Seeing the Inner Reality of Things
In August 1962, when the Russian space traveler Andriyan Nikolayev returned to earth from his journey in space, he addressed a press conference in Moscow, where he exclaimed:
When I landed on earth, I wanted to kiss it!
This world is suffused with innumerable favourable things for a person to avail of. No other place anywhere in the known world affords the same sort of favourable things. When Nikolayev travelled far into space, he was simply awe-struck! There was nothing there in the huge expanse that could provide human beings solace and comfort. After this experience, when he landed on earth, he realized the value of this planet, in exactly the same way as when one is very thirsty one realizes the value of water. The world, along with all its many favourable possibilities, appeared so very precious and lovable to him!
This is what is termed as ‘making something a deity’ in the terminology of Islam. A human being does not see the Creator directly, and so he makes a created thing his deity. But a true believer is one who passes by external things and reaches to the inner realities, who realizes that all visible things are actually created by the invisible Creator. He knows that everything in the whole cosmos has been brought into being by some immensely great Being. Such a person, on seeing the myriad created things of the universe, is led to the Creator, whom he takes to be his everything. He devotes all his finer emotions for God.
The Russian cosmonaut experienced an overwhelming joy on finding himself back on earth. But an individual should go much beyond that state on finding God! A true believer is he who, when he sees the sun, sees the light of God in it, who witnesses the limitlessness of God in the vast expanses of the skies, who finds the fragrance of God in the scent of a flower, who observes the mercy of God in the flow of a river. The difference between a true believer and someone else is that the vision of the latter is fixed on created things, while the former has gone beyond created beings and has established a connection with the Creator. An ordinary person thinks that the beauty of created beings is intrinsic to them, that it belongs to them. And so, he is entangled in them. On the other hand, a true believer sees the beauty of the Creator in the beauty of created things and surrenders himself to the Creator.
An ordinary person submits to things of the world, while a true believer’s submission is for the Creator of the world.
