinations. Significant questions such as, what happens after death or even the
subject of death itself, are pushed into a box into the dusty corners of the mind,
gathering yet more dust. It’s as though the inevitable will never happen. It is a reality
we know about yet simultaneously do not wish to think about. Why is that so?

One cannot argue that this method of thinking and living is innate to the human mind
as children are naturally inquisitive. From a very young age, the mind of a child is
constantly seeking answers. Questions such as: “Where do babies come from?”, “How
did we get here?” and “Who made the universe?” are common amongst children. Yet
quite often these questions remain either unanswered, ridiculed by peers or we are fed
a lie by those who are there to teach us.

Growing up in the western tradition, most become accustomed to being told that there
is a ‘Tooth Fairy’ that places money under my pillow if a tooth falls out, a ‘Santa
Claus’ that delivers presents if children have been good, and a scary ‘Bogeyman’ that
visits the naughty children. It is not until a certain age that adults give you the truth
and expose the lies that they themselves told in the formative years. Everything we
believed in, naively perhaps, is stripped down and we are left with lies. Where do
these lies stop? How many other things should we question as not being true and
where do we draw the line? We go through life learning to be very cynical due to the
way we have been culturally shaped. The other extreme to being a cynic is becoming
totally uninterested in the truth altogether. After years of social conditioning and the
consistent feeling of being disappointed due to being spoon-fed lie after lie, some
people choose to plead ignorance and bury their heads in the sand. What’s worse are
those who choose to believe the lies that fed to them. They readily believe without
question, and act out of ignorance.

It is our personal upbringings, experiences and close relations that shape and influence
the very way we think. The human mind is often programmed and conditioned by the
cultural dictates of society through mass indoctrination, only for family and friends to
further cement this way of thinking to the point it is almost impossible to make a
healthy independent decision. This concept of ‘freedom of thought’ that we so rigidly
believe that we have, is nothing more than programmed reactions that have been
instilled into us through years of indoctrination. Therefore, any thinking outside of the
box could very well lead to ridicule and even alienation. The social pressure to think
as part of a herd makes it very difficult to make independent choices. Especially when
this involves reevaluating life as it has been taught. Questioning the beliefs of the
status quo is perhaps the most fearful and challenging step any seeker has undertook,
or will undertake.

In our quests for absolute truth, we are going to be confronted by all types of obstacles
and tested at any given moment. Truth is not always the popular most popular opinion
and seeking and accepting the truth comes with great challenges and even calls for
sacrifice. One of the initial sacrifices that the truth demands of us is to approach it
unburdened with baggage. We need to put all preconceived prejudices aside to discern
truth from falsehood.

One who truly embarks on this question will naturally have questions. The art of
asking questions and revaluating everything we may have been taught so far is crucial.
Even if it means having to put our foot and squash our very undying prejudices about
others or their set of beliefs. Many people cringe at the thought of religion in the
present-day material world. Religion is frequently considered as unimportant, or even
worse, a hindrance to the many enjoyments of life. Many say YOLO – you only live
once. This may be true, but living once means you only get one chance, in this world,
to get it right.

There are many prejudices when it comes to the idea of God or organized religion. We
cannot blame people for thinking like this as some of this prejudice is rooted in
horrific historic events. Events in which seemingly religious characters misused the
doctrines for power gains and political authority. In such cases, deterrent laws, such as
apostasy laws, execution, stoning to death and the chopping of hands, became too
common place. This especially happened within the Arabian Peninsula in the mid-
17th century when a vigilante, by the name of Muhammad Ibn ‘Abdul Wahhab,
gained some political power within the region of Najd and had a woman stoned to
death for adultery. Despite Islamic Law stipulating such a punishment for this crime,
new of the actual application of this law reached far and wide in the Muslim world
causing the valid Muslim authority to dispatch an army to lay waste to this threat.
What shocked the Muslim rulers is that a law that had been revealed to deter humanity
from ever committing the crime had been enforced by a vigilante. A thug that had
become empowered by a misinterpretation of Islamic doctrine and backed by a
powerful and rich tax collector with a private army. The coup for power of the Islamic
world had begun, a coup that impacts the Muslim world until this very day.

The Christian doctrine has also fallen foul to this. Who would have thought that such
golden teachings as “love thy enemy” would empower the swords that lead to
numerous genocides, the Crusades, medieval witch-hunts, the burning of heretics, and
more recently within the past century, the hanging of ‘niggers’ from trees? How on
earth does this happen? How is it that the teachings of peace, love and tolerance have
been misrepresented through mediums as being violent and intolerant due to a small
handful of sociopath’s claiming to be religiously inspired? Obviously, such things
help cement the preconceived notions that many people hold regarding organized
religion.

Just how can one consider and understand the very essence of the religion, if their
mind is disturbed by paranoias that have been placed there through cultural
conditioning and then further enforced by family relatives and close friends? Such
closed mindedness undoubtedly will prevent one from asking important questions.
Preconceived notions act as a major hindrance for people to reach a healthy
conclusion, even though the best of informed choices. Their social constructs and
customs are often the cause of arrogance and denial when the truth is presented to
them. Due to notions, such as religion being the cause of war and suffering, people do
not want to ask themselves the questions related to their very existence. Where did
they come from? What is the purpose of life? Who created the universe? All
reasoning, at this point, seems to have been thrown out the window and replaced with
the laziest excuse not to ponder religion. Often that excuse is the ‘Theory of
Evolution’, even if the person does not know the first thing about this theory. The
truth is, such a person will not want to know.

Yet, the Qur’an is such a powerful book that manages to move and disturb the soul.
Even those with the hardest of hearts are shaken with the content within the Qur’an.
We find the Qur’an replete with rhetorical questions which call to the reflection of
life’s purpose. Such questions that naturally disturb the soul and causes one to
question his very existence and the reality around him. Only a book from the Divine
Creator would be so bold to put forth thought provoking questions that challenge the
soul. In my personal quest for absolute truth, I have found the Qur’an to answer the
most cynical of cynics as every nature of man can be found described within the
Qur’an. Every attitude, every psyche, every social construct. The Qur’an is indeed a
guidance to the whole of humanity and the eradicator of false hopes and notions.
“Mirror, mirror on the wall, the Qur’an is the best mirror to cause prejudices to fall”

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