Recap: This section has lots of figurative teachings, and we must work on it to understand its teachings. This is a dense section to understand, and scholars have interpreted it in various ways, mostly related to the ascension (mir’aj) of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) and we have been trying to apply it to our lives, and make it our own ascension.
We can apply this section to the Revelation of the Quran, how it was revealed to the Prophet (pbuh). While we are understanding how it was revealed to the Prophet (pbuh), we must get our share from it as well, because the Quran is speaking to us right now. How can I benefit from the Quran in my living right now?
The Revelation was revealed to the Prophet through an angel, just like everything else in the universe is manifested through angels obeying God’s will. As creation is renewed all the time, Revelation for us must also be renewed with updated understandings. We are not talking about the original verses of the Revelation as was revealed to the Prophet (pbuh), rather the meaning that we extract from the verses must be renewed for us.
The Prophet (pbuh) received Revelation directly by the Creator of the universe through angels. It was not within the limits of the capacity as a human being, but as an appointed person chosen by God. That is, he receives the Revelation as a meaning to his existence as a Prophet of God, not as a human being like you and I. For example, you and I must study the Speech of God, and get meaning from it, whereas the Prophet of God does not have to study, because God revealed to him the meaning based on his capacity, which represents the highest level of humanity (i.e. ascension). The Prophet (pbuh) is the one who had access to the Creator of the universe at the most humanly possible level. That is why, kaba kausain refers to two ends that came as much as possible next to each other, but obviously a created being cannot enter the realm of the Creator. In His essence, an Absolute Being can not be present within the realm of the created universe.
When Revelation was inspired to the Prophet (pbuh), his sight never deviated nor did it get wrong. The Creator of the universe already prepared the feelings, mind and the heart (spirit) of the Prophet (pbuh) to receive the message as much as humanly possible as a created being at the highest level possible. Why is the Prophet’s (pbuh) capacity to receive the message the highest? If it was not, then it would not be the perfect and complete example for the rest of humanity. It would be contrary to the purpose of sending the message of God to a person who is not prepared to receive it in its humanly possible largest capacity. That is why he is the Prophet employed as the best example to represent the message that the Creator of the universe sent.
If the Creator of the universe is speaking, Revelation must be revealed to a person who has the highest capacity of receiving the wholesome meaning to represent it within his practical life for us. The Quran says that for human beings to love God, it is important to obey God i.e. humanity must follow the Prophet (pbuh). When we say that I am obeying God, how can I obey God?
When I obey the order of the universe, I am practically obeying God. By obeying the order of the universe, your consciousness remembers that the order of the universe is established by the One who creates the universe, God. That is the manifestation of His will.
When you believe in God, you confirm that every moment is given existence by the One who creates the universe, an Absolute One. You feel certain in your conclusion. How about in my relationship with my Creator (essential for everyone), how can I communicate with my Creator in this world? How can I perform my worship (uboodiya), and how can I speak to Him? What is the etiquette (mannerism) of speaking with God? How can I know that I must adjust my behavior in this world according to His will? He must reveal how we should obey Him, and I must obey the Will of The Order-er with my free choice.
Some people say that I have my own relationship with my Creator, so I do not need anyone else as an exemplar to follow. There is a distinction between belief confirmation i.e. everything is created by God and establishing this belief i.e. in this world, how can I be a better person according to the Will of the Creator. That is, how can I communicate with Him in practical terms, not in belief matters, because belief is my personal conclusion? In other words, how can I practice this belief in the best appropriate human way? The Quran tells us some things in a general way. For example, stand for prayer or give to charity. How so? That is why we need the Prophets to be prepared to teach us in practical terms, because we cannot expect God to come to us and present how to behave. Some people may misuse this concept, and bring God into a human form, rather than employing a teacher.
The human mind cannot accept an Absolute Being in a created form, it’s illogical. However, some people need a concrete example in their practical life. That is why we keep hearing in the Quran, if you love God and want to obey God, follow the Prophet. To obey God, one must first believe that s/he is given existence by an Absolute Being. Otherwise, we cannot find any being in the universe that can give me existence. Then, to obey God, we need a teacher that must tell us who this Existence Giver is and how to be in a relationship with Him. We must follow this teacher, and this teacher/instructor must be perfectly prepared in his instruction to present the best exemplary life to human beings that I should be able to follow. We can make general applications for practicing belief in our practical life by taking the examples that the Prophet (pbuh) performed in his personal life settings. We must see how the experts have transferred it to us to apply the practicality of the message of God by the Prophet (pbuh) in our living conditions.
- Belief in God is the first stage. One must establish the belief foundations first to be certain in their conclusion. Obeying God is the necessary second stage. How can I put fulfilling the purpose of my life into practice?
In the following verses, the subject suddenly changes from the great sign of the Lord demonstrated to my mind and heart to how I may confirm the message. Human beings have freewill, to accept, ignore or deny the message. People may follow the message or they may not. They may not find the message satisfactory, or they would not want to submit to a Creator of the universe. People may have their own criteria to live by. For example, I may not be open to following the life of a person that is illiterate. Most Prophets of God who received Revelations were not learned. Prophet Jesus (puh) was also illiterate, that is why the people of that time took a while to accept his message, especially when it corrected the distortions of the prior Revelation. The Quran mentions that, and we can all check to see the compatibility of any Revelation which claims to be the Speech of my Creator with my human feelings under the witnessing of the universe. If you are satisfied with the message of God, go ahead and follow it, and in this regard, the Quran seems to be very compatible and satisfies the human heart fully. The Quran seems to be going along well with human feelings and witnessing of the universe. We just need to learn how to read the Quran, put an effort in studying it, and at least get a basic training to benefit from its teachings.
أَفَرَءَيْتُمُ ٱللَّـٰتَ وَٱلْعُزَّىٰ
53:19 “Have you, then, ever considered [what you are worshipping in] Al-Lat and Al-Uzza,”
History says that Lat and Uzza were idols of certain tribes, and such things happened. But I am more interested in my situation, what is my tribe/nation and what are the idols of my civilization? Besides attributing everything to the Creator of the universe, what can be my point of support? If I use everything in His name with His permission, what else can I worship besides the Creator of the universe? For example, the orchid in my room is beautiful and the orchid and I are in a relationship. That is, I take care of it, talk to it, and it serves me as well, because I enjoy looking at it. However, if I don’t attribute this relationship with the orchid to the Source of my Existence, then the orchid becomes my idol.
What is my Lat or Uzza? I may have such idols in various aspects of my life. For example, in the financial side of my life, I want to be wealthy enough to be extravagant by going beyond the necessities, which becomes my priority in life and thus turns into an idol. As far as the social side of my life is concerned, I also have an idol i.e. I want to have a respectful position among my family and friends, and an honorable status in the society, not to be confused with human honor (i.e. I belong to my Creator). Some may have their dogmatic ideas as an idol i.e. they misuse their humanity in such a way that they say, I am not going to accept the Creator of the universe. Their argument is that since things are happening in a sequence of cause-and-effect relationship, then “nature” is controlling everything, therefore, there is no need to think about an imaginary being who gives existence to the universe. No one can see the Creator of the universe, God physically, but we see the things created here that witnesses to His necessary existence. Nothing of this universe can have the qualities to cause something to come into existence.
وَمَنَوٰةَ ٱلثَّالِثَةَ ٱلْأُخْرَىٰٓ
53: 20 “and Manat the third, the other one?”
Any ideas or priority for the human beings besides the Creator of the universe becomes an idol. Am I going to satisfy my friends or my Creator? Financial extravagance, family values and status are our concerns to protect our dignity and honor which makes our idols as targets of our lives. As a result, we start explaining our being in terms of that target. That is called “idol” in the language of the Quran (shirk). Does it make sense to interpret your being in terms of idols? For example, if you do not have object A, then you are nothing. Does Object A give you honor and make you a human being? Any value that you attribute to yourself besides the Origin of your existence, Creator of the universe, becomes your idol. That is the comparison that the Quran makes and draws our attention towards.
We observe that the universe works in a perfect order and has been set up in a wise way by the Creator of the universe. The Creator of the universe cannot leave anything meaningless here, including my human feelings which desire eternity. Since everything is meaningful here, I need to learn how to behave in the best way here, so I am fulfilling my capacity given to me in the way that they are created for. How can I use my feelings to fulfill the purpose of their existence so I should not contradict myself according to the purpose of the requirements of my feelings?
We have various feelings, sometimes we are over excited, sometimes we are over pessimistic, sometimes we are angry and sometimes we manifest unnecessary bad temper. How can I adjust myself consciously, so I do not contradict myself? I need a yardstick for my behavior which must be provided by my Creator because I see that all my essential needs are prepared within the universe, except my spiritual needs (the human feeling of eternity) are not prepared in the universe. We may feel that we are more intelligent than dogs, but we are not as capable as a dog in sensing smell, unless we train ourselves and discover more of our potentialities. Although we can learn behaviors from observing creation, we need a human example to behave in a human manner. When I accept my Creator to be the Source of my Existence, then I obey Him, and when He asks me to obey His messenger, I obey him, because I need a practical example of the application of obeying God in my social, practical and physical life. Otherwise, if I do not consider the Creator of the universe as my point of worship or my aim, then I make up my own aim i.e. Lat, Uzza or Manat which are the idols.
What is the Lat, Uzza or Manat of this age?
Common answers: Money, social status, career success, nature, self-praise i.e. attributing anything to yourself rather than the Creator of the universe.
أَلَكُمُ ٱلذَّكَرُ وَلَهُ ٱلْأُنثَىٰ
53:21 “What! for you the males and for Him the females?”
Instead of getting caught up in the distinction of males and females, let’s be attentive towards why such a strange distribution. For example, this is my life, this area is mine, I will do this according to my choice, but I may leave something else according to God’s choice. Can one really arrange their lives with such distributions!? Never. Yet, that is what we are doing. For example, no one denies that they cannot create the universe, but when it comes to our profession, we say that I can create my career according to my choice, I am a successful person, I have some talents, this is my gain, I made it, I worked on it, I got it, I am a self-made person. I have a creative mind… and the list goes on. The question then becomes, are you creating anything? No, but I am creating my life, and I have not created the universe, and I am not going to challenge that. What is one essentially doing with such a train of thought? Distributing and dividing up the act of creation from its Creator to created beings. For example, the universe is His, but the knowledge is mine. How did I acquire the knowledge? Do I pay any attention to that? The knowledge is not yours, it is given to you, just like everything else is given. The ability to think is given, the freewill to choose to use your mind is given, your health is given to you. What is yours then? Nothing is mine in creation, I just use what is given to me. Why then do we go on making such a crime in our lives?!
The biggest crime is happening in the way the materialistic sciences interpret existence and the act of creation. What we commonly hear is that maybe at the beginning, the universe might have been given existence by a super being called God. But after that, the universe is acting by itself, developing and improving its order. Although there are no physical signs that the order is improving by itself, the claim goes on that things are evolving. Who is developing things? Who is evolving things that are adapting to the environment? Where is God in the picture? We think that just as animals are reproducing, human beings are producing the next generation. What a crime?!
Human beings are free to imagine and can produce as many ideas as we want because we are given imagination. Can a human being give existence to a child? No. Your parents did not know how you came into being. Human beings are also free to claim anything; however, does it make sense rationally that we are the producers of the act of creation? Are such absurd claims consistent with human reasoning capacity? No, a hundred times no.
تِلْكَ إِذًۭا قِسْمَةٌۭ ضِيزَىٰٓ
53:22 “What a strange distribution!”
The biggest idol of this civilization is “nature”, which is defined as “not created by me, but the things are happening by themselves”. In the definition of “nature”, there is no agent, no Creator, and the principles in creation i.e. the natural laws of the order of the universe happens by itself. God might have created the universe, but the universe is acting by itself now, so we must be thankful to nature. Another similar claim goes like, you can thank God because He has created the universe, but we are the product of the universe now. “The universe exists by itself”, is the Lat of the 21st century. “The things are produced by nature”, is the Uzza of the 21st century. What is the Manat of the 21st century? Financial development, we must be powerful, every nation must have strong military, and cultural powers, to influence people and make other nations subject to themselves. This creates a greedy generation who wants to protect their own benefit, the benefit and interest of the nation, at the expense of destroying another nation. At the individual level, our Manat can be acquiring social status in the society that brings value to us. For example, if I wear this outfit, then I will be a honorable person, everyone will admire me and I will attract people’s attention.
It is illogical to make the division between God and human beings, because how can one claim that some things belong to the Creator of the universe, and some things are mine? For example, the worldly part of my life belongs to me, and I will live it as I want. But the religious duties belong to God. That is, after prayers, I must follow my life according to my choice. Can this division be justified? Outside not performing your religious activities, how are those experiences not related to God!? We must seriously question ourselves with these understandings, don’t be shy, ask yourself, what is for God’s sake and what is not? While you pray, you perform your respect and worshipful attitude and behavior to your Creator. After that, how about the air that you breathe, the moon light at night you receive, the body that you are using for earning your livelihood? What about your feelings, does it belong to you or to the Creator of the universe? Anything that you are using, is it your property or are they given to you as trust and gifts from their Creator to be used in the name of your Creator? Did I create my mind? No. Did I create my hand, nose, stomach? No. When I came to this world, I was equipped with these senses. I did not bring myself in the world, whoever brought me here provided me with all my tools, feelings and senses ready to communicate with the universe as I have been doing it for years and decades. I don’t know how I became a human being. Someone brought me into existence, because I cannot do it by myself, so who can it be that provides all this to me? I am even endowed with the need to search for the One who gives me existence, the Source of my Existence. Therefore, while I am not expressing my gratitude outside the ritualistic prayer, how can I say that my existence belongs to me, and take a share in it!?
I must exercise my consciousness that anything that I do outside prayers, be it a simple act of drinking water, I am obeying the Will of my Creator and following His order of the universe. Otherwise, if there is no such consciousness, then we are obeying the order of nature. Also, solely obeying the order of the universe does not make the person a worshipper of the Creator of the order of the universe, “consciousness” is required and important here i.e. whose order of the universe am I subject to obeying?
Furthermore, after prayers, when I claim that I am using my qualities to satisfy my aims, rather than obeying God, I am not obeying the order of the Creator. For example, if I feel dirty, I take a bath. By seeing that I am created dirty by my Creator, I am given the opportunity to obey Him by cleaning myself. This is following the order from my Creator while I am cleaning myself. In and of itself, the act of cleaning oneself or anything else that we do is neutral, because you can say that I am cleaning myself by myself or use the opportunity to be in communication with your Creator i.e. I am acting in His name by obeying His will and order. This conscious acknowledgment and communication make my action turn into a worshipful action. Otherwise, I divide the share of cleaning to myself and the praying part to the Creator which is the division as the verse describes.
Similarly, when you enjoy something, you may attribute the sense of enjoyment to yourself, it is my enjoyment, rather than it is the enjoyment provided to me by my Creator that I get by obeying my Creator.
We can apply the same consciousness to any human feelings when we do something. For example, if you love your parents, and if you do something for them just to make them feel happy, like smiling at them or hugging them, this feeling is teaching us how we are created. It is an opportunity for us to experience that if I do something nice towards someone or a nice gesture, the feeling of happiness is created in me by my Creator, when this person is happy and pleased with me. Consequently, this feeling of doing good is also a sign in my creation which is created by my Creator to invite me to express happiness towards my Creator, it means to show Him love and gratefulness, thankfulness, by expressing myself that I am happy with you my God, what you have given me is priceless, I am pleased with you for you have given me all these priceless treasures. Just look at your fingers, how precious each of them is, who would want to give out one finger for a million dollars? No one.
When you are pleased with your Creator, you are conscious of Him with any act that you do. That is, when you follow the order of the universe as far as the physical side is concerned, your heart is attached and happy with your Creator, because you are aware that your Creator is the Generous One and everything you have is from Him. For example, the sun is for me. Even if there was no other creature on earth, the sun is still for me, the moon is for me, the climate, the rivers, flowers and the forest are for me. Although everything in creation is in need of the climate, sun and air, you can say, look at this grace from my Creator, how the order is arranged in such a way that every person can claim that the universe is uniquely created for me. What a wonderful grace, and priceless gift from my Creator to humanity!? With this awareness, how can you be neglectful to your Creator then?! It is impossible as a human being to not direct our feelings of appreciation towards our Creator. Furthermore, it would be lunacy to appropriate any of our pleasures and experiences to ourselves for self-satisfaction, self-perfection, such as I am going to please myself. Impossible!
These are the idols of this civilization that occur as a result of not following the Revelation. We may pray to God, but we decide what to do in this world, and don’t need God’s guidance. We may further claim that, “In God we trust”, as far as attaining financial power is concerned. Yes, God is up there, but unfortunately as far as our behaviors and values are concerned, we trust our values. In the 21st century, our made up Lat, Uzza and Manat idols are alienating us from God.
Finally, these verses are speaking to us now, to our life conditions. Although it seems to mention tribes of the past, we are studying them as applicable to our life here and now.
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Next class, we will go over the following verses, reflect on them to prepare your minds.
إِنْ هِىَ إِلَّآ أَسْمَآءٌۭ سَمَّيْتُمُوهَآ أَنتُمْ وَءَابَآؤُكُم مَّآ أَنزَلَ ٱللَّهُ بِهَا مِن سُلْطَـٰنٍ ۚ إِن يَتَّبِعُونَ إِلَّا ٱلظَّنَّ وَمَا تَهْوَى ٱلْأَنفُسُ ۖ وَلَقَدْ جَآءَهُم مِّن رَّبِّهِمُ ٱلْهُدَىٰٓ
53:23 “These are nothing but names you have invented yourselves, you and your forefathers. God has sent no authority for them. These people merely follow guesswork and what their own selves desire, even though guidance has come to them from their Lord.”
We take a certain attitude when applying our belief in God and justify it by saying for the honor of our nation and for the honor of our family. These are big dangerous names. Under the banner of these names, we can cause damage and kill millions. Allah’s honor has been replaced by family, and now, we do not do anything for the sake of God, rather humanity. These are big subjects.
What does authority mean? What are we giving up for the sake of family honor? In this civilization, might is right. The Quran reverses that “right is might”. Our biggest idol is “nature”, the second biggest idol is “natural law”, which is in the physical world. In the social world, it is “interest”. In the personal world, it is “honor”. Did God not send an authority for them, what does this given authority refer to?
For people who have not received guidance from the Creator of the universe, their responsibility will be within the conditions of their lives, whatever available means they have. However, we are not subject to these conditions because we have our feelings and have a verbal explanation of the guidance from my Creator, so I must act accordingly. Even the guidance has come to them they still make up titles and attribute qualities to them, and God has sent no authority to that which they ascribe authority to. From this figurative way of presenting in the Revelation and hearing it from the Prophet (pbuh), how can we take our share in it? How can this Revelation be put into our practical daily life? This is the purpose of this class, how am I going to apply the Quran within my present life conditions. This way we will learn how to read the Quran to benefit our humanity, which is one method of reading the Quran. Many people are studying the Quran from the grammatical structure, and some say to take lessons from these verses. But this method helps make the Speech of God relevant to our life now, otherwise how else can I apply Manat and Uzza for my condition here and now. Bringing the verses into our practical life is more effective and applicable to our life conditions. That is, we should not distribute and make some part of our life as belonging to God, we need to have one fair distribution.
Everything is created by God, it is His property, I have not created anything, I am just using it. We are nothing but consumers, we are not creating anything. No property is ours, including our children, they do not belong to us, I did nothing, I just enjoyed their presence in my life, and consumed it. It was my pleasure to play with the child. We must give 100% of what we claim to be ours and entertain ourselves with it, back to its Owner. If you use the 100 % which belongs to the Creator in His name, acknowledge that all of them are His, given to me as a gift. That is how we can use the universe in His name so that the whole universe will be served for me (bi’simiallh), I will benefit from it but I will direct my gratefulness to my Creator by acknowledging that everything is freely given to me in the form of a gift, just for me to be thankful to Him. That is what worship means, to be thankful to your Creator and follow His Prophets exemplary life. Everything is His, and I must use it in His name 100 %. I cannot have my honor except the honor that God has given to me. All honor belongs to my Creator!