Section Al A’raf – Part 18

part 18

7:38 “[God says], Join the crowds of jinn and humans who have gone before you into Fire.  Every crowd curses its fellow crowd as it enters, then, when they are all gathered inside, the last of them will say of the first, Our Lord, it was they who led us astray: give them double punishment in the Fire -God says, every one of you will have double punishment, though you do not know it.”

The Quran speaks to human beings, and while speaking it does not directly say “you”.   All the human feelings intellectually conclude about “Absolute” or “ghaib”, the Creator.  There are some elements in creation that are not physically observable, but we are sure of their existence.  Example: the sun rises and sets.  How is it happening?  Just as an Author writes a book knows what He wrote, which kind of knowledge does He have, similarly, the Creator of the universe must know everything about Its creation.  In the same way, just as we cannot read the heart and mind of people, we can never know the mind of the Author of the universe.

When we read about reward, and Merciful treatment, all these things are not physically experienced, unless we feel it within ourselves.  Example: if someone tells us about the taste of a food by describing it, at the end, you must eat it and experience it within yourself.  The taste is not a physical existence.  When I speak, you hear via the airwave, only after it is transferred through the brain, you understand it.  That is, only when something is internalized, it makes sense.  That is our human reality and how God treats us.  There is no evidence in our hand to deny the news in the Quran, but then what do I do with the news here?

Most of the classical scholarship talks about the relationship between God and humans, also described in the form of love stories like “Laila and Majnoon”.  Who is Laila?  It is just a scenario, describing what is going on in human beings.  Read the story and see the messages in it.  Human beings want to reach the source of its existence and understand what their reality is.  In this journey, we lose hope but never come back together with creation, just like in the stories.  Hence, our creation here points to something not of this universe, that we must be in a relationship with.

The main problem of human beings is to experience the presence of God.  We are given the sense to know that everything is created by an Absolute Being.  However, we choose not to pay heed.  Everyone is responsible with how they use their capacity.  Sometimes we take refuge under the title of acquired religious beliefs, rather than working out our capacity to confirm the reality, which we should do.

How should we understand double punishment?

A state of mind that is passed on.  The parent’s responsibility is to make sure that the child goes beyond their level of understanding the reality of this universe.  Just like a professor makes sure that the student’s mind opens up to discovering new research, similarly, as a parent we must do the same for our children.  The double punishment means that since the message is passed on to the next generation without any updates with the requirements of this era, then everyone is liable for this crime.  Yes, our parents are innocent but we are all responsible for the welfare of humanity.