Consider a situation where you have suffered a loss. You become disturbed. In the first instance you feel that the experience is unbearable. But the next day you return to your normal self. You are able to manage your affairs as usual. These kinds of experiences are common in the daily lives of all human beings.
How does this miracle happen? How does yesterday’s abnormal person become today’s normal person? Its a miracle of the mind. The mind has enormous capacity for diffusing things. Every mind is a large factory of de-stressing. Due to this mental faculty, we enjoy a normal life. Otherwise, our society would have become fraught with unsound people.
Those who are believed to be masters in the art of de-stressing are only taking false credit. What actually happens is a result of the mind, but people wrongly attribute it to some master of de-stressing.
The mind has enormous capacity for diffusing things.
The mind is a unique natural gift to every human being. Then, why do we see people still living in stress? The phenomenon of stress is so common that perhaps no one can be exempt from this problem. Everyone feels that they are living in stress and that all kinds of methods of de-stressing have failed to make them completely stress free.
The fact is that there are two different domains in this regard: the known world and the unknown world. When the problem pertains to the known world, our mind gets activated and soon de-stresses us. Loss of a job or loss in business, occurrence of a road accident, death of a relative, etc., are examples of the kinds of stress that are related to the known world. The mind knows the reason for stress and easily finds a solution to it, sometimes by forgetting it or sometimes by resolving it.
But, there is a region that is unknown to the human mind. Here, the mind, consciously or unconsciously, believes that it does not have the information or data by which to explain and normalize the situation. The mind always acts according to the available data. If the data is not available, the mind becomes troubled.
This problem is in need of an explanation. Man is born with an explanation-seeking nature. But, he is bound to live in an unexplained world. It is this contradiction that troubles the mind. This trouble then develops into stress or uneasiness. The mind automatically tries to find an explanation, but due to absence of data, it fails. This phenomenon occurs at the psychological level. That is, although in the external world, man does not experience any problems, at the level of his psyche he feels troubled.
What is this unknown area? It is related to the deeper questions of life, such as who is my Creator, who settled me in this world, what is the purpose of my life, why do I have to die after seventy years or so, what is going to happen to me after death, and so on. All these questions require an explanation. But, the mind realizes that it has no data to rationally explain these questions. No one is able to solve these questions on their own. So, everyone is bound to live with these unsolved questions and die in this state. It is this inherent problem that troubles every human mind.
Divine revelation gives us the authentic framework through which we can explain life.
History tells us that all philosophers and thinkers were engaged in trying to find answers to these questions but they have all failed. Every thinking mind begins his life with great enthusiasm, but in the end everyone dies in frustration. The reason lies in the failure to explain the questions of the mind in a satisfactory manner.
There are two options before every human being. The first is to live with an explanation-seeking mind in an unexplained world. Albeit an unwanted situation, the majority of people have taken this position. No one would agree that this is the right stand. The other option is to seek out and find an explanation to the dilemma.
Now, there are two available methods that could lead us to a solution which is reason and revelation. Experience shows that thousands of years of rational exercise have failed to give a satisfactory explanation to this question. This state of affairs shows that finding a solution to this through reason is not possible. Had it been possible, it would have happened through the efforts undertaken during the past several thousand years.
After the failure of reason, the only other option available to us in our quest for a solution to the dilemma lies in revelation.
The British philosopher Julian Huxley in 1941 published a book, Man Stands Alone. In response the American scientist A. Cressy Morrison wrote a book in 1964 entitled, Man Does Not Stand Alone. These were not just two books, rather they symbolized a very important fact. That is, in the quest for an explanation to the unexplained world, the era of reason has come to an end and we are in the age where revelation is our only resort.
The solution lies only in divine revelation. The Quran is an authentic book of revelation. The Quran declares a fact in these words: “You (man) have been granted but little knowledge.” (THE QURAN 17: 85) With reference to the present problem, it means that man’s mind can understand the things of this limited world. However, apart from this limited world, there also exists an unlimited world the understanding of which is beyond human capacity.
Another relevant verse of the Quran gives us a clue for explaining this situation. “Those who believe and whose hearts find comfort in the remembrance of God.” (THE QURAN 13:28) It means that the satisfactory explanation of life is in God-oriented living. That is, discovering the creation plan of God and explaining things in accordance with it is the only way to reach the right solution.
Divine revelation gives us the authentic framework through which we can explain life. Only after knowing this, is it possible for an explanations seeking person to live in a world which is completely explained to him. Herein lies the only method of de-stressing that can give us a stress-free mind.
