Chapter Mursalat – Part 5

77:11 “When the messengers are each appointed a time!”

In our practical life, we must bring the presence of the messenger in our life keeping in mind that all the messages that God sends to us are represented in the form of a human life within the real-life conditions.  The messages are represented by a living person, a human being, living in exactly the same way as you and me.  Only, on exceptional occasions, was he given a miracle.  Most of his life were real life conditions that we can all relate to, and so, we can perceive the message of God as being practical to our life conditions.  

The message of the Quran is mostly in abstract, allegorical, and metaphorical sense, within examples of situations.  The message in the stories of the Quran has something to do with our perception of the realty of our existence.  Very few messages are related to the practical and social life of the human being, such as the rights of human beings and how to behave in this world (consists of only 3%).  Most of the message of the Quran mostly consists of abstract notions to teach us how to behave in this world as a believer as far as our human consciousness of our existence is concerned.  In other words, if we don’t believe, then which kind of life will we be living in this world.  These are all psychological analysis, and through these analyses, the Quran helps to establish a worldview, i.e., how do we see existence and how do we see life?  That is important to notice, because we need practical guidance, and how can I or going to apply these abstract notions in my practical life?  Example: What should I do in this world as a believer in God, and the hereafter, i.e., what should I do in this life with this belief?  This is the missing part of the teaching that we usually do not hear about in religion.  We talk about the practical side of the rituals, such as what are the conditions of praying, fasting, and going on pilgrimage.  There are thousands of books published out there, and the scholars teach the practical things (much needed, and we must learn).  However, the main concern of the Quran is different, (yes including all this, which makes 3% of the Quran).  The 97% of the Quran is heavily concentrated on the reality of the world, the reality of the human side, the reality of our preparation to meet the eternal God and getting ready to experience the eternal infinite existence.  

How can I get ready here for an eternal life?  By training, educating and preparing my soul, this is the most essential thing. How can I bring belief into my practical life apart from practicing rituals (which is an essential part of my belief)?  Similarly, how can I believe in this world as a believer in the existence of angels, God’s determining?  How can I adjust myself here if everything is eternal by God, what should I do here?  What am I going to do with my free will and according to which criteria am I going to use my free will?  How can I prepare my soul and feelings to get ready for an immortal life in the hereafter?  These are the most fundamental matters, along with the moral/ethical values that are mentioned as well in the Islamic literature, and in certain kinds of tradition, ethical values are so emphasized.  Still, human values do not include how to live in this world as a believer in the hereafter and the revelation/book: “Yes, I believe in the book and the message that it conveys, I am convinced about it because there is enough evidence in it that I am convinced and confirm here that there must be resurrection and there must be a permanent life in the next creation.  Yes, I believe in it, but how can I live with it?”  We think that the Prophetic life is not related to our lives.  This part of the teaching of the Quran, accompanied by the Prophetic practices is the missing point.  It is possible to see and observe the life of the Prophet through the narrations of his physical actions by paying close attention behind the belief of these physical actions, this needs to be studied because it is missing in Islamic literature.  Example: The Prophet prohibited to do something.  What does it have to do with my belief in God, Angels, the hereafter?  These are just physical actions.  They are interesting topics mentioned in the Quran, but we lack to refer to what is behind these physical actions, preference of the prophet offering the people to do certain things.  In other words, which kind of belief system influences and affects the Prophet so that he says to do something or not.  The Prophet was the first person who received the message and put it into practice.  How can I put most of my life into practice, bearing in mind that one day the whole universe will be destroyed?  I know that the universe cannot sustain on its own and exist by itself.  What should I do with this?

Example: The Prophet advising eating with your right hand, what does it have to do with doomsday, believing in Angels and the Hereafter?  These aspects of the teachings of the Quran and the practice of the Prophet are not studied as they deserved to be.  These studies really need serious concentration and a group of people must come together and investigate the gist of the Quranic teachings.  What does the physical things have to do with the belief system that the Prophet introduces to us?  It is high time for people to team up and study these subjects.  Unfortunately, people do not see the relevance of the teachings of the Quran in their living conditions.  “Yes, I believe in God and the Prophet, who asked us to respect the parents and every creature, these ethical matters are right but what does it have to do with my belief in God and the Hereafter”?  How can I relate the teachings in the Quran to educating my feelings?  This needs to be studied deeply.  The Muslim community has over a thousand years of concentration on the rules of rituals (libraries are full of such books), however, very rarely would we find any book on belief matters i.e., how can I apply the rules of the rituals to my belief in God.  

77:11 “When the messengers are each appointed a time!”

The Prophets are present with me right now, and in the Hereafter, the Prophet will be with me as well, must be so.  In other words, I must experience the Prophetic presence in this world so that I will be able to confirm the message and the messenger in my consciousness and the feelings, only then can I present myself with this capacity in the Hereafter.  As a result, I will not be able to say that the Prophet did not tell me.

How can I live with the belief in Prophethood in my practical life right now?

Do not make it simple by saying that we must follow the sunnah and then just follow the physical rules without any awareness of one’s existence, rather look into and follow the belief system that the Quran teaches behind these physical activities.  We are familiar with some belief aspects such as while praying, one must realize their life conditions in this world, and how can I communicate with my Creator in prayer, how can I present my reality, need and understanding to my Creator?  This is discussed amongst the Muslim community, however, the belief aspect of our practical actions such as transactions in my relationships with other people, community life, administrative matter, political matter, and judicial matters, practical court actions and execution of the rule passed by the people are missed and not under discussion.  If you have any energy to do something, concentrate on these subjects and make it your profession, rather than concentrating on religious studies subjects in general.  You may use the social sciences subject and try to indulge on one point of belief aspects, which is challenging to do not only in the Western culture, but also in the Eastern culture (where scholars will think that you are innovating something for there has been no substantial studies on belief matters for you to take as a backbone.)

When I concentrate on the belief side of my existence, only then will I understand how I can make an appointment with the Prophet while I am living here, although the physical body of the Prophet is “dead”.  Belief in the Prophethood must be present in my life.  Yes, following the sunnah of prayer and fasting are essentials but not enough.  We must bring the Quranic concepts into these physical actions that need to be studied.

Comment: How do you connect any Prophetic sunnah of rituals to the Hereafter?  How can we make our everyday life journey with the awareness of God, the Angels, the Prophets, and the Hereafter?  Can we start with a model of thinking to reflect on?

We first need to come up with a theoretical model of thinking and how to relate the practical side of religion to the belief background.  This needs a great scholarship beyond our capacity.  We must understand that we are not aware that we are missing this dimension of the teachings of the Quran, God’s religion.  My mission and responsibility as a human being is only to bring this belief aspect of the Prophetic teachings into my life i.e., this aspect of the Quran has been neglected for a thousand years.  It does not mean that we cannot say anything about it or have a special session about it i.e., the theory must be established first and it needs a great scholarship from thousands of groups of people studying it.  It must awaken the Muslim mentality and Islamic emotion.  Example: let me encourage my children to pursue these studies or let me establish a school where we focus on belief matters, rather than learning to read the Arabic script of the Quran.  Our responsibility is to awaken the younger generation on the belief aspects of the teachings of the Quran, which have been neglected.  It does not mean that we can never get any idea from the Quran about belief matter, rather we get a vague underdeveloped understanding without a model of thinking (consisting of pieces of some ideas here and there, mostly speculation about whether something is possible to be said.)

Comment: Do you mean metaphysical teachings on why we have rituals?

We need to define what metaphysical means.  There is no physical thing here in the universe, everything is nothing but meaning.  Metaphysics reminds the people of something out of this universe, however, belief in God is in this universe, while I am living here.  Practically speaking, we define this universe as a physical being.  Physical being is nothing but the execution and activity of the Angels. That is one of the items of this theoretical model of thinking.  Firstly, we must change our mind.  We say that everything is nothing but only matter.  The Quran says that everything in the universe is a sign, and everything is made and glorifies God (tasbih of God).  How can you say that everything is only “matter”?  Matter is given consciousness and there is no consciousness to be found in this universe.  Our mind is conditioned by certain terminologies such as Divine, animate, metaphysical, ritual…

Everything is nothing but the speech of the Creator declaring His qualities.  These kinds of terminologies are to be used carefully.  There are no separate rituals in metaphysical form.  My life is a ritual, what do you mean by ritual?  Do you think that my sitting is not a ritual?  The Quran says that while you are lying, you make remembrance of God and reflect on the creation of the universe.  It is the most essential ritual to glorify God.  In some parts of the Quran, it says, remembrance of God is more important than praying.  What does it mean?  It means that we must remember God even while lying in bed.  

• We must be careful not to borrow any loaded terminology presented to us by any kind of civilization.  
• We must look at every word from the Quranic perspective.  

There is no inanimate being for me as far as the Quranic teaching goes, everything is alive and glorifying/praising God always.  In practical terms, we do use these terminologies.  However, we must be careful that when we are talking about them, we must be aware of its meaning.  That is how the Quran must be brought into our practical life in its totality via the practical things that we do (praying, giving charity, pilgrimage… these are the 3% of the Quran), it pertains to belief matters. 97% of the teachings of the Quran are ignored.  

In the Quran, God speaks, how does God speak?  How do you know?  Is He speaking now?  Is it a written book?  How can I make it speak to me?  Example: While I am driving the car, I must hear the voice of God speaking to me in many aspects, not only as melodious recitations on my phone, rather the concepts, teachings, and the presence of the Speech of God must be with me, present in my life.  At least we must realize that this is the missing dimension of the teachings of the Quran over 1000 years.  Other people also mention belief matters, but their voices are not publicized enough for the common people to hear.  We mostly hear superficial things.  We must learn how to question and investigate the terminologies that we use and have learned so far.  

• At least start and realize: “O God we have neglected Your Speech to a great extent, and we did not appreciate your speech and guidance the way it deserves to be and taken seriously.”  At least, let us ask for forgiveness.”  In order to ask for forgiveness, we must first be aware of what is lacking in our relationship with the speech of God.  

Comment: Some say that “bring worship to life,” but here, we are learning “to bring life to worship.”

We need to take our entire life and turn it into worship, i.e., the awareness of the principles of belief, which we have been educated in the Quran, even the stories of the Prophets serves as belief education for us.  Now, how can I really educate my feelings?  The stories are examples.  I have many tendencies and how can I manage with my tendencies according to the belief in God, Angels, Hereafter, Determination and Messenger?  How can I adjust it?  That is something that we must write down and study seriously.   We should not make any divisions with our religious life and worldly life. “
“Wordly life” needs to be turned into “religious life” through living according to the belief in God, angels, revelations, prophets, eternal life. 

Every part of the universe continuously declares God’s glory and praises Him.  It means that everything is alive and there is no division of animate/inanimate being.  This is a secular division in Biology inherited from Greek Philosophers about the division between animate/inanimate, nothing to do with the created world and how the Creator describes the universe.

Comment: The most important aspect of benefitting from the Quran is to understand that the Speech of God speaks to me here and now.  We need the Messengers to apply the belief into our practical life, but what does it mean by “appointed time” in the verse under discussion?

In the Quran, the word “yaum” or time is used in a non-specific way.  In one place, it is 50, 000 years, another place, it represents a momentary existence, which has nothing to do with the solar system, or the day as related to our practical life.  What is the appointed time for me when I decide to choose something?  How does the act of my choosing happen?  The universe will not mean anything if there were no messengers (prophets and angels) bringing guidance of the Creator to me in the form of human beings.  I must have the presence of this concept of meaning/messages in my life, if I don’t, then I miss the appointment with the prophet.  

I say that this world consists of matter, air, mountains… Rather, with the presence of the Messengers, this is the world consisting of Angels, continuously executing the command of the will of the Creator, glorifying Him and every single being declares His glorification and says that my Creator is nothing but an Absolute Being with Absolute qualities in order to give existence.  “O human being, you must understand that Your Source of Existence must be Absolutely Powerful, Knowledgeable, Designer, Decorator and dying the things and Beautifier…  Nothing in the world is without any decoration.”  

Get out of the high-rise buildings to the park and you will see that everything is decorated, all the qualities of the Creator are manifested everywhere.  That is how the presence of God must be with us, this God is educating me i.e., the universe is a school, the way the universe is coming into existence is the teachers, they are teaching me who my Creator is.  The way the teacher is coming is demonstrating Himself to me and the Prophets are the instructors as human beings, representing how we are expected to live in this world.  They are presenting themselves as a human being within the consciousness of the presence of this God, and His guidance through how they are interacting with the people, other creatures and organizing their lives, that is how they express themselves.

Hadith: The wife of the Prophet tells that when the Prophet came to the house/room, she saw that his face changed, and she realized that something is up.  Then, the wife asked him as: “O Messenger of God (not as O my husband), what makes you unhappy?  Being a husband is a messenger of God, being an administrator is a messenger of God, being a commander-in-chief is a messenger of God.  They say: “ya Rasool Allah”, being a commander is being a messenger of God.  As a messenger of God, he is representing to us how a commander in chief should act according to the constructions of God?  We must pay attention to this.  A wife does not say, O my husband, rather ya Rasool Allah, what makes you unhappy?  Without going into the details of the narration, we should notice that the Prophet (peace be upon him), did not say anything or criticize a person, he just expressed how he felt on his face, maybe unconsciously because he realized that something was wrong.  Something was wrong not according to his human taste, but according to the instructions of God.  This means that God did not like it, so too He did not like it.   In other words, he is reflecting God’s will in his behavior and respecting the other people, because they do not know, for he is the instructor who must teach them.  If you blame them or accuse them for something that they did which was wrong, while they did not know (they are all students like you and me), then that goes against the will of the Creator.  This is the way the Prophet behaved.  

Now I am asking myself, if I say something which makes me uncomfortable, do I have this delicacy of behavior in my life, rather than accusing the person?  Just reflecting my feelings freely (unconsciously) and exposing that feeling to my behavior, so that the people (if they are aware of it) will ask me, what happened?

These are the delicate things that we need to consider.  When the presence of the Prophet is with you, that is the appointed time.  When I miss it, then I miss the appointment.  That is how it is going to be here in this universe.  As a result of this education, and preparing my feelings here, after my spirit is separated from my body, my soul needs another body to operate according to the level it reached in its belief in Absolute (ghaib) or belief in the Absolute world.  This belief cannot be experientially practiced within the conditions of this world because there is no straight and clear manifestation of the Absolute world in this world; we only see that the things are hidden behind the veil of the order of the universe as if things are operating by themselves.  The metaphorical hand/will of the Creator is not apparently and clearly manifesting itself here and the human eye cannot see it, but the human consciousness can see it and the intellect can grasp it. The human mind can read it, the human consciousness realizes it and the spirit learns it.  Therefore, the human spirit needs another type of body to practice this level of realization, called “resurrection/hereafter” (akhira) or a new creation (khalqun jadeed).  In that new creation, I will have an appointment with the Messenger as much as I educated, trained, and prepared my spirit to feel and exercise the realization to practice as much as I can with opportunities here.  

While I am bringing the notion of Prophethood in my life here, my body is not meeting the physical body of the Prophet at all, but my consciousness is meeting the message of Prophethood in my life and my soul is experiencing it.  In this world, my soul cannot practice the presence of the Prophet within the limitations and constraints of this bodily existence here.  My eyes cannot see the body of the Prophet, but his message never dies.  

• My spirit can catch the Absolute message and I can prepare my soul to encounter the presence of the Prophet in the next creation.

In the next creation, I will be with my Prophet as much as I prepared myself here.  Belief in the Hereafter is one of the articles of the Quranic teachings, which finds a very shallow understanding in most study settings.  We need to study deep on the fundamental methods of model pertaining to the belief teachings of the Quran, so that this model or understanding will be used as a template to apply it to every article of faith or every part of the teachings of the Quran and hadith narrations.  Our relationship with the practical life of the Prophet is only available through the hadith narrations.  We get lost with the authenticity of a narration, rather, we must understand that the teachings of the Islamic traditions started by the Prophetic mission and practiced in his personal life firstly, and now available to us.   We need to study the Prophetic narrations and put it under the template of this method i.e., how can I understand and what can I derive from a hadith narration which simply says “the wife of the Prophet asked him about what made him unhappy, just by his facial expression?  This relationship of the presence of the teachings of God, practices of Messengership, human relationships with the teachings of the Messengership must be analyzed.  These are the resources that we have at our disposal, and we must utilize them, which requires an extensive study.

77:12 “For what day has all this been set [or delayed]?”

Why don’t you practice it now? Why do you delay it?  We are all students of God in His school of the universe.  God is continuously teaching, and we are in the classroom of the universe, we are given the status of student, as long as we are created in this world, we are expected to be a student of this world.  

In this universe, every moment, there is a class, if I miss it, then I postpone it.  The next moment, I have the opportunity to listen to God’s speech through action and demonstration.  So, why am I missing it?  As a practical example in school, when I miss a class, I lose the opportunity to experience and learn, even if I take the notes from my friends later.  Do not keep missing the opportunity or wait until the graduation date, it will be too late.  Do not delay this!  

You keep delaying it and postponing it saying that “tomorrow I will study and pay attention to my reality.”  When Friday comes, I will go to the mosque/spiritual worship and listen to the sermon to refresh my affiliation with God or the religion. Yes, we should not miss them but most importantly, we need to bring the belief system into our life!

77:13 “For the Day of Distinction [between the true and the false]”

Everything will be distinct from the truth and falsehood.  Why is it important?  If you look into the seed of an apricot, it looks similar to the seed of a plum.  They seem to be the same, as far as the ingredients are concerned composed of cells and fat.  However, when they are planted, they disclose their reality out there.  If my seed is an apricot seed, then my future will be an apricot tree and I cannot expect it to be a plum tree.  In the description of the Quran, the tree of Zaqqum is a painful tree.  In other words, my life here is weaving the structure of my tree and my life here does not show what kind of seed I am weaving i.e., bad, or good, giving the tree of pain (Zaqqum) or the tree of goodness (Tuba).  

It is the structure of the seed that I am weaving here, and whatever is contained in my life and soul here, it will come out exactly how it is.  Where?  In my understanding, feelings and in my next creation.  Going back to the school example, whatever I learn here, I practice it after graduation.  If I did not learn, I cannot practice.  Let us say if you cheat on an exam, and after graduation you get on the job, do you think that the degree that hangs on the wall of your office will help you practice something that you did not learn?  In exactly the same way, the reality of my life will be demonstrated in front of my soul and accordingly a body version will be given to the soul to express what I have sowed in this land of the world.  

What type of creation will the next world necessarily be?  How about my practical life right now?  We should not try to imagine other people’s feelings.  Rather, think about it for a few minutes, say: “If I think that there is no Creator, Hereafter and the universe is not a school, then everything is a collection of matter.”  

What do you feel right now?  

Comments: Tortured.

Comments: Lonely and scared.

More severe than feeling alone is that I will see no meaning in my life.   Your existence will have no purpose, no virtue, and no value; it means meaningless existence, why do I exist here?  What does having all precious feelings imply?  They are out of accidents with no purpose.  As a result, human beings will go and commit suicide, if you really think about it.  

• Loneliness is just like enjoying my life alone.   
• Meaninglessness is a poison and makes my life impossible to continue.  

If there is no purpose in my existence, then what should I do?  If I eat today, so what?  As soon as I start reflecting on myself, that moment the truth and the falsehood becomes completely clear and experiential for me now in this world, so I have to adjust myself and educate myself accordingly.

77:14 ‘What explains to you what the day of Distinction is?”

Have you ever seriously reflected and concentrated on this topic where the truth and falsehood will be completely separated from each other?  Have you really concentrated on it?  When you concentrate on it, you will find that your life, being and existence is not meaningless and purposeless, with no taste of pleasure or purpose at all.  Our life here cannot just be an accidental occurrence.  

Now, only after you reflect on this, will you realize what the moment of distinction actually means here and now.  In the hereafter, you will practically experience it.

77:15 “How horrible is that Day for those who deny the truth!”

When I realize this torture and meaninglessness in my life, I will then understand that if I deny the realty of the purposeful existence, then I will be in a terrible situation.  I should never deny the truth revealed to me by my Creator which I received through the Prophets, otherwise I will be very sorry.  I will experience the torture here and in the next creation, I will be sorry for my choices.