PHILOSOPHY IS MY RELIGION PART 1(ONE)

PHILOSOPHY IS MY RELIGION

Well, I never paid a minute attention to the fact that philosophy is my religion, but not until Jimson Jaat rang me:

Me: Salaamun Alaykum Wa rahmatullah [May the Peace and Blessings of Allah be unto you]

Jaat: Hello! Ehn! Salaamun Alaykum from Cypher(my penname)?

Me: (gave a raucous laughter) Am I not a Muslim? You're funny, Jaat...

Jaat: I would never forget that Philosophy is Cypher's religion...

That's the adumbrated version of the phone conversation this morning and it rendered me a deep thought if I was or am really a worshipper of philosophy. Perhaps, he meant something else yet I had every reason to believe his assertion. Jaat is one of those personalities I revere; we've done a lot together which made me conclude that he's got it in his upstairs.
Apart from the times we spent together, he's a keen observer of my personality. He digs deep into me and exhumes my very trait.

After a while, I concluded within me with an excitement that gave a loud sigh. Yeah, philosophy is my religion and till death, I'd forever remain a loyal advocate of this religion.
Being born a Muslim isn't enough for me to arrive at a conclusion that Islam is the best of all religions. Emerging from a Christian society can't satisfy my urge for truth seeking.
So, I began to experiment based on the learned about my religious views. That's how philosophy came in and i subscribed my whole to it and found out that Philosophy provides a better ground a religious analyst like me.
Our religious leaders have wordily rebranded truths in the Holy Quran and the Bible. How on earth would an Imam instruct his followers to kill for God and claim Jihad?  It never ended there because it's rather silly for a Pastor to tell his church members that Jesus died for my sins.
Of course, all these could be traced to grand authorities that wrote them down, but what is left of me to know if God really commanded and instructed that–Philosophy.
I am too busy to be preoccupied with definitions of philosophy and likewise a lazy reader, I'd have bombarded us with fine definitions of philosophy. Philosophy is whatever you call it, so long it studies keenly and arrives at a truth considerable for an average mind.
Religions need deep understanding of its strategies before you could proclaim to be religious or holy in the course of serving God.

Does Allah need blood to survive that you must kill other souls for him? If an Imam commanded that, won't you have done justice to that savagery through reasoning?
If a Pastor instructed you to hate Muslims because they're pagans, would you have agreed and abuse humanity?
What then is religion without Philosophy?
Some authorities don't want you to question the veracity of Holy Books without which we can't realize God's take on religion.
Being a philosophized mind doesn't mean you have no religion or makes you an atheist, it means you take upon yourself, the responsibility of verifying God's words.
I can't remember how many times I have questioned my faith from other religion's point of view. If we all are able to do this, the whole world would be at rest.

Some say we shouldn't question God but i ask how else could we have understood Him without questioning? You think the Holy Quran and Bible are complete without understanding their philosophy, maybe that's where you're wrong.
Religion without a pure philosophy is baseless. It's hard for people to identify my religion because I defend what religious bigots don't –humanity.
Your philosophy has to be based on humanity as the faith or belief in question is related to it.

Religion asks you not to drink alcoholic beverages and you succumbed to it without questioning? That means, when your die hard drunkard asks you to prove that verse or line, all you'd prove is God said it and that's all. It's funny because you haven't answered him. You haven't convinced him to stop that shameful acts.  If you're able to tell him the dangers of drinking alcoholics as relates to religion in terms of holiness and destruction to the spiritual body, you might have helped to win a soul to the Kingdom of heavens.
You see, many are just blind followers and worshipers of God. I think that's one of the harms education did to us. You learnt about the Law of Gravity and you concluded it ended there?
Same is applied to religion, we fail to ask questions and think deeper what God really means. God's words are such that are en-cyphered for an enlightened mind to reveal. It's all about manifestation, God talks to those he chooses to in order to use them for the world.

Have you quit shaking a Christian because he's of different faith from yours?
Maybe, last time you boarded a bus, you sat with that pretty girl but because he wore jean trousers and had wig on her head, you frowned and shifted from her.
O, God! Is this what your religion made us or who we make ourselves to be from it?
Is there any philosophy behind religion?

In my previous work titled Selfolution, I stated that Selfolution begins with estranging yourself from your belief to see from other faith's perspectives. If you're a Muslim, you have the exercise of seeing or judging your religion as a Christian. Ask yourself how a Christian would have seen or viewed your religion.
You claim to be Christian  but you never positioned yourself as a Muslim and see how they see your religion? Challenge your faith before any other does so. That simply means apply philosophy.

My philosophy has it that, religion is a sealed faith that craves your understanding to gain divine discernment. It's only philosophy of your sixth sense that would make you relate along with other faiths, even atheism.
Of course, atheism is another religion that proves God's existence from logics. All atheists believe in God but through logistics and reasons, if your philosophy is sharpened to reason along, you won't have any issue with these folks.

When I was in secondary school, along with a close friend, i spearheaded an outcry against banishing Hijab for Muslim students because it's a Missionary (Baptist) School. It led into a regretted crisis that I was invited with my crew to the State's Police Headquarter in Osogbo. The gathering welcomed members of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and Muslim Association of Nigeria members. They were all elderly, seated down to resolve the crisis and there we stood, young but guilty as many of them would suppose.
When I.G Olusegun emerged, he greeted, commended the gathering before bouncing on the guilty young souls before him.

"I emerge from a mixed faith family. My father is a Muslim and my Mother is a Christian. Their children chose the religion that suit them and here I am today, a Christian. Some of my siblings are Muslims and some Christians, religion shouldn't be a barrier to our brotherhood. Then, why you, my brothers and sisters in faith? Why? (close to tears).
If on the verge of the crisis, you lost a soul, would s/he have claimed the Kingdom of God?
Today, i am begging you to let peace reign to curb religious crisis and uproar. If tomorrow, you're handcuffed and brought here, you'd plead with me but i won't listen to you. You'd ask for water, I'd whip you..." He admonished.
His words changed me. He found a way to my heart and cleansed me whole. Since then, i began to see other faiths as mine but with wrong followers and blind worshippers. Even in my religious, we have bigotries and extremists who still go further to abuse God while they think they praise him in the name of religion.

Mighty God, who am I to fight
For thy course with my tongue and hands
Art thou without justice divine
That thou craves to rule with my fangs

Though givest to him thou choosest
Thy hidden truth that to Man's eyes
Is veiled but a mystery to some
To seek thee from all that breed lies.

—el cypher

Some years back, I met an awakened soul who utterly transformed my faith. God sent him to give me philosophy of religions. Through him, I appreciate other faiths along the line with mine. Ololade Bright (Next D) is such a spiritualist that it only takes close observation to know him. There was a time he called to explain righteousness in terms of religious belief to me. He asked me what would be the fate of a man whose good deed is unparalleled, his piousness unrivaled but has no religious identity to associate him with. To him, religion sprouts from a good heart which manifests in the acts. If you're a Muslim or a Christian but keep malice with other faith, you're on the wrong path. You believe you're the chosen and others wretched? You're far from righteousness. That's some kind of philosophy I gained from Ola Bright before our paths parted.
Would you have judged me if I proclaimed to the world that a religion that makes you despise the bond of humanity, makes you feel for yourself alone, drives you to being an extremist is nothing but a devil's business venture?
Let's reason beyond the pulpit's parables. If truly we are humans, we are created to be rational animals with superiority over all animal kingdoms. Therefore, we have the obligations to think beyond the altar's messages from which our religious sanity is derived.
As a philosophy minded soul, I have outgrown the bond of religious fallacies if any exists. I see myself as a soul needing truth and righteousness to find God, and whatever crosses my path must be questioned to arrive at a point where I'd associate it to God. If abundance of knowledge makes you think vague about God, seek ignorance. I think many of us need doses of review of our religious books because the medium of God is beyond those taught in previous classes of communication.
 It's just like a message gotten from a dream. You can't conclude what it really means until you consult your spiritual leader. Let's assume you dreamt of good fortune and you go all about spreading the joy yet to arrive, consider that your literal interpretation is wrong. Likewise if you dreamt otherwise, you have no right to conclude yet. This brings us back to the reason behind being who we are–animals with rational thoughts. Anyone who lacks this trait is far lower than a domestic animal should we base our judgement on reason because I've wondered if lower animals have religion at all. Perhaps, that's why the animal's world is quite cherished for tranquility our world is void of. They love a peaceful life and watch humans make folly in the name of God.
Poet Samurai's Ant's Race drew warm tears to my eyes:

There are qualities found among ants
That among humans they're quite scant...