Recap: If there were no Prophets, then there will be no responsibility to fulfill the requirements of our human senses. It means that I would not know how to have a relationship with the Creator who, by definition is not of the nature of this universe (Absolute). If it were not for the Prophets, I would never be able to imagine that the universe has a Creator and that I need to have a relationship with the Creator.
- Without the Messengers of God, I would not know how to have a relationship with God.
Some people might have heard of the Prophets and religion and it may have been a wrong interpretation of it. Even when scholars talk about God, it may not be well understood by common people and hence can be a misrepresentation of religion. So, we must understand that those people who received a message from the Creator of the universe have a serious and heavy responsibility. It means that they should be careful not to misrepresent God’s religion. Disseminating the Speech of God in human form is a very serious responsibility.
Example: if you see Person A as a Muslim/Christian speaking in terms of Islam/Christianity, Person A may represent the religion in an unacceptable manner that the general public may not understand, and therefore, the responsibility remains with Person A. As a result, people may remain outside the scope of religion because of Person A’s negligent duty. We will be responsible within our capacity.
We did not choose to come to this world in a certain time and part of the world. Only my Creator has the right to make decisions about me, not me because I find myself here. I may change my environment within a limited area, however, whatever options I am presented with, I am responsible for it. The Prophet (PBUH) brings a message to their environments/conditions and it does not mean that they will reach out to far land for example, Fiji Islands. They are only responsible for capacities within their domain or vicinity. As human beings who receive the message from the Prophets, they may or may not decide to train themselves, they may not strive that much to learn the truth i.e. you may use freewill in the right/wrong way, that’s your responsibility. However, as far as the responsibility of the Prophets/Messenger is concerned, they fulfil their mission perfectly.
- We must take the message seriously and are free to strive for it as much as we can.
53:38 “That no soul shall bear the burden of another;”
This is an important principle in Quranic ethics. When speaking about other religious traditions, it is easy for some of us to understand the following: “Since Adam committed the sin, now I am sinful as well”, does it make sense? No. In other words, the Creator has transferred Adam’s sins to me i.e. I have some default conditions from birth, does that make sense? No.
Example 1: My neighbor breaks down your car and now you want to kill me because that is part of my neighborhood. I have not done anything wrong, why do you kill me? We can apply the same example to wars. In other words, is it right to declare war against a country if one person does something wrong? No. Similarly, if my son does something wrong, can you punish me? No. My wrong act doesn’t mean that all my family has to share the same responsibility.
Example 2: I may have a bad habit. In some parts of my life I may be a nice person and in other parts of my life, I may be unjust. Will you punish all aspects of my life because of that? No. We must have a positive attitude towards people who may have one wrong attitude but other good characters. We must be tolerant to that i.e. we cannot punish the good side because of the bad side. We must be more sensitive to people as far as their good side is concerned. Especially if we are having a relationship with someone who might have helped us.
Biggest Question: Can I say that while I was a child my parents abused me or I was brought up in an environment which had lots of bad habits, and that’s why I am a harsh person now or behaving a certain way with those habits?
Answer: This is a sensitive question to answer because there are so many factors at play here. The person may have been influenced by his/her environment or that is what s/he was taught from his/her teachers.
Indeed, a sensitive question to investigate. Now, let’s start with some simple examples. Can my mother’s sin make me a bad person? No. Am I not responsible for my own choices according to the options that I am given by my Creator? Yes, you are. Ok, my environment is bad, and I am being educated in a bad environment, but am I not responsible for my own freewill at the end? Yes, you are. Can I use my bad environment to justify myself? Not sure. The problem is that we transfer the responsibilities to something else, previous life experiences, someone else’s treatment.
- There is no such thing as the environment out there. Environment is not something/a thing that you can point to, rather it’s a compilation/grouping of everyone’s individual choices. In other words, everyone’s own choice makes you perceive a certain environment. Those choices that other people make (culture/environment), are presenting you with certain options, but people’s choices don’t make you choose certain options. Just options are being presented and you have a choice of whether you want to exercise on options being presented to you. You do not know what option is best because maybe the choices that everyone makes is what you are familiar with but that does not mean that you did not choose whatever you wanted. That is, you choose what you want.
Example 1. A father sends his son to the store to purchase exactly 6 items. The son only finds 4 items and brings them home. Does the father have the right to punish the son for not bringing all 6 items? No. How about going to the store and not being careful in your search and just coming back home with 4 items. Now, does the father have the right to punish the son? Yes, the son is fully responsible for not making the choice of searching.
What does the above example tell us? I am responsible to make the best choice within the given environment. The environment may be restricted but I am responsible to make the best choice using my freewill. Environment and some previous experiences may have an effect on me, but this does not justify my responsibility of choosing right/wrong within a given life condition. My choice to choose among the options available is free, I could not say that I could not exercise my freewill freely because I was under the influence of something else.
- If it is an option for me to choose from, then it is my responsibility.
- If it is Not an option for me to choose from, then it is Not my responsibility.
How am I using my freewill within a given environment? We must understand that the environment is not my choice but options available in that environment is my choice. For instance, in Example 1, I could not find all 6 items I had to buy but there was another store I could have looked into and I got lazy. In order to defend myself I will say, there were no other items in the store besides the ones I got. It means that any given option must be freely chosen. Example 2: I cannot say that all my friends in school were drug users and so I got used to it. Right now, why do you go join the same gang then? Well, I got used to it. No, you may choose to quit, you have a freewill.
Most of the time, we make a lot of unjust decisions about other people and justify ourselves by attributing mistakes to the effect of external factors. Was there an option for me to choose from? As long as there is an option, we have to use it and concentrate on our responsibility. Example 3: a deaf person does not have an option to hear sound the accustomed way. This is a physical problem. Another example, someone is under the influence of a trauma, does s/he have an option? As long as there is an option within our choice, we must concentrate on our responsibility and exercise our choice. But nowadays, people are usually justified by throwing responsibilities to external factors i.e. you are a good person and your family is bad. Can we justify this?
- Again, if something is not within the scope of my freewill then I am not responsible for it because it is not an option for me. If it is an option, then I must struggle bearing in mind that I am responsible for my freewill and I have to educate/train myself by making a decision.
Example 4: I am a drug addict. You have freewill to not take drugs today. Human beings train themselves with gradual training. I must make a decision within myself that I must quit this addiction, what should I do? Go to a training center and get a therapist if your means allow you. The point is that I have to struggle to get out of the addiction. Rather than being pessimistic that I cannot get out of it. Justification does not help me but bringing the responsibility on myself helps me with one condition: this may turn against me and make me a person who is overwhelmed by a sense of guilt.
- This sense of guilt is also a negative attitude. Rather, I should say that as much as I can, I shall try. Whoever tries (maybe a long therapy journey), at the end, God will respond in a positive way to this person. I just have to try.
In the scriptures, God keeps telling us if you do something wrong repent. God does not say: You should not have done it. God gave you another life again. “Yesterday, I made a mistake and today you are giving me another opportunity to repent for my mistake”. This repentance must be a sincere one i.e. consistent within myself to use my freewill in a positive way that I should not make this mistake again. Be resolute about it! That is why I must take the responsibility on me, but I shall not make myself in a way to lose confidence within myself that I cannot do it and get despaired. It is a gradual change, nothing overnight. Try to take up responsibility in order to amend your mistakes. Try to make right choices as much as long as these choices are within our scope of freewill.
Have I decided firmly and made the resolution that I will overcome these weak points in me? We must take up the responsibility. If I throw the burden on others, especially on external factors and make myself a pure and perfect man, I will never overcome my problems. Go step by step with this gradual change.
53:39 “That man can have nothing but what he strives for;
I cannot claim anything for myself except what I strive for. Did I strive to obtain the truth? Example 1: A person was born in a family which follows the right traditions. Another person is born in a family practicing wrong traditions. Both follow family traditions. Is there any difference between these two people? No, they are both equally responsible to strive, do you agree? Yes. Responsibility is within their scope of trying to strive for the truth. If I do not strive for anything and make my best effort, that is my responsibility regardless of right/wrong family tradition. Even if the results of my striving are not positive, that is not my responsibility.
What is my responsibility? Was I accidentally put in a certain condition? Does God act on luck by putting me in a disadvantaged position? Everyone is responsible within his conditions to make the effort.
- Famous saying of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) to his daughter: “You can inherit money from your father, but you cannot inherit belief from your father”.
Example 2: Person A was born in a poor family and got no inheritance from the parents. Person B was born in a wealthy family and inherited a lot of property. Inheritance is not my choice but God’s choice. What is the responsibility of Person B, the wealthy man? What is the responsibility of Person A, the poor man? Is there any difference between the two? No, there is no difference as far as striving to find the truth is concerned.
What would you advise them as far as what is the scope of their responsibility? Person A must strive not to be jealous of Person B and strive for making a living in a licit way. Person B must strive to manage his wealth in a licit way. It would be very difficult for Person B not to waste money. We are in equal terms as far as our striving is concerned. One dollar or $1000 equally needs to be spent carefully. The amount of wealth should not affect my responsibility while I am using freewill. My responsibility is the same: Keep the licit/true way i.e. I must make decisions in the right way with what I must choose. Both people must be honest in their work/living to utilize wealth (and manage the property left for Person B) in the licit way. A must be careful about his $1 and B has to be careful about his $1000. What is prevalent in civilization is that: “As long as I can afford, I can buy it.” Rather, “As long as you need” is what the Quran teaches. Let’s say I am hungry, and I have no money, I strive for it but find no job and no one in my community takes care of each other. What should I do? Only in this case it becomes licit for me to steal or beg (this is just a worst-case scenario). The point is that if I have money, then I cannot waste it. Of course, if one has millions, then it becomes more difficult to restrain from not wasting, rather than having a few bucks.
53:40 “And that his striving shall be seen.”
That is the Promise from my Creator that my striving shall be seen/rewarded. Whatever you strive for, you get the result of it or experience it. That is the Promise of my Creator: “If you strive, you will be given”. Not immediately but you shall be given. At the same time, we should not turn this into a bargain with the Creator that since I worked for it, you should give me. Rather, my Creator choses to respond back to my work in a way in line with my intention.
Example 1: I am working to learn to help others. I have a good intention and I am trying to work to help you. I will help my neighbor and I may expect my reward. It does not mean that my neighbor may benefit from help, maybe my neighbor may get spoiled. I must watch out about the outcome of my work. If I do something knowingly that I will spoil my neighbor, then I cannot be rewarded for my action.
Example 2: By helping my children, I may spoil them. Rather than the reward, I may get punishment because I was not careful about spoiling. Does it mean that the work I do, and reward must be equal? Not necessarily, but I must work for a good reason. I must make a decision between right/wrong.
Example 3: Two people read a useful book on understanding reality. Both read the book for one hour, A reads it to strive for truth and B reads it just for entertainment and says that the book is nonsense. Work wise (sahee Arabic), they did the same labor, but for what purpose am I spending my energy for? It is equally important that I must work but for a good reason, so I will be rewarded accordingly.
Finally, these principles of reading the Quran are not that straight forward. That is, we cannot take them literally. The last two verses pointed out that we must use money in a licit way. We cannot reduce the verse as an emphasis to not buy illicit goods, rather it is a question for me to ask myself how do I spend my capital? Do I just buy things because I can afford it and it is licit?
- The point here is to be careful and ask yourself: Do I need it? What reason am I using my labor for and basing my decisions on?
NEXT WEEK-
53:41 “Then he shall be paid for it with the fullest payment.”
53:42 “And that truly your Lord id the ultimate