Section Al A’raf – Part 28

Continuing with our study of section “A’raf” (Cognizant), let’s build upon the last verse we studied where prophet Noah is explaining to his people that he has been employed by God to deliver His message. 

قَالَ يَـٰقَوْمِ لَيْسَ بِى ضَلَـٰلَةٌۭ وَلَـٰكِنِّى رَسُولٌۭ مِّن رَّبِّ ٱلْعَـٰلَمِينَ

7:61 I am delivering to you my Lord’s messages and giving you good advice. I know [through revelation] from God what you do not know.

Let’s now look into the following verse:

أَوَعَجِبْتُمْ أَن جَآءَكُمْ ذِكْرٌۭ مِّن رَّبِّكُمْ عَلَىٰ رَجُلٍۢ مِّنكُمْ لِيُنذِرَكُمْ وَلِتَتَّقُوا۟ وَلَعَلَّكُمْ تُرْحَمُونَ

7:63: Why do you think it is strange that a message from your Lord would come to you through a man from among yourselves, so that he might warn you and so that you might become mindful of God and so that you might be graced with His mercy?”

Do I find it strange that God speaks to a man among us who then delivers His message to me? What is the message here that God is telling me? Does God really speak? I haven’t seen anything like that where God is speaking to a man! I see the universe which seems to be interesting, well arranged following an order. Everything is so well arranged, I cannot deny that. The order is working in such harmony that I would say that it needs a conscious creator. I find myself continuously communicating with the universe. Of course, I cannot claim that these things exist by themselves. No one can show me that these things exist by themselves. There is an active relationship between me and the universe where I always wonder how things are working. There are many secrets to be discovered in the universe, the more I investigate, the better understanding of the perfection of the order I get. I have to admit that the existence of the universe cannot be meaningless.

I have questions that I need answers to as I am given intelligence to ask these questions. I would ask why are things arranged and working like this? What is the point of existing this way, so sophisticated and yet perfect? All my questions are in suspension since there is no answer coming from the universe. I see that the universe has a “united characteristic”, every creature says that I am arranged like this; whoever made me must know the whole universe as everything is arranged perfectly. I wonder who that being is. For example, if someone invites me to his home and entertains me; provides me all sorts of things which I don’t deserve. I don’t know who he is but apparently, he knows me. I would ask this host why are you doing whatever you are doing, the way you are treating me? I am hard wired to ask this question. The acts that I am experiencing here show that their maker must be a conscious being but I don’t see this being physically. I am made with the capacity to speak and whoever gave me this capacity must know about speaking, that being must speak to me in a language that I understand. The speech must be according to the reality in my life. 

A man comes out from among us who is uneducated, but honest, has no political aim, is not a power seeker, doesn’t ask for anything in recompense or return. He claims that: all these messages came to me from my Lord and I am delivering it to you. I don’t need anything from you, I am serving you. 

One may question: but the prophet Muhammad (pbuh) was the leader of Medina. Yes, he (pbuh) was appointed by the people to serve the community, i.e. serving people without seeking any recompense. He was known as an honest person even before he started delivering the message. It’s not that the prophet (pbuh) wanted to be the leader for delivering the message but he was asked to take over the administration. He was an immigrant in that community. The community asked him for their own benefit as they needed an honest, wise, impartial, trustworthy person to lead them. The Prophet (pbuh) agreed: I don’t mind serving you but it is not a reward. I will administer the community but will not get anything out of it. You will see in my life that I will not take any benefit of the position.

Going back to the point of the message of God coming to me by employing a man to deliver it. It would be strange if I have not gone through the reflection above by having questions about the existence of the universe for which I seek answers and the universe doesn’t speak in my human language. Thus, the Creator of the universe must speak in a language that I understand and must be according to the reality of my life.

If someone claims to bring the message from the Creator then he must convince me that it is from God by demonstrating miracles as evidence that only the Creator of the universe can create such things. This would confirm that the person is employed by this Creator and his claim is true. The content of the message should make sense to my human side. I need guidance, explanations, answers to my questions and it must be through a means that makes sense to me. Must be someone I can understand, relate to, who demonstrates through examples that I can practice; should be a man just like myself.

Whoever brings the message of God must be in the form of a man. How can I really get the language of God, the speech which comes from an Absolute source? How can I communicate with the Absolute source? He must come down to me as His acts in the universe come down to my level of communication with them. It is another kind of  descending like the acts of the Creator that I experience in the universe and I can communicate with them. His message then must also be in a form that I can understand and communicate with which must be through a man. If the message is descended via a tree, I cannot communicate with the tree, I cannot practice with a tree since the tree is not a human being. A human being must work with me so that I can exercise the teaching. If it is not a man like me then practically it would be no use to me. For example, to learn Mathematics, I need a human teacher.

As the people of prophet Noah found it strange, I should ask this question to myself if I find it strange that the message of God should come to me through a man like me. Practically, as we reasoned above, it must be through a man like me for the message to be useful to me.

The phrase “  رَجُلٍۢ مِّنكُمْ لِيُنذِرَكُمْ“translated as “through a man from among yourselves so that he might warn you” the origin of it is not from the prophet himself but from God, His warning is to all human beings. The prophets explicitly have stated that the message they bring is not from them but from God. Prophets are not philosophers to be giving answers to human questions. There are many examples in the life of prophet Muhammad (pbuh) where he was asked about some matter and he said: I don’t know. If God reveals it to me then I will transfer it to you. Another example is when two people were arguing and prophet Muhammad was asked to judge being the community leader at that time. He listened to both sides and said: the judgment is based on the evidence I see and using my reasoning from what I heard from both parties. By doing this he distinguished his decision as different from God’s revealed message. 

Prophets must be trained and guided by God as far as conveying the message of God is concerned. This is how we should understand the prophetic mission.

Another lesson we get from the above example, giving a judgment as an administrator doesn’t mean that it is absolutely correct, i.e. it is not guaranteed that the judgment represents the real truth. Whatever I am thinking is right is my impression, I should admit that. It is not guaranteed to be the real truth.

When I read the Quran, I have to understand that whatever I get is my understanding. Unless otherwise disproved, I go along with that understanding. The Quran represents the knowledge of God, the Absolute Truth. My understanding of the Quran cannot be the Absolute Truth. I only understand according to my capacity.

The end of the phrase “وَلِتَتَّقُوا۟ وَلَعَلَّكُمْ تُرْحَمُونَ translated as “become mindful of God so that you might be graced with His mercy”. 

I should be mindful of God which is better for me to hopefully receive the grace of God. As long as I don’t turn my back to the message or don’t deny it, there is the hope to receive God’s mercy. This does not mean that we just take the message of God at face value. Only after being convinced that the person is employed by God to deliver His message and seeing that the message can really be God’s speech, would I take hold of it. I would now approach the text with a good intention, this is from God, let me pay attention to it. While I am convinced about the truthfulness of the text according to my capacity, it does not guarantee my understanding to be the Absolute truth. Not understanding this results in many conflicts rather than sharing and cross pollination of ideas because each one may claim and defend that claim as if to be holding the Absolute truth. Keep a positive attitude and be tolerant to one another as there could be truth in both ideas because both sides are the personal understanding of each one according to their capacity only. The Creator’s Speech, by definition, must represent absolute Knowledge, therefore, Absolute Truth. But my understanding from the Absolute Truth is limited to my capacity, simply because as a created being I cannot comprehend the Absolute.

فَكَذَّبُوهُ فَأَنجَيْنَـٰهُ وَٱلَّذِينَ مَعَهُۥ فِى ٱلْفُلْكِ وَأَغْرَقْنَا ٱلَّذِينَ كَذَّبُوا۟ بِـَٔايَـٰتِنَآ ۚ إِنَّهُمْ كَانُوا۟ قَوْمًا عَمِينَ

7:64: Yes, they called him [Noah] a liar. We saved him and those who stood by him, in the ark, while We caused those who rejected Our messages to drown. They were blind.

This example of the Quran is beautiful and meaningful. Those who deny this message of the prophet cannot benefit from it and cannot get on the ark as an analogy. They were blind to the truth, closed their eyes, made themselves blind. They are given the sense of sight, they are given the ability to understand the truth. 

The word “وَأَغْرَقْنَا” – We drown them, i.e. God is drowning them, not necessarily in physical terms to be thrown under water but used as an expression. If someone doesn’t listen to the message but chooses to stay away from the message of the Creator, he would be left with matter, meaningless, purposeless life. Everything will leave him behind and the feelings will get no satisfaction. I have the choice to follow the message or fall into my caprices looking for satisfaction. I cannot hold on to the things as they go away immediately leaving me with no hope for the future. 

With the current trends in civilization of moral corruption what am I supposed to do? Take the message of the prophets, listen to them, reflect on the message and practice it, which is presented here as “to get on the ark “. Otherwise I will be drowned into the caprices of the secular society, blind to the truth of the message and die at the end; there will be no survival as a human being. The result will be created by God only after I decide to turn away from the message.