Section Al A’raf – part 25

Continuing with our study of section “A’raf” (Cognizant), in the last verse 7:54 that we studied, we saw the verse introducing my Lord. “Your Lord is God who has created the heavens and earth and is established on the throne of His majesty… Do not all creation and command belong to Him?” Is there anyone who can claim ownership of them? The verse concluded with Blessed is God, Glory be to God the Lord of all the worlds.

Now the next verse is another beautiful verse addressing to human beings which I should take to heart:

ٱدْعُوا۟ رَبَّكُمْ تَضَرُّعًۭا وَخُفْيَةً ۚ إِنَّهُۥ لَا يُحِبُّ ٱلْمُعْتَدِينَ

7:55 Call unto your Lord humbly, and in the secret of your hearts. He doesn’t love those who transgress the limits of what is right.

Call unto your Lord humbly. With the word “tadarru’” translated as humbly, which means desperately, beggingly in need of my Lord. The phrase “Wa khufyatan” means in the secrecy of my heart, not only in my tongue, but the tongue must represent and express what is in my heart. Usually we fail in this case where the heart “Khafi,” something secret, not openly seen may not be paid attention to in calling unto my Lord. For example, there is a box which has something in it we can express in words what it has in it. How can I express in words if this box does not have anything in it? My addressing to God is expressed via the verbal expression of what I have in my feelings which means that I am expressing what I have in my heart. Not coming from my heart doesn’t mean that I don’t believe when I call my Lord. I have to be careful for myself whether this belief in God has settled down in my heart. I have to be extremely careful about this. When I address my Lord, who owns me, takes care of me must be settled in my heart and must come from the heart when expressing via the tongue.

The verse continues that: He doesn’t love those who transgress the limits of what is right. The word “Mu’tadoon” which is the eighth form of the word “‘Adaa” and “Ya’doo” is also another form of the word. An Arabic speaker would be familiar with the word “Adawat” or “Adu” which mean enmity or enemy respectively. The word “Mu’tadeen” means to go beyond the limits of my capacity, transgress my own limitations and start claiming the ownership of something which in fact belongs to the Lord of the heavens and the earth. When I make a false claim of taking the rights of something, that is transgressing the limits of the truth. Of course, I am free to claim ownership of what I like but God doesn’t like it because I unlawfully claim ownership of those things. I should pray, call unto him which means attribute everything to Him as everything is His property, present all my needs to Him. For example, when I get water from the spring, I should acknowledge that the water is created by Him. He arranged for me to be able to get the water and He gave me permission to drink it. The consciousness must be with me that I am getting water from the property of my Creator. I do not necessarily need to say “Oh my Lord, I need water” with my tongue but my feelings should have the feeling and understanding that I am getting the water from the property of my Creator. If I deny that the water is created and therefore owned by Him, and attribute it to something imaginary, then I am a thief stealing God’s property, and attributing it to something else. That makes me a “Mu’tad” (transgressor) which means I transgressed God’s properties. 

وَلَا تُفْسِدُوا۟ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ بَعْدَ إِصْلَـٰحِهَا وَٱدْعُوهُ خَوْفًۭا وَطَمَعًا ۚ إِنَّ رَحْمَتَ ٱللَّهِ قَرِيبٌۭ مِّنَ ٱلْمُحْسِنِينَ

7:56 Do not spread corruption on earth after it has been so well ordered. Call unto Him alarmed and longing. The mercy of God is close to those who do good.

It is interesting as to why God calls on me not to corrupt the earth. I cannot physically corrupt the moon or the sun so what is God calling me to then? In my daily connection with the universe I get sunlight through the sun, breathe air through the atmosphere, all the plants and animals are available for me on earth so I have to watch out in my relationship with them to not cause corruption. The root word “fasada” (to cause corruption) is usually understood as something to do with the physical corruption of the universe as well as causing conflict among human beings. Furthermore, it also has to do with the understanding of the world and the relationship with the world where I should not turn the reality upside down. This reality, the already perfectly working order in the universe must not be disturbed. For the physical examples, if I burn the forest, pollute the oceans or unnecessarily kill animals, that is spreading corruption because the earth with the forests and oceans are perfectly arranged by the Owner to let us understand His sovereignty. Recall the phrase from 7:54 “Thummastawa Ala al-Arsh”, (established on the throne of His majesty) which lets me know that the universe cannot come into existence by itself, cannot be working automatically or be set by itself. The universe is set up to show me that someone is operating on the world as the Lord of the universe, demonstrating His qualities. 

Physical corruption is also a concern for the eco-friendly, green activists who do not necessarily have to believe in God. My human feelings are given to tell me that I should not destroy the earth and so I do not necessarily need guidance from God to tell me that. I can confirm the physical corruption that is included in guidance with my feelings. Besides physically, someone may also ideologically, economically or socially corrupt this world. An example of social and economic corruption is the producing and selling of weapons that can kill millions of people and beings. God is reminding me not to support such corruption that causes unnecessary damage and harm to beings. 

The ideological corruption is the most important. The One that is manifesting His qualities working perfectly in front of our eyes is demonstrating His sovereignty, His Throne, Lordship and Ownership on everything. If one claims that this harmony in the universe, the perfectly working order is happening by itself, as a sequence of random events, haphazardly happened then that is an ideological corruption of the Throne of the Creator. If someone sees a meaningful book and says that it is the result of paper and some haphazard drops of ink on it and that this ink was subject to different natural events then that is causing corruption to the meaningful book that conveys knowledge to me and thus transgresses the rights of the Author of the book. Universal corruption is this ideology that says the book happens to be meaningful by itself transgresses the rights of the One who wrote this whole meaningful book of the universe. It is a boundless corruption or limitless corruption and the punishment must be limitless. That is why the Quran describes the punishment in hell to be forever or limitless. Look at the matter not only in relation to the physical universe but in relation to its Owner, His Rights and our relationship with the Owner of the universe who has set up His sovereignty so that human beings can easily perceive, understand and acknowledge Him. 

Call unto Him, Pray to Him and make supplications to Him. We are always inclined to neglect the reality to satisfy our ego and self-interests. We forget the rights of other people, the rights of animals and plants and most importantly the rights of the Owner of the universe. The word used is “Khaufan” translated as alarmed as in alerted. Why alarmed or alerted? I can be alert in my daily engagement with the universe. When I call Him, I connect with Him, it is a reminder that I should not transgress the rights of the Owner which gives me permission freely to utilize the things in a reasonable way. For example, when I am picking the vegetables from the garden, this is a gift to me from the Creator and I should not transgress His right by saying that I grew them in my garden as if I have created them or by attributing the production as if it is my production. Everything we do in this universe must be performed in an alarming way.  “Khaufan” has to do with being scared or fear but it can be misunderstood. It should be taken as being afraid that I may go into wrongful attitude, wrong action or wrong understanding. I should be on alert in my interactions with the universe so that I may not transgress the rights of the Owner of the universe.  The translation may say fear but it is not the fear of God when I understand that God who is taking care of me, gives me the feeling of pleasure so that I may be grateful or fear so that I may understand that I may be doing something wrong as in contradicting human nature. The fear should be not to transgress His rights which is devastating and punishable. For example, in secular law, transgressing the rights is punishable with imprisonment. In secular law, they don’t think about the rights of the Creator because they don’t acknowledge the Creator to begin with. If one infringes the copyright law by plagiarizing a book, that is transgressing the rights of the author of the original work and is punishable. How about the copyright that belongs to the Lord of the universe that puts His signature in every single creature as if like the syllables in the universe, every letter, word, sentence belongs to Him. Nothing in the universe can claim ownership of anything. The whole Quran of the universe has His signature on each and everything saying that I arranged it, I have the Knowledge, Power and Will to create and arrange the things in this way. Intelligent human beings cannot claim that I have arranged the intelligence in me, that I created or my cells created intelligence accidentally. The secular education system interprets the creation as a natural development and accidental evolving which transgresses the rights of the owner of the universe. They deserve to be punished by the number of particles in the universe as each particle that has the qualities manifested in its existence like having a signature of its Creator on it, that it is given existence by the Lord of the universe. That is what the “Arsh” or Throne of God means, that His signature is in each and every particle, every being is His Throne. I should pay attention not to transgress the rights of the Owner of this universe. With this understanding, we can say that Call unto you Lord with the fear of transgressing His rights.

It is not only fear but with “Tama’a” as well, which is being full of hope that I eagerly hope I won’t do the wrong thing, I hope that I will get the result, that He will accept it. I am calling Him, thanking Him and asking Him to give me more of what I need because only You can create it, make it happen. I must have this longing for His Mercy that only He can create not once only but endlessly. For example, springs following each other, multiple trees, whatever I need, He will accept my prayer. “Tama’a” is more than demanding or desiring – having the hope of getting the result: please accept my call, my prayer, my acknowledgment of You and respond in a positive way.

The following phrase “Inna rahmatallahi qareebun minal muhsineen” translated as the mercy of God is close to those who do good.  If I am supplicating, praying humbly from the heart, seeing his Lordship, Ownership, not transgressing His rights, not spreading corruption, fearing of making the mistake of transgressing His rights, i.e. staying alarmed, and being full of hope then the mercy of God is close to me. The mercy of God is very close to me as long as I am loyal to reality. The mercy of God comes to me where I start to feel secure in my existence: I am owned, the feelings are owned, He is the Creator of this feeling right now in me. I become aware of His Lordship as the Creator of the universe.

Those who deny the Creator of this feeling say that the universe is accidental, they live with an expectation of disappearing anytime with no hope, death is awaiting me, a dead-end road. God is very close to this man as well not with hope but with complete despair which is how we are created in order to urge us to search for the meaning of life. The creation of despair, the result of the wrongful attitude is a warning to us and is also merciful.  For example, if a student in school doesn’t study and does his assignments, a good teacher would provide feedback that he is failing and needs to work on his studies. If the teacher tells the failing student that he is doing well, that would be harming the student. That is the reason why we are given these awful feelings of despair and other unbearable feelings created by God to let us know that we are doing something wrong as a result of denying His mercy. When I deny the ever-present God where there is continuously communicating through the universe, creating everything anew and speaking to human beings telling me that I am His product, horrible feelings would be created to warn me. The signs of the Absolute being are everywhere and if one denies this reality and sees things as accidents results in getting a failing grade as a wake up call. If one feels lonely, loses hope, is destroyed for nothing by getting old and dying. This failing grade in the form of the feelings is to remind the individual to turn back, reconsider yourself and recover from this inhuman attitude.

“The mercy of God is close to those who do good.” – The word “Muhsin” comes from the word “Husn”, meaning beautiful. The root word is “Hasana” and “Muhsin” is a derivative of this word. Making something beautiful, matching human nature, humanity, appropriate to human nature. The mercy of God is definitely close to those who do good actions, interpret the universe by not transgressing the rights of the Lord of the universe and are honest to his reality. For example, I borrowed a book from a friend and benefited from it. I am now filled with gratitude to the author of the book. On the occasion of meeting with the author I get to speak to him. I will tell the author that I loved the book but the book was not mine but my friends and I am really hoping to get the book for myself. Since I appreciated the book, wouldn’t the author be pleased and give me a copy of the book? With this feeling of appreciating the qualities of the Creator, He is letting me know how He treats me. When I appreciate his qualities, call unto Him from my heart, being alarmed as Him being the Lord, then the mercy of God will be close to me. In this world, I would be happy in my life because the Creator creates the feeling of happiness as a result of my good actions indicating that what I have been doing was right.  

If we see that the feelings in us are created by my Creator, that is the promise from Him telling me that whatever I want will be given by Him. The universe is declaring that my Creator is the Absolute One. The universe is created to serve me, why would I be in despair? I don’t want to die, I don’t want this pleasure of existence to end. I will pray, please give me more, I don’t want to disappear from existence, I want more, I want to continue entertaining my existence. I am expecting You as the Creator of the universe to comfort my feelings and satisfy my desires with no limitations. This feeling is my Creator God’s promise that He will give.

The same goes for the denier. I don’t want to die but I will die where the despair causes pain in his being. Hopelessness causes sadness which is also a promise. This should prompt me to repent, go back: I should not be sad as a guest in this world. Look at the universe, look at how its functioning, so meaningful, the one who creates the universe knows what He is doing. Instead of going into despair one should take a lesson from the creation of these feelings of sadness, hopelessness, psychological dilemmas that the deniers are suffering from. God forbid to be in despair from illogical conclusions, I pray not to be among them.

Inshallah, we will be with the group of people who are “inna rahmatAllahi qaribun min al-muhsineen”, the group having God’s mercy close to them, having rightful actions and attitude with thankful feelings. O God, make us among those that enjoy our existence under the guidance of the news we receive from the revelation of God which is the verbal explanation of the reality of this universe delivered to us through his messengers. Ameen!