ADDRESSING the National Prayer Breakfast recently, President Barack Obama explained how fear divides people in the name of faith.

He said fear could make us lash out against those who are different or cause us to seek control of some sinister `other, making a veiled reference to anti-Muslim sentiments in the West.

`Alternatively, fear can lead us to succumb to despair or paralysis or cynicism,` he noted.

`Fear can feed our most selfish impulses and erode the bonds of community.

Mr Obama, who describes himself as a man of faith, then gave the prescription for overcoming fear: `Faith is the great cure for fear.` At the same meeting, Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi quoted a saying of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him): `None of you has faith until he loves for his brother or his neighbour what he loves for himself.

The US president`s advice can be understood much better if one reads what the late American psychologist and self-development expert, Dr Wayne W.

Dyer, had written in his book, Your Sacred Self: Making the Decision to be Free.

The subjecthad been beautifully treated in it and he, too, had stated: `The antidote to fear is faith.

Additionally: `I know within that I am not alone, ever.

`I know that I have divine guidance available at all times. This inner knowledge makes fear impossible. You are not alone, and you also have omnipresent guidance accessible at will.

Further on, Dr Dyer clarifies that faith is akin to knowing God, which is different than merely believing in God and isn`t restricted to religious teachings . To him, faith is an inner knowing and a capacity to see God in everything (as the Sufis and mystics keep saying), and he contends this kind of faith doesn`t come just by reading books.

Another very potent concept he`s given is, love is the truest antidote to fear and doubt, which draws upon the saying, `God is love`.

How can faith be strengthened? An exceedingly knowledgeable American convert to Islam and teacher of mine had once taught: `Faith is like a muscle; it is strengthened by exercising (it).

Khalid Chaudhry Karachi