ASK MAULANA

ASK MAULANA Your Questions Answered According to some schools of thought, God is to be found within ourselves. Hence, they stress the need for meditation on, and supposed discovery of, what they call ‘the Divine/ God/ godliness within us’, instead of the worship of what they consider an ‘external’ God. What is the Islamic position on this claim? The ‘indwelling God’ is a philosophical concept and not an established fact. If the concept of the indwelling God was factual, then every person should have experienced that God. However, there are only few persons who make this claim. People at large have never had this experience. Everyone knows that thirst and hunger are indwelling realities. So, had God been an indwelling fact, we would have been able to realise God just as we realise thirst and hunger. If only few people claim they have realised God dwells in them, while the larger part of humanity has not experienced this, it means that the concept of indwelling God is not correct. The notion of a God inherent in human beings (and in everything else) and which one should discover within oneself, rather than outside oneself, is not in accordance with Islam. ‘God within’ is an abstract term, which has no rational or scientific basis. Therefore, such a notion can only lead to formation of vague ideas rather than a clear, rational philosophy. Islam is a reason-based religion. Abstraction is not in the Islamic scheme of things. Is the notion of an indwelling God—God as dwelling inside human beings, akin to shirk or associationism? I will not say that the notion of indwelling God is akin to shirk. In my opinion, this concept is an abstract philosophy without rational basis. God is omnipresent, so does it mean that He is present inside us also? No. The idea that God exists inside man is not an Islamic concept. The Islamic belief is that God is constantly watching man and is aware of all his actions. It is said that God created man in His image. The Quran says that God is closer to us than our jugular vein. If someone uses these to claim support for the notion that God resides within us, that He is