“The unbelievers will be led to Hell in crowd: until, when they arrive, there, its gates will be opened. And its keepers will say, “Did not messengers come to you from among yourselves, conveying to you the Signs of your Lord, and warning you of the Meeting of this Your Day?” The answer will be: ‘Yes”, but the decree of punishment has fallen due upon the unbelievers!”
Zumar (39): 71
Recap:
- Keepers of Hell = Angels
- Angels are the representatives of the meanings of creation.
What is right and what is wrong?
Right is acting according to your human nature. First, you try to see in your human nature what is right, what is wrong. It does not cover the activities that we refer to in religion. My understanding and interpretation of existence is my right attitude. If I say that this world has no meaning, as a human being can you really approve it? When you do a simple act in your personal life, you look for a meaning. Existence in this world is so meaningful that you cannot deny the meaning. If I cannot deny the meaning, it means that there is purpose in the existence of the things.
Can the particles have an object of meaning?
Comment: Do we use this as a crutch naturally when we do not find meaning in anything.
What does “naturally” mean?
The main trend among the philosophers was to use the word “naturel” to explain existence and make it a trend to be used by the general public but they were never able to find what the word “natural” means? Without solving what these words actually mean for us, we cannot solve any problems.
Natural or “naturel”= how I am constructed, not without a conscious constructor. The way “nature” word is constructed means happening by itself. Ask yourself: can anything come into existence accidentally by itself? Then “naturel” becomes a totally meaningless language.
How can I explain my construction?
Can the table happen by itself? Can atom come into existence by itself? We have to think about the agent or the source of existence of things.
There must be an agent.
When we study the existent things, we see certain qualities so we have to think about the quality of the agent who will be able to give these qualities to that thing. Example: Can I say that the computer is made by stones? No. It’s so obvious. Can I say that the computer is made by metals? Sure, not. Metal cannot have any choice, it is just put there. The result of human experience is that there must be an Engineer who is qualified to engineer the machine. Now, we know that one engineer is not enough. More than 100, 000 engineers worked on it. Intelligent people think about the quality of the agent who can make these qualities. We understand that human consciousness definitely says that there must be a conscious agent behind the existence of this computer.
Example: when you look at a cat, what qualities the cat has and what qualities the Source of Existence of the cat must have?
A conscious agent is necessary behind the existence of anything in the universe. If you look at this building, the simplest thing of the construction of this building is bricks. Similarly, when you look at the universe, the simplest thing of the construction of the universe is particles. One particle is so complicated, ask a physicist. The universe is so amazing and we see meaning. The meaning in the action we perform including our thoughts is amazing. That is, the meaning in the existence of our thoughts affects our human feelings. Example: if you hear good news, you cheer up. Bad news makes you feel sad. According to the thoughts and reflections, what happens is that the result of this reflection may affect your feeling. The existence of this feeling has meaning and your consciousness captures these feelings. This is the angelic side of the action.
This angelic side of the meaning of the action (not only in physical action form because human beings are so complicated), our actions are mostly based on thoughts and reflections. Example: there is a snake here and you are not aware of its existence here. It’s being there has no effect on you. As soon as you realize there is a snake here, you scream. Your thought affected you and your feelings. According to that feeling you reacted. That feeling has a meaningful side i.e. “angel” bringing news to you. The meanings of our reflections are the keepers of Hell or Paradise. Example: what makes you happy is an angel transferring meaning to you which is represented by Paradise.
We are experiencing existence now and the keeper of Hell and Paradise are transferring meaning right now. But it requires awareness. If we are not aware of it, then we attribute the thoughts and feelings to nothing or to our own selves. Human beings must lead a purposeful life. If someone has no purpose in their actions, then they are not serious about the meaning of their existence. Example: If I am speaking and I do not mean anything. You will say that this person is not a sound human being. When it comes to belief matters, we repeat what we hear without getting the meaning or realizing anything. This attitude is similar to a denial attitude. We have to think about the effect of what we are experiencing here; think about what we do and how we observe the world. When one does not think about the existence of this world, one feels uncomfortable. When one thinks about the meaning of existence of anything in a right way that makes one feel happy, that is the sign of the keeper of Paradise informing you that you are in Paradise now. This is the message we are getting which is either right or wrong for ourselves. Since we are experiencing everything here on a transient base, we want it in a permanent base. But there is no such thing as permanent in this world. In our existence, we see that what we like must be permanent but there is no permanence here but I have sense of permanence and I know that my particles cannot give them to me. Permanence does not exist here in this universe. I do not want my state of happiness to be transient. Let’s say that for 100 years you have perfect pair of eyes, do you say that it is enough now they can be taken out. No one says that. People keep asking for more and more years which mean that the number of years does not matter. People will keep asking if they can have a thousand more years to remain healthy. Permanence is engrained in our engineering and hardwired but there is no such thing here in this universe. Isn’t that a contradiction? You say that it should not be like this and so there must be another world that we must experience what we experience in our senses here in a permanent base. Although what the scripture says about after life may sound like a legend. We have to experience the reality of the existence of such a creation; it is expected from my Engineer, the One who constructed me. “Since you gave me the sense, I am conscious of it. I am not conscious of it by myself; I am given the ability to be conscious of it by You, my Engineer”. Why do you think He is doing that? Letting you know that you want Eternal Happiness and the Creator of this feeling gave it to you letting you know that this feeling is hardwired in your existence. It means that you need to wait as it is a promise from Him. As a result of this promise, you can expect a kind of permanent physical existence where we can experience permanent existence. We have to understand this right now here so we will be comfortable with the news that after we die we will be given an eternal life. But if you do not have any evidence for it or if you have not experienced that feeling or that type of life, you say that I do not know. You say that religious sources say this but you cannot be sure that whether that religious source is authentic or correct unless you confirm the message for yourself, then it becomes a source for you. If you do not confirm the message or if you have not gone through the confirmation of the message, you cannot confirm the authenticity of the source in order to say that the source says so because I confirm it. Instead, you say that I believe in the hereafter because I am a Muslim or a Christian without any established evidence. If you have not experienced it and confirmed it in this world in your personal life, you cannot trust the source, let alone know the source. We have to understand this. We have to be convinced here. If we do not question it and are not satisfied with the authenticity of the source then it is not belief but just narrating the story within the tradition.
The purpose of this class is to establish the reality of our conclusions. We are concerned about ourselves: “Are we going through these stages?”
Prophets come from among us means that those people who claim that they are prophets, they came from among people just like you and I i.e. the human race. But I have not seen them; they can be traced through their students. In fact, the messenger is coming from you i.e. from your own feelings. Start from yourself. You cannot say that it is a story.
Analogy: Professor is teaching something new. You learn it and think about it, when you are convinced about it yourself, only then you confirm it.
- First messenger is within me. If you do not confirm within yourself first, you cannot say that the Professor is teaching the right thing. No one can say that. Referring to the Prophet without confirming yourself is not belief but imitation.
- Second messenger, the one who tries to teach you and help ignite the quality within you. Then you can say this person is right.
Text is represented from historical cases where these people are presenting the same message (Noah, Moses…) but it is my case. That is, if you can confirm it within yourself, then you can confirm the teacher. Take the word from the teacher and apply it to yourself i.e. take it to your own feeling and if you are convinced then go back to the teacher and confirm the teacher and their books. That is belief! Your confidence in your conclusion. You cannot get confidence from outside unless you confirm it within yourself. Confidence comes from within.
In physical worldly matter, narration by a great body of people (tawatur) can be approved. Example, you do not have to go to Tibet in order to be convinced that such a place exists. However, as far as belief is concerned, it is your personal conviction.
- Belief is not a professional matter, like going to a doctor that prescribes you medicine for your illness. Experts say about existence of a hereafter but have you yourself thought about this matter by using your human qualities? If someone says that everybody says that 1 + 1= 2, so it must be so, can you approve it? You have to be convinced within yourself. Even if no one says that 1 + 1 is not equal to 2 but if you yourself are convinced that 1 + 1 = 2, then that is your belief.
- Why do you go ask others? Have you not searched for it yourself?
The angel of Hell is saying have you not found any traces from creation telling you that what you are doing is wrong? Have you not considered who is saying this? If you think that I am an accidental being, your internal feelings say I should be a true human being, I am so perfect. My expectation does not fit the idea of meaninglessness. That is why the Angel of Hell says, look at yourself, and consider your own being. After being convinced within yourself, then you can say that I have worked on it and 1 + 1 = 2. Even if no one says 1 + 1= 2, you say that because you are convinced about it. That is why anything concerning your belief conclusions has to be personal. The way you interpret the world tells you to analyze it within yourself, whether it is contradictory or confirmable.
“Conveying you the sign of the Lord” means the One that gives you existence and is continuously giving you existence and warning you of the meeting of the day. Without giving any reference to anything outside you, you cannot discuss about this One.
Do not wait for after the day of resurrection to receive warnings. What about now, aren’t you receiving warnings? This kind of creation must happen which must be the permanent result of the training of one’s human feelings here on earth. Since there is no permanent creation here, there must be somewhere that I will experience this permanently. Have you not seen the signs of your Lord?
How can I know that I have a Lord? The One that gave existence to me and the One that gave existence to the universe must have a purpose for doing so.
“Sings of Lord” means that I have a Source of Existence who gave me existence. The way we are made, we have to understand that this Creator who gave me existence must have a purpose and this purpose I am experiencing within my own existence. Example: I am using the laptop but I have never seen the Engineer of this laptop but the way it functions gives me the purpose of the Engineer. How do I know that? I say, the Engineer wants me to press this key in order to get a specific result. What are you talking about? Have you seen the Engineer? No. But the laptop functions in this way. It is made in this way. You can communicate with your Lord through yourself and you will understand that your Engineer has made you in this way. Signs of your Lord are within yourself. You are made in total interaction and harmony with all of the universe. The Engineer has put you in a way that you can communicate with the rest of the universe.
Signs of the Lord within yourself starts from you that you are convinced that you have a Lord and this Source of existence must be able to give you all the qualities that you have. When you look around, you see that everything is communicating with you warning you of the meeting of this day. That is, don’t you think that this Engineer gave you all these qualities to make you understand that there is a purpose in your existence and everything is purposeful? Don’t you act with purpose in the universe! If you do something purposeless, don’t you ask yourself why are you doing it? It is innate in us: the purpose of my existence tells me that I am discovering what is within me, but for what? It is not like learning how to make a plan as an Architect. Becoming an Architect has an end. When you learn how to make a plan, after you retire as an Architect, you are done? Yes. How about educating yourself about your own existence? You want all the senses within you to be permanent. Even the Architect says that if only I can be ever young to practice my profession. That is with us. We can get this news from ourselves that whatever we gain here must have a permanent side. That is the “day” in the description of all Scriptures. There must be a permanent place where I will experience everything permanently, that is why I am being educated here. The text says that your answer will be “yes”. Do you say “yes” that the text is telling the truth? Do you say that you are here in this type of creation for a purpose within yourself? It means do you reflect on this? If you have never thought of it, you cannot say “yes”. The text is saying that if you reflect on it, definitely your answer will be “yes”. After reflecting on the purpose of our existence, we will judge about the news. If we do not reflect about our own existence, we cannot say that: “the text is saying something right or wrong, I trust the text, it is a sacred book, scholars say that it is a great book with endless meaning…” Give me one example that you concluded that the meaning of this text is endless? No answer, because you have never studied!
We keep saying that the Quran is God’s world because I am a Muslim. How do you know that you are right? Everyone who follows certain belief system, including the one who denies the existence of a Conscious Creator says that they are right. Personal conclusion is a must. As if the text is saying that the answer will be yes. How do you read this text? If you reflect on it, you will conclude that this news is right. Definitely, I will be resurrected and I will be given another creation where I will experience whatever I have learned here permanently because it is within me. Otherwise why do we keep experiencing it? Example: You are trying to become an Architect and you learn for several years and become an expert Architect. At the end you die. But if we listen to our humanity, the way we educate ourselves must turn into Eternity because we want Eternity. The answer will be yes when we will reflect on it and if we are able to confirm within ourselves that there must be such a creation where whatever I learn here, I will be practicing it for Eternity. Learning is not a profession where you make money, rather knowing what am I? Who is my Lord? That is what we need to train ourselves in. That is called “Belief training”. How do I explain my existence? Then you come back to the text saying that what you are saying is true and there must be a day where I will be experiencing whatever I have learned and whatever I neglected. After graduation you get the degree and whatever you learn here, you put it into practice. If you have been to school, which is impossible not to be in the school of the universe, you are here given all your senses and tools to utilize them and educate them. If you do not educate them what can you do after graduation? Nothing and lack of everything! You will say that I have been to the school of the universe and I learned nothing i.e. I cannot practice Architecture, for example, that is Hell! If we want to study the text from our perspective and personal experience, then we have to check what the scripture says and see if we can confirm it rather than imitating the text.
The text is guiding us to do something in order to get results. The above text must be read as follows:
There will be a warner within you and this warner is telling you that there will be a day where you will experience whatever you gained/learned in this universe. Now go and think about it: Is it really true? There must be. No one wants to say that my existence is purposeless. Some may say that “there is no purpose in their existence because they will die and be annihilated. Why bother, just enjoy yourself in this world.” They go from one social event to another or suffer from depressions because they cannot stand an empty life based on a meaningless understanding of existence. That is why they want to keep themselves busy or they struggle from psychological disturbances. What is the source of drug addiction? Not being satisfied with one’s own existence. They want to forget themselves because they find themselves in a vacuum. Imagine a person falling into a bottomless well and you cannot stop because “time is passing” or your creation is passing and you do not know where you are going. The end will be nothing so you keep yourself busy. If you do not keep yourself busy, the alternative is to get drunk, not being able to stand one’s life as being in a vacuum (total meaninglessness).
- Think for yourself: “my life has no meaning and at the end I will disappear from this world”.
- Your inner feeling will say: What is the point here to think and reflect? Let’s get rid of this because it’s within us to think and question: what am I doing in this world? What is the meaning of my existence in this world?
Since it is within me, I cannot deny it, so I chose to be either alcoholic or drug addict. At the same token, those people who keep themselves busy by claiming that “I am a believing man and I never miss my religious duty, I do it and I am saved”, that can be as equal to the one getting drunk, because one is not thinking within oneself but say that “I did the rituals that is it”.
Belief is educating your human qualities and attributing them to their Sources and trying to utilize your human qualities in order to know the qualities of your Lord because you are a conscious being, you are not a machine. A machine does not have to know who the Engineer is, it is not questioning that as far as we know. A machine functions as it is made but human beings are ready to function as they are made but we have a choice not to use our abilities and demonstrate them as the machine does. We have to question, instead we keep ourselves busy with the following which is running away from the reality:
- Work
- Physical doings (consumptions, one event after another, doing drugs…)
- Keep busy with religious duties without questioning what you are doing and what does the action mean to your humanity and your existence. Instead, saying that I obeyed. Example: I am a citizen and as a citizen I pay the tax. Here is the tax, now leave me alone. If it was not compulsory to pay tax, how many people will pay it? No one. Similarly, some people use religious rituals to get out of the pressure of one’s consciousness. If these actions are performed as a result of your own conclusion (belief), then you are consistent in your understanding and your practical life. But without being convinced, just imitating the text means nothing. One has to be convinced and accordingly perform the religious duties. Quran always says: Believe and act accordingly, not the other way. Also human nature is the same way. Do you put something into practice without being convinced? No!
As compared to religious duties, obeying the laws established by the state is something else. Religious duties need consistency and conformity within itself.
Comment: I do not understand how someone can imitate a text?
Have you gone through the process of confirmation of the text? How long have you been in school? Approximately 15 years. Do you have a profession? Not yet. Even if you had a profession, how long will you use it for? Approximately 40 years. After that, the profession finishes. We have to be honest, people want to spend 20 years in order to do something for 40 years and then finish but the text says that that day is the day of resurrection or the permanent practice of what you have done. Permanent does not mean 40 years because number does not work in the new creation. If numbers worked in the new creation then it will be temporary. Can you make infinite by adding numbers? No. Infinite is already infinite so adding numbers would not change anything. In the permanent existence, there should be no numbers. It means that we are given the ability to understand that if something is permanent then there should be no number attached to it, as a result, there should be no sense of time in the permanent creation. It means permanently your existence will be as it is or how much you have trained. How many years does it deserve to get ready for it? As far as the belief is concerned, it is priceless. You cannot put any number to it. We have to be conscious of it purposefully. We always understand this matter the wrong way that since this is a serious matter, then we have to learn Arabic. Language does not help with understanding the purpose of your existence because you still have to use yourself to interpret things. Be careful, use yourself first and make everything personal to you.
What does “unbeliever” mean?
Unbeliever is the one who has covered up their abilities and never used it and totally ignored it. Analogy: Someone has given you a valuable book and you never read it i.e. you never read your human qualities and never reflected on your reality. If you have never reflected on your reality, then the result of your existence will be punishment forever because you will never experience anything in the new creation since the new creation has no limit and no time. In the new creation, there should be no time as we counted here otherwise there would be no point in repeating this type of creation. My humanity says that the new creation is going to be permanent. No one knows how it is going to be but we know that it is not going to be like this one.
If someone covers up his human qualities, never studies it and discloses it, the text says that s/he is an “unbeliever”. If I never study architecture, can I know anything about architecture? Do I deserve to be called an architect? Everything here is about studying yourself. If you never study it, then punishment is inevitable. It means in this world, you will torture yourself i.e. you will see the signs and in the next creation, whatever the next type of creation will be, all your abilities or human expectations will be dead.
- Example: you have eyes but you do not see, you have ears but you do not hear. Depending on how much you discovered yourself, accordingly you will be treated at that level in the new type of creation.
If you have never thought about your eyes, “how come that I see” and instead you pay attention to the outward appearance of your eyes every day for 30 minutes while putting eye makeup but you never question why is it there and what are you going to do with it, then you are wasting your life. It is ridiculous isn’t it? We are wasting our lives!
If you have never thought of the purpose of your existence and in your existence there are eyes, why are they there for? Why am I given eyes? To see and then die? What is the purpose in giving these eyes to me by my Engineer? If one has never thought of it, then one does not deserve to be called a human being. It means that I never discovered “myself” within myself.
It is as if the above text says that whoever never thought about the existence of their eyes, why are they given, they will be blind. You say yes it must be so. If I never study architecture, then I cannot practice the profession and I am not ready because I have not prepared myself for it. In realty, the potentiality to become an architect is there within me but I have never used it. If I have never used it, then I will never be able to practice architecture.
Quran symbolizes on our potentialities by teaching us that whoever is blind to his own nature, and never discovers the meaning of the existence of their human qualities, example eyes, they will be blind (Qur’an, 20: 125.) You say yes, that is justice isn’t it? Can you complain that you need to be called an architect? No because you know nothing of it. Does not matter if you come from a family of architects, you still have to study for yourself to be an architect? Similarly, you might have been born in a Muslim family and that does not make you a Muslim. Don’t cover yourself up with false identities but open yourself up as a book.
Iqra kitabaa– “read your book” (Qur’an, 17: 14) means what you have learned from yourself read it out. If you have never read your book or human qualities, in the next creation you will be asked to read it and you will say that I do not know because I never studied, it means that I never considered my reality. That is a horrible situation!
- Be serious with yourself and try to read the Quran if you can by relating to yourself.
One question must always be in your mind: Why am I here? What is the purpose of my existence? That is the question that needs to be with us. What am I doing here? Do not deviate yourself from your reality that I am here to work on a profession. Does it satisfy you to be an architect, for example, in this world? At the end, they put you in the ground and write your name and birth/death information on the grave stone. Why is the duration of one’s stay in the universe written on the grave stone? A person has been here for a certain number of years, so what? Something to think about!
Finally, how are you going to practice your existence in the permanent type of creation? That really depends on how much you have trained your human potentialities here.