Chapter Qaf- Part 5

Qaf, part 5

Recap: Does resurrection make sense to us logically?  Generally speaking, we think that there must be a continuity of our existence which must be the result of one’s conclusions, acknowledgment, belief and relationship with the Source of one’s Existence.  If the Creator is Absolute, then He must continue our existence in the absolute sense as well, that is what we experience here, the need for eternal perfect existence, otherwise life here is just meaningless.  The Quran gives simple examples for everyone to understand resurrection, and the evidence in the universe is clear to confirm the claim of the Quran, otherwise we cannot confirm the claim of the Speech of the Creator.  Hence, evidence must be available for everyone to confirm it and benefit from.

It is not false to think that resurrection is the continuity of our existence from this realm to an infinite realm.  However, when I die, my resurrection has been completed.  That is to say, resurrection is happening right now, and my life is being completed right now.   

50:9 “And We sent down blessed rain from the sky and grew gardens and grain to harvest.”

Rain does not happen because of the occurrence of some “natural” activity.  We must establish this first, can the rain come down by itself naturally or randomly?  We must think about such subjects.  What are the seeming causes, according to our perception?  The temperature differences, air molecules, wind direction…  As you go up in the air, the pressure changes and gives the opportunity for water steam to become clouds.  Any human being, using his intellect, asks:  Can matter arrange all this?

Rain means water.  Water means, (in the appearance of the universe) a source of life.  Water is not a creating agent.  Water is not coming down as rain by itself.  The organization of water molecules in the form of “rain” acts according to the will of a Conscious Agent.  Heavy clouds may seem like a perfect order to burst out rain.  The Creator of this perfect order designed creation in such a way that it is called “order”.  This order tells us that it is the habit of the Creator to create such substances.  Without a certain pressure in the atmosphere, the clouds do not come into existence, nor is it possible for the wind in and of itself to create heavy clouds.  We see things happening in a sequence within an order or a whole system.  If there was no sequence, then there would be no order.  We can understand this comfortably. The next question follows this observation: Can  this order or sequences of coming into existence happen by themselves? In another word, “can the matter move from one place to another by its own will?” “How can we explain the existence of energy?” 

The Source of Existence (SOE) of the order has arranged life here.  When we hear “natural laws,” we must be careful about the content of the language.  There are principles in the order that cannot come into existence by themselves.  “Nature” implies that the things come into existence by themselves.  The “order” or “nature” cannot be its own creation.  These concepts do not have an external physical existence; they are nothing but constructions used by human beings to express what they observe in the universe. Simply put: There is no universe and “order” next to it co-existing.  

When we look at the water, we see two atoms combined (hydrogen and oxygen).  Can they be combined by themselves?  They do not have the knowledge to get together or follow an order by themselves.  Can the particles be the source of wisdom and power to give life?  They do not have any quality from themselves, they are just subject to the way that  the universe is brought into existence within a perfectly fitting sequence.  They are made in this way and are made to follow an order.  Example: When I look into myself, I see that I can speak and reason.  Can I say that I am the Source of existence of my own qualities?   No. I am using the qualities within the capacity given to me.  Within this capacity, I understand the others in creation, that they are consumers and are operating within an order.  Just like the particles of oxygen and hydrogen, everything is subject to the order.  Any human intelligence concludes that water has no quality to give existence to itself within a perfect order.

How comfortable are you that countless creatures cannot be given life by water?  The qualities manifested in creatures have no SOE within the universe.  

Who is speaking in the verse above?

“We”, i.eThe Creator of the universe is speaking with His majesty and His qualities, impossible to imagine their capacity.  How is this universe given existence?  We cannot fathom it.  Everything exists as a result of His absolute fee will.  We can grasp It as a logical conclusion, not as a thing of this universe.  If the universe was an Absolute Being, then I should ask the universe to satisfy my eternal expectations. Alas! the universe itself needs to be given existence.

Everything is coming into existence in such a way that there is no way to explain the existence of the universe within this universe.  I am a dependent being, but my Creator cannot be a one that is dependent in its existence on anything like this universe.  The Creator is a logical conclusion.  I am sure that such a self-existing being must exist for me to be able to explain the existence of this world.  “God” means an Absolute being, ahad, the only and unique one, no “pair and like” in the universe.

Everything in this universe is dependent, He must be independent.  Everything is created, He is the Creator.  I can think and so He must be the SOE of reasoning.  I have spirit, and so He must be the SOE of my spirit.  I can speak, and so He must be the SOE of my speech.

• There is nothing which has Divine quality here (lailaaha), there must be a Divine Being giving existence to this universe (illahu).

“As the Creator of the universe, I am speaking to you, and I am the One who sent down rain as a blessing.  A blessing is an action which gives innumerable results.  God will give you the realization and consciousness (about what you are and what your SOE is), which has no end.  This consciousness must be given  to me  to acknowledge the Creator.

“I will bless you.”  I need blessings of the Creator.  “Please God, I do not want to be stuck within the limitations of the universe”.  This realization needs blessings, a never-ending multitude of acknowledgement.  

• To understand the Absolute Being and become aware of His presence in everything has no end.

• We need to pray for each other for the blessings of God.  Nothing can be the SOE of anything, everything is given by Him. I want to be granted a blessed life (never ending life).

Water is blessed because out of water, the Establisher of Water creates countless living beings.  In my world, water represents God’s blessed act.  I can get endless blessings from the Speech of God (from observing how He acts) and based on what my relationship should be with this God.  The meaning in the Quran is also blessed, for it includes the introduction to human feelings. The intellect grasps it, and human feelings digest the conclusion of this reasoning: “Yes, I would love to have eternal blessed life and I am satisfied only with an Absolute Being.”  That is the only relief for my spirit.

• “I belong to the Absolute Being, look at the universe, He is the Creator of the universe.”  

For Him, He is beyond time limitation.  For me, I experience time and I will experience tomorrow.  Infinite has no limitation or nothing to prevent Him from doing something.  

• Biggest mistake: Trying to understand the content of infinite.
• Example:  There are sequences of numbers, all numbers exist in infinite.  Infinite represents endlessness.  I cannot put any limit to Absolute knowledge and Power.  My feelings represent Absolute Knowledge and Power, and I cannot try to understand the feelings, and define them.  

• Tomorrow is already arranged by Him, and I will experience it tomorrow.  
• He knows my future and I am comfortable about it.  

• Analogy: My employer has money.  If I do not have money, I know that my employer can give me money.  Will you worry about tomorrow?  No.  Similarly, I want endless happiness and my Creator should not have any problem with fulfilling that.

Always look at your perception: I am limited, and the Source of my Existence cannot be limited.  Without belief, I would not know what will happen to me as a human being.  When I die, there is no source of hope, because I closed my mind to the possibility of having a Creator.

• God promises in my feelings that He does not contradict His promise.

After rain comes, millions of living beings come to life.  Everything is created for a purpose here, that is the circle of life.  As far as the human abilities are created to observe (predator and prey), we see a perfect arrangement, which we call “ecological balance”, where did we get it?  In the order of the universe, it is arranged by the Creator.

50:10 “and tall palm-trees with their thickly-clustered dates.”

The Quran is the speech of the Absolute Knowledge of God with Absolute meaning revealed in certain time space.  The first revelation time is an example for us to be aware that the first audience of revelation at that time were experiencing “dates” as their fruits.  However, I am living in a place where clustered plums or mangoes are brought into existence.  Thickly clustered dates for me are “apples”.  This is an important way of updating the meaning of the Quran.  You do not have to be a scholar to do this.  In some areas of rituals (sharia), you may need experts to derive certain principles.   Otherwise, to establish our faith in the truthfulness of the message of the Quran, everyone has belief in his own heart.  Does it need a scholarship?  No.  

• To satisfy the heart (belief), I just need seriousness, consistency, honesty and the sincerity that I want to understand my reality.

We must have a huge amount of information about the life of the Prophet (pbuh) to see how his life developed alongside the revelation of the Quran.  That requires a special expertise area to live along with the Messenger.  However, to establish the fundamental belief matters, we must first apply our reality to satisfy the heart.

50:11 “As a provision for everyone, how with water We give [new] life to a land that is dead?  This is how the dead will emerge [from their graves- the resurrection].”

This is an example of how God is creating.  When water is combined with soil, life is awakened in the body of the cells, and then, different colors, tastes, shapes and nourishment come into existence.  This is happening with only two elements, soil and water that are subject to the will of the Creator.  They cannot do anything else, that is how they are created.  There is a purpose in sending down the rain to teach us how the Creator of the universe creates so we can build confidence within ourselves about the resurrection.

Comment: Why is there repetition in creation?

Human mind always slips away and starts speaking from God’s perspective by confusing our capacity that is confined to this limited realm.  Even the Mathematician cannot prove the existence of infinity, but as human beings, we must accept that only through this concept can we make sense of the Source of Existence of matter.

• Without lailaha illahu, I would not make sense of anything.

Comment: Rain is given life to demonstrate the Giver of life

Rain has no power to do anything on its own.  The One who creates rain demonstrates that He can give power to rain which may serve as a blessing to yield produce or employed to destroy cities.  There is wisdom in the creation of everything.   It teaches us how weak we are and how powerful He is.  We must submit to Him.  The Creator demonstrates this by creating an endless number of things.  It is He who organizes the living cells and keeps recordings of what He has created and presents to the human beings what He will create in the future.Thus, letting human feeling feel confident about His power, knowledge, and plan for the future. 

I cannot stop the existence of anything.  I usually live as if life belongs to me.  It is not me who makes my digestive system work, everything is perfectly arranged by my Conscious Agent.  I understand my impotence from myself.  Everything is done by someone else, who is doing that?  That is another way of acknowledging my Creator, as the One doing everything.

What is the order?  The way that I observe the things is the order.  That is our word, and how we describe things.  We cannot see the order as a physical thing.  Example:  There is a bed next to a table.  The order is my description of this furniture.   The universe is given existence as it is, and the order is my observation of it.  Example: I eat grapes.  It is sweet.  What is sweet?  The language is represented like this.  Language is a symbol of something that we observe and experience.

When we use words like natural laws/principles, we should be aware that we are not talking about an entity which exists physically or sensually. That is, there are no creatures + laws.  We call the way physical or sensual beings  come into existence “law” simply because they appear in existence in an orderly manner, not in a chaotic way.  There is nothing externally existing there that we call “law.”  Beauty is the concept of the description of what we see in creation.  There is nothing but existence experienced here.  All the qualities of existence are ingrained in existence itself.  We say this is square, or triangle.  Everything is given a form as part of the order or subject to the order, there is no thing + a form as the order.

Provision is available in many ways, teaching me how I am weak and independent.  I need provision to feed my spirit to realize who I am.  What is resurrection?  Is it how the dead will emerge from the grave?  Who can put “me” as a human being in a grave and rot me?  No one of this universe.  It is not me, that is my human side,  that will rot, but my vehicle, body will rot.  If something destroys your car, is it destroying you?  No.  Our feelings, that is spirit, is driving our car/body using our hands, lips, mouth, breath, and brain.  

Use your brain to make sense of things to see meaning.  Can you physically see the meaning?  No.  Can you deny that you got meaning out of air waves when someone speaks?  No. You speak and I understand something.  This is the physical side we experience, how about the meaning?  How do I explain the existence of the meaning?  My human feelings are embedded within the make of my body.  That is, meaning is extracted from the physical things.

What understand meaning?  My flesh?  There is me in this vehicle of my body.  I am not a physical being; I am reality, and I cannot deny myself.  Also, I cannot define myself as my body.

The examples of resurrection are given as evidence to the minds of the people in a simple way.  The evidence is represented in the simplest way.  Then, the subject of the following verses comes to a seemingly irrelevant matter.

50:12 “Before them, the people of Noah, the inhabitants of al-Rass, and Thamud denied.”

The Creator of these events says that I will do it, as I hint or promise.  I am looking at the universe while listening to the speech of the Creator of the universe, or vice versa.  That is why, the All-Hearer, the All-Seer (al Samee’ al Baseer) is often repeated to let me know that these qualities are given to you by the SOE of everything.  This combination of me, the universe and Speech of God all together make everything fitting to each other.  The universe/me explains the Quran and the Quran explains the universe/me.  

Speech of the Creator must be in harmony with what the Creator demonstrates to me.  The tools to understand reality are given to me and my free will is out there.  I may use them to confirm It or find an excuse to deny It.  There have always been some people who denied this truth.

50:13 “and the tribe of Aad, Pharaoh and the brothers of Lot.”

Some of the people before me confirmed this news and were honest to accept it, some were not.  We will be created in the form of what we deserve or what we gained here.  We are studying the Necessity of Resurrection.  Some people denied their Creator and claimed their self-existence.  People will be treated according to their beliefs, either grateful or ungrateful.

50:14 “the inhabitants of the Forest, and the people of Tubba”.  Each rejected their messenger, so My warning was justly fulfilled.”

Take notice of your own conclusion and see in your own feelings how true they are.  But never forget this fact that after 100 years, everyone will become people of the past.  I must look at my life now and say that there are some people who did not follow the Prophetic message.  We will all be taken away from this type of existence.  We should try to be helpful to our human side, and the denial of other people should not put us into suspicion, rather should be a means to confirm the truth by using their counter arguments to compare with our conclusions.  Without being taught, we do not learn.  Without knowing the opposite, I cannot appreciate the truth.  That is why God created us in need of education to understand the reality of our existence.  We must all take care of ourselves!