Different Purposes in Reading the Quran: Belief in Prophethood – Part 8

What am I going to do with judicial rules when I am not satisfied in my life? The solution for any unsatisfactory feeling is to become aware of my existence. So I ask: Who am I? Only when I wonder about my existence, do I search for the purpose of my existence. When I am presented with answers, I have to use my freewill to approve/disapprove what makes sense or what does not makes sense to me.

When I am presented with anything nice, I am happy. When I am presented with something I do not like, I am displeased. When I am happy, my face takes a certain appearance and my feelings support it. I cannot pretend to be happy with an unpleasant event. My body and spirit works in harmony. That is, body collects information through the eyes, ears, logical processes and thus I am made to conclude something. My conclusions are not in the form of matter but my conclusions are a result of my state of being which is projected in my appearance. As I speak, my feelings and emotions take a bodily expression through the movement of my hands and body gesture. If I am happy with creation, how am I expected to express my happiness? If I am frightened of something, how am I going to express my fear? If I tell you that I am afraid in a forceful smiley face, how would you react? You will not be able to understand me. Our feelings are reflected in our language and our bodily expressions.

• Similarly, fiqh (jurisprudential) matters can only make sense when the feelings are accompanied by the bodily motions. You cannot do the motions/acts without feeling it as that would be akin to performing rituals in an imitative way.

Our physical side (body) definitely needs guidance to get organized and the Prophets demonstrate that guidance in the form of a human being. The Prophet (pbuh) brings the message into my life by practicing the Speech of God in human form. That is why it is important to read hadith narrations with the concept of practicing the Speech of God. This is how one can apply the Quranic message in their practical lives.

But first, I need to ponder on the following questions:

• Can anything be the result of haphazard happenings? No.
• Can you show a sign in the quality of matter that will show that it is the source of happiness, intelligence, anxiety? No.

The Prophet (pbuh) advises us to do certain rituals. But when I am doing the ritual, it is not for the sake of the action. All actions must be meaningful based on the six pillars of belief. Otherwise, my actions will be suspended in the air and will be meaningless. Why do I have to do something, ritual actions? In order to make my actions meaningful to me, I need to mix it with the Quranic worldview.

The Quran speaks about the transient nature of this universe because your expectations do not like transience. “I am the One who creates your expectations for Eternity” says the Speaker in the Quran. When I listen to my human qualities, I do not want to be thrown into non-existence. Thus, we understand that this feeling is a promise from the Creator that your existence will not go into annihilation.

. The One who speaks through actions must speak through words. A Believer’s worldview is not two dimensional,it is at least six dimensional: I exist, my Creator exists, the universe is Its work because everything comes within the order of a conscious choice. Everything is meaningful transferring qualities to me. When I am studying Physics and Sciences, I am studying the order in creation. Scientists, researchers get Nobel Prizes for finding the order in creation. Thus, this meaningful universe is always conveying messages to me.

• Mulk= Physical side of creation
• Malakut = meaning the Mulk reflects to us, human beings.

What makes a piece of art a painting? Paint? No. Canvas? No. The art reflected on the canvas through the paint is what makes the painting a piece of art. So I look at the painting, I admire it and through the paint I recognize the conscious choice of the artist. He reflected his artistic abilities on the canvas by using paint. The painting is reflecting the qualities of its artist.

• Similarly, the universe is also reflecting the qualities of its Artist. Hence, I add additional dimensions to my worldview:

1. The Artist of the universe speaks.
2. The Speech of the Artist (qualities) is conveyed to you by an employed person called Messenger.
3. This universe is just an exhibition hall exhibiting the qualities of its Creator and introducing the Creator to me i.e. my spirit becomes closer to It by becoming acquainted with Its qualities.

When I acknowledge the Creator, it is not my body that is the source of the acknowledgement of the Absolute qualities of the Creator. I discern these qualities only if I pay attention to the meanings reflected in the wonderful art work of this universe. These meanings are transferred to my human side by glorifiers i.e. Angels, another dimension of understanding.

When I get old or when death is given to me, my human side which communicates with the body here in this universe gets transferred from this universe to another kind of creation referred to as Khalqun Jadeed= new type of creation.

The spirit has been introduced to the absolute qualities of the Creator which are not transient but my bodily experience in this world is such that everything I observe is transient here pointing to the Absoluteness of the Creator.

• Temporarily, my body was given existence here. Everyone worries about death. Instead, we need to worry about where we come from?

Our nature is such that when things are perfect, we are happy. Health is perfect now, we are happy with the Creator. When some members of our body do not work, we then question the Source of its existence.

Another dimension is the belief in Divine Determining= being aware that the order is established by It.

Order of the universe is determined by the conscious Creator. Everything here is determined by It. We chose to do actions by exercising our freewill within a limited area; It creates the result of our freewill. If you say stop the sun to set today, does It listen to us? No. Everything is under Its command.

Anything that God requires of us to do in the form of judicial rulings, we have to put that requirement within the context of a six dimensional worldview. Example: An atheist gives to charity. What is the difference between an atheist giving to charity and a believer giving to charity? The difference has to do with the awareness level, one is at a two dimensional and the other is at a six dimensional level. The believer is aware of the following:

1. It is not my property
2. Feeling of helping is not mine .

Juridical rulings are presented to us so we may exercise our awareness, as in the example above: “this property does not belong to me but it is given to me by my Creator in order to recognize that the Creator is the All-Charitable One”. Without putting fiqh rules within the six dimensional view, our existence in this universe can never makes sense to us.