Atheism and Natural Law

On of those scorching days in Cairo, with my sunglasses and car keys in one hand a decaf cappuccino in the other, I made my way up the AUC's Falaky building for my Sufism seminar. All was well during the first few minutes; the class was, as was typical with these bizarre electives, very international in its constitution and we all got along well with one notable exception (a militant Wahabi, surprise surprise).

After studying Sufism for a year I'd come to the conclusion that, without even knowing it, I was a Sufi. Sufism is essentially Islam's mystic tradition. Syncretic, panentheist, and far cry from the "Thou shall" and "Thou shall nots", it brought out the richness of the Islamic traditions of Persia, Turkey and Egypt without the bitter after-taste that so often comes from the modern Arab-Gulf Wahabism and even the moderate versions taught in North Africa (which, if I may add, are becoming less moderate). Sufism, like all mystic traditions, places great value on gnosis, and identifies that aim as a life-long process.

That day we were going through the story of Hayy Bin Yaqzan, by Ibn Tufail. This book posits the hypothesis of a human that has grown up with no education or influence from human society - alone on an island where he was abandoned and brought up by animals. A 'jungle-book' so to speak, but examined from a spiritual dimension. Will this character, Hayy (which is Arabic for "alive"), independently come to the conclusion of a Higher Power? Or will he mimic his surroundings and remain more true to animalism? The story reaffirms the primordial covenant and that humans are, by nature, embedded with the 'DNA' of gnosis, of spirituality. Towards the end of the story, Hayy, who even discovers prayer/meditation as he searches for Truth in his heart, finally comes across more humans. In time, he discovers they too worship, but theirs is a religion of fear and rules, of intolerance and dogma. The book ends on a sad note on the truth of humanity, which Ibn Tufail saw in the 13th century, and which is nonetheless true today.

Bahar, an Iranian Baha'i, was listening to all of this two rows ahead of me. He put up his hand. "There's something I really do struggle with whenever I learn more about Sufism," he started, "it seems to me that Sufis are very elitist. Even in this book, all I can hear is 'we Know, but poor uneducated souls who are trapped in dogma forever swimming around in circles and tormenting their souls'. Why isn't Sufism for everyone, and not just the intellectual and spiritual heavyweights? Surely they would be interested in everyone following their ways?"

Bahar hit it on the head. The reality is, as a Sufi myself, I despise the Muslim masses, Sunni or Shiite, and detest the restricted world they live in that shuns any creativity or curiosity in religion. In fact, calling them Muslims is a mistake in of itself, since the sacred Word as it was passed down to us first demanded the pursuit of knowledge. That aside, it may be the case that mystic traditions are, by nature, exclusive. Mysticism is a step out of the ordinary, and is unregulated. For the masses you need rules, and eventually the rules supersede the purpose for those rules, thus creating 'mainstream religion'. All the same, I reject the notion that mysticism if for the 'intellectual heavyweights'. If philosophies like that of Hayy Bin Yaqzan have taught us anything, it is that every person possesses the capacity, it is only a question of how much they really want to (or even dare to) know. How far into the unknown they are willing to step.

This is why I've come to the conclusion that it is better to be surrounded by a society of atheists than it is by a society that revels in religion. The atheists forget the rules, and in matters of morality follow their conscience and intellect, i.e. the natural law of things, and paradoxically are more spiritual for doing so. I don't think I am the first one to say so either. The great Islamic scholar of the 19th century, Muhammad Abdo wrote that when he visited the West he found Islam but no Muslims and upon his return to the Arab world he countenanced many Muslims but no Islam. As I looked outside the window that day and saw young Egyptian girls in headscarves, I realise how bad things have gotten in my country, and how desperately we need a reformation.

M