Practices in Reading the Quran Here and Now: Chapter Qalam (Pen) – Part 15
We have all heard of the famous story of Prophet Jonah as being cast into the stomach of the whale. We should not occupy ourselves with thinking whether it happened or not. Let us see what message is being conveyed to us with the verses below.
48- “Wait patiently for your Lord’s decision: do not be like the man in the whale who called out in distress.”
49- “If his Lord’s grace had not reached him, he surely had been cast into the wilderness in a state of disgrace.”
50- “But his Lord chose him and made him one of the righteous.”
The Pen (68): 48-50
Since we all observe the universe around us, we can easily come to the conclusion by gathering our own evidence that: “The universe must have a Creator.” If the universe has a Creator, then this Creator must speak to us through different objects, events and personage.
Looking into the verse # 48 (above), what does patience refers to? Well, it does not mean to wait idle and waiting for a miracle to happen. It means to use your given human senses and derive to conclusions which is a process and does not happen over-night. Our duty is to make use of ourselves and the universe effectively. That is, we should not suppress our inner desires which primarily requires Eternal everything. Our innate characteristics as human beings seek Eternal Pleasure + Happiness in everything; and the universe is transient and so we cannot get Eternal Satisfaction here. But we experience pleasure and happiness here which is temporary. So, how can we live our lives with Eternal Pleasure? That is our distress which we realize when we are in tune with our inner selves.
- To be in distress is good as it helps you to search for solutions to get out of the distress.
- The solution is really to keep searching for answers to your innate human questions.
- Whatever you concluded yesterday, is gone. Right now, you have to work on renewing your conclusions by gathering “fresh” and brand new evidences.
Why is the Speaker in the verse warning us not to be like the man in the whale who called out in distress?
In general, when you pile up loads of work, it becomes cumbersome to tackle it. Similarly, the more you postpone trying to search for answers to your existential questions, the longer it will take you to get out of the mess. But eventually, you should get out of the mess if you are truly searching. Also, if you are under the delusion that you are the cause of what you experience or achieve, then that is another distress that you need to get out of.
- If one realizes that they are created, then they logically realize that they cannot control anything.
- If they cannot control anything, then they cannot sustain existence.
What does “your Lord’s decision” refer to above? It refers to endless opportunities that we are presented with throughout our day to make us realize the Originator of everything i.e. Source of Existence. We realize that nothing can satisfy us here (lailaha). Since we desire Eternity, the One that gives us this desire must satisfy it (illallah)
In verse #49 (above), what does state of disgrace mean? It means not using your human qualities to realize existence. We are all given the potentiality to develop our human qualities. But our sad reality is that we get so swamped with the world oriented life that the idea of being given existence may not even occur to us. Every moment we are sustained. How can we explain that? What is causing the whole order of the universe to be perfectly working in harmony?
- Since the universe is in continuous motion, its Maker cannot have limited qualities.
- Since the Maker cannot have limited qualities, we cannot limit the Maker to the qualities that we observe.
- Since we cannot limit the Maker to the qualities that we observe here, we conclude that the Maker of this universe must be Absolute. That is, the Maker is indescribable within this physical universe but we conclude that such a Being must exist.
- Since we experience different and endless qualities every moment, we conclude that human qualities must be such that we cannot reach the end of our qualities as well.
We can all derive at the above pointers without the use of any guidance. But everyone’s conclusion is limited to his/her capacity i.e. how much they have developed their human senses. When we establish the meaning of the existence of the Absolute within ourselves, only then can we appreciate guidance. Why?
- Because we start looking for a guide to answer our human questions.
- Because we have realized that the One that gives us existence is the One that puts us in distress so we may search for answers.
In verse #50, what does “righteous” refer to? It refers to the fact that when one uses his given qualities to listen to himself and the universe around him/her and searches for answers to satisfy his human expectations, then this person is on the right track. In other words, this person is in tune with his human reality.
In conclusion, the whole universe is the belly of the whale. The universe can never satisfy anyone eternally, although we have endless desires for eternity. Our main desire is to have Eternal Satisfaction in every experience. The One that gives us this desire must fulfill it.
Tags: Al-Qalam, Here-and-Now, Qalam Series