I believe in God, so why don’t I listen to Him? | Alireza Panahian

I believe in God, so why don’t I listen to Him?

He does thousands of things harder than prayer, but a 1,000 ton crane needs to lift him at prayer time. If someone calls him to do something right now, he’ll jump up like a spring, and do 4 somersaults too. Instead of Wuzu, he’ll wash his hands and face with soap and water too if needed. He’ll blow dry his hair, instead of wiping his head with water, and ten other things too! Why? Because he is undisciplined.

You prove God to me a hundred times, and I still don’t listen to Him. You prove resurrection and other things too, and I still don’t obey, because my will has become stubborn. It doesn’t listen. I can’t listen! I’m a passive person. I haven’t been disciplined. A disciplined person has bound himself to a schedule.

Truly, some people aren’t unbelievers in God. Their mentality is such a way that they can’t live by the rules. They can by force, but not by the rules. God says, “I don’t force you. I put rules.” You don’t pray. He doesn’t force you. A person doesn’t pray, just because God doesn’t force him.

He does a hundred things, which are harder, because he is forced to. He says, “I don’t have the patience, ability, or capacity.” He believes in God and His Prophet so much that, he listens to a dream about a believer who has died, gone to the other side and said, “They burned me in this way.” He will weep! He really is a pure person. But, he doesn’t have the strength to regulate his behaviour.

Do you understand what I’m saying? If someone doesn’t have a schedule and is passive, he or she isn’t willing to follow the rules, whether God puts them or someone else! When someone has been raised in a certain way, what can you do with him? If someone doesn’t have a schedule and is passive, he or she isn’t willing to follow the rules, whether God puts them or someone else! He isn’t disciplined. He doesn’t have the strength to regulate his behaviour.

When I was a child sitting by the Quran, everything went into my memory like carving on a stone. They should have taught me this when I was sitting by the Quran at that time. “Look child, who does this Book help? A disciplined person. Are you disciplined, or not?” “This Book, there is no doubt in it, is a guide to those who guard (against evil).” (Qur’an 2:2) The impious shouldn’t come.

If a pious person reads this, “they believe in the unseen.” (Qur’an 2:3) If he or she is a vigilant, lives correctly, and is disciplined, he or she will believe in the unseen. If you tell them there’s an unseen world, they aren’t perverse to refute it! Why should they? Perversity is those people who don’t live with discipline. If he or she is a vigilant person and is disciplined, he or she will believe in the unseen.

If someone doesn’t have a schedule and is passive, he or she isn’t willing to follow the rules, whether God puts them or someone else! If we want to convince someone not to sin, the first step is to convince him that he can’t live without a schedule.

We don’t eat just anytime we’re hungry. See how the month of Ramadan has brought order to our eating. It has brought order to our being awake at dawn. Then in the supplication for the month of Ramadan, you pray, “May I succeed in praying on time during the month of Ramadan.” You don’t pray, “God, may I succeed in praying with love, feeling, crying, and Gnosticism.” You ask for praying with discipline on time. This is what the month of Ramadan is for. It should be an honour for us to pray on time during the month of Ramadan. An honour!! Do you delay praying during the month of Ramadan?!

An undisciplined person may smile at this. He may be humble and say good things, but he is always passive. He acts in a different way at each moment. He hypocritically behaves kindly. He respects others out of fear. He makes an effort because of being encouraged for some benefit.

But, what does a disciplined person do? A disciplined person isn’t concerned with whether he is given a prize for his struggling, or not. He