By November 29, 2017 Read More →

Quran-Universe Parallel Reading: Chapter Takwir – Part 17

Pre-halaqa:

  • We have to watch out for our hypocritical state of mind under the name of “kindness”. We do not realize it unless we are told. It is very hard to face reality. We have to be open to receive criticism and we need to tell our friends to tell us our flaws otherwise we will not make progress as a human being. When we are told about it, we need to be grateful for that.
  • Read any text by establishing a logical sequence in your reasoning, otherwise you may deviate from the meaning in order to justify your own biases or negative attitude. WATCH OUT!

Recap: When we say Satan, it is not something outside of creation, rather it is directly connected to the function of the universe.

What is the function of the universe?

The purpose in its existence. How can we know the purpose of the existence of the universe?

  • How I perceive myself?

If I perceive myself as a rational animal then the universe (or a fruit) means something to nourish my body. For the meaning of the universe gets its reflection from the meaning of my own definition of myself (WHO AM I?) Otherwise, if someone does not change his/her own understanding of his/her being, s/he cannot change his/her worldview. Your worldview reflects in your mirror i.e. how you see yourself. Example: you are made to experience hunger and then get enjoyment from the food. What is the meaning behind this?

Taking your human side into account forces you to see the meaning side of creation and accordingly you communicate with the creation. In this context, the speech of God goes along with your understanding of the universe and your understanding of the universe goes along with your understanding of yourself. That is, how one regards himself and then interpret existence accordingly. When you are hungry, you just do not eat to feed your body but also exercise some other qualities manifested in that event and get meaning from it because we are intellectual questioning beings.

When we question what things mean, we find out that there are verbal explanations from the Creator of the universe. Get the verbal explanations (#1) within the context of your own interpretation of yourself (#2) and the interpretation of the universe (#3) and see the correlation between all three.

  • How does this verbal explanation help me to understand my reality of my existence better?
  • Does it make my existence more meaningful and consistent with my conscious questioning of existence?

Verbal explanation is a guide to improve and make progress to your own understanding of existence as an extension of the purpose of existence of the universe. Why do you think that you exist? There is an answer at the primary level of education. There is an answer at the secondary level of education and so on. The Speech of God is the teacher and teaches you from the primary school level to the top.

Nothing is baseless in the Quran unlike the Satanic whisperings which makes things look real. There are two ways to approach the Quran:

  1. Respect the speech as it claims to be free from Satanic influences which are nothing but illusions.
  2. Analyze it as coming from angelic side of reality.

#2 is more realistic. If you say that some pieces from the Quran makes no sense because it is talking about wars and it has nothing to do with me, then you are not reading the Quran. See the message in the Quran which is universal but presented to us in a historical context.

Reading the story and taking lesson does not work for you. Example: you just witnessed a car accident and there are signs that say “do not drink and drive.” Don’t say that I have seen the event and yes, I should not drink and drive. Rather, directly apply it to your case. That is, you are the driver, one side of you wants to drink, the other side questions whether should you drink or not and do I want to get involved into an accident? Take it as a case for yourself, not an external event to take lesson from.

Example: Story of Moses and Pharaoh. Lesson is “do not be arrogant like Pharaoh”. Rather than extracting the lesson, you have to put yourself in their shoes and see the characteristic traits of both Pharaoh and Moses attitude in yourself. Make them quarrel within yourself and figure out which way to follow and then you will see how resolute you have to be to understand the reality? Although Pharaoh and Nimrod are obstinate, they know what they are doing.

  • Ask yourself: Do I know that this negative idea is wrong? Am I sure about it?

Question: What would make a person get on the denying side or negative side?

Freewill because we are free to deny. We know the truth and we can deny it. Be careful about your freewill instead of first thinking about what is right or wrong. If you are to analyze any psychological situation, first thing is to say that I have a freewill and I can choose this way or that way according to my expectations developed previously by myself. Freewill does not always have to follow logical conclusions, mostly depending on our prejudices. We have to watch out on what bases we are exercising our freewill before making any decision. We decide and use it. It is like the steering wheel of the car which itself does not do anything as it is in your hand. I am free to turn the steering wheel to the right or the left and decide which way should I go.

I can comfortably cover up the truth and deny it with an excuse by putting it in a reasonably acceptable form. However, even deep down I know it is right or wrong but I am exercising my freewill freely. If I do not pay attention to the nature of my reality that I have a freewill (and I can do that), then I am doing something without being aware that I am exploiting/misusing my freewill.

Question: We may misuse the freewill which can be uncontrolled.

This is another way of escaping from our responsibilities. Uncontrolled freewill is not freewill. Can you imagine a car with a steering wheel that is uncontrolled? That is against the definition of freewill which means really free. Whatever I am (ego, spirit or soul), freewill is a tool in the hand. Human spirit uses freewill and accordingly makes analysis.

Satanic forces and angelic forces are represented in the Speech of the Creator to be presented to our freewill and one of them you can prove it and the other one is just illusions. We have to think about it. Spirit is the driver, steering wheel is the freewill and the car goes in a certain way based on what we choose in our analysis. If we deny some truth (it is very difficult to accept this) and take side with the non-real side of the argument, deep down we know it and we want to invent justification for it. How can I justify it? Most of the time justification activity looks like finding the rationality behind the alternative side we are taking. We call it rationalizing it. Reason is necessary, we have to use it. But rationalizing the mistaken side is possible for human beings according to the teachings of the Quran.

Human beings are free and we rationalize our mistakes by misusing the power of reasoning (brain) but the Quran says that deep down you know what you are doing but you do not want to admit it. We all are free to admit or not to admit. If a person insists in denying the truth, it does not mean that he really believes in the denial rather he wants to justify it in order to make his choice acceptable for himself. Most of the time we cheat ourselves by finding out excuses to justify the options that we take. In reality, deep down if we really think about it seriously, life lost in mistaken justifications does not make sense. Example: the existence of the universe is chance. Can you prove this at all? Everything is so sophisticated here by being subject to an order. If I am have already decided that I am not going to accept the act of creation and I am aware of it, what is the alternative? Let me make up reasoning to justify my denial because I have accepted not to accept the truth. Additionally, religious people may sound crazy but religion itself is not crazy. Just be honest to yourself even if you do not want to submit or identify yourself with any religion. But still know that this world cannot come into existence accidentally.

Hadith: A person with a good humor and heavy drinker would crack jokes that even the Prophet (PBUH) would laugh at. He was once caught drinking in the society and so he was penalized for it. The second day the same thing happens. The third day when he was caught drunk again, the people said that he is very drunk and corrupt and the penalization does not correct him. Prophet said don’t speak bad about him for he loves Allah and his messengers.

Being a failure (you want to do something but you cannot) is DIFFERENT from accepting the reality and admitting that you are a failure. I may have a bad character and doing something wrong but within myself I should admit what is right and wrong which is the most important. If you are honest that this is wrong or for example drinking alcohol is wrong, admit it (not superficially), then it is more likely that you will stop drinking because you have a positive attitude now.

When you are analyzing the universe and yourself (your reality), you may employ your freewill to make an analysis in a diverted way. Be careful! If you really think and question whether there is anything that you are covering up, then you can understand where the weak point lies in yourself. You can understand it and when you understand it, admit it as it is the way for solution and salvation from falling into this mistake again and again. When you are making this analysis within yourself and the universe, Quran comes in and tells you something which you can personalize (everything directly mentioning about yourself).

Example: Verses that mentions about “in the war, enemies of the believer did so and so”. That means: “I am the enemy of the believers: Am I doing the same thing in my life?” We are not killing people but we are killing their ideas or ideals i.e. we are not appreciating the values of their ideals and what they represent.

  • We have to live in this world as a created being by the Creator of the universe, we are here to represent His qualities through our consciousness in order to make the universe fulfill its duty because universe itself is created in such a way that manifests the qualities of its Creator. Human being can consciously be aware of it and express it (put into words).

Personalize everything for yourself: “We worship you, we do nothing but worship you.”

Don’t say that mountains glorify God and I have my being independent of their glorification, rather you have to personalize it. That is, as a conscious being, I have to see their glorifications and adopt it to myself and say that I have to glorify God myself alongside with them. Instead of thinking that the mountains are externally doing something.

Example: when David glorified God, mountains were echoing his glorification. Instead of thinking: “what a great man! His voice was beautiful! Which is none of my business who he was, you have to make glorification alongside with the glorification of the mountains what they declare in their existence, be conscious of it. David is “you” and mountain is “you”. That is why the universal speech mentions this.

As far as the meaning in the existence of the things is concerned, everything is “unseen” or “ghaib” and you have to deduce meaning. Example: Have you seen the unseen side of the banana? What message did it bring to you? The banana told me that my Maker is Compassionate. This is “unseen”. Everything in reality is “unseen”, you have to deduce meaning. Otherwise, to see the banana, a monkey sees it as well. If I see the banana and eat it without thinking about the messages I receive through the endowed qualities of the banana, I am a monkey not a human being. For a human being to be at the level of a monkey is a huge unforgivable deduction. That is why we have to see “unseen” in everything. If I intend to read the meaning in the existence of the things around me, I learn and I improve myself.

Lack of seriousness is lack of training. No one teaches you about what freewill is. You may fail to use steering wheel in the best way and want to correct yourself you have to train.

Elements to train one’s freewill:

  1. How are you using yourself and communicating with your qualities?
  2. How are you communicating with the universe and what are you making of the universe?
  3. The verbal speech comes to you in order to educate you how to drive the car. The car represents your life in this universe since you are in the car. Listening to Scripture is taking a driver’s lesson so you can use this car in the best way. When you listen to the Speech of God, take it as a driver lesson.
  • Now you are the driver and the universe and your body is your car. How are you going to use the universe and the car? Which way are you going to go and when are you going to apply break i.e. when something becomes harmful? When you are changing the lane, and speed up.

How am I going to use this universe as a vehicle in order to reach my destination?

The destination is to fulfill what is expected of your existence. That is why I am here. I have to communicate through the universe in the best way so that I will fulfill the qualities and potentialities given to me for the purpose of acknowledging existence which is really acknowledging the Existence Giver. The “unseen” aspect of existence what does it say to me? After reading with the purpose of understanding an event/object, you see the “unseen side” which is the meaning in the object/event. As a result, you communicate with whatever the unseen side of creation in the universe points to. They all point to or pronounce the type of qualities that the Creator have. You have the ability to acknowledge all of the qualities manifested in the universe.

Now, get in direct relationship with the Creator. That is what the speech of God is, to put us in an education system and so I will be in a direct relationship with the Creator: “O my Creator! You are unimaginably Generous. You are unperceivably Powerful.” We have no clue which type of existence It has. He is the Creator and we are the created beings. Just as the machine does not know that it is made by a human being, rather if it had consciousness it would know its own conditions as a machine. This is the only way to benefit from the speech of God. We first need to internalize and personalize that my Creator is speaking to me. The Speech of God is an opportunity to train you to understand and communicate with your Creator or get to know your Creator better and acknowledge it better. That is what your existence is for otherwise what you are going to do in this transient world. Everything that you have been doing for twenty years is gone; the entire banana you ate is gone. What remains? The Creator of the banana is introducing itself to me that it loves me, entertains me and takes care of me. Banana is gone but the impression you got out of the banana is Eternal and remains with you. I am a guest of the Sender of the banana, the Creator of the universe. Banana is gone and the energy provided from the banana is also gone but what you can carry with you is ‘unseen’ or a meaning beyond description. That indescribable message I can know it because through my consciousness I know that I am being entertained.

Who is entertaining you? Who is taking care of your needs? Who is adjusting your need and the taste of the banana? Who is giving the taste to the banana and the ability to taste in your mouth? Is that accident? What is this communication? Who is doing this? Only after reflecting through these series of questions, can you understand that you are the guest of the Creator of the banana who is taking care of you. That meaning or message remains with you and that is the destination that we have to reach. We have to be honest: “I have chosen to be ignorant of the Creator of the banana. Are we here in this temporary world from babyhood where we do not do anything to adulthood where we indulge in activities to make a permanent dwelling place? No. This is not a permanent place. Our destination is not the graveyard. That is the last stop for your body but not for your existence or your humanity. Graveyard is for the body as you buried the banana in the graveyard of your stomach which goes to the toilet. But your humanity gets the news which is Permanent, “unseen” beyond description. Be a human being! Don’t say that our last destination is graveyard. Just as the paper of a book is nothing but the meaning of the words written in the paper is everything. Paper has value only to carry the message to you. Your understanding and perception of it remains with you.

  • Human destination is not the graveyard, rather reaching and going back to our source of existence, acknowledging It, being with It and returning to It. It will do it not you (even if you commit suicide) as It gave this sense and ability.

I am in the body now but death is not the end of my existence rather it is the separation of body from spirit like the melting ice transforms into liquid but the law of freezing is there. The whole system of the universe is established like that. Just as babyhood is finished, all the means to practice the feelings changed but you never change i.e. the feelings are still there. Body is old but all feelings are as young and active as they used to be. Your body is your car. You just get out of the body. My body is a witness that we get changed from various stages. It is Its demonstration that we cannot change on our own, cannot stop from aging. That is how it is set.

  • Don’t say that I am getting old; someone is creating you in another form. If it was in my control, I would never make myself old, someone is operating on me demonstrating that It can do everything and at the same time and it is Absolute.

81:26 “Which way, then, are you going?”

Along these realities, what are you doing in your existence? In your life, which destination do you have? What are you going to reach? What is your point of perfection for yourself? Here is the reality as demonstrated in the previous verse and now drawing attention to ourselves. What am I doing? Looking to make more money? Banana is not permanent; the meaning I extracted from the banana with my body is permanent. My body does not know what is going on in the existence of the banana but my spirit knows and gets the meaning. The meaning is permanent.

  • Verse says: Where are you heading? What is your last destination?

81:27 “It is only a reminder to all humankind.”

The teacher comes and speaks but you do not listen. The universe is a class and you cannot go out of class. The teacher’s teaching is just a reminder for everybody. In other words, the speech of God is a reminder for human beings and educates the conscious beings.

81: 28 “So let those who want choose the right guidance.”

You are free to check the teacher’s teaching and educate and learn to train yourself and make improvement. When you learn something, your human qualities improve. You go to school to develop your human side, the understanding and comprehension to train you how to reason. Your human qualities benefit as a result of learning. In the school where the Quran teaches about various ways through parables, then everything is left to the student to choose, they may listen or not and reject or not. A student first listens to the Professor and tries to understand what is being relayed. If s/he does not understand then s/he asks the teacher: “I do not understand this”. You have to question whatever you are reading and look for the right guidance and be careful not to condition yourself with anything. Freely question it but if you have some hidden agenda such as “I do not want to subscribe to any religion”, then anyway that goes to belief in God is conditioning yourself. Anyone who rejects the Creator rejects it out of his bias. It is equally valid for anyone who follows a religion because he is born in it. The main purpose for us “to be” is to get rid of any kind of bias, rejecting and imitative acceptance. If it makes sense to you confirm it, otherwise reject it. Be absolutely free with no bias!

81:29 “Yet you cannot choose except by the will of God, Lord of the worlds.”

You can use the steering wheel freely but the car, you and the stirring wheel are all set by the One that creates the car. We cannot deny or ignore the steering wheel. Even if we decide not to use the steering wheel, it is there. As a result, all human potentialities sink when we do not take a hold of the steering wheel. Freewill is so important. How horrible it is to neglect one’s human qualities?

We are created with the motif to want to educate ourselves and improve ourselves and we want existence. Spirit comes from somewhere but we cannot comprehend it because it is not within this universe. We are created by a conscious being and we will have another type of existence. During the period of our existence here, we love to continue our existence. We are encoded with the love of existence. E.g. We want the power of sight to exist.

  • We need to work on getting the pleasure of existence by educating ourselves.

Analogy: A student attends school at a prestigious university but he feels bored in the class. He wants to be there but he does not want to study and so being there becomes boring. He is not steering the wheel with the right guidance that is why he is not getting any pleasure. Similarly, if you really understand the last destination, then you will try to benefit from your studies to reach the One that gave you existence because you will be with Him at the end of the journey here when you will die. You are here to improve yourself to get ready for Him. But if you do not use your human qualities, your existence becomes dull. What am I doing in this universe? Instead of getting to know your reality in truth and educating, you want to make life more and more exciting and fun by cracking jokes in the classroom while the teaching is going on and say that school does not like me. How am I going to make my existence pleasurable for me? My animal side is transient and does not give me any permanent pleasure. If you use your human side, you will beg God: “O my Owner, let me stay in this world a little more because I have to educate myself and get a higher degree and I do not want to get out of the education system because I am learning”. But if you don’t use your human side, life becomes meaningless, unpleasant, dull, foggy and horrible which is the mercy of the Creator telling me what I am doing is wrong, not having pleasure from my existence.




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