Section Al-Furqan – Part 13

We will continue to study verses from Section Al-Furqan where we last investigated the following verse:

25:19 [The doomed will be told], “Your gods have clearly denied your claims. So now you can neither ward off the punishment nor get any help.” And whoever of you does wrong, We will make them taste a horrible punishment. 

The verse pictured the scenario of the Hereafter where all those who denied the message of the prophets and took upon gods from within the universe as satisfying them. Whatever those things were will deny that they satisfied them. We should also benefit from this teaching of the verse by being careful not to take any created being as my source of satisfaction. None of the created beings has any quality to satisfy me. The verse continues by saying that one can no longer ward off their punishment nor can they get any help from them. God is warning all of us to be careful in our living.

We will continue with the next verse:

وَمَآ أَرْسَلْنَا قَبْلَكَ مِنَ ٱلْمُرْسَلِينَ إِلَّآ إِنَّهُمْ لَيَأْكُلُونَ ٱلطَّعَامَ وَيَمْشُونَ فِى ٱلْأَسْوَاقِ ۗ وَجَعَلْنَا بَعْضَكُمْ لِبَعْضٍۢ فِتْنَةً أَتَصْبِرُونَ ۗ وَكَانَ رَبُّكَ بَصِيرًۭا

25:20 The messengers that We sent before you were people who certainly ate food and walked among the markets. We have made some of you a trial for others. Will you have patience? You Lord is the All-seeing.”

The deniers were accusing the prophet of being just a regular human being like them. There is no denying that the prophet (pbuh) was a human being. We also see accusations in some other verses on the prophet (pbuh) being made by the deniers of the message. The Qur’an in a way consoles the prophet, “We have sent messengers before you, they were also like yourself. You don’t need to have a special creation or position to be impressive. You don’t need to hold a special position, have a prestigious title, or do something extraordinary to feel good about yourself and display to others. I am giving you the message that should impress them. They would appreciate the content of the message and confirm it”. The messengers are not expected to have any extraordinary qualities or events that should happen to them. 

For example, at the time of Prophet Jesus, there were many miracles created by God through the hands of Jesus, by him praying to God. However, people started to attribute those miracles to Jesus himself. This is how the historical Jesus is viewed nowadays where people respect Jesus’ personality only, not much for his message. They are superficial about the message, but a lot of importance is given to the miracles God created for Jesus. Prophet Jesus is thus elevated to the level of some divine being, godhead with the reason being his excessive number of miracles compared to other prophets. Compared to the miracles of Jesus, there are not many miracles created for the Prophet Muhammad mentioned in the Qur’an where one is regarding the splitting of the moon. There are strong narrations from the companions of the prophet describing the event as a miracle. The point to understand is that if the messengers were given high status above other ordinary human beings, then they would be taken as having some divine qualities attributed to them. We must not expect any extraordinary things from the prophets to appreciate them. Although there have been many narrations of miracles through the prophets, serious scholars of the Qur’an did not give them much emphasis. Rather, the content of the message is to be taken seriously. 

We are familiar with the narrations about some miracles displayed in the life of prophet Muhammad (pbuh). However, the biggest miracle is the Qur’an that needs to be paid attention to. The miracles do not help me to understand the content of the message. The content of the message that he (pbuh) brings needs to be understood and confirmed. If I accept the news from someone just because he has some extraordinary status as compared to other people, does my acceptance of his message turn into belief and confirmation? This would just result in me accepting the message in an imitative way. Belief needs to be confirmed based on the content of the message and accompanying evidence. 

Even if there was a sage, some great extraordinary man, I cannot just accept his message based on the extraordinariness of the person, but I must examine the content of the message and see whether I can confirm it or not. For example, if Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) says something and I accept it because he is a great individual, that is not belief but just imitation. The content of the message needs to be confirmed with evidence to constitute belief.

Do we think that the people are right to expect the prophets at least to not get involved with these simple life activities? Isn’t it right for me to see at least something different in the prophet, at least not doing the ordinary things that I do in my life? My focus needs to be the content of the message. I would like the messenger to live a simple life like everyone else and be honest so that he (pbuh) can be an example to me, a pattern of living for me relatable in my ordinary activities. I would learn how to live my life, what behavior I must have with other beings, eat and drink, shop for things, prepare my dinner, etc. I must not expect any extraordinary qualities in him as that would not make him relatable to my living.

The verse mentions “وَجَعَلْنَا بَعْضَكُمْ لِبَعْضٍۢ فِتْنَةً”, conveying that some of us are trials for others. We can understand the word “فِتْنَةً” translated as “trial”, to be the opportunity to improve our human potential.  Why do we think the verse says, “We have made some of you a trial for others?”

The Prophet (pbuh) was a trial for others because he was bringing strange ideas according to their customary life. Trial does not mean bad things as causing trouble, but they can also be good things. We are all a trial for each other such as wife and husband, businesses, manager and employees, that is how we mature and learn the reality of life. We learn to suppress our anger, be tolerant to others, and learn from each other. When we see certain qualities in others, we may be unable to bear it, we may start competing. For example, sometimes I may get tense with someone, and I must learn from that, learn how to behave and get a hold of myself. “Trial” really is the opportunity to improve my human potential, and I must benefit from it.

وَقَالَ ٱلَّذِينَ لَا يَرْجُونَ لِقَآءَنَا لَوْلَآ أُنزِلَ عَلَيْنَا ٱلْمَلَـٰٓئِكَةُ أَوْ نَرَىٰ رَبَّنَا ۗ لَقَدِ ٱسْتَكْبَرُوا۟ فِىٓ أَنفُسِهِمْ وَعَتَوْ عُتُوًّۭا كَبِيرًۭا

25:21 Those who do not expect that they are destined to meet Us say, “Why were not angels sent down to us, or [why] do we [not] see our Lord?” They have certainly become too proud of themselves and excessively insolent.

The Qur’an presents the scenario by making the deniers speak, makes them ask questions, that is how God is educating us. The questions are mentioned which I may also ask and interestingly God doesn’t provide an answer to such questions by showing Himself to them at their request. Rather than giving a demonstrative answer, the verse continues by saying that “you have become too proud of yourselves and excessively insolent”. In a way saying that what you are doing is too much, going beyond your limits. 

There are quite a few verses in the Qur’an in the prophetic scenarios where people accused the prophets and asked them to do something. For example, bring the punishment that you speak about. However, the Qur’an does not give any demonstrative answer to them. It does not say that “I will show you what you are denying”. If the Qur’an did provide the answer, then there would be no education for me. I would then have to obey because of the power of the Creator manifested visually; I wouldn’t have any option to reject His message.

Historically, we see that there were no hypocrites in Mecca. There were quite a lot of hypocrites in Medina. What was wrong in Medina then? This is something to think about, but we will relate this to the subject of why there was no answer from God.  If people saw God or His angels come down to speak to them. What would happen? They would be bound to accept the message regardless of being convinced of the content of the message, that would make them hypocrites. They would be playing the role as if they are convinced about the message when in fact they are not convinced. That is why the answer is not given to them. Expecting an answer where God and the angelic side of the universe appears before them is impossible without searching and looking for them. If anything appears in the universe, it would be a created being. It is impossible to think of God, the Absolute Being, to become a created form. God cannot be like any of the created beings; it contradicts the definition of being the source of existence of the universe, giving existence to each and every being. For example, can an artist become a piece of the art he/she made? That helps to explain the difference between the Creator and created beings.

Why is wanting to see “our Lord” wrong, or is it wrong? It contradicts the purpose of my existence in this universe. The universe is established by its source of existence for a purpose just like a university is there for the purpose of education. Students are invited to study at the university where all the knowledge is presented to them. They are expected to study and learn. If they get a degree without studying, what would be the purpose of the university and the education system? We are here in this world to learn which should be pleasurable. If a university administration warns some students, who do not attend the class and study, that they will not get a degree at the end of the education period, then if these students challenge the administration by saying “bring it now and show me that there is no degree.” Do  you think that the administration will show them before the completion of the 4-year education period and not give them the opportunity until the end of their education? Obviously not. The administration will say, “Wait until the end of your period and if you still do not study then you will see that you will not get the degree, but it would be too late for you then. We are just warning you. Take notice of our reminder seriously.”

How about prophet Muhammad (pbuh), did he have a distinguishing character? If so, are we not proud of Muhammad’s (pbuh) distinguishing character? Good character is important and admirable to have. If one of my friends has a very honest, trustworthy character, I would be proud of it. This does not mean that whatever he tells me, I will accept it straightaway. It gives me confidence that he is not someone who would cheat me or tell me a lie. However, the prophet’s (pbuh) good character is different from the message he conveys. Good character is a good start and is needed to trust him as to what he says but it does not necessitate me to confirm what his message says. Someone may have a good character and what he may say knowingly or unknowingly may not be correct.

Everyone must be aware of belief in the Qur’an as one article of faith, belief in the prophets is an independent article of faith that must be confirmed separately. Although the articles of faith are related to each other, they must be independently confirmed. I study the Qur’an and see that it is an excellent book. If I am not convinced about the prophet Muhammad (pbuh) being a messenger, I would say this book is admirable, but it is not God’s work. When this person comes to us and claims that he is the prophet of God, i.e. employed by God, who is honest, says that the message is not from me, but it is from the Creator of the universe. I will now read the Qur’an accordingly as the word of God and see if I can confirm it.  If I cannot confirm the Qur’an, I cannot confirm the prophet as they are related to each other. However, they are related and they are independently confirmable. Only by confirming the content of the message will I be convinced that the prophet (pbuh) is not telling me a lie that the message is from God. But belief in the necessity of the institution of the messengership is another matter. Prophets do not mean only the transferrer of the message to human beings but they are the teachers of the content of the message. They demonstrate how we can put this message into practice in our daily lives.  

Without a human being conveying the message to my level, I cannot get the message of the Creator of the universe. If I cannot confirm the prophet (pbuh) to be the messenger of God, I cannot confirm that the Qur’an is revealed by God. I believe what the Qur’an is telling me is true, that is belief in the Qur’an. To confirm it to be true as the word of the Creator becomes possible by confirming prophet Muhammad being His messenger. A distinguishing character is needed but it does not mean that I will imitate what he says without confirming the message. Without studying the Qur’an and confirming it independently is not an ascertained belief or “imaan”.

There are a few verses from section Al-Isra that we can investigate:

وَقَالُوا۟ لَن نُّؤْمِنَ لَكَ حَتَّىٰ تَفْجُرَ لَنَا مِنَ ٱلْأَرْضِ يَنۢبُوعًا

أَوْ تَكُونَ لَكَ جَنَّةٌۭ مِّن نَّخِيلٍۢ وَعِنَبٍۢ فَتُفَجِّرَ ٱلْأَنْهَـٰرَ خِلَـٰلَهَا تَفْجِيرًا

أَوْ تُسْقِطَ ٱلسَّمَآءَ كَمَا زَعَمْتَ عَلَيْنَا كِسَفًا أَوْ تَأْتِىَ بِٱللَّهِ وَٱلْمَلَـٰٓئِكَةِ قَبِيلًا

أَوْ يَكُونَ لَكَ بَيْتٌۭ مِّن زُخْرُفٍ أَوْ تَرْقَىٰ فِى ٱلسَّمَآءِ وَلَن نُّؤْمِنَ لِرُقِيِّكَ حَتَّىٰ تُنَزِّلَ عَلَيْنَا كِتَـٰبًۭا نَّقْرَؤُهُۥ ۗ قُلْ سُبْحَانَ رَبِّى هَلْ كُنتُ إِلَّا بَشَرًۭا رَّسُولًۭا 

17: 90-93 They say, We will not believe in you [Muhammad] until you make a spring gush out of the ground for us;
or until you have a garden of date palms and vines, and make rivers pour through them;
or make the sky fall on us in pieces, as you claimed will happen
or bring God and the angels before us face to face;
or have a house made of gold; or ascend into the sky, even then we will not believe in your ascension until you send a real book down to us to read. Say, ‘Glory be to my Lord! Am I anything but a mortal, a messenger?’

We see in these verses that God does not respond positively to what the deniers want unless they change themselves. God responds to what we really need by revealing the Guidance and what we acknowledge where only He can provide the news we need. Then, I would acknowledge Him and present my needs to Him in a humble way according to my reality. 

Most of the miracles are created because of prayers of the needy believers. For example, when some people were left with no water and they wanted to make “wudu” (ablution). They asked God for water out of their need. Only then water was miraculously created for them. The miracles are created only at the need of innocent people, not for their challenges. Muslim scholarship is careful not to attach importance to miracles of prophet Muhammad (pbuh) after seeing what happened to the importance given to miracles given to Jesus by some where Jesus became a divine being. The Miracles of the prophet do not help me now, let alone those people that are challenging the message as their attitude is insincere, looking for an excuse to not accept the message. None of the miracles are realized at the demand of the challenge to show a miracle. In history, when the prophet was in Mecca, poetry was famous where the content touched upon the beauty of women, of the universe, being proud of their tribe. In their life camels were very important to have a Bedouin life. There are more than a hundred words to describe camels used by many poets. The first few revealed verses conveyed by prophet Muhammad (pbuh) were like poetry of amazing and challenging quality. No one could compete with them as the content of these verses were completely different from the content of the Arab poet’s works. They were completely puzzled as it sounded strange to what they were accustomed to. It is at that time that the innocent people who could not read and write were presented with certain miracles.

Whereas, the deniers challenge sarcastically to make up an excuse and say as if they are testing God: “If you can do it, then do it and let’s see.” This is not presenting their needs but challenging Him, hinting that “what the prophet says are just ancient tales.” The Qur’an’s response to their challenge is only: “I will create when and what My wisdom requires, not according to what your vicious whims require. And definitely you are going to see the physical creation of what you were sarcastically rejecting in My messages. You now only suffer spiritually; you will suffer physically as well.” The Qur’an warns us to pay attention to the message and lets us see if what it says is true or not.

We must not challenge God while expressing our needs. I must see His acts and look at my being, I understand that my body and feelings are all miraculously created by Him. I don’t need to see God in His personality but see His acts, what qualities and talent He has. 

In our time, we also should not have a criterion in order to understand if an idea is true or not according to how famous the person bringing the news is. How successful the person is of having followers practicing their belief, especially material, financial, political power, military power or publications (representing their intellectual capacity in rationalizing their ideas or in rhetoric). How much success does he have in attracting the attention of the people on social media by having many followers and likes to their feeds. I must not be influenced by the extraordinariness of a presenter, by his followers, or the number of views on his feeds. My responsibility is to investigate the message and follow it if I am convinced.

The most practical and important message of these verses for us is: We too should not expect anything extraordinary to happen to us when we believe in God or worship Him or pray to Him. We may be in expectation of something because I pray to God, something extraordinary will happen. I should not have that expectation. If I believe in God, I should not expect that something extraordinary will change in my life. For example, I am not successful in my studies, I start praying and expect that I will now be successful. That is not the case, I must pay attention to my studies carefully. Otherwise, being successful because of prayers would be something extraordinary which I should not expect.