Reading the therapeutic contract in the Quran

Day # 21

I reflected in the previous post on one aspect of pilgrimage and the importance of man’s continuous striving and steadfastness.

Those verses are followed by and invitation to think about the various untruths we are confronted with on a societal level, from distortion, misconception, to disavowal and denial. This social contagion reaches a collective state of delusional or psychotic existence the consequences of which are stubborn disbelief and a hellish life. A process that could be referred to as mass psychosis (perhaps in islamic terms jahiliyyah fikriyyah)

Manfred F.R. Kets de Vries, writes a very thought provoking paper on the phenomenon of mass psychosis and living in a psychotic age. He talks about symptoms of societies gripped by a world of conspiracies and where people are characterised by hyper individualism.

He quotes Gustave le bon saying:

“The masses have never thirsted after truth. They turn aside from evidence that is not to

their taste, preferring to deify error, if error seduce them. Whoever can supply them with

illusions is easily their master; whoever attempts to destroy their illusions is always their

victim. An individual in a crowd is a grain of sand amid other grains of sand, which the

wind stirs up at will.”

The verses I attached below similarly address this mass psychosis, and the doubting of those who attempt to destroy “theses illusions”leading to desbelieving in God on a group level. God indicates a way out of this by using one’s intellect.

God speaks to man’s reason inviting him to ponder His creation. If people read the Quran they would find that it constantly challenges the reader to use their intellect to get to the truth as science is in harmony with faith. In fact, the Quran maintains that the world we grasp with our senses is signposted to guide us to God.

In order to have this insight we need sound discerning hearts. The verses suggest that one’s mind can be one’s greatest enemy or one’s saviour. The mind that succumbs to internal defences without doing the reality check of pondering and reflecting on the signs of God in the universe slips into the luring mass psychosis. Perhaps solitude and retreat are necessary from time to time to exercise this form of reality check.

Thus, every act of separation from the mass to follow the truth revealed by God is an act of pilgrimage towards God. It might be experienced as a lonely or difficult act, but the emphasis remains on linking that action to our mindfulness of God.

So how does hyper-individualism impact the psyche?

Al-Baqara

2:158  Safa and Marwa are among the rites of God, so for those who make major or minor pilgrimage to the House it is no offence to circulate between the two. Anyone who does good of his own accord will be rewarded, for God rewards good deeds, and knows everything

2:159  As for those who hide the proofs and guidance We send down, after We have made them clear to people in the Scripture, God rejects them, and so do others

2:160  unless they repent, make amends, and declare the truth. I will certainly accept their repentance: I am the Ever Relenting, the Most Merciful

2:161  As for those who disbelieve and die as disbelievers, God rejects them, as do the angels and all people

2:162  They will remain in this state of rejection: their punishment will not be lightened, nor will they be reprieved

2:163  Your God is the one God: there is no god except Him, the Lord of Mercy, the Giver of Mercy

2:164  In the creation of the heavens and earth; in the alternation of night and day; in the ships that sail the seas with goods for people; in the water which God sends down from the sky to give life to the earth when it has been barren, scattering all kinds of creatures over it; in the changing of the winds and clouds that run their appointed courses between the sky and earth: there are signs in all these for those who use their minds

2:165  Even so, there are some who choose to worship others besides God as rivals to Him, loving them with the love due to God, but the believers have greater love for God. If only the idolaters could see- as they will see when they face the torment- that all power belongs to God, and that God punishes severely

2:166  When those who have been followed disown their followers, when they all see the suffering, when all bonds between them are severed

2:167  the followers will say, ‘If only we had one last chance, we would disown them as they now disown us.’ In this way, God will make them see their deeds as a source of bitter regret: they shall not leave the Fire

2:168  People, eat what is good and lawful from the earth, and do not follow Satan’s footsteps, for he is your sworn enemy

2:169  He always commands you to do what is evil and indecent, and to say things about God that you do not really know

2:170  But when it is said to them, ‘Follow the message that God has sent down,’ they answer, ‘We follow the ways of our fathers.’ What! Even though their fathers understood nothing and were not guided

2:171  Calling to disbelieversis like a herdsman calling to things that hear nothing but a shout and a cry: they are deaf, dumb, and blind, and they understand nothing

2:172  You who believe, eat the good things We have provided for you and be grateful to God, if it is Him that you worship

2:173  He has only forbidden you carrion, blood, pig’s meat, and animals over which any name other than God’s has been invoked. But if anyone is forced to eat such things by hunger, rather than desire or excess, he commits no sin: God is most merciful and forgiving

2:174  As for those who conceal the Scripture that God sent down and sell it for a small price, they only fill their bellies with Fire. God will not speak to them on the Day of Resurrection, nor will He purify them: an agonizing torment awaits them

2:175  These are the ones who exchange guidance for error, and forgiveness for torment. What can make them patient in the face of the Fire

2:176 This is because God has sent the Scripture with the Truth; those who pursue differences in the Scripture are deeply entrenched in opposition

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Ramadan reflections, psychoanalytic perspectives

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https://psychobableblog.wordpress.com/2023/04/11/ramadan-reflections-psychoanalytic-perspectives-13/