Reading Quran in an Age of Ego

It is claimed that we are living in an age of ego. From moral and religious perspectives, this situation is considered as bad, for historically ego is associated with evil. However, as everything else created by God, ego is not necessarily pure evil. I would like to discuss, in the coming lines, that we need to embrace the creation as a whole and, if anything, we need to outcast our traditional and cultural values in order to accommodate the ego in our understanding of religion.

"And when it is said to them, "Follow what Allah has revealed," they say, "Rather, we will follow that which we found our fathers doing." Even though their fathers understood nothing, nor were they guided?" (2/170)

In the Quran, Allah tells us countless times that the creation is a collection of His verses for us, ego included therein. Therefore, just like the clouds, the winds, the trees, the stars, ego is a verse of God for us. Similar to the rest of the creation, the difference of the ego compared to the divine books is the fact that it is a sign to be read by intellectual and rational inquiry, i.e. science. 

"We will show them Our signs in the horizons and within themselves until it becomes clear to them that it is the truth." (41/53)

If we don't read the ego and don't understand it, then it is only normal that we interpret it as absolute evil, since it is associated with all kinds of heart-wrenching memories in history along with disbelief against God. Nevertheless, it is the existence of our ego that makes us human; the creation that is at the focus of the examination in this life. Without ego, be it at the individual or social level, we would not attain the power and status as a species that we enjoy today. Without the ego, we would not be an addressee of the Divine speech.

"Indeed, we offered the Trust to the heavens and the earth and the mountains, and they declined to bear it and feared it; but man [undertook to] bear it. Indeed, he was unjust and ignorant." (33/72)

It is, in fact, this lack of proper understanding of ego that gave way to the fatalists, those who deny free will in the face of destiny. As a result, by virtue of not claiming the power connected to the ego, the Muslims lost their power both in the material world and in the intellectual/philosophical domains.

It is the same determination to suppress ego that indoctrinated in the minds "who are you to directly read the word of God and understand/interpret it", and erected the "scholars and their interpretation of the Quran" as an impenetrable wall between the individuals and the Quran. But with the stagnation and degradation of the works of those human beings, the rebellious individual of the modern age felt an intrinsic disgust against them. Although, and in a way unfortunately, this meant at the same time a distancing from religion and God, at a deeper level, humanity distanced itself from anything that acted like or spoke on behalf of God.

Today, the human ego needs to face God first hand, without intermediaries. The only way to provide that is by bringing them face-to-face with the word of God, and giving them the minimal tools to understand it. The next and the rest is primarily between God and them. That is why each individual ought to experiment with their faith and see for themselves that indeed it is God talking and connecting with them.

"You do not see in the creation of the Most Merciful any inconsistency. So return [your] vision [to the sky]; do you see any breaks? Then return [your] vision twice again. [Your] vision will return to you humbled while it is fatigued." (67/3-4)