Recap: People who do not honor orphans (defenseless beings) are being egoistic. We do not encourage each other to extend our help to those people who need guidance and truth that satisfies human beings. They may be deprived of it or not know it. We inherit the whole universe to be a witness to the qualities of their Creator, when we come here because everything is provided to us. We just use whatever is given to us greedily for our own worldly benefits.
89:21 “No Indeed! When the earth is crushed into pieces,”
A time will come when our egoistic expectations will be crushed into pieces. We will leave all of them behind. Only what we have used to improve our human qualities will remain with us. Analogy: You go to school and there is an education system. After graduating from school, nothing is left. School is crushed into pieces as far as you are concerned. What remains with you is what you developed in your potentiality. The school maybe there but it is no good for you as you are not a student anymore. Similarly, death is leaving behind the school/education system. Training is finished. Whatever you learned remains with you. The rest is crushed into pieces.
It is not my concern that the universe will be crushed. No one is asking me, and I am not going to do it. As far as my existence is concerned, I am sure that when I die, the existence of the universe will have nothing to do with me anymore. Because the existence of the universe is like a school, though the building may be still there, and the classes are there. What remains with me is what I learnt from it i.e. how much I benefited from the universe? That is my concern. We should not distract our attention by claiming that what will happen when the universe will be destroyed completely, how will it happen? Again, that is not my responsibility to understand that the universe is going to collapse one day but I am sure that I am going to die. It means that my spirit is going to leave this body. That is, only through the body (which is a means) that I am communicating with the universe. Example: when you are speaking to your mother on the phone and your phone died but your mother is still speaking on the phone with you. Now, how much are you concerned with mother’s speech when your phone is not receiving her voice? Not concerned. Even after I die, the universe continues to exist but that is not my concern because my phone/battery is dead. My phone is dead, but it does not mean that my line is dead. That is, if I charge my phone, it will receive mother’s message again. When I am given another body to communicate with creation according to the conditions of my new creation, I will start communicating with the new creation because my spirit is alive. Spirit is not like body subject to change.
- Principle of human logic: If something is subject to change, then it has a beginning and end.
- Spirit does not die but body dies.
Why does the Quran keeps reminding us that universe will collapse? Don’t invest in the universe/body but invest in your spirit to get the message from it. My body is subject to being crushed because that is how it is created.
- What remains from body/universe is what I have extracted from it.
89:22 “and when your Lord comes [reveals Himself] with rows upon rows of angels,”
How does God come? Where is God so that He will come? What does it mean? The way we understand these kinds of verses will show us how we should read the Quran. Can we read the Quran literally? In other words, is God going to come to your door and knock? Of course not!
- Where is God then?
“When God comes along with rows and rows of angels”. How can I believe in angels? Belief in angels, is referred to the meanings extracted from the universe which is the angelic side of creation. Is that imaginary? Are you convinced that angles really exist? Example: A book has a meaning. As long as the book exist, the meaning in the sentence contained in the book also exist. Can you separate the meaning from the book? No. Although meaning is not a physical being (you cannot show it and experience it physically) but your human side experiences the meaning. How do you communicate with the meaning? Through your consciousness.
- Meaning is not static, meanings are continuously sending the message when you open your receptors, you get the message.
How does the Quran describe angels? They continuously glorify God. Only people who open their receptors get the meaning or glorification. They are there but physically you cannot experience it. Meaning is there whether you close or open the book. Can you deny the existence of the meaning in the book?
Universe has two aspects, physical side like a book and the other aspect is the meaning/angelic side. Angels always convey the qualities of its Creation to conscious beings. They communicate meaning of its Creator to our consciousness. We communicate with the consciousness. They are always there, rows upon rows i.e. on duty. Angels are always ready to serve you.
- The universe always reveals the qualities of its Maker to us.
“If your mother does not speak to you on the phone, can you understand what she has to say? No. Only after she speaks, you understand through processing what she says. If mother does not speak, your capacity to process the voice into a meaning and get a meaning out of voice waves does not happen. The capacity to process the voice into meaning can only be deciphered when mother speaks to you on the phone. Your capacity is there but if mother does not speak, you do not know.
We think that the universe is dead physically (matter wise). No, it continuously speaks. When we listen to the universe, then we start understanding. There is nothing in the universe which does not convey the message of its Creator in its make.
As long as the objects exist, the objects continuously convey the qualities of the Maker to you. If you do not think about it, do you hear it? No. You do not realize what it is saying because it is continuously glorifying its Maker: “My Maker made me in this way and with this quality”. As you use it, you decipher it, but the universe continuously emits the meaning in its existence. If only conscious beings open their receptors, listen to what the universe says and start communicating with angelic side of creation. Example: This is a table. Where is angelic side of table? When you question it, it says that I do not make myself, I am made, and my Maker made me and beautified me, made it smooth for you, my height is adjusted according to your usage and my Maker knows all this…continuously message keeps coming. When you notice this, you communicate with the angelic side of table.
Again, we may think that the universe is dead, just matter. According to our definition of alive, we are alive when not dead. Plants are alive, the rest is non-living beings (inanimate). Aristotle logic categorizes things and reduce animate beings to animal and plants on earth. The rest is dead. But the Quran says that everything is alive and glorifies God with no exception. Nothing is exempted from glorification and time-wise also the universe never ceases to glorify its Creator. It is an integral part of the existence of the universe.
Some fine thinking Muslim scholars say that the universe is alive. If someone is speaking and conveying message to you, then can you say that the thing is dead? Rather, it must be a Conscious Being. We describe dead as far as our life conditions are concerned. Example: I am active now with my body. When my spirit is taken away from my body, you call me “dead”. Yes, as compared to a body with human spirit, it is called “dead”. However, human spirit does not die, the body does not have human consciousness but as it exists, it emits the message. Body is still alive.
If your mother does not speak to you, your phone/mind is open, and you have the capacity to interpret the voice waves, but mother is not speaking, then can you communicate with mother? No. What is strange is that the universe is continuously speaking. How? If it was not speaking, then I would not get the message from it. It is alive and its speaking. When the universe speaks, what is speaking?
My worldview must change. We are not in a dead universe. Alive, active, speaking and continuously communicating universe. (Qur’an, 17: 44.) Example: When you look at the book, is the meaning there? Yes. When you open the book, do your receptors get the meaning? Yes. If the book was not speaking, how would you get the meaning? Do you think paper/ink is speaking? Materialism is simple mindedness. Who is speaking that you are hearing and communicating with and getting the message from?
Comment: Author.
As far as the example of the book is concerned the author may be dead. In this case, who is speaking in the book? The meaning is speaking. Angels are the meaning and are continuously speaking. Physically, we don’t see that someone is speaking, and I am hearing. As far as my perception of the meaning from the universe is concerned, we are getting the meaning from one side and from another side, the meaning is always coming to me. The Quran says angels are always carrying the command of God. They never rebel and neglect. It means that when we are in this world, this world is continuously coming to me, communicating to me. When I am careful, everything is meaningful, and everything is a means of communicating with its Creator through angelic side. The universe is alive. Example: the stone is alive. First, digest this for yourself. Whatever happens in this world, when you are influenced by things (be it an illness, a virus), be careful the angels are coming to you. Yes, angels are coming to you, just letting you know who they are and who their Creator is. So, see the things as angels communicating with you.
Quran says that angles continuously obey the Command/order of the Creator. They continuously obey and performs it with no hesitations. When we die, who comes and takes our spirit out of our body? An angel, so welcome angels. Can we welcome angels? Yes. Death angel is an angel. It is strange! We are afraid of the visits of death angels. It is a hidden mentality in our mind that death is the end of our being. The whole universe is alive, how can you not be alive? You are a part of the universe.
Death symbolize that everything is dependent in its existence and thus cannot be the cause of existence of anything. When we die or think of our death, it witnesses that definitely my existence is given by a One Who is Eternal, Absolute. This is our reality that we will physically experience it during our death. This is the meaning of “when your Lord comes [reveals Himself] with rows upon rows of angels,” At the moment of death everyone will realize this for sure: Our existence depends on the One Who gives existence to everything, and the angelic side of the creation also becomes apparent to everyone.
When I read the Quran, I should not read it in a way that I have a certain understanding of angels for example. If I understand angels as I am told in stories or culture and I cannot make sense of the teachings of the Quran, then I say that the Quran is talking about something that I have no idea about. I cannot deny it because I have no reason to deny it. But at the same time, I cannot confirm it because I have not seen angels as coming down rows upon rows. Nothing is the problem with the Quran. The problem is that we may not know that the universe is alive.
Not knowing is OK, I do not know but if I know something in a wrong way and think that it is the right understanding of angels, for example, then that is the most dangerous obstacle to understanding the Quran and communicating between me and the Quran. You start reading the Quran and say that I do not know but it says this, I accept it otherwise I would be denying the message of the Quran which claims to be the word of God because I am Muslim, yet the Quran speaks to me in a way that does not make sense to me. Which kind of word of God is this in my view, if it does not make sense to me? Then, you would say, God speaks to me in a non-sensical way as far as my capacity is concerned! Example: If a biology Professor comes to you and speak to you in a higher-level language, then you say that, “Are you stupid I do not understand what you say?” Similarly, if you read something from the Quran and it does not make sense to you, then you are saying that the Speaker in the Quran is stupid. Be brave! Am I stupid or is the Speaker in the Quan stupid?
Not knowing is excusable. That is what Jesus and Muhammad said. “Please God excuse these people, they are ignorant”. But knowing as something to be wrong and insisting on it that this is true and then reading the Quran by installing this wrong understanding of any subject and imposing it on the Quran is absurd. What happens at the end? I do not know what angels are, although we are in the oceans of angles always speaking to us. It’s like looking at a book and saying that I have never seen the meaning. Book is always speaking to you continuously and you say that I have never seen the meaning as I can only see the paper. What happens is that you become suspicious about your belief or become a blind follower, rather than a believer. We must be careful!!
Through the message that we receive from angels, what we receive is the message. All angelic messages are about what? When you read the book, you get the meaning/message. All the message tells you that my author has this knowledge and is presenting/transferring this knowledge to you. It means that the meaning discloses the knowledge or the capacity of its author. What are the angels doing? They disclose the meaning in their existence that these meanings are given to them, they are employed by the Author of the universe. When you open the message that you receive from the angelic side of creation, what you receive is the qualities of their Creator. It comes to us. That is why God says that I am not far away from you. I am just next to you. I am with you, within you. (Qur’an, 50: 16; 2: 186.) It is always there but I may not have the intention to be aware of Its presence in my being. That is my mistake. Let’s say you mother is speaking to you and your phone is off, what do you hear? Nothing. You mother is speaking but your phone is off. It means that you are not in communication with your mother although she is speaking. As soon as you turn your phone on, you start hearing and your mother will be with you. This is just a metaphor to be used to understand how the Creator keeps communicating with conscious beings.
As soon as we start paying attention to the message of the angelic side of the universe, the Author of the universe is with us. Do you see how God comes to you?!
Now, I am satisfied about the reality of this universe. The Creator is telling me how to be in the presence of Him by communicating with angels, so I will be aware that my Creator is with me. If your Creator is not with you, then how would you exist? As long as you exist, (by definition and logically), your Creator is with you giving you existence.
Unfortunately, we are so engrained with material side of creation that we define our existence in terms of material experience. In fact, you do not exist with your material existence. You exist with your consciousness. How much are you aware of it? Your material side of existence is continuously leaving saying: “you cannot trust me, I am continuously leaving. You cannot grasp the material side of your existence.” One existence comes, you try to catch it, it disappears and another one comes, and you try to catch it. If you use our human qualities (a real human being), then what kind of life do we live here? Without paying attention to the material existence, only the angelic side of our existence is permanent because as long as I read the book continuously, I am with the author of the book. Although I may think that I am looking at the paper. That is the reality of the universe. If you do not read the book, then the papers become of no importance for you.
As long as we pay attention to the angelic side of creation and listen to the messages of every single being at every single moment, we are with the Absolute Eternal Creator when we are in the presence of its beings. Material side then becomes not important. When you read the book, do you pay attention to the paper? No, so why do we describe this universe as a pile of paper? We have to be continuously communicating with the meaning carried to us by the angles. Angels come and ring my phone. They continuously speak and if I do not pick up, then I deprive myself of the messages.
- Angels continuously let me know who their Creator is, so it is my Creator as well, they are reminding me who my Creator is. That is the worldview of the Quran.
Do not waste your time and energy about the material side of the universe. The person who does not read the Quran is not human. We keep ourselves occupied with material side of the world and forget about the meaning and messages. We must wake up and make the universe as it is described by the Quran: “Everything at every moment glorifies its Creator and human beings are expected to communicate with the glorification”. It is not complicated to understand, if only we leave behind the cultural side of religion and materialism. You can get Eternal meaning from the universe and life will change!
Comment: How can I make the distinction between creation glorifying its Creator and the Creator being the All-Glorious?
In the book example, does the meaning really exist? Angelic side of the book is the meaning. Does the meaning really exist if the author has not put the meaning in this book? No. In fact, angelic side is conveying the message, but who is present there? The manifested qualities of the Maker, not the personality of the Maker. The qualities of the Maker are always present there. We are expected to be aware of the qualities of the Maker continuously presented themselves to me. You will see that when you read the book, you are continuously in contact with the author’s knowledge. Otherwise the book cannot be the book and angels cannot act since they need to be created and need to be employed. Angels need to be put in charge of the conveying or introducing Creator to conscious beings. The Quran says: “the angels always carry “amar” or qualities.” (Qur’an, 66: 6.) It means, the Speaker is saying: “let the conscious being know which kind of qualities I have by creating the universe where qualities are manifested”. That is, when the author is writing the book, what does s/he means? Let the reader know that I am presenting this knowledge to him/her. It is the act of the author. Who is communicating with me? From my side, angels are communicating with me. From the author’s side, author is communicating with me. The author is employing angels there. As we receive the angelic message, we are communicating with the author’s qualities. We are always in the presence of God, if only we are listening out to angels and communicating with them.
How do you say that I believe in Layla tul Qadar? What is your evidence? How are you convinced with this message?
Open your mind. When you take the book and fully concentrate on the meaning of the book, you are present with the author transferring meaning to you. Full Power of the Creator is being revealed to you. If you are not aware of it and not fully concentrating on its meaning, although the book is full of interesting knowledge, does that become Layla tu’l-qadr for you? How many angels have you seen? It becomes ridiculous! God is calling us for full awareness of one night and in the morning, you see daybreak and you say that I realize now the presence of my Creator. That is Layla tu’l-qadr because your spirit has really experienced the presence of your Lord i.e. become enlightened with the reality. The Quran reveals the cracks of its message to you.
Comment: The process of drawing meaning from creation is abstract because your mind cannot put those experience into words. The process of meaning making is inherently abstract.
There is a confusion here. Mind understands knowledge. Consciousness experiences the presence. Mind may learn some knowledge/information which is not important or main subject we are talking about.
- Your consciousness and awareness communicate with angels. First, consciousness must open the gate for the angels to come to you, to communicate the message to you, then your mind starts learning what the content of the message is.
We are primarily consciousness. Secondarily mind processing. Mind processing depends on one’s capacity of learning. Example: how much do you understand from a book at first reading? The second reading, your knowledge increases. Reading is important, but the most important stage is to be aware that this is the book and I must get message from it. That is consciousness. The content of the meaning that you can grasp is a secondary subject. When we look at ourselves, everything is consciousness. We are nothing but spirits. The capacity of understanding the content of the knowledge has something to do with your learning process/mind process.
Example: A boxer and an ordinary man are given arms. The boxer can lift 100 lbs. easily for a long period of time, whereas the ordinary man can only lift 10 lbs. for a short period of time. The point is not how much you can lift, rather how much are you aware that you have an arm and can carry weight. In other words, how much are you aware of your reality?
Example: I may understand that if I turn my phone on, I may start receiving the messages. The second stage is to communicate with the content of the message is knowledge. Belief is not knowledge. After usage of the freewill, belief is employing your human side and making it active: What am I doing in this world? What is the meaning of existing in this world? Why are we here? All these questions are stimuli of human soul. “Be active.” Afterwards, everyone’s understanding of the text/the meaning will differ. Those people who use their humanity know that they will get more information. We must first be aware of the human soul, that soul must be active and then the content of the message come in i.e. how much we communicate with speaking angels? If we do not know what angels are, how many angels are we going to experience? Nothing. After consciousness becomes active, then you will start communicating with what angels are conveying.
First stage: Angels are telling me that their Creator is Powerful. Reflect on this more.
Second stage: Angels are telling me that their Creator is all-Knowledgeable as well. If He did not know what He is creating, then creation would be a non-sense thing. But it is not since it is well-ordered.
Step by step you become aware of the qualities of the Creator. First stage is to make your consciousness be active and then the content is not a great deal because the Quran and the Prophetic message emphasize that if you have a little bit of belief, you are saved. What does it mean? As long as you start communicating with the meaning of the book, how much you understood becomes a secondary subject.
The problem with us is that we are not reading the universe. Why are we talking about how much we know when we use the word “to know” is the material side of creation, not the message? We are very materialists? When they ask you how many rakats (units of prayer) taraweeh you prayed? Although we are talking about prayers, but it is a number sense, indeed material. Contradictory! Of course, we should not ignore the function of Prophethood and their instructions. Even prayers are being talked about materially. After you become aware of the angelic side of creation, then you start following the Prophetic example. But we do not know what the Prophet is from the scratch. We just take it for granted that here is a Prophet and everyone accepts him. Does this work for you? No. We must be aware of the Prophetic side of existence. Consciousness i.e. our soul must be active and functioning. Then, what am I doing under the instruction of the soul, how my body acts are, a secondary stage. First, is my soul active? Our soul is dead. Mind is somewhere, and we think that we are alive.
- Ask yourself: what did I do with my soul today? How much I was aware of the function of my soul since this morning? Although, you prayed asr (afternoon prayer), was your soul alive, active, communicating and receiving the message? Our souls are dead because we are not aware of our position in this world. These are fundamental contradictions.
89:23 “and on that day, hell is brought near, then human beings will remember, but his/her being mindful (on that day) will be no use to him/her.”
This is the only way translators can express what they understand from this verse, and we have to thank them for their work. However, it does not really communicate real meaning, but at least give some clues.
I understand the reality now. What is the remembering/reminder going to do for me now as it is too late? The school is closed (death) and I did not get the degree, but I am still alive. How can I understand this verse? Hell is brought near.
Human beings know the truth (right and wrong). There is a narration that: “when you do something right, your heart will let you know. When you do something wrong, your heart will let you know that you have done something wrong”. However, when we do wrong and we do not want to admit it, then we are justifying our mistakes.
Human nature (heart) knows the truth. Example: you smoke for 20 years, what happens? It becomes a habit. Can you stop? No. The doctor says that you have lung cancer. Although the smokers know that smoking kills as it says on the tobacco package, but they persist.
Ignorance is forgivable. Ignorance is not the essential sin.
- Scenario A: Someone does not know that smoking is harmful but one day, he learns that smoking is harmful.
- Scenario B: Someone knows that smoking is dangerous and keeps smoking.
Which is more likely to quit? Scenario A.
When in the lives of the Prophet, those people who were ignorant, as soon as they are told that this type of life is nothing, they gave it up. Only those people did not give up this life because of their prejudices and interests, they were denier of the truth. Could they give up their denial? No, they could not.
- Denial does not come from ignorance.
The essential problems of human beings are denial. Just as the cigarette package says that smoking can kill, and people still smoke. They kept rejecting the truth and they became easy going with rejecting the truth as it becomes second nature. In other words, “guilty conscious”. If someone deliberately keeps telling lies, now it becomes his/her second nature.
If you keep smoking, lung cancer is going to kill you. What use this reminder will be for him/her?
I should be careful that anything wrong should not become my second nature. Ask yourself: Has something wrong become my second nature? If we do it consciously, then it becomes our second nature. In the Prophetic time, as people learned the truth, they immediately submitted to it because they did not know before the message arrived them.