God is NOT in Everyone’s Heart.
Who is to blame for this religious misunderstanding, human beings or God?
Followers of all religions suffer from the same problem that is deeply rooted in the oblivious souls which is a result of inner ignorance.
Generally, our religious scholars tell us only one aspect of religion and that is the exterior aspect of religion. We are told that the most important part of the religion is the performance of worship, therefore, all religious people, very religiously, worship God and on account of their worship they assume that they have now become favourites of God.
Not many religious scholars tell their listeners to improve their character. Therefore, religious people are not concerned about their character, they are only concerned about the performance of worship. For example, our religious scholars in Islam are very rigid in the performance of worship but at the same time, they themselves do everything that they are not supposed to do. Just a few days ago, a very notable Pakistani religious scholar was caught red-handed fornicating a boy and this is not a rare occurrence in the religious seminaries, it’s very common.
When your reliance is confined to one aspect of the religion, you are literally religiously crippled.
You do not know whether what you are doing is sufficiently pleasing to the Lord. You just keep on worshipping whether or not your worship is worthy of acceptance by God. That is the trend.
It is not about Muslims only. The same goes with Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Sikhism. Every single religion is now suffering from this heinous setback in the religion.
Christianity is awaiting the return of Jesus Christ but do they know how are they going to recognise Jesus?
When told, ‘Come, let me teach you how to open your heart, how to spiritually connect to Lord Jesus’. They reply and say they already have Jesus in their hearts.
And if you ask Muslims, they are not too far mentally from their cousins, the Christians. ‘We have God in our hearts’, they say.
I am not going to blame all these individuals who are assuming that they already have Jesus and God in their hearts because as far as the Qur’an is concerned, the Qur’an said very explicitly that God is nearer to men than his own jugular vein. Perhaps this is why Muslims think they already have God in their hearts therefore, they do not need to go anywhere or do anything, because they already have God in their hearts.
Chapter Al-Qaf verse 16: ‘I have created human beings, verily. I know what whispers come to his soul and the reason I know it is because I am closer to him than his jugular vein.’
Can we blame God even though it’s God who said it?
If you ask Sufis, they would probably say it’s not for everybody.
It only applies to those who have worked hard on their inner being. Those who have purified their inner system, awakened their souls and, with the help of spirituality, they managed to access God and have sound union with God. Such people do have God in their hearts.
So, this is something from God that doesn’t apply to everybody. It only applies to those who have worked hard on their inner being. It applies to those who first purify their Lower Self and heart and worked real hard, tirelessly, for many, many years — going through an enormous amount of turmoil, pain and austerity. Those who left their comfort and shunned their luxuries and after a struggle of many, many years — sometimes 3.5 decades of struggle puts them on the divine radar and now God is closer to them than their jugular vein.
This concept that everybody has God in their heart is actually based on misunderstanding and lack of knowledge.
Perhaps this is why Mujaddid Alf Sani said that not everybody is spiritually fit to study the Qur’an. The commoners, novices should first engage themselves in the purification of the Lower Self and they will do so by virtue of engaging in constant and eternal remembrance of God. And those who have managed to purify their Lower Self and have become pure in their hearts and have purgated their Lower Self, went through negation of the Self, and practised denial of the Self, such people earn worthiness of having the luxury of reading the Qur’an, not everybody.
Younus AlGohar is the CEO of the Universal Sufi Order. Read more of his work on his website. He also answers questions from viewers live on ALRA TV every day starting at 10:30 PM GMT.
Learn more about spirituality through His Divine Eminence Gohar Shahi’s comprehensive book, The Religion of God (Divine Love).
