How to deal with doubt ?
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Peace.
Doubt concludes to search and find the truthGod's Wisdom when allowed to mixup with human knowledge doubt ensues. Unless knowledge is set aside with humility, search and research lead the doubt to confusion and more complications, thus removing one far away from the truth.
salam
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How does one transform doubt into conviction (Yakeen) ?
Should one suppress it and hope it goes away by alone. Or Face it... ?
if so how ?Doubts on what? There are many doubts a person can have. He can have doubts about God or even God's plan for him. He may have doubts about religion like a person has doubts about whether he should be a Sunni or Quranist or Christian etc.
I think the strongest doubt is about God's plan in your life. Suffering and tribulations and dissappointments often leads to doubt about many things concerning God and religion. Sometimes resentment and anger towards God can lead to rejection of God and religion. Many people have a problem admitting that since it implies a weakness of some sort. They would rather make themselves believe it has to do with rationality and logic. Often a person has a hard time expressing what is it that is leading him towards that because its personal.
From my experience here I can say that often I detect that a person who may have had a hard and painful childhood or is going through a painful divorce or some financial ruin will not disclose these issues when talking about why he rejects or has doubts.
"Where is God in my life?" kind of thing. But he keeps that to himself.
It often expresses itself in logic and rationality arguments like the Quran is filled with errors or promotes oppressiveness or promotes violence etc. No matter how hard you try to show otherwise it may not work since there are personal issues he is facing that he is not disclosing because either its too personal or because of a fear that it indicates a sign of weakness. If a person had faith and then feels he is losing it he often looks for other believers to debate with. Sometimes its guilt that drives that since he feels guilty about what he feels and looks to debating other believers as a way to gain confirmation that his choice of rejection is correct. He may be given them a hard time hoping they will also lose faith so he does not feel that sense of guilt and insecurity. Or there is a sense of sadness in him and he wants to debate others to express that sadness and look for comfort by convincing them of his point of view. Sometimes a strong sense of anger towards God can make a person be hostile towards who he sees as the believers. Its his way of getting back at God. He can not take it out on God himself obviously so he goes after the believers giving them a hard time. Its like he feels that God is not worthy of worship for what he feels God allowed to happen in his life and not stopping or ending it and despises the idea that others are worshiping Him.
Sometimes doubts can come due to the wrong people teaching him about religion. He then realizes that he can no longer accept what he has been told is God's religion and begins to have doubts about the religion. Such a person people here can deal with since his problem is religion and dogma. Otherwise there is nothing any human can do to eleminate a person's doubt or loss of faith if the reasons are personal except to console him. That requires opening up and thats very hard for many to do.
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Doubt, plain and simple, is in its very nature a result, or expression, of ignorance.
But what do I mean by ignorance? I just mean that we currently don't see reality as it actually is. We sort of live in an illusion. We are disconnected from reality and cannot perceive it. But this state is something we ALL have to work away. We can strive to be guided and see reality. Then we will be shown, little by little. We'll develop gradually, and will be able to see only as much as we can handle at our current capacity. This is the process of "coming home" to Allah.... seeing reality and coming to know truth. This is also the prime thing we need to devote ourselves to in this life. This is what life is all about, and it's a journey, it will not be a bed of roses, and it will take alot of conscious and honest work.So, how to deal with doubt. PRAY! Your desire and intention must be there. Ask Allah to guide you to truth and to see reality. Acknowledge any sense of increased clarity and thank Allah for that, and keep praying and moving forward. But don't rush, because you cannot anyway. You will see things when you are ready, and only then, and it is not you who decide when you are ready. It's a lifelong process. Just keep praying (heartly and sincerely!), and have an honest and sincere desire to rid yourself of illusion and falsehood. Ask Allah for the truth. Ask for openness and softness. Someone who is truly open and soft cannot reject truth. Be willing to learn, because that is the only useful thing in life. If we don't learn, we stagnate and calcify.. die. Ask Allah to always let you be at the learning frontier of your own life, never to stagnate or fall back into illusion/madness.
As you learn from what Allah shows you, assuming you're open to see and accept it, the doubts will dissolve one by one.
So again, you deal with doubt by asking Allah to give you surety and show you the truth and reality. It's simple. Pray and ask Allah.But we need to remember to always be brutally honest with ourselves, or rather to have this intention, because it is not easy at all to be honest and break free from one's own ego/mind. We have to be very smart and honest when praying to Allah... sincere. Praying for the removal of doubts should not mean only that. We wouldn't want to become sure/overconfident, like idiots, about something false, would we? So we need to pray for truth and reality above all. What else is there to pray for??
Also, don't ever compare yourself to others! Don't consider yourself better or more enlightened than anyone... what do we know? And don't take yourself as less than anyone either! The crux is... don't compare yourself AT ALL with others. Your conclusions, if you do, will just be false anyway, and either depress you or make you arrogant.
Doubts are not the problem... don't focus on the doubts... focus on that which will dissolve doubts... i.e. getting to know reality and truth.
Peace!
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Doubt, plain and simple, is in its very nature a result, or expression, of ignorance.
But what do I mean by ignorance? I just mean that we currently don't see reality as it actually is. We sort of live in an illusion. We are disconnected from reality and cannot perceive it. But this state is something we ALL have to work away. We can strive to be guided and see reality. Then we will be shown, little by little. We'll develop gradually, and will be able to see only as much as we can handle at our current capacity. This is the process of "coming home" to Allah.... seeing reality and coming to know truth. This is also the prime thing we need to devote ourselves to in this life. This is what life is all about, and it's a journey, it will not be a bed of roses, and it will take alot of conscious and honest work.So, how to deal with doubt. PRAY! Your desire and intention must be there. Ask Allah to guide you to truth and to see reality. Acknowledge any sense of increased clarity and thank Allah for that, and keep praying and moving forward. But don't rush, because you cannot anyway. You will see things when you are ready, and only then, and it is not you who decide when you are ready. It's a lifelong process. Just keep praying (heartly and sincerely!), and have an honest and sincere desire to rid yourself of illusion and falsehood. Ask Allah for the truth. Ask for openness and softness. Someone who is truly open and soft cannot reject truth. Be willing to learn, because that is the only useful thing in life. If we don't learn, we stagnate and calcify.. die. Ask Allah to always let you be at the learning frontier of your own life, never to stagnate or fall back into illusion/madness.
As you learn from what Allah shows you, assuming you're open to see and accept it, the doubts will dissolve one by one.
So again, you deal with doubt by asking Allah to give you surety and show you the truth and reality. It's simple. Pray and ask Allah.But we need to remember to always be brutally honest with ourselves, or rather to have this intention, because it is not easy at all to be honest and break free from one's own ego/mind. We have to be very smart and honest when praying to Allah... sincere. Praying for the removal of doubts should not mean only that. We wouldn't want to become sure/overconfident, like idiots, about something false, would we? So we need to pray for truth and reality above all. What else is there to pray for??
Also, don't ever compare yourself to others! Don't consider yourself better or more enlightened than anyone... what do we know? And don't take yourself as less than anyone either! The crux is... don't compare yourself AT ALL with others. Your conclusions, if you do, will just be false anyway, and either depress you or make you arrogant.
Doubts are not the problem... don't focus on the doubts... focus on that which will dissolve doubts... i.e. getting to know reality and truth.
Peace!
Selam Zulf,
Couldn't have said it better myself
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Peace
I have no doubts about there being a monotheistic all powerful, wise, merciful, kind and forgiving Creator of the universe and everything with in it (that we call "God", the doubt is about myself - I doubt I can ever be the righteous believer that makes it to Paradise, because I am unable to completely overcome sinful behaviour. Despite my belief in God and the hereafter, the angels, prophets and Quran, my regular prayers to God Almighty, my stated rejection of Satan and despite imploring God for help, I still commit sins and have unrighteous behaviour. Some of these are reocurring sins, though with a long time interval in between. I feel I can never reach the perfection required by God to be able to be in God's presence and enter paradise on the Judgement Day. -[ -
Peace
I have no doubts about there being a monotheistic all powerful, wise, merciful, kind and forgiving Creator of the universe and everything with in it (that we call "God", the doubt is about myself - I doubt I can ever be the righteous believer that makes it to Paradise, because I am unable to completely overcome sinful behaviour. Despite my belief in God and the hereafter, the angels, prophets and Quran, my regular prayers to God Almighty, my stated rejection of Satan and despite imploring God for help, I still commit sins and have unrighteous behaviour. Some of these are reocurring sins, though with a long time interval in between. I feel I can never reach the perfection required by God to be able to be in God's presence and enter paradise on the Judgement Day. -[Of course we can never be sure about ourselves... that's sort of built in into our situation here. We are not supposed to. We are not supposed to know if we have crossed some limit or not. We are supposed to STRIVE.
Doubt about self is also from ignorance. Ignorance and enlightenment about reality will cover everything, including the real identity about ourselves. Generally we think we are a bunch of thoughts in a run-away mind. But the mind is just a computer that we have started taking as master. We are not our thoughts. But rarely do we know this.
Your run-away mutany-prone mind/shaytan has convinced you that you are nothing... that you don't deserve good. Who is your mind to dictate that to you. The mind is just a tool, whjich we should not allow to dictate things about us and God.
Just ask God to let you break free from your mind, and start using it as the wonderful tool it can be. Ask God to let you reclaim freedom from this tyranny of the mind. The mind doesn't lead to God. The mind should not be doing things it is not built for or supposed to do... like figuring out God, or deciding if you are good enough or not, or to predit the future. The mind doesn't know sht about the future. It just conjures up doom and gloom and pulls us away from God. The mind, when it assumes the wrong role (which we allow, unconscoiusly), can be a real bastrd. Just ask God for freedom and peace. It works!! God's blessings are wonderful beyond description. Ask for it! There is only one Source!! -
How does one transform doubt into conviction (Yakeen) ?
Should one suppress it and hope it goes away by alone. Or Face it... ?
if so how ?Neither suppress it nor face it. Acknowledge it is there.
The key to removing doubt is to gain sure knowledge, direct knowledge of the eternal Self.
When you are on a plane, you might doubt its ability to fly. But once you understand the entire workings of the plane from an engineer's perspective, you have zero doubt that it is a capable flying machine.
Likewise, when you inhabit a human body, you might doubt its resurrection. But once you understand the entire history of your creation, your biology, your personality, from a Godly perspective, and understand the fingerprint of God in everything, this doubt will vanish as a cloud in the sky vanishes of its own accord. I say this as one who stands, as God is my witness, entirely free of doubts with regards to the being of God or the resurrection. This is not something you can fake, although you may try to put up the facade. This is not something you can tell yourself and make yourself believe. Rather this is a state that occurs naturally after a certain level of study of the quran, when one is in sufficient symbiosis with the quran or any meditative system of practice.
Once upon a time I would readily admit I was shaky with uncertainty. It is not a shameful thing to acknowledge you are uncertain of the truth. Rather it is shameful to be uncertain of the truth yet pretend you are sure; and to do so would make you a hypocrite - and God does not take kindly to hypocrites. Just accept the doubt it's a result of lack of knowledge about the Clear Light of the Self. Once you know God, how God works, the way of God, the justice on which the universe operates, and your own place in that entire plan, when you can truly look at every event in your life and see the subtle hand of God orchestrating all happenings, these doubts will cease to exist.
The key to attaining the doubtless state is to read every parable in the quran. And really direct your full mind into understanding them. They only reveal their beautiful meanings when you are ready to understand them. And bit by bit, the doubt will fall away. The same thing exists in Zen - it is the practice of Koan
A kan (?)pron. /ko.n/; Chinese ; pinyin gng'?n; Korean (kong'an); Vietnamese c?ng ?n) is a story, dialogue, question, or statement, which is used in Zen-practice to provoke the "great doubt", and test a student's progress in Zen practice.
You can work with quranic parables, you can work with zen koans. I used both. They lead to the same Clear Light.
Found you a good text about it - https//beingwithoutself.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/great_doubt.pdf
In Zen practice, the essential point is to arouse Doubt. What is
this Doubt? For example, when you are born, where do you come
from? You cannot help but remain in doubt about this. When you
die, where do you go? Again, you cannot help but remain in doubt.
Since you cannot pierce this barrier of life-and-death, suddenly
the Doubt will coalesce right before your eyes. Try to put it down,
you cannot; try to push it away, you cannot. Eventually this
Doubt Block will be broken through and youll realize what a
worthless notion is life-and-death ha! As the old worthies said
Great Doubt, Great Awakening; small doubt, small awakening;
no doubt, no awakening.Here is another good read - itisnotreal.com/awareness-of-the-void.html
The absolute cessation of doubt happens when within yourself you realise deathlessness, you realise your true immortality; you realise the quality of God as Al-Hayy, the Ever-Living. It is a sensation of needing to do absolutely nothing, of being a minute grain of sand running along safely in the rapid currents of a magnificent stream, knowing that this grain of sand is positioned with expertise by one who is Most Wise. In that deathlessness arises the cessation of all existential wondering. The cold black void that you think about, that seems hellish beyond comprehension only appears hellish due to your fears and doubts about what is to come. If you are truly comfortable with total non-existence (and not in the pretend way of an atheist) then there is no room for doubt.
jedi
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Of course we can never be sure about ourselves... that's sort of built in into our situation here. We are not supposed to. We are not supposed to know if we have crossed some limit or not. We are supposed to STRIVE.
Great reply - well I certainly do strive!! sun
Doubt about self is also from ignorance. Ignorance and enlightenment about reality will cover everything, including the real identity about ourselves. Generally we think we are a bunch of thoughts in a run-away mind. But the mind is just a computer that we have started taking as master. We are not our thoughts. But rarely do we know this.
Your run-away mutany-prone mind/shaytan has convinced you that you are nothing... that you don't deserve good. Who is your mind to dictate that to you. The mind is just a tool, whjich we should not allow to dictate things about us and God.
Just ask God to let you break free from your mind, and start using it as the wonderful tool it can be. Ask God to let you reclaim freedom from this tyranny of the mind. The mind doesn't lead to God. The mind should not be doing things it is not built for or supposed to do... like figuring out God, or deciding if you are good enough or not, or to predit the future. The mind doesn't know sht about the future. It just conjures up doom and gloom and pulls us away from God. The mind, when it assumes the wrong role (which we allow, unconscoiusly), can be a real bastrd. Just ask God for freedom and peace. It works!! God's blessings are wonderful beyond description. Ask for it! There is only one Source!!Thanks for your most helpful response.
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God's Wisdom when allowed to mixup with human knowledge doubt ensues. Unless knowledge is set aside with humility, search and research lead the doubt to confusion and more complications, thus removing one far away from the truth.
salam
I don't understand what you are trying to say can you explain it further ?
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Thanks all for your contribution.
Bigmo
Thanks, I liked how you explained it with psychology...Zulf
I think the following aya summarizes your post.
1599And thank you.
IAMOP
"This is not something you can fake, although you may try to put up the facade. This is not something you can tell yourself and make yourself believe. Rather this is a state that occurs naturally after a certain level of study of the quran, when one is in sufficient symbiosis with the quran or any meditative system of practice.
"
Best part of your post ) -
Salam Zulf
I am a new member and this is my first post on the forums. I have been a Quran Alone and God alone believer for many years. It was always in my heart even though i grew up in a pretty non traditional or practicing Sunni household. i was forced to learn the quran ( as you do by age 10) by a perverted molesting maulvi who would come to the house while my parents were at work and teach me and my younger siblings quran ( just the arabic with no meaning) he would beat my younger brother who was 6 and my sis who was 8 but he wouldn't touch me and was always afraid of me somehow as I would stand up to him and protect them. he was just horrid and it made me hate the religion i was being raised in. surely this man has nothing to do with the creator i thought? I began resenting Islam as nothing made sense to me but I had my own relationship with god and spoke to him regularly and it always helped me to the point I felt a presence with me always protecting me( I sound mad) lol. I was since then convinced that the religion I heard and saw being practiced had nothing to with my god. After 9/11 my mum wanted to know her stuff as she was like me raised in the traditional Sunni style with typical biblical and Hadith stories to turn too. It was through her striving to understand that she began to realise that this was all nonsense she had been taught and began to gain knowledge by the grace of Allah and she did lead the way for me to also gain enough interest but mostly because her new found understanding of Islam and quran was similar to the chats I used to save with Allah as a kid. I don't know why I am pouring my heart out to you but in your posts I have felt something very similar to the way I think and your answer to the doubt question which helped me immensley I felt your words made so much sense to me as I am really striving to remove all doubt and much like the person who said they didn't feel like they can get to be of the righteous I really struggle and feel that. Your reply has really helped me. Thank you.
Sorry for rambling on but I felt compelled to write to you to say i feel the purity of your soul through your words which is a very rare and beautiful thing. Praise be to Allah lord of the worlds!
To all others who have hardened their hearts and say " doubt leads you astray" sound as if they are deluding themselves when they say we should remove all doubt ( it's not that easy and those who say they don't have doubt are just kidding themselves as this our nature as humans Allah tells us of our nature and we are the most argumentative creatures he has created meaning we question everything and doubt everything) only way doubt can be removed is when Allah wills ( I'm guessing when he sees us strive in his way). Likely I'm defo not there yet!
I hope I have articulated myself in a way that not offensive to anyone. Once again thanks to Zulf and praise be to Allah almighty for showing me to this post.
Salam
A
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Thank you Affy for your kind and open words. May Allah bless you and family with insights of truth, wisdom and real understanding and success, now and forever. And it's always nice when one's words can be of some inspiration to someone. Actually it is Allah who lead us to read such material. All praise to Allah the Provider and Sustainer. I myself find a lot of inspiration now and then in what people on this forum write. I think it's great to read about other people's points of view, understanding and experiences. There is always something to learn, ponder and pick up.
Life is all about growth. Growth in wisdom and understanding of reality... growth in one's own maturity and humbleness.... softness of heart and openness to truth. They're all connected. When you're open, soft, humble, receptive, accepting and sincere, you are able to receive knowledge from Allah. This knowledge is of a very different kind than intellectual knowledge. Intellectual knowledge is sort of dead, or at least "mechanical"... it belongs to the mind, and can be useful for many things, but the other kind of knowledge you receive from Allah goes into your heart (or whatever I should call it), and it's a knowledge that you FEEL instead of think (but it has nothing to do with emotions). This feeling/sensing/knowing cannot be related properly to someone else in words, so everyone has to learn/receive it for themselves, fresh. It cannot be put down in a book. If you try, it just turns into some philosophy... empty words without spirit. At least this is how I feel in my meager experience. This is why I think religion is to a very large extent dead and useless. It's dead and useless because they don't teach you HOW to learn or think... they just tell you WHAT to learn or think. (And I'm not even talking about all the lies and insanity that religion teach, which is another topic altogether). The spirit of life and growth is not there... there is no direction... there is only a bunch of motionless, static, dead pieces of information to stuff you mind with, like carrying around useless pebbles in a pouch. The skill of fishing is infinitely more useful than just being given a fish. Religion is a fish given to you, or rather shoved down your throat... (and dare you not look at vegetables or meat, or else! Eat or suffer the consequences! >D)
Another thing; when we proceed in life, struggling our way forward... it is important to realize that things do go in cycles. You'll have periods of insights and understanding, and then you will have periods of confusion and "unclarity", and you wonder what went wrong and why you suddenly feel so lost. The important thing is to remain peaceful, not to resist the confusion or unpleasant feeling of being lost, and just leave it to God. The chance is that your mind, very stealthily, crept up and took control over you. The shaytanic mind is not fit to guide you, so you need to now tell your mind to step back and stop trying to figure things out so desperately. When we let go, accept our feelings, and just peacefully rely on Allah, then we can relax and soften in order to move ahead again. It's all about relying on Allah, and this takes practice... continuous and conscious practice.... and this is the actual Struggle. But if we are smart, we'll pray to Allah to help us rely on Allah.
The point is that we should not get too pulled down by feelings of confusion or being lost. We should not let such feelings frighten us, or make us think there is something wrong with us, or that we are not good enough... unworthy... having failed. Our job is not to be a judge, even about ourselves. We should just remind ourselves that Allah is always there for us. All we need to do is to keep doing our best in relying on Allah... and praying for guidance. We need to work on the connection... the direct connection that we can feel inside us. If we let popes and mullahs come in between us and Allah, then we are toast.... we turn into zombies. Actually, the beauty is that it is all very simple. Why can we not be happy with a direct connection to Allah? Why do we listen to our ignorant and shaytanic minds that belittle us and frighten us into taking religious authorities as gods (whether they are people or books)? We only need this one focal point in life, Allah, and all else will solve. So simple yet so hard. It has to start with this connection to Allah... everything else for your growth will be shown to you along your way. The connection to Allah is the fuel pipe we need to be able to receive the fuel that give us life. Allah is our life... how can we think of Allah as some external deity? Why do we let our minds create a separation? How artificial and false. Trust Allah, rely on Allah. Leave it to God, and attain peace.Cheers!
sun -
how can we think of Allah as some external deity? Why do we let our minds create a separation? How artificial and false. Trust Allah, rely on Allah. Leave it to God, and attain peace.
hey Zulf,
Can you explain what do you mean by this ?Maybe external and internal ?
4211Internal he made us, we are part of his creation
External Although creation came from god. We also know from the Qur?an(4211) that god is not like anything.So there must be a separation between god and his creation. Although the creation came from god.
see also 618also if we assume we are part of god without the separation of god -- creation.
that means God = all of creation combinedthat leaves no space for god. I mean who is running everything then ?
And can't god exist outside of his creation ?Sorry if I understood the above quote incorrectly but nevertheless what are your thoughts on this ?
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Peace Ahmd,
I understand your point fully!
Actually, I wasn't really trying to define precisely whether Allah is inside, outside, part or not part of creation... because I simply don't have knowledge or insight to understand that aspect of reality. It's really beyond me.What I was referring to was the way religion many times make us think of God... as some character in the sky on a throne... almost human but with super powers. This is what I'm against. This is the separation I talk about. Separation also involves the idea, although perhaps unconscious, that we forget God as if God doesn't exist, or that we don't always need God. The separation I was referring to was a separation from God in our minds... i.e. how we think of God. We should not think of God in terms of separation. We can never be separated from God in any real sense, but only in our consciousness. The real makeup of creation and Allah in terms of what is part of what... well, I have no idea about that. I was discussion our relationship with and approach to God. There are many people who seriously discuss whether we need God or not.... which, in my mind, just means that they have a false image of God. That which is Allah, cannot be thought of as separate from us, in that we cannot break free from God or function independently. Only our minds create an illusion of separation.
Hope I conveyed my ideas a it better now.
Peace and best wishes! ) -
I was afraid for many years to read the Qur'an in case I found something in it which would lead me to reject it. Many years later, I found the truth to be liberating, and found that the Qur'an just being bound by the shackles of hadith. Does falsehood not always perish. Why would you want anything less for yourself other than the truth. The truth is liberating; liberate yourself.
"Cherish your doubts, for doubt is the handmaiden of truth. Doubt is the key to the door of knowledge; it is the servant of discovery. A belief which may not be questioned binds us to error, for there is incompleteness and imperfection in every belief. Doubt is the touchstone of truth; it is an acid which eats away the false." (Robert T. Weston)
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Nice quote es. I think it takes courage to work through doubts which are challenging to one's long-held understandings. Sometimes this forum provides new directions to help work "doubts" through, and provides a plethora, to say the least! of knowledges gained, through constant examination of GOD's life-long study course, the Glorious Qur'aan.
The admins. here have set a very liberal and democratic example of allowing so many voices to be "heard". Thank you Admins.!! sun
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I was afraid for many years to read the Qur'an in case I found something in it which would lead me to reject it. Many years later, I found the truth to be liberating, and found that the Qur'an just being bound by the shackles of hadith.
bravo
Does falsehood not always perish. Why would you want anything less for yourself other than the truth. The truth is liberating; liberate yourself
sun
"Cherish your doubts, for doubt is the handmaiden of truth. Doubt is the key to the door of knowledge; it is the servant of discovery. A belief which may not be questioned binds us to error, for there is incompleteness and imperfection in every belief. Doubt is the touchstone of truth; it is an acid which eats away the false." (Robert T. Weston)
A quote by Robert T. Weston yay
Not just being bound by the shackles of hadith brickwall