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Lesson One
The
Development of Beliefs Through the Ages
Among the fundamental intellectual topics that concern human life,
religious questions enjoy a particular importance. They have always been regarded, in
fact, as the most basic concern for the well- being and destiny of man and have produced
profound insights and extensive knowledge. Scholars and researchers have undertaken wide-ranging and
comprehensive studies on the origins and motives of man's religious concerns, pursuing
their researches with a particular point of view and methodology that governs also their
judgments and conclusions. The truth of the matter is that since the earliest prehistoric
times, faith and belief have always been part of the texture of human society; neither in
the past nor in the present is it possible to find a society in which religious issues
have not been raised. The Noble Quran refers in several verses to the historical fact that
heaven-sent Prophets constantly appeared in past nations where, in addition to their
beneficial spiritual influence, they also played a fundamental role in the creation of
human civilization. The study of the way in which human life has evolved and knowledge
developed, together with the knowledge yielded by the most distant horizons of history,
shows that man was attached to religious belief before he became fully aware of the
methods of rational deduction. The first era of man's knowledge and industry does not, therefore,
enjoy primacy over the earliest eras of religion and belief. It may even be claimed that
human endeavor in the realm of religion and belief has been more strenuous and
longer-lasting than his efforts in the area of knowledge and art, for the knowledge of a
transcendent reality that is the essence of the world of being is more difficult and less
accessible than the essence of those things which knowledge and art strives constantly to
attain. The essential nature of the resplendent sun, which is the most
manifest of all things, remained unknown to man for many centuries and its movements and
effects were subject to all kinds of interpretations; although none could deny the
luminosity of its rays, the minds of most men remained in deep darkness with respect to
its knowledge. The perception of great truths, is, then, impossible without logical
examination, deduction and comprehensive study. If superstitions and religious myths are
to be found among ancient peoples, constantly being infused into new moulds because of
deficiency and weakness in thought and restriction in knowledge, this does not mean, then,
that religion, with its doctrinal content, is false. Rather, it demonstrates the primacy
and autonomy of religious aspiration in the very depths of the human soul and heart.
Moreover, from the science that seeks to explore prehistoric times, we cannot expect that
it will uncover more of ancient religions than the traces of myths and superstitions
decipherable in the vestiges of primitive man and beneath the earth. Since human conduct and activity are always accompanied by two clear
characteristics—primacy and autonomy, on the one hand, and comprehensiveness and
universality among the members of the species, on the other hand—it appears entirely
logical that we should posit some origin for that conduct and activity in the depths of
the human spirit. The existence of such a continuous phenomenon in an eternal and
universal form, throughout history and prehistory, cannot be regarded as the effect of
customs and habits; it is the manifestation of a primordial thirst and imperative instinct
for truth. All religious beliefs, with their different aspects and forms, arise from a
single gushing, abundant source—the primordial nature of man, which is neither
externally imposed nor accidental. First there comes into being within man's disposition, the capacity
to accept belief, and then belief takes form. The same inward inclination that impels a
person to intellectual investigation and research in order to perceive reality is an
indication of man's need of religious knowledge. This, of course, does not mean that an
inward state and predisposition is necessarily accompanied by a correct and fully formed
belief. In just the same way that the body desires nutritive substances
without this desire, does not imply the goodness and wholesomeness of the food, the soul,
too, seeks out its food—namely faith and belief—insistently seeking awareness of
its lord and wishing to supplicate at His threshold. But the instinct that impels it to
search is unable to recognize and assess beliefs and creeds, distinguishing the true from
the false. Scholars are agreed that religious beliefs have always been
intertwined with human life. However, their opinions differ concerning the fundamental
roots of religion and the factors that have played a primary role in its establishment and
development. Their judgments, in this respect, are generally based on studies of
superstitious religions and primitive beliefs, with the result that their conclusions are,
in the final analysis, defective and illogical. It is true that certain religions, lacking a connection with the
principles of revelation, have been influenced in their appearance and growth by the
social environment and similar factors. However, it is illogical to ascribe the foundation
of all faiths and religious tendencies to material or economic circumstances and demands,
to fear of the terrifying forces of nature, to ignorance or to considerations rejected by
science. Without doubt, one of the factors in the emergence of anti-religious
ideas and a phalanx of deniers of God, has been the false teachings, the inadequacies and
the intellectual perversions of the followers of some religions. The peculiarities and
separate characteristics of each religion must, therefore, be individually examined when
studying the reasons that have led men to adhere to that religion. In many historical events, religion can be seen to have dominated
all relationships. If religion were not a primary phenomenon it would have to be enclosed
within the four walls of material motives. However, what factor could have given religious
personalities such firmness and steadfastness for the sake of their religious goals? Was
it the expectation of material benefits and personal gains that made the bitter hardships
of misfortune and difficulty sweet-tasting to their souls? On the contrary, we see that
they sacrificed all their material resources prosperity and personal desires, to their
religious sentiments and ideals, going so far as lovingly to sacrifice their souls. In the story concerning the Pharaoh and his sorcerers, we read that
he summoned all his magicians in order to defeat Moses, the one addressed by God (peace be
upon our Prophet and him), hoping that with their ingenuity and magical powers, they might
compel him to submit. But thanks to the miraculous power vested in Moses, they were
overpowered and they turned to the true belief. The furious Pharaoh, whose arrogance had
been broken, began to slander and threaten them, saying he would punish them with the
worst of tortures: the severance of their limbs. But a profound revolution had taken place
in the souls of the sorcerers; they remained firm and steadfast in the face of the threats
and capling of the Pharaoh and his painful tortures. They replied, with remark- able
fortitude, "..give orders for us to be tortured; your writ runs only in this
narrow world." (20:72). This was a clear display of the strength of the innate desire for
truth and reality in man when confronted with suppression, coercion and brute force. Men
who had lived at the very heart of the Pharaoh's apparatus and had benefited from it,
raised up their heads in rebellion and were ready to renounce their own lives. The specific inclination of man to religious concerns cannot,
therefore, be explained in terms of materialist interpretations; on the contrary,
incidents such as that of the sorcerers demonstrate the primacy of the religious sense in
man. Illogical beliefs do not pertain only to religious questions. Before
they were properly refined, many of the sciences were commingled with superstitions. Men
found their way from incantation and magic to true and beneficial medicine and from
unrealistic alchemy to realistic chemistry. No one can claim that if man once committed an
error in searching for something, he is bound always to remain in error and will never
find a way of reaching the truth. Those who believe in scientific philosophy and the
primacy of the experimental method, accept that their experiments may yield erroneous
results although they invariably give them the status of truth. Those who deny God insist on the conclusion that God is the product
of human thought. For example, the English philosopher, Bertrand Russell, regards the fear of natural forces to have been
the origin of religion. "In my opinion, religion is above all founded on fear: fear
of the unknown, fear of death, fear of defeat, fear of the mysterious and the hidden. In
addition, as already remarked, a sentiment comes into being enabling everyone to imagine
that he has a supporter in all his problems and struggles.'[l] This is merely a claim,
unsupported by any evidence. Samuel King says, "The source of religion is shrouded in
mystery. Among the countless theories of scholars on the subject, some appear to be more
logical than others, but even the best of them is open to objection from the point of view
of scientific proof. They cannot transcend the sphere of logical speculation. There is,
therefore, intense disagreement among sociologists concerning the origins of
religion. Nonetheless, we can respond that even if we accept the original and
fundamental motive for man's belief in a creator to have been fear, this in no way proves
that the existence of God is a mere fancy without reality. If fear motivated man to seek a refuge and if in the course of that
search he discovered a certain reality (God), is there any objection to be made? If fear
is the cause for the discovery of a certain thing, can we say that that thing is imaginary
and unreal because it was fear that prompted man to seek it out? It would surely be illogical to maintain, for example, that the
science of medicine has no reality because man has sought and discovered it out of fear,
fear of disease and death? The truth of the matter is that the science of medicine is a
reality, irrespective of whether the original motive of man in discovering it was fear of
disease and death or some other factor. In all the affairs and occurrences of life, belief in a wise and
powerful Lord is a real refuge and strong support. This is quite a different matter from
whether or not men's motive in searching it out was fear of vicissitudes and the search
for a refuge or not. The two matters are quite separate and must be studied
separately. No doubt, in the primitive stages of his life, man was, indeed, prey
to humiliating and painful terror when faced with awesome natural occurrences such as
storms, earthquakes and diseases. A nightmare of fear cast its inauspicious shadow on all
aspects of his life and his thoughts, and in the unceasing struggle he waged against
impotence and fear, he sought a support where he might take refuge from his terrifying
environment and find inner peace. Finally, through unrelenting effort, he conquered the
nightmare of abjection and fear and attained a remarkable triumph. The study of the different stages in the life of primitive man, and
the discovery of evidence that fear prevailed in his thoughts, do not prove that fear and
ignorance were the sole fundamental factor in man's inclination to religion. Such an
assertion would be the result of seeing only one dimension of the matter. General
conclusions can be drawn from historical research and studies only when the entirety of
history, with all the different periods in the life of man, is investigated and
researched, not one corner of his vast and variegated history. The domination of human affairs by fear and abjection in specific
and limited periods must not be made the basis for a general judgment conceming all eras.
Would it not be a hasty judgment to say that all the religious ideas and sentiments of
men, the inclination to the worship of God in all periods down to and including the
present, have been caused simply by terror, by fear of the wrath of nature, of war and
disease? In actual fact, the most firmly convinced among men are by no means
the weakest. Those who, in the course of time, have raised high the banner of religion
have been the strongest and most steadfast of men. A person's faith is never increased in
proportion to his weakness, and the leader of a people in matters of religious belief is
not the foremost among them in weakness, abjectness and impotence. Is the belief in religion of thousands of scholars and thinkers the
product of fear on their part of storms, earthquakes and disease? Can their inclination to
religion, the result of scholarly studies, of logic and rational proof, be attributed to
their ignorance and lack of awareness of the natural causes of phenomena? What would be
the answer of an intelligent person? Moreover, it is not in order to attain some kind of peace that man
tums to religion. Rather, it is after attaining belief and conviction that he begins to
enjoy the fruits of religion—peace and tranquility. In the opinion of divinely guided scholars, the world
is a compendium of finely calculated causes and reasons, the precise system of the cosmos
bearing witness to the existence of a source characterized by knowledge and power. The
confused and incomprehensible brush strokes of a painting cannot be taken as the
indication of a skilled artist, but precise strokes and designs with meaningful content
are indeed evidence for the existence of a talented painter. ***** There are also people who regard belief in a reality beyond nature
as to be the product of economic factors. They make strenuous efforts to establish some
connection between religion and economics. They claim that religion has always been in the
service of imperialism and exploitation and that it was the invention of the ruling,
exploiting class as a means for breaking the resistance of the exploited masses. Religion
has been used, they claim, to stupefy the deprived toilers and to encourage them to accept
theirdeprivation. There is no doubt that, like everything else in the world, religion can
be misused. When diverted from its true aims, it becomes a tool in the hands of profiteers
who wish to enslave the nations. However, this misuse of religion should not provide
opportunists with a pretext for mercilessly attacking everything that bears the name of
religion. A clear separation must be made between perverted religions concocted by
imperialism to stupefy the masses, and authentic, constructive religions. It is possible that in many human societies, unfavorable economic
conditions, stagnation and backwardness may coexist with religiousbelief. But this
coexistence does notnecessitate any causal relationship; one cannot be presented as the
cause of the other. Sometimes we see a society enjoying prosperity and flourishing
economically that is deeply attached to religion, while another society that enjoys
similarly favorable economic conditions is to- tally averse to religion. Similarly, in an
environment of poverty and backwardness, the sun of religion may set, while in another
such environment, the influence of religion may be at its zenith. The obvious lack of
congruity between economic conditions and the prevalence or decline of religious influence
is a clear proof of the fact that contemporaneity does not suffice to establish a causal
relationship. Some special factor must obtain for the emergence or disappearance of one to
be linked to the existence or non-existence of the other. We can clearly observe this lack of congruity in two societies that
are both under the oppressive domination of the exploiting class. In one of them, religion
has totally left the scene, while in the other, its influence has expanded. Objective realities show us, then, that man is drawn to religion in
a variety of external circumstances. Wherever religion demonstrates its appeal, one must
look for the fundamental inward | motive in the specific nature of religion, not in
economic circumstances. In addition, when we examine the aims of the heavenly religions,
we reach the conclusion that the provision of prosperity and establishment of a just
economic system based on religion have been one of the reasons for the sending of the
Prophets. This, too, is one of the reasons why men have gravitated to religion and one of
the benefits humanity has gained from religion.
