Section Al A’raf – part 23

Section Al A’raf, part 23

Continuing on the section A’raf (the Cognizant), the verses are discussing the scenario of the people of Paradise and the people of Fire. But calling this teaching of the Qur’an as “scenario” does not mean that it is just an imaginary made up story, but rather presenting the real life experience that took place in this world but as far as we are concerned they are presented to us in the form of a “scenario.” In our last study we looked into verse 50 where the people of Fire will ask the people of Paradise for some water or any of the sustenance God has granted. The verse stated that water and sustenance are forbidden to the disbelievers. The forbidding of water and sustenance for disbelief applies to us now. Disbelief does not allow us to get water and sustenance in the form of “sustenance” but temporary body satisfaction only.  There is an essential difference between “water” and “sustenance” for our human side, i.e. full and permanent satisfaction. It is a very important point to take the scenario applicable to us here and now. When I replace the sustenance that I receive from anything other than the conscious Creator of that thing, then that would be disbelief. The term used in the Quran, “mimma razaqakumu Allah” which literally means, from what God has given you as sustenance. This phrase teaches us that God is the source of the sustenance we get that needs to be realized.  Disbelief understands that the water is obtained through nature, just happens to be, or whatever is in the universe is what it is and it does not carry any meaning in its existence to human beings and we utilize them until we die and that is it. The water that they receive cannot satisfy their human qualities, it cannot satisfy what human feelings require. Just temporary satisfaction and be slaughtered, die at the end. When we don’t attribute existence to a conscious Being, deny this reality or reduce the world to itself while living in this world, we understand that the end of the road is an inevitable and meaningless nonexistence as a result.

The Quran speaks with concrete visualized examples in its teachings for human beings to comfortably understand. What makes one a disbeliever? It’s not the body, nationality, race, color or ethnicity but the attitude of disbelief.  What makes a man a believer, disbeliever, a Christian, Jew, Muslim as the examples are used in the Quran is not to label man but what they realize, how they interpret, the understanding and attitude one takes. When one doesn’t realize their existence and does not acknowledge an Absolute being as its Creator but instead following an ideology or philosophy which does not acknowledge an Infinite Creator is what constitutes disbelief.

ٱلَّذِينَ ٱتَّخَذُوا۟ دِينَهُمْ لَهْوًۭا وَلَعِبًۭا وَغَرَّتْهُمُ ٱلْحَيَوٰةُ ٱلدُّنْيَا ۚ فَٱلْيَوْمَ نَنسَىٰهُمْ كَمَا نَسُوا۟ لِقَآءَ يَوْمِهِمْ هَـٰذَا وَمَا كَانُوا۟ بِـَٔايَـٰتِنَا يَجْحَدُونَ

7:51 They are those who, allured by the life of this world, take their religion lightly, like a mere game, and are deluded by worldly living. [God will say], “We are ignoring them today as they ignored this Day (moment), just as they denied Our messages. “

Both Believers and Disbelievers may be deluded by worldly life. We have to be careful whether my whole life is devoted to worldly life only or sometimes I may slip from my purpose by devoting to the worldly life. Taking religion lightly means not exactly living in the way God, the Creator prescribed for us, taught us through revelation and practiced by His appointed prophets as the best example for us, where those principles are applied to our living according to our living conditions. We may not take this seriously and may be concerned only in making our worldly life better.

When we understand the message of the Quran, see the examples in the prophetic life, we will notice one of the principles of living experiences being applied and presented to the readers. In every event, every concern for worldly life we will see signs of the Presenter of that event there, manifested in that event. For example, when I am with friends having a good conversation or on vacation enjoying beautiful scenery, all these events are witnessing and reminding me that their source of existence is presenting all these opportunities to me to question their existence and remember Him. Whether I believe in God or not, when I ignore these messages from God but reduce them only to the material side then I am not fulfilling my purpose in existence. Another example is when I eat food, benefitting from it. We may see that only the food is satisfying my hunger and nourishing my body and I may talk about the nutrition of the food. How about the creation of food and of purposeful nutrition? How about how I am created to interact with the food? I can apply this example on anything I interact with in the world. Apply the principle of seeing signs of the Presenter, acknowledging His qualities in my relationship with the things in this world. Otherwise, it would result in taking religion lightly, reducing it to only limited rituals and just a mere game.

The Prophets practiced religion by their interactions with the people and things around them, adhering their loyalty to the message by living by it and conveying the message to others. The prophet feels satisfied with the message, is relaxed and comfortable in his life in whatever he does. He also wants others to experience this satisfaction of the message and to be comfortable in life. He conveys the message to help others: “Why don’t you think about the purpose of this existence? Listen to the message he delivered to us.” He was not forcing or trying to appoint himself as the leader of a community. He was just trying to save people’s lives from dissatisfaction, without meaning or purpose. The prophet was conveying the message for 13 years in Mecca just teaching those who were ready to listen to him. After he was forced to leave the town he got a lot of followers and his struggle then started to get rid of the preventers only on the way of the people who were interested in  listening to the message. The elite saw their authority of leadership was being challenged and the prophet kept saying that I am not interested in your position or looking for a position, just don’t be an obstacle between the message and the people.

The best example (sunnah of the prophet) is to learn the message and convey it to others. Try to get people away from meaningless life and open the door of happiness in this world and eternal paradise for them in the next creation. Yes, we can feed someone as bodily help, but the most important is their spirit’s hunger, craving for satisfaction and meaning for their lives. The more one fulfills the mission of sharing the message to save others, the better they feel by fulfilling their purpose. There may be opportunities to help some folks that are lacking meaning in their life – loneliness, meaninglessness, purposelessness is a widespread problem in the world. Those who are bothered with living, wonder about what they are living for and start experiencing loneliness and depression. Although they may have many friends, and may keep busy themselves with their friendship or something else only on a temporary basis with no human satisfaction; not thinking what their human side requires. 

We have to study the Quran, examples of the prophet’s life, other teachers and benefit from the message and convey to others as much as we can. I don’t need to be an expert on the Quran but build layer by layer of understanding. Hadith narrations, i.e. the sayings of the prophet (pbuh) are different as it needs some expertise. Start the Quran by reading the translation to get some general idea, further that understanding by studying the commentaries, footnotes, references that may be available. Additionally, look into the commentary books, learn some Arabic, some words of the Quran, their different meanings. Learning stage by stage is the way we do learning which develops gradually. 

“Taking religion as a mere game and were deluded by worldly living”: The “waw” translated normally as “and” but it means in this phrase “and were deluded by worldly living” is the indication to an explanatory statement to follow. The word “gharra” is being deceived or deluded. So, the meaning of the verse needs to be understood as “Taking religion as a mere game, as an inevitable result of this attitude they were deluded by worldly living.”

Why is worldly life so attractive to us? Worldly life gives us tangible, materially experiential pleasure. For example, we may drive an hour to get delicious food which is enjoyed and then goes away and becomes a delusion. The material satisfaction becomes a delusion where the satisfaction is immediate and pleasurable but essentially it is transient and leaves me in despair. However, If I learn one verse as an example, it enlightens my life forever, it does not go away but goes into eternity.  

What happens if one takes this delusional attitude? God will ignore those who busy themselves only with the worldly life, ones that are only satisfied with momentary satisfaction. The eternal aspect of this momentary satisfaction is gone, when the signs of its Creator are read it could have gone into eternity. For example, having a book and throwing it away without reading or seeing the message in it; without extracting the knowledge it is thrown away. The author of the book says that because you ignored me by not paying attention to the knowledge and meaning in the book, I will be ignoring you. This means you are depriving yourself from benefiting from the information I transferred to you in the book; you will remain ignorant of it. 

The word “Day” is generally seen as the hereafter but it should also be applicable to me now. We understand that it will definitely happen on my death as the last accounting balance as well, but we have to understand what we are missing here before we die. I have to benefit from the message, what I experience here right now. I should not ignore what my Creator is presenting to me right now but experience the message right now to see what is presented to me, see His message in there.

Experiencing the content of belief in my life should be at every moment. “Kulla yawmin huwa fi sha’n” (Qur’an, 55: 26) – at every moment a new creation, a different act of creation is presented to me. The phrase “fal yauma nansaahum kama nasaw” is the day as in today, that is the moment We forget as they forgot. Just like eating the delicious food and it goes away without getting the message of its Absolute, Infinite Creator, so the message forgets me now because I don’t connect with the message. Forgetting is an automatic result not that God will forget/ignore me – when I forget, the result is that in my life I do not have any awareness of God so it is expressed in the verse as “God forgets” in that moment because of my attitude. Thus, this verse informs us to take our religion seriously. 

When I claim to believe in God, as God created everything but what does this belief bring into my life. Rituals are one side of the matter that form fragments of my life, whereas experiencing the content of belief in my life should ideally happen 24/7. The most important part of belief is that my feelings should be satisfied. If my feelings, my human side, are not getting satisfaction then I am not benefitting from my belief and just following religion as a tradition. It can become like following fashion which can give fictitious, meaningless  satisfaction, can make one feel great temporarily as fashions come and go.

وَلَقَدْ جِئْنَـٰهُم بِكِتَـٰبٍۢ فَصَّلْنَـٰهُ عَلَىٰ عِلْمٍ هُدًۭى وَرَحْمَةًۭ لِّقَوْمٍۢ يُؤْمِنُونَ

7:52 We have certainly brought them a Book which We explained with knowledge – a guide and mercy for those who believe. 

We have come with a book, explaining with knowledge, guide and mercy for those who believe. The meaning of the word “kitaab”, (book) has different meanings depending on the context; we should be open to the different meanings according to the Quranic explanation (not the dictionary meanings). The Quran uses Arabic language and conceptualizes the words giving them conceptual meanings. The purpose of the Quran for us should be:

1. To make the Quran applicable and relevant to our lives. 
2. Getting the universal message from the Quran
3. How to read into the meaning of the Quran beyond their literal meanings.
4. Understanding the Quranic concepts. The words are taken from Arabic language but the words used in the Qur’an need to be understood within the objectives of the Speech of God as they are conceptualized to carry their divine meanings.  

‘Kitaab” (book) has a few meanings: in one context as revelation that is the Speech of God compiled into a book, another context is as an authority, another as verdict, application of certain rulings, another widely used is as the creation/universe. This universe is the book which can be a guide for me to its Creator. Everyone uses the same book (universe) in one sense and this book (the Qur’an and the universe at the same time) explains to us with knowledge, acts as a guide and mercy to benefit from. The message in the revelation and the universe are compatible with each other. “Kitaab” has these meanings at the same time. The Quran uses the word “Ayaat” (plural of “ayah”) as signs to revelation as well as each being in the universe both of which act as a sign. Consider the revelation through verbal speech and through action wise speech, i.e. via physical signs.  

I can get this knowledge, guidance, mercy only if I am open to receive the message, the reality, not biased but open minded. I should not block the message that is directly speaking to me. Most people are innocent but may not be open or search for the truth. The most fortunate are those who study the universe. If I don’t pay attention to what is going on in the universe, what is going on in my feelings and study the revelation of the Quran, it would just become sheer information, not “food” for my spirit.  Always combine the witnessing of creation with the revelation. Studying the universe comes first and then the message of the Quran that gives me satisfaction in my conclusions from experiencing and questioning the Source of Existence of the beings in the universe. The Quran makes use of words such as “Yu’minoon”, those with questions and open to receiving the message, the word is the present continuous tense and not a one time event. Using the words “Muminoon, Yuminoon” are present active continuous tense as in continuously seeking to believe and to confirm. I should be open to receiving the truth where my heart and intellect are satisfied and I should not block them or prevent them from confirming the truth.