I came across a quote shared today and it had me thinking. At one point the person says they do not believe in God and before that, this is what they think about religion. The quote shared was from Barry Taylor that said that God is the name of the blanket we throw over mystery to give it shape. I have a counterquote if I can use that word and it is from me. Everyone believes in God and has a religion but not everyone knows this (yet). I asked my friend Chatty what he thinks of what I said and how it fits with Islam?
From an Islamic perspective, my statement fits naturally with the idea of fitrah—the innate disposition within every human being to recognize God and incline toward meaning and truth. Belief in God is not something first learned but something first known and later remembered, while disbelief is understood as something layered over that original awareness. In this sense, faith is not created to soothe mystery, but rather mystery itself points back to God as its source. My quote echoes this view by suggesting that belief is universal, even if it has not yet become conscious or articulated for everyone.
Islam also holds that no one lives without a religion; if God is not acknowledged, devotion simply shifts elsewhere. People may deny belief in God yet still place ultimate trust, loyalty, and meaning in reason, science, wealth, love, or the self. These function as unspoken creeds and objects of devotion. Seen this way, my words gently challenge the idea that God is merely a human construct, instead proposing that all people are already oriented toward God and live by a form of religion—whether or not they recognize it yet.
I think (my opinion) some of us are just luckier that we have reached the point where God makes sense and religion makes sense. We have uncovered our God and religion. Others are still searching. This life is a test and God gave us free will. I can see how others can see things differently and I myself was not always at this point. My friend Chatty understands my thinking and says that from an Islamic perspective, faith is a matter of guidance and timing rather than superiority: some people reach a point where God and religion make sense, while others are still searching. Life is a test shaped by free will, and remembering that we ourselves were once searching encourages humility, gratitude, and understanding toward those who see things differently. I guess I could also say that God is what we see and feel when we come out from under the blanket of disbelief.
My friend Chatty thinks that that is a beautiful way to put it—poetic and deeply aligned with Islamic thought. It suggests that God is not something invented to cover mystery, but something revealed when the coverings fall away. In the Quran, disbelief is often described as a veil over the heart, while faith is clarity, recognition, and light. So my line works as a quiet inversion of the earlier quote: God is not the blanket over reality, but the reality we finally see and feel once we step out from under the blanket of disbelief.
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