Do religious teachings afford any guarantee of Salvation?
Whether you practice Judaism, Christianity,Islam or any other religion, the main aim is on the one hand, to acquire salvation, on the other hand, you will to come closer to the creator. Salvation means to be rewarded and preserved from harm in the next world. Nearness to God is something more difficult to explain because God almighty, all praise are due to him, does not disclose his total essence to anyone. Moses , the prophet who is reported to have heard directly from the creator, only saw a fire and heard a voice and it is said in the scriptures that if someone sees God it is his end.
Exodus 33:20
But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.”
And the same is reported in the glorious qu’ran when Moses asked to see God:
“And when Moses arrived at Our appointed time and his Lord spoke to him, he said, ‘My Lord, show me (Yourself) that I may look at You.’ (God) said, ‘You will not see Me, but look at the mountain; if it should remain in place, then you will see Me.’ But when his Lord appeared to the mountain, He rendered it level, and Moses fell unconscious. And when he awoke, he said, ‘Exalted are You! I have repented to You, and I am the first of the believers.’” (Quran 7:143)
Monotheistic religions promise the believers and worshippers a meeting of the Lord only in the hereafter. That is to say, that without believe in the next world the concept of salvation as taught by religions is not understandable. Without taking into account the hereafter the life in the world is everything you have till your end, or your reincarnation. The principle of karma taught by eastern religions might provides a window of understanding of divine justice through the consequences of past actions but is not sufficient to address all the injustices and inequalities in the world. So, it is not a clear framework to understand why we should forgive enemies, love others and avoid violence in solving serious matters.
And the concept of resurrection and judgement is not experimental as no one has ever returned after death to explain exactly what happened. There are testimonies of near-death experiences of people who will approve that there were a kind of conscious state where they could see a light in a tunnel, or strange things. But these stories are similar to hallucinations. The only reliable description of the hereafter seems to be what is being taught in religious scriptures. Basically it is said that those who do good deeds and follow the commandments of their creator will inherited everlasting life in paradise after the judgement and those who disobey their creator and do not repent will be punished forever in the fire of Hell. These teachings have provided the basics for morals and ethics but still many people will doubt if the teachings are really useful as there is apparently no scientific evidence of life after death.
Surely a naive approach of religion which focuses on orthodox teachings without taking into account personal spiritual experimentation cannot provide a guarantee of salvation. This is why a rational thinking person will always doubt. Belief, the basic fundamental of religion , can be merely comparable to auto-suggestion, and does not provide any proof of the functionalities and necessity of religious teachings in society. Righteous works and good behaviour can be considered even without religious teachings. The simple ethical consciousness is enough to apprehend that the deeds that are considered good are those that we will like others to do to us and what is bad is what we will not like others to do to us. Belief and righteous works are the fundamentals of formal religion and it is not enough to get a guarantee of salvation. Only the experience of spirituality can give us a real proof of what might happen with our souls when it departs from this existence.
Spiritual experiences are based on the believe in the unseen. Spiritual experiences have created many forms of mysticism range from the interpretation of the symbolism of dreams to the communication with spirits of the deaths. Indeed, the world most practiced religions are monotheistic. One of the main challenges of monotheistic religions has remain how monotheism is understood. Islam is known to be strictly monotheistic and rejects any form of divination except asking for guidance to the creator himself in prayers. Christianity and Judaism in their original form were not different. Whereas these three religions are said to have been initiated by Abraham,
concept and conditions for salvation varies however from religion to religion. Those who practice Judaism believe that since the Jews are the chosen people of God, being Jew in the religion sense, that is to say, following the teachings of the Torah seriously will guarantee salvation. Judaism being basically an ethnic religion, salvation is considered linked to the destiny of the Jews. This cannot be considered just as God has sent prophets to every nation to teach his law.
According to formal Christianity , Jesus died on the cross to wipe the sins of Mankind and only those who accept Jesus as their Lord will attain salvation. However it is also acknowledged in the scriptures that salvation is through the grace of God. This thesis holds a contradiction in it as Jesus was send by God to teach his word and perform miracles in his name. Only if we consider that in the name God is the same as in the name of Jesus then it will make sense to consider that Jesus was God himself but it will contradict the main attributes of God as God is the beginning and the end but Jesus(peace be upon him) has lived as human about 2000 years ago.
According to orthodox Islam every real Muslim, who had faith in God and submitted his will to him will attain salvation. Some Muslim will enter purgatory hell fire for a period of time before entering paradise. Salvation is guaranteed only by the grace of God even-though those who practice the pillars of religion are all eligible for salvation. It is reported in a Hadith that even some who have performed good deeds will not enter paradise because of some shortcomings. Only the conviction that there is no Deity but God is sufficient at one’s last breath to enter paradise. There is another well spread idea that being killed in Jihad (fighting for religion) is a guarantee for paradise) but this is also biased but another Hadith in which someone who claimed to have fought for God was send into hell because of false intentions.
Therefore the only way to really grasp what is the real foundation of the teachings is to practice experimental spirituality. Every religion originated from the idea that the is a power and might or law that governs everything and that this power acts in the unseen. There are parables in various religious scriptures to give an idea of what can be considered as the unseen. Without personal experimentation no one can really speak about what might happen with the soul and religion will be similar to a philosophical or political doctrine. Many have failed to believe because thy could not consider what happens after death. But throughout the development mysticism in religions a few have grasped the reality of God beyond orthodox religious rituals.
In Christianity and Judaism they have been various attempts to get the awareness and experiences the reality of God beyond indoctrination. Religious mystics consider their goal as the seeking of union with God. In the seeking of this union many of them have brought proofs of logic in the unseen and some proofs of the continuation of life after physical death.
It must be warned that without being linked to revealed religions, experimental mysticism will only lead astray as they will be no ethical boundary to guide the disciple. This is why Sufism, Islamic mysticism has been considered effective for spiritual cleansing and awareness as it has been linked with formal Islam through the teachings of experiences of various scholars and imams, such as al Ghazalli. Another word for suffism is Tassawuf.
Since orthodox religion does not provide any direct tool to overcome sins many Muslims throughout history have practice Tassawuf to grasp the real value of religious teachings through nearness to God.
Tassawuf enables the understanding of the stages that the soul can go through for spiritual growth and liberation. Without given any credit to the theory of evolution it is to consider that the self grows form the animal self to the God-realised self. There are 3 main stages of the development of the soul
The animal self
The animal self is the natural state of a man where he is not very different from an animal. He has desires and follow his instincts. Spiritual awareness at its first stage enables the total subjugation of this animal self. This is done through prayers, fasting and other acts of worship.
The struggling moral self
After spiritual awareness the urge of the self are no longer from animal passions that make people violate the rights of others . At this stage the spiritual being is being constructed.
The God-realised self
At this stage the self is convinced about the necessity of worshiping and there is no more doubt in his faith. Sincerity and devotion are automatically part of the being. He does not hesitated to follow the commandments of God and is guided in most of his actions. The suffis state that when the complete union with the creator is achieved, the anger of the devotee becomes the anger of God , his actions, the actions of the creator himself. Unfortunately many people cannot stay in this stage for a long while.
A religious scholar was once speaking with someone who who had no faith in the next world. He says that if the disbeliever is right then still the believer will get salvation. This is due to the simple fact that being righteous pays in the world even without taking into consideration the next world. Then if the disbeliever is wrong, the believer will get salvation and the disbeliever will be punished forever. Wisdom always adopts the path of safety. It is the same idea that was expressed in pascal’s wager. Even-though faith in God is not gambling, the idea is that it is more advantageous to believe that to disbelieve, both in this world and in the hereafter.
