Chapter Abasa – Part 3

Recap: The duty of any messenger is just to convey the message.  No one knows about the heart of anyone as a receiver.  The Quran speaks to the era of any society. As it spoke to the Prophets and their living conditions, it also must speak to us in our living conditions.  We cannot disregard our precious life conditions; rather I ask, “what do I do with this message.”

We cannot guarantee whether the people will benefit from the reminder (message of the Quran).  One’s duty is just to convey the message.  The Quran says that you are not concerned with anyone that feels self-sufficient.  However, prepare yourself for people who feel the need for Divine guidance.  We have questions as human beings, and we cannot get sure convincing answers to those questions.  Example: why do I exist in this universe?  Why does the universe still continue to exist in a very interesting way?  It seems that things are happening as they are.  The human mind asks the question of whether the things in the universe can exist by themselves.  Can I exist by myself?  The components of my physical body do not seem to have consciousness by themselves.  Hence, lots of questions occur as in who brought the universe into existence, and what is the purpose of our existence in this universe?  My existence is not static, it is very dynamic.  Every feeling, emotion is a sign of something.  I cannot locate what these signs point to within this universe.  These are our serious genuine questions.

We feel bewildered because nothing in the universe provides an answer to these questions.  Now, I need a Source to tell me what the purpose of my existence is.  Example: I do not want to age, but I am in spite of desire not to.  If I will die, what is the point of everything here?  It seems that living with meaningful qualities is meaningless.  Can it be so?  Can we choose the option that I do not care?  No!  We need to know the answers from the One that brought us here.  If there is a need in my existence, that means the Source of my Existence is telling me that there must be an answer.  I am a person that learns by searching and investigating and I must search for the answer.  

80:11 “No indeed it is a reminder”

“Are you the reminder?” we ask any source which claims to be reminder from my Creator.  For example, the Qur’an claims to be one as such and declares openly that, “I am open to your critical reading, investigation, and confirmation”.  

If my Creator is speaking to me and providing me the answers to my questions, then the question and answer must be acceptable by me i.e. my Creator must make it clear for me where I realize that these are His reminders.

Reminder (Arabic tazkira) by definition is the one that reminds.  A person reminds us on things that we may forget about.  For any reason, I may not use something/my abilities, forget about it or might have deviated from the reminder.  The reminder says that this is the truth, do you remember now?  

• Reminder is something that helps us refresh what we already know about one step ahead from my previous understanding.

7:172 “Whenever your Lord brings forth their offspring from the loins of the children of Adam, He [thus] calls upon them to bear witness about themselves: “Am I not your sustainer?” – to which they answer: “Yea, indeed, we do bear witness to that!” [Of this We remind you,] lest you say on the Day of Resurrection, “Verily. We were unaware of this.”

Look into your human qualities, can you not recognize what the truth is?  What are you?  What is the Source of your existence?  Human beings are given qualities to learn about something.  That is, when I learn, I just discover what is within me.  Example: as a child you listened to your teacher who says that 2+2= 4.  As you grow up practicing this information, you can confirm it as much as you can since you are already given the ability to confirm it.  Unless I am reminded or taught, I do not become aware of this ability ingrained in my existence.  

• The reminder about anything is within my own existence which is not developed unless I am reminded.  And so, I need constant reminders to enhance my understandings.

Yes, we confirm that 2+2= 4.  Now, does 2+2=4 happen accidentally i.e. naturally, or is it a deliberately established order of the universe?  Can this order happen by itself?  We need to further question this in a continuous life journey.

Everything at every moment is functioning within an order.  Can you accept this universe and its order as happening naturally?  No, there must be a conscious planning behind the order of the universe.  When you are listening to the teacher (in the example above), your instinct awakens you that what your teacher says is correct as far as your observation is concerned (the content).  As far as the interpretation of how the order of 2+2=4 happens (how come 2+2=4) may or may not be correct.  Unfortunately, secular education does not touch upon reality, more so it rejects the existence of a Conscious Will behind the origination of something i.e. a Source of Existence.

The way I am made confirms the idea that things cannot happen naturally.  The truth comes out only after being reminded about it.  This is an interesting process; we must be careful about our reality.  

• I cannot learn if I do not experience anything or attend the various means of teachings available.  
• I must hear and be reminded in order to learn; the reminder or teacher awakens and shakes up my instincts, and thus, my abilities improve.  

This is shaking up our instincts:  Am I not your Lord? Am I not taking care of your needs?  I am the One who is doing everything for you.  After being reminded, I conclude that “indeed I do bear witness that I have a Lord”.  It means that I am created and the One who created me is taking care of all the necessities of my existence, giving me childhood, youth, old age and then death.  Making us go through endless stages of existence and giving us the opportunity to experience the reality of our existence.  No two moments of our existence are the same, how interesting!

There are innumerable witnesses of experience to know who the source of Existence is.  After being reminded, I can bear witness to who my Lord is.  While we are living in this world, a reminder reaches us.  If no reminder comes, then we are innocent.  When the reminder reaches me, I must listen to it and evaluate whether I can confirm it or not.  That is, I must look for an answer which makes sense to my humanity.

• Never pass any judgment about other people but you should make sure about yourself since the message has reached you.  
• On the day of resurrection, I should not claim that I was unaware.  

What is the day of resurrection (Arabic yaum ul qiam)? Qiam means standing up, where I directly say to myself as the message comes: “here I am being aware of my existence”!  

What does “day” (Arabic yaum) mean?  A moment of standing up and becoming aware of yourself. That is, you did not know, now you know.  You are given a new existence now, after being taught.  

• • A moment can be a second with a beginning and an end.  

• What is “the day” of the universe?  From the beginning to the end of existence is a day.  The spinning of the earth around itself (completing one circle) is called a day.  The moment I become aware of my reality after I am being re-created is also a day.  I did not know before, but now I know about it!

Before the reminder, I did not know that I am being taken care of by my Lord.  Now that I have learned, I am resurrected and given a new existence.  That is the moment of my qiam, becoming aware of my reality that I have a Lord. I am given the ability to confirm the message i.e. the message is confirmable by my nature.  

We have different reminders about our reality (given below), the most explicit reminder is “my existence”, the existence of everything.  I am always interacting with the existence of the universe.  My feelings and consciousness are a reminder.  Transience and death which are also created also cause me to think about my reality.

1. My existence and the existence of the universe.
2. The Creator’s Speech (scripture/universe)
3. Prophets (the way they live and behave is also a reminder, not only for the people around him but for any living creature now, but we must make that teaching applicable to our life conditions).

All the above remind me of my reality.  We learn only when we study, we think about it and reflect on what was shared by the previous teachers.  You learn from previous experiences (research) of people, that is the higher studies route.  Did you learn what has been discovered till now in your specific field of study?  Now take that and use your own capacity to go one step further, so that the following generation will take one step further.  That is how the content of the Speech of the Creator must be studied.  The language of the content is static, but the content of the Speech is infinite.

• As a result of my studies, I can take the universal message contained in the speech of the Creator one step ahead.  We need to be reminded to go one step ahead in every generation because the content of the speech is not static, it is coming from the infinite knowledge of the Absolute Creator

We cannot claim that we have understood the infinite speech of the Creator.  We are just learning the content of the speech of the Creator as much as I have developed my abilities.  I can only claim to reinterpret the content and make it adjustable to my living conditions as much as I have gone through learning processes.  We must know our limits!

The universe, speech of Creator (revelation/scripture), Prophetic exemplary life, and my instincts (reasonings/emotions), they all work together as reminders and remind me what is already ingrained in my existence. I can confirm whether the reminder comes from my Creator or not. 

80:12 “for anyone who desires to bear it in mind”

If one does not feel the need for seeking the truth, then reminders will not benefit him.  The universe reminds human beings about their reality.  What does the Prophetic exemplary life remind human beings of?  I must think about my existence.  What am I doing in this world?  Why do I bother about things?  Why am I sad/happy about things?  

• I must be conscious of what my feelings/emotions remind me.  
• Who my Lord is?

80:13 “In honored scriptures”

Sometimes the Quran calls itself a “book”, sometimes referring to the scriptures and/or to “the universe”.  Every page of existence is a scripture.  Every moment the universe presents a page to be written.  Everything which carries the message from the Creator is an honored page and I must appreciate its value and utilize it.

80:14 “exalted and purified”

Something of high value.  What is not exalted here?  Example: there is an ant in your kitchen, and you do not want it there.  It is an exalted creature if you just study it.  The qualities of the ant, they know what they are doing, they are conscious when you try to catch them…  If an ant is not honored in its existence, then its Creator is not honored as well.  Everything in creation conveys the pure message.  Purified means that no doubt can enter our hearts.  That is, we cannot say that the ant happened by itself.  They are so pure, and the message they bring is exalted and pure that you cannot ascribe to them to be just a simple matter.  We need to purify ourselves from any prejudice and learned concepts from secular education.  The teachings of the Quran, for example, are honored and purified.

80: 15 “by the hands of scribes”

This refers to the beings through which the message reaches conscious beings and are also called angels in the Quran.  The hands of scribes are the message carriers.

80:16 “Noble and righteous”

These angels are noble and righteous and are employed to implement the will of the Creator in the universe and to introduce the message of the Creator to me.

If we try to understand the Quran as applicable to our real-life conditions, we have to take it out of its historical context, and we have to apply it to our real living conditions.  The Quran speaks to us right now in order to guide us in terms of reminding what we should remember in our practical lives. As a result, we use our free will in order to adjust ourselves in this real-life conditions according to the reminders.