A Sane New Year Resolution: Talk Less About God And Religion And More Of Love And Understanding

By Sumit Paul, New Age Islam 30 December 2023 “If The Concept Of God Has Any Validity Or Any Use, It Can Only Be To Make Us Larger, Freer, And More Loving. If God Cannot Do This, Then It Is Time We Got Rid Of Him.” ― James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time The great American novelist James Baldwin's idea of god as an embodiment of love must be measured and contextualized in today's times and esp. in the context of India. Has the so-called god been able to make us larger, freer and more loving? Has this god, at any point in time, been able to intervene and stop bloodshed, cruelty and all sorts of violence in ITS name? When most of the humans are unloved in this unloving world, how can we think of a loving god (who created us)? In fact, the very concept of god has terribly limited us. Visit Ayodhya and see it for yourself, how the god of a specific community and religion has made an entire community so damn parochial and unloving. Hinduism, which believed in Universalism, is now monomaniac, monolithic, hidebound and extremely touchy about its plethora of gods and deities. "Jisne Iss Daur Ke Insaan Ko Kiya Ho Iss Qadar Mahdood/ Wahi Mera Bhi Khuda Ho Mujhe Nahin Manzoor" (Who made the humans of this age so limited in vision/ Should also be my god is not acceptable to me), Pakistani Urdu poet Rehaan Layalpuri's couplet is an inspiration from Abdul Hamid Adam's famous couplet, "Jisne Iss Daur Ke Insaan Kiye Hon Paida/ Wahi Mera Bhi Khuda Ho Mujhe Manzoor Nahin" (Who has created these people/ Can never be my god). Mystics, Sufis and those who're evolved souls, consider god as a metaphor for all-encompassing love and don't see IT as an object to spar over and create differences. But unfortunately, all man-made faiths have neutralized and nullified the very concept of god and have relegated it to a bone of contention. I'm told, a grand mosque (Dhannipur Mosque) is also being built in Ayodhya, 22 km from the swanky Ram Mandir, to assuage the wounded sentiments of Muslims. Alas, humans are so primitive and religiously envious! We're trying to confine god's all-pervasiveness to enormous structures called temples and mosques. Just the way, kids fight over the size of their toys that mine is bigger than yours, we're fighting over the grandeur of our respective shrines. Where's love? Where's the idea of freedom and where has gone our breadth of vision? In the name of god and religion, humans have shed more blood than all the waters lying in the great oceans. Let's love each other and bury the hatchet. But will that be possible? We tend to make New Year Resolutions. Let this be our New Year resolution that in 2024, we'll talk less about god and religion and more of love and understanding. Do I sound utopian? ----- A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul is a researcher in comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He has contributed articles to the world's premier publications in several languages including Persian. URL: https://newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/sane-resolution-god-religion-love/d/131417 New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism