Two Kinds of Questioning

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ

There are two kinds of questioning when it comes to religion, and it is important for us to question our hearts and discern which one it is. 

The first kind of questioning to clarify, to understand and to know.  This is the path of knowledge and certainty.  It is a difficult path, but a blessed one.  It is a road of sacrifice, of deprivation and discomfort.  It is the path of the ‘ulama and the ‘arifin, the scholars and the gnostics.  And its destination is only God. 

The second kind is the questioning of faultfinding.  It is when one comes from a point of distrust of the Divine and the emissaries of God.  This path never leads to God because there cannot be two gods.  Either one has God, or one has the ego.  When the Divine is Present, the self is absent, and when the self is absent, God Says, as in the Qur’an, “Ask of your idols”. 

True inquiry, in Islam, is when we have made the religion about God, and not us.  When it is about us, that intent is polluted, and we have strayed.  So, we must beware this disease of the heart, and guard against it.  It is an enemy that bedevils us all, and it sneaks in through the doors of knowledge and pretends to be amongst the intentions of purity.  And we seek Refuge in Allah (s.w.t.) from that.