Chapter Sa’d – Part 21

38:71 “When your Lord said to the angels, I am going to create a human being from clay.”

Why is God speaking to angels?  That is dependent on our understanding of angels.  As the addressee of the Quran, I must see this scenario from my perspective, because I am going to read it and be responsible to confirm it (if  it is the truth or not).  When I read the Quran, I must look at the content from my perspective.  Example: when I communicate with the universe, I analyze it from my perspective.  Similarly, I must listen to the Quran and try to understand it from my perspective.  

As far as I am concerned, the angelic side of the universe must be looked at under the witnessing of the universe.  I am different from all other creatures, as we are all different.  First, I am made from clay because I see myself as a piece of matter.  Second, I have an angelic side which gets meaning from the universe and communicates with it consciously.

Comment: I need to understand the angelic side from my perspective, what do you mean?

How can I visualize this?  God is attracting my attention to understand the scenario if only I look at the creation from the angelic side as it appears to be the material side (bashar).  Bashara means to peel the skin, outer part of something that we touch, and skin side.  Just as when I look at the universe, I see the outward form.  Now, I must reason beyond the skin/outward form.  To understand the crux of the message, we must understand that the universe has an angelic side (the news it brings to us about its Creator), and so do I. 

38:72 “and when I have proportioned him and breathed of My spirit into him, you must fall down in prostration before him.”

Whatever is created in the universe, it is given a form by the Creator to fit its purpose in existence, exactly matching its needs.  Example: A nail is made according to the purpose it is made for, to be inserted on the wall or wood.  Example: A lock and key, a key has a shape (sawwaa), ready to  unlock.

A book is made of paper, does it have any value?  Only when I communicate with the meaning of the book, i.e., my angelic side converse with the angelic side of the book.  That is, I receive Its knowledge from the angelic side of the book.  Now, the book becomes precious, and I start communicating with the book.  With paper you cannot communicate with it.  Similarly, the human spirit is like this, you cannot communicate with the body (clay-earth), rather through the spirit, you communicate.  Human beings become so precious with this spirit because it is the spirit that starts communicating with the angelic side of the universe. Clay and bashar is material touching, but the spirit (rooh) is what communicates with the angelic side of the universe.  The relationship shifts into the spiritual and angelic side of the beings.  That is, my spiritual/angelic side communicates with the angelic/spiritual side of the universe.  Now, the universe is ready to serve me, that is prostration.  The knowledge of the Author is transformed into the book, which is written.  That is, my material relationship with the book shifts into non-material dimension, and I start communicating with the book, not the paper; and knowledge of the author transforms into meaning which I start getting.

Human Intelligence communicates with the knowledge of the Author, a One which is beyond our capacity to imagine, it happens because we cannot put the spirit into the lab and examine it.  We can only see the result of its functions; that is why we are sure of its existence.  We communicate with the spirit of the Author of the universe, through my spirit.  This spirit is given to me by the Absolute Creator.  The angelic side of the universe reveals the qualities of its maker, just as the angelic side of the book reveals the qualities of the author.  The universe has many qualities manifested in it, and we can communicate with the universe through the spirit that the Creator has endowed us with.  While we are communicating with the universe, we are communicating with the author of the universe, that is belief consciousness (imaan, yaqeen-certainty).  I can be in the presence of my Creator by looking into the qualities manifested in the beings of this universe.  It is not difficult!  Anyone can do it.

The angelic side of the universe is transferring the meaning to you.  If you did not have any communication with the universe, your spirit will do nothing, your body will just eat, sleep, and die.  Pointless!  Only after using my spirit and putting it in contact with the universe, the universe starts speaking to me, which means prostrating to me, at my service.  The universe reveals all the information about its Creator through the qualities manifested in it, such as wisdom, knowledge, freewill/absolute choice of the Creator, beauty, order, mercy, purpose…  Belief matters are so convincing and directly related to our practical life.  Either I can look at the outward appearance of the book or open and read it.  Example: I can say this is a tree, sun, or clouds.  It means my skin is communicating with its skin and my human side is not operating on it.  Therefore, to communicate with the universe, we must first analyze our existence, who am I?  Yes, I am matter and body, but I have feelings and intelligence, consciousness, I can question and look for answers.  I try to remember the past, gain experience, and utilize this experience.  All my creations are purposeful.  I do not communicate with the universe only with their skin/matter side.  When I look at the flower, I love it.  When I look at the garbage, I do not like it.  Why different levels of feelings interacting with creation?  We should not take the human relationship with the universe and ourselves loosely.  Who am I, according to the definition of my being, I will communicate with the universe, and it becomes the definition of the existence of the universe?  At the same time, you cannot define the universe unless you define yourself.   If you deny your feelings, then existence becomes pointless.  Example: you like this table and you say that you will have it until you die.  What is the purpose of liking it then without the message that we receive from it?

The name “Adam” is not mentioned in this section of the Quran.  We understand that “Adam” represents the human race.  The point is that it is about me.  Everything is about me, it is my story, my life journey.  I should not read it as a story of someone else.  Example: if you describe yourself as I was born from here and lived somewhere else and died somewhere else etc., this is my background, this is my experience…these are all temporary sides of us.  This is a reduction to my human life journey here on earth, that is how the secular civilization injects values in our mind by reducing the human journey to a material side only.  In the outside world, secular values are being operated on.  I may say that I am not following this civilization, although we believe in God, our understanding/way of life is secular.  If we do not communicate through our spirits with the angelic side of the universe, my belief has no impact on my life.  The reason is that I do not take my beliefs seriously.  What does belief in God mean in my life?  What does belief in angels mean in my life?  Where is the prophet Muhammad (pbuh) in my life?  We may be living with a transfer of information through cultures.  We must be careful to live in the six dimensions of the world (angels, God, Speech of God, Prophethood, Divine Determining, hereafter).   The foundation of belief is based on belief in angels, then belief in God.  If someone does not establish belief in angels and have a basis for it, then belief in God does not impact one’s life.  Some say that I believe in God, and I do not follow any religion (Agnostics), why such attitudes?  Whether you believe in God or not, you say that this universe needs a Designer.  I use the universe, but I have no connection with its Designer, intellectually I may say that it has a Designer.  To be in contact with the Designer of the universe, Creator of the universe, Originator of the universe, the Source of Existence of the universe, we must communicate with Him.  Although my eyes look at the skin of the universe, my spirit is reading the message of the universe for me.  It means that the angelic side of me is reading the angelic side of the universe, i.e., my angelic side is communicating with the angelic side of the universe through my consciousness.  Now, it makes sense.  The angelic side cries out that these are the qualities of my Maker, and this Maker must guide me with what to do. I understand that there is a God, and everything is meaningful, but what should I do with this belief?  I have a freewill, how am I going to practice my freewill.  

When we say we believe in the Book, it means God’s speech to me and you through the universe (ahl-al maktab or the people who read the book of the universe).  The story of Adam has everything to do with me right now.

38:73 “So the angels prostrated all together.”

Angels are transferring the information about the qualities of the Creator of beings and serving my spirit (feelings, intelligence, consciousness).  Example: when I read the book, it serves me, otherwise it is a load for me that I carry.  I must make it alive in my life by communicating with the book of the universe rather than carry the burden.

Comment: everything that we use serves me.

Yes, whatever we do, serves us, and gives us news about their Creator’s qualities.

38:74 “but not Iblis, who was too proud.  He became one of those who deny the truth.”

If I consider myself as my body and communicate with the material side of the universe, I get nothing.  Just like carrying the book and not reading it.  Then that is a burden. 

I am not going to transfer the information I gather from the creation to me.  We have this side, denying the truth, saying that I am only body.  “Iblis” represents an approach considering the human as clay/matter/body.  Today’s science regards everything in an “Iblistic” way, i.e., body/matter and human beings are all about this reality.  For the Chemist, Physicists and Biologists are busy with skin only.  They do not want to read the creation, use their feelings and intelligence to communicate the meaning of what is happening.  We have freewill and we can choose the angelic side of us or the devilish side of us.  When we use the devilish side, we become too proud (istakbara), and pretend to be great, claiming more than what I am.  Example: Rather than saying that I am a created being, if I say that I exist by myself, then I am pretending to be great.  The method that Science uses says that matter exists by itself, as if claiming that every letter in a book happens to be randomly positioned.  How is that possible?  Does matter have consciousness of its own?  Great minds are not using their intelligence, because they are too proud and claim that I exist by myself, and so they come up with an incredible attitude to announce that the universe exists by itself as well.  This is not a simple matter!  It is easy to see where the mistake lies in the reasoning, but smart people are coming up with equations/formulas explaining the universe within the universe.  Being smart is not enough, you must be realistic, use your consciousness, admit your reality, that is an angelic attitude.  Being proud is related to being arrogant, and reducing yourself and the universe to matter, by denying the angelic side of the universe.  Just because this person denied its angelic side/spirit which is breathed into him by its Creator, he had to deny the “spirit” of the universe, which is the meaning it conveys to us.  This person has already made up their mind and declared that I am made up of body, and that I am not going to submit to the Creator of the universe.

What is written in the creation of the universe makes things easy to understand “mubeen”, clear and not complicated at all.  The universe is perfectly arranged for us to understand its Source of Existence.  Example: we cannot say that a cat exists by itself.  The cat makes it clear for me the qualities of its Creator, it makes the reality clear for me and is a witness to the qualities of its Creator.  Just like the sun is mubeen, i.e., it is obvious out there and it helps other things to be understood and identified easily.  That is why the Speech of God in the Quran is defined as “mubeen” and creation is also mubeen.  Nothing is secret.

Comment: The relationship between the Quran as a text and the universe, is it a one-to-one relationship?

The Quran is not a text, it is a Speech (kalamu Allah).  Mushaf/Compiled written book is the text, a human construction, we made it.  I hear, I learn, my intelligence grasps the Speech, I write it in a book, God does not write.  Yes, the action is created by God, but the mushaf is my construction.  When we say the Quran, we cannot think of it in terms of a book.  The Quran is a Speech, that is why “belief in the book” is a symbolic teaching of the Speech of God.  It is a misunderstanding of the word “book” in the Quran.  “Book” in the language of the Quran refers to pure Speech of God, not a human construction of matter.  When we look at the universe, although we see the material side of the universe, if we go deeper into the material side, we see the manifestations of the qualities of the Creator to which the Qur’an refers to as “Names of God.” It means the deeper you think, the better the material side of the universe melts more and more and reality unfolds and becomes clearer and clearer.

The Speech of God is transferred through angels.  The angels spoke to a man, by transferring the abstract non-material side of the Speech of God.  The “Kalamu Allah” is inspired and revealed into the spirit of the Prophet, and he pronounced it.  As soon as the pronunciation takes place, that is a human construct.  There has been a debate among early classical scholars whether the Quran is created or not, because the mind is confused with the Quran being mushaf or not.  They say that the transferring  form of the speech of the Prophet and its book form cannot be non-created or Absolute.  True!  The  Speech of God is Absolute.  The Prophet speaks and we hear it is a human construction.  In its construction and sentences, this is revealed to the Prophet’s spirit and the spirit took it exactly as it is.  The origin of the spirit is God, He breaths, so the spirit is infinite and is not materially bound.  After the spirit is breathed out, it becomes makhlooq (created).  

• My feelings and spirit are created, its origin is infinite.  
• The universe is created, its origin is infinite.  
• This text is created, its origin is the human mind.  

• We must make the distinction between the Speech of God and the spoken form of it or the written text, otherwise we cannot have the right reasoning.  

The Creator’s qualities, unless they are not manifested in the universe, I cannot understand.  Great scholars looked at this aspect and said that the Quran is not created.  The others who looked at it as either a manifested form of God’s Speech or coming from the Prophet’s mind said that the Quran is created.  You must first define what you are talking about, the Quran as Kalamu Allah (not created), or the Quran as what was revealed to the Prophet and spoken out (created).  The definitions are not clear here, and everyone’s point of interest is different and accordingly they make the right statement.  The Ash’a-rite were looking at the origin and saying it is not created, so they were right, and the Mutazilites were looking at the created form and saying it is created, they were right as well.

Example: I look at the universe and I see its non-created side, what does that mean? The origin of the angelic side. Example: I look at the universe and it is created, what does that mean? The angelic side is manifested/executed and is created.  Some extreme Sufi define human beings as God represents Himself in human form.  “Khalaqa’l-insaana fee soorati’l- Rahman.”  Everything depends on what I mean.  The origin of the spirit is non-created, but after it is created in the manifested form of the universe (spoken form of the Prophet), it took its place as created (mahlook).  My source of existence is infinite, Absolute.  Some people may say that we are speaking with big claims.  The arguments they developed helped me to understand the case clearly, I am their student, I am not great.  People talk with different perspectives, that is why the outcome is different as well. I need to make up my mind where I shall stand.  We should not take a partial stance with a party.  These scholars were bright, and we must see what they are talking about, and they were both right from their standpoints.  We must be comfortable and avoid partiality, just have an appreciative attitude. 

Some people (Scientists) do not want to submit to a Higher Authority and do not say that my abilities are a gift from my Creator.  The more they deviate, the more they are misguiding themselves.

15:42 “You [Iblis] will have no power over My servants, only over the ones who go astray and follow you.”

The obstinate attitude, represented by Iblis, when human beings see themselves as body and material universe, becomes Satanic and continuously whispers.  Why is there such a being because I am pulled out between Satanic whisperings and spirit? Why am I put in this position? If I fall into the whisperings of Satan, am I responsible for it since it has been created by God?  Yes, we have the free will, but both options are created by God.  Human spirit directly comes from God and represents all the qualities of God in me in the form of tools to understand.  Both sides are in contradictory positions.  Again, why am I put in this situation?  This verse explains that Iblis has no power on you.  If it does not have any power, then why do I follow it?  Some people say that the universe exists by itself, and the change is random, not conscious.  They are deviated by the whisperings of Satan, what is the responsibility of them? Satan is influencing them and is employed by God.  We will tackle this problem next week.