Chapter A’la – Part 5

87:8 “We shall facilitate for you the Easy Way.”

What is “Easy” for us?

We think that whatever we want in this life shall be provided by God. Easiness has to do with material facilities. Not at all! Easiness has nothing to do with material world or external facilities. Example: if I get a mansion with fountains and singing birds in the garden, then I will be at ease with myself. Another example: I am happily married and financially secure. Check again! You are bound to die and if you attach yourself to these objects/events, then the separation from them becomes painful.

“Easy way” has to do with what is appropriate to our human nature. There should be no contradiction between how we interact with creation and interpret our existence. The acts of creation are the results of the will of your Creator. What is my perception towards the acts of creation going on in the universe? That is, there must be a coherence between what is going on outside as far as my interaction with creation is concerned and what my human nature expects from the Creator to treat me as.

Example: Your car breaks down in the middle of the road. Car breaking down is the will of the Creator but at the same time is that a real difficulty in life for me? Theoretically, it should not be. Whatever happens, take lesson from it, learn and see how the Creator has established the order and thus take precautions. That is the way how we learn the order established in the universe.

Nothing is accidental here but the meaningfulness of the universe points to a conscious choice. If you were to roll 26 alphabets in a bag from a game of scrabble, what is the likelihood of landing a word from it? It is unlikely. Similarly, everything here is the result of a deliberate conscious choice. Things are changing at every moment. We observe endless order in creation and change is also happening within each order. Every change has a constant which is the Source of its Existence. Otherwise, how do you explain all the change happening simultaneously? So, going back to the example of the alphabet taken from the game of scrabble, let’s ask a realistic question as we observe what is going on in this universe: “What is the likelihood of landing a book which is continuously renewed in its existence and the book never becomes a meaningless scrabble in its ever-changing new forms? Even one letter never lands on the book in a meaningless place. If we see that in this ever-changing book there is not a single letter accidentally landing on a meaningless place, can you ever think that the alphabets are randomly making the book in the course of accidental rolling the alphabets? If you can give a possibility to this result, please go ahead with your idea, I cannot agree with you as a thinking human being. Let alone discussing the possibility of forming a perfectly arranged meaningful book which continuously changes and the change also takes please within a perfect order. How about the existence of the alphabet and the existence of the “rolling”? What or who is giving existence to the alphabet and the action of “rolling”? This is another challenge to the free reasoning mind of the person who claims that this universe might have come into existence as accumulated accidents throughout billions of years of existence. In the existence of the universe we can trace no sign of accident at any stage of its existence. Every stage of its existence we see nothing but an order present in the existence of each and every part of the universe. Think about it without conditioning and thus imprisoning your free-thinking human rationality.

Comment: Time is also change.

As far as I am concerned, I measure change with time. Otherwise, the act of creation is all happening at once with its space and time dimensions. Time is a concept which exists in the perception of human mind. It does not have an external existence. Even the projection for the future is a human concept. There is no substance materially or non-materially called “time”.

• Hadith: It is narrated that God says: “Do not swear at time, I am Time.”
• What does it mean? Time does not pass. Creation continues. I am experiencing yesterday, today and I hope to experience similar events tomorrow. I am given the ability to remember events created earlier on as far as my observation is concerned. When we see someone after a long time, for example, we say: “It just seems like yesterday that we were in school together.” The perception of creation remains in our memory. That is why we should not even curse at an event because ultimately we are cursing the Creator of that event and moment. YOU ARE WHAT YOU PERCEIVE!

If we do not observe creation and experience action, then we cannot know the agent. That is why, the Creator emphasizes in the Quran: “All the beautiful, meaningful Qualities manifested in the universe belongs to God. Invoke me/Call upon me/Pray to me through my names (walillahi al-asma ul husna fa ud’oohu biha- 7: 180 ).” This means that the proper name “God” by itself does not really mean anything without being accompanied by its demonstrations that you concluded from experiencing the universe. All the qualities that you see in creation attribute it to its Creator and call upon It with His attributes (names).

• Proper name gets its qualification only through the qualities that are experienced. In other words, if you know the quality, it is easier to identify it with the proper name.

Comment: The existence of freewill has nothing to do with my choice. It is given to me to be used by me freely by choosing from among what already exists in the order of the universe.

The purpose of freewill is to set you free to choose an option from the various options presented. While exercising freewill, you are just following the order in creation. The result is created not out of your choosing but out of the will of the Order Maker according to your choice, if it is provided within the order of the universe. As long as you are aware that you are exercising your freewill and acknowledge its Real Owner is the role of a conscious human being.

These kinds of verses should be understood as far as our attitude towards the events created in the universe is concerned. External activities should not be our concern. Unfortunately, we learn in this civilization to get ease by doing certain activities or gaining certain things in their material forms. That is be concerned with material relationship as opposed to intellectual relationship with the event which has to do with how I see the event.

God facilitates the “easy way” for human beings. It is expected of us to understand the right approach where we exercise our human qualities and get meaning from creation. When we have the right approach then we are treated as a believer. If I do not really study and concentrate and interpret the event, then I am wasting myself. If someone does not take into account what is the purpose of his/her existence (what is the purpose for me to be in this world), then they cannot solve any problem they are experiencing within their human senses.

If you understand the reality in your existence, the purpose in your existence, you will understand that if you interpret the creation in the right way, you will find no difficulty in your life. That is how we are created. “I believe in God” does not mean that everything you prefer to have will materially be provided for you. We should not reduce easy life to “external” events, objects and act of creation.

The understanding of the “easy way” must be internally taking place; your understanding of creation needs to be interpreted according to your primordial nature. You then see nothing difficult at all; everything is created outside of you by the One who creates everything with wisdom.

The prevalent civilization nowadays describes happiness in terms of obtaining the material things external to our human intellect. Real happiness lies in the consistency between your expectations according to the purpose of your existence i.e. you have to establish first why you exist. According to the purpose of your existence, you have to see the outside world as perfectly matching your human nature. “I am given existence by the One who creates the universe. If someone cannot create the universe, then it cannot create me”. There must be a correlation. Note that not everything materially will happen to you according to your wish because your wish may not be appropriately interpreted and understood by you according to your real nature. Your wish maybe polluted by the influence of outside civilization which does not think about purpose of your existence.

What is the purpose of the existence of this universe? Can you say that I wanted to be born but I do not want to die? When I am born and also when I die, someone brings me into existence and takes me out of existence without asking me. It means that someone else is operating on my existence alongside with the existence of the universe. What is the purpose of it? Is it meaningless or yet crazy? If someone does not think of his or her purpose of existence, then s/he cannot understand the “Facilitation of the easy way.” Some may think that winning the lottery or getting free money will solve everything. However it does not mean that you can be comfortable in your existence in this world, i.e. if you do not have an interpretation of your existence which is confirmed by your human nature. Some people commit suicide regardless of having wealth or not. The real reason being that their human senses and internal feelings do not get satisfaction from this universe. It is true that our humanity cannot get satisfaction from this universe and that is why we need to find out the solution to this dilemma:

• Why are we put in this situation?
• Why am I given existence?

Going back to the desire for the mansion on page 1, separation from your beloved house can be hard. It does not mean that we should not get the facilities but KNOW and be AWARE that happiness does not lie there. Happiness has nothing to do with external facilities such as car, marriage, income…

The purpose of the Quran is to explain what this universe/existence points to. This universe is a source of sign referring to its Creator, reality of the existence of its Creator. Quran does not speak for the purpose of this world but guides us for the purpose of what this world refers to. It refers to the Absolute qualities of its Creator.

• If we want God’s help, God says I can give you all the help you need, I facilitate everything for you but you have to connect yourself to what the universe is referring to. Do not connect yourself to the universe itself!

If you have the most beautiful house, it would be harder to leave the house behind you. When you are told that you are going to die soon, first thing that comes to mind is, “am I going to leave this beloved house behind? Separation from attachments is the most difficult emotion in this creation. If you attach yourself to the source of all the qualities that you desire which is the Absolute Creator, then is there any separation from the Creator? When you die, you are separated from this world but you are always with your Creator. Even when you die, He is the One who is giving death as He gave you life at your birth. You cannot separate yourself form you Creator, your Creator must be Absolute and your existence belongs to It.

Source of sorrow, sadness and anything we do not like is attaching ourselves to temporary creatures and forgetting the Source of this creature. Our humanity must be attached to the Source of this creature, not the creatures themselves. Creatures are signs, symbols, in order to demonstrate the qualities of their Creator, and get to know who your Creator is so you will attach yourself to the Source, the Creator.

The more you have, the more it becomes difficult to be separated as far as the transient world is concerned. Human nature wants Permanent connection not separation. When the mother dies, we cry from separation. If you think that your mother is the representation of the Compassion of her Creator, then you are experiencing compassion in the existence of the mother.

• Attach yourself to the Creator of Compassion, through the mother.

Separating materially is difficult as opposed to human nature which says that I do not want my mother to die but as long as she is given existence by the Source of Compassion, I do not mind. I do not curse the Creator, I am happy with the Creator. Although I do not want the separation with the material but my humanity would not get disappointed completely when they die. That is from the Creator, It established everything in this way which is appropriate to the purpose of my existence because my existence is here to train and to get educated about the source of existence.

Universe exists to educate us with what is the source of existence of this universe. Even if you study the universe in order to understand the qualities of the Creator of the universe, attach yourself to the Creator not the object or phenomenon itself. That is the difference between material philosophy and Quranic understanding.

Quran teaches nothing but what is already within us. There is an easy way, find it out within you. I can be facilitated because it is within my potentiality. If it was not within my potentiality, then how would I confirm it? The Creator says: “Work on it and you will find out that I am telling the truth”. That is belief, which is not contradicting with our human nature.