Chapter Kawthar – Part 1
The Quran, Chapter “abundance” (al-kawthar), Chronologically 15th revealed chapter of the Quran
We need to start building up our own understanding of the meaning of our existence and accordingly start making changes in our lives. Not an easy task but we need to try. These verses help one do that i.e. establish the foundations to live by the principles set up in creation by a One that brings your being into existence.
108:1 “We have truly given you abundance.”
Inna= truly;
These kind of language in the Quran is used to let the reader know that the evidence is definite and very clear i.e. within the grasp of our human potentiality.
Na= We
Human beings experience myriads of evidence in this universe and each evidence has different qualities pointing to its Creator. The Creator of the universe says: “Whatever qualities you see in creation, that quality belongs to me and I am speaking on behalf of those qualities manifestation of which you observe.” Just like a President makes a general discourse representing the general authority of the administrative body in an organization, similarly the qualities manifested in creation are the representatives of the Creator of the universe. Example: When you experience Mercy, it is acting on behalf of its Owner, the Creator of the universe.
Where is the authority in the universe?
Everything belongs to its Owner and every function in the universe belongs to its Authority. We experience various and endless qualities manifested in the universe (these qualities act on behalf of the Creator of the universe). It is as if the Creator of the universe says: “The Source of Existence of the qualities is me, but the things are speaking on my behalf”.
- Everything in the universe is like a royal message being delivered through delegates.
Open Challenge: You cannot attribute the qualities of anything in the universe to itself or something of this universe.
Our understanding of the concept of God: He is the Creator of the universe because every single quality in the universe can only belong to its Creator who is called, God alone.
- No one can deny that any quality of a bacteria, for example at a given instant belongs to something not of the nature of this universe i.e. the Creator of the universe.
Materialist scientist claim: Every single cause is the independent cause of its effect.
Every stage in the development of an organism is another stage in existence and they all need to exist within the newly created universe. My being is not dependent on its previous moment. The previous moment cannot sustain its own existence, so how can it give existence to the next moment? And here we are using language such as “I am growing/aging?” I do not even know what will happen to my body the next moment, so how can I claim such?
Everything in this universe is subject to the order of the universe and nothing here moves freely as it wants to. Who can challenge this? Also, the order of the universe continuously changes, not by itself but is subject to change. The order is continuously renewed. The order of the universe does not know the future. Do you think that yesterday was exactly the same as today? “Similarity” maybe misleading for us. Example: if you think that today I am similar to my being yesterday. That is my own misperception. If I am not carefully questioning the reality, then “similarity notion” deceives us. Ask yourself: “Am I exactly the same as yesterday?”
In my observation of the universe, I notice consistency. Every day is new and different. My particles do not know how they will change and fit within the order. The change in the order never becomes deformed. In other words, the order never becomes disordered. Orderliness (or change) is constant i.e. the quality of “continuous”, “perfection” and “smoothness” is constant. Order itself is not constant. These are important concepts to ponder over as we may lose ourselves in the development stages of things that A causes B.
- Change is constant, and change is taking place within an order.
- Nothing is essentially the same at every moment.
In my observation, I notice the act of creation is continuous and taking place within an order. In order to come into existence in new form, there must be some decision. Example: You come into this classroom and you always find the change in the furniture. You notice that the chairs are set up differently but perfectly orderly. The perfectly orderly part is always constant. Are the chairs changing their positions by themselves, is it at all possible? No. A Conscious Being is definitely interfering and giving shape to a new class design. Change is really our focus area which is constant.
- Just as my particles do not know how to change themselves so that it will fit into the new order. This is the golden rule to understand that the Creator must be Absolute.
Scientist claim that a line is made up of tightly closed connected dots. If that were the case, then each dot will have its independent existence. The fact of the matter is that in the existence of things, we cannot isolate one segment from another. It is a continuum and there are no dots, we do not experience the universe as dots, one moment after another. If our experience were a sequence of dots (dot means an instant independent existence), then it means that its Source of Existence maybe limited. It means that the Source of Existence has created this dot right now, which means that such a Source cannot be Absolute because It has created an independent existing dot from its preceding and following sequences of dots.
Let’s try to understand more about the Absolute as follows: Can you find the end of this macro world and state that this is the world with limits?
No, because this universe has no end to our experience. That is, every moment, new lights are coming from new galaxies. When you detect a new beam of light, it means that this light has been travelling from its first appearance in existence up until now for some billion years and has just arrived in this earth. When you reflect on this, you are bound to say and prostrate: Glory be unto the Source of Existence of this universe (allahuakbar!) This is a live speech.
Similarly, in the micro world, we cannot find the smallest sub-particle of matter. Existence has no end in both the micro and macro worlds. You cannot even find a dot in existence. What does this mean? Existence is continuous. In creation, there is no such thing as capturing pixels or fragments of a moments like you can do with a camera. So amazing! This is a must if the Source of Existence is Infinite with all its qualities. That is why we cannot read scripture to its literal meaning as it becomes self-contradictory. For example: the verse, “when He wills a thing, He says Be (kun)”. People may say that the things already exist and are happening like dots i.e. be like this by understanding it literally. We cannot read the Quran from the Absolute’s perspective, rather the Absolute is speaking to me to guide me to interpret what I observe in the creation.
Comment: I measure things for myself from my perspective, just like a rate for capturing frames per second. However, when it comes to concluding “infinite”, I say an Absolute One that is bringing things into existence.
That is why we use “infinite”, which means the confession of human beings with the inability to measure infinite with any number. Infinite is a constant, not like Mathematicians which give limits to infinite and say that they call infinite the things that we cannot measure within the universe. However, right now, under the light of this verse, we are referring to something not part of this universe.
Some great thinkers say that Absolute is not different than saying infinite. In order to make the difference between what we observe in the universe (infinite) and what we conclude as a result of our observation (Absolute), we give names to concepts according to the way we define it.
- My capacity to observe only sees things within my capacity of measurement in series of dots. What I conclude about this universe according to my capacity is that this universe consists of a series of dots. Since I cannot get to the end of one dot to separate it from another dot, then my conclusion is that the Source of Existence must be Absolute in every sense.
We cannot imagine Absolute (God) because you cannot put it in a framework and you cannot put a limit to it. I cannot imagine anything which has no limit, but that does not mean that I cannot conclude the Necessity of the Source of Existence of what I am concluding here.
- Act of creation does not consist of dots. It is continuous.
- God is alpha (awwal) and omega (aakhir).
- We can only symbolize infinite with graphing a set of integers.
We have no capacity to experience infinite, but we have the capacity to comprehend the concept of infinite such that I cannot quantify it. Fundamental Muslim theology: “To believe in God means to believe in its incomprehensibleness by us”.
- If you say that I can comprehend the essence of God, then that is not God.
- But I can understand that the Source of Existence of this universe must be incomprehensible which means Absolute. That is belief in God.
That is why belief in God in the Quran is described as believe in “ghaib” as being incomprehensible nature of what I conclude to be Absolute. i.e. the Necessary Existence of a Source of Existence.
إِنَّمَا أَمْرُهُ إِذَا أَرَادَ شَيْئًا أَنْ يَقُولَ لَهُ كُنْ فَيَكُونُ
Qur’an, (36): 82 “His Being alone is such that when He wills a thing to be, He but says unto it, “Be,” so it is.”
Again, the above verse most commonly misunderstood: is an instant act of creation, but we cannot observe it in this universe. So, what is the meaning of this verse then? It means bringing into existence something which did not previously exist. This act of creation is realized as a result of willing (irada), not action.
I see act but in fact there is no act but will. How is the universe coming into existence as a result of action (you see something doing something on it) or the universe is coming into existence as a result of will? The universe is coming into existence as a result of a Conscious Will, must be so but I observe action which is continuous and without any fragments or gaps.
- Creation is taking place as a result of willing, not action.
Example: the Quran mentions “zarra” as the smallest sub-particle and leaves it up to you to investigate and define “zarra”. In creation, this “zarra” is never limited. When I draw a line using dots, I can see the dots under a microscope. However, when it come to the existence of the universe, we cannot conclude or measure it with fragments or dots.
People understand language within their own capacity.
“A’tayna” means giving completely free with nothing in return.
- Whatever the infinite gives is infinite.
“Kauthar” means Paradise i.e. never-ending existence. What does it symbolize for me here? I have not been in Paradise, this is impossible for me to confirm. But I am given endless quantities of things here.
“Abtar” means cut off i.e. it has a limit, which is the opposite of “kauthar”.
Hadith: The Prophet said that “kauthar” is between my pulpit and house.
What does it mean? Prophet (PBUH) must mean something. The Prophet always spoke with figurative language so that it is understandable by people according to their capacity and you can further extend on the meaning.
- What does “pulpit” represent in the mission of the Prophet?
- Conveying “the message” or teaching people. Sitting high while teaching means that the message is coming from a “High Being” and of great importance to your existence. Without a message, you may exist as a living being i.e. just between life and death.
- When going up high and delivering the message, one has to declare God’s message, not his own idea, knowledge or capacity. That is what “sermon” or “khutbah” means.
- The Prophet is just conveying the message of the Authority. He is not saying: “I am better than you and I am going to instruct you.”.
- What does “house” represent?
- Going to private life.
- Get the message, practice the message and experience “kauthar” in your personal life.
- Then, you will experience “a’tayna” (the freely given) “kauthar” i.e. my existence is free, practicing ability is free…what have I done to get existence and abilities? And, existence must be coming from an Absolute Source, it must be given infinitely.
Quran addresses everyone when it says “you”. Just as through the microphone, billions of people can listen to something, similarly, the Quran speaks to everyone through the Prophet (microphone in the analogy). Any people who turns his radio, receives the message. This does not negate the importance of the microphone at all.
- The Quran addresses the Prophet in order to transfer the message to everyone.
When you listen to this verse, you should exclaim: “God has given me abundance.”
- My existence belongs to the Absolute One, and it is described in this verse as “kauthar.”
- Kauthar/Paradise is between getting the message and practicing it: “I belong to the Absolute One is my identity. My pleasure, comprehension… belong to the Absolute One which has no end.” What bothers you then?
We think that “belonging” means belonging to a community or lineage. In Islamic teaching, there is no last name i.e. belonging to a family. You only say: “son of John”, that is it. The idea is that you do not belong to anything of this world. You only belong to the Infinite One that declares: “I have given you everything, you belong to Me”. It means all the property in the universe belongs to the Absolute One. “Abundance” (kauthar) means that you can never get despair i.e. if I cannot get this one, then I will get that one. I can realize this by becoming aware that I belong to the Absolute One. As a human being, my spirit desires infinite, not something of this world which is limited.
Analogy: Would you want your eye sight to go bad in 70 years? No. You ask for more years, and then more. This means that human desires have no limit. You can only satisfy your existence by being aware that you belong to the Absolute. “Only believers are saved from any trouble and worries”. Who are they? Muslims? There is no identification by birth in Islam. After you grow out of your parents’ home, your duty is to decide what you belong to. I belong to the Owner of the universe, not the community or family (in practical sense), but we need to be aware about this ideologically.
We need to clean our mind because it is polluted. We need to try to understand the message of the Quran with no limit as far as our capacity is concerned.
Tags: Abundance, Al-Kawthar, Free, Kawthar Series, Paradise, Source of Existence