2 // Lesson two
Belief in the existence of God is embedded in the human essence
From the very time when the period of a person’s childhood ends and he reaches the limit of distinguishing good from bad, if he turns to his conscience, he can notice that, without a doubt, he likes truthfulness, justice, love for his neighbor, service to people and other good qualities. This means that he is aware of the positive aspects of such qualities and learning these qualities is of no use to him. If he is asked: – How and by what evidence did you understand that truthfulness is a good thing? He will say in response: – I did not understand this based on evidence and arguments, I felt it with my soul and my essence! Belief in the existence of God (Creator of the world and all beings) is equivalent to a person’s spiritual awareness of Him. To realize this, a person does not need to study and read books, because he can realize this by turning to his conscience, understand that this world of existence has its wise and all-powerful Creator. Therefore, turning to the history of mankind, one can clearly see that faith in God existed in man in all periods of human history, even in the period of his semi-wild existence. Of course, sometimes in recognizing God, a person encountered mistakes. For example, man considered the sun, stars and many animals to be his gods, nevertheless, the very principle of belief in God existed and lived in him. Now that the concept of faith in God has been clarified, some important points should be noted. Some mental factors are sometimes forgotten as a result of special conditions and reasons. For example, if a dense material is thrown over the lamp, it will prevent light from penetrating. The same thing happens with the God-given essence of a person, that is, as a result of getting bogged down in sensual desires and passions, the divine essence of a person remains hidden and inaccessible and distances a person from Allah to such an extent that it appears to him that such a God-given essence does not exist at all. If this veil departs, then a person very soon and by himself realizes his divine essence. People, moving away from their divine essence, as a result of being bogged down in sins and sensual desires, at the moment of danger, for example, at the moment of danger in an airplane or in a car, seeing that they will not be able to save themselves in any way, resort to a request for God’s mercy and help, that is, at this moment, in the most accurate form, a sense of knowledge and bowing before God is awakened in them. The Sixth Innocent Imam of the Shiites, His Eminence Imam Sadik (may peace be upon him) very succinctly addresses this issue. Someone asked His Eminence to guide him to God and the Creator of the worlds (that is, to express to him an argument for the existence of God). His Eminence said: – Did you sail on a ship? -So. -Has such an event happened to you that your ship was wrecked and there was no other ship nearby to tackle you, and you would not know how to swim to save your life (that is, so that you would be deprived of the opportunity from all sides get help?) -Yes. – At the moment when you lost the last hope of receiving help and salvation, didn’t the consciousness arise in the depths of your soul that who can tackle you? – Why, in my soul I felt that there was a force capable of saving me from inevitable death! His Eminence Imam Sadyk said: – The power that you realized at that moment is the same God. That is, the same one who can be noticed willy-nilly by a person in a moment of fear and helplessness, the same force that moves a person in His direction, when the shroud of self-importance, selfishness, hope for people and worldly life moves aside – is God, the Creator of the worlds , the remover of all needs and the Savior of all in distress.