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The spirit has deep relations to the past and future |
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Written by Fethullah Gulen
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Saturday, 21 January 2006 |
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Animals have no conception of time; in accordance with the primordial nature God has assigned to them, they live only the present time and they feel neither the pains of the past nor the anxieties of the future. Whereas man is deeply influenced by the pains of past events and misfortunes and is anxious about his future. This is because his spirit is a conscious, sentient entity.
The spirit is never satisfied with this mortal, fleeting world. Nor man’s accomplishments or worldly things such as money, high positions and the satisfaction of all worldly desires never suffice for the happiness of the spirit. Rather, worldly gaining increase it only in dissatisfaction and unhappiness. It only becomes at rest with belief in God and worship and remembrance of Him.
Man feels a very strong desire for eternity. This desire cannot come from the physical dimension of his existence. Because, physically, he is mortal and the feeling of eternity and the desire for it cannot issue from mortal existence. Rather, this desire or feeling originates in the eternal dimension of man’s existence and it is his spirit, which consists this dimension. It is the spirit, which causes man to sigh: ‘I am mortal but I do not desire what is mortal. I am impotent but I do not desire what is impotent. What I desire is an eternal beloved (who will never desert me) and I yearn for an eternal world.’
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