All of us want to be perfect. But how healthy is it to be a perfectionist? Reviewing Thomas Curran’s The Perfection Trap, Adam Sahin says we need a more balanced approach when we set goals for our lives. The pressure to appear flawless, Sahin reports from Flett and Hewitt, “especially when it comes from society at large – often goes hand in hand with anxiety and depression.” Social media comparisons make the situation more challenging with the constant flow of endless, amplified humbling options that inadvertently appear before our eyes. Sahin explains how widespread this vulnerability is, giving examples from some celebrities who had to pay a high price for their perfectionism. Also found in Sahin’s piece is important recommendations from Prophetic wisdom that emphasize humility, moderation, embracing fallibility, and compassion.

As a follow-up to the perfectionist trap mentioned above, when we look at certain events in the cosmos, we tend to think the universe is not so perfect at all. In the words of Fehmi Akbaba in this issue, “in everyday life, we observe this principle in the tendency of things to break down or decay: metal rusts, organisms age…” “machines wear out, and living things eventually die.” According to physicist and theologian Sir John Polkinghorne, “There are just so many more ways to be disordered than ordered.” Reflecting on the “eventual death of the solar system” and the extinction of the cosmos into “a dark, cold, and lifeless expanse,” one hardly finds any consolation. Akbaba offers in his “Traces of Divine Order in Cosmic Disorder” many convincing points to reason that “the cosmos has not been left to itself” and that the creation is “intentional and meaningful.”

Now a matter of political polarization, “diversity” is a phenomenon ingrained in nature and human life. Humans share about 99% of the same DNA, writes Kerem Yalcin, but “the remaining 1% accounts for a remarkable diversity in our traits and characteristics” and “how susceptible people are to different diseases.” Of course, lifestyle, nutrition, geographical location, and environmental influences are also important factors. In this issue, Yalcin explains the “All of Us” research program initiated to reduce a longstanding challenge in medicine: “the inequities in health outcomes and disease risk among different racial and social groups – commonly referred to as health disparities.” Yalcin hopes that the outcomes of this program “have the potential to improve healthcare accessibility and quality for individuals from all walks of life, reduce healthcare costs, and prevent disease before their onset.”

Reinforcing the idea of “All of Us,” Suleyman Tek writes on how teamwork can help us rise together. “When we work together with a shared purpose – whether in families, workplaces, or communities – not only do we achieve more, but we help lift one another up along the way.”

Seeing the order in the universe, rising together collectively, or being on the path of perfection without being a perfectionist – all of it rests firmly on the foundation of listening to one another, a topic extensively covered in the Lead Article.

The questions on the creation of mankind and the inner workings of the universe have been the primary issues that have had a profound impact on both modern, secular philosophy and traditional religion. Our collective experiences in natural sciences and educational disciplines have taught us that certain models can be developed to help us comprehend the functioning of the universe.

One of the fundamental questions in this respect relates to how a great deal of orderliness and discipline is possible in the universe despite its immense scale. Exploring the potential of this orderliness encourages our curiosity to examine life at the most minuscule level, and some scientists aim to explain this perceived system within the universe via an idea called “the Computational Universe.” In this article we will discuss how this idea can be considered to support the perceptions of monotheistic belief. In scientific literature, the term “computational” refers to anything that possesses any relationship to complex calculations, as various disciplines such as physics, chemistry; the term is used even by the discipline of psychology.

Thanks to relatively recent developments and discoveries in science, we are able to better understand the events in our world and universe. To put it into perspective, humanity was deprived of certainty on the shape of the world up until several centuries ago. However, scientific developments, especially during the 19th and 20th centuries, formed the basis of the stunning technological developments that we live with today. Comparatively, it could be argued that what we know, comprehend, and understand about the universe that we live in is only a small fraction of what the universe actually contains. Continuous developments in science and technology help us understand more and more about the way the universe works. “Our science and applications to space technology have evolved by improving our abilities to measure, test, and analyze physical events and by developing their mathematical models” (Fontana 2005).

As humanity began to uncover some of the codes by which our universe is made to function, we have been using these rules to make our lives easier. This is common human behavior: we learn new things and try to use them to improve our lives. In fact, human technology has advanced so much that we now have machines that can move and function like a nano-universe. Basically, we are giving them a code, a sheet of rules to function in the way we desire. As a result, we are much less dependent on physical labor; for instance, we now can farm with high-tech machines instead of our hands.

New ideas are born with these emerging technologies and with more ease than they were back in the old days; thus we have had a progress at an exponential rate. Looking at all these historical aspects and experience , some scientists conclude that the universe we take part in might be a “mother computation” and all of these things that keep the universe well-oiled and functioning might be parts of codes and commands coming from this mother computation.

The argument does not end at whether we live in a computation or not though. From that point, people who believe that we live in a mother computation split sides, with some providing the explanation that we are real, and this is reality, but controlled by a mother computation. This group argues that everything that happens around us is part of reality, just like we are, but that they function via a code that was inserted into their cores in order for them to work the way their coder wants them to.

The other school of thought challenges the vast majority of conventional theological thought and logic. This argument agrees that we do live in a computation, however that this life is not reality. Events in the universe, including our lives are just a simulation, and we are test subjects.

“Several physicists, cosmologists and technologists are now happy to entertain the idea that we are all living inside a gigantic computer simulation… Our instincts rebel, of course. It all feels too real to be a simulation. The weight of the cup in my hand, the rich aroma of the coffee it contains, the sounds all around me – how can such richness of experience be faked?” (Ball 2016).

Though this idea of a computational universe appears to be new because of the fact that computers and digital simulations appeared only a few decades ago, its origins go back to antiquity. Some of history’s greatest minds, such as Plato and Descartes, have actually provided their views on this concept even without these technologies being present at the time. They questioned reality and dug deep into life and how we perceive everything around us, however their arguments were not widespread among their contemporaries because they had no proofs to support their controversial ideas that challenged everything that people believed.

So, is the universe a mother computer or a giant computer simulation?

It is widely accepted by almost all people that there are principles and rules by which the universe is governed and which we can observe on both the macro and micro levels. Events are considered supernatural or miraculous if they take place outside of these principles. Therefore, scientific findings may allow us to develop a deeper appreciation for the “computational” orderliness that can be found in our universe among the orbits of the planets down to the multitude of complex ecosystems that exist across our world in a variety of different biomes.

Religious traditions

From the perspective of monotheistic religions, it is believed that the Creator creates and pursues everything with an order in the universe, which allows the universe to keep working in a perfect balance. The universe’s orderliness, especially that which occurred during its creation, is stressed profoundly in the holy books. For example, it is stated in Genesis 1-2 that the creation of the entire universe occurred in “six days,” and this process was described day by day in the relevant verses. This implies a certain order in the development of events during the creation of the universe.

A certain orderliness is also clearly declared in the Qur’an: “He to whom belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth … has created each thing and determined it with [precise] determination” (2:25). Today, the scientific community explains this order and design in the universe with concepts such as the “Anthropic Principle.” According to this principle, the universe possesses such perfect features that it could not have arisen by chance without purpose. The situation can be understood more thoroughly if major examples of design existing in the universe are briefly examined. Doing so, we will find out several aspects of this principle that we encounter in our daily lives, which in turn will lead us to further understand God’s complex creation of the universe.

Based upon the evidence that some scientists have shown that a starter leads off, like a coder writes codes, in order for the universe to function correctly and in a perfect continuity, the faithful of religious traditions might reasonably suggest that this entire universe is just like a computer created by the Creator who continuously controls it by constantly creating new every moment for it to function as the codes are based on His commands. This rationale is the essence of and consistent with not only monotheistic religions but also in many ways with other belief systems.

Overall, the concept of a “mother computation” placed on duty in the functioning of our universe is not just a singular subject but instead a comprehensive set of ideas people have focused deeper. While, according to some, there is indication for the universe being a reality and being controlled by a “computer,” according to others, there might also be indication for how the universe could also just be a simulation. A team of physicists working at the University of Bonn claim that they have come up with a measurable way of showing that our universe is indeed “simulated” (Yirka 2012). The main focus of their paper is that in order to create a simulation of our universe, there has to be a three-dimensional framework to represent real world objects and processes. But the problem is, this paper is based on only what we know of reality today. This means that an exact copy of our universe would be impossible to create until the end of time, when we have all the knowledge that the universe presents us with – the entire idea splits right at this point.

Religion also becomes a separate argument along with these two different beliefs. Monotheistic religions believe in an Almighty God, who creates ex nihilo and put things in order in a perfectly “computed” order. God, in these traditions, are also believed to sustain all the existence by constant governance; as a matter of fact, everything is an outcome of the manifestation of God’s names and attributes – nothing comes out outside of His Divine realm and authority.

With there being many more religious traditions and philosophical approaches in this world, many different ideas can emerge as possible theories. In regard to the idea of the world being a computation, scientific theoreticians cannot definitively know for sure whether we live in a computational or fundamental reality, and do not speculate on who might be the one who programs this computer that way. Religious traditions, however, take one more step and claim if there is a computation, then there must be an agent who makes it possible and wills the world to be as it is rather than something else. Otherwise, claiming the universe to be a mother computer on its own would be no different than believing in nature to be the creator of everything, as opposed to nature itself being a created being.

While the computational model seems to support the arguments of believers in terms of explaining that there is an established order in the universe and that this order operates within certain laws and rules created and maintained by a creator in a perfect continuity, thinkers and philosophers may come up with different explanations in their own words and formulations to understand creation and life as we know it.

The mysteries of the universe offer us an expansive space to bring about the best of our rational and spiritual capacities, so our existence in this life becomes a meaningful one.

References

• Giorgio Fontana. “Why we live in the Computational Universe,” https://arxiv.org/ftp/physics/papers/0511/0511157.pdf.
• Philip Ball. 5 September “We might live in a computer program, but it may not matter” http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20160901-we-might-live-in-a-computer-program-but-it-may-not-matter.
• Bob Yirka. 2012. “Is it real? Physicists propose method to determine if the universe is a simulation,” Phys.org.

The Coronavirus Pandemic has shaken much of the world to its core and caused many disruptions. Economies have been crippled, millions have been laid off, quarantine has forced us to stay at home for an extended period of time, and thousands have died. Control over our lives and society, it seems, has been lost for most of us.

Perhaps it is possible to, ironically, use what takes control away from us as a means to regain it. One should ponder this coronavirus disaster, why it has come to us, what we can learn from it, and how we can prevent it from happening again. This way, we can regain control through reflection, faith, and science in order to learn from our past mistakes to help ensure that such a crisis does not happen again. Otherwise, we could continue to lose control of our societies.

Our brains have a finite amount of resources but must be taken care of in order to ensure that our bodies can perform all of our necessary daily functions. We can strengthen our brains through long-term potentiation (LTP), which essentially means using it regularly in order to keep it fresh, strong, and up to date. It also explains how our brains change and adapt to different situations and scenarios we encounter, thus serve as a means for us to learn from our hardships and develop new strategies for survival and growth. How can we maintain control of our minds and bodies if we do not learn from our mistakes and continue to grow?

We can continue to find control and peace in anything that speaks to us on a personal or spiritual level. This can range from simple scraps of paper to eloquent forms of art, such as Ebru. Our authors delve into a wide range of topics that they are passionate about. Their arts and crafts, whether a canvas for art or a sheet of paper for writing, is their field where they are in complete control. Surely, we can maintain control in these hobbies or actions even when it seems that everything else around us is falling apart.

“The Orientalists” piece in this issue is providing an alternative perspective on some of the travelers to the East. The perception of the East in the Western mind has been much shaped by the extensive chronicles of these travelers who endured long and strenuous journeys across North Africa and all the way to India. Lawrence Brazier shares with us a panorama of some of the leading Orientalists many of whom, according to him, “were travelers who found the East, indeed, ‘other’ than what they experienced at home. Their quest was a personal enthusiasm for the Orient.”

We begin in the Lead Article with a discussion about how to avoid inner decay, a phenomenon that can cause people to drift away from what it means to be human by becoming lost in despair. This anguish spreads through the heart and body like a disease and subsequently causes everything to look bleak, taste bland, and feel pointless. It is contrasted heavily by the light of belief, which has the opposite effect and lifts the soul up into tranquility.

Our narrative by Lawrence Brazier that delves into the wonderful world of pottery and his thought process behind trying to make the best pieces. His discussion with his friend reveals how he believes, in his opinion, that attaining inner peace produces the best kind of art. His perspective is that art should calm and soothe as opposed to provoke and agitate, therefore encouraging a peaceful state of mind in order to achieve the desired result.

Celine Dan Tam Nguyen’s memoir explores how her grandmother, whose husband was killed in a war, had to strengthen her resolve every day in order to provide for herself and her five children. Her survival depended upon defiantly standing up to a patriarchal society that encouraged her to simply sit down and accept defeat. It is a harrowing story of the toll that war takes on innocent families, and how they must find peace within in order to persist during such trying times.

Irfan Yilmaz writes a beautiful article on the intricacies and immense qualities of the hummingbird, the world’s smallest bird. It is renowned for its speed, precision, and rapid heart-rate despite being such a tiny creature. We may also achieve inner peace by temporarily removing ourselves from the noise of our society and by ruminating on the beauty of the natural world around us in creations such as the hummingbird.

O you who believe! Turn to God in true, sincere repentance. (66:8)

Philosophers and scientists have long mulled over the faculties that govern our actions and thoughts. They have identified these in different ways, and there is still endless debate over these tangible and intangible faculties. There seem to be conflicting forces within us – an “evil-commanding” carnal self and a “regulatory” conscience. These have been caricatured as the devil and angel on our shoulders. Freud called this phenomenon the id and the super-ego within us: i.e. the instinctual drive and the moralizing conscience. Unrestricted drives can lead to destruction, so moral laws and society impose certain rules and consequences for such actions.

An important tool that aids this self-regulation is the feeling of guilt. However, the conscience can easily be manipulated and with some effort a rationale that justifies most actions can be found. A troubled conscience cannot be escaped forever. Non-conformity to established moral norms can be the greatest source of anxiety and guilt, and the cause of drastic internal conflicts.

In any case, everyone has something that they hold to be right and wrong, whether induced by society, revelation, or both.

For immigrants, such moral questions have an amplified effect. Living in a society that can have different moral norms to that of their cultural upbringing, which itself has variations from the religious moral values that they hold dear, can cause a turbulence of internal conflicts. “Who I am today,” and, “what made me this way?” are answered by a cohort of forces which are in perpetual conflict with one another. An immigrant realizes that their so-called innate urges, and even personality traits, are simply a set of influences that they need to learn to grow conscious of in order to truly find inner peace. During this process, however, they may develop a deep sense of guilt which they are not able to escape. The only way out could be to appeal to a higher being.

Projecting this situation onto myself, an idea came to me while I was contemplating why I am not able to get rid of my feeling of guilt. After I perceive myself to have sinned, I repent and feel sorrow for my sins, but then I repeat that sin. Why is it that I cannot stop this cycle? Is it possible, I thought, that deep in my subliminal mind, I feel at ease when I realize my weakness and inferiority before God because it is only then that I am able to truly connect with Him? If I stopped sinning, would the relief and comfort corrupt me and distance me from God?

My first reaction, of course, was that this idea must be a waswasa (a satanic whispering). Surely one’s connection to God is not merely one of embarrassment or fear, but involves qualities such as awe, gratitude, love, and rida (a satisfied resignation and submission). Also, how could I assume that I could attain a state of sinlessness when even the purest of the pure Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, felt the need to repent seventy or a hundred times a day?

What I repent for and what the Prophet repented for could not have been the same. So, I must have a misconception of what constitutes a sin. Sinning cannot simply be a case of misbehaviour or non-compliance with an order. One can make the following deduction: since sinning is unpleasant because it is accompanied by guilt (a troubled conscience), and since heartfelt guilt is as a result of immorality, then feelings of guilt can be treated as an inner motivation for repenting. Our troubled conscience is a result of a more expanded meaning of sinning, which included not just merely acting immorally but also entails things such as: lack of right action, vanity, being heedless, or even having unpleasant thoughts.

The example of Prophet David’s (peace be upon him) startling state of anguish seems to prove this point: “One day he asks God Almighty: ‘O Lord. How can I be thankful to You, since thanking You is another favour that requires thankfulness?’ The Almighty responded: ‘Just now you have done it.’”

It seems then that an extraordinary level of self-regulation and a true understanding of the meaning of repentance brings the conscious ones to bend down in modesty. They are greater sinners in their own eyes than I perceive myself to be. Alas, the only way to free myself from my deviations is to be sincere and resolute in growing conscious of my sins and to focus my attention on re-assessing my position in the face of God. At the end of the day, being conscious that God is seeing me, even at times when nobody else is, may be the only way of abstaining from sin. It is only then that I will realize there is so much more to my relationship with God than my fear and shame.

For a balanced and healthy state of mind, I have since realized that I must enrich and diversify my relationship with God. I can develop different areas of connection, for instance, through contemplating the manifestation of His names in His creation by studying the sciences; and then my astonishment of His might will be aroused and this will lead me to further gratefulness; and by turning to His word, I can establish a direct conversation with him and lend an ear to what He has to say to me. The benefits of having a concerned conscience need to be further discussed, but something is clear: if the feeling of heartfelt concern dies out and is replaced by vanity, then that is cause for serious concern.

In order to shed light on this matter, I would like to reference a part of the movie The Truman Show. In this movie, a man’s life is continuously recorded and broadcast worldwide as a TV show. From babyhood on, his life is completely planned, and many of his major life events are designed by the makers of the show. However, all of this is unbeknownst to the main character, Truman. As he grows into his elementary school years, he develops a passion for exploring the world. But this would mean that he would have to leave the movie set, which by now covers a huge area and is deliberately surrounded by water, giving the impression that Truman is living on an island. So, in order to avoid his departure from the movie set and in order not to violate his freedom of choice at the same time, the moviemakers do two things. First, a set-up is made in which Truman’s father drowns in the sea when he and Truman were caught in a storm while sailing. Thus, a negative psychological association is used in order to keep Truman away from the sea. In Truman’s later years, the show’s architects assign a geography teacher who consistently curtails Truman’s passion for exploration. Anytime he expresses interest in exploring a place, his teacher tells him that it has already been done. The plan of the show’s makers works; Truman buries his passion for exploration deep into his heart.

Before returning to our topic, I would also like to mention the main idea of a TEDx talk by Nate Staniforth. Nate is a performing magician from Iowa City, and he visits kids, some of them as young as kindergarteners, for a purpose he believes in: helping people experience awe. At the end of his talk, his advice to the audience is that when you see a trick, instead of quickly going on-line and learning how it is done, take your time and experience the awe for a while. If you don’t, learning the reality behind the trick is going to instantly destroy the feelings of awe and amazement. This is similar to someone telling you a joke, and in the middle of it, another person who already knows the joke revealing the punch line, which ruins all the entertainment.

People are created with different levels of interest in math and science. For a small minority, these subjects are inherently attractive, but for quite a lot of people, they are no more than a school obligation. But these views can change. Sometimes, students develop at different paces, and after a few years of showing no interest, they start to have a passion for math or science. And sooner or later, when they have that passion, suddenly, the life stories of different scientists electrify their imagination. The path leading to an innovation or a theory energizes the blood in their veins. When they get to the moment at which the long-sought explanation is revealed, they feel as if they themselves have found it. And when they are presented with an experiment that includes new and surprising concepts, they imagine themselves at the outset of a great journey. Symphonies start playing their most exhilarating notes in their minds.

Then what happens? Well, we don’t allow them time to experience this feeling of awe and amazement for long. Before they have the opportunity to use their imagination and intellect, we present them with an explanation and a mathematical formula that has been experimentally verified. And in doing this, the language of instruction involves authoritative phrases like, “this phenomenon is known as…,” “the governing equation is…,” “the explanation for the rate of change is controlled by…” For some of the students, these explanations seem more complicated than the phenomena themselves. For others, they mean that there is an explanation as to how something seemingly magical is happening. The more we stress explanations, the stronger the impression that “everything is known, and you can’t touch this.”

For many of them, the story ends here, which means by enriching science education and growing the list of explanations, we are actually channeling students away from science towards the things they can experiment and explore with: smart phones, computer games, etc.

However, this is not the whole story, because there are students, despite being few in number, who still enjoy learning these explanations. Although the original awe loses its strength upon learning the explanation, the existence of an answer, and humanity’s ability to discover it, bring a new kind of awe. This is good, but what is the difference between these people who enjoy learning the explanations and those who don’t?

I am going to use a metaphor to solve this puzzle. When we look upon the night sky, we see only points of light. However, today we know that some of these lights are actually galaxies, containing billions of stars. And we also know that there are other points of light that are invisible to the unaided human eye. How do we know this? We have telescopes that enhance our vision. They work as follows: the larger the mirror of the telescope, the higher the resolution (i.e., the zoom-in capability). With larger telescopes, we can see into galaxies that, from afar, seem like dots in the sky. Also, in order to see some distant bodies, telescopes need a very long exposure time to collect sufficient light from them. These two factors – a larger eye and a longer wait time – determine how deeply we can see into the universe.

Looking back to the issue of science education through these two factors, most students either don’t have a wide enough intellectual perspective to grasp the beauties that are hidden in the big picture or they don’t have enough patience to work on finding the phenomena that are invisible at first glance. But these deficiencies are not just on the student’s side. It is also possible that the teachers themselves cannot see the big picture and the accompanying awe, which leaves the students helpless. Lastly, the curriculums may not be giving enough time for the students to digest the new material and feel the joy of discovery.

In his article, A Rationale for Fiction, which appeared in the 49th issue of The Fountain, Firat Kocol talks about classifying knowledge into two categories: transferable and nontransferable. For example, basic addition would be transferable, but feelings of surprise would be nontransferable. In real life, there is a varying mix of these two types of knowledge. In any event, Kocol claims that nontransferable knowledge can only be evoked in the audience through fiction, be it in the form of art, story, or music.

When we think in terms of science education, it is not difficult to see that all of our efforts are aimed at the transferable aspects of science. The nontransferable side of it, such as the feeling of awe, is ignored. Instead, the feelings of awe and amazement are considered as the job of the entertainment industry, powered by audio-visual technologies. After all, feelings are not scientific, anyway (or so the logic goes!). Hence, as science education has ignored the human soul, the human soul has started ignoring science.

Perhaps it is like Truman’s psychological aversion to sea travel: when we see the feeling of awe drown in a sea of information, we turn away from it, and that information cannot become a part of us. But again: why awe? Why is this feeling of awe and amazement so important for us? Why, when it is absent, do we disconnect ourselves from a subject?

Awe is a reverential feeling we have when faced with something unpredictable. The unknown relationship between the start and the end bewilders our minds. In other words, awe is the attraction of the unknown, not that of the known. Therefore, a body of knowledge that appears to have an answer for all the questions in the mind of the student has no relation to awe! This is even truer if that body of knowledge claims to be unique, and shuts the door of unpredictability.

This is contrary to the image of science in our minds, isn’t it? Why should a complete and consistent theory of everything be repulsive to the human mind, when that mind that has been working on that puzzle for thousands of years?

Luckily, a mathematician from the early 20th century stumbled upon something similar, and his answer, known as Gödel’s incompleteness theorem, perplexed the community of mathematicians. Taking this theory as basis, we can say that it is impossible for a body of knowledge to have a complete and consistent explanation for everything. In other words, science cannot achieve what it wants to ultimately achieve. It’s logical that this failure would trickle down to science education, too.

But how can students feel this fallacy when they are not even capable of understanding it? The answer lies in the nontransferable aspect of the taught material. Just like you don’t need to know the molecular content of a food in order to feel that it is rotten, the inhibition of awe is enough for a student’s mind to disregard a body of knowledge because it feels off.

Just like the existence of light in the outer world and the existence of eyes in our bodies necessitate each other, the existence of incompleteness and inconsistencies in the outer world necessitate the feeling of awe. The feeling of awe wants the door of unpredictability open.

This can lead to only one conclusion: that we must reincorporate awe into our science education, teaching students to feel amazement when faced with extraordinary, or even ordinary, events. If we don’t do this, the status of math and the sciences will continue to deteriorate among newer generations.

The basic freedoms of humanity that range from personal rights to political and general ones – such as the freedom of belief, worship, thought, the freedom to have a family, to work, to own personal property, the right of freedom of expression and association, of electing, and being elected, etc. – are not among the subjects to be discussed in “Emerald Hills of the Heart.” However, they have always been regarded as among the most important matters in human history.

Being the most fundamental and vital dimension and the most important human faculty, namely free-will, which is considered an important pillar of conscience, freedom (hurriya) is one of the most valuable gifts of God to humanity. This great gift has been defined in Islamic literature as an individual’s assertion and enjoyment of his/her basic rights. However, in order to fully perceive freedom one must be able, to some extent, to perceive its opposite. This opposite is the individual’s dependence on others for the enjoyment of those rights, which is a form of servanthood. It is God Almighty Who grants these rights to humanity, so a person has no right to change or sell them or transfer them to others. Those who commit such a sin, that is, change or sell their fundamental rights or transfer them to another, have lost their humanity to a certain extent and will be held accountable before God for that loss. Such an action shows, first of all, disrespect for human values, and those who commit such disrespect cannot be conscious of their existence, and those who are not conscious of one’s existence have no relationship with the truth and no share in the love of and servanthood to God.

In short, it cannot be asserted that those who do not recognize God, Who is the Truth and the source of human rights, are free in the sense that they are conscious of human rights, nor can those who have not been able to free themselves from slavery to others than God be free in the real sense of the term.

What we have so far said about freedom is only by way of introduction to the freedom that is one of the emerald hills of the heart.

The freedom inherent in Islamic Sufism, being one of the most significant fruits of austerity, is that a person does not submit or bow to any power other than God, indicating thereby that the heart of that person has become a clear mirror receiving and reflecting the manifestations of God. The person who has reached this point on the way to God through austerity and by God’s special help, severs inward relation with all things and beings other than God, and with emotions pulsing with freedom, heart beating joyfully with a yearning for freedom, and having broken all the restrictions around the selfhood, that person sets for him or herself this single goal and, in the philosophy of the respected saint Harith al-Muhasibi, weaves the tissue of his or her thought with the threads of the hereafter.

True freedom is attainable only by freeing one’s heart from worldly worries and anxieties about the things of this world, and so being able to turn to God with one’s whole being. In order to express this reality, the leaders of the Sufi way say: “Child, undo the bonds of servanthood and be free; how much longer will you remain enslaved to gold and silver?” The answer of Junayd al-Baghdadi to those who asked him what freedom was, “You can taste freedom when you are free from all bonds other than slavery to God” also expresses the essence of freedom.

If freedom is directly proportional to sincere devotion and servanthood to God Almighty, and it is, then it is not possible to assert that those who live their lives under the direction of others are really free. In this respect, the following anonymous couplet speaks significantly:

If you would like to beat the drum of honor,
Go beyond the wheel of the stars;
As this circle filled with rings is a drum of humiliation.

True freedom is necessary in order to be a perfect servant of God. The measure of a person’s true freedom is servanthood to God. Those who cannot realize servanthood to God can neither be free nor attain human values in their full reach and meaning. Such people can never be saved from corporeality and sensuality so as to reach the achievable horizon of spiritual life with a “sound heart,” nor can they feel the essence of human existence in the depths particular and special to it.

People who spend their life in the captivity of worldly considerations grow in arrogance in the face of the blessings granted to them. Instead of becoming more thankful to God, they attribute to themselves whatever achievement God has enabled them to realize, and are disappointed time after time when they fail, and shiver with the fear of losing whatever advantages they have accrued-such unfortunate people have no share in freedom, even if they are as kings in the world.

As long as the heart sets itself upon various goals, loved ones, and ambitions, it can never taste freedom. How can those be free who are constantly worrying about how to hold onto or pay back the goods they expect from others, who have mortgaged most of their life’s energy to others in return for worldly interests and bodily pleasures?

It is a great trial, one that leads to perdition if one wanders in the whirl of physical considerations and is confined to worldly aims with a heart attuned to worthless, fleeting objects. By contrast, it is a great favor from God upon those whose inner world He has sealed off from the many attributes of the ephemeral world that attract the carnal self; it is a great favor from God that He cuts away the relation of the heart with the world. For that relation is a form of bondage, and that cutting away is a bridge by which humanity is able to reach true freedom.

From another perspective, austerity is described as holding back from carnal pleasures in order to acquire piety, righteousness, and nearness to God, and to discover the hidden realities of existence and the Divine truths. It combines the following of God’s way without any deviation, making use of willpower and conscience in the best way by taking refuge in the atmosphere of spiritual life against the pressures and excessive desires of the carnal soul.

“State” and “station,” regarded as crystal-like indicators of a person’s spiritual life, are certain “pools” of indescribable spiritual pleasures mixed with the breezes from the worlds beyond that one can experience through austerity on the way to God. These are based on love of God and the attainment of His approval. Reaching these “pools” and feeling and living in the spacious world of the spirit within the love of God and His good pleasure is possible through austerity and through training the carnal soul, and can be achieved by enhancing the spirit with virtues.

A person capable of sustaining an austere life is a person of tested faith or loyalty in relationships with the Creator, the Ultimate Truth, and also in relationships with the created. This is the natural state for austerity-the ambition to become a person of truth by liberating oneself from worldly ambitions and carnal inclinations and becoming devoted to the Almighty Truth. Austerity is training the carnal soul to realize true humanity and to make the love of God the source of human feelings, thoughts and behavior. In other words, the purpose of an austere life is to think for the sake of God, to speak for the sake of God, to love for the sake of God, and to remain in the sphere of doing or not doing something only for the sake of God, to obtain His approval and good pleasure-purely because God wants us to do it or not to do it-and to always be with God.

Some see austerity as humiliating the carnal soul, which we can interpret as the annihilation of the evil-commanding soul which always pursues evils, or as being freed from selfishness and self-conceit or overcoming bodily desires in accordance with the maxim, “Die before you die!” From this perspective, austerity can be regarded as plowing the carnal soul, as one plows a field, in order to sow the seeds of goodness and virtue, and bringing them into flower by giving them the necessary water and heat in favorable weather.

The couplet,
Be soil, such fertile soil, that roses can grow in you;
For nothing other than soil can have the honor of growing roses.

describes this state of soul which has acquired perfection, humility, and self-annihilation. Sufi scholars and thinkers have also taken another approach to austerity. They distinguish two types of austerity. The first is “austerity in manners,” which means being freed from weaknesses and vices in order to acquire a second nature, while the other is “austerity in goals,” which means having the best goal and pursuing it in this world. This approach can also be summed up as disciplining the carnal soul and acquiring good, laudable virtues. The statement found in the Lujja, “The wisdom in austerities is training the reason and the soul” confirms this approach.

Some who have acquired austerity in the most approved manner have made another classification of austerity, as follows:

• The austerity followed by those who are at the beginning of the Sufi way to God consists of combining and adorning good morals or good nature with knowledge, and the practice of religion with sincerity and purity of intention, and to observe both the rights of the Creator and the rights of the created.
• The austerity followed by those who have advanced on the Sufi way to God is to become free of all considerations with respect to anything other than God and, by paying heed to the voice of the inner sense of reliance on God and of seeking help -something that everyone feels in their conscience-to remain true to the direction to which their conscience points. Furthermore, this degree of austerity also demands being oblivious of even the way one is following, because of absorption in seeking God’s good pleasure.
• The austerity followed by those who have reached the end of the way enables them to experience the Divine manifestations free from all differences and polarities. That is, it enables them to feel in the depths of their heart the unity and harmony of apparently opposed Divine Names and Attributes, with all their manifestations. It is, therefore, a way to see and experience God without seeing any difference between His being the All-Favoring and the All-Requiting or the All-Expanding and the All-Straitening or the All-Granting and the All-Preventing.

In fact, such a journey is not specific to humanity: all creatures come into being in order to go through a difficult journey according to their level. And then they keep flowing into different molds and undergoing constant transformations until they reach their own identity; sometimes, they even transform into a second existence. They do this through pain, suffering, death, and resurrection, a few times in every moment.

Water cannot vaporize and attain purity without the challenge of the heat; a seed cannot sprout and rise to a higher life form without cracking and decomposing. Rivers cascade down and hit rocks to become as pure as the raindrops of a cloud. Spring does not come without winter. Even if it did, it would not be appreciated. Gold owes its value and brightness, and steel owes its hardness and durability, to the melting pots they were formed in. A bone dry land revives and serves as a bed for thousands of flowers in proportion to the amount of lightning flashing over it. Darkness cocoons light in its bosom, to its own disadvantage. Winter always weaves its canvas for the benefit of spring. Hence, a spring follows every winter, and a day follows every night. Deaths are for resurrection, and sufferings are for attaining a more beautiful life. By dying and resurrecting thousands of times throughout their lives, individuals are freed from the dark and deceiving pressures of the “ego” and reach eternity in their soul. A community ripens, matures, and attains immortality through the sufferings it undergoes and by clawing its way against the troubles it faces.

What a pleasure it is to die and resurrect time and again in order to attain eternal existence! How enjoyable it is to consider every blow a warning, telling us to come to our senses! What a great heroism it is to maintain hope and embrace the future in the face of so many misfortunes! Those who live their lives with faith and consciousness fly away through this journey of tribulations with wings of hope, under the bright light of their thoughts, through this land of trials and its seas of pus and blood. They are aware that they have come here to be distilled and purified. And they know that they can be skinned like the great Sufi Nesimi (d. 1417) or executed like Mansur (d. 922). Since they welcome both divine wrath and grace, and since they see the cure within the affliction, they watch what befalls them with pleasure and admiration, and they never panic. Every new misfortune becomes a plectrum, sounding out different tunes in their hearts and invigorating them with fresh excitements. For them, sufferings are no different than snowstorms on high mountaintops. They are nothing unusual. We can even say that living without suffering at all becomes an irresistible torment for them; it would mean their death. This is particularly true if their people are suffering and their values are being destroyed!

The most glorious servants of God did not spend a moment without suffering with such concerns. The same can be said for those who guided their nations to light: Imam Abu Hanifa (d. 767), one of the immortal guides of humanity with his fresh ideas and well-placed comments, was subjected to a raw deal and thrown into prison; he endured a life of suffering. Ahmad ibn Hanbal (d. 855) was mistreated like a worthless person and underwent the meanest tortures – and this lasted for years! Sarahsi (d. 1096) wrote his masterpiece Al-Mabsut in the bottom of the well in which he was imprisoned. And there were many more who suffered …

As those mature souls were subjected to tortures, as if they were being squeezed in presses, their blessed heads reached the realms beyond the heavens, and they became infinite sources of light with their enlightened hearts on the path to the revival of their people. People like Campanella (d. 1639), Cervantes (d. 1616), and Dostoyevsky (d. 1881) discovered themselves in captivity and reached immortality in the hearts of their people.

Everybody who bears the thought of serving humanity must know that the duty is sacred; the journey is long; the roads are steep; and different evils await them on this road. At every corner they will face death. They will be insulted, as if they were contemptible criminals, and most of the time they will be deprived of their right to live like human beings. They should be dedicated to this blessed cause with such awareness. Otherwise, some immature and heedless souls might change their course and direction due to petty hardships and deprivations.

O, you lazy soul! You expect it to rain without any thunder; you expect greenery without any seeds being cracked and no grains being sacrificed! You expect mothers to deliver babies, but without any labor pains! Namely, you expect the general course of divine destiny and order, in spite of its splendid wisdom, to be shaped according to your personal considerations. No! You have not come to this world for fun, for living according to your fancies and fantasies. You have come for the sake of realizing your inherent human potentials and cultivating the exalted qualities in your essence, for the sake of your inner enlightenment. So that you may become a mirror to reflect the divine, you will be put into melting pots many times over and burned in fire; you will be pushed through barrels of needles and undergo many trials!

These are the rules of the way, and the rest is futile and deceptive!

“Do not, then, be faint of heart, nor grieve,
For you are always the superior side if you are (true) believers.”

Here is the reviving breath to cure hearts!

As planets have been moving like whirling dervishes around the sun for millions of years, the Milky Way and billions of galaxies in the universe constantly keep turning in space, whose boundaries we are unable to define, in a realm of ether. As the world completes rotating around its own axis in 24 hours, it orbits around the sun with a speed of 30 km/hr and it does not even make a second’s delay in completing its yearly tour. A crowded family formed by the other nearby worlds and their satellites are travelling toward the Vega system with a speed of 220 km/second. Thanks to this rhythmic order, the orbits of planets and their positions at a given date, the times for lunar and solar eclipses, and changes with the length of days and nights, can be predicted years in advance, or calculated for historical times. The repetitive nature of these movements and continuity of the present order, for millions of years, show that everything depends on a certain plan and law, and that nothing acts on its own. There is no place for coincidence when things happen within a frame of laws, where order and rhythm exist.

The continuity of existence depends on the repetition of existing motions within a certain period – namely, on rhythmical motion. The cessation of motion in the cosmos would mean the non-existence of rhythm. It is not possible to talk about rhythm without motion and activity. This movement in existence must have a meaning and purpose. It is exceedingly difficult to explain, with physical laws, why existence came to be and the purpose in this motion. In addition, why this motion began and how long it will last, cannot solely be explained with physical laws. However, there is great meaning in this harmonious turning; an unbroken bond in existence, and a unity. Everything uses a silent language to give a meaningful message to insightful hearts. Then, how is this message supposed to be read and understood?

As we understand from holy scriptures, existence is made subservient to humanity. Existence stands as a means for human comprehension of the meaning within. A person who can view existence with eyes of wisdom and manages to hear creation’s silent melody becomes enraptured with this rhythm and feels like a whirling dervish awed by the Divine.

Rhythm in nature

There exists a balance in nature and a meaningful bond between beings. As everything runs in harmony, beings both help and compensate for one another. The sun, the earth’s source of energy and light, and essential for the continuity of life, is made dependent on a certain order with its rhythmical motion; the world and other planets move in accordance with this main rhythm. Day and night happen by the earth’s spinning around its axis, which is another rhythmical and constant occurrence. An absence of rhythm causes uncertainty and the situation is defined as chaos. If the future is completely uncertain, it gives way to utter chaos and life on earth cannot continue.

The holistic and integrated nature of beings is reflected in human biology, as it is in all living beings. Humans can always perceive, in daily life, that the motions in the universe are in a rhythmical order. As a person comes to this world connected with these rhythms; one can feel their effect in every stage of life and in one’s own body. The circular motion that occurs with the periodical repetition of minutes, hours, days, seasons, and years influences us. The inner rhythm we call our “biorhythm” is adjusted in accordance with the order outside, and there is a 24-hour periodical rhythm in daily life. Every individual has an innately given, peculiar, and distinctive bio rhythm special to the person’s biological and spiritual structure. As in human beings, a periodical rhythm is observable in many living things’ metabolism, heartbeat, and bodily functions, like respiration and sleep; this is known as the circadian rhythm. If the rhythms of living beings are upset, their biological balance is also upset, a situation which can sometimes cause death.

There is no place for coincidence in the universe; everything runs in a regular order established by the One of infinite wisdom. What brings order to life is the existence of rhythmical motion and the continuity of this order, which gives people a sense of security and makes life easier. One can make daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly plans. For example, the fact that the sun’s motion depends on certain physical laws that can be defined with mathematical formulas, and that we see it rising at a certain hour from the same direction every day, gives a sense of comfort to our mind and feelings. Most people do not even worry whether the sun will rise the next day. A person with sound reason does not fall into contradictions while observing occurrences and looks to future with trust. Thanks to periodical occurrences, a person finds a beauty in one’s memories and feelings by remembering the past. These recurring seasons can help us to remember things that, otherwise, might be forgotten.

As an inherent quality of human nature, a person wishes to see an order to social life and expects consistent behavior from others. People with consistent behavior are more preferable as friends and inspire trust in those around them. The order formed as a consequence of individuals’ living in harmony can be seen as social rhythm. Just as a social life that respects others’ rights, and acting in accordance with the existing order, is peaceful and harmonious, a social life that runs counter to the idea of order and trust can lead to chaos and unrest.

Arts

Laws prevalent in existence can also be expressed with arithmetical equations. Mathematical curves, fractals, number series, and many other things reflect a rhythmical pattern and a plan. For example, works executed with the proportions of Fibonacci numbers and the golden ratio give aesthetic pleasure to viewers. The eye perceives numerous patterns and motifs formed by ranges of colors, and the ear perceives all melodies and sounds as rhythm. For a person who views creation with eyes of wisdom, the positions of leaves on a tree, a soaring bird, a flowing river, and all of spring’s colorful blossoms are causes of admiration and enthusiasm. Beauty appeals to human nature. And what lies in the essence of all art is aesthetic beauty and harmony, which evoke this feeling of admiration. The human reason, spirit, and emotions have their share from the mysterious activities observed in creation; they express these through art. An artist is essentially inspired by this order and harmony in the universe. If art is the name for sensing this rhythm and harmony in the universe, then the artist is a person who expresses this rhythm in one’s works. Those who grasp this fine meaning and aesthetic beauty in creation can be said to have caught the true spirit in art.

Music is the art where rhythm is sensed best. The patterns and harmony in music perfectly agree with the harmony in nature. Perhaps, how music appeals human feelings and gives us delight is a consequence of such a correspondence. A person’s recognition of this harmony and rhythm in the universe makes one conform to it and become unified with existence.

To conclude, humans have not been left to run wild in this world; an order is needed for their material and spiritual life. The balance, harmony, and beauties existing in creation are reflected in human nature as well. Without a rhythmically working order, the balance of life will be upset, chaos will begin, and maybe the world will come to an end!