38:74 “but not Iblis, who was too proud. He became one of those who deny the truth.”
What type of relationship do I have with the verse above? Last time, we briefly discussed that Iblis did not accept to serve the human being, because of his view, which also represents our human reality. Our self-centered ego, Iblis in its nature, is created by God, i.e., we are given the ability to have the Iblis side. In other words, the Quran lets us know to look at our side which has this Iblis view, when it is operated in our being, it becomes Satan, internal to me now.
When Adam received the manifestations of the qualities of God, he learned the aspect of creation that refers to the qualities of God (asmaa). As soon as the angels realized that Adam was able to recognize the aspect of creation which refers to God, they were willing to serve Adam in the name of their Creator. That is, the angelic side of the universe will provide an opportunity to Adam to see what they refer to and come to the conscious conclusion that He is created by the One who created the whole universe. It means all the qualities loaded on His body and the material side of the universe demonstrate the qualities of its Creator.
If the Angelic side of the universe does not serve you and me (i.e., Adam), how are we going to acknowledge our Creator (i.e., the meaning of our lives, the purpose of our creation)? Impossible to acknowledge! The Angelic side of the universe will serve the human spirit to understand who the Owner of the universe is, and which kind of qualities He has. Whatever we experience in this world, the angels carrying the reflections of the Qualities of their Creator are serving us, and the angelic side is always there. Example: the book and its meaning, where the writing is a means to demonstrate the knowledge of the author. It is not complicated to understand the angelic concept of creation. “Satanic-view” only sees the universe as a body and so refuses to serve human beings because s/he does not see the meaning in matter. This attitude is a Satanic attitude where you don’t see the meaning in creation, i.e., you are not going beyond the matter, or what the matter points to. Example: Looking at carbon as just gas or looking at meat as just matter carrying no meaning pointing to its Creator’s Qualities. This means that there is a possibility for me to reduce the universe to matter only and be on the Satanic side. Why would God tell me about another creation which I have no access to seeing and confirming? If we take such an attitude, then we cannot confirm the Quran. This is not a story, but God tells me what my reality on Earth is.
We have free will where we can choose to see the meaning in creation or choose to see the matter/body in creation only. Example: I can see particles as moving by themselves. No one forces me to make the choice of how I should view creation. Hence, we should not shun away from using our “freedom”. One choice is appropriate to my reality, and the other choice is contradictory to my reality. In the Quran, Book and Creation are both “Mubeen” (clear, easy to understand.)
Before going into the universe, think about your existence firstly as a human being!! Who am I?! Which kind of qualities do I have? The conclusion will be reflected on interpreting the universe. If you define yourself as a body and deny your human side and free will, how can you feel satisfied in your existence?! There is nothing in the universe that does not have to obey the order, so how can people say that the activities in the matter evolve or develop by itself?! The Quran gives us an extra simplified clear explanation of what I experience in my existence, hence it is Mercy for the human being.
15:42 “You [Iblis] will have no power over My servants, only over the ones who go astray and follow you.”
If I pick the Iblis view by saying that the universe consists of matter only, then, I can have no evidence that matter can act on its own choice. No one can show that matter chooses to act on its own. This issue is so clear, but our minds are frozen with the traditional understanding of religion and do not reflect on the evidence in the creation. We must first know ourselves and confirm the Quran, rather than imitate.
I am choosing anything by myself, it is not that someone is choosing for me. You are interpreting internally what you witness in creation. In the Quranic teaching, Satanic whispering is presented as something external, to keep human honor. In our creation, we are perfect, even the option to choose the wrong side is my honor. However, because of choosing as my freedom, I say this option is wrong, and preserve my honor. If there was no wrong, how would I know what is right? The Quran externalizes it to educate us. Example: a teacher will not say that I will fail you, rather she will generally say that those who do not submit the assignment on time, will not pass. Human nature is to take a defensive position if someone accuses you before you do anything. That creates a distance between student and teacher. Hence, the Quran keeps human dignity through externality.
- The Satanic option has no power over us.
- We have the option to play with the words and may trick ourselves.
- If we do good it is for our own benefit, God does not need us to confirm Him. That is up to us, the consequence of the choice will be upon us.
Similarly, when the Quran mentions about a people who got destroyed, it is my story. That is, if I reject the Prophet and the message, then I will be destroying my life and see myself as a matter only having no human qualities and satisfaction. The Quran always gives a suggestion for me to think about, how I may destroy my life if I reject the Prophetic message. I must assess the case for myself, if I approve/reject the message, what do I get?
Read the Quran for yourself, it gives examples for me. My Creator is speaking to me right now, that story it mentions is happening to me right now! This is how the Quran should be read. There are 4 figures playing the role in the story of Adam (God, Adam, Angel, Iblis). All these aspects are in me, I see the signs of my Creator in me, I see the human side in me, I can read the meaning of the universe, and I can also choose the option that there is no meaning in the creation of the universe. All this is being experienced by me right now.
Everything is easy to learn when we do learn. It is a historical disease in the community to relate real events as it is told in the Quran without relating it to themselves or just taking lessons from it. It is not a tale for children to take moral advice from, rather it is a mature speech that we can directly relate to ourselves.
Comment: Iblis not wanting to serve the human being is related to me when I do not want to do my responsibilities.
We are not created in a position where we can make sudden changes in our habits of life. We go through gradual, step by step stages. If I don’t train myself to make the distinction between right and wrong and accordingly educate myself to choose the right and reject the wrong choice, then I feel that I am dragged away by the wrong side because I have not educated myself to resist the wrong attitude. If I am not following the angelic message of creation and submitting myself to the same Creator as I experience in the world, then I am being arrogant, which is a choice, it is not something externally injected into me (rather, it is my choice). Example: If I do not accept that I am dependent on the will of someone else to exist (that I am created by someone else), then I take my existence for granted and define myself as I am. Again, this is an option. Now, I train myself to look at the universe and find out justification for my choices. Everyone looks for justification of their choices, some make false justifications, and some have evidence. Example: The judge listens to two people in the court, plaintiff, and defendant. Everyone tries to make his/her case the reality and try to find excuses to justify themselves before the judge. We are free to do that, either justify my wrong attitude with no evidence at all, or I will be confident in myself because of my evidence. That is why belief without evidence cannot be belief. Confidence depends on evidence; claim is not evidence. That is why imitation is not belief, it is not denial either, it is just a claim, which may be justifiable depending on the nature of the claim.
Human beings make claims according to his/her choice. Example: I want to become the strongest person in faith, but I cannot. That is because you have not trained yourself and you have not worked on it enough. What we hear from the friends of the Prophets is that some person or Imam Ali (pbuh) or Abu Bakr declared their faith on the spot. That is impossible! The companions of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) have been hearing, living, and considering the message of the Prophets for so many years. Similarly, when his first wife (Khadija) heard his experience at Mount Hira, she accepted because she knew him for a while and that he was an honest man and is not making up a story. That is what the Quran says that you know your friend, Muhammad from the very first day, so why do you make up all the stories that he is a magician.
We have so many habits that we have been doing and we now realize that they were wrong. We are slowly training ourselves to get out of these habits. We cannot change overnight, just as most of the Companions (Meccan people) joined the Medina life, and after 20 years of experience, it is not easy to change one’s lifestyle. Hearing the Quran and what the Prophet was doing, the good news that they were getting, it was very difficult for them to apply the message into their lives. Hence, we cannot idealize the friends of the Prophets as if they were super humans, rather they were regular beings like you and I who took time to realize the message and submit themselves to the truth and followed it vigorously. That is so human! Therefore, we are given a long time to live in this world by the Creator, otherwise the training can be done in a few weeks with the type of attitude that I am going to take.
38:75 “God said, Iblis, what prevented you from prostrating yourself to what I created with My hands? Is it your arrogance, or do you think that you are so high above all others?”
It means that God is telling me now that if I want to follow the left side (baseless option with no evidence), I am free to do so. Your freedom and options are created by Me, your reasoning on the right side is created by Me, why do you insist on choosing the option that you are not created? The main problem of humanity is to decide whether I am created or not, and then take the initiative from there, and improve our conditions. If I am created and understand that I cannot attribute my existence to any factors, then I must train myself in this way and not look for an excuse. I must start thinking, improving my conditions by training myself in this way. If I am created, then all my abilities are given to me, who gave me these abilities? Investigate, think about which option is possible. The most important mistake is that people coming from a religious cultural background claim that “God created us.” Everything is wrong with this! You are just hiding yourself from cultural understanding of God and you are not investigating what it is, for it is comforting. Methodologically, the approach is wrong, but the content is correct. That is a conclusion, which we must reach after solving step by step our experience of the universe.
If you train yourself, the first time it takes a long time, but after training, it becomes a fraction of a second to conclude that “ I am created”. It becomes a matter of instant conclusion. It is always lailaha illallah (anything that I encounter has no power to give existence to anything, an Absolute Source must be bringing things into existence). We must train and educate ourselves with this process and attitude and use this with any problem that we are facing. That is, anything needs to be created by my Creator directly, they have no option at all.
Istakbara means to pretend to be something other than your reality. We must always follow the order of the universe, and we are obeying the will of the Order-er of the universe. How can I then claim that I am greater than anything else? The way that I am created is no different than an atom, for we are all given existence by the Will of the Creator. As far as existence is concerned, we are all created equal. Example: some creatures are created as goats, fish, insects… and human beings are created in a different form. Hence, we cannot say that I am greater than a goat, but my qualities are more comprehensive than any other creatures. Again, everything is given. The arrogant attitude comes from not realizing the creation of anything, including myself. That is, if I commit to not submitting to the reality that I am created then I have to claim that everything else is not created. I can claim that atoms are acting on their own. I can justify creation by looking at matter only, rather than the qualities manifested there. Just like looking at a book/universe and saying that I see paper with some scribbles/matter and no meaning. All the scientific studies are mainly interpreting how things are happening in terms of the atoms itself. So ridiculous, yet so arrogant! This dictatorship of arrogance is prevailing in the world, and it has no truth. Why do people hesitate in believing in the message of God? Because of the dictatorship of certain groups of the atheist lobbies. When a scientist is Atheist, they are not biased, however, when a believer in a Source of Existence puts forward their belief, that becomes biased according to their interpretation of scientific research.
We must treat this civilization according to its own rules. When the Prophet did not receive the message about a particular subject, then he had to follow the rules of the existing society. The message is there but the conditions do not allow it to be practiced. Like the early Meccan period people were not ready to practice the Message. Religious people cannot publish the truth in this civilization.
We must look at the history of the practical rules (fiqh related subjects) revealed in the Message, as to when the rules came, accordingly the Message arranged the human personal and social life. We should follow the same stage in our personal and social life. Example: if you are not ready to do something right now, you must try your best and at the end you will be able to do it. The Quran also educated people in this way. The wisdom of the teachings of the Quran (the rules and regulations) is based on the conditions of the society at that time, and we must try our best to apply it to our conditions as much as possible. For example, a person who is newly introduced to Islam may not be ready to practice all the rules of Islam, it may take sometime. They should not overload themselves artificially, it takes time.
- The main reason for a person to deny his/her reality is arrogance, claiming to be high above anything.
Next time, we must see the reason for unbelief within ourselves.