| Technology crippling
people’s faith in God
By BISI OLALEYE
Wednesday,
August 29, 2007
 |
•Alhaji Abdulrauf Tijani
Photo: Sun News Publishing |
|
Alhaji Abdulrauf Tijani, chairman, Tijani Enterprise Limited
believes that technology is crippling people’s faith and setting a diminishing
returns in the minds of worshippers.
Tijani, fondly called Alhaji, said that
God’s existence was based on imagination, adding that he believes what the
prophets said about God.
However, he was quick to point out that he would
be a fake person to say that his relationship with God was perfect or cordial.
Relationship/existence
He
is the creator of heaven and earth and I believe in Him. I can only discuss within
the scope of experience, there is no allegorical description of God. He is based
on our imagination. When you imagine Him, you can believe Him dogmatically. Only
God can give an accurate answer about my relationship with Him, but I have to
trust Him first, based on my imagination that He created me. I can say that I
believe and trust God, but the extent the relationship develops can only be determined
by God.
When you say that your relationship with God is cordial, one is
merely flattering himself. Even Jesus or Mohammed were not seen by us. What you
cannot substantiate, you cannot claim . The message was passed to my forefathers
and they left a book which was sent to them by God. They passed on a message,
which was clear. There is no other God except Him, the Almighty, Alpha and Omega.
Serving God
The best way to serve God is by trusting
Him whether through Islam or Christianity. The most important thing is trust,
after that, all other things would fall into place. In the Quran, He says, ‘leave
me to what I created by myself without seeking any support from anybody.
Zakat
Zakat
or tithes is a kind of graduation levelled with trust, which builds faith. God
said that we should be kind to others. Any excess you have, should be given to
the less privilege. I believe in it and it is one of the best ways of serving
God. Not doing it is disobedience. Disobedience is a crime and the penalty is
for God to decide. In Islam, God can do anything at will and nobody can challenge
Him.
God has no partner and discuss with no one. If He said He would do a thing,
and decide not to. Who will question His authority?
He said in the holy
book that ‘I am a merciful God and if I am too hard on you, call upon my
name, ‘Mercy’ and I am going to drop it’.
Modern
day Islam
Today, Islam should be compared to modern day technology
and the principle of management. Once you develop beyond what you can supervise,
it is bound to collapse. The population of worshippers, including Christians,
is much that you cannot avoid bad eggs.
We have developed beyond what anyone
can supervise . A lot of things are contesting with our faith these days. Technology
makes so many things to be available at our beck and call and this has made many
of us derail from the right direction.
You can go to the internet and
solve a lot of difficult puzzles. Pornography is on the net, exposed to teenagers.
All these things cripple the strength of our faith in Islam, and giving us a kind
of diminishing returns in terms of the strength of our faith.
We can’t
blame anybody. We should blame technology. If this world develop to a certain
level, there would be what we call a big bang. Things would fall apart.
Faith
The
common thing being experienced among the youths is impatience. They believe in
the philosophy of ‘grab it now, and if not, you will never achieve it again’.
This is the problem of loosing our faith. If we go back to the scriptural stories
and borrow a leaf from what happened to Moses, when they got to the red sea, you
will understand what I am saying. Pharaoh and his chariots were coming behind
them, and in front of them (the Israelites) was the red sea.
They were
stranded. The dice was cast and the crossing of the ocean was a matter of natural
sequences. With faith, because one person who had faith, asked Moses, ‘what
can we do?’ Moses told him to keep moving because God said that they should
keep moving. They kept moving towards the sea, until the sea was about to engulf
them and it parted and they had a passage to walk through to the Promised Land.
Likewise, people should have faith in God, no matter the obstacles, or the problems
they have. They should keep moving to find their God as merciful at all times,
because anything you rush to achieve in life, may not last. They should be steadfast
in God and He will see them through. |
