Wednesday, February 17, 2016

THE STORY OF MAN


THE STORY OF MAN
By: Kassim Ahmad
17 February, 2016

            One day the father of Man said to his son, “I want to write the last chapter of the story of Man. “Is it short, or long?” asks his son. “Neither too short, nor too long,” answered the father. “Is it a tragedy, or a comedy?” asks his son. “Decide for yourself,” answered the father. “Please write it quickly. Maybe I will benefit from it,” said his son.
            Here is the story.
            After the greats of all nations, ancient, medieval and modern, secular and religious, across all civilizations have come and gone, are we any better? Are we any safer? The answer is a big, “No.” We kill one another every day. One nuclear power  threatens another nuclear power with nuclear destruction. We live under threat of total or near-total destruction.
            Why, oh Lord? Are the protesting angels right? Are we shedders of blood and causers of destructions? But You still went on to create us, saying You know better. Are You wrong? It cannot be, You being All-Knowing. Are we wrong to believe in You? Please help us humans!  Where is our promised helper, Imam Mahdi? When is the Second Coming? Oh Lord, please help us.
            You must help yourselves, says the Lord. I have given you My Book and the mind. Read My Book and use your mind.
But all our great minds have come and gone. There is the tomb of books in all the world’s libraries. Still we are no more knowledgeable, nor more safe. Why? The great bullies remain bullies. The aged, the women and the children suffer, become refugees. Oh Lord, where is the justice You promised us? Where is Your compassion?
The fault lies not in your stars, but in yourselves, as said Mr Shakespeare. You choose the easy road of sports and amusements; not the difficult road of struggle for justice and truth. You choose to degenerate, instead of to progress. It is your fault.
But, Lord, it is You Who make us like this. How can I believe in You now? Even the geniuses among us, like Prof. Stephen Hawking, do not believe in You.
Did not Jesus, one of your greats, said that you cannot live by bread alone? You have to believe in something. Better that something be the Ever-Living, the All-Powerful, the All-knowing, the Perfect, even if He does not exist. But what if He does exist?
Yes, He does exist. Even if you cannot know Him, he does exit. Otherwise, how can you exist? You exist because He created you. How do you know that He created you? As far as I can see, the world creates itself, although I did not see it happen. I deduce it logically. If I were to say that Someone Else creates the Universe,  it makes logical sense. But in the end you will come to the Uncaused Cause. What causes the uncaused cause? If you answer the uncaused cause, causes itself, you put yourself  outside the bounds of logic. You become illogical, which is unacceptable. 
You have to surpass the boundaries of logic, not into the world of the illogical, but into the world of supra-logical. God is not illogical. He is supra-logical.
Epistemology is the combination of sensory, logical and supra-logical evidences. Period.

KASSIM AHMAD is a Malaysian author. His website is www.lassimahmad.blogspot.com      
             


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Excillent Sir! only 'Muthu' will recognise 'Manikim' is derive from a Malay Proverb/Pre-Bahasa Purba Melayu and I code from raja lawak,"Lu fikirlah sendiri". Prosperity be on 'U' Sir.....