Minute with a Muslim #338 – The Idol of Self

Today we don't have the same sort of idolatry that we used to have, or at least it's not as popular. In the pre modern era, the idols are made of stone are made of wood. They're made of sort of, you know, graven images. And today the idol that we have that as the most prominent idol of all is the self. And it doesn't get as much attention in the Quran, but it is there. Allah Spano Tata, Astrid, Toriko question. He says, Have you seen the one who takes his his own self as his God.

And this is probably the most dangerous spiritual malady that afflicts us in the modern era, people taking themselves as God. And when you think about that, or you hear those words like, well, that's ridiculous, you know, what kind of person worships themselves, or takes themselves as a literal God. But when you think a little bit more about it and realize all of what worship encompasses, then it starts to make a little bit more sense. I'll give you a very, very easy example, which is kind of the, the, you know, ala carte, religion and spirituality that we have today, or the buffet line of spiritual and religious practices that we have today. It's very, very common, because we live in a

post Christian space.

People have been very, very sick of the way that Christianity has organized religion for them for centuries. And so they assume that, well, that has to do with just religion in general. And so now people are very against organized religion, so called, without realizing that they're actually specific ly reacting to Christianity.

And so now we have oh, well, I don't want to submit to any sort of external authority outside of myself, I don't want to submit to one tradition, or to one orthodoxy or to one organized religion, I want to kind of take what feels good to me, right? I want to if yoga, feels beneficial, I'm going to do yoga, meditation feels beneficial. I'll do meditation, chakras, Reiki crystals, whatever it is, horoscopes, tarot cards, whatever it is, there's a million different practices that people get into today. And they kind of mix and match. And it's kind of trial and error, and they kind of fumble along kind of

making their own religion. But there's a fatal flaw. There's a fatal flaw in this sort of attitude. And that is that it's all based within yourself, you have put up yourself as God, in the sense that you are the arbiter of what is true and what is not. You are the arbiter of what is beneficial and what's not. And we need to seriously ask ourselves, how accurately can we assess and evaluate what's beneficial for ourselves?

I think anybody who's done any social science research will say, well, we're not very good at it. Or at the very least, like there's, there's times in situations where we have a significant conflict of interest, right to determine what's really, truly good for ourselves. And anybody who has, you know, I have non Muslim friends, and they're, you know, sometimes they're, they're trying to get married. And they're, they're having a tough time finding a serious relationship. And they keep on making the same mistakes, they keep on finding themselves attracted to the wrong people, they keep on getting in relationships with people that don't want anything serious. And anybody who's been in a situation

where you've advised somebody who's in a, in an abusive relationship, or in a bad habit, you know, that people can fill themselves with delusions and wishful thinking and all these sorts of things. So why would that not be true when it comes to religion, and you're kind of Playlist ification of spirituality, you know, you're going to kind of choose this and choose that and choose that, well, you're the only person choosing right? At the end of the day, we need an authority outside of ourselves. We need an audit a spiritual audits, we need some sort of external authority that's going to call us out and challenge us. Because if we were left up to if it were left up to us, we're only

going to take the easy things in the things that feel good. And the things that kind of are affirming right away. We're very into affirming these days, and everybody needs to be affirmed, in a certain sense. But there's things that are, there's more out there than just affirmation. There's also been challenged a good teacher, a good coach, a good mentor, they're going to know when to affirm you and when to challenge you, and having the arbiter of truth. And the arbiter of her the judge of what's beneficial and what's not being outside of you. Is the benefit is it's going to be able to affirm you sometimes and it's going to be able to challenge you other times. If it's all

just about you. You're going

don't want to leave the stuff that's challenging and you're gonna just gravitate to what's affirming