Three Forms of Consciousness, One Truth

A person today may belong to any religion and yet live their religiosity with a consciousness similar to that of the Torah. For such a person, religion is woven mostly around rules, the forbidden and the permitted, prohibition and permission, form and obedience. Truth is reduced to the correct application of commandments, and a sense of security is created by not disturbing the order.

Another person may live their religion with a consciousness similar to that of the Gospel. There, the rule recedes into the background, and relationship comes to the fore. Religion is lived more as an inner state. Love, forgiveness, closeness of the heart, and emotional experience become decisive. This is not something seen only in Christianity. The same spirit can also be recognized in New Age mysticism and in certain Sufi paths.

In the consciousness of the Quran, transcendence and nearness are carried at the same time. Through tanzih, Allah is understood as unique and absolutely transcendent. Through tashbih, Allah is experienced as near, relational, and inwardly felt. In Sufi thought, tawhid is understood through the fact that these two aspects do not exclude one another. One is asked to realize that the transcendent and the near are, in truth, two languages of one single truth.

Nevertheless, it is possible for a person to remain only in tanzih. God may then be experienced as distant, stern, and solely ruling. It is also possible to take refuge only in tashbih. In that case, God is internalized to such an extreme degree that He almost becomes a purely psychological concept.

We see this in daily life as well. Some build their religiosity almost entirely on rules. Some live it only through emotion. Some linger in metaphysical language. Some continue worship as a mere routine.

For this reason, the religion a person belongs to and the consciousness they actually live do not always meet on the same level. A Jew may live with a consciousness similar to that of the Gospel. A Christian may carry a consciousness similar to that of the Torah. A Muslim may never rise to the horizon opened by the consciousness of the Quran.

Perhaps what is called yaqīn is lived with Musa and understood with Hızır. Perhaps one cannot say illā without first internalizing lā. Perhaps a person must first be cleansed of every idol within themselves.