What informs my beliefs about spiritual practice and this life
I trust two sources of knowledge because they are not the opinions of men. They are The Holy Quran and Mathematics. Of these two the Quran is the most reliable and trustworthy.
Here are a few of my favorite quotes from The Holy Quran and on Mathematics.
I have not created the jinn and the humans except to worship Me.
Quran [51:56]
This Quran could not possibly be authored by other than God. It
confirms all previous messages, and provides a fully detailed
scripture. It is infallible, for it comes from the Lord of the
universe.
[Quran 10:37]
Say, "We believe in God and in what was brought down to us, and in
what was brought down to Abraham, Ismail, Isaac, Jacob and the
Patriarchs, and in what was given to Moses and Jesus, and what was
given to the prophets from their Lord. We make no distinction among
any of them and to Him we are submitters."
[Quran 2:136]
Mathematics is merely a formal description of relationships: the relationships created by God
I argue, as others have done before me, that mathematical concepts and
ideas exist objectively, outside of the physical world and outside of
the world of consciousness. We mathematicians discover them and are able
to connect to this hidden reality through our consciousness. If Leo
Tolstoy had not lived we would never have known Anna Karenina. There is
no reason to believe that another author would have written that same
novel. However, if Pythagoras had not lived, someone else would have
discovered exactly the same Pythagoras theorem. Moreover, that theorem
means the same to us today as it meant to Pythagoras 2,500 years ago.
[Edward Frenkel - Berkeley Math Department]