God - God is love

by Asghar Ali Engineer

I was brought up in the orthodox Bohra Muslim family of a priest. Belief in God was not merely a cultural but a theological phenomenon for me. It was a great sin even to think that there was no God. I, like others brought up in an orthodox Islamic milieu, took God's existence for granted and believed that God was only one.

In my school days I read Urdu poetry avidly, which was full of God for fear of hell or for temptation of heaven. One must love God as God is Love." Thus I experience God as love, as truth, as compassion and as a benefactor. I do not fear Him, I love Him; therefore I love the entire universe which is His creation.

The author is an eminent religious reformer and supporter of civil liberties. He is the Founder Chairman of the Centre for Study of Society and Secularism and Vice President of the People's Union for Civil Liberties. Email: csss@vsnl.com.

—photographs by Martin Louis