Practices in Reading the Quran Here and Now: Chapter Qalam (Pen) – Part 9

“Such is the chastisement (being forsaken) and certainly the chastisement of the hereafter is greater, if only they knew.” The Pen (68):33

We maybe are distancing ourselves from the Creator without realizing it. The Creator creates everyone equally. It is important that we establish our relationship with the Creator in this created universe through our physical side, which then coincides with physical and non-physical relationship in the hereafter. Although, you may not see any physical pain in the disconnection with the Creator while you are in this world, know that in the next creation you will be physically treated according to your perception of creation here in this universe. After the resurrection in the next creation every soul will be given a physical body according to the conditions of that new creation. The principle of creation is the same i.e. spirit and body operates together. Since physicality is what we experience in this type of creation, from this we understand that the next creation must take place within the same principle but in a different form.

Chastisement (Azaab) = Being deprived of God’s presence in your life right now. In other words, it is the distance between your state of being and feeling blissful.

Do you feel that someone is taking care of you?

“The God conscious people have Gardens of Bliss with their Lord.” The Pen (68):35

If you do not feel that you are being taken care of in this life, then you will always feel helpless and lonely. And since the next life i.e. hereafter is a mere reflection of this life on earth, you will feel helplessness tenfold in the next life. That is how the scriptures describe the correlation between your state of being in the moment in this universe with the hereafter. Everything you do here has a direct correlation to the hereafter. After all, we are all subject to death. No one lives in these physical material conditions forever. This universe is transient and no one is here forever. The One that brought you here is the Permanent One i.e. your Sustainer. Don’t you see that? Did you do anything to get here when you were brought into this life? Your Sustainer will take care of your existence when you die. Why worry? Life is from the Owner of the universe and death is from the same Owner of the universe.

Even the Prophets come and go. That is, people employed to convey the message of the Creator of the universe to conscious human beings like you and I. Some people rejected the Prophets because of their nominal status in the society. Throughout history, the elite would think that if someone has the entitlement to receive Divine Speech, it has to be the noble lettered elites. Furthermore, oppressors always oppose Prophetic message. Why? It is because they will lose the oppressed ones and will not be able to practice their power of authority over others. The Prophetic message brings glad tidings to the oppressed ones letting know that justice will prevail, just stand by the Prophetic message.

Analogy: If you get a C in a class, then you have not mastered the subject at the expected level. Similarly, if you use your human qualities to the minimum, the less you will get acquainted with the Creator. On the other hand, the more you use your human qualities, the more you will get acquainted with the Creator.

Example: If you attribute the food you eat to a Creator, then you will get the spiritual as well as physical treatment of it in the hereafter. If you do not attribute the food you eat to a Creator, then you will eat thorns i.e. you will suffer from not being qualified to get to know the Source of your existence. Thorn is the language used in the Quran to describe that one experiences being disconnected with the Creator both here in this physical manifested world and the other creation after death where everyone will be treated according to the way they lived in this world.. Physically, everyone is treated equally here. However, when it comes to connecting your everything to the Source of your existence, you are treated according to your efforts. Example: Justice or any act must be comprehended at the Eternal level i.e. by attributing the sense of wanting to do justice to the One that creates you and endows you with this sense. When I look at the universe, the Creator of the universe is a just One and must establish justice in its creation. Nothing belongs to you (lailaha); everything is given to you by the One that gives existence (illallah).

• If you do not acknowledge the Absolute Creator of the universe while you are here on earth, instead, attribute everything to the mater itself, then you will be treated in the next creation i.e. hereafter, left alone with the matter to satisfy your needs. You will be sure that matter itself does not know your needs; it cannot give existence to anything. That would be a fair treatment.

Creation encompasses physical being and meaning. That is, without Prophets bringing news of resurrection, one would say that there must be a Creator but one would not know about an Eternal life i.e. hereafter.

“The God conscious people have Gardens of Bliss with their Lord.” The Pen (68):35

This is so simple to understand. That is, if you are aware of the Source of your existence in your every act, then you are God conscious (muttaqee) and will have a blissful state of mind.

“Shall we then deal with those who surrender themselves to God, as with those who are criminals?” The Pen (68):36

What is a criminal?

The one who commits a crime against their human qualities. Doing injustice to oneself in the language of the Quran really implies that a person is not using his/her human qualities. One has to use their human qualities to know the purpose of their existence and creation. When a person uses his human qualities to get to know his/her Lord, he is then a Muslim (submitting oneself to its Creator.) ASK: How much I use my human qualities for the purpose they are created for? We need to think about our reality as much as possible. When you realized that you have wronged yourself or that you acted like a criminal, then repent. Admit that you wasted your time to the Source of your existence and express that you are sorry and were not a Muslim at that specific moment. Repenting is very human.

When you learn about your reality, you help yourself. When you do not, you torture yourself. Our human qualities are not like money. The more human qualities we use, the more Mercy we get. If the Creator does not warn us of our mistakes, how are we supposed to learn then? When we repent, Mercy is there. In fact, Mercy is everywhere.

Finally, do not ever miss an opportunity to recognize the Creator. Get amazed at ever wonderment He creates. Even when you engage in releasing yourself in the toilet, reflect on who purposefully designed such a system where only waste gets extracted after eating food. Such a perfect design must have a Perfect Creator.

Belief is an internal conviction which can only be achieved as a result of one’s own personal conclusions. We have to stop following the culture that is prevalent in the society and the one that we are born into. Noah’s people were worshipping idols. In other words, there were following their ancestors religion without questioning it. Stop imitating external religion. Come to your own personal conviction from within. That is religion i.e. your own belief, your personal conviction.