Chapter Sa’d – Part 14

Part 14

38:45 “And remember Our servants Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, all are endowed with inner strength and vision.”

The Prophets are chosen among the people by God according to His wisdom, although we may not know His wisdom exactly, we must take lessons from it.  When the Quran describes the Prophets as servants like us, from my perspective I say: “Why are they chosen rather than another person? What can I learn from His Wisdom manifested in His Choice of a person as the Prophet?”  

If I try my best to gain inner strength and vision, will I really be chosen as to be  a prophet?  No. 

38:46 “Verily We purified them with a perfect purification, through the remembrance of the life to come.”

They were not that much pure, but God purified them.  Why does God purify certain people and not me and you?  I am trying to understand the wisdom of who is chosen as a Prophet, and I want to know what type of virtues they had to be chosen as Messengers of God.  

• First of all, we know that the Prophets are chosen and prepared to help us keep the remembrance of God, teach us how to keep our relationship with Him and prepare ourselves for the hereafter always.  

Of course, I am not questioning God’s will, but I want to get some lessons by asking this question of: “Why am I not chosen as a Prophet?”

What does being endowed with inner strength and vision mean?  

The people around the Prophet were so meticulous about keeping the memory of all the acts of the Prophets.  He was an illiterate man; profession wise he was a shepherd.  There is nothing shameful about being a shepherd.  He was not soiled and spoiled with the outside culture and understanding of the civilization; he was just as innocent as a new-born baby.  He did not have a secular education; however, our criteria are polluted from secular education and worldly concerns, our criteria are polluted with many concerns under the influence of many things.  Although we believe in God, we must be careful about all the pollution we have.  We must be careful that we have a lot of pollution; we must admit that.  If we don’t admit, then we must make sure that we know that we are missing some things and are not aware about our reality.  We all know our nature but the situation we are in, is where most of our concerns are shaped by the environment that we live in.  

What was the inner strength of the Prophet Muhammad?  What made God choose him as the most important candidate and employ him for the most important mission for the human being?

Historically, we hear that he was an honest man accepted by everyone in his lifetime.  Is trustworthiness enough to be appointed as a Prophet?  The Quran says that these Prophets are endowed with inner strength, i.e., getting into the reality of things.  But he was an uneducated man, so what is he envisioning?

What do you think that the Prophet was doing in the cave (ghar-alira)?  

The first revelation was Iqra bismi rabbikal khalaq, read in the Name of your Lord who creates.  But he did not know how to read and write.  What is he going to read since he did not know how to read and write?  Also, there was no book in Mecca, so what was he going to read?  Will he read to become an educated person?  There must be some concerns that the Prophet was withdrawing from society into seclusion to be away from civilization.  What was wrong with the son of Abdullah and what was he doing there?  Why would someone retire in a cave and do something there so that the answer to this person says: “if you are interested in this matter, then you have to read what I have created”.  That is, we can guess the questions and concerns that Muhammad was concerned with.  It means what is going on in this world.  He was full of questions and concerns, with no answers at all from his side.  He did not have any answers, but he must have lots of wonders and questions.  What am I doing here? What is going on here?  They must have an idea of God, but who God is.   Before he became a Prophet, we can be sure that Muhammad was full of questions, wanting to know the meaning of life, the purpose of our being here, who brought us here and taking us out in a ruthless way by giving death, although we are given life freely.  We find in this world that everything is provided as exactly as I need.  Then, it must be for a purpose, I am gradually growing, young man, to old man, what is going on?  He must have said that I am going to go down now and decay, what is going on?  During the Prophet’s time, people did not live long in Mecca.

Historians who study the life of the companions say that the majority of the people’s average age back then was 35 years old, and children would die because of malnutrition, health conditions, and lack of medicine.  Nowadays, people take care of themselves and are overfed, because of imports and exports of food, and now we are suffering from obesity.  The situation changed from back then, but God’s order does not change, i.e. If you take care of your health, that is your prayer. God says, that “I will answer your prayer and extend your life, but at the end death is guaranteed sooner or later”, and we are going to die, get rid of this world, and hopefully get Paradise.

He must be concerned with many questions and suffering from lack of their answers because there is no answer.  As far as the answers are concerned he was as innocent as a baby (ummi) but had loads of questions. If anyone claims that s/he knows some of the answers, then he cannot be appointed as a prophet just because he is likely to confuse his answers with God’s answer. And also, innocent people would think that s/he is  a person of knowledge, they would not believe that s/he received a message from God. Then, the answer comes: “your concerns are so right and white, with no black dot, that I can write on it and there should be no  confusion”.  If the paper is completely white, you write everything, and nothing is distorted and unclear.  When we write something on a scribbled slate, our writing is mixed with pollution.  However, the heart, intellect and mind of the Prophet must be so pure/white that God will write His revelation on it, that there will be no confusion and distraction that the person will keep it as pure as he receives from God and convey it with no confusion.  Now the answer comes, “if you want to get to know Me, so I will let you know who I am and why I created the universe”.  

Uloo al-aidy, inner strength, means pureness, as a blank page, full of questions with no answers, waiting for the answers to be written.  The power that we have before God to receive His help is to have a clean, wide, clear, sheer spirit that is undistorted, an unpolluted heart, full of expectations and no answer.  No pride, no claim that I know why I am here, rather I know nothing.  I am just a blank slate with no answer. What does it mean for me and you?

If you have anything belonging to you, yes, I know I can do, I can choose, that is my free life, any claim, that is a dot in your “tabula rasa” or in my pure heart, pure clean slate, then that is not a clean slate.  I see that the power of a created being is to declare that we have nothing that we own, but we are 100% needy (with no exception), poor, powerless, created beings.  Everything that I have is from God.  Do I have anything?  Nothing.  Can I declare that?  Not easy.  We have many claims, I know this, I don’t need you to tell me, don’t interfere in my life, I like this, it’s a matter of taste, I learned it, that is my knowledge, my qualification, claim upon claim upon claim…

Between me and my Creator, I am 100 % needy and my Creator has with no exception at all has 100% right of ownership.  That is the relationship between abd and maboud. This relationship is a pure worship (‘ebadaa), that is why they are pure and have vision, which means to see the future, their reality, what they are.

I am not trying to become a candidate for Prophethood here, rather, I want to get to know my reality under God’s guidance, the Quran.  Why does God mention names of certain people as the prophets?  They must be some people like you and me. Their virtue was that they have no claim but only needs. They admitted that they have lots of concerns, but no perfect answer.  You don’t own existence, rather you are given.  I am nothing but I am given everything that I need.  It does not mean that I don’t exist, rather I have nothing, and I am given everything.

From my perspective I am poor, from the Giver/Creator’s perspective I am rich.  That is the foundation of the relationship between God and his conscious human beings.  The main reason for the prophets to be chosen as prophets is because God is going to write His message on their heart, minds and spirit and they will use the message as they received it from God without any distortion, twists, cracks, crookedness, and dirt. That is what we need as our guide in this world.  These are the Prophets.

Comment: How are uloo al-albaab and uloo al-aidy related?

Uloo al-absar, insight, is like uloo al-albaab, an inner strength and vision, which penetrates the truth as it is without any confusion, gets the core of the things.  The word albab comes from lub, a man of vision who sees the truth in its essence, core with no confusion.

Purification means that we are makhluk, we are created with weaknesses, haste, it means that we are not perfect to control our feelings.  Hence, the Prophets must be under God’s observation.  God tells them that: “Whenever, you stand up and make tasbeeh of Him (i.e., declaring that every perfection belongs to Him, and glorifies Him that He is free of all sorts of defects and shortcomings,) you will be under Our surveillance because you are in front of Our eyes, observing you and taking care of you.  If anything on your human side deviates, we will correct it, don’t worry about it”.  Whatever Allah decides, be patient with it, don’t worry about it, whatever happens with you, you are always under our observation.  It means that the prophets are human beings, and like us they are fallible.  But some people say that before Prophethood, Muhammad was also a fallible being, he was not perfect, and after Prophethood he became perfect.  And so, who can create perfection for Him?  After being appointed prophets and their followers will guide human beings in the Name of Allah.  Can God appoint someone who will guide people as He wants them to guide, but this guide somehow messes up with the mission?  Even if a Prophet makes one mistake in conveying God’s message, then we have every right to be suspicious of this mistake in every of his actions, sayings, and narrations of conveying God’s message to us.  Hence, the Prophet’s mistakes were also under God’s will.  

The Prophets must be purified with a perfect purification otherwise God will have a defect in not finding a vicegerent to represent his message to human beings as a guide because this man is not doing his mission perfectly.  Ultimately, that would mean  that God is not the best manager for He does not know how to appoint a person to take care of His job.

Do you see any shortcomings in his creation?  Whatever we don’t like is perfectly created within an order that perfectly functions.  If God is perfect, then He will choose the perfect candidate to represent the message to His created human beings.  Hence, He must purify the Prophet otherwise human weakness is inevitable.

We understand that whatever the Prophet has said and performed must be perfect beyond doubt because the Owner, Administrator, Manager and Lord of the universe is perfect. That is why the Quran says, “we are doing this, and whatever you stand up to say something, do something, remember that God is perfect, so you can do your mission perfectly.  We are taking care of you so you will perform the mission perfectly.

“Wait patiently [Prophet] for your Lord’s judgment: you are under Our watchful eye. Celebrate the praise of your Lord when you rise.” (Qur’an, 2: 48)

If a narration of sayings or actions of the Prophet, which are called “hadith”does not make sense to us, it may be the narrator’s shortcomings, and literal understandings, or when we read it from  our own concerns.  The narrators may be honest people, but honesty is not enough, they may be loose in their remembrance, they may see things from one perspective, which may be different from expectations of the narration.  However, the problem cannot be extended to the Prophet, or Prophethood, i.e., God.  God cannot employ someone who does not do the best job, because it contradicts the definition of being God.  We may have suspicions about the narrations, and the narrator’s position.  We must take notice of the narrator’s filters.  That is, when I look at a case, I may look at it from my perspective and expectations, not the other side.  Also, I don’t see a perspective which is not my concern.  Also, I should not forget that I am not perfect.  The narrator is likely to make a mistake unintentionally, and they must be honest, because God’s messenger educated these people, who are so loyal that they are ready to die for him.  There is no way to expect from the Prophet’s companions to make deliberate mistakes, but human shortcomings are unavoidable.  We must take into consideration that our expectations from the Prophet may be polluted with the civilization that we are trained in.

The mission the Prophets are performing is related to my life not only here but in the eternal world.  If they had made a small bit of mistake now, it would have cost me eternal deprivation of God’s mistakes.  The smallest amount of crookedness in the message, results in infinite loss in the hereafter.  It means in Paradise; I will lose this bit of mistake of the Prophet eternally.

We must bear in mind that the mission the Prophets are performing is directly related to my eternal life.  There should be no ambiguity in the message as there is no crack in the creation of God.  It must be as perfect as the universe is now.

38:47 “And in our sight, they are truly among the chosen and the best.”

Mustafa” and it means chosen one/best one, which is also one of the names of the Prophets.  As if God is telling the readers of the Qur’an, “Hey reader of my message, be careful what you are receiving here is conveyed to you through the best-chosen people.  I have chosen them, not that people have elected them, because people make mistakes.  If you trust your Creator, then you should trust My choice, as you are comfortable in this world, because of My perfection of creation. As a result, you may have some means of training and education.

Example: A teacher gives a multiple-choice test and asks what is wrong with these statements.  One is correct and the others are not.  Is the teacher confusing me or teaching me how to be careful and fine tuning in getting the right answer?  Is the teacher teaching me on how to be precise with the right answer or the teacher does not know what is the right answer and asking me as if she needs me to teach her the right answer?

That is how we are being educated here through creating something that we are not pleased with. The reason is to have a correct understanding of who I am and what my Creator is. I am needy and my Creator is the Provider of everything that I need.   That is why the prophets are chosen by God.  As if God says, “We have chosen him, and you must trust Me.”  It is a perfect message for us to establish our trust in the Prophet being chosen by God, their manager is God.