Divine Determining part 11, 10-01-14
The Islamic creed based on the pillars of faith is well known in the Muslim tradition where children learn it from an early age. Here it is:
“I believe in God, His Angels, His Books, His Messenger, the Hereafter, Divine Determination. I believe that what is good and what is bad are all from God, the exalted and I believe in resurrection after death. I affirm that all of this is true. I bear witness that there is no deity except God, and I bear witness that Muhammd is His worshipper and messenger.”
The emphasis here is on “I believe in God”, rather than “we believe in God”. It means that as an individual, I need to confirm what I am saying, as it is my conclusion. As a child, you may have memorized it, but when you reach adulthood, you must take ownership of your conclusions and understandings of your existence.
We must be ready to go through this process of confirming the articles of belief and make it applicable to our lives. First, I must be convinced that everything is created by a One who has Absolute qualities.
- What is the significance of belief in Angels after belief in God? It is something that I can confirm after believing in God. If this universe has been created and must have a Creator, then this worldview must be revised. What is the meaning of the universe to me now, how am I going to interact with the universe now? Your interpretation of the universe necessarily requires that this universe has meaning which interacts with you. By being attentive to creation around us, we can realize that things are not randomly happening. We have to extract the meaning from the created things, because something is done by the Creator of the universe. Do you think the Creator of the universe will be doing something meaningless or insignificant? Something may seem insignificant in my eyes, but the Creator of the universe must have created it for a purpose to transfer meaning, introducing His qualities to us. As a result, you start seeing things as meaningful, and you can communicate with them in respect to their relationship with their Creator.
- One may argue, how can we communicate with inanimate beings? What we perceive to be inanimate is transferring meaning to us. These meanings are represented by “angels”. That is why belief in God is followed by belief in angels, which helps us renew and shift our worldview. For example, a building is made up of several concrete materials, and serves various purposes. By definition, everything in the building must remind anyone of the greatness, talents, care, concerns and endless abilities (just to name a few skills) of the architect of the building. Since everything of the building represents the qualities of the architect, that awareness can be a means to communicate with the architect of the building. In the same way, the universe demonstrates qualities which can be used to communicate with the creator of those qualities i.e. the One that manifests the qualities in creation. Let us take another example. When you look at a book, in and of itself it means nothing to you. But when you open it, start reading it, then you see that each word has been deliberately placed in its position to carry a special meaning. When you read a book, you are in a conversation with the author of the book. Similarly, when you interact with the universe, you are in a conversation with the Author of the universe. Each and everything in the universe is transferring meaning from its Author. The meaning becomes a means of communication with its Author. Although the meaning is presented in a material form, the material form only conveys the meaning. The meaning represents the Angelic side of the universe. Don’t we all like pleasurable things in the universe?! For example, when you interact with a baby, how is it that you experience a feeling of joy and happiness? How can you explain the existence of that feeling? It cannot be coming in from the particles of the baby, rather the particles are made to manifest those qualities. We all love looking at beautiful flowers. Think about it seriously, can the qualities of anything be transferred by matter?! The qualities manifested in the universe are inspired/transferred to us by representatives of God, referred to us as “angels”. Our communication with anything of this universe is realized by conscious employees of God i.e. Angels. To have this perception of angels and awareness makes you experience living with angels, rather than living in a material world. As a result, everything becomes a means of communication with your Creator. That is why belief in God is followed by belief in Angels.
The meaning that is imparted on to us is a sign that we are always in communication with the Creator of the universe through His act of creation i.e “angels”. This is the foundation of the belief in Divine Determining. Any act of creation is realized through the existence of angels. The angels are real existing things, and it’s pointless to categorize them as animate or inanimate. For example, when you get the meaning from the book, do you have to qualify the meaning as to be of material existence? No! What you experience in the physical sense is your reality. Living with this awareness makes you communicate with your Creator because everything in creation is meaningful. Every tree is meaningful. Every insect is meaningful. Every star is meaningful and every being is meaningful for you to communicate with its Creator through the qualities manifested in it. Therefore, you do not have to know the essence of any of the reality that you experience here, your awareness of the existence of the essence is sufficient to live a meaningful life. Just as you do not know the essence of the Creator of the universe, but the awareness of your experience makes you realize the existence and presence of such a being i.e. a Creator of the universe must exist.
When you say “I believe in God”, it does not mean that you know the essence of God, rather it means that I am sure that the Creator of the universe that I call “God” must exist. The creation of the universe is not a simple matter. Someone has willed this universe to come into existence, and it is a gift to us. Don’t you want a loving relationship with the One that gives you a gift?!
If the creation of a rock is meaningful, then as a human being, our creation is meaningful as well. We are experiencing so many human feelings, how can we explain the existence of these human feelings?! What is creating these human feelings? There must be Something giving existence to these human feelings. How else can we communicate with our Creator? Only by interacting with the angelic beings i.e. our human feelings can we get in touch with our Creator. Just as with a physical page of a book, you can get in touch with its author, similarly, anything of this universe becomes the means to communicate with its Creator. The Quran always mentions that everything in creation glorifies its Creator. The Quran also mentions that Angels glorify their Creator. Is there anything in the universe that does not glorify its Creator? The universe is so meaningful, and we do not even think about how we are communicating with creation. The qualities that are given to us enable us to communicate with our Creator through what He has created. That is why everything needs to be respected because it represents its Creator.
- What are His Books? The Scriptures are the message He sent to human beings. Let’s start with ourselves. He created me with the ability to see. Can you say that the One who created me has the Power to see? Yes, because He gave me the ability to see (al-baseer). Similarly, the One who created me with the power to hear must be an All-Hearing One (as-samee). We are not talking about how He sees in its essence because the Creator of the universe must be Absolute by definition, and we cannot define the Absolute, but we know that such a Being must exist. You are created with the ability to speak, and therefore, the One who made you must be an All-Speaking One. If we are able to understand things, it means that the One who made me must be able to understand me as well. Anything created declares the qualities of its Creator i.e. “the One who created me must see”. If the Creator of the universe speaks through His action i.e. act of creation, why shouldn’t He speak through words?! When you say I believe in His Books, it means that I believe in His Speech ie. He speaks to me in words as well. If the One who created me with the ability to speak, then He must speak and I must be able to understand His speech. What we are sure of is that He speaks. Look for His words in His Scripture which are compatible with His creation. How do we know that the Quran is revealed by God? You see what the words are saying which are compatible with the actions in the creation. The One who speaks through Scriptures cannot be a different One than the One who speaks through creation.
- Who are the Messengers? A person that says that I have received words from the Creator and then conveys it to human beings, which you can confirm to be compatible with the act of creation and your human feelings. Rituals represent your conclusions of the experience and acknowledgement of your human reality. When you say Allahu Akbar, that will be the expression of your conclusion i.e. “I confirm that you are the Lord of the Universe, the Eternal One.” Our prayers are a gift for us to our Creator as a way to express our gratefulness to the Lord of the universe alone for all the previous bounties accumulated before the time of prayer. Sending benedictions to the Prophet (pbuh) is an extension to being grateful to the Creator of the universe i.e. “I learned this from you, O Messenger of God, thank you, I am enlightened”.
We are not here to compete with another tradition, we are here to make sure of what we believe in, how consistent it is and how reasonable it is so that my heart feels comfortable. Unfortunately people do not study religion, they imitate religion.
I cannot describe God in any way within the conditions of this universe. For example, when you look at a mirror, you see your image reflected in it. The image is not coming from the mirror itself, rather the image is being reflected in the mirror. Similarly, the qualities manifested in the universe are not coming from the universe itself, rather, the qualities are reflected in the universe. The reflected qualities in the universe is evidence to the existence of a Real Object. Let us take another example. A delivery person drops a bouquet of flowers for you. You are happy and the flower becomes a means of communicating with the sender. The flower is not the source of existence of the feeling, rather the sender of the flowers is the One that is communicating with you and making you happy through angels carrying these happy feelings. Similarly, when the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) received revelation, each word that was uttered through his mouth must have been transferred and executed by angels. That is how the Absolute Creator manifests His qualities and speech to human beings through angels.
We must establish our belief system based on what we experience and witness. When we say, ashadhun laillaha, it means that I have seen and witnessed that there is no Creator in this world, but the One who created the universe.
God is the Lord of the Heavens and Earth, allahu rabbus samawati wal ard is how God introduces Himself in His message The main message of God is always with us. All scriptures agree that the One who brought the message to human beings is the angel Gabriel, by transferring the Speech of God to the Messengers in the form that human beings can understand. As this creed of belief says, we must say with confidence that God exists, His Angels exist, and that God speaks, and some chosen humans by God exist to transfer the message of God in a human language that we understand. Just as a tree receives fruits and then people benefit from it, similarly, the Prophets receive the Word of God and apply it in their lives to transfer it to human beings. As a result, humanity benefits from it, and makes the Prophets their role model of life.
- What is belief in the Hereafter? The One who creates the universe creates it in such a purposeful way that He brings creation to life, gives them death, constantly resurrects them and brings more creation to life. This demonstrates that He does not forget about His creation, rather preserves the qualities of His creation. For example, all the qualities of a tree are preserved in the seed of the tree. These are the signs that Something is willing this universe to come into existence, and the One who creates the universe cannot forget about the past. This leads us to conclude that the One who creates the universe does not have limited Power, for His Power encompasses all i.e. past, present and future. He has created me with the desire to live eternally, and not to get old. If we were not going through a transient experience, then we would not feel the need for eternal youth and eternal happiness. By giving us the desire for wanting eternity, the One who creates us gives this desire as a promise to us that it must definitely be satisfied, if only I connect my existence and all my human expectations to Him alone. We get the message from the Angel of this feeling i.e. our Creator is sending this message to us that He will give us eternity. His speech also conveys the same message i.e. I am going to give you eternity. The transient creation, your own feelings and His Speech are a sign of your need for eternity. Otherwise, why would my Creator put me in a desperate situation by giving me the desire and not fulfill it? If He cannot do it, then it would be contradicting what I am feeling and experiencing here. There must be an Eternal Life i.e. Hereafter and the One that has given me the sense of wanting eternal happiness will satisfy it. Since I cannot preserve my youth, I say that it is impossible for me to secure an eternal life, however, if I connect my existence and trust my Creator, then I feel at ease knowing that He will take care of me.
- Belief in Divine Determining. The understanding of this phrase, “ I believe what is good and bad are all from God” can be problematic for us. If all good and bad are from God, then what is my responsibility? This means that everything is created by Him, and I cannot create, but whatever I have chosen is created by Him. As far as my actions are concerned I am the one choosing good or bad for me. For example, John is a senior citizen, and he misses his youth, just like everyone going through old age. If he calls his old age bad, then that is his choice to label what God creates for him as bad. Everything that is created by God is good for us, but we may call it “bad” and that is our interpretation of the good creation. Therefore, we must try to see the wisdom in the creation of anything, because it is a gift from God and it is good for us.
Let us now connect Divine Determining with the articles of the creed. If one does not believe in God, then Divine Determining would not make sense, because in their worldview, everything is happening by itself. If one does not believe in Angels bringing the message from God, one would not know the wisdom of the Creator in the act that He is presenting to us, because one would say that everything has no meaning. If you can conclude that everything is purposeful, meaningful and wise, then there must be Wisdom in His determining. For example, if something happens to you, rather than crying, see the wisdom in its existence. The Author of the Book of the universe cannot be crazy. Is there anything crazy happening in the universe, the galaxies, the subatomic world? No. Everything is perfectly happening with eternal wisdom. Therefore, choose to look for the wisdom in the creation of anything, because ultimately, the choice is yours to like and not like the event. We must revise ourselves according to the wisdom in creation, because there must be wisdom in the creation of anything.
The message of God that we receive through the Prophets says that whatever I created, I have created it knowingly. Unlike human beings who make mistakes, our Creator is not absent minded. Everything is perfectly under the control of the Creator, but we may still say, “Why me?” Because you need it. If you do not see the wisdom, then try to work on it and see it, because everything is for your benefit. For example, getting old is beautiful, because you clearly know that you are not the source of any of your qualities. In old age, you cannot run like you used to when you were young, you cannot see as clearly as before, your memory is not as sharp as before. All your qualities are given to you and they are slowly being taken away, and you cannot stop that.
Every article in the belief system as presented here is also related to Divine Determining. Without belief in Divine Determining, the articles of the belief system cannot be applied appropriately. For example, we cannot say why this is happening to me, if we have a good understanding of our belief system. Belief in Divine Determining is the fruit of your belief in the other articles of the belief system. You must submit to your Creator but you must take action and make sure that whatever is happening is Divine Determining, within my Creator’s Knowledge. For example, it is the Creator of the universe who determines a particular event for you, it is not your employer, the Government or your family member doing it to you. All of the 5 articles of belief must make you feel comfortable in your existence. You must have the attitude that everything is from God, and I only have the option to choose, but whatever comes out of it is a blessing from my Lord and He decided the result for me, and enabled me to choose. Paradise is the result of my belief in God. There is a famous saying, “I am as my creature thinks of me”. That is, however you perceive God, He treats you accordingly.
I must be in the position to affirm that I bear witness that there is no deity except God. Can you really bear witness, because just saying it does not mean anything? This statement must be based on some evidence that you have witnessed. If you do not have any evidence, then what are you going to teach others? A teacher must teach with evidence according to the capacity of the student.
Do you feel confident that there must be messengers employed for you by the Creator of the universe? If you are satisfied with the message that Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) brings to you, then you say that Muhammad (pbuh) is His messenger. The Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) is the student of the Quran as well and his actions exemplifies the fundamental teachings of the Quran. Before understanding the teachings of the Quran, we cannot grasp the Hadith narrations. In order to witness the messengership of prophet Muhammad (pbuh), you do not have to be a contemporary of the Prophet. As long as you realize the necessity of the institution of Prophethood, which includes in it the message of all the messengers, then you can confidently bear witness to the Messengership of Muhammad.
Finally, we must be a follower of God’s religion and not try to own it. We must revise our understanding of religion methodologically.