Islam, In the Name of God, Most Gracious

"It would surely be illogical to maintain, for example, that the science of medicine has no reality, because man has sought and discovered it out of fear, fears of disease and death..." God and his Attributes by Sayyid M.M. Lari


The author of God and His Attributes is Sayyid Mujtaba Musavi Lari, son of Ayotollah Sayyid Ali Asghar Lari, a great religious scholar of Iran. Lari writes in this volume, translated from Farsi into English that "the best of them [regarding religion]... cannot transcend the sphere of logical speculation." Even so a response may be made that "even if we accept the original and fundamental motive for man's belief in a creator" to have been based in fear, this does not constitute belief in God to be mere whimsy in reality. 


Thus Lari writes in the opening paragraphs of his book, "If fear motivated man to seek a refuge, and if in the course of that search, he discovered a certain reality, God, is there any objection to be made? If fear is the cause for the discovery of a certain thing, can we say that it's imaginary and unreal because it was fear that first prompted man to seek it out?" He continues, "In all the affairs and occurrences of life, belief in a wise and powerful Lord is a real refuge and support... quite a different matter... from man's motive for searching it out."


It is the depths of man's being which impel him to seek God. Yet those who are caught up in "the webs of science may fall prey to doubt and confusion." Many men says Lari become imprisoned within themselves. They overly rely upon their intellect at the expense of their senses. Yet it is the intellect "which safeguards us from illusion." And so man's original nature sensing hazards, rushes to the help of the one who is in want. When, for example, a person is drowning and overwhelmed, pressed by hardships, brought down by illnesses or disease, then it is this very nature, original nature as Lari terms it, that is all compassionate, all encompassing. He seeks the aid of " one whose power is superior to all powers, and he understands its compassion and encompassing power in being. The all powerfulness of this Being can save him. "Because of his perception," writes Lari, "and with all his strength, he seeks the aid of the most sacred being to save him from danger," the one who can help him. And in the innermost core of his heart, he feels the power and strength of that being at work for his salvation.


Lari writes of an Islam, different than is sometimes portrayed as: warring and militant, unrepentant and strident. This Persian cleric writes in his books of a god, who while strident and possessing an eye for justice, is also a god of compassion and salvation.