Section Najm, part 8
Recap: When the Revelation took place, the reference of the idols Lat, Uzza and Manat must have been relevant to the audience of that time. However, we must make sense of these idols within our life conditions now. These are names that represent anything that we may associate as having divine value or divine power i.e. our idols. The idols of our civilization are philosophical stances such as “nature”; cause and effect relationship such as “natural causes” or simply a career status, just to name a few.
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.”
Why is the Quran saying that these ideologies are just names? Because they have no reality and have no existence in and of themselves. When a materialist mind says that I believe that the universe exists, and there is no Creator who has created the universe or someone else may say that the Creator is within the universe, these are wrong, non-logical conclusions. Anyone who looks at the universe can logically conclude that if this universe exists as it is, it cannot come into existence accidentally by itself. Human logic says that there must be Something which gave existence to this universe. If a Conscious Being has given existence to this universe, then such a Being cannot be within this universe. That is a logical conclusion.
We need to repeat these conclusions a lot, because we hear people including ourselves speaking with a confusing language. If a person says that the universe exists by itself, then they must demonstrate the quality that it exists by itself. Similarly, if a person says that nature is the Source of Existence, then they must also demonstrate some quality in the universe. If you claim that there is no external Agent/Creator giving existence to the universe, then you are saying that the Source of Existence may be matter itself or something within the universe. The confusing argument mostly goes like this, you say that the universe is created by God, show me God.
In these classes, we use a logically consistent language, we say, the universe exists and it needs to be given existence, and nothing of this universe has the quality to give existence to anything. Therefore there must be a Source of Existence of this universe that is not of the nature of this universe i.e. Absolute. This Being who gives existence to this universe cannot be in the form of a created being, like a part of the universe, and that is why, it cannot be demonstrated in the universe. The logical conclusion from this is that there must be a Creator, and you cannot ask me to show Him, because if I show you the Creator, then it would be part of the universe, and it will be no different than what you are claiming. There is no way that a part of the universe can be the Source of Existence of the universe.
The Creator says in the Quran that “I am not part of the universe, I am not created, so you must look at my actions and conclude My Absoluteness. Those people who do not believe in this make up somethings”. That is, in the language of the Quran, what people make up are the Lat, Uzza and Manat (as was referenced in verse 53:22 last week). In our century now, what people make up to explain the existence of the universe is “nature”, “accident”, “matter is acting on its own and has the quality to improve itself”. Also, the human being can assume further beyond how the universe is created i.e. the things create something or something in the universe produces things. For example, the sun produces light, matter produces energy, a cell in the seed develops by itself. These are claims that attribute some qualities to created things. Nowadays, no one uses the words Lat, Uzza or Manat and shows you a statue as an idol. The Quran says that these are nothing but made-up words, by putting meaning into it, which has no reality.
It is important to understand how the Quran speaks. The Quran says, “I am the word of God, the Creator of the universe. I am just here speaking to you through the Prophets to help you understand what the truth and reality is”. The Speaker is God. When God says, God has sent no authority for them, how are we going to understand this statement? How am I going to benefit from this statement in my life now?
We must always start by observing the universe first and see if anything of this universe has any power in their existence to sustain us, has any knowledge in their existence to know our needs, and has an independent freewill to protect us. When you conclude that that nothing of this universe has an independent will of its own and everything is obeying the order of the The Orderer of the universe, it challenges the claims “nature” or “natural causes” which are not demonstrable. What is going on nowadays with our psyche? If I have Object A, it will make me happy. Of course, you feel happy when you get something you want, but it is not that thing that makes you happy. That thing is given existence to experience happiness for you, but that thing in and of itself has no quality of its own to give you happiness, only the Creator of that thing gives you happiness.
We have many things in our lives that we want, and we think that if I have this, then I will be happy. Go ask these things, can you be the Source of my happiness? Do you know me? Can things have any quality to know you? For example, when you look at a beautiful flower, it relaxes you and makes you happy. Investigate the flower, it has no knowledge, no will, no wisdom, but it is made in such a way that makes you feel happy. If you say that the flower makes me happy, the Quran says that the flower has no authority to claim to be the Source of Existence of happiness. That is how we should read the Quran. The Quran literally states that God has sent no authority over them. In other words, the things have no quality to what people attribute to them.
For example, when you say, this plant is producing some grapes. God says go and ask the grape wine: “Can you be the Source of Existence of this grape? Are you making it or are you employed in this way so that the grapes appear to be on you?” There is no authority in the plant to make grapes, for it is created like you and I, obeying His order.
We are all obeying the order of The Order-er, although we claim that we are doing things. For example, I am created with the ability to see, but I say, I see. It is not me who creates the ability to see, I am just using it, I am made in this way, I have no authority to claim that I can see, because I did not make it, I found myself in this way.
When we read the Quran, we must turn the sentences the other way around and read it from our perspective, and question what it claims. That is, if I look at a plant, I should question what it claims, can you have the ability to know me and love me? The plant says, I am made in this way to please you. The plant does not have any quality to be the Source of Existence of itself let alone anything in this universe.
We must wonder about what makes people become familiar with such unrealistic languages like the plant makes me happy or the grapes are delicious, despite knowing that things do not have any independent existence. Things are made in such a sophisticated way that it seems that things are acting on their own. For example, if you look at me, you may see me talking, reading, seeing, and acting. That is how I am made, my tongue itself cannot say that it is producing the quality of the action of speaking, or the eye cannot say that it is producing the ability to see. The same eye when we die does not see anything.
The material elements ultimately are the same for everything. These are the building blocks of the universe, and they have no qualities in and of themselves. For example, no one can say that iron and phosphorus have certain qualities, rather, they are given those qualities and are just matter. Nothing has any quality from itself. They are made in this way. For example, when you look at a beautiful painting, you say there is art in it. But the material side of the painting has no quality to produce art. It is so obvious. But there is art manifested in the painting itself. It means that the painting is made with the quality of art. The building blocks i.e. atoms and particles of the painting have no quality of art. Human mind questions and works on this, where did the art come from? These things have no authority to claim that they are the source of the art displayed in them.
Let’s take another example. When you read a book there is meaning in it. No material elements of the book can be the Source of Existence of the meaning it carries to me. How can I say that the book is teaching me then? I must say that it is obvious that the author of the book is teaching me. Where is the author? I don’t see the author within the book, and it is absurd to look for the author in the book. Then, why are people saying, for example, certain things are producing feelings? What is wrong with our intellect? We have inherited such a mindset from our predecessor. Someone coined a name and interpreted things in a certain way and now it is continuing because people love to take things at a superficial level. Why are we buying into this idea? There must be a reason, which is mainly that people do not want to submit themselves to their Creator even though they identify belief in the Creator with religion. Briefly, religion cannot be reduced to belief in a Creator! It has to do with submitting one’s will to God’s will and working on what one’s belief in God necessitates in a nutshell.
The Prophets come with this news from Revelation, there is a Creator, who created you and created the universe for you, you can utilize it, and benefit from it, but it is not the created things that you should be grateful to or attribute the benefits to. Rather, the Creator of the universe must be praised and thanked, not the things themselves, because the things have no quality or values to be praised for. Therefore, we must follow the Prophets. You must worship the Creator. That is why the word “Religion” is somewhat treacherous nowadays, because it makes one admit their Creator and submit their freewill to His will, and follow His way, the way He shows through His Prophets. Submitting to God’s will seems to restrict one’s area of freedom i.e. One may say that I cannot do anything as I want. I need to recognize that my desires are given, i.e. they do not belong to me. . By submissing to a religion, I must acknowledge the Creator of the universe as the One who gives me existence, the One who gives me feelings of , things I like, and don’t like, all senses that I find within myself must be used according to His will. And people are not ready for this.
The Prophets are employed by God to help people establish their connection with their Creator in the right way. That is, I am a created being, totally dependent on the will of my Creator, and He is the Source of my Existence, with an Independent Existence, Self-Subsisting and He cannot be described with any word of this universe or can be any part of this universe. We must know our position and acknowledge His position. That is, you are given existence by Him and He is the One who has given existence to you. You are in debt to Him and He deserves to be praised, not you. Everything must be attributed to Him, because nothing is independent of His act of creation.
Human beings are given the option to humble themselves and accept their reality that they are created as dignified human beings and one should not bow down before any creature but only their Creator. Your Creator is the One who is the Owner of everything in the universe. How can you not glorify Him? You have to say, I bow down only in acknowledgment of you because you are the authority, I am nothing. It is a difficult attitude to take, every time I must remember Him, I must take notice of His advice.
It is easy to say, “the universe has a Creator, but I expect this Creator not to interfere in my life”. That is why human beings incline not to accept the religion and the Prophets. Why? Because, when you accept the Prophet, it means that you are accepting what the Creator wants from you. What the Creator wants from me is represented by a person who is employed by God, which means that I must also put my acceptance into practice i.e. bring the belief in God into my life, and submit everything to Him in my action. I must use everything in His name with His permission. Again, people do not want to endorse themselves to such practice.
The reality is that God created the universe, and He is my Creator as well. I can do only what He wants me to do with His permission. This permission only comes into my life with certain conditions. What are they? It is as if the Creator of the universe says, “you can benefit from what I have given to you from My property, but to practice that you must acknowledge that these things are mine, not yours. Furthermore, I will put some restrictions or signposts for you to stay alarmed with”. What are these restrictions? In Paradise, God created Adam i.e. you and me and asked us not to approach one tree. Why, what is wrong with that tree? Adam (puh) was given billions of trees and was asked not to approach one specific tree, what does it mean? It is just a signpost. Everything that we benefit from (rain, sunlight, water, sky, food…) are sign posts to be used as a reminder of our Creator’s Ownership over it. That is, while you are benefitting from anything, you should keep in mind, if it is not that forbidden tree, then I can use it. This awareness of the restriction keeps us alert that we are practicing His will in anything that we benefit from. The restriction of that specific tree is a reminder for the human being to stay on guard about his/her position that s/he is just benefiting from the property of the Owner of the universe. Hence, in honor of the acknowledgment of your Owner’s will, you say “no” to that which is not allowed.
We should apply the same principle of staying alert of our position before the Owner of the universe with any ritual. For example, why do we pray the five daily prayers? It is an acknowledgment of the bounties that are provided to us by the Owner of the universe, and reminding us of who I am. Similarly, when the sun sets, a new creation happens, which demonstrates a sharp changing point from daylight to darkness. At night I see stars, not the sun. This obvious change makes me realize that this is the work of my Creator and I must acknowledge Him. It also serves as a warning to stay alert about my reality. I prostrate and say that “you are the One who deserves to be glorified and praised, and we worship you. I see your power, knowledge, favor for me, beauty, entertaining me, love for me, and everything.” To obey the will of the Creator, we follow the Prophetic teachings because God sent His message through them and employed them to practice for us as an example.
To believe in the Creator of the universe is necessary but it does not change my life, because it does not give me the opportunity to submit my will to His will. With that attitude, one says, you are a Generous Creator, and Love us, but I use the universe as I want. This is a big problem in this age!
Human beings have two sides, one is the obedient and humble side, the other is the arrogant and disobedient side against the Creator. I am here to acknowledge that I am created, and my being does not belong to me but to my Creator. I am here to get to know who I am and who my Creator is with the options presented to me. I can accept my reality (humble) or deny it (arrogant). I am being trained here to know who I am and who my Creator is, what is my position before my Creator, so that while I am using my freewill, I should not use it according to my choice but His choice. Practically speaking, how can I use my freewill according to His choice?
Ramadan is approaching, why do we fast for a month in a year?
Some people rationalize the religious rituals into taking wisdom from it pertaining to worldly benefits. If we rationalize religion in this way, then we miss the essence of worship. Also, there are people who know that certain things are bad for them, but they still do it because it is an option. Therefore, getting the wisdom from any ritual does not benefit our awareness of our reality. We need practical training to practice acknowledging our reality before our Creator in physical form, and that may require a set of guidelines to follow through. For example, Ramadan is an opportunity to practice my position in this world while I am using my freewill.
When Ramadan comes, and while I wait to break the fast at sunset, not before, it is an opportunity for me to acknowledge that this fruit does not belong to me, even though I paid money for it, but I did not pay acknowledgement to its Creator yet. I must realize that the fruit, and my digestive system is given as a favor to me, created for me to praise and glorify the Owner of the universe. While practicing fasting and breaking fast at the right time, the freewill chooses according to the Creator’s desire.
Any ritual is an opportunity for us to realize our reality i.e. I am the one who needs to praise my Creator, and He is the only One who is deserving of glorification. I need to remember and practice that this universe or Paradise does not belong to me, it has an Owner who says not to go to a specific tree, for example, because there is no permission from the Owner there, but I can benefit from the other billions of trees out there with the recognition that it is provided by my Creator. This means that while I am choosing any tree, I am practicing my position and acknowledging who the Owner of the Paradise/universe is, it is not me, the tree is not mine. It is the Creator who employed the messenger to teach me how to acknowledge His creatorship and authority over that which we benefit from.
That is why people don’t want to submit to a Creator and practice that they are created beings benefitting from this universe to acknowledge their Creator in their practical life, because it reminds them of their human reality, and they choose to entertain life here on a temporary basis by numbing their human feelings. Otherwise, why are we here in this universe? We are here to train ourselves by using our freewill to conclude that I either exist by myself or I have a Creator that I need to acknowledge and get to know with all my interactions in the universe. Through his work, I get closer with Him and establish a secure relationship with Him. For example, when I watch the flowers, I say they are beautifully created for me by the One who loves me and entertains me. Similarly, when I am afraid of the virus, I realize that I cannot guarantee anything, I am totally dependent on my Creator. I cannot go out and socialize with people because of the virus that is employed by its Creator to teach us that we cannot do anything as we want. That is what we are being trained on, I am a created being, needy, dependent, and we cannot guarantee our health and life.
The rituals are established to make us realize who we are and who our Creator is. That is the reason why we should practice rituals i.e. the Will of the Creator as far as our life and choices are concerned in this world. This makes sense rationally as it pertains to the purpose of our existence. Thus, fasting is practicing who you are, training of your freewill, and getting to know who your Creator is.
That is how God wants you to train to get to know Him with all the means of interacting with the universe. Otherwise, as the verse says, the guesswork does not let you submit to your reality, because it allows you to interpret your existence in a way that is arrogant i.e. you do not want to accept that human beings are sent to this world temporarily and you choose to follow your desire of living for this world only, hence do not submit to your Creator.
It is difficult to live with the acceptance of one’s reality, and most people do not want anyone to interfere in their lives, that is how people develop their feelings. Just as we know that our parents looked after us when we were growing up, and now we do not want to obey them because we have our own way of doing things, but we will still respect them and acknowledge their favor on us. Similarly, some people feel the same way about their Creator, develop a sense of numbness towards following His obedience after some time, and carry on this arrogant attitude towards their real Owner until they die. How shameful!?
We cannot decipher the human psychology without following any proper guidance i.e. Revelation from our Creator. It is simple, people who refuse to live by applying the teachings of the Prophets into their lives do not want to submit their freewill to God’s will.
أَمْ لِلْإِنسَـٰنِ مَا تَمَنَّىٰ
53:24 “Or shall man have what he wishes?”
The human being will realize who he is with his experiences of this world. Can you give existence to one small thing? No. We just use things; we cannot give existence to anything. I can use only the property of the One who created the universe.
فَلِلَّهِ ٱلْـَٔاخِرَةُ وَٱلْأُولَىٰ
53:25 “While the present life and the life to come belongs only to God?”
The present life does not belong to us, I did not come to this world on my desire, I did not know and I was given existence as a baby. I do not even know how I grew from a baby to a grown man. I did not create my lungs, air, body or my feelings. I found them all, including my life, it does not belong to me. Just as fruits grow on a tree, the fruit is the result or conclusion of the tree. Similarly, the life to come i.e. ahkira means the fruit of our life. If I do not own this life (tree), how can I own the result (fruit) of this life?
We are given freewill to choose from options, either accept our human reality or deny it. According to our choices, the result of our life is produced. Just as when you go to school, you are free to learn or not learn, that is up to you, the result of your studies will be provided by the administrator of the school. Similarly, the universe is a school, which belongs to the Creator of the universe. Your acknowledgment of your reality depends on your freewill. The other creatures don’t have freewill; they just obey the command of the Creator. We must watch out for our freewill, according to what criteria am I choosing my freewill by? If I choose my freewill according to the will of my Creator, then I get to know who I am and who He is. For example, while drinking water, you acknowledge that my Creator permitted me to drink water. It means that you get to know that your Creator is the One who provided the water for you. Similarly, if you learn something, know that it is your Creator who is enabling you to learn. We can apply it to everything else like breathing and walking. When you acknowledge Him in every action that you take, then you are living according to the Will of your Creator. For example, He is the Provider of the dress that you are wearing, He is protecting your body and clothing you.
We must bear in mind that our human side needs to be trained in this world, which is an educational place. The degree after graduation will be awarded by the One who owns the school of the universe. No one can claim to own any results of this world. Just as I cannot own the plant and the fruits grown on the plant, similarly, I cannot own the result or the life to come (akhira) which belongs to its Creator.
Finally, obeying God’s will has nothing to do with regulating our practical life, rather the real essence of obeying God’s will lies in staying consistent with the acknowledgment that nothing belongs to me (lailaha), and everything is given to me by the Owner of the universe (ilallah) and that is akhira.
Next week, we will go over the following verse.
وَكَم مِّن مَّلَكٍۢ فِى ٱلسَّمَـٰوَٰتِ لَا تُغْنِى شَفَـٰعَتُهُمْ شَيْـًٔا إِلَّا مِنۢ بَعْدِ أَن يَأْذَنَ ٱللَّهُ لِمَن يَشَآءُ وَيَرْضَىٰٓ
53:26 “There are many angels in the heavens whose intercession does not avail at all expect after God has given permission to whom He pleases and chooses.”