Quran-Universe Parallel Reading: Chapter Fatiha (2017) – Part 6

1:5 “You alone we worship, and to You alone we turn for help.”

1. What does “worship” mean?
2. Who are “we”?
3. What do we mean by asking for help?

Often heard responses for question #2: Believers, Muslims, specific community.

• Think again and challenge your understanding!
• Be proud of your mistakes! MAKING MISTAKES LEADS TO LEARNING.
• If something does not upgrade your understanding, then it is a waste of time to be re-confirming things you already know.
• We need to be aware of what we are doing otherwise we will just be imitating cultural heritage which does not give us any value to our humanity.
• We have to think about what makes something a right or wrong understanding.

Do only human beings worship God? Now, go to question #1. What do we understand by worship?

• Acknowledgment of our reality.
• Submitting one’s being to the source of its existence.
• Feeling secure in one’s existence.
• Communication between one’s human qualities and the Source of its existence.

In summary, worship is acknowledging our neediness. What do we mean by acknowledging “our” neediness? Now, go to question #3: Everything created i.e. all of creation. That is, not only human beings are in need but everything in the universe is in need. Nothing can come into existence by itself. Nothing can sustain its existence. Everything acknowledges their neediness, accepting what they need and how their neediness is met. “Worship” means that if a thing is a conscious being like human beings, then it can be in acknowledgment. We are consciously aware that we are needy. We use our consciousness to get to know that everything else in creation is needy. Birds are needy. Atoms are needy. Matter is needy… etc. In the universe, what is not needy?

WHO IS NOT NEEDY? Who does not need to exist?

In other words, what is self-existing in the universe and claiming that it does not need something else to exist? What can give existence to itself and possess enough power and ability to do that? Is there anything in the universe that does not need to exist because its existence is from itself? We have to logically be convinced with what we are saying. What in the universe is self-existing? That is, what in the universe has its existence from itself? Absolutely NOTHING. Even interpreters of science cannot give one example of something whose existence is from it, i.e. itself. There is no such thing in the universe which exists by itself.

Fundamentally, everything in the universe is in need. Human beings consciously acknowledge their neediness. Conscious being also acknowledge that other beings are also in need as well. They cannot come into existence by themselves. Now, everything in the universe is in need of something else to exist at least and then to sustain its existence, to perfect its existence… These are all practical needs. Example: A conscious human being by using his freewill may say that I am not in need of anything or that I am young and I am doing everything on my own. When the tongue says this, the freewill already chose to interpret existence in this way. But his/her flesh says that I am in need of growth, his/her nail says that I am in need to grow and exist. We all know that hair, nails, and skin cannot grow by themselves, i.e. cause themselves to grow. It is the way they are made and they are in need of something else to be functional within the whole universe, in the way they are. Because if they existed by themselves or grew by themselves, they would be able to stop dying and getting old. “My flesh cannot stop itself from death. We observe as we get old, things are no longer the same. For example, an athlete can no longer maintain his/her athletic abilities after a certain prime period. The obvious tools work in a less functional way as before. It means that someone’s choice willed them to exist in this way and so we do not have any choice as far as existence is concerned.”

Do we have any choice in our existence?

• What?!

Did you come into this world by choice?

• No.

Every moment we experience that something else is operating on us. Even the freewill is given to us to choose between options. Did you decide to get your freewill? No. You are given free will that is why you are free to choose. But your being given the choice to exist or not to exist is not under your freedom. Can you make yourself non-existent? No. What can choose not to exist? How about death? Death is not non-existence.

Materialist philosophy claims that something that exists can also not exist. Their claim further goes that the universe is Eternal by itself, it means that it exists by itself, i.e. the universe can exist by itself because it has the qualities to give existence to itself. What an irrational philosophical conclusion! How can something non-existent come into existence by itself? Nothing can come into existence on its own will and get out of existence on its own will. No one can demonstrate this but they jump and omit this step claiming that the universe exists for Eternity. What do you mean by Eternity? No one can describe Eternity because there is no Eternity in the universe. We have to watch for ourselves and have a convincing understanding, with nothing to doubt or being afraid of ideologically. This subject is not to be taken loosely thinking that most scientists do not believe in God. Not at all. Rather, we should be certain and feel secure in our conclusions that whatever exists needs an initiator/originator to give existence to it. Such is a necessary human logical conclusion! The universe itself demonstrates it.

Here is another evidence that everyone knows: Is there anything in the universe which is not subject to the order of the universe? It means free from the requirements of the order. No, not at all. Whatever we choose is between options We may think that we are absolutely free to choose but again it is within a certain order. That is, you cannot choose anything which is not in the order of creation. Example: You say that I am not going to eat potatoes but eat cauliflower. Here, you are still acting according to the requirements of the order in creation. You cannot get out of the order or even put one element to the order on your own.

What is the order?

• Nothing but scientific discovery.

Are the scientific discoveries something else which does not exist within the universe?

No. All the scientific discoveries are just unraveling something which already exists in the order of the universe. That is, no one can take anything out of existence or bring anything into existence in the universe. Everything in existence is subject to the order of the universe. How about the whole order of the universe, what is it subject to? Can the order of the universe give existence to itself? No. Everything is as it is. Just as the laptop functions within its order. That is, every part of the laptop is subject to the order of the laptop which is given to it. As far as the laptop, we know that the Engineer designed and made it. Similarly, who originated/established the order in the universe? What is the reason for the order of the universe to come into existence? There must be something. Every part of the laptop says: “I have to follow the order which is given by the Maker of the laptop.” Similarly, everything in the universe declares: “I need to exist as per the will of the Creator. I cannot make myself to be here.” Every part of the universe, including myself in it says: “I am in need of my Maker in my existence, to sustain my existence, to function within the order…” THAT IS WORSHIP!

• If we are conscious of what worship is and when we say we worship It means that every particle of the universe in the way it exists and functions, announces this reality: “we are in need of our Maker through our actions. Anything you see on me does not belong to me, that is how I am made.”

With this consciousness when you are praying, your witnessing has nothing to do with belonging to a certain community. “We are Muslim” is a social identity, it means nothing. How conscious are you of what you are doing? How much are you aware of the meaning behind your actions? Who are you? Because we are human beings, we have to be conscious of what we are doing. We are not robots! We understand who we are through our consciousness. That consciousness to understand that I and everyone is in acknowledgment of their neediness is also given by the Conscious Being.

“There is no one in the heavens or earth who will not come to the Merciful One as a worshipper.” Mary (19): 93

These types of verses help us to collapse our traditional understanding and establish a new worldview.

There is no one in the galaxies that will not come to the Merciful One. Fundamentally, existence is Mercy and everything that exists is out of Mercy (we studied it in the previous parts; please refer to the previous notes/recordings). Everything longs for the Merciful One as worshippers. The One who submits its existence to the Merciful One or to its Maker is a “muslim (submitter.) This means that everything in creation is a muslim. Every atom is a muslim. Every molecule is a muslim. Every material thing is a muslim. Every cell submits its existence to its Maker and obeys it: “I belong to you, because of you I exist, because of your will I function.” When it comes to the human body, the body of every human being says that I submit to my Maker.

The traditional understanding has distorted the definition of a Muslim to a particular community only. So ridiculous! (There was no such division during the Prophetic time period.) When it comes to conscious actions, whoever is aware of its existence submits itself to its Creator is a Muslim regardless of their social identity.

Everything comes to the Merciful One as a worshipper. Worship means this awareness and consciousness, which the student of the Quran needs to be aware of.

Everything worships the One who is the Originator, Creator and Sustainer of everything in the universe (including the universe itself). When I say as a person, “You alone we worship”, what do I mean? As a conscious human being, addressing my Maker, communicating with my Maker, I am aware that all of us in the universe acknowledge their reality: “I am aware that everything in the universe acknowledges You and acknowledges their neediness and presents this acknowledgment to You.” As a human being, I am consciously expressing this reality. If I do this then I am a conscious worshipper or human being, otherwise my body worships God but my consciousness, as a result of my choice, may not be aware that I am in acknowledgment. I am free to be aware of it or not to be aware of it. That is what “You alone do we worship” means.

“To You alone we turn for help.” Isn’t this the automatic result of understanding worship? That is, we are aware that we turn for help only to the One that we acknowledge as the Sustainer of the whole universe. “I am always in need of your help, I am aware of it in my existence. Whatever my desires are, I am aware of it. I cannot get anything outside of the order of the universe. I have to obey the order.” By obeying the order, I am expressing my needs: “Please I need this or complete this for me.” When we understand the first part of the verse clearly and completely on a satisfactory base, it becomes very easy to understand the second part.

Can you turn to something else for help? Who can help you?

Let’s say you are a small kid and you need your parent’s help. Whatever the parents do for you is within the order of the universe. Example: the father goes to the tree to fetch a banana and give the banana to you. All he did was that he took the property of the Creator and gave it to you. The father did not create the banana.

• When someone says that we take care of you, what they do is not outside the already existing system in the universe.
• When someone says that I am ready to die for you. Ok where did you get this sense? Did you buy it? Produce it? Or you found yourself with the sense created?

Exercising our human freewill does not create anything at all, rather it gives us the option to either do something or not to do it. Example: A person is given the sense of being compassionate, practically speaking to take care of someone. Since we are given the freewill, we may put it into practice or we may stop it i.e. not put it into practice.

Let’s say there is a hungry person out there. You may or may not give him food. When you feed that person, you do it as a result of the human sense that you are given. If you don’t feed the person, then you are rebelling against your human sense, i.e. you are still following the order which is going against your human sense.

Because of the choice of your freewill, you are free to either feed the person or not. This choice is given within the order in the universe. You have to act within it. Not only in the Quranic language but in all religious scripture languages, it says that God rewards you if you do good work and punishes you if you do something wrong. Again, it has something to do with exercising and practicing our freewill.

When we exercise our freewill, we are not creating something extra or adding something to creation. Example: I am holding a pair of glasses. Can I get your glasses? I am free to give you these glasses or not. Am I creating anything when I give it to you? No. I am just choosing from among the given options within the order of the universe.

You have to be thankful, respectful to the people who choose to help you not because they created something or originated something for you, but rather because they have chosen their freewill not to contradict the way they are created, nothing more. So we have to be thankful to them for their choice not because they did something extra. The choice is given to them. Whatever they did was it created by them or by the Maker of the universe who gave them this option? It is very obvious that everything is given by the Maker of the universe. No one is creating something in the universe. We are just using the options. Example: I am not going to eat a banana today but I will eat a pomegranate. I am free to choose amongst what already exists. However, I am not free to choose from something which does not exist.

• All of the available choices are existing!
• I am not creating anything!

Why are you proud of yourself?

It is important to understand this because when we use our freewill, we think that we are making something. No, we are just obeying the order when we are choosing, nothing extra.

Scenario 1: You chose to give $100 instead of $1 to a homeless person. Did you create anything? No. You gave out of what already exists. The number changes but the existence does not change. If you think that you are generous, then generous in using the Creator’s property.

Scenario 2: I fed 1000 people during Ramadan. You did not feed them, rather the food you offered to them did not belong to you but created by the Maker of the universe. Yes, you have chosen to give rather than not to give. You have chosen to give what is already created by the Maker of the universe. You did not create the food.

Scenario 3: I am 20 years old and I have never missed my prayers, I am a good man. Ok you did it within the capacity that is given to you by your Maker. Rather than not doing it, you chose to do it. You did not choose to reject anything either and contradict yourself, that’s all.

Scenario 4: Donating money for a cause where your name is written on the walls. This person did not create anything; rather just use what is given to purchase a name on the wall.

Finally, we are not adding anything to creation. We exercise our freewill at every moment. Everyone in their all activities (be it religious, social or educational…) whatever they do, they all say wa iyyaka nastaeen (we seek help from you): “nothing else can help us, I cannot help anyone but I am choosing not to contradict the way I am made.” That is what we are doing here. When we do something good, it already exists. When we do something not so good, we label it as “bad” for ourselves but it still exists in the universe. Again, we are not creating anything and we cannot be proud of doing anything good. But we can be ashamed of doing something not required of us i.e. contradicting our human nature. Example: a person needs something and you have the opportunity to help him. If you help him, it is normal that is how you are made. But if you do not help him, then you should be ashamed of yourself, that’s not how you are made as a human being.