Chapter Qaf- Part 3

Qaf, part 3

Recap: In a historical context, the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) declared his Messengership and the Quraish pagans could not believe it because they did not have the concept of Messengership. This is prevalent in our time as well, for everything is globalized now.  God’s treatment of us is also related to our lifestyle.  There is no surprise that the whole world has suffered from the same problem lately, a tiny creature called “virus”.  The message of the Creator of the universe through the Messenger Muhammad as a universal message is being secularized at a global scale nowadays (including the Muslim world that has neglected scholarly teachings and forgotten about Messengership).

This existence that we are experiencing cannot be worth anything else besides the fact that the universe must have an Owner.  This universe in its wonderful structure, the way it comes into existence and continues its existence can never give a thought to not having any Owner.  The world cannot happen by itself like this, it is impossible for anyone to say that.  Even if you go to a desert, and see the ant holes in the desert, you are bound to say, who is preparing the ant hole because there is a design of a purposeful action.  Everyone says that this universe is wonderful, including an ant’s home or a bird’s nest.  This universe must have an Owner and Cause of existence.  

When we look at the world, we say that it must have an Owner and this Owner must have certain qualities.  An Owner of this universe who has certain qualities cannot leave this universe on its own.  He is continuously creating it, and therefore He must be continuously concerned with this universe, especially with the conscious being in this universe.  These conscious beings are concerned about their existence, who we are and what is going on.  The Owner of the universe cannot leave the questioning conscious beings alone on their own.  

Strange things are happening in my existence, I am brought here and taken out of here with no free will of mine.  I have been given these qualities and these qualities require the attention of my feelings and these feelings require an answer.

If we think about this without concerning ourselves with any previous conclusion/belief, then we are paying attention to our continuous existence.  There must be something coming in and answering our questions right now while we use our freewill.  He must interfere into human relationships, arguments, human concerns and needs.  He must send His guidance and it must be presented by a person to teach human beings in their practical life.  This guidance must be humanly practical, it means that I can implement the guidance that I receive from my Creator in my human life, in all aspects (social and personal).  Practical means that there must be a teacher, a Prophet to model it for me.

The pagans did not have this concept of a teacher, they were not taking their existence seriously.  They were crazy about tribal fame, which one is best and that was it.  The Quran declaredstarts saying that God sends you the glorious Quran, guidance to human beings.  That is, the Owner sends guidance and instructors.

• A man like you and me, appointed as an instructor of God should not be strange to anyone.

Belief in resurrection is missing in the minds of the people of our time as well.  Belief in God is a general idea but alone, it is not perfect and not complete.  The subject of belief in God is always alive in human beings, regardless of accepting or denying the truth.  It is a worldwide subject; however, God’s undefinability is something new that the Quran brings to us.  Some people may not have any concept of God but may have some figures/idols replacing the belief of God to adore or worship.  They may say that the universe itself is the Creator or the Creator is embodied in the universe.  Something is still there, always alive.  The concept of resurrection is ignored and neglected by everyone including the Muslims.  We may claim that the message of the Quran is alien to our personal and social life.  At the same time, we do not see that this world cannot be without the message from its Owner.  We do not see that God is creating the universe and is refreshing His guidance in verbal form.  His guidance in verbal form must be continuously refreshed.  The meaning is so endless that every time a new creation takes place, the content of the speech is reflected and manifested in the universe.  This universe is accompanied with a messenger who is always alive along with the universe; as long as the universe exists, this concept must be refreshed.  As I experience new events, I need guidance from the message in human form so that I can live a meaningful experience/life here.  The practices of the message in human form must be presented to me.

With each of my experiences, I must bear in mind that there is a messenger teaching me now and I am learning.  The message and instructorship of the message is continuously refreshed, and I must seek for it.  If the teacher were in my place and within my given concerns now, what do I think he would be doing?  The concept of instructorship must be alive if I claim that I believe in Messengership.  Example: something happened in my life, and I am disappointed, then I think about the Messenger, that he also would not be happy in this situation.  Which kind of attitude can I take to apply it to my life?  If the concept of Messengership is alive in my world, then anytime that I make a decision, I have to bear in mind that the message/messenger of this moment of existence is telling me how to connect my whole being to the Source of my existence.

What do I think the Prophet should have been doing here if he was in my case?  If I interpret something wrongly is not the point, what matters for me is that the concept of Messengership must be alive in my world, that is belief in Prophet, otherwise belief in Prophet is not active in my life.

For the major events, we must make decisions, which kind of stand should I take before this event.  I have to say what would the Prophet do if he was in my position?  This question must come to my mind if I am a believer in Prophethood, otherwise Prophethood is a heritage of knowledge.  How would he have behaved in this example or instance in my life?  I do not know what the messenger would have done.  I must be aware of it and ask for the right way of applying the message. In order to practice this “living messenger in my life” I need to study the narrations from him or to follow the experts who studied them. This way of practicing the prophetic exemplary life is called, “practicing the sunnah of the messenger.” This is the sign of belief.  Claiming to believe in the messenger but not following his “sunnah” life pattern would bring no benefit.  

• If the concept of Prophethood does not exist fresh in our mind, to say that Muhammad or Moses was a Prophet means nothing more than transfer of information.

We must be thinking of the subject at the global level.  Does the concept of Messengership exist in the world of the people?  People speak in their tongues.  Most followers of Christianity do not believe in Messengership. People who read scriptures confess that these are the stories of the Prophets that have nothing to do with my practical  life right now.  In other words, there is no life pattern (sunnah) of any Prophet in our lives, only a handful of followers of a certain religion live with a Prophetic life pattern.  

The Owner of the universe must accompany the message in human form, that is how we should understand the Owner of the universe to care about us, through the Prophet, not the Prophet by himself.  The owner of my world must care for me right now, otherwise he cannot be the Owner.  

Think about it, if there is God who creates me right now and does not care for my problems, that would be a contradiction.  I must be serious about the belief in the hereafter/resurrection. That was the problem in the pagan Quraish era/society, where the Prophet was trying to teach them to live their lives with the awareness of resurrection under the instructorship of God.  “Tell the people that there is a Prophet who comes with the message of the reality of the hereafter, that it exists.”  

We are continuously falling into our resurrection, every moment of our life is passing, yesterday has fallen into the past.  We think that the hereafter is an extension of our life here.  False!  When I die my resurrection has been completed.  Everything has gone by, and I cannot get it back, you must face the consequences of your acknowledgments (wrong or right doings) after you die.  We have remnants of what we did wrong or right.  In our youth, we are ashamed of the things that we did, we do not want to mention any of them to anyone.  As Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) said, “whoever conceals someone’s mistake, faults and sins, Allah conceals his sins and ignores it”.  You concealed people’s sins, so I will conceal your sins. We should conceal our sins, keep them in our mind and ask for forgiveness continuously.

The messenger advised us to conceal our mistakes.  If you openly declare your sins, these sins become normalized, since it is not hidden, and you do not feel the pressure to ask your Creator to forgive you. Psychologically, it is human not to confess your sins to anyone, including the people who claim religious authority.  In some Christian practices, after confessing your sins to a person, you do not feel the embarrassment of the sins and you are free of the burden of the sin.  There should only be confession before God alone because He already knows it, nobody else.  Even if you see a dream that is not promising, a negative thing, do not share it with anyone.  We must apply these principles to our life right now.  We are in the Meccan period of revelation trying to assimilate resurrection within ourselves.  The Medinan period is more about working on moral practices and social values.  I first must train myself and go through a belief education of what I am believing in, then go into Medinan life.  Only then can I spread/share the belief that I have matured myself in.

Belief in Prophethood must be alive at every stage of my life.  I should not make any decision about my life without considering the Prophet.  “What would the Prophet have done at this stage of his life?” His message has everything to do with all of us personally.

50:3 “What!  Will we be returned to life when we are dead and reduced to dust?  Such a return is impossible.”

We see resurrection as impossible to happen because our body has been decomposed.  How is it going to be resurrected again?  We do not see that resurrection will take place because we mostly define ourselves as a body which is decomposed when everything is over.  We must know that we have body, feelings, intelligence, consciousness within us.  We know what is right and wrong.  

If I say 2+2=4, how do you know it is correct?  Is it your brain that knows that 2+2=4, does your body know it?  How can you conclude that something is right and wrong?  Your brain is a tool in your body to be used by your human qualities. How come reasoning exists and our ability to make decisions exists?  These are the human elements, and the body is only one of them.  Human body is subject to continuous change, construction, destruction, coming into existence and going away.  My body that I was given last year is disintegrated.  My new body is created, in the form of an old man as opposed to yesterday’s existence.  Age does not matter, consciousness of your existence is everything, that is what matters.  This consciousness is not alive in our mind, but we are trying to keep this consciousness alive.  

The descriptions that the Quran gives about the general understanding of creation is so simple to understand.  Example: take the seed of an apricot, sow it in the soil and put some water.  In the course of time, the body of the seed disintegrates.  It does not disappear, rather something new is created out of this seed or it is transformed into a fresh, completely different element from the seed.  We observe a plant, for example a tree, where did it come from?  Did the plant or the tree come from the seed?  No, the seed is only a matter, in and of itself.  There must be something deposited in the seed, not from the seed, to transform it or make it grow into a tree. That is the wisdom of the Creator to demonstrate in front of our eyes, every spring, how countless numbers of plants are coming from dead seed (life is an external entity than the matter of the seed), again and again.  How do you explain the existence of a seed, let alone a tree?  Can you deny that the same Creator who is demonstrating in front of our eyes, that out of our body, which looks like the seed, all the human qualities are ingrained in it, not coming from the body, rather the existence of these qualities is something that we cannot explain within this universe.  The body itself does not have the quality to create a new type of body in an eternal form befitting my human nature and expectations?  Isn’t it possible that the One that gives existence to the seed and the body can give you existence again?  He is demonstrating it here in your practical life while you are  interacting with plants, animals, and human embryos.  We understand that the resurrection of the body is possible.  

The seed dies, the tree dies, and the fruit of its seed keeps the ingredients of the tree and the initial seed, and these qualities manifested on the seed and tree, never disappears.  How do we explain this?  Similarly, my emotions, conscious intelligence and feelings are always there and not subject to change. I can become aware of them, and they are already there.  Just as a tree is growing and when it was very small in the form of a seed, all the qualities of the tree existed but if I did not let it grow/improve or cultivate it, then the qualities do not flourish.  In the same way, all the qualities that make me human, even if I don’t improve them, educate and use them and make them become apparent to me, does not mean that they die.  I have not benefited from it and become aware of it, yet it is in me, if I would have studied, then they would have become apparent to me.  This works like some qualities that you have but may not have developed.  However, if you studied them or trained for it, then you would have developed as a human being.

50:4 “We know very well what the earth takes away from them.  We keep a comprehensive record.”

The Quran says that the news that the messenger brings to you is that everyone will be resurrected, but you still find it to be impossible.  “We know what is going on on the Earth, We keep a comprehensive record, and We protect what is recorded.  We are the one who recorded everything in the DNA, now We are keeping it.  If something disappears from our eyes, a seed, we know what qualities it had.  We have not lost the qualities of the seed, rather its qualities are manifested fully as the tree grows, and the fruit is perfect.”  The One who creates the seed must know the life story of the seed and wrote it to show us that everything is known to its Creator. Do you think that He has forgotten and left the seed alone on its own?  

As the tree disintegrates in the soil, it does not mean that the DNA structure is destroyed.  What is this DNA structure?  How do you explain its existence?  Can you capture it as an essence physically?  How about the information written on the physical matter? Where does the “knowledge” come from? Is it possible that the matter produces knowledge? No, we just sketch it with some measurements that are subject to change because nothing in the universe is static, everything is constantly subject to change.  There is something that is creating countless seeds every time.  When I grow older, I disappear from existence as a young child as far as the capacity of my perception is concerned.  However, my qualities do not disappear from creation but have the potentialities to be manifested to me in a new form, just like all the qualities of the tree get unraveled.  As the plant gradually develops from the beginning to becoming a mature tree, all the period of its life story is recorded in that seed, all happening at the same time.  The Creator is demonstrating that He knows what is happening in my life just like the seed that dies into a tree.

50:5 “But when the truth came to them, they denied it, they are in a state of confusion.”

They are not thinking of resurrection taking place in their eyes.  Example: Joe’s father died.  It means that the Creator is letting us know that whatever we do here, that is the story of our life is recorded here.  Joe’s father will practice his life according to the favor of God’s Mercy.  Therefore, whatever we do here and all the mistakes or the good actions we have made, we will face its consequences, and so we must be sincere in our asking for forgiveness for our mistakes.  The Creator of this order will take care of it.

When death is given, the body is disintegrated in the soil but the spirit, qualities and feelings that experience existence do not disappear, because they are not a material form.  It is completely another form, like the information, knowledge in the matter of the DNA which is not written as a material form.  

DNA is like a book, with paper and ink as a material being.  Human spirit is like the knowledge written in the DNA, which is not of the kind of matter, and is not subject to change.  When you study DNA, you see the material things there along with some knowledge and structure.  You cannot burn the knowledge of a book; it is in the mind of the author.  Similarly, the DNA carries the knowledge of the Creator of the universe, not to be mistaken with the knowledge about the particles in it.  DNA is like a book which you can read and in it is engrained so much knowledge not only about its interconnectedness with its constituent parts, but more so about its author.  You can burn the seed and the material side of the DNA, but you cannot burn the knowledge/meaning engrained in it.  Just like the knowledge of the Creator cannot be burnt.

We must be confident in understanding that the human spirit has nothing to do with death, it is the body that is subject to death.  Just like the knowledge of its Creator in a DNA never dies. Human beings are not of the same matter/nature as the body.  I must make sure that my resurrection is dependent on the knowledge of the Creator, He must create my body again according to the need of my spirit which I either improved or not.  

50:5 “But when the truth came to them, they denied it; they are in a state of confusion.”

We are not sure how resurrection will happen.  I must solve this confusion and answer my questions by studying the Speech of God in verbal form as well.  The knowledge of my spirit and of my body is in the form of knowledge and knowledge cannot be destroyed.  The nature of knowledge is not subject to destruction.  My body disintegrates but the blueprint of my body is with my Creator.

50:6 “Do they not look at the sky above them, do they not consider how We have made and adorned it, and that there are no flaws in it?”

The Quran gives a simple example, such as look at the sky, how is it up there?  You do not have to be an astronaut to observe the sky.  Consider how We made the sky above?  Have you seen any flaw in its creation?  Do you think that there is a flaw in the creation of the heavens and the stars, galaxies?  They are under the control of someone in the order of the universe.  Whoever gave them existence must be an All-Powerful One, for there is a perfect order manifested there.

50:7 “And the earth, how we spread it out, and placed on it firm mountains, and made every beautiful pair of plants grow in it.”

What does “zauj” (pair) mentioned here refer to?  We admire this reality of creation that everything in the universe is created in pairs.  Men and women, obvious opposite qualities such as day and night, hot and cold, dark and light, attraction and repulsion… Without the other one cannot really exist.  They complement each other.  

We must think that everything is created with its pair, opposing each other and at the same time completing each other.  In the order of the creation, I am  created with the combination of my mother and father as complementing pairs opposite to each other.  I would not be here if it were  not according to the will of the Creator.  They are opposite and I am created out of it.  There is wisdom in this.  How did my father/mother grow independently, yet compliment each other perfectly?  They are all created, and the order is created in such a way that we cannot leave existence to chance or accidents.  

Everything is perfectly developing in different conditions of existence.  God’s deliberate action doing something demonstrates perfect qualities here, which help the human beings understand that this cannot be the result of accidents.  “We have not given any authority to Satan, the negative denying option of the human being, to demonstrate randomness”.  We cannot say that the things are developing by themselves because we do not have any demonstrable evidence for this claim.  However, all the opposite qualities such as negative and positive, male and female are needed for me to realize that nothing here is the result of accidents.  Without the female species, created beings cannot use combination to continue its existence.  The will of the Orderer is established in such a way that the human beings will not be deceived about the idea that everything is created by itself.  How do the things complement each other, how do I explain such an existent phenomenon?  My mind cannot give a chance to randomness.  impossible!

50:8 “This is an insight and a reminder to every human being who willingly turns to God.”

We must make a conscious decision of acknowledging that the order of a Conscious Will is what I am following while dealing with my affairs here.  I mostly fail in this endeavor and so we shall all seek out the forgiveness and Mercy of our Lord.  Example: things in your life are going smoothly.  Suddenly, there is an interruption, which is brought into existence to serve as a warning or reminder to listen to the heart and reason with all the human faculties including consciousness and intelligence about what this existence points to and consists of.  This existence points to a Conscious Will, for the order cannot happen to be in existence randomly.  

Finally, if you ask for anything like Eternal Happiness or Eternal Love, then the Conscious Will behind the existence of everything here shall give it to you, why shouldn’t He?  He is the One who created you in this needy and desperate position, so He must fulfill this human expectation.