Beyond Faith and Unbelief

At some point in life, we sometimes pause to contemplate the profound question of existence. Is the universe the deliberate creation of an intelligent force, or is it eternal—uncreated and governed solely by natural laws?

Neither perspective provides complete clarity. From a religious standpoint, one may ask: If God created the universe, who created God? The common response—that God is uncreated—often feels like an unsatisfying conclusion. Why not then assert that the universe itself has always existed?

On the other hand, the atheistic view is equally unsatisfactory. How can something come into being without a cause? The human mind struggles to accept existence without origin. We are left with the age-old metaphysical question: Why is there something rather than nothing?

These questions, though ancient, may never yield satisfying answers through faith or rationality. Sufism offers a different path—not through reason or doctrine, but through direct experience. The mystics have long realized that our obsession with belief and unbeliefseparates us from the essence of spiritual experience—namely, love. Religious dogma can harden the heart, while rational skepticism may elevate the intellect as ultimate judge of truth. Both, in their own way, can become veils over our perception of reality.

To truly encounter the divine, one must transcend this binary. Go beyond the need to affirm or deny. Step into the realm where only love is real.

As the 12^th century great Sufi poet ‘Attar expressed:

If your aim is love, then let go of belief and unbelief,
In the realm of love, there is no room for either.