92:8 “But as for him who is niggardly and thinks that he is self-sufficient.”
We usually think of niggard as someone who is not generous or someone who is a penny pincher. Even if one was to have this attitude, in this attitude lays a sense of ownership. Being niggard implies that I am the source of something. If someone says that I am the source of something, s/he is implying that I am self-sufficient. In other words, wealth belongs to me and I do whatever I want with it. This self-centric attitude is a false claim. How can things originate from you? Everything originates from something else not me. I am just using it. All is given to me. My life does not belong to me. It is given to me.
Passive voice: I am given things. If I am given, then what has given it to me?
However, the Quran needs to be read for its purpose whose message has nothing to do with teaching us about the material goods pertaining to this creation only. The message of the Quran answers my human questions:
- Why do I exist?
- Why are my human qualities given to me?
We are different individual creatures as far as the material difference or the body form/structure is concerned. If I refer my existence to an Absolute Source, then everything comes from the same source and there is no difference between you and I. If the Source is Eternal, then I get my light reflected in my mirror and you get the same light reflected in your mirror. Our mirrors are different, but the light reflected in my mirror is not different than the light reflected in your mirror. Some people say that we are multitudes in our material existence and we are one in our spiritual existence. Our spirit belongs to one sun. This sun emits light everywhere at the same time. This One is present in your being and at the same time It is present in my being. I should not separate myself (my existence or need) from you.
Your ability, capacity to understand/evaluate, sharing your feelings, if you have thought about something, sharing with others, these are real human relationships. The material relationship is like a farmer taking care of the animals. If I am taking care of my bodily need only, then I amare treating myself like an animal. No one needs guidance as far as taking care of the physical side is concerned. The body’s needs are automatically taken care of within its intrinsic nature. Niggardly has to do with one’s human side, not material side. Example: orphan is someone whose humanity is not under protection. Does not need father and mother to develop or take care of his/her human needs.
Quran talks about the wealth of human values. As we are human beings, 99% of our existence is concerned with our human side and 1% is concerned with our animal side. Give me the food but do not treat me as an animal. We just need food temporarily today. If you say that I am sharing this with you in my own name, then do not give me. That is not the objective of the Quranic teaching. Unfortunately, human body is taken care of 99% more than human spirit is taken care of.
Again, read the Quran for its purpose, rather than the secular understanding of the world. The Quran is the Speech of God to make the distinction between right and wrong as far as human capacity is concerned with his/her own existence: “Why do I exist? What am I expected to do in this world? Why are all these human qualities given to me, for what?” Quran says, I will tell you now. As far as the body needs are concerned, go to any Atheist secular school and they will tell you the same thing: Go and feed the poor. They do not need revelation for that. Example: do you need anyone to encourage you to help someone hungry? You do not need extra guidance to act according to your human nature.
- One word from the Quran needs to be read within the whole context of the Quran according to the purpose of the Quran.
- Quran cannot be understood according to the definition of the dictionary.
Our duty in this world is to question our own existence. Why am I here? Every morning when you wake up, question: Why am I here? When you are eating, question, why am I eating? When you are breathing, question: why am I breathing? Why am I put in this position? As a human being, I understand that something else has put me in this position to understand what my origin of existence is. Why do you think that It gave me existence because I do not exist by myself, that is so obvious? What It is creating this moment? Why am I in this position now? What am I expected to do? When you start questioning the Origin of your existence, you start considering that you must use all your human qualities to acknowledge the Origin of Existence and get familiar with it. In the language of the Quran, it says that my Creator created me to worship It alone. It means do not attribute anything given to you to anything else but its Origin. Use it not as yours but Its. When you use someone else’s property, you use it according to his/her will. Not yours. Why did It give it to you? What am I going to do with It? Example: I am angry, I am excited, I am worried, I want to love… Why are these senses given to you? To be always happy or excited or annoyed? Is that the purpose of your existence? Let’s say you have worries about the future. Everyone has endless worries. Why is the sense of worrying given to you? To worry about your job? Why do you have this sense? To wait to get it and not get it and die? Can it be the purpose of your existence? Can it be the existence of the sense of your worries? Is it worth it? If you are going to die at the end anyways, then why do you bother about worrying about them? These are all means of acknowledging who the Giver of the sense of worry can be and what I am going to do about it. I need to use my:
- Created-ness
- Neediness
- Helplessness
- Impotence
If these senses are from me, then I cannot do anything, let alone move one finger on my own. What does it mean? I am impotent, but all my senses and tools are all given to me, why? The One who created enabled me to use my fingers, for what? To hold, type…, what am I going to do with it? I will die. My body is going to rot, why do I bother?
Body is just a vehicle for us, through the body experiences we realize who we are as human beings. We realize that we are impotent, needy and everything is given to us to accomplish the purpose of our expectations in this world. Body will disappear and at the end you will die. While driving, purpose is to reach the destination. When you reach the destination you do not need the car anymore. The car is left behind. What is the destination, where am I going? Where is my humanity going? Humanity has infinite capacity. How can I use this infinite capacity? To consume it, finish it for 60 years of time. Isn’t it a shameful thing to do? If you want to reach the destination, you have to put gas in the car, gas has nothing to do with your creation, that is how you are created. Never attach your purpose to the car but to the destination. We keep forgetting it!
I need to have the car to go and reach the destination. Quran does not give us information about maintaining the technical side of the car. It tells me only about the destination, what is your destination, why are you going there, what are you going to do when you reach there?
Body is restricted to 60 to 80 years, but your mind, emotions, feelings, spirits and concerns go endlessly, and you cannot stop it. The potentiality given to us is endless. What am I going to do, to know the Source of Origin of these senses and affiliate myself with It, not the body. It is not worth it. It does not mean that you should not put gas in it, but it is not your destination. Your aim is where am I going? I need guidance to know where am I going? If you need guidance about the car, go to a mechanic. What is automatically created in us is mechanical.
God does not speak twice (one is creation and the other is verbal explanation where it is needed). Reading the Quran for the purpose of what is automatically recorded in our being. One of the attribute of God is: Creator does not create anything in vain (Arabic “abass”). That is, what is already there and needs to be discovered after being taught. Human side needs to be discovered. I go to school and I am taught what I do not know. Revelation teaches me what I did not know.
Get rid of the cultural crust. Make the religion as belonging to God alone (mukhliseen). Future of the world will turn into humanitarianism. Does anyone tell you who brought you into existence?
92:9 “and calls the ultimate good lie.”
If I think that I am self-sufficient and that everything belongs to me and what I earn is mine, then I do not acknowledge anything wrong in my life. It means that I am perfect. In our practical life, we have some sort of problems. The problems are coming from outside such as because of family background, because of treatment of siblings… Go to a therapist, they ask: can you please tell me your childhood stories? What they do is assign association to those events. Example: Because of your life conditions, you developed negative attitude, that is why you cannot control it now and it is not your fault because you are self- sufficient. Because of political situation, expectations of your family… that you are under stress. Everyone is prone to claim to be self-sufficient, so they will feel comfortable assuming that they are sinless. Example: in the society, they are putting me under pressure, my parents fought in front of me and I was under the effect of this and now I cannot choose with my freewill and I am under the influence of this.
Tracing the chain from accusing your father to him accusing his father, and so on, the first guilty man is “Adam”, who committed the sin. Curse on Adam, that is why God got angry with him and threw him out of Paradise. Isn’t that the original sin? I am perfect and all the good is from me and I am trying to do my best. This is the blood of the secular society. They love the idea of original sin. All Hell is created in Paradise. I am under depression because of this. It is not my fault. Adam committed the sin and Jesus came to take us out of it. Adam was the worst man, but Jesus came to suffer for me. What is the relationship? Who is Adam? Adam is guilty, and Jesus is pure and came as an aspect of spirit of God. Interpretation upon interpretation, trying to make up some formula. If you go astray, you go into another danger and trinity comes out as an explanation to theological problems. This is messing up everything and it is completely unrelated.
Everything we go through is all about checking ourselves, just like in a mirror. A famous scholar once said: two things never tell a lie, mirror and weighing machine.
Everything created by God is good is the fundamental teaching of the Quran. We must understand if that is true. What we do is by disowning bad choices by us and attributing it to others or sources, we are denying the goodness in the creation of God. We do not realize this. We keep complaining that I am under depression and unhappy. Whatever is created for you or if someone has the attitude of verse 9 here, calling everything ultimately a lie, then we are blaming the Creator and purifying ourselves by blaming other creatures that it was their mistakes, not me. Of course, there is no goodness here. Quran is clear and simple. We are talking about the general contradiction of the Muslim community as contradicting the teachings of the Quran. We must wake up!
Why do we find it difficult to understand the Quran? Mostly due to our prejudices and cultural biases which is not the reality at all.
If you deny the beauty in every sort of creation, just as the storm outside, which we need it, then we are criticizing its Creator. We need to be reminded constantly. Same goes with the creation of illness, it is a reminder calling us not to contradict our reality. If you deny the creation of anything because of your wrong attitude, will you have a happy life by denying and throwing the responsibility on Jesus or Adam? “Purify the evil in the existence of mankind”. These are external slogans because within yourself, you do not do anything. If you blame the outside world, you will never solve your problems within yourself and trouble will never be cured.
92: 10 “and we shall facilitate a difficult end for him.”
You will never get out of trouble unless you concentrate on your own bad interpretation of existence. If you deny the goodness in the creation of everything, you will suffer eternally until you die and following life. It is real and automatic result of my choice and I will never feel peace in my existence. Why? This is Mercy of my Creator.
Let’s say there is a problem in Peter’s lung and he is coughing. Pain killer will not cure it. If you do not go and really understand the source of the disease where you interpreted the beautiful creation as bad happening from outside because the One who created that thing is responsible for it, not me and I am perfect. Can you cure your problems? Secular psychology never cures any problems because it does not go to the heart of the problem which is our own interpretation of existence. They give you some pills, but the pain is still there.
Responsibility is on you. Concentrate on your freewill, how do I use it to get the best interpretation of what I am given? That is my responsibility, I must interpret it.
How about my responsibility to interpret this event? If you do not put the seed under the soil, the seed needs to dissolve in the soil so that the shoot comes out. You must go to the heart of the matter yourself. Has anyone not received any hardships? Pharaoh did not suffer any illness in his/her life. When Moses came, he suffered. Quran’s message is clear, and people unite with each other to support the truth because truth hurts so they must unite. Pharaoh said that Egypt is my land and I am Lord of this land. When Moses challenged him, and he could not defend himself, he said to his nobles that he is going to take over your country. Do you see the trick using “your”? What is important here is the message, not the historical part. Unbelievers do the same thing. I own this. When truth comes, they say let’s vote against this man. This is the reality and heart of the matter is analyzing the Quran. Never think of the Quran in terms of physical happenings in history. Take the message and apply it to yourself.
If you deny the best truth, you must suffer for your denial because God does not let you go astray or out of your path. If you go under the rough land while on the straight path, they say you must come out of it and not proceed. God always remind us what we are doing wrong. He does not say that I forgive you. He forgives if you acknowledge it. If you do not acknowledge it, He keeps reminding you and bringing the same problem from another aspect in order to wake you up that you are doing something wrong.
92:11 “What will his wealth avail him when he goes down [deteriorate]?”
Your school period is over. That is, if you do not complete education, they say no more education for you i.e. out of school. When you go out of school and if you are not successful i.e. if the wealth you thought was yours (your real human qualities i.e. thinking, reasoning, emotions, feelings, intelligence, human concerns…whatever is given to you, it is created by God in order to help you understand what you are doing in this world, it is a vehicle given to you), then all these human qualities will have no benefit to you when you are dismissed from school. You do not get the degree and certificate. “But I had intelligence” you will say, and yet you did not use it. You cannot use it again because you are out of school, it means “death”. School is the universe and we are students here. We have an appointed time. When I am taken out of school, all these human properties that are given to me can no longer be used.
“If only I went back to school,” you will have no room then. No one is without any problems in the world. Even the Prophet had problems with his enemies. So, what are you complaining about? What is wrong with you? No one is attacking you? Whatever fruit you want, get it. What are we doing for God’s sake!?
“I repent 70 times a day” is known to be a Prophetic reflection. Famous saying: “the prayers of uneducated people is the sin for the one who knows the reality”. In other words, if the Prophet prays like me, he will be ashamed of his prayer. He is asking for forgiveness for the things that we think we are doing good. That is why everyone asks for forgiveness at his own level. There is no one in the world not going under training to make distinction between right and wrong.
If you read the Quran according to the purposes of the Quran, you go the best way. This class is about the methodology i.e. how to read the Quran. Without methodology, you cannot study anything. Quran has its own purposes unique to itself, you cannot compare it to anything else. When it says husna (beauty), it means to see beauty in worst things that ego does not like.