Ethical Lessons from the Quran, part 7

Ethical Lessons from the Quran, part 7

لَآ إِكْرَاهَ فِى ٱلدِّينِ قَد تَّبَيَّنَ ٱلرُّشْدُ مِنَ ٱلْغَىِّ فَمَن يَكْفُرْ بِٱلطَّـٰغُوتِ وَيُؤْمِنۢ بِٱللَّهِ فَقَدِ ٱسْتَمْسَكَ بِٱلْعُرْوَةِ ٱلْوُثْقَىٰ لَا ٱنفِصَامَ لَهَا وَٱللَّهُ سَمِيعٌ عَلِيمٌ

2:256 “There is no compulsion in religion: true guidance has become distinct from falsehood, so whoever rejects false gods and believes in God has grasped the firmest handhold, one that will never break.  God is all hearing and all knowing.”

Some people translate the first part of the verse to be “there is no coercion in religion”, while others translate it as “there is no compulsion in religion”.  The words coercion and compulsion are synonyms, and the problem does not lie in translation.  The problem lies in understanding what religion means (deen in Arabic)?  With the definition of religion, if we connect this verse to the known monotheistic religions such as Christianity, Judaism and Islam, then none of the followers of these religions should have any tensions amongst each other, nor to those who do not follow any of these religions.  Let us understand this with the analogy of, you can only establish your livelihood in a certain country if you are a citizen of that country.  What does it mean to be a citizen of a country that needs to be clearly defined?  As a citizen of that country, you choose to be institutionalized.  Similarly, deen needs to be described within its proper meaning, rather than reducing it to mean an institutionalized religion only.  There are various ways to explain deen and scholars have tried their best to work on it.  The original meaning of deen in Arabic is “debt”. Who are we indebted to?  Have we received some things from someone?  What is this debt that is being referred to?

We are in debt to whoever is lending our humanity and existence to us.  We are not the property owner of our existence.  At the same token, we are not the property owner of the universe that we are consuming.  Does the air belong to me?  Does the water, earth and sunlight belong to me?  If these are freely given to us, then how can we claim to own them?  I do not own it, it is not mine, and I am just using it temporarily for I am soon to depart from this universe.  No one is a permanent resident in this universe.  

My body is not mine.  Are my hands mine?  No, and I will have to return it at the end of my life here in this world to the One who gave it to me.  That is how we are in debt to our Creator, whoever created us.  I must be thankful to my Creator bearing in mind that I will have to pay the debt back.  The question then becomes how will I pay back the debt?  I cannot give my body that I am using right now back to my Creator physically, but I can make sure that I acknowledge Him for allowing me to use it here.

If someone does not believe in the Creator, they say that they are natural beings, and the idea is that they are not indebted to anyone.   The reason is that the deniers in God do not want to pay their debt back to something, a Cause i.e. Conscious Being, not of the unconscious nature of this universe.  We can understand the reason for the Cause of existence through the tenant and landlord analogy.  That is, what happens if a tenant does not pay rent?  The tenant gets evicted by the owner of the house.  Similarly, what actions does the Creator of the universe take when we do not pay “His rent”, i.e. if we do not acknowledge His Ownership/Sovereignty over us?  He, It is, who keeps prolonging our time in this temporary “rental” of this universe without evicting us yet!?  As specified in the Quran, the Creator lets us know that “whether you acknowledge Me or not, you are free to do that for a limited time, because at the end, I will ask you what you have done with what I have given you, especially with the intelligence, intellect, consciousness, and feelings, which are priceless”.  Hence, we cannot reduce ourselves to body only, for if I did not have my intelligence, how good is my body for me?  You may have a healthy life but if your mind does not work, where is the pleasure in living where you cannot remember anything?  Every human feeling is priceless.  Unfortunately, this secular human civilization with their understanding of life reduces human beings to body only.  This is like being ungrateful to the Creator by denying that we just happen to be.  How can anything happen to exist by itself?  If a man owns real estate in a country, can he say that it just happens to be like this?  Wasn’t there some conscious act involved with constructions of the properties?!  So, how can we say and explain that the universe exists unconsciously?  If your life is full of consciousness, purpose and wisdom, with preferences for beauty over ugliness, for example, how can you say that the universe is meaningless when it comes to creation?

A Joke known in Islamic theology: Some people claim that we have no freewill and everything is decided by God.  There was a dispute in a family where the husband kept telling his wife that we are free to use our freewill.  The wife says that God decides about it, so when I do something, it is God’s decision.  One day, the man hits his wife, and she asks, why do you do this?  He replies, God decided that.

Taking the above joke as an example, if someone spanks you, would you say that it is an unconscious happening or would you say that it is a deliberate conscious act, for how can anything be just the results of randomness after all?  We must think about it seriously, “isn’t everything a conscious deliberate action?”  

This verse has deep meanings, we will try our best to get in as much as possible.  If someone denies their reality that they are in debt to the One who creates their being and entertains them as their Creator, then they are free to do so for the Quran mentions that this Creator gives freedom to human beings to make choices.  For example, you prefer to attend the class in person rather than online, that is the choice that is given to you by the administrators of the school.  The Creator mentions in the Quran that He respects human beings by giving them the ability to choose from among His options, and we are not allowed to cause dysfunction to that choice in ourselves and others.  For example, we cannot interfere in people’s lives and force people to do certain acts.  It seems to be a simple matter, but there are nuances to it.  That is, if I cannot force people to get on the path of the truth, then what am I supposed to do here?  I ask the Creator, why do you send the Prophets then?  Why do Prophets struggle?  Hence, what we understand from this is that there is no compulsion in matters related to one’s belief and acting according to one’s belief, it is all a matter of human free choice, which way one ought to direct their free will.

1. True guidance has become distinct from falsehood,

True guidance is manifestly separated from falsehood. That is, when you cut off your relationship with your Creator, you fall into just becoming a body, such a horrible life with distressing temporary pleasure.  In such a state, you cannot breathe, benefit from anything and enjoy, because denial of the Creator turns your life into meaninglessness, and there is nothing left that is worthwhile.  It is like going into an abyss.  We say that I am trying to enjoy my life.  Ok, you enjoyed your life yesterday, where is it now?  It is gone, in the swamp.  We try to look happy and seem to be happy, it is just artificial happiness, because the infinite need of the human spirit can never get happy and satisfied from such short-lived bodily experiences.  Whereas, if you define yourself as belonging to the One who creates the universe and is the Absolute Being i.e. “I am His property, my Owner is an Absolute Being, and I do not worry about the transitoriness of this world”, then I will feel secure that I will not get swamped into the abyss of artificial happiness, rather I will feel a sense of attaining an infinite pleasure with such state of mind.  “My Owner must be an infinite Being, who created me from a cell, and I am His work, here I am.  He may take me to another cell, it is up to Him, regardless, I must take care of my freewill to connect myself to Him.”

Classical Scholarship explains this verse in a simple way.  That is, here is the Quranic guidance, and the Quran makes everything (mubeen) i.e. meaningful, so there is no excuse anymore for me to be deceived that the universe in its existence does not point to anything. Last week, in part 6 of this series of discussions, we touched upon how our consciousness, the universe, and our free will are wonderful tools in existence, and these tools must guide us to some extent with concluding that there must be a conscious being that gives me existence. I cannot be here by chance.  At least, people who have not heard of Islam can ascribe from their own way of existing (which people refer to as naturally) i.e. the way that we are created must tell us something so they can say that “We do not know what is going on in this world, but we know that we cannot be ownerless in this world”.  This is valid for anyone who has not heard of the Prophetic message.  However, for someone who has already received the message, this is not valid.  Therefore, guidance may not become distinct from falsehood when one imagines a life without revelation, however, after revelation, it becomes very clear.

In the existence of the universe, the right and the wrong understanding is made clear.  Everyone sees everything to be meaningful, purposeful and full of wisdom. It is impossible to explain it by referring to the universe’s existence  to anything of the nature of this universe.  Even if you do not know the name God, you will say that there must be something at least, and it is distinct.  

Materialists say that the universe is accidental happenings, and human beings are the result of random happenings. Just listen to their vocabulary talking about nature, laws, random selections/development, mutations, survival of the fittest which are realized by senseless matter itself.  Am I surviving because my material body randomly selects to fit the universe as if it is a conscious thing?!  How can we be serious with such claims?!  Let us think seriously!

Think about your existence seriously under the light of these vocabularies used by materialists for example, can you define nature?  It is not easy to define what nature is.  They say that everything exists in the universe. Ask them, what is the nature of these things apart from themselves?  They cannot answer.   Ask them, if everything is perfectly functioning , then what are the natural laws that are governing them? What are they talking about when they say the thing itself and its nature is distinct from that thing?  Are they talking about how the things are coming into existence by themselves?  Is it a material being that is causing existence?  When you pose the question of the origin of this universe, Artificial Intelligence (AI) says these are modern scientific paradigms. When you ask AI, is there anything accidentally coming into existence or acting without being subject to the way the universe as a whole is established within a perfect order?  Is there any sign of disorderliness in the universe? No one has a proven answer to these very human investigative questions. They say that some theories claim that there may be disorderliness in the universe. But the reality is so obvious, just because they cannot comprehend the whole picture and calculate them perfectly they raise doubts about the perfectness of the universe. On the other hand, many scientists and philosophers argue that the deep mathematical consistency of the way the universe is founded points to an underlying order, even if some phenomena appear random or chaotic at first glance. 

This verse is telling us something strange.  The universe is created in such a way that there is no other way to interpret it but to attribute it to a deliberate, conscious and wise Creator, where everything is purposeful and well-arranged that no one can have any excuse at all to call it chaotic or meaningless.  The very existence is amazing and to exist is incredible, because nothing can create itself for it must be brought into existence by an agent external to the universe. We are not talking about magic, as if suddenly something happened to appear today.  The sheer existence of the  universe is out of a deliberate choice to be in existence.  The Quran comes and makes the case so clear by mentioning that everything needs to be created, and nothing can give existence to itself.  Is there anything in the world that has the quality to create itself?  

• The Quran makes it very clear to distinguish the Owner of this universe as the One who gives existence?  The One who creates the whole universe with everything in it, this One must be beyond limitations.  It means that we cannot describe this Creator in terms of this world, just as you cannot describe the maker of a table within any part of the table itself.  That is why the Quran does not illustrate any descriptive picture of God, but just as an Absolute Being (Ghaibi), without forcing people to accept the truth.  There is enough powerful evidence in the universe to accept the truth by using our free will, so we do not have to force anyone to accept the truth.

Thus, “there is no compulsion in religion” means that our existence itself is enough evidence that it must be returned to our Creator,  i.e. its source of existence by acknowledging Him. 

2. Whoever rejects بِٱلطَّـٰغُوتِ false gods and believes in God has grasped بِٱلۡعُرۡوَةِ ٱلۡوُثۡقَىٰ the firmest handhold.  What does this mean?

Whoever is ready to confess that I need to be created, and nothing of this universe can give me existence, and whoever gave existence to the whole universe is my Creator, because I am created within the context of the universe, where gravity, air, the earth, my body and feelings are there, so I cannot attribute my existence to anything of this universe, then he rejects false gods.  If I connect my feelings to my Creator, then I will be grasping the firmest handhold.  It is like the anchor to a ship, such as securing your existence.  How are we going to establish such a relationship with God?  How are we going to attribute our relationship with the Creator? By using our spirit and feelings.

How many feelings do we have?  Love, fear, hope, worries, anxiety, hoping for eternal life, where we can enjoy our existence fully with no end.  Every creature has its own feelings according to their capacities.  Even the birds know what to do, they do not need to be taught, the other animals and plants are also perfectly working the way they are, however, we, human beings must go through education.  It means that if I connect every human feeling to the One who created me with this quality, then I can establish a relationship with my Creator.  For example, if I have the sense of love in my existence, do you think that the Creator is the source of the sense of love or am I the source of the sense of love?  Let us take the example of a table.  If a table has some sort of qualities, it means that its designer’s qualities reflect in the table.  Let us understand the qualities manifested in the universe with the example of an art.  Do you see the quality of art in a piece of art?  Yes.  If the artist of the art did not have that quality, would the art have the quality by itself?  No.  Similarly, if you have the sense of love and intelligence, and if your Creator did not have intelligence, then would He be able to create you with the sense of love and intelligence?  No.  That is, if I take a string as an analogy to establish a connection, then my intelligence is one end of the string, and the Creator’s intelligence is the other end, i.e I establish a direct line with Him.  By connecting all our human qualities to their sources these strings make a very firm and strong rope. We have free will, and we can choose to cut off this relationship and not establish it or use this strong rope to have a safe and meaningful existence.  

Let us delve deeper into this free will concept.  Are students free to attend classes in college?  Yes.  Is there any coercion or anyone forcing students to attend the class?  No.  But you know that if you have enrolled in the college, then it is your responsibility to attend the classes.  The administration does not put any compulsion in this matter.  As a student, you know your responsibilities.  Similarly, we have the free will to be or not to be attentive towards our creation and have a secure life or distort our feelings.  Going back to the art example, don’t we all have the choice to burn the piece of art?  Yes.  Similarly, to distort our feelings is a very easy endeavor.  Even the sense of denial is easy.  But we all know that while we are burning the piece of art our feelings experience the pain although physically burning is easy. Not believing in a Creator is denial.  Denial means not using your already existing qualities in the right way and distorting it.  For example, if someone turns off the water supply in your neighborhood, will you get water?  No.  You will scream that there is no water in your house.  Absolutely!  Does that mean that there is no water?  No.  That is how we are using our free will in this world.  We are always using our free will, but we may choose to not use it in the right way. When we deny reality we only deprive ourselves of the pleasure of a meaningful life.

• If we use our free will without distorting our real being, where every sense says that I have a Creator, and this Creator is the Source of the existence of the entire universe, then we will get the connection with Him, like the water supply from the example above.  

Can we count our feelings?  No.  The Creator of the universe has created this universe, so that we try to dig new findings in creation.  Every scientific endeavor is a trial to find out which kind of qualities are manifested in the universe.  How many scientists and researchers are out there in the world?  Endless.  Do you think that one day we will discover all the qualities, and the research institutions will end?  No, that is why the capacities of our feelings are endless, just as the source of the existence of this universe’s qualities are endless.  The more the strings join to make a strong rope, it is called “urwat al wuthqa” or بِٱلۡعُرۡوَةِ ٱلۡوُثۡقَىٰ.  That is, the more we attribute each of our feelings to its Source of existence, the more we are hanging on to the strong rope to explain the source of our existence, which ultimately becomes a stronger bond and connection.  

Some Muslim scholars share that if you want to know God, you better know yourself.  Hence, we should try our best to connect every feeling to its source of existence.  Even the negative feelings such as anger and jealousy need to be used in the right way.  For example, if you observe a young man trying to steal the wallet from a helpless old man, would this event anger you?  Yes.  Is that person hurting you physically?  No, but you are not comfortable about this event happening.  Why do you bother wanting to help the helpless old man?  You get angry that this should not happen, and you will try your best to help and protect the old man.  In one sense, you are protecting the wrongdoing, and in the other sense, you are connecting this feeling of wanting to help to its source of existence. Through this connection you become aware that your Creator is letting you know that He is the One who gets angry when we do act in an unjust way. That is how we know what is right and what is wrong. We can apply the same understanding to the quality of jealousy, for example, you see that John is successful in his life. Do you wish that you were as successful as John? Yes. Do you think that you are created with less qualities?  No.  Rather than being jealous of John and using the feeling in a negative way, use it in a positive way, so that you can be like John as well. Then connect this feeling to its Creator, that your Creator wants you to be the best version of yourself, like John.  Use these feelings and turn them in a useful way by connecting them to their Creator.  

Every sense is given to us to acknowledge the Creator.   Every sense must be used in a positive way although we have the option to deny the truth and thus misuse our senses.  If someone says that the universe happens to be by itself, we are free to use this option and go against the truth.  Mental disorders are outside our scope of discussion.  

We need to discover the essence of the Quran in order to establish the fundamentals of belief.  Without this essence, practicing religion becomes shaky. We need to simplify the meanings of these verses under the proper guidance of the Quranic light.  That is, if you have a firm connection, and connect all your feelings to its Source of Existence, then life becomes full of meaning. The relationship with your Creator will never break.

There is a famous Hadith, where the Prophet (pbuh) was eating dates with Imam Ali and putting the pits next to Imam Ali where Imam Ali’s side piled up with date seeds.  Then the Prophet (pbuh) jokes with Ali in a loving relationship and says “Ali, you have eaten most of the dates.”  That is what Islam teaches us, to establish friendly relationships with others.

The people who study the Quran seriously are so precise with each word in their commentary. They try not to miss out the layers of meaning extracted from it.  Great Muslim scholars mention that if you see your existence as a book, your feelings as a book, while you are reading the book, you see that there are chapters there.  In each chapter there are paragraphs, and in the paragraphs, a word, where every sentence is meaningful. If someone says that this word is not written by an author, and is not meaningfully taking place, would you believe that?  Never.  Can you attribute one word to something else other than the author?  No.  Similarly, you cannot attribute one item or particle of the universe to an unconscious agent.  The universe, the Quran and human beings are meaningful conscious books.  Finally, if you attribute yourself and this universe to their source of existence, then this connection never fails and you are fulfilling the purpose of your existence.