The
Map
Room

Well, here we are at Level 4,

and doesn't time fly,

a little older and yet strangely more in need than ever

of understanding what life is all about.

Because the older you get

the more people who disagree with the way you think

are happy to argue against it,

so you need to know not just what you think,

but why you think it makes sense.

You may not be able to change the opinions of other people,

as it would seem that rational argument rarely changes peoples minds,

and truly only God can give people faith,

but you need to understand why you believe the way you do,

to protect your faith from the challenges of doubt.

Making sense of your faith in a way that satisfies you

gives your faith firm roots,

and enables your faith to enrich your life experience.

If you are not sure that you believe what you say you do,

pretty soon you will stop saying it if you don't think it makes sense,

and then soon stop believing entirely.

And then when you no longer have faith

you will no longer have faith's protection of your heart and mind

from the trials of creation.

Losing faith

is losing our heart's ability to resist

temptation to do what harms ourselves.

We need to be able to see God's Signs in the Creation,

to understand humankind's place in that Creation,

and recognise how God interacts with Creation

through the occasional times of Revealed Books,

and we need to know that this life

is just a precursor to an eternal life after death,

the quality of which depends on our behaviour in this one.

Most of all, we need to understand

how God is within us as well as outside us,

to realise that God is a Being that we have a relationship with,

to know that God not only hears the prayers that we say,

but also knows the secret wishes that we think.

In that way, each one of us has a different relationship with God,

dependent on our likes and interests,

what we know, and the lives we live.

Each one of us lives a different life,

and that variety is one of God's Signs,

but what ties muslims together is the way that they think,

the basic understandings that we find in the Map Room,

the recognition of certain underlying truths

that can neither be proved or disproved.

Believe in these things, or believe them not,

either way can only be a matter of faith.