Practices in Reading the Quran Here and Now: Chapter Qalam (Pen) – Part 11

“Or have you received from us an agreement confirmed by an oath extending to the day of resurrection that you shall surely have what you demand? Pen (38):40

Definition of the Quran is the Speech of your Creator to you. Whether you confirm it or not is another matter. The Creator speaks to you in order to guide you how to use your human qualities.

What is the agreement/covenant between you, the created being and the Creator?

• The covenant refers to the means that you are given in order to fulfill your mission on earth.
• Your Creator lets you know that you are able to acknowledge that you have a Lord.
• This is a way of teaching you that you are equipped with the ability to acknowledge your Lord.
• You have endless tools to know your Creator.
• Hence, use your qualities to find out about the reality of this universe.
• The way you are created enables you to make the contact with the Creator.

Without using your human qualities, can you get what you want i.e. Eternal Happiness?

• No.
• Can the sun give you Eternal Happiness?
• No.

By denying your Creator, can you find another way to guarantee what you want?

• No. Without referring to the Creator, no one can find Eternal Happiness.

This verse addresses to the ones who deny. Can you find anything here in this universe that can give you Eternal Happiness?

Human desire wants everything to perfectly happen forever. What can guarantee that? Example: You want your eyes to see forever. You want your youth to stay with you forever…etc. That is the agreement between you and the Creator i.e. your Creator has provided you the desire of Eternal Happiness and this Creator gave you the inability to fulfill this desire. So what are you going to do now? It is as if the Creator is saying that: “if you do not trust Me as your Creator with Eternal qualities who created you with the need for eternal happiness, then who will fulfill this desire?

While we are practicing our animal needs, we need to train our human sides. That is what the Quran teaches us. It is not teaching us how much wealth to get from ancestors when they die for example, without aiming at training our human side.

Human beings feed their animal side (biological being) in order to train their human side. Otherwise what is the difference between animals and us? Animals also take care of their appetites and young ones. Example: We keep our body warm to understand that this universe is put in a perfect order so that we may reflect on who is organizing this. If we just put coat on and never use this event to realize who is providing the warmth for us, then we are not using our human side. That is to say, our humanity does not get benefit from the event presented to us. The Creator wants us to get wisdom from the events.

“Ask them which of them guarantees this?” Pen (38):40

Our life here is so fragile because we need security at every moment. When we search for security, we realize that nothing here provides security in our existence.

• THINK: Can anything in the universe guarantee your existence?

“Or do they have associates?” Then let them bring their associates, if they speak the truth.” Pen (38):41

If you have found anything in this universe as the cause of existence of what you desire, then can you truly rely on that thing? Can you stop yourself from dying? Is there anything in this universe that can guarantee your existence? Think about all this! That is what the Quran encourages us to do. THINK AND REFLECT.

Finally, the Creator of the universe is the One that fulfills our desires because it is the One that gives us our desires. Even one single thing in the world cannot exist without being given existence by the Creator of the universe. And also even the content of one single verse in the Speech of this Creator cannot be stated by anyone of the nature of this universe.