Tom Facchine – We UNDERVALUE These Instructions

			Revelation is essential for human life and human beings that this particular era in time really
undervalue revelation and its importance we kind of have, the pendulum has swung such to an extreme
that we believe that we can determine
		

			divine truths and
		

			basically revelatory knowledge through experience alone. And that's an extremely flawed position to
take. Does experience have some role? Yes, of course. But it's pretty conceited, I would say, to
imagine that just through trial and error and experience and feeling it out and observation that we
can determine
		

			a lot of the granular kind of specifics about divine reality, or a non material reality. Right? So,
for example, if we believe that there's a creator, which most of the world does, majority opinion of
the world is that there's a creator?
		

			How, what's our duty to that creator? What do we have to do?
		

			We just live our lives and enjoy and then we're dead. And it's it's over, is some sort of thanks
expected from us is some sort of
		

			acts of allegiance, or gratitude or servitude to what's expected of us. You can't figure that out
from experience alone.
		

			And it's a particular sort of metaphysics. It's a particular kind of assumption about the Creator,
to imagine that he would leave us alone by ourselves to figure it out on our own. What kind of
Creator would make us make the world
		

			we would assume want things from us hoped things for us, and then not tell us how to get there, and
then not tell us what to do?
		

			To me, that was seem to be a creator, that was not perfect. That would be a creator that was lacking
in care, a creator that was lacking in goodwill towards us, especially if we're going to maybe
assume that there's some sort of eternal life or punishment or reward that's associated with it. And
that's supremely unfair. How can a creator create me create this sort of reward and punishment
system and then not tell me how to get there? Right? So I believe in a creator, and Muslims believe
in a creator that's merciful and
		

			attentive enough to want to guide us to the right way
		

			to tell us and inform us how he wants us to be. How are we to be grateful? has let's say, okay,
because somebody can say, well, everybody can figure out to be grateful, okay? What's valid
gratitude? What's a valid expression of gratitude, and thanks.
		

			If somebody gives me a gift, a watch, for example, and I just throw it in the toilet, I say, Well,
that was me being grateful.
		

			It doesn't matter what I think is grateful it matters to the person who gave me the watch. If I
don't choose to show my gratitude in a way that's recognized by the other person, then what's the
point? So why would it be different with the Creator, the creator has certain things that he
recognizes as gratitude that he understands is thanks and gratitude and servitude and obedience,
		

			and appreciation. And we need to be serious about finding out what those things are, we can't just
assume that every single thing that pops into my head
		

			is going to be registered as gratitude or registered as thanks or registered as an act of love with
a creator.
		

			Because human beings are weak, and human beings have conflict of interest. And so what happens with
us is that we can delude ourselves. And we can convince ourselves that we're doing an act of love or
an act of worship or an act of gratitude. And in reality, we're just taking the easy way out, or
we're doing something that's beneficial for us, or that's kind of doing something for us. And you
don't have to look any further than our romantic relationships to see this in action. How many times
do we say, well, I did this because I loved you. But really deep down, you kind of, you know, we're
doing it for yourself. But you've convinced yourself, you've convinced yourself, you know, through
		

			all these emotional gymnastics that you're doing it for the love or you're doing it for some other
higher purpose. It's the same with the Creator. Right? So we are completely dependent upon
Revelation. Revelation has to be there. It has to be true. It's a phenomenon that is by
categorically a central part of human existence. It has to do with who we believe the creator is.
And it has to do with our need for a certain certainty or a certain level of knowledge and
confidence that what we're going to do as
		

			acts of thanks and gratitude and obedience are actually registered as such. And it gives us the
specifics and gives us the specifics things that we couldn't figure out on our own.