Why does man feel the need to believe?

By nature man is extremely weak, yet everything touches him, and saddens and grieves him. Also he is utterly lacking in power, yet the calamities and enemies that afflict him are extremely numerous. Also he is extremely wanting, yet his needs are indeed many. Also he is lazy and incapable, yet life’s responsibilities are most burdensome. Also his humanity has connected him to the rest of the universe, yet the decline and disappearance of the things he loves and with which he is familiar continually pains him. Also his reason shows him exalted aims and lasting fruits, yet his hand is short, his life is brief, his power is slight, and his patience is little.[1]

Man has thousands of thousands of desires which stretch to eternity and are spread throughout the world. Just as he wants a flower, so does he want the spring. Just as he desires a garden, so does he also desire the everlasting Paradise. Just as he longs to see a friend, so does he long to see God. Just as in order to visit one he loves who lives in another place, he is in need for his beloved’s door to be opened to him, so does he want to visit his friends who traveled to the world of the graves. He needs to seek refuge in God Who will close the door of this huge world and open the door of the hereafter.

“Belief is a light and ray granted by the Everlasting Sun to the conscience of man; it illuminates the inner face of the conscience completely. Thanks to it, a familiarity and security with the whole universe emerges and he becomes an expert on everything; such a spiritual strength appears in the heart of man that man can resist any misfortune, happening with it. It gives man such wideness that he can encompass the past and the present.” (Nursî, İşârâtu’l-İ’câz, p. 38-39).

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[1] Badiuzzaman Said Nursi, Sözler (Words),  Ninth Word, p. 46.