Re-Centering Humanity
… beholding the Sacred in every mazhar (manifestation) of God. Some call this sophia naturae, or the Wisdom of Nature, which speaks to the inner Light or Spirit that pervades all living things. The loss of this beholding leads directly to the gradual degradation of the sanctity of the Living World and all that inhabit it.
Judgment leads to loss of the Sacred. The loss of Awe and of Humanity.
Let me start by saying that without a doubt there is a place for judgment. Judging things allows us to differentiate them along a value set, comparing and preparing them for some specific function. Judgment helps us to “choose what is best” and in some way operationalizes our agency towards choice- which is not a bad thing! Judgment also helps us protect ourselves and others from harms in our midst. Our intellectual faculties have great utility in this and much of our inner defense mechanisms as well as the creature comforts we all enjoy today are a byproduct of the application of judgment and classification towards elements of our world.
But judgment rarely leads to true knowledge and discernment, and even less so to communal harmony, because of its implicit need to separate things from one another.
In short, judgment is separation. Otherization and polarization, potentially leading to dehumanization. “That person is different than me, and if I were them fully I would have chosen different from what they chose.” And so there is a cost.
What is its cost? One core cost is the loss of witnessing the interconnectedness of the natural world; the loss of beholding the Sacred in every mazhar (manifestation) of God. Some call this sophia naturae, or the Wisdom of Nature, which speaks to the inner Light or Spirit that pervades all living things. This is also the baseline of the doctrine of vitalism. The loss of this acknowledgement of the jism latif (vital body), and the interconnectedness of these subtle bodies, leads directly to the gradual degradation of the sanctity of the Living World and all that inhabit it. This then leads to the loss of reverence…bewilderment…awe... of Creation and, ultimately, its Lord, Fashioner, and Sustainer.
And when we have a culture that founds and prides itself on how much of the Sacred Wholeness of Creation it can reduce to a category and capitalize on (monetize, consummate into the consumer markets) we lose access to the rich interior experience of connection and unity of that Sacred Whole that is available and is longed for by every human heart.
We all, by our nature, judge and should be able to continue to judge things as they appear. Judgment is a pretty awe-some gift to have.
But my invitation to myself and all of you reading is that concurrent with our judgment of people in our world, we begin to develop a dual consciousness towards them, and from there towards all sentient beings, in which one holds to harmony and unity as organizing principles as well as the root-bed of a shared morality.
We can call it 50:50 consciousness.
One part judging and sense-making; another part witnessing with wonder the vitality and sacred aliveness of that which you are beholding.
Witnessing the common Spark of the Creator in all. The miracle of Life. The Sanctity of every Soul. And the rich presence possible through every encounter, even non-human.
“You won’t reach anything of religion until you revere all of God’s creatures.”
Muhyideen Ibn Arabi
When we can do this, we can begin to heal and counter the divisive narratives that are constantly being artificially manufactured for the intention of imperialist domination: haves vs have-nots; red political team vs blue team; black vs white; jabbed vs unjabbed.
None of these categories really matter when we can “drop down” into the “lowest” common denominator, which is witnessing the shared humanity/sanctity of life that each creature is stamped within, and try to have real empathetic conversations about our diverse opinions and beliefs. This is the bottom line. This is the humanity that every truth MUST be built on. First and foremost: religion.
And alhamdulillah, our Deen does.
This is the teaching of all the Prophets and especially of our Beloved Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, the Imam of all Prophets and Messengers, who when stood in battle- covered in blood and sweat and sand- and struck in his blessed jaw, tried to prevent his blood from touching the ground while praying for the enemies he was warring against, calling them “my people” and pleading God show mercy to them.
Our shared humanity is the life force of our morality.
You must not let yourself be fooled into thinking that your humanity CAN EVER supersede anothers. Ever. That’s rule number one. We can’t do harm. We can’t dehumanize our brother or sister. This is a morality that is non-negotiable, even in battle- the highest force intervention that can be undertaken in a social body.
What we understand now about judgment, and even the parts of the neo-frontal cortex (which is not an agnate for aql) that can play a role in it, is that it can lead to the moralization of a situation that is otherwise benign or morally neutral in-and-of-itself. This is distinct from the heart which maintains its framing of the whole and does not feel the need to bring morality into its affair. When judgment ensues, however, polarization is inevitable because we have moved from witnessing the interconnectedness of life into a different story which some call the Story of Separation. This story applies value to people more or less depending on their beliefs, opinions, preferences, or even more arbitrary categories like race or skin color. This is patently unacceptable to people of hearts, all around.
We must practice beholding this dual consciousness within our own selves and begin to bring it in where it matters most today- religion, medicine, and politics- if we want to counter this dehumanizing campaign of the predatory morally-utilitarian culture. And for those that may say that the language of ‘countering’ and general opposition is in my own way falling into the story of separation. For them I say, no. For when one can hold both judgment and witnessing, judging becomes a means towards a sounder goal without the moralization and demonization that usually ensues from persons who are stuck wholly in judgment mode. You can see this beautifully corroborated in a tradition of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ when he said:
The Prophet ﷺ taught: “Save your brother, oppressor or oppressed.” The Companions asked, “O Messenger of Allah ﷺ, how do you save an oppressor?”, which prompted the response of the Beloved ﷺ: “to restrain them from their oppressing of others is your helping him.”
Our way is to not even demonize the oppressor. The Prophet ﷺ called the oppressor our brother! Do you see how this relationship is supposed to be? Inwardly connected, outwardly differentiated. Outwardly judging while inwardly loving and supportive. This is our morality.
Do not let the immoral dictate to you your morality- especially those of you in the medical vocations. Especially those of you in the medical vocations.
I have been seeing otherwise good people succumb to this in error and begin to judge people- even their co-religionists, peers in the medical domain, and family members- as lesser members of humanity; inferior, unworthy of acceptance, and perhaps even dispensable.
This is gross malfeasance. And for my coreligionists, this is not our way.
What we must call back to is to our role as ‘Ibad Al-Rahman’, the Servants of the Merciful. Who are the Servants of the Merciful? Let Him describe them to us:
The servants of the Merciful are those who walk the earth in humility, and when the ignorant address them, they say, “Peace.”
And those who pass the night prostrating themselves to their Lord and standing up.
And those who say, ‘‘Our Lord, avert from us the suffering of Hell, for its suffering is continuous.
It is indeed a miserable residence and destination.”
And those who, when they spend, are neither wasteful nor stingy, but choose a middle course between that.
And those who do not implore besides God any other god, and do not kill the soul which God has made sacred—except in the pursuit of justice-
Furqan: 63-86
The metrics and standards of the believers are of a different order than those of the materialists and secularists, and our values should reflect that.
If we do not turn away the pagan or satanist from medical care due to a sense of moral commitment to our shared humanity, consider the new world a physician or politician may find themselves in for rejecting someone treatment who has of their own informed accord chosen to not take an experimental vaccine, and cites some ridiculous utilitarian morality in support of it.
I know that is a world I want no part in creating. I remain committed to the vision of Oneness that is at the very essence of this Deen and I hope we can all join one another one day upon this intention and vision of the Prophet ﷺ.
This is the beginning of how we re-center humanity.
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Mazen Atassi, ND
Dr. Mazen is a naturopathic doctor, classic homeopath, and Hikma therapist. To learn more about him and his services visit: www.forwardtohealth.com/dr-mazen