Islam

Welcome back. This is Ahmed and this is episode six of POV Zero. Today I’d like to talk about religions, because God is a concept that we carry with us as a society — whether we are believers in some religion, in some form of God, or whether we’re atheists and adamant about the absence of that God. In one way or another, God plays a role for us as a collective. And I would like to look at God from the point of view of the zero, that place from which I am privileged enough to be speaking to you.

I was thinking a lot about religions in the past. It has always been something I’ve thought about a lot. I grew up as a Muslim, in a secular place. For a long time I didn’t identify very strongly as a Muslim, but culturally I had a clearly Muslim upbringing. My practice has always been rather loose, but religion has always been connected to my cultural identity. I also grew up with the idea that the essence of all religions is the same — that was the message my parents always had for me. They were always very careful not to convey the impression that there were substantial differences between religions. Their message was always that in the end, it all comes down to the way we interact with others: being honest, caring, kind, supportive, helpful.

Today I’ll speak mostly about my engagement with Islam and the concepts I know from it, and the extent to which they resonate with the zeroness, the singularity. In the end, it’s all the same — that was a spoiler.

Islam, as the third Abrahamic monotheistic religion, was spread in the 7th century by the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. The idea of Islam was in essence the same as the other religions, but it also saw itself as aspiring to correct some of the teachings that had preceded it — for example, the question of the Trinity, the idea that Jesus is the son of God. But in the end, it tried to stay in the continuity of Abrahamic religions and not fundamentally change the divine message they carried.

Islam also descended on humans in a certain context: one shaped by patriarchy, tribalism, violence, slavery, exploitation. So in the Qur’an, there are passages that speak about the divine truth, the revelation, and there are longer passages that speak to the organization of society and how it should function in accordance with divine laws.

From the point of view of the zero, all of that is kind of curious. If nothing is and everything is, if there’s no past, no future, just the present moment, if we don’t have to become anything, if we are perfect just as we are — then all that matters is really the essence of what these religions carried. And they carry fundamental messages of oneness inside them. That’s why they are called monotheistic: it’s all about one God.

If we look at Islam and the way it’s practiced culturally — not necessarily the religious practices, but the way individuals with an Arab Muslim identity express themselves — we find a lot of reminders of the singularity in how humans recall God.

The essence of Islam boils down to the expression La ilaha illallah — there is no other God than God. Some translate it as “there is no other God than Allah,” but Allah is just the Arabic term for God — it’s all the same. There is no other God than God, which just boils down to the fact that it is all one. That’s what is called tawhid. Ahadun ahad — it’s all one. That is the essential message of Islam, the main part of the shahada, the expression of faith. And it resonates deeply with the singularity.

If we attribute all the characteristics to that God as presented in Islam, they resonate as well. If we say the zero is infinite mercy, then it makes sense that we say Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim — God is infinitely merciful, the most merciful. If we say that God is almighty, that also resonates with the singularity, because the singularity is the only thing that is, towards which everything converges, the point in which everything collapses. That is the source, and that is the almighty.

Muslims often say Alhamdulillah. That is a beautiful way of expressing the fact that any ability I might have as a human being is not really mine. It is given by God. All I can do is say, thank God I have it, because I’m also aware that this life might be taken at any moment. And all I have is God in the end.

Muslims also say Inshallah — if God wills it, it will be. That is complete surrender to the will of God, realizing the limits of human existence, the powerlessness of the human body, and just surrendering to that divine power.

Islam really is about surrendering. The word itself means to surrender to God. It’s about saying: as a human being, I’m nothing compared to God. I’m just an expression, and all I can do is be grateful for this existence and cherish it. Recall God, recall the divine, remember it and thank it when I have something beautiful in my life.

But also if things seem bad at the human level, Muslims would usually say that it is all from God anyway. If I have to struggle in this world, that too is a gift from God. It’s na’mah — everything is na’mah. The struggle has its purpose, and everything is God’s plan anyway. That resonates deeply with the singularity, with the zero.

There’s also the idea of Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji’un — we came from God and to God we return. That makes perfect sense from the point of view of the zero, because it is the start and ending of everything. In it, everything collapses — space and time. Everything is in there.

It also makes sense that we talk about Maktub — destiny, the fact that everything is God’s will, even the bad things happening on earth. From the point of view of the zero, of absolute mercy and unconditional love, all humans are loved equally, whether rich or poor, beautiful or not, violent or not. All shapes and forms. They will all go back to God.

Islam has a simple solution to the idea of hell and heaven: if at any moment you surrender to God, you will go to heaven. That is probably a construction that deviates from the essence, because there is no heaven and no hell from the point of view of the singularity. Everything is just as it is. It doesn’t mean it’s good in human terms — it can be very bad and painful — but it still belongs to God, to the divine.

In Islam, these dualities are also represented in the names attributed to God. There’s ar-Razzaq — the one who provides — but at the same time al-Mudhill — the one who abases, who can give dishonor. These opposites are contained in the attributes of God. God is visible but at the same time invisible. Infinite. The first and the last. The opposites make perfect sense from the point of view of the singularity.

It also makes sense why even a negative attribute from the human perspective is attributed to God. Al-Mudhill, a force that might hurt — but if it all goes back to zero, anything that hurts is just another means to get you back to the essence, to the source. Everything is a gift from the divine and can be embraced as such.

In Islam there’s also a strong emphasis that nobody should be put at the level of God. No human should be associated with God. The idea makes sense: nothing can be at the level of nothingness other than nothingness itself. In that place there’s only one thing, which is nothing, and which is at the same time everything.

For our human experience, from an Islamic perspective, the only thing we will have to do is go back to the source, go back to God. Nothing else. Everything is already written. Everything is already perfect. Everything has already collapsed and will eventually collapse into the zero.

All we can do in this human experience is live fully. Whatever we do is fine from the point of view of the zero. But we can also choose to find the source sooner than we find death. And then we might experience a state of joy, lightness, weightlessness, some connection with the divine. That’s what religions, in essence, want us to understand. Then they add a lot of stuff to it, but in the essence, that is all that is. You don’t have to be anything. All you have to do is die at some point and go back to the source.

What makes sense to me is to see religions as having had an understanding of the essence that is very much resonant with the singularity. But because language is already a deviation from the zero — the zero is nothing, it doesn’t have any sound, voice, or shape — whatever we say is already a deviation. And the scriptures are long, filled with stories, words, shapes and forms, which are already distractions from the essence.

If we see them as such, with mercy, we can see them as attempts to bring the human back to the essence — but attempts that have failed in the sense that they get stuck in the shapes and forms within the scriptures. “This is said in this manner in this psalm or this surah.” We get stuck in the specifics and forget the essence. That’s where religions have failed us.

The problem is they’ve attributed to themselves the moral authority on the human experience. But there is no moral authority. Even going to the source of these religions, there’s nothing they can give us other than reminding us that God is — that God is nothing and everything at the same time.

That’s a relieving thought, because we know deep inside it doesn’t feel right to get stuck in practices, in the way we should pray, the way we should fast. We know there’s something off with it. It feels like we have to do it in a certain way, and we look at each other and judge each other for it. That doesn’t make sense from the point of view of the divine. God would never be judgmental. God is infinitely merciful — that’s the only thing God is. Infinitely merciful, infinitely compassionate. God cannot be angry about something a human being does.

There’s no point getting stuck in the practices, the shapes and forms, the ideas of how we should behave. The only thing that counts, even from a religious perspective, is the way we go through life: kindness, gentleness, helpfulness, being there for each other.

If you give unconditionally, if you love unconditionally, you are as close to the essence as you can be in this human experience. And that’s the greatest gift you can give to those around you. That’s what will help you gravitate toward the source of divine power, and what will help others around you do that too.

We are attracted to those who are humble, compassionate, just good human beings — not attached to mind stuff, to ego stuff. Those who realize their own limited existence and who surrender. That’s all we can do. Surrender, be loving, be gentle. That will do wonders on this human planet.

Sending you lots of love, unconditional love. Be gentle, be kind. That’s the best thing you can do on this planet. Peace out.