The Car Paradigm

The Car Paradigm

(from Chapter I of the Book Secular Psychology)

What holds you back from obeying Allah? Why do you think that, theism pulling you backwards? When faith on God confirmed you that- there is no enjoyment, no happiness, you can’t leave with dignity, you should not prove your capabilities, you can’t be fascinated seeing flower-birds-river-mountains-green fields?

You have to suppress your senses? Pleasure? When and how this belief tells you that you can’t live in happiness? How this faith on God prohibits you that, with thousand dreams and imagination in heart, you can’t be a poet? You don’t have human rights?

If you obey God, you would have to leave every single happiness and delight of life- this idea is not only childish but bullshit and comes from ignorance. Sometimes, in the name of religion, the selfish act of vicious people may have fueled the idea. The truth is, faith on Allah makes people content and they don’t feel alone in the deep of their heart. This belief enlightens a believer that, whatever happens or however comes tons of sadness; ultimate solace is Allah. He will give us the best reward. We have to go back to Him. These realization, belief, wisdom devise people matured-tolerant and this wisdom also teach people to stay away from vicious acts. Who are vicious and are not tolerant, actually don’t obey Allah. They only act for their personal or group interest. Now, if you think those people represent true image of a religion, I must say- you are terribly wrong. If you stick to your judgement without understanding what really motivates a vicious person to act in the guise of a religious person, then you are a one-eyed person. Just use the other eye.... I mean the inner one. 

To help secular people to open their inner eye, I developed a Car Paradigm; which is as follows-

Think of a new model intelligent car.... which is superbly designed and can detect danger, can take a passenger to the right destination without any driver, can sense upcoming accidents almost accurately. The Engineer behind this splendid car is the finest of all. He gave a manual to drive the car. He assured- if anyone follows the manual word by word no harm will take place. 

Now, there is a condition in the manual, if anyone wants to drive the car by hand he can do it, but shouldn’t drive the car manually more than thirty minutes. If somebody does that, danger will come for sure. Here’s the twist, a driver thought that, the car is OK with him; he will drive it as long as he wants. Therefore, right after thirty minutes driving by hand, the control system crashed and the car gone mad.... And bang! 

Finally some died along with the driver, some were injured heavily, public property destroyed, a huge jam occurred, many food-medicine delivery van failed their job….

With this car paradigm, I just want to catch your eyes on some points- If people start blaming that- the driver shouldn’t have believed the Engineer and drive manually; the guidebook shouldn’t have such deadly condition; the car is faulty because of such condition; the Engineer is fake, there is no one called Finest Engineer; Finest Engineer wouldn’t design a car which can’t be driven by hand more than thirty minutes……

I wonder, if such people really exist, who would believe as described. If such people exist I won’t hesitate to call them insane. Because, they are escaping the key point that- the driver disobeyed the manual. And, what drove him to disobey the manual? Of course free will and personal pleasure. And free will beyond set limit brought the disaster.

I know, you understand very clear what I want to say. The Engineer knows it very well, what would happen if someone disobeys the manual. The Engineer made the Car as he liked but also warned if anybody violates the guideline, there will be disaster. Now, if you talk about the catastrophe but not about the violation of the guideline, then you are insane or your intention is something fishy.

Similarly, if in the name of religion evil act of people brings disaster, secular people start blaming our religion or our faith or our beard or our Muslim appearances for that disaster escaping the key point that, evil act can only be done by disobeying Allah’s guideline. Interestingly Secu people don’t ever talk about the violation of Almighty’s rule. They know it very well, if people follow Allah’s guideline no evil will rise; still they don’t admit it. So, for this kind of attitude what should we call them- insane or fishy secular?

That is a big question. Very big.

The surprising and constant peace of mind is actually an excellent bond of human mind and the faith on the Almighty Creator. The constant peace of mind can be found following the guideline given by Allah. If someone disobeys the guidelines, what will happen? Just remember the example of driver and car I stated above. 

However, I come to the most important point of this essay- secular people lack peace of mind. Their mind is never satisfied. Why? Because, their heart is missing the most precious thing in the world, that is faith; faith on Allah. The process of achieving inner peace is like putting some right blocks side by side.

I was surprised to know, Bertrand Russel also thought of the point. His daughter Catharine Tait stated in a memory like this-

“I believe myself that his whole life was a search for God…Somewhere at the back of my father’s mind, at the bottom of his heart, in the depths of his soul, there was an empty space that had once been filled by God, and he never found anything else to put it in. He wrote of it in letters during the First World War, and once he said that human affection was to him- ‘at bottom an attempt to escape from the vain search for God.’ After the war, finding his life more satisfying, he stopped talking that way; nostalgia for religion was quite absent from our home. Nevertheless, I picked up the yearning from him, together with his ghostlike feeling of not belonging, of having no home in this world.”

Though he was an atheist, but his believed that he understood- the stabbing loneliness, human cherish in the deepest arena of their heart can only be removed through loving God. That’s why a believer of Allah is more content and more stable.

Author: Akther Mahamud

Rangamati, Bangladesh

akthermahmud@gmail.com

Watch the summary of the Car Paradigm by author on Youtube.