The Greatest Commandment of All

I once heard the late Christopher Hitchens ask, during a debate with Professor John Lennox, the following questions: "Give me one positive example of something I cannot do as an atheist, that only a believer can do".

Well, here is one thing, at least, to my opinion : to consciously be a hollow channel to a Love that doesn't begin, nor end with oneself ".

It is during those countless debates between the most brilliant minds in the world, on the subject of God, that one may be inspired to remember why the greatest commandment of all was, and continues to be, " You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind." (Matthew 22:37)".

For Love IS, indeed, knowledge, and knowledge of the highest kind. 

Allow me to explain. 

On the side of a busy road in Dakar, Senegal, during a trip with a friend, I noticed a little yellow flower that had managed to find its way through the concrete and dry soil around it, and blossom under a cruel and unforgiving sun. 

At the sight of this, a voice inside me said :" this is how Life does whatever it wants, whenever it wants." 

This is knowledge from the heat. 

On another occasion, I was wandering with a biologist friend of mine in the beautiful streets of Istanbul, one peaceful afternoon of spring when she asked to tell her what I found unusual about a particular tree that had gorgeous powder pink and white flowers.  I was just enjoying the sight of it and wasn't focused when she reminded me that the normal pattern goes as follows : seed, trunk, branches, leaves, flower and fruit, if applicable. 

Nevertheless, God had decided that on that tree, there would be flowers directly, without the need for leaves.

Now the brain can of course explain the "technicalities", which are "second hand" knowledge, like what species the flower is (or, in the second example, the tree), its name, why it managed to grow in such harsh conditions and what type of food it was able to find in the ground.

But why is it second hand knowledge? It is because it stems from the first knowledge. Without the first, the second never exists. 

The heart knows before the mind and knows the most important things there are to know, for the brain was never meant to be the boss, but the executer of the soul's purpose. 

The soul dictates, and the mind becomes the pencil that helps draw the design in the world.

Children cry instantly in the presence of a "bad person", with negative energy, without the need for language or logic. 

The opposite is also true, they smile, and are immediately drawn to a kind, bright, and empathetic human being. 

The same can be said about animals, they "know", without the brain.

Nevertheless, atheists have also been created at the image of God, whether they are aware of it or not. Think about the way one choses one's spouse. Even if the brain is capable of offering logical reasons to explain why one specific person instead of another, the process still remains more magical than that. 

Let's say one can narrow our choice down to technicalities like age, Christian, or secular values, mother tongue and sense of humour, but these features could easily be common to more than one person and yet... only one person is capable of lightening up an entire room for you and calling you in without uttering a word. 

Even secular people, therefore, experience divinely ordained connections that transcend them. 

True, Divine Love is knowledge because it is freeing and healing, for if one has ever been looked at with such love, one knows, with absolute certainty, one has been truly seen, maybe for the very first time in our life, and seen like the most beautiful person in the world, with no exaggeration. 

It is only a gaze of unconditional Love that has the power to remind us of who we are, and that erases, in a few seconds, decades of shame, guilt, blame, fear, insecurities and trauma, because the Love of God silently and powerfully cancels the lies, in an instant, with no need for complex, long and expensive therapy. It burns the illusion and the separation like entire fields are being intentionally burned in the wild to become new. 

For me, the difference between a believer and a non believer is how comfortably they are sitting on one of the branches of the tree of knowledge. 

If it is too comfortable, one has become too addicted and identified, for it is, indeed possible, to sit at the feet of that tree and enjoy the shade provided by its branches a bit too much, to the point where one can't see the sky anymore. 

Believers eat from the fruits of the tree but with moderation, never loosing sight of the light beyond the tree. 

This is innocence and innocence needs to be redeemed. Urgently. When one can believe in ANYTHING, that's a heart that knows, and that is pleasing to God. 

"Never be to grown up to stop believing in Magic", this can be read on a beautiful picturesque picture of a little girl holding a deer, to defend animal rights (which I absolutely and whole heartedly endorse). 

I think this quote is, for now, a good one to conclude this article. 

Thank you for reading this far and may God bless you.

Nermine Naguib,

March 2025