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A memory which is always daunting me from my high school education years is really meaningful to understand the psychology of unbelievers. A psychology that they live in a desperate life without a light of hope…One day in those years our teacher of philosophy entered into the class with a gloomy face. This time there was something different in her face. The students who were accustomed to see their teacher with joy and enthusiasm were quick to understand that something was wrong with her. One of our friends who was more concerned about the mood of the teacher asked whether something bad happened to her. The teacher said “today is the anniversary of my father’s death.” Suddenly the same gloomy mood prevailed all of the class. To prompt hope and disperse the gloomy aura in the class I said “it was sad to hear that your father had passed away. However it is nice that you will meet him one day in the hereafter.” My that comment had convinced some friends in the class but expression on the face of the teacher had not changed. She said “all these things about hereafter, hell and heaven are void and cold comfort of masses. They are opium of masses.” We were perplexed to hear that. Indeed she was subconsciously knows that there should be another place to meet with your relatives and friends and she feels the agony and necessity however she can’t just deign to believe to what most of the people believe. To be in the same category with ‘the other ordinary people’ deters her from believing.
Is it possible to live in the darkness of the unbelief for a long time without any light of hope, believing that you will never see again all these people whom you are together now, who are your parents, relatives and closest friends? And perhaps the hardest of all things is that you will be dead and turn into a piece of lifeless soil. We know that that is a really terrible idea to stand for. So, how can unbelievers stand for that terrible idea?
With a general defence strategy which apparently almost every unbeliever uses they bear the idea of unbelief, that is, belief in nonexistence of a supreme power and hereafter. In that kind of a situation, that is, when the idea of unbelief dominates his/her mind and the unbeliever gets depressed s/he seeks a way out of that deep dark grave. Being helpless s/he finds a salvation by counting on the probability of existence of a supreme power. That idea of supreme power comforts the atheist individual for a while. However, once s/he feels himself or herself at bay, s/he begins to take this idea away from him or herself again because in that case the responsibility towards that supreme power seems as an unnecessary and a ‘must get rid of’ burden. That is a burden which the ego of human does not want to bear. Indeed, all the clash between the human and Allah (SWT) is stemmed from the ego of human and his or her desire to be supreme. Shaitan himself has lost his examination with Adam because of his ego. In the next step the atheist starts to think and asks “how can existence of a supreme power be proved? That is unscientific. How can we base all this existence on an unseen power?” And for the second round, when that distressing feeling of unbelief appears again the same strategy is put into practice. This circle of demagogy repeats itself again and again.
The ego problem is universal and all of us have it, so the danger to be trapped into the deception of shaitan is not too far away from us. The most effective weapon against tricks of the ego is to remember what makes up human beings is his/her weakness, impotence and absolute poverty. A conscious human being who is aware of his/her true nature can’t find any way other than to pursue a supreme power, that is, Allah Subhanahu wa ta’la, to worship.