I am as my servant thinks of me

The prophet related in a hadith qudsi that God said:

"I am as my servant thinks of me."

You might ask, how can God be as we think of him, since we all think differently and have different views? Does that mean God is different to different people? Yes & no. Yes because we all come up with different images of God and no because God is above and beyond all definitions and human understanding.

The Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu who founded Taoism put it well when asked to explain what Tao means, he said: "Tao is God. Tao cannot be defined, because it applies to everything. You cannot define something in terms of itself. If you can define a principle then it is not Tao.

This is the same as the Quran saying:

"He has no likeness!"

In other words anything that can be said or thought of - is not God.

We have to live within metaphors, parables, similitudes, stories & myths in order to relate to God. Religion is fundamentally an attempt to define the indefinable. In order to do this, God then becomes as we define him. We create our own god. Our own way of interacting with that which is beyond definition.

In this way religion is like an artists easel that provides the believer with a place to express his beliefs. It is a mirror that reflects what is inside of us. Of course this means it can reflect the bad as well as the good.

It can be a vehicle for us to express all that's good in human nature. To express our love, gratitude, charity & compassion towards our fellow man. To consider our place in the world and our responsibilities for the environment.  Islam - like all religions - can bind us together & give us direction, meaning, identity and a sense of well being. A place to help & support one another. To encourage each other towards what it good & just.

But sadly it can also be used for evil & can be all to easily manipulated to oppress and control others. To create division & bloodshed. It can become a prison of blind imitation and mechanical observance of rituals. It can lead to superficial literalism and narrow-minded self-righteousness as well as an excuse to stagnate and look backwards.

The problem is that while humanity has continued to evolve, the way many of us understand religion has not. Islam in particular suffers from rigid views that have stood still for over a thousand years. The result is that we are plagued by a mentality that belongs to the middle ages. Many of our religious scholars are slaves to a literalist understanding of Islam. Their minds paralysed by blind devotion to the religious texts and their reason imprisoned within out-dated dogma, they can't see the world around them.

(You might find the image of God above amusing. It is from a Monty Python comedy sketch. Sadly, however, the image many Muslims have of God is not far from that image.) We still cling to the ancient anthropomorphic image of an angry, petty, jealous, cruel & very human god. It's time we moved beyond this childish view. It is in our hands to do so, for although God is above and beyond all we can imagine, he is also; "As my servant thinks of me." In other words we can challenge and modify this image as we evolve we gain better and deeper insights into the nature of the world around us. Unfortunately, even though we ourselves have evolved and moved on a great deal over the last 1400 years, our image of God has not evolved with us. It is still stuck in a distant past. It is up to us to aspire to a better and higher understanding of God.

Islam - like all religions - can be a power for good or evil. It is in our hands to make it a force for good in the world. It is up to us to make it a vehicle that expresses the best of human nature. That makes us innovative & forward-looking. A medium to show our love and empathy. Challenging ourselves to do better. Struggling with questions of good and evil in a confusing world where God never intended there to be a clear road map - a sacred A to Z. It is we who are tasked with finding our way in this world as we grow spiritually, while thinking the best of God so that this becomes a reality in our lives. For indeed God is as we think of him.