بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
The Protestant Trap
What the trap is, specifically, is desiring and believing you have a "personal" relationship with God, as if you talk to Him directly and thinking He responds to you directly. As if God is your drinking buddy. Such a concept never existed in Christianity before the Protestant Reformation, nor did such an idea occur to Muslims prior to I would say this past century.
Let's back track a bit, there is a long history of sharing ideas and intellectual assertions about God and religion between the great monotheistic faiths, especially between Islam and Christianity. However, much of this intellectual and theological swapping occurred nearly 500 years ago and earlier. The faiths benefited greatly from each other and their scholars. They were actually good ideas. For instance, St. John of the Cross speaks about "The Dark Night of the Soul" in which he details the experience of the soul when it is in proximity to God, the Divine. It's something that those who wish to attain it experience, because very few people could explain it, he wrote a poem and then a tafsir or interpretation of his own poem to aid people in their understanding of this mystical experience. The Muslims benefited from this experience greatly, since it was something that can be experienced in Islam as well. This furthered understanding of this state of the soul and allowed Muslims to build further, using Islamic anecdotes and syntax.
However, this idea that Muslims begin to think and feel that they speak to God directly and He responds to them directly is just short of hallucinating. That's why the Protestants claim they can interpret the Bible however they feel since they have this emotional attachment to God that is completely a figment of their imagination. The idea that the Spirit enters them and guides their actions is really lofty and idealized. I am not saying this is impossible, I am saying however, that just because you are a Protestant Christian doesn't mean this is what's happening. Also keep in mind that I am interpreting the Spirit entering someone as a metaphor, what's a meta for? Well, it's their to help us understand extremely difficult complex ideas in not so difficult terms.
I actually heard a Muslim guy, probably in his early 20s, say in front of a group that was attending a tafsir class that he felt he had a "personal relationship" with God. He used the exact terminology. He said that when he prays to God, he is speaking directly to Him. True, I can accept that, however, I asked him once he said that, "Do you hear God responding directly back to you?" He was stumped and tried to dig himself out of the very deep hole he found himself in. As he was struggling like a fish out of water to come up with a coherent answer to my question, he latched on to a few words that finally aided his reply. "Well, when God answers my prayers He is speaking directly to me, or when I see something and think God did it this way because of this and that..." Oh my friend, God does not live in your subjective reality. You are interpreting God through a very personal and subjective lens, essentially, you are seeing a personal God, not the Absolute God. Which is okay, because some people are at that level of understanding, it is better they believe in a personal God than in no God whatsoever. However, it is still far from the Reality.
So, let's take the advice of our Shaykhs and Scholars of old, they clearly were doing something right in the 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries, the Golden Age of Islam. God is not our buddy, He is there for our salvation. We must transmit due right and respect to Him and His prophets.
May God guide us all to the Truth.
Ameen.
Let's back track a bit, there is a long history of sharing ideas and intellectual assertions about God and religion between the great monotheistic faiths, especially between Islam and Christianity. However, much of this intellectual and theological swapping occurred nearly 500 years ago and earlier. The faiths benefited greatly from each other and their scholars. They were actually good ideas. For instance, St. John of the Cross speaks about "The Dark Night of the Soul" in which he details the experience of the soul when it is in proximity to God, the Divine. It's something that those who wish to attain it experience, because very few people could explain it, he wrote a poem and then a tafsir or interpretation of his own poem to aid people in their understanding of this mystical experience. The Muslims benefited from this experience greatly, since it was something that can be experienced in Islam as well. This furthered understanding of this state of the soul and allowed Muslims to build further, using Islamic anecdotes and syntax.
However, this idea that Muslims begin to think and feel that they speak to God directly and He responds to them directly is just short of hallucinating. That's why the Protestants claim they can interpret the Bible however they feel since they have this emotional attachment to God that is completely a figment of their imagination. The idea that the Spirit enters them and guides their actions is really lofty and idealized. I am not saying this is impossible, I am saying however, that just because you are a Protestant Christian doesn't mean this is what's happening. Also keep in mind that I am interpreting the Spirit entering someone as a metaphor, what's a meta for? Well, it's their to help us understand extremely difficult complex ideas in not so difficult terms.
I actually heard a Muslim guy, probably in his early 20s, say in front of a group that was attending a tafsir class that he felt he had a "personal relationship" with God. He used the exact terminology. He said that when he prays to God, he is speaking directly to Him. True, I can accept that, however, I asked him once he said that, "Do you hear God responding directly back to you?" He was stumped and tried to dig himself out of the very deep hole he found himself in. As he was struggling like a fish out of water to come up with a coherent answer to my question, he latched on to a few words that finally aided his reply. "Well, when God answers my prayers He is speaking directly to me, or when I see something and think God did it this way because of this and that..." Oh my friend, God does not live in your subjective reality. You are interpreting God through a very personal and subjective lens, essentially, you are seeing a personal God, not the Absolute God. Which is okay, because some people are at that level of understanding, it is better they believe in a personal God than in no God whatsoever. However, it is still far from the Reality.
So, let's take the advice of our Shaykhs and Scholars of old, they clearly were doing something right in the 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries, the Golden Age of Islam. God is not our buddy, He is there for our salvation. We must transmit due right and respect to Him and His prophets.
May God guide us all to the Truth.
Ameen.
Written by Abu Fulan - January 27, 2012