By March 15, 2021 Read More →

Chapter Humazah – Part 1

Chapter Humazah (The Slanderer), part 1

The chronologically 32nd revealed chapter of the Quran, revealed during the 4th year of the Prophetic mission in Mecca, i.e., the Prophet had already declared his Messengership and started delivering as much as he received from his Creator.  The people started getting interested in what he says, and the number of the followers was increasing slowly who were mostly known to be the poor, slaves, and people with no status in society.

The chieftains of the Meccan tribes noticed that people who decided to follow the Prophet do not revert.  To them, it seemed something strange is going on with this man Muhammad, where he enchants the people who get into the circle of his teachings in a way that seemed to them that the followers were potentially not really prone to surrender to the power of the chieftains anymore.  Everyone around became suspicious about all this, i.e., how come the followers are resolute in their decisions to follow the Prophet?  As a result, the chieftains were jealous and started mocking the Prophet with offensive names and labeling him as a liar, obsessed by jinn, a sorcerer, making false claims. Basically, that he is not an angel and that he is a nobody in the society having no elite status. Why should the elite take him seriously and listen to what he says or claims?

Prior to his Messengership, Muhammad, was loved and known by the people as a trustworthy man (aka Muhammad the ameen). Suddenly with his teachings, he started becoming a matter of concern to the society’s elite (not a serious threat yet).  The chieftains, without studying the message started to look down at Muhammad uttering: “Look at these slaves misled by this man or cheated by him”.  It was so apparent that whatever Muhammad was doing to his followers, the pagan Arabs, they never returned to their accustomed way of life.”  As a result of this matter, the chieftains and elite of the society also started using sarcastic language and insulting behavior towards his followers.  Example: “Look at this one, he is also one of the followers of this funny guy.” 

After this type of attitude started developing, the revelation came to give strength to the hearts of the followers of the Prophet including the Prophet himself and supporting them by exposing them to their real concerns, status of feelings and emotional experiences within themselves; so that the people who followed the Prophet should know that really as it is described in this section of the Quran, the oppressors are in trouble now and that is why they choose to entertain a negative attitude.

The people who may not be rich and may not have wealth and status in society are regarded by the ruling class, elite class, and the poets who constituted the intellectual scientists of that time as “ordinary people”.  In our day and age, who are these ordinary people being forced on the teachings and values of the elite?  The “immigrants” who come here to take refuge with us to have a comfortable life need our support.  We must take pity on them (an outward gest) and try to use them to support our economy.  They will contribute to the society, pay taxes and as long as they support the administration and don’t cause problems in society, they are fine.  Although some people become suspicious about the immigrants to the point of exploiting them.

Most people don’t take the teachings of the Quran seriously. They say the teachings has to do with the foreign culture of the immigrants.  When any event in history is compared from an Ideological or state of mind point of view, we can see that just as in Mecca, the same thing is happening here and now. Rather than the sarcastic treatment of the immigrants of Mecca at the time of the Prophet, in our age there is a false sense towards the immigrant being an added burden to society, a lesser form of a human being.

In the so-called Muslim countries (countries where the population declares themselves as Muslim), the ruling class in these countries are made up of the elite from the rich part of the society who look at the practicing Muslims as the working-class people (laboring and peasants) following a religion to keep their indigent culture, but ultimately for nothing.  This thought comes from one’s own perception of belief and not taking existence and the value of humanness seriously. However, the view described towards an immigrant in Mecca has to do with rejecting the elite’s-imposed values and thus seeing them as nothing or just wasting their time with strange non-conventional ideas.

In this section of the Quran, we will see the main reason why people do not take the message of the Quran/Islam seriously?  The content of the message of Islam teaches something which the deniers never would want to submit to.  They are not going to submit to the content of the message which causes them to take into consideration some other aspects of their living, which the believers are seeing as the most important aspects of living.  That is a wrong choice and causes one a great infliction in their living in a negative way and it destroys one’s spiritual status i.e., your feelings are in jeopardy because of the wrong attitude/choice that you take.

This is just a brief historical background and a general analysis of the section of the Quran that we will study.

Comment: What does revert mean?

Going back to Mecca of that time, it means that the people who subscribed to the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad, the Quran, did not turn back to the Pagan culture and looked up to that ruling class anymore.  In other words, they followed Muhammad as a Prophet and did not come back to their previous Pagan Arab status.  Whatever the opponents of the Prophet did to them, the followers never gave in.  Some of the followers were hiding because of the fear of oppression, however, those who openly declared the truth, never gave in or reverted back to the Pagan tradition.

The physical torture was not the problem at that time for the physical torture started towards the 7 th year of the Prophetic message which was the beginning of the boycott period of three years.  At the end of the Meccan period, they started to plan to kill the Prophet.  At this stage of this section of the Quran, we are looking into psychological torture, which is also prevalent now in the world if we study the followers of any religion particularly Islam where people think that the followers of Islam are generally uneducated people. Let them entertain their thoughts for who shall take them seriously?! (Expelling someone from the land is a physical matter).  The bottom line, the worldwide culture is not taking the teachings of the Quran seriously and they do not consider it worthy of consideration.

104:1 “Wretched is every slanderer, backbiter.”

The translation of the original Arabic does not really say this because it is difficult to translate “humazah”(slandering) and “lumazah” (backbiting).  In Arabic, the slanderer and backbiter are active participles i.e., those who slander and backbite.  A noun form of the word is used here because the subject matter mentioned here has nothing to do with the person himself, rather we need to take into consideration the attitude of slandering and backbiting.  Whoever assumes this attitude is the slanderer and backbiter.  It is hard to imagine the abstract notion of slandering and backbiting unless it is put into practice. We understand that I am practicing slandering and backbiting, or he is practicing slandering or backbiting.

What kind of a mental and spiritual attitude are these people practicing towards the believers? 

The general content of this section of the Quran tells me that this backbiting has something to do with contrast or a conflict i.e., a psychological war between believers (believing in God, the hereafter and following the Prophetic message) and non-believers (don’t submit to God and never take Messengership into account because according to them, God is just creating the universe, nothing else).  We can see this attitude experienced around us, living with the notion that we live and die here, and it is impossible to explain how the universe exists without attributing it to a “beginning”.  That is, they say that there must be something who created and set the order of the universe and gave it motion, but now the world is working by itself.  This is a Deist worldview, a common term prevalent now.  Example: The founding fathers of America were all Deists i.e., believed in God, but they did not submit to Messengership.  They believe that we do not need any message from the Creator, we have our senses to decide what to do or not to do. This is our common problem now: The need for a Messengership for the people.

We may believe in God and our hearts may be fully satisfied that there must be a Creator, but what about the Messenger who brings God’s will down to us and introduces His will to us i.e., why and how He has created the universe and what His purpose is in creating this universe and especially human beings.  This message can only be revived through verbal guidance and explanation by a teacher who delivers it and practices it in his life.  As as soon as one believes sincerely in God, they must look for a messenger.  If the universe is created by a Conscious being, there must be a purpose in doing so and what is the purpose?  This is the main concern of human beings.  In other words, belief in God should subsequently follow what is the purpose of creating a wonderful universe and me with wonderful qualities.  I must learn the purpose because I have consciousness which requires for me a reason to live.

Do we do anything without any reason?  We may expect pleasure, to pass time, gain something or satisfy our expectations.  Whatever reason we may use as a catalyst to act, we start doing things accordingly and make our lives meaningful and worthy.  We find ourselves existing here with the universe, and as soon as we realize that there must be a conscious Creator who must have a reason to create the universe and therefore to create me as a conscious human being questioning the meaning in everything. We start living with a purpose.  Now, what is He expecting of me?  I must expect this Creator to explain it to me because when I look at the universe, I don’t see why I exist and what is the purpose in my existence?

I see that I am full of beautiful and magnanimous qualities and endless feelings that I experience within myself.  Do you think that the Creator of this universe who shows me signs that He is conscious by giving all these endless qualities to everything, will leave me alone without any guidance or explanation when my consciousness questions my purpose?  Impossible!  Regardless of one believing in a religion or not, there must be an explanation out there and I must look for it.  There must be    guidance but where is the guidance? I have feelings and my feelings somehow guess what is right and wrong, but they cannot know the purpose of my existence i.e., why do I exist? I must have been given existence by a Creator and this existence is continuously renewed and supported by new expositions and disclosures of the qualities of the Creator in front of me.  Here I am going through a journey of life where I experience wonderful different creations and I don’t know why?  Although I may say that I am a good man (I don’t lie, and I help people and I don’t steal), what is the purpose in not lying, not stealing? 

What is the purpose of being good to creations, plants, animals, the environment, and people?  I will die, perish away anyways even if God created me. I don’t know what will happen to me after I die without any clear explanation from the Prophets (the Creator’s employed messengers).  That is the main problem where I do not submit to the guidance that the prophet represents to me in my practical living. I must transfer his teachings to my living conditions.  The Conscious Creator must give me guidance that      must be practical to me in terms of my human life within the conditions of this universe.  That is why it is extremely important to relate ourselves to the existence of a Prophet/Messenger employed by God, presenting God’s will which will not contradict what I see in the universe and what I feel within my feelings.  These are the fundamental requirements of accepting and confirming the message and representation of a message by a person here on Earth.  That is the key point in one’s belonging to a religion.

One needs to be careful not to justify their adherence to Islam based on the fact that Prophet Muhammad (phub) was a very nice man.  That is not convincing evidence to me because there are many nice people in the world.  Prophet Muhammad (phub) needs to be followed because of the message that he brought to humanity from the Lord of the universe.  Now, what should I do with this guidance?  I must practice it.  How?  By following the practices of the one God appointed as his Prophet and we need to adapt it into our lives.  I need to transfer the guidance into my way of living, i.e., organize my way of living according to the guidance, that is what religion is all about.  Without a Prophet, even if someone believes in God, there is no religion (living by the Will of the Creator) for them.

  • Religion means a life pattern for me to follow, the reason for the existence of this universe as instructed by the conscious Creator of this universe.

Those people somehow feel confident in their following the Prophet, so they don’t revert and have submitted their lives to the Prophet himself.  What is this magical effect?  It may seem as such because the following culture is not the result of a conviction.  Just like the people who follow a certain fashion or the cultural way of life of their environment do so not because they are convinced.  That is, if something goes against their benefit, they wouldn’t do it.  Example: There are 2 sure things in the United States, tax and death.  If there was no penalty for not paying tax, what percentage of the population will pay tax?  Most people will not pay tax.  Similarly, if there was no physical and psychological enforcement, people may give up the cultural way of life because there is no responsibility.  Let’s say if everyone wears style A of clothing and another style B comes in which seems more appealing, people can choose to follow style B.  However, the people who choose to follow the message brought by Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), and whatever the requirements of the message are , they never give up and there is no enforcement on it, or power used over them (such as if you don’t do it, I will put you in prison).  Even now, when we pray, is there a punishment imposed on us for not praying?  No.  Who forces you to pray or fast?  No one, but I perform the acts based on my conviction.  Just like in our example of following style A of clothing, no one forces it, rather it is an unconscious choice i.e., subconsciously following the flood of the society.  If another style B comes up, one may follow this new one, which is a personal choice.   However, belief is not only a personal choice with no reason, but necessitates the responsibility which is the result of one’s conviction about the truthfulness of this way of life (not as a result of power or oppression over them).

That is why the chieftains got somehow jealous of the followers of the prophet Muhamad (phub) thinking how can they be so confident in their belief and never give in although there is no power over them forcing them to follow the Prophet?  As a chieftain, I have some power and benefit from society and satisfy my ego.  But these followers of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), have no such aims.  Who are they?  That is why they take the attitude of mocking them.  What is the criterion for them to take such an attitude?  Mostly, because of their status in society, they value fame, fortune, wealth and attribute goodness to themselves.

104:2 “Who amasses wealth and counts it [a safeguard]”

People who take such a jealous attitude (slandering, looking down on others or backbiting), they only live to accumulate wealth and keep counting it.  This means that wealth is the point of support for their attitude such as bragging about what they have and being proud of it.  Example: I am the President of a company, I went to an Ivy League school, I have a high status in the society, I am the leader of my organization, see how many people work for me, I am an accultured man…  One keeps counting their investments in order to have the feeling that he is in a superior position.  This personality gains their value from any kind of wealth they own. That is why they look down on those people because those people don’t have these values that they take as their point of support, neither wealth, status nor ruling power.  These are the protectors of the status quo of the society, not because they believe in it, they take pride in it thinking that this property gives them satisfaction and status, which becomes sacred for them.

Comment: why is it that the universe must have a purpose?

Example: A person knows that a dentist is an intelligent person and a professional in teeth.  Now, if this person goes to a dentist for a toothache and the dentist makes him follow certain steps, wouldn’t the dentist expect the person to obey him/her?  Yes.  Will the person obey the dentist?  Yes.
Similarly, if we are aware that whoever gave existence to this universe must have a purpose and I must follow it.  Even if it is a selfish purpose to satisfy one’s ego, that is a purpose.  There is always a purpose to something.  Let’s say you want to make money as a means for your living conditions, you wake up every morning and go to work.  Why do you work?  There must be a purpose.  Would anyone do something without any purpose?   No.  Similarly, if the One who created the universe by witnessing      the way the universe exists, demonstrates that the Source of Existence of this universe must be a conscious Being.  Can I say that a mountain is a stupid thing with no purpose in its existence?

Even the people who have a vague understanding of God (deists) say that the universe must have an Architect.  Obviously, everyone knows that this Architect cannot be unconscious because He is designing everything with purpose and intelligence.  Does an architect sit in the office and make a sketch of the project that he will plan without any purpose?  The Architect is imagining a plan which will have a state-of-the-art structure and design aligned with the conditions of the area and lifestyle of the people of that place.  Everything is architected with a purpose.

Look at your hands, don’t you see that there is a purpose in the creation of all your tools?  How about the purpose in the creation of your mind, feelings, and consciousness, the quality of your consciousness to ask questions about what am I doing here and what should I do here?  Don’t you look for a reason to do something (whether outwardly expressed or not), you are doing everything for a reason because of your consciousness and the quality of your reasoning?  These tools are given to you to extend your qualities of reasoning and consciousness so that you question the reason in the creation of this world.  And so, He must explain His reason to me because I cannot read His mind.

Comment: In other words, consciousness means to have meaning.

Yes, consciousness necessitates and therefore seeks the meaning.

Comment: Some of the Companions of the Prophet (pbuh) had a lot of wealth.

Having or not having wealth is not the point of our subject because wealth can be taken as a point of support.  The chieftains esteemed wealth and felt that they were valued for that because it gives a status and gave them the right to say something.  However, wealth does not have to be in the form of the property only, it can be in the form of knowledge, wisdom, beauty, skills, advice, and poetry.  Even the poets at that time were feeling superior over everyone else because of writing beautiful poetry.  It was also difficult for the poets to support the message of the Prophet because they could not compete with the Quranic eloquence and thus, were jealous and wanted to kill Muhammad.  Especially the early chapters of the Quran are so poetic that no one can challenge it.  The poets at that time stopped comparing their poems to the Quran because they felt defeated with this wealth (poetry) being challenged.  They could not accept it, who is this guy who has been with us for 40 years and we have never seen any quality in him to write a poem. He is a nobody, so how can he come up with such poetic messages that put our poems under the drain?”  This was one of the miraculous impacts of the Quran on society along with many others.  Therefore, wealth cannot be reduced to only property and money, but it could also be a high quality of profession and status in the governmental offices. They were proud of it.  Later, some wealthy people also joined the circle of the Prophetic mission.  Were they paying attention to the ethical values of being wealthy?  We don’t know their heart, but what we know is that they were helping convey the message with whatever means they had.  A good example is the Prophet’s wife Khadijah who was a very rich woman.  When she saw that the situation of the Prophetic message is getting worse with the boycott, she spent all her wealth to support the mission and helping the needy people overcome the boycott.  Was she proud of it?  No, because that goes against the teachings of the Quran and the message that people were submitting to.

104:3 “thinking that his wealth will make him live forever.”

Did the companions think that their wealth will make them live forever or gain a never-ending life and pleasure? Or is it in submitting to the Creator of the universe and following His will as He reveals gradually to them?  Whatever was revealed to the Prophet and these people, they followed it with no hesitation, and they were submitting their will to the will of the Creator. They were taught by the teachings of the Prophet that this world itself cannot be the purpose of their life, that the real purpose of their life is to be consistent within their spiritual understanding and follow the will of the Creator, practice and use their feelings within themselves given to them by their Creator and returning these feelings back to Its real source who is the Creator of the human beings and therefore the universe.

The companions were just submitting themselves and they understood that this Creator of the universe must be Absolute and Infinite, and you cannot describe Him with any attributes of this universe or the created beings.  He is the Creator of the universe (COU), so we have to be aware that the COU should not be of any quality of this created world i.e. He cannot be limited, bound to time-space, or has a beginning (i.e., all the concepts that we use in our experience of this world, He is not).  He must be Absolute and if He is Absolute then the eternal happiness lies in His existence as we attach our existence to Him.

The Quran keeps mentioning that everything will ultimately be returned to the Creator God is the ultimate inheritor of the universe.  What does it mean?  It means that the Inheritor says: “I am the Source of Existence (SOE) and everything is under my ownership, the act of creation is under my ownership and everything must come back to Me to have a Permanent Existence.  Only I can give a permanent existence because I am the only One who is infinite”.

That is to say, “returning back” means that if we attach our existence to Him, we will be with Him and taken back to Him and be given permanent existence by His infinite power, wisdom and knowledge, and all the qualities that you know.  If someone does not believe in God, he will still be given a permanent existence, but he will be deprived of God’s favor because he did not acknowledge God and he will be in a Hell position.  The verse describes the type of feelings when someone does not acknowledge that his being belongs to an Absolute Creator.  That is, your wealth, property, and the nobility status that you gain here only works until your die.  Since you did not return them back to their Creator, you will be permanently deprived of the benefits of these bounties.  You enjoy them temporarily here until you die.  Do you think that you and your property goes with you into permanent existence forever?  This is just an imagination, the property you have has no power in and of itself to sustain you and satisfy your eternal expectations.  Example: I have a comfortable house.  Is the house going to give me permanent pleasure and satisfaction?  Until I die, yes, which is temporary. If I did not acknowledge its Creator and say that this is Your gift to me, please give me permanent pleasure as your mercy because You are the source of pleasure, then I acknowledge that this house is just a temporary place that I live in until I die and one should face the consequence of it i.e. Hell. “Without Your mercy, I will be crushed in eternal despair”.  This acknowledgment is important otherwise I will think that the satisfaction comes from the property itself.

We can only entertain the temporary pleasure in this world and of course, we don’t think that everything we have is given to us not just for our temporary benefit because our feelings desire eternal happiness and satisfaction.  Can the things give us what our heart desires?  No.  The negligence of not acknowledging the reality makes you use your temporary wealth as a support of your life and existence.  They say I have value because of wealth.  The teaching of the Quran says that you have value if you acknowledge that this wealth is given to you by an Absolute being.  That is the main difference between believers and unbelievers.  Do they not know that this property is temporary?  Alas, they don’t acknowledge their need for eternity.  They want permanent satisfaction, but they cannot get it, that is the contradiction they are experiencing in their life.

104:4 “No Indeed!  He will be thrown into the Crusher.”

He will be pushed into a very depressing position.  We can understand in a traditional way, that he will be pushed into Hell.  It must be so, but how about here?  We must see whether it is true in my experience in this world so I can confirm that after I die, my Absolute Eternal Creator can and will do this.  In other words, if I acknowledge Him, then I will get eternal bliss from His Absolute Power and Mercy.

Who were the people who follow this message when it was revealed first?  Generally, the people with low socio-economic status.

What about you?  I have a family and some fame, with a title, and I have accumulated information as a learned man.  What will happen to you?  You will die.  They will leave you and you will leave them, end of things.

But what happens before I die?  If you are given wealth, then enjoy it.  We are not stones; we have consciousness which is called the human spirit or soul.  The soul reminds me in my feelings that I have certain properties, even more than what I need, and I am proud of them.  I am young and living but human feelings say that you will die one day and get old and need to be taken care of by other people and be dependent on them.  You will not be able to use your wealth because of illnesses and dietary restrictions.  Example: A 100-year-old person cannot walk properly and eat everything.  Now, I enjoy life, but I know that it is going to be taken away from me.  I will leave them, and they will leave me.  They are not loyal friends and protectors. This is just a temporary false source of satisfaction.  Do I have this feeling?  Impossible not to have this feeling!

If you don’t believe in God and submit your existence to an eternal being, it is inevitable not to be aware of this feeling.  Even if you try to forget it and give yourself to your work and make more wealth and gain higher professional echelon, don’t you know that all these things are temporary?

There is nothing wrong with liking the new models of things, but it all depends on the type of attitude we take towards the opportunities presented to us here.  Example: You love new cars.  In and of itself, loving cars is not evil, but you know that the time will come, and this car will go to the junkyard, and you don’t know when an accident will happen.  You even know that you may die in the crash.  Surely, we all will die.  It is wonderful and joyful to be driving a new car, it seems to be strong and working perfectly, but we don’t know when we get into an accident and the car will be destroyed completely or the car will lose its value soon.  How much trust can you put into the car?

  • That feeling is “khutamah, described in the verse as “the crusher”, a dramatic end.

Let’s say you are watching a movie where a young boy and girl love each other and get married, everyone is happily congratulating them, and then someone comes letting them know that you are happy now but never forget that one day, you will kill each other.  What do you mean?  Is my wife/husband going to kill me?  Yes. How do you know? As she gets old your love for her beauty will die away. Also, as we die, our property (beauty) and values will die as well as far as I am concerned.  We are both dead now.  How do you think this happy couple will look at each other and love each other?  Additionally, will you not hate the man who reminds you of death?  That is why people who do not want to submit to the truth hate the Messenger because he comes and warns that if you do not submit yourself to the Creator and take pride in your status and wealth, you will kill each other.

Can I love this messenger if I am obstinate and not willing to follow the message of the Creator of the universe?  I will hate this man because I do not want to submit to my reality, and he keeps bothering me with the warnings.

In any festive event, if you come there with a serious attitude and make a beautiful speech reminding the people of a warning, they will hate you: “if you don’t celebrate this marriage by acknowledging the Creator and that you belong to Him, and that you must get married and act in His Name and trust Him and expect all the pleasures from Him alone, then you will be crushed.  If the wife and husband expect pleasure from each other, remember that we will all die at the end, just as the previous people died.” What we should do by following the message is this: In the beauty of the spouse see the Creator’s Attributes and love His Absolute Beauty through your spouse’s beauty. Creational beauty is transient, but His Absolute quality is infinite.

  • The attendees of the festive gathering will say: “Come on man we came here to entertain ourselves, and you poisoned our pleasure.  Is it the time to remember death?”  Yes, it will not be wise to do such but at the same time our feelings and consciousness know it, this is the reality, and I cannot deny myself, it is there.  That is why we keep ourselves busy and become workaholics, drug addicts, or alcoholics because of not wanting to think of the future and just want to remain busy to entertain the daily activities.

We need to understand what “crushing” entails in order to understand the rest of this section of the Quran.  This is a vivid explanation of the psychological status of man who doesn’t submit to the Lord of the universe; if you are looking down at people with a sarcastic scorning attitude, backbiting and slandering about them, you will understand how the position of this man is devoid of his SOE.  We must be careful about this and we should not disregard people because of their low status in society.  Also, we must submit to the reality of our human side, for everything of this universe reminds us that this universe has a Conscious Creator, submit yourself and return your being and existence to Him.  Everyone will be taken back to Him, do I acknowledge this reality or not, accordingly I will be treated and taken in when I am taken back to Him?!




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