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174 Blessed with the tools to seek.


Dear Friends,
Assalamu Alaikum,
There are two ways of viewing this universe and all that it contains, the first view is that of an atheist who
believes that that the Universe everything in it is evolving, and everything we see around us is the result
of the evolution of a series of random cosmic or earthly accidents. I use the word accidents because the
atheist believes that these many epoch making events that has shaped, and is continuing to shape our
world, were not planned or designed.
The other view is that there is a God and this is the view I subscribe to. Actually this is the more
interesting view. I could use many adjectives to describe this view. It could be described as the more
challenging view. Because when we say that there is a God, we actually open doors or even vast arenas to
a number of perplexing questions, and the challenge would be to seek the answers to these questions. I
have discussed these questions in my earlier talks; however let me discuss these questions once more.
This thinking is usually referred to as the creationist theory in that we say that there has to have been a
creator and we recognize or identify that creator as God. Well saying that there has to be a creator to this
universe and everything it contains, and that that creator is God does not actually satisfy us, on the
contrary we find ourselves facing many other questions and as we keep seeking answers to these
questions newer and newer questions keep coming up.
Let me walk through some examples.
When we look around observe whatever we can see and then come to the conclusion that the Universe
has to have been created, then we are also implying or saying that the Universe has to have been
planned and designed and also that everything in this universe is being sustained and managed with
meticulous care.
So we ask a very obvious question, why was the Universe created?
There has to be some purpose and objective.
There may even be many purposes and objectives.
Cosmologists and other scientists after careful research have informed us that there is god scientific
evidence to show that the Universe was created around 13.7 Billion years ago, and that this Universe was
created from an infinitesimally minute dot which they refer to as a singularity.
They describe this event of the infinitesimally minute dot or singularity suddenly expanding to becoming
the Universe, and this event or this moment of expansion is referred to as the Big Bang
Let me quote from the BBC Video Documentary titled How the Earth was formed
The Universe came out of nothing. It was nowhere, because before it there was no time and there was
also no space, there was truly truly truly nothing, that is to say not even a place where it happened, not
even a time at which it happened!
Somehow out of this nothing; came everything!
That is how BBC describes the Big Bang or the creation of this Universe.
So now when we hear this we find our minds automatically asking many questions.
For example;
The Universe came out of nothing 13.7 Billion years ago, so what was there before, before these 13.7
Billion years?

If God created this Universe, then surely God has to have been there even before the creation of this
Universe?
So if this Universe was not in existence before 13.7 Billion years ago, then where was God before this
event?
Then is it possible that there are many other Universes?
Scientists refer to this theory as the theory of the multiverse or multiple universes.
Then a most puzzling question or we may even refer to it as the most puzzling question; Why did God
create this wonderful or even frighteningly wonderful Universe?
Then the question that follows; Why are we on this Universe? or to be more explicit, Why are we on
planet Earth?
What is Gods plan with regard to giving us life and placing us on planet Earth?
We are now alive on this Planet Earth, and we are all due to die, then what happens after death?
If we are to have a life after death, did we have a life or were we in existence before we were born or
before we arrived on earth?
If we were in existence even before we arrived on planet earth, is it possible that we were in existence
even before the creation of this universe?
Now that is a serious question because my curiosity is implying that in fact we are all over 13.7 Billion
years old!!
Then if we are over 13.7 Billion years old, then it follows that one of Gods plans in creating this Universe
and this earth was to send us here, so I ask the question what happened (maybe) over 13.7 Billion years
ago for God to create this Universe or this environment and send us here for a very very short period of
time?
Imagine when we compare 13.7 Billion years or more with our life of say 60 to 70 years, then the period
of our life here just pales in to insignificance.
So does this not indicate that we were not sent to planet earth to live, but we were sent to planet earth
for some kind of a reading?
We are like dipped in to planet earth and then quickly taken out so that some reading is indicated, as a
result of our short dip in to the earths environment.
In comparison to the age of the Universe our life on earth is a mere dip
But to us, in our perspective, our life on earth appears to be everything!
We cannot see or even perceive anything before it or anything after it.
So then if we are seeking answers to all those questions, then we must ask this puzzling question too.
Why have we forgotten everything that could have happened before our entry to earth, and have the
perception that this life is everything?
Puzzling isnt it?
How do we seek the answers?
Oh, there are so many questions!!
There are questions upon questions, and new questions flowing from ever emerging new questions. How
do we seek the answers?
This is where things become even more curious.

I also find that human beings have come to planet earth or are born on planet earth equipped with the
tools for seeking these answers. The tools for seeking are inbuilt.
When I think about this wonder I cant help but think is our mission or purpose on earth to use these
tools for seeking and to realize the truths?
Somehow the more I think about this the more obvious it becomes that that would be the mission or the
purpose of our short stay on earth. This is a thought worth thinking about.
Now let me describe the tools that we are blessed with.
We possess many tools for seeking, however let me point out very briefly 5 of such wondrous tools.
The first of these tools is what I refer to as the tools for seeking
Have you noticed that all of us human are sort of programmed with a natural thirst to seek?
We are all born equipped with this inbuilt curiosity.
It is natural in all human beings, and is probably one big factor that sets us aside from the rest of the
animal kingdom.
The second of these tools are that we are programmed to believe in and to seek God.
Human beings in every age and everywhere have had this deep sort of programmed thinking that there is
a God.
This programming is present in all of us.
We pray to God for favors and seek protection from difficulties and calamities.
We thank God when things go well and this phrase has even become a common part of speech.
Even in very primitive societies, you may refer to them as tribes living in jungles, have this natural
inclination to appease the Gods they believe in.
There are many tribal customs and traditions that are directly associated with appeasing or appealing to
the Gods. A good example would be the tribal rain dance.
So by nature we have this God thinking and by nature we are curious.
Now to complement those two qualities or to actually give meaning to those two qualities, we possess
another two great qualities. For convenience and easy reference I refer to them as the third tool and the
fourth tool.
The third tool is what our brains are equipped to read, process store and retrieve.
This is simply amazing.
Of course all animals display this tool, but then these tools in man is far far superior to what any other
animal possesses.
We see with our eyes the seeing is read from the brain.
We hear with our ears the hearing is read from the brain.
We feel senses on our kin and our tongues these senses are read from the brain.
But then there is very much more taking place in the brain than mere seeing, hearing and feeling.
There is a process of intelligent processing or progression taking place in our brains all the time.
We do not only see, but we also observe, we also perceive, we also reflect and we also meditatively do
research in to what we see. There are a number of intelligent processes functioning in our brains all the
time. Reading what we see and then processing the readings.
Let me illustrate this with a very simple example.

I see a man in a shop.


Now that is seeing
I watch him and I perceive that he is different to other customers in the shop and I begin to perceive that
he has come not to purchase but to sell some goods.
Now, that is I am perceive, this is a more intelligent process than mere seeing.
After further observing this person I may realize that he has not come to sell, he is just pretending, his
movements make me suspect that he is up to some mischief, maybe he wants to pilfer something from
the shop.
I am giving this example to explain how perceptive our seeing can be if we put it to use.
Similarly we possess this sense that we call hearing, but then we can process what we hear so that we are
intelligently listening, so in other words we are learning through listening and whilst listening or
intelligently processing what we hear we can discern the hidden messages in what we hear.
We hear one message, but by intelligent processing of what we listen to we can understand that what the
speaker is saying and what he actually requires are two different things. So we can discern the messages
encrypted in the words or hidden by the words.
Our brains read the sensory stimulations on our skin and our tongues, but we can also feel emotions, we
can feel pain, we can sympathies and we can even empathize, We call these the workings of the heart.
And most importantly we can put all the readings of all these senses together and we can come up with
rational explanations to what is happening. This is simply amazing.
Not only can we come up with rational explanations to what is happening but we also have this tool or
this great skill of moral reasoning!
Amazing isnt it?
So animals can see, hear, touch and these sensations are processed in their brains.
However in the case of humans this processing, sorting and retrieving of these sensations or experiences
goes in to a much higher level. We are at a very much higher level.
We see into what we see or observe.
We listen into what we hear.
We feel for situations.
The best example for this is the appeal or the attraction we have for drama.
We refer to these emotions as feelings of the heart.
These are tools that all humans are equipped with.
And now let me try to describe to you the fourth tool.
All four tools are amazing, but this tool is easily the most amazing.
If I were to refer to this tool in two words, those two words would be our minds
This is an amazing tool.
Have you noticed that we talk to ourselves?
This conversation takes place almost all the time and is sometimes referred to as intra personal
communication
Do you not sometimes get the feeling that there are two of you inside you?
Do you not get the feeling that this man or this woman inside you is always jabbering with you, advising
you, urging you, daring you, holding you back, arguing with you and even consoling you?

Do you not sometimes feel that this voice inside you is your great friend and sometimes you even feel
that this voice inside you is a great nuisance or even a curse?
This voice is what we commonly refer to as our mind and it is an amazing feature.
We have both brain and mind.
The brain receives al the sensations and processes them and the mind is sort of outside the brain and the
mind decides what to do in any given scenario.
It is amazing.
No one can pinpoint where this mind is.
It is like something working outside the brain but making use of all the inputs from the senses, as well as
the memory and experiences that are stored in the brain.
It looks like the mind has complete unhindered access to all this information and can select the
experiences that the mind wants to mull over.
Amazing isnt it?
All our reasoning takes place in our minds.
The mind is thought to be the seat of;
Perception,
Self consciousness,
Thought,
Belief,

Memory,
Hope,
Desire,
Will,

Judgment,
Analysis,
Evaluation,
Reason, etc

In general, the mind can be defined as an entity that has the nature of experience, that is, "clarity,
knowledge, and wisdom"
The human mind possesses cognitive abilities such as imagination, creativity and innovation.
The mind has an infinite capacity to think, reason out, and to solve problems in an innovative manner.
A distinctive feature of the mind is that it has the capacity to observe itself.
This is amazing isnt it? We possess a mind that can examine or review or criticize what ever we are
doing. The mind can sort of play back whatever we have done and critically examine every move we have
made. Have we ever wondered at this rather bizarre faculty.
Why do we possess this faculty?
Why should we possess this faculty?
Surely the reason has to be, so that we can seek and seek rationally, sensibly and critically!!
The philosophical inquiry of the mind's ability to observe and examine itself has long been a significant
issue.
Amazing isnt it and it all makes sense!
And then the 5th tool, again a very amazing tool.
All humans have this ability to communicate using language.
This too is a wondrous tool.
The mind collects information from our senses and makes sense out of it and through language we can
collect information from the thousands of people or minds that we meet and we can exchange our
thoughts, our feelings, our findings and our seeking.
Dear listeners, this talk or this discussion is about religions, all religions and that the objective of all
religions would be to seek the truth. When we begin to seek this truth, many many questions arise and
we wonder how to seek the answers to these questions.

However when we observe man we do notice that man has been created to be a seeker and he is
equipped with a variety of ingenious tools to facilitate his seeking.
Let me now recapitulate 5 of these special tools for seeking that we have been naturally equipped with,
or you could even say blessed with;
The first of these tools is that we are born with a thirst for seeking. We have an inbuilt curiosity to inquire
in to everything around us. We are naturally curious about what concerns us as well as curious about
matters that even do not concern us. We are driven to seek and to inquire. This thirst for seeking is by its
nature a need that has to be satisfied. This is how we are programmed.
The second of these tools is that naturally every human being believes deep inside him that there is a
God or what we could describe as a super natural power, a God or a power that is charge of everything
including our destinies. This belief is natural in every human being. The description or the inner workings
of this belief depends on how we are exposed to our religious beliefs.
Agnostics and atheists use their reasoning or their natural tools of seeking to think out and conclude that
this natural belief is not correct, and in fact they wonder why man believes in a supernatural power or in
God.
The third of these tools is our brain and the manner in which it has been programmed to take in all
sensations through our sensory organs and then to sort and store all these as memories and experiences
in an easily accessible and retrievable manner. As a result of this easy to access stored memories, all the
time as we keep on experiencing life, we keep comparing our experiences and trying to make sense out
of how our brains are interpreting these experiences. This is a great tool for seeking.
The fourth tool is our wondrous mind.
We possess this amazing tool which we call the mind.
A distinctive feature of the mind is that it has the capacity to observe itself
So whilst we are seeking we also have this facility to review what we are seeking, to make sense out of
what we are seeking, to compare our many experiences of what we seek and so on. All this happens with
our second voice or what we usually refer to as our minds.
The 5th tool is our ability to communicate.
We communicate with language and we also communicate through our actions and our postures.
Dear listeners are not all these tools and more ample evidence that man was created to seek?
So we could ask the question Seek what?
The answer to that would be to seek God, to seek the truth especially the fundamental truths of life.
Today I discussed how man is by nature created to seek, Insha Allah in my next talk I hope to go in to the
topic as to what we are seeking and what we should be seeking.
I sincerely pray and hope that all of you benefit from these talks as much as I benefit from preparing and
then presenting these talks to you.
May Allah Taaalah guide us all and accept us all.
Jazza Kalla Khairan.
Assalamu Alaikum

Religions blessed with the tools to seek

Imtiaz Muhsin
Colombo Sri Lanka
crescent786@hotmail.com
You Tube Channel - HaneefanMusliman

Religions blessed with the tools to seek

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