The chronologically 23rd revealed chapter of the Quran, during the 2nd or 3rd year of Prophethood.
This section of the Quran is mostly known as being related to the ascension (miraaj) of the Prophet (pbuh). When we look into its content, it does look like an ascension. Depending on our understanding of ascension, this section looks like our miraaj (i.e. our ascension to God). Also, if we see it as a universal message beyond space-time, then we can relate it to our individual ascension (miraaj). However, it cannot be related to the Prophet (pbuh)’s miraaj, because historically, his miraaj took place much later than when this section was revealed.
In Islamic tradition, we hear that the 5 daily ritualistic prayer is the ascension (miraj) of every being i.e. you ascend to God. In other words, you realize that you totally belong to God and in your own being, you feel the presence of the act of God (dealing with you). For example, if you are getting treatment from an acupuncturist, you can say that the acupuncturist is with me right now. That means that the acupuncturist is dealing with you. Similarly, you can say that my Creator is dealing with me right now because I exist and I need to be created right now. My Creator is giving me existence right now because He is working on me right now. That realization is the essence of a person who is conscious of his/her reality i.e. the situation s/he is in. Hence, only with such realization can you ascend to God. Such dense realization is expected to take place during the prayers because you are in the presence of God mentally, emotionally, and physically. That is what you are expressing in your prayers while standing in front of your Creator. This understanding has become available to us through the teachings of revelations.
Human reasoning can conclude that there must be a Source of Existence to this universe. Some people choose to contradict their human reality by denying that they are created and thus, they have conditioned their minds with all sorts of excuses to justify their claim. Human beings are free to condition themselves with illogical ideas such as the universe is created by something, but the things that we observe are happening by themselves. When we conclude that there must be a Source of Existence to this universe, it is only a start. We must continue further with, if there is a Creator, then what should I do with that? By itself belief in God does not add more to my consciousness. The process must continue with the existence of my senses, my human side and using them to d communicate with my Creator in order to appreciate and be grateful to Him.
We need an explanation from our Creator of what to do with our existence. Nothing in this universe gives an answer to that which our human feelings require. The human mind can speculate something about what to do with our existence, but without any proper guidance from the Creator of the universe, such speculation remains unsatisfactory. Although there is clear evidence that the universe must have a Creator, we suffice ourselves with consuming it, rather than using the universe as a means to connect with our Creator and get the answers to our human question from Him. For example, when you use a laptop, does it occur to you to get in touch with the Engineer of the laptop? No. You just use the laptop for its purpose. Similarly, we go on living in this universe without communicating with the Creator of the universe through His act of creation. We mostly busy ourselves with finding out how to best benefit from the universe for our physical needs.
There is also lots of evidence that the Creator of the universe cannot be perceived from the created universe. Therefore, He must be unimaginable and impossible to perceive. For example, if you investigate someone’s work, you conclude that it must be done by an intelligent agent, who is an expert. Similarly, when you look into the functionalities of this universe, you must conclude that it must be set up by a conscious Creator, who is wise. We must further conclude that, whoever made me, enabled me to ask the question about my existence and search for the answers. If there are no answers in the universe, then whoever made me must answer me and make the answers to my questions available to me. The One who made me cannot be of the nature of this universe, but His qualities are found in the universe. When someone wants to convey a message and their feelings to you, they must use various means such as speech and verbal actions. Similarly, your Creator must use means in this universe to communicate with you. Therefore, to look for answers to your questions from your Creator, you must look for the means within this universe. The Creator of the universe must speak to me with His Speech available in this universe, and I am expected to learn how to reason about my existence, get to know the purpose of my existence (answers to my human questions) and communicate back with Him.
Without making use of this universe as the means, there would be no way to communicate with the Creator of the universe. The performance of prayers is a means of expressing one’s feelings, awareness and understanding by transferring our conclusions of experiences from the universe to the Creator of the universe. Otherwise, just verbally expressing one’s acknowledgment of the Creator of the universe is insufficient to what our human expectations require.
وَٱلنَّجْمِ إِذَا هَوَىٰ
53:1 “Consider this unfolding [of God’s message], as it comes down from on high!”
Most traditional commentators say that “najam” as a noun is a “star”. Its root word refers to unfolding, originating and continuous. It also refers to “I swear by”, which means “I am presenting to you as a witness of what I am going to say to you as the truth.” When the Quran mentions “witness”, it should be something that is available for me as evidence. In this verse, taking oath as “an-najm” is presented to us as a witness. Why do we need a verbal explanation to our questions? Because the universe does not give answers to human existential questions. The verse is saying that the answer is originating from the Creator of the universe.
What is the basic definition of the Quran? To provide the answers to human questions, because human questions necessitate answers. The word “hawa” in the verse means one’s passion and ambition. That is, God’s message is in the air, accessible to human beings to take as their ambition.
Why do you think God should speak? Because, a conscious human being needs answers to his/her human existential questions. Hence, the Speech of God must come to me in the form of answers to human questions i.e. revelation. But the pre-requisite is to have the questions, only then can revelation make sense to anyone. One must be inquiring and searching for meaning to their purpose of existence, otherwise revelation does not speak to human beings. If you have no human questions about your existence, can the answers make sense to you? No.
We must listen to our human feelings and question our existence. Questioning requires ignorance. Questioning also requires getting a better understanding of things. Sometimes, our understanding of things may not be correct. Therefore, when you get the answers to your questions, you learn where you went wrong, because you compare the answers from your prior knowledge. That is, human beings learn through making mistakes or mistaken assumptions. Also, human nature only operates through alternatives. For example, in a multiple choice test, one answer is correct as compared to the other answers. It is not appropriate for human nature to select the correct answer without thinking it through. That is, without alternatives, we cannot reason, and perceive things.
In this thinking process, having doubts about the existence of God is part of the conviction and belief in God. That is, you look into your existence and creation, and you conclude that there must be a Creator, otherwise you cannot explain the existence of creation around you. By doubting the wrong, you can confirm the truth. That is why the Quran is referred to as “al-Furqan” i.e. the criteria for the truth by comparison with falsehood. The truth can only be confirmed by rejecting the wrong. The fundamental teachings of the Quran starts with negation, lailaha i.e. there is nothing in the universe which can be the Source of its own existence. Only then, you can be convinced about the existence of a God i.e. illallah. Your conclusions should make sense to you. Otherwise, if you are rigid and closed minded, you will not get much out of the message. Be open in your understanding when you approach studying the Quran, and keep trying to make sense of the meaning of the message. That is also the reason why the Quran is referred to as “al-Mubeen” i.e. to be clear. The truth should make sense to anyone who reasons, which leaves no room for doubts. The clarity aspect of the Quran does not mean that the meaning reveals itself immediately when I read it. Rather, I must study and grapple with it to develop an understanding. The clarity aspect means that you will not see any contradiction to what the message claims, because the truth presented in the Quran is so clear.
We are given the Quran to make the distinction between right and wrong. While we are reading the Quran, we must understand the context of the Speech of God, so that we will try to implement the meaning accordingly. Just reading the translation would not do any justice to getting the meaning from the message of the Quran. For example, if you take a word from the discipline of Biology, it will have a different meaning in the discipline of Psychology. Similarly, translating the Quran from its original Arabic text into any other language does not mean that you got the meaning of what the message conveys. Even understanding the Arabic text needs special disciplinary studies. Therefore, the Quran uses certain words and grammatical structure for a specific purpose.
What is the Quran teaching? The Quran teaches us essentially how to read creation and get the answers to human existential questions and expectations. This helps me understand my existence in this universe. All the concepts employed in the Quran must be analyzed within this existential framework. When I study the Quran, I must ask myself: “this verse is providing me with the answer to which of my human questions pertaining to my existential reality?” For example, when I read about a Prophet called Moses who showed his miracle to Pharaoh, I must ask myself: “what does it have to do with me?” Prophet Moses was a messenger of God, but I must make sense of the meaning of Moses for me. Pharaoh was historically known to be a tyrannical figure, but I must make sense of the meaning of Pharaoh for me. I must also make sense of Moses’s staff, speaking and showing God’s miracle within the context of the Quranic message. Again, this context is within the Quranic framework – providing the answers to our human existential questions.
What is expected of me from this example of Prophet Moses? I must present my miracle to my opponent. What can my miracle be? A star? Would bringing a star from the galaxy convince my opponent about the existence of God? No. So, how can you present something to your opponent who does not agree with your understanding of existence and does not want this belief to prevail in the world? That is what we need to grapple with. People will challenge the Prophetic message from all sides, and we must have rational evidence to support the message of God. If someone asks you, have you seen your Creator? You must practically show evidence to convince them. For example, I can see the manifestation of my Creator in the existence of my cells. That is God’s miracle that you will use as evidence for yourself and to convince your opponent about believing in God. However, you must convince yourself first, because your alternative thoughts oppose your conclusion. You have to convince your opponent as much as you convince yourself with the evidence. You must come up with a message that disqualifies the alternative/opponent’s idea i.e. lailaha, the cells cannot be the source of existence of the fruit. “ila” means divine – originator of existence. Can the cell structure and the cell be the result of the existence of the relationship that I see in it? Obviously not! If you can say lailaha comfortably, it will be easy to convince your opponent. If your opponent comes up with the idea of nature, ask him/her, how do you define “nature”? Can matter be the cause of its own existence? ? If matter is eternal, show me eternity in this world then, which is impossible! Furthermore, can the universe exist by itself? We must be ready to present our evidence and God’s miracles in the universe.
The way we present evidence is crucial to understanding the need for the existence of a Creator. Within the Quranic framework we see that we are given existence, we are presented with the universe, and what can I attribute the existence to? The universe needs a Source of Existence called “God”, therefore lailaha illallah makes sense. We cannot make sense of it in the other way i.e. illallah lailaha, it is illogical. That is, the universe needs a Creator, and this Creator cannot be in the universe, rather a Divine Being by its very essence. Therefore, you cannot show that God is creating the universe, because it is false logic. If a Divine Being can be seen in the universe, then it would be a part of the universe, and I would ask the same question, who created God. Also, when you eliminate your alternatives for your own conviction of belief in God, you are certain that the false logic cannot make sense to you, and accordingly you present your evidence. Going back to the example of Prophet Moses and Pharaoh, you must bring the case to yourself. The way Moses and Pharaoh argued is similar to the way you are arguing with your alternative ideas. That is, your Moses’s side brings practical evidence for conviction to shut your Pharaoh side. In the Quran, such opposing dialogue takes place between Satan (which is within me) and Adam (which is also within me). Without alternatives, you cannot exercise your freewill.
The staff of Moses is the evidence that he uses the message of God (as a miracle of God) to convince himself of the existence of God. All the verses in the Quran are presented to us as a message, which we can use as a miracle of God to convince ourselves of the existence of God.
مَا ضَلَّ صَاحِبُكُمْ وَمَا غَوَىٰ
53:2 “This fellow-man of yours has not gone astray, nor is he deluded,”
The one who claims that he is bringing the Speech of the Creator to you as a means, he must have received it through a means as well. If someone conveys a message without a proper means (source), then you will think s/he is hallucinating. If someone comes to you that s/he received the message from God, would you believe in him/her right away. No. You would ask yourself if this man is deluded or has gone mad.
وَمَا يَنطِقُ عَنِ ٱلْهَوَىٰٓ
53:3 “he does not speak from his own desire.”
The word “hawa” means that you are spoken to within the reach of your understanding and your communication. The other aspect of the meaning is that you are spoken to with no consistent reasoning, but just imagination and wishful thinking. How do we know that this man conveying the message of God does not speak from his own desire? Let’s see what he has to say. These types of verses set the stage for us to question the one conveying the message, for sooner or later, we are bound to realize that the man is not speaking to us from his own desire. For example, when you think about the content that the man presents, it will make sense to you, only when you think about it. Therefore you must question and think about it.
إِنْ هُوَ إِلَّا وَحْىٌۭ يُوحَىٰ
53:4 “It is nothing but Revelation revealed.”
What is Revelation i.e. “wahee”? The Speech of the Creator comes to me through a means so that I will be sure that the word(s) can only be the answer to my existential questions from my Creator. Why “my Creator”? I am getting answers to my human questions. Where did you get the questions from? From my Creator. The One who implemented my questions, only that One can give the answers to these questions.
In your interactions with the Quran, do you see that you are a revelation as well? You are revealed from a Divine Source and you became a created being i.e. your Creator has revealed His qualities in your being, as His act. You can say that I am a revelation from my Creator in my existence. How do you identify yourself? I am created. It means that my Source of Existence revealed His qualities in the form of “me”. So, my existence is a revelation. My quality of questioning is a revelation from my Creator. If the text claims that it is from the Creator of the universe, as far as I am concerned, it is from my Creator. Would it be possible that the One who enabled you to ask certain questions and enabled you with an understanding to make the distinction between right and wrong, will give you an answer which does not make sense to you? No, because it would be a contradiction to the purpose of our existence. Therefore, I must read everything in the Quran as a personal Speech to me, as a personal answer to my questions and concerns. That is how we should approach the Quran, speaking to each one of us personally. Similarly, we must read the Quran by relating all the events mentioned in it and all the Prophets struggling with their personal struggles as the answers to my human questions because I am going through the same experiences.
Ultimately, belief is your personal conclusion. Can you share the belief of a community? No. Can your community identity be your belief? No. That is why, we must take the message of the Quran as speaking to us personally to answer our human existential questions and confirm our belief in God. We must be mindful of our freewill that can go in either way, confirming the truth or deliberately rejecting it.
When you receive a convincing answer, in the terminology of the Quran, it is called “wahee” i.e. you received revelation from your Creator through a means (source) which you thought about. Any answer to your existential questions which makes sense to you is guidance from your Creator. When you get an answer which satisfies you, then it is the “truth” for you. However, you are subject to continuous change, and as a result, your questions start to go at different levels and accordingly, the answers must be renewed. Therefore, belief is an ongoing process, requiring continuous reflections and thinking. As long as we are given existence, we must always be engaged with searching for the truth? If you are looking for a true answer for yourself at every stage of life, go back to the Revelation which claims to be the word of God. If you find the answers to be the truth, and you can confirm it to the point of being convinced about it, then it is the word of your Creator to you. Otherwise, if you are not convinced for yourself, then what you present to others would be a false claim. Without feeling confidence in yourself about your truth, you support your claims arrogantly. Unfortunately, we follow our egoistic satisfaction to defend our ideologies. That is why, in God’s religion, there is no way for an offensive attack to agitate you.
We need to learn how to communicate with the Quranic text and look into the vocabulary words used there according to its purpose. The Quran says that I guarantee that you will be satisfied with this message, because I created your questions. That is why the Quran says that before reading me, you must take refuge with God, which means that you must bear in mind that this text claims to be the word of God and you are expected to get the answers to your questions in a satisfactory way. Whisperings of Satan means that you must be watchful of not approaching it with the wrong attitude. In the Quran, Satan is represented as anything wrong. With this right attitude, you gain confidence in engaging with the message in the Quran, but it needs preparation.
Finally, we are not static beings, our questions and answers are not static either. Our investigation and search for the truth must continue. Tomorrow you are a different person, you experience different things, and you need renewed answers according to your needs and expectations. Communication with the Creator must be continuous.
If you are not satisfied with the word of God, then how can you accept it? By definition, the speech of God cannot be put into limits. The meanings of the Quran are endless. The Creator must have unlimited knowledge by definition, and that is what “Absolute” means. To trust the Source means if the text is from the Creator of the universe, then it must have convincing answers to our questions. Search for it, grapple with it, and you will find the answers to your concerns.