How to prevent familiarity?

Since the moment of birth, a human being’s nails continuously grow and get cut, grow and get cut again. And this physical event goes on until he dies. A person may find this normal because he is familiar with it. However, he does not think, “my eyebrows grow as well but stops at a certain height, so there is no reason for my nails to continue growing. How could my body make such a decision that my nails grow even though I regularly cut them for 50 years, 60 years or 70 years.” Or on the contrary, a person’s hair may also have grown and need to be cut constantly for health and aesthetic purposes. But such a thing never happens. In fact, the system that we are used to does not differ -except for special health conditions- for almost none of the almost 7 billion people in the world.

When a person thinks deeply like this, he cannot claim any one of these can happen by coincidence. When he avoids familiarity and evaluates the world with a reasonable point of view, he sees that there are billions of evidences around to believe in the existence of Allah. Every spot we lay our eyes on is full of evidences of Allah’s Existence and Mightiness.

To give another example about this subject, a new-born baby begins to grow teeth after a while. In time that tooth begins to wriggle and comes off. Instead very durable teeth with even stronger roots come out. But this doesn’t continue afterwards. If a person stops and thinks, he can immediately realize how uncommon this is. However, such a thing may not even enter his mind throughout his life because of the intensity of familiarity.

If Allah willed, He may have created no helplessness in the life of this world. But Allah created the ‘knowledge of helplessness’ at one side and the ‘knowledge of cure’ at the other, in order to remove helplessness. For example, disease is a kind of helplessness and also a miracle on its own. Because if Allah wills, a person may not become ill ever. If Allah wills, a person may continue to be as healthy as he was before the disease until he dies. However, life does not progress in this manner due to the wisdom of Allah’s tradition. There are hundreds of different diseases in the world. Human being’s mind is open to familiarity also in this matter. People who think with the suggestion that “everyone gets sick”, cannot realize the wisdoms behind the helplessness they face when they catch a disease. A person who cannot realize this cannot distinguish the miraculous cures Allah creates in return for their helplessness. Because the diseases faced by a person are a miracle, but the medicine that help cure those diseases are even a greater miracle. Believing that a tiny pill can cure a disease is a result of the common suggestion resulting from not thinking thoroughly. Of course Allah makes the pill a cause for people to get back their health. But it is not that tiny pill that helps the person leave his sickbed. It is Allah Who gives and cures the disease. It is a result of familiarity to forget that Allah is the One Who gives health and to hope for medicine to help. Since the moment of his birth, a person who acts with the suggestion that “I will take a medicine and it will be gone”, whenever he has an ache, does not think “how could a tiny medicine cure a disease that makes a 60-70 kg person lie down.” Therefore, he lives in a state of mind closure so that he cannot realize the signs of faith and the miracles of Allah that he sees and experiences at every moment and in every second.

“He Who created me and guides me; He Who gives me food and gives me drink; and when I am ill, it is He Who heals me.” (Surat Ash-Shu‘ara’, 78-80)

There is no doubt that this situation resulting from familiarity is a serious obstacle that stops some people to have faith in Allah and some people to achieve a deeper understanding of faith. To avoid familiarity leads to an open mind and consciousness with Allah’s Will. An open-minded and clear-headed person would have the intelligence to think things with their wisdoms. Such a person would see the beauties, details and miracles in Allah’s Creation wherever he looks, appreciates them greatly and becomes deeper in faith. An important way of avoiding familiarity is to leave the method of thinking that everything has a cause, which is suggested at home, on the street, in newspapers and on television for years, and to evaluate everything with an open mind as if they are created just now and as if he is getting to know them for the very first time. Such a person would not evaluate any detail he comes across with an understanding of familiarity and get excited about everything. In the Qur’an, it is revealed that believers think thoroughly about every detail created for them in the life of this world and that they understand the Mightiness of Allah, His infinitely beautiful art of Creation, and His mercy and compassion over His servants very well:

Those who remember Allah, standing, sitting and lying on their sides, and reflect on the Creation of the heavens and the earth: ‘Our Lord, You have not created this for nothing. Glory be to You! So safeguard us from the punishment of the Fire. (Surat Al ‘Imran, 191)