Section Al-Furqan – Part 10

We will continue our study of Section Al-Furqan of the Qur’an. We last investigated some verses from other Sections of the Qur’an to understand why God does not provide another opportunity to the deniers to correct themselves by sending them back to the world. Their plea to God was to send them back by claiming that they would now believe in God and follow the prophets. We investigated three distinct reasons where the first reason was that we are given many opportunities in this life to realize the truth. The second was that one knows the truth and chooses voluntarily using their free will for whatever reason to consciously deny it. The third reason was that only after witnessing the Fire of Hell that the deniers expressed their desire to become righteous. We studied that belief is not out of fear of punishment but accepting for the sake of the truth. We also discussed that if one does not know the truth, they cannot be called a denier. To be a denier, one must know the truth and freely choose to deny it for other reasons. In a way God is responding to the request of the deniers to be sent back: “No, you have been given many opportunities to confirm the truth and you knowingly denied it. Now, you must suffer the consequence of denial.” 

The message in these verses of the Qur’an is describing what will happen in the next creation, but it is not a threat where God is frightening us so that we follow the message. He reminds us that we are being given many opportunities to accept the truth in this life. Everyone’s level is different in acknowledging the truth. I must be careful not to knowingly reject the truth. After I am given death, there is no more opportunity to repent and ask for forgiveness. 

A reminder to us about the principle of the Qur’an where it always speaks in black and white terms. Here it is describing the horrible situation of the deniers of the truth facing Hellfire begging God to send them back to this world when it is already too late. 

Let’s take a simple example to understand this seemingly merciless treatment of those who ask God to send them back and they promise that they are not going to deny the prophetic message again: If a person knows that murdering someone is a crime and goes to murder an innocent person and then is taken into prison. After seeing the situation of the prison, he begs the judge to take him out of the prison and promises that he will never kill another person again. Is there any court system in any country in the world that authorizes the judges to take such a person out of prison? Deliberately done crime must be punished accordingly, otherwise justice and peace cannot be established in any society.

We will continue with the following verse: 

قُلْ أَذَٰلِكَ خَيْرٌ أَمْ جَنَّةُ ٱلْخُلْدِ ٱلَّتِى وُعِدَ ٱلْمُتَّقُونَ ۚ كَانَتْ لَهُمْ جَزَآءًۭ وَمَصِيرًۭا

25:15 Say, ‘Which is better, this or the lasting Garden that those who are God conscious have been promised as their reward and destination?’ 

I have been given the option to choose the temporary worldly benefits and knowingly deny the truth where I may deny the truth for pride or other reasons and never repent for it. The other alternative is lasting gardens, continuous happy life by being God conscious and acting accordingly. I must bear in mind that I am created and must have a Creator where my God is promising me at the very end of my life with Paradise, a Lasting Garden. The only condition is that I be loyal to my reality, follow what my conscience tells me regarding what is true and what is false.

Do we see in this verse any sign explaining the harsh language used in the previous verse to describe the severe punishment? Why are the deniers not given the opportunity to go back, repent and live as God conscious people but suffer the fire as opposed to the lasting Garden for those who live with God consciousness? 

By telling me this in the verses before death is given to me, my Lord is guiding me to take care of my free will to make the right choice. There are two options given to me: either be loyal to my reality or the other option would be to reject it. The promise of lasting Garden or Paradise is confirmable by us while we are in this world. If I am loyal to my reality and do not contradict myself, i.e. I do what my conscience and feelings remind me of without betraying them, I would feel the pleasure and be content with my good acts. In other words, when I do not contradict myself, I get the feeling of pleasure. I should understand from my human reality what is true and what is wrong as my conscience tells me. The verse is telling me now in this world about Paradise for those who are loyal to the truth, their reality. It also tells me that If I don’t confirm the truth that my consciousness is aware of, I will be very sorry, and it would be too late to repent at the end. Various verses of the Qur’an remind the readers to pay attention to their responsibility before it is too late because it will be impossible to go back to the world again after one is given death from this world. (See for example, 2: 48; 2: 113; 2: 281) 

Can this verse demonstrate that in fact the description of Hell or Paradise in the Qur’an is nothing but from God’s Mercy?

The Qur’an uses very severe language for those who deny the truth knowingly and uses encouraging language for those who are conscious of God and live accordingly. We see in the Qur’an that the verses mentioning Hellfire and punishment are more than those mentioning Paradise and reward for the believers. This leads some people to say that the Qur’an uses a frightening language and ask: “Why does God not speak in a merciful, compassionate way, rather speaks in a harsh way?”

We have discussed this question on several occasions that the seemingly harsh language is out of Mercy where we are warned to conform to our reality as a created being. For example, all the health institutions warn people to take care of their health otherwise it will cause us a fortune. We all know that if someone is in need of surgery they would pay a fortune to go through incisions and cuts, begging to get the troubling pieces causing pain out of their body. They are willing to go through the pain of incisions to live happily, free of the physical trouble they had.

There is the Arabic word “ ﺷَﻔَﻘَﺔ” which is associated with the tenderness of fear, out of sympathy. The word is usually translated as “compassion.” It is interesting to see this compassion acting out of the fear of preventing lasting damage one may be going through: “I am afraid that this person or I will be damaged by something harmful.” Although the word is translated as “compassion,” it has the original meaning of “fear of future damage.” There is God’s compassion in the warning because of the fear of my situation straying away from the truth. We may choose to go to Hell by rejecting our reality. Out of this fear for my possible rejecting the truth, God ‘s compassion is saying: “I am begging you, please don’t go there. Don’t end up in Hell”. 

Let’s examine the verses from Section Isra: 

وَكُلَّ إِنسَـٰنٍ أَلْزَمْنَـٰهُ طَـٰٓئِرَهُۥ فِى عُنُقِهِۦ ۖ وَنُخْرِجُ لَهُۥ يَوْمَ ٱلْقِيَـٰمَةِ كِتَـٰبًۭا يَلْقَىٰهُ مَنشُورًا

17:13 We have bound each human being’s destiny (last judgment) to his neck. On the Day of Resurrection, We shall bring out a record for each of them, which they will find spread wide open.

The phrase “طَـٰٓئِرَهُ” refers to my last judgment, my position as it pertains to the Hereafter. I will be carrying my destiny with my own self and will go to the Hereafter with my own load of records of what I have done in this world. I’ll take it all with me on my shoulders and be presented with a complete video of my life with every detail including my thoughts of my living in this world. Nothing will be left undisclosed, but everything will be exposed openly. 

I should understand that while living in this world, the opportunity to seek forgiveness from God is always there: “Please God delete these records of mine where I made a mistake, I am asking for Your forgiveness.” I should be hopeful for the favor of forgiveness from my Lord. 

ٱقْرَأْ كِتَـٰبَكَ كَفَىٰ بِنَفْسِكَ ٱلْيَوْمَ عَلَيْكَ حَسِيبًۭا

17:14 Read your record. Today your own soul is enough to calculate your account.

I can put myself in this scenario where I leave this world and now am facing the Hereafter. After Resurrection, my Creator will say: “Read your record”. Who is keeping my record? My Creator is, with His attribute of “Al-Hafeez”, He is preserving the records of everyone; nothing is left out. God will say: “Here is your record. That is your reality, I have not added anything extra and neither subtracted anything from it. The record of your thought, acts in the world are all here.” 

We should remember that repentance, asking for forgiveness is included in my record where sincere repentance on parts of my life would be deleted. I will not be seeing those parts of life where I asked for forgiveness. The opportunity to seek forgiveness from God is extremely important alongside belief in God. I am given this sense of being shameful for the wrongs that I have done in this world let alone when I am faced with them in the next world. I don’t want to see my shameful thoughts and activities in my record; I need to ask for forgiveness. Otherwise, the record of everything is there as to what I have done, what I have been doing, claiming, and thinking. God presenting me my record is impartial in the recording where everything is covered. 

I will be asked to read my record. Who will be the judge? The phrase mentions “كَفَىٰ بِنَفْسِكَ ٱلْيَوْمَ عَلَيْكَ حَسِيبًۭا” which is translated as “Today, your own soul is enough to calculate your account”. I will be the judge according to my record that has been preserved by God. God will tell me “You, yourself are enough to judge on your account. Tell me what you deserve?” In the Hereafter, we will not be able to tell a lie, we will not be able to ask for forgiveness. Hereafter means that the truth is displayed clearly. Unfortunately, many of us misunderstand this message and are taught that God will decide, judge us by taking us into account as He wills, but we know that God judges only what exactly we deserve.However, who is going to decide? The truth will be declared clearly in the Hereafter. I myself will be saying as I won’t be able to lie at Resurrection: “According to the record, this is what I deserve.” Paradise and Hell have endless levels, so I will decide which level I deserve to go to. Everyone will be getting justice according to what they deserve.

وَسِيقَ ٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوٓا۟ إِلَىٰ جَهَنَّمَ زُمَرًا حَتَّىٰٓ إِذَا جَآءُوهَا فُتِحَتْ أَبْوَٰبُهَا وَقَالَ لَهُمْ خَزَنَتُهَآ أَلَمْ يَأْتِكُمْ رُسُلٌ مِّنكُمْ يَتْلُونَ عَلَيْكُمْ ءَايَـٰتِ رَبِّكُمْ وَيُنذِرُونَكُمْ لِقَآءَ يَوْمِكُمْ هَـٰذَا قَالُوا۟ بَلَىٰ وَلَـٰكِنْ حَقَّتْ كَلِمَةُ ٱلْعَذَابِ عَلَى ٱلْكَـٰفِرِينَ

39: 71 “Those who rejected the Truth will be led to Hell in their throngs. When they arrive, its gates will open and its keepers will say to them, ‘Were you not sent your own messengers to recite the revelations of your Lord to you and warn you that you would meet this Day?’ and they will say, ‘Yes indeed we were.’ But the sentence of punishment will have been passed against those who rejected the truth.” 

It is very frightening to say that I deserve Hell. We are given enough potential, enough capacity to know what is right and what is wrong in our lives right now. We must be honest with ourselves and not neglect our reality. God will ask me to judge myself. I have been given the capacity to make a judgment. I am aware of the truth right now. If I was not aware of the truth, then I would not be responsible for it. The Qur’an gives the news that “We are not going to punish them if we had not sent them a messenger” (17:15). We are given the ability to know what is right from wrong when the truth is presented to us. 

مَّنِ ٱهْتَدَىٰ فَإِنَّمَا يَهْتَدِى لِنَفْسِهِۦ ۖ وَمَن ضَلَّ فَإِنَّمَا يَضِلُّ عَلَيْهَا ۚ وَلَا تَزِرُ وَازِرَةٌۭ وِزْرَ أُخْرَىٰ ۗ وَمَا كُنَّا مُعَذِّبِينَ حَتَّىٰ نَبْعَثَ رَسُولًۭا

17:15 “Whoever chooses to be guided, it is only for their own good. And whoever chooses to stray, it is only to their own loss. No soul burdened with sin will bear the burden of another. And We would never punish a people until we have sent a messenger.”

We must listen to our conscience, pay attention to the message of the prophets. We are now exposed to philosophers who present to us some ideologies and we must look at the case carefully. A serious scholar Said Nursi mentions that “From the time of prophet Adam until now including all the chain of prophets, there are two options: either accept the Creator where everything needs to be created by the Creator. This message is presented to us through the prophets and our human potential which can acknowledge this to be true. The other option is the chain of various forms of understanding that the things exist by themselves, they are creating their own new form. We must question this materialistic philosophy and investigate whether they have any humanly acceptable evidence for their theories. 

The theories keep changing but the fundamental idea never changes. For example, the latest materialist scientists say that the vibration of particles is creating a new form of things, developing, evolving by themselves. This order of the universe is established by matter itself. In our observations we do see that the particles change and I look for an explanation for the changes. In philosophy, the theories change the explanations on these changes of forms. New scientific discoveries are trying to justify that matter itself must be forming new types of beings. 

Whereas, there is no change in the explanations of the chain of messengers which point to the continuously changing manifestations of the qualities of the Creator of the universe. This signifies that the truth is clear and there is no need to struggle to find another way of proving the truth. One way of proving the truth is good enough; there is no new theory to prove the Oneness, Absoluteness of God.

Let’s continue with the next verse of section Al-Furqan:

لَّهُمْ فِيهَا مَا يَشَآءُونَ خَـٰلِدِينَ ۚ كَانَ عَلَىٰ رَبِّكَ وَعْدًۭا مَّسْـُٔولًۭا

25:16 For them there will be all that they desire in it, and they will abide there forever. It is a Promise upon your Lord that must be fulfilled.

In this verse God is promising the fulfillment of the Lasting Garden, Paradise. The phrase “عَلَىٰ” indicates that it is God’s responsibility to fulfill His promise. Is God obliged to do anything? Why does this verse say that it is a binding promise from your Lord? This verse is speaking to me where God promises that if I follow the right options, follow my reality, He creates happiness and pleasure in me which is His guaranteed Promise to me while I am living in this world. When I do something good and feel pleasure, that is His promise which is fulfilled here in this world. This promise extends to the next world based on me being the judge of my own record. By creating happiness here, God is demonstrating that He can do it again as His promise which is guaranteed.

The following verse also helps us to understand the fulfillment of the promise of God.

رَبَّنَا وَءَاتِنَا مَا وَعَدتَّنَا عَلَىٰ رُسُلِكَ وَلَا تُخْزِنَا يَوْمَ ٱلْقِيَـٰمَةِ ۗ إِنَّكَ لَا تُخْلِفُ ٱلْمِيعَادَ

3:194 “Our Lord! Bestow upon us all that You have promised us through Your messengers – do not humiliate us on the Day of Resurrection – You never break Your promise.”

We need to acknowledge God’s promise conveyed to us through the messengers. The latter part of the verse seems to be contradicting what we studied regarding us being the judge of our own life recordings at Resurrection. In this verse I am asking God to not humiliate me when I will be facing my own reality. I must understand that God promised that if I do something wrong, I would be punished equal to my mistake as one to one. If I do something right, the reward given by God is multiplied as one to many. I will ask God: “Please keep Your Promise, You will multiply my good acts and forgive my mistakes when I ask sincerely for forgiveness. I do not want to be humiliated. I am sure that You will never break Your Promise.”

I can use my feelings which are the promise of my Creator. By giving me these feelings, He is promising me my future. For example, if someone does something wrong to me and asks sincerely for forgiveness. I would forgive him/her and be incredibly happy that the person asked for forgiveness. If the person is my child, I would be expecting that my child would come to me and ask for forgiveness and would be incredibly pleased when he/she does come to me. I love forgiving and I love to reward people. By creating me with  this feeling is the promise that my God will fulfill His promise; He is waiting for me to ask for forgiveness. My Lord is begging in an encouraging way: “Don’t do this, don’t hurt yourself, seek forgiveness so that you stay happy.” Through my feelings (spirit), I get to know who my Lord is. I must listen to myself, every feeling within me, carefully examine my feelings to get to know who my Creator is. In a beautiful way, these verses encourage us to use our spirit to get to know our Creator, reminding us of what our reality is: who I am and who my Creator is.