As we continue to study section A’raf of the Quran, we are presented with the position of those that deny the truth and those that confirm it as the people of Paradise and Hell feeling the consequence of their living here in this world. Although the presentation is in the form of a scenario as with many other presentations in the Quran including the prophetic stories, we must understand that it must have happened in real life experiences. The term scenario is not to be taken as something fictitious, unreal, not going to happen in this way. The so-called scenarios must have been experienced by certain people. For us right now, it is a form of literature and rhetoric. For example, the mentioning of the war means that it must have happened and someone writes about this scenario describing the event so that we may imagine and visualize such a scenario. It is not something fictitious but we can understand that similar events must have happened in the past or could happen in the future. The Quran presents the events as a type of literary scenario for us to visualize how we fit into the events described.
هَلْ يَنظُرُونَ إِلَّا تَأْوِيلَهُۥ ۚ يَوْمَ يَأْتِى تَأْوِيلُهُۥ يَقُولُ ٱلَّذِينَ نَسُوهُ مِن قَبْلُ قَدْ جَآءَتْ رُسُلُ رَبِّنَا بِٱلْحَقِّ فَهَل لَّنَا مِن شُفَعَآءَ فَيَشْفَعُوا۟ لَنَآ أَوْ نُرَدُّ فَنَعْمَلَ غَيْرَ ٱلَّذِى كُنَّا نَعْمَلُ ۚ قَدْ خَسِرُوٓا۟ أَنفُسَهُمْ وَضَلَّ عَنْهُم مَّا كَانُوا۟ يَفْتَرُونَ
7:53 Do they only await the fulfillment [of its warning]? On the Day the event is finally fulfilled (in the Day of Resurrection), those who ignored it before will say, “The messenger of our Lord certainly came with the truth. Are there any intercessors who can plead on our behalf? Or can we be sent back so we may do [good] unlike what we used to do?” They will have certainly ruined themselves, and whatever [gods] they fabricated will fall for them.”
“Awaiting the fulfillment” – The word “Ta’weeluh” is translated as fulfillment. We may remember from the story of Joseph; the Quran mentions the “ta’weelu al-ru’ya” as the interpretation of the dream Joseph had in verse 12:100 of the Quran. Other words for dream can be opinion or vision where someone visualizes some event in the form of a dream. In the story of Joseph, his vision was that twelve stars prostrated before him. We see that towards the end of the story, his brothers and parents visit him in the palace and accept the reality, the truthfulness of the message and submit to the claim from Joseph. This realization of the vision is described in the Quran as “Ta’weel al-ahaadeeth”, the interpretation, realization and understanding of the events. The same word “ta’weel” is used in the verse above and translated as fulfillment.
With this understanding of the word “ta’weel” let’s study the situation where the disbelievers were misinterpreting the existence of the universe by rejecting the message of the prophets and seeing the reality of the universe in this world. The “ta’weel” of this rejecting attitude became interpreted and explicitly put people that are suffering physically and spiritually as created in the hereafter, described by the situation of the people of hell. At the end of our life, we will get the fulfillment at the day of resurrection as the Quran gives us the news in advance: whatever you are doing will end up in your next creation where you will physically experience it as the fulfillment of your living here in this world. What the Quran is saying now must be physically experienced. If I experience the reality of things here with my feelings of belief then the fulfillment will be pleasurable feelings experienced physically whereas if I experience feelings of disbelief here then the fulfillment will be a horrible situation with physical punishment.
The body physically experiences the acts of our body here, and in the next creation an appropriate body would physically experience the fulfillment of how we lived here with belief or disbelief. Resurrection must be in physical form. Otherwise, spiritually it cannot be called a new creation but must be physically experienced. That is one of the reasons that I am given death rather than being given permission to carry on my life here on earth which is not the reality. Those who ignored the reality in this world in the next creation will say: Ah, that is what reality is! The fulfillment as outcome of my living here will be experienced as described in the Quran; similar to the realization of the vision of prophet Joseph towards the end of his life journey.
Those who ignore the news of the messengers will say that the messengers of our Lord certainly came with the truth. They will say: Ah, that is the interpretation of what the prophetic message was presented to me. They realize now that there is no way to reject the prophetic message anymore as they find themselves in it now. They will now seek any intercessor to plead on their behalf. With a simple example, let’s understand that their repentance in the next creation will not be accepted . If a person commits a crime and the judgment was given for his crime. When he is in prison he beseeched the judge to forgive him. Do you think the judge can just leave him without the punishment he deserves? Is not his repentance too late?
Let’s become familiar with the word “Shufa’aa’” translated as Intercessor – anything that goes in between what we desire in our feelings and what happens in creation so that my feelings will be fulfilled. For example, a very close friend knows the owner of the company where I am looking to work for. I can ask that friend to talk to the owner. The friend will intercede on my behalf by talking to the owner of the company and give a good word on accepting me. What about our practical life, is there anyone that can go to God and ask Him to treat me favorably by putting me into paradise? An example in this world is when I need to eat hot soup at home, I cannot just get it instantly. I will investigate the order of the universe and make use of onions, tomatoes, lentils, water, and heat which act as intercessors to get the soup. The Quran particularly mentions a person, i.e. the prophet to act as the intercessor between his real followers and God. Real followers are not those who just claim to be part of his “ummah” (community) and did not follow his message. As much as I have benefitted from the prophetic teachings and applied in my life, that much of an intercession I would get. Another acceptable understanding is those who tried to follow as much as they can but failed to a certain extent; in the hereafter the prophet would intercede that I was employed to convey the message and they tried their best within their capacity so please treat them by accepting their intention to perform their best but they could not perform the message as it should be done.
The spirit needs the physical body to practice hearing, seeing, tasting, loving, etc. The spirit is a huge collection of desires, capacities but it only functions through physical relationships. This is the basis for the next creation to be in physical form. The spirit doesn’t die, it is like the concept of law which doesn’t die. The principles are always there continuously working in physical existence and can be experienced. Whatever the Quran presents to us has a physical reality in the universe as evidence that is physically demonstrated.
The universe remains a mysterious puzzle without the Quran. They mutually need each other. They need and complement each other. This methodology needs to be established, otherwise the verbal Quran will remain a mystery and lead to imitation. The creator of the universe must give us the user manual along with the machine for human beings to correspond comfortably. This is the age of evidence so we need to present the message with evidence.
The verse continues “Can we be sent back so that we may do good?” Sorry, the school is closed, and destroyed, the degrees are distributed, and the opportunity for education is finished. A new world is created to what I had learnt, or face the consequence of what I didn’t learn. The Quran keeps repeating many scenes on the destruction of the universe, to highlight the transience of the universe, to show that the universe is made in this way and is under the will of the Creator. Thus, one cannot go back.
“They have ruined themselves” because they were making excuses not to reflect or think whether the prophetic message made sense or not. “Ma kaanoo yaftaroon” (whatever they have fabricated while in the world) -They just took it as the meaningless words brought by a man, what does it have to do with me? We are suffering from the lack of consistency while studying the Quran and paying serious attention to the universality of the message. Try to get the universal message from the Quran and prophetic teachings. The universality of the message is understood only within rituals such as prayers, fasting, giving to charity as being universal, to be practiced according to the living conditions of the people. That is a “fiqh” (jurisprudence) matter and which is correct but is only 5% at the most of the Quran. What about the 95% of the Quran as a universal message, not historical, local or ethical matter. What about practically experiencing the belief in the hereafter with the evidence of the universe right now, practical experience of belief in angels rather than just imitating the Quranic claim? There is this fear of opening the human rationality, acceptability of the message of the Quran by confirmation using evidence at a universal level that may steer one away from the Quran. As a human being, the universality of the message must be presented and not blocked, it must be relevant to me here and now. I cannot imitate the Quran but confirm it. Why do we study the Quran? Why bother to teach me the Quran if it doesn’t apply to me right now?
“Whatever they Fabricated” means false claims, endless alternative options to the truth. For example, the language is old, confusing, made up by a man, not real. All these excuses will fail them as they will face the reality in the next creation.
إِنَّ رَبَّكُمُ ٱللَّهُ ٱلَّذِى خَلَقَ ٱلسَّمَـٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضَ فِى سِتَّةِ أَيَّامٍۢ ثُمَّ ٱسْتَوَىٰ عَلَى ٱلْعَرْشِ يُغْشِى ٱلَّيْلَ ٱلنَّهَارَ يَطْلُبُهُۥ حَثِيثًۭا وَٱلشَّمْسَ وَٱلْقَمَرَ وَٱلنُّجُومَ مُسَخَّرَٰتٍۭ بِأَمْرِهِۦٓ ۗ أَلَا لَهُ ٱلْخَلْقُ وَٱلْأَمْرُ ۗ تَبَارَكَ ٱللَّهُ رَبُّ ٱلْعَـٰلَمِينَ
7:54 Your Lord is God, who has created the heavens and the earth in six days and is established on the throne of His majesty. He covers the day with the night in swift pursuit, with the sun and the moon and the stars subservient to His command. Do not all creation and command belong to Him? Blessed is God, the Lord of all the worlds!”
This verse brings into light the reality, starting from knowing the One that is speaking telling me about the next creation, paradise and hell, will be judging me based on my attitude in this world. He says that I gave you free will, curiosity, and other tools so that you may utilize them to learn about the reality of your own existence, did you try?
Let me introduce myself from scratch: I am your Lord; your Lord is God. The speaker in the Quran is presenting himself. God is the personal name just like Mary is a personal name. The verse explains further with the word, “Lord “ as being the owner of this universe, the one taking care of everything under His control, arrangement, the owner of existence is God. I need more explanation, the one who creates the heavens and earth. One has to be the Creator of everything to be the Lord, “Rabb.”
What about six days? In an order of stages where one stage follows another. The numbers are not quantifiably important. For example, the universe went through different stages, golden age, silver age, etc. Some scientists classify that the universe went through stages when it started out 14 billion years ago. Everything happens in stages. For example, when I look at my education going through different stages, primary, elementary, middle, high, college, doctorate. As being in the educational stages, every class I went through was a stage. My belief develops in stages, things that I put into practice goes in stages, nothing happens at once. We all go through stages.
“Established on the throne of His majesty” – After getting my PhD for example, I have the potential to talk about my expertise, that is my throne now, as a created being I have to go through the stages. But the Creator should not need to go through training or education, this is a symbolic teaching of the Qur’an. The Quran is mentioning all the creation that you are experiencing is My Throne. You will realize and see that I am the Lord of that particular thing you are experiencing now. Investigate it. You will see my throne. After some time, you will see my throne at a deeper and finer level which is another perfect creation. For example, a baby is perfect so is an old man created perfectly.
Another verse says “My Throne is in water,” the best appearance of my qualities can be seen. You can see my qualities in the creation of water; without water living beings cannot exist. We cannot imagine the throne as depicted in a king’s palace or based on the dictionary meaning of a chair as the throne. The word “Arsh” in the Quran means that everything that is created, every stage is nothing but demonstrating the authority and Lordship of the Creator as the Throne.
Interpreting the allegories in the Quran such as “Arsh” (throne) must be based on witnessing the universe; this is necessary.
“He covers the day with the night” – The verse gives evidence as to who God is by using descriptions from the conditions of this world. The sun, moon, stars are subservient to His command. Look at this challenging language that everything is subject to His command. Every creation shows how He wills the thing to exist, subservient to His will. Nothing can come into existence by my will but His will; I am doing nothing more than obeying the order which is His will and expecting the Creator to Create it in the next moment.
“Doesn’t all of creation and command belong to Him?” – Use the reason to comprehend and think about this. All creation, the way it is ordered belongs to Him and subject to His command and will. It is impossible to find anything in the universe that can claim Lordship on anything. The word “Lahoo” is used to define Him, the one who creates the universe, that is called God, that is your Lord.
“TabarakAllah”, Blessed is He; He is pure, the source of everything, His reality as the Lord of everything, ‘Rabbu Al-‘alameen”. The name of this “Rabb” is God, Allah. We have to know what “Allah” represents. For example, someone is named John, I cannot know his reality by just the name. I can know John only by seeing his qualities, what he does as his acts, etc. The Quran explains that this name of Allah belongs to the One who has such and such qualities, only after that does the word God or Allah make sense.