Section Al-Furqan – Part 15

We will be continuing with the study of verses from Section Al-Furqan of the Qur’an. We last investigated verse 22, mentioning the day of Resurrection where those that denied the angels by not looking at the meaningful side of creation resulted in the angels will deny them as well. This indicates a reciprocal relationship between my choices and the consequences of those choices.

In the Qur’an, God presents Himself as being the Lord of the universe saying that: “If you forget Me and do not consider my Lordship, My being the Owner of the universe then I will make you forget yourself”. That shows that there is a reciprocal relationship between my belief and how I would be treated. If I live in this world without having an owner, then God creates me in this world as if this universe has no owner who creates and provides everything I need, such as air, water, my life, all kinds of food and so on. I think they just happen to be here for no reason. That means I am denying the angelic side in their existence which constantly reminds me that they are freely provided by their Conscious and Merciful Creator. In the verse if someone denies the angelic side of the universe and sees only matter, God then creates for this person to live without angels as the angels deny them and tell him to keep away from them as he kept the angels away from himself. 

If I don’t take notice of the teachings of the Qur’an, I may start getting suspicious about the Qur’an, not taking it seriously and thus not benefiting from it. The Qur’an distances itself from me when I start questioning the legitimacy of the Qur’an being the word of God. There are lots of verses mentioning simple events, historical prophetic stories, how can I relate to them? In the end, I became inclined to deny that the Qur’an is the word of God because I did not take it seriously. Just to declare that I believe in the Qur’an as the Word of God is not enough, one should have evidence why he believed in it to be so. Reciprocally, the Qur’an will distance itself away from me. 

The Qur’an always speaks in a way where God says that I will create according to what you have chosen. There are people who study the Qur’an to get some position and not to educate themselves. In some instances, they treat it like a material that one can buy and sell. The Qur’an mentions not to sell the verses for petty worldly benefits (2:42, 2:79,  5:44). Some of them are professors of “tafsir”, the commentary of the Qur’an who deny the Qur’an to be the word of God. They have declared the “Shari’ah” to be unislamic as they do not want to live according to the “Shari’ah” which are the teachings of Islam. They think that they denied the Qur’an and the “Shari’ah” but it is the Qur’an that is denying them. In a way, the Qur’an says: “go away from me because you are using me for petty purposes and not to educate yourselves.” Those who study the hadith without relating them to what prophethood is, if they don’t see how it relates to me to live in this world, what does it mean for the Creator of the universe to be employing prophets, then they cannot benefit. The prophetic teachings distances itself from them.

The prophetic message must be exciting news for us to see that this universe is created with the verbal speech of God and a teacher is appointed by God. If I don’t pay attention to the teachings of the prophet (pbuh), then according to the reciprocal relationship, the prophet (pbuh) would be rejecting me. God creates me as a person who is left without any guidance, who is left with no option of being an addressee of God.  There is this reciprocal relationship. 

If we look at the subject from God’s determining, I may think that I am doing either confirmation or rejection of something, whereas God creates the result according to what I choose according to the reciprocal relationship. If I choose to confirm, then the guidance comes closer to me. If I reject, then the guidance will distance itself from me. For example, I accept that I am a created and needy being that needs to have a satisfactory existence for which I need an Absolute Owner so that I won’t feel like a neglected being, and won’t feel like an orphan. The reciprocal creation is that I am given accordingly, an abundant guarantee of Lordship and Ownership of God. 

The more I present my neediness, weakness, the more security I gain in my existence. The more I exploit the Qur’an and use it for my worldly benefit, the more I deprive myself from it. The Qur’an and the prophet would reject me. That is how Divine Determining teaches me. If I don’t appreciate what God creates then I would deprive myself of the good in it. For example, I am the one who owns the property for which I worked. As an answer, God says that “you will have the satisfaction for your body, but since you don’t see Me, your spirit will suffer.” In a verse, God mentions that “those people who are blind in this world to the truth, they will be blind in the next creation. They will not get any mercy from Me because they closed their eyes in this world.” (See the Qur’an, 17:72, 20:125, 20:124)

In verse 22, the same reciprocity is being applied where if I deny the existence of angels, only see the material side, don’t see the message that the angels are transferring to me, then the angels would distance themselves away from me and deny me. By seeing the universe as matter only, my existence would become meaningless. God gave us the opportunity to get to know Him, His message, His messenger. 

We must take this opportunity to follow the truth. If I am learning the Qur’an to be able to present to my friends and gain some sort of respect, then I deprive myself of the Qur’anic teachings. There are some who may go to different countries to learn Islam so they can come and become a Sheikh or religious public speaker. Without judging anyone, we need to be careful not to make a profession out of God’s religion. As a result, God deprives them of benefitting from His teachings, from the beauty of belief. The Qur’an expresses that they have knowledge that is like the donkey carrying books where the donkey doesn’t benefit from the book (See the Qur’an, 62:5), they are deprived of it. We must be very careful to study the Qur’an for ourselves which is worth spending time on. I must speak to express my conclusions which must be my own conclusions after having digested the message. 

That is how the prophet (pbuh) received guidance from the message, digested it, lived according to the message and transferred it to others.  Practically, he (pbuh) was living the message in his life as it was expected from guidance received from his Creator which should impact our living as well. As his profession, he (pbuh) was appointed by the people of Madinah as the administrator of the city and at that position he had to fulfill the requirements of what that entailed. This does not mean that the prophetic mission is to become a mayor or administrator of a city. While he was doing his worldly profession, he was practicing according to what his belief required as a prophet as well.  We benefit from his example where our position as an administrator in a family structure, at a company, in our profession, must be accompanied by the practice of our belief.  We must understand that the prophet (pbuh) conveys the message through his actions, and we must do the same through our actions. 

I must try to understand what my God tells me here so that I can digest the message within myself. We must not alienate ourselves from the Qur’an which is why God says that He is “Al Ghayyur”, the jealous One. If I worship someone else, that is not acceptable by God such as, if I don’t use His word of the Qur’an to be guided and educate myself but as a merchandise to sell. I have no right to exploit the precious guidance for worldly, egoistic benefits. I must watch out: Why do I read the Qur’an? Am I looking to impose my understanding over others? If I learn something, do I try to impress others with that knowledge? 

I must see every verse as speaking to me. The use of the example of angels and deniers presented in the Qur’an is just an example for me to be careful in my living. The way that I treat God’s message, His property, that is the way I would be treated. Everything in the universe is presented to me as His gifts. If I don’t accept them as God’s gift presented to me personally, then I am going to be treated accordingly. If I take something as my property, then I can only benefit from the material aspect of it in this world. I would deprive myself of His presence in my life where the Lord of the universe is constantly presenting gifts personally to me. If I deny they are coming from my Lord, treat things as lost property then I would never feel the pleasure that the Owner of the universe is honoring me with this present. In the Hereafter, there will be no mercy for such behavior. That is why the angels say to the disbelievers to stay away from them for they denied them while living in this world. 

Let’s continue with the next verse:

وَقَدِمْنَآ إِلَىٰ مَا عَمِلُوا۟ مِنْ عَمَلٍۢ فَجَعَلْنَـٰهُ هَبَآءًۭ مَّنثُورًا

25:23 We will examine whatever they did and scatter them like dust,

Who are they? Those who rejected the angelic side of the universe, rejected the prophets who introduced to them the angelic side of the universe. Whatever actions they do will be scattered like dust, i.e. it would be meaningless, only entertained with material benefits till their death. For example, I keep feeding my ego in this life and at the end everything goes to the grave and rots away. We should never ever reduce ourselves and our actions in terms of physical forms. I must learn to utilize them as vehicles and the means to connect to my Creator.

If I don’t keep in my mind that the actions are the means of acknowledging my Creator, if I don’t take notice of the angelic aspect of the universe, whatever God presents to me would be turned to matter and be scattered like dust into the grave. Nothing is left, including the spiritual desires which they have denied would not be given. Everyone is responsible for their actions whether they do it in the name of God or not.

Is the “deed” we do important or the intention and consciousness behind it really matters?

Whatever we are doing, intention and awareness is important to have in that action. This does not mean that doing the deed is not important but doing it with consciousness of why I am doing what I am doing is important. I cannot be a person who says that the deed is not important because I have God consciousness. While performing some action, I  must bear in mind for what purpose I am doing it; it must be a conscious act. For example, a person gives to charity with the intention to do something good for people. He wants to give it secretly, so others don’t know who is giving this charity. This act must be accompanied with acknowledgement of God as the Owner of the property and the person being the means, employed through which help is given to people. 

Another example is a cat in my backyard looking for food and I feed the cat. When the cat is full, it becomes happy, an expression of their being thankful. Why did I feed the cat? It was not to get appreciation from anyone but just the good intention to help a poor and needy being. What would be missing here? It is the acknowledgement of the ownership of the Creator of my feeling of help and of the food I used to feed the cat. 

Do we think that the good deeds of those who did not believe in God will be worthless at all? 

The intention, consciousness one has matters in doing the deed. Am I doing the deed to impose myself on others? I have a good intention without seeking fame but not having God consciousness would make the deed worthless. The act is just done to satisfy the desire of the spirit which wants to do something good. We are created with the potential to do good deeds and are encouraged to do them. It is not to satisfy myself by doing good deeds which according to the Qur’an means that a deed becomes good when it is done with the acknowledgment of the real Owner of this deed. The human spirit is given this inclination and desire to do good deeds and gets satisfaction by performing them. Regardless of belief in God, everyone gets pleasure by doing something good. If I do it only to satisfy myself then it goes against the purpose of my existence. My spirit is given not to satisfy itself but for it to acknowledge my Creator. This sense is given to me to recognize who is really giving me the opportunity to do a good action. The sense of liking and enjoyment is given to me as a present to acknowledge that I belong to the Creator of the universe and these feelings belong to the Creator of the universe because by practicing them I communicate with the rest of the universe in a satisfactory way.  While I am performing the action, I will be thankful to my Creator. This should make me happy with my Creator because He gave me this opportunity and I am entertained with this pleasure of doing the good deed.  Since I used my potential that has been given to me, appreciated it, my Creator tells me that He will give me more. If we appreciate and do good deeds in His name, by being conscious of Him then He promises me to give Paradise.

Do we think that every denier will be treated equally in Hell, and every believer in Paradise? Yes/No, why? 

No. The one who did an action as perfectly as it should be done is not the same as the one who did not do it perfectly. It is the same with those who do their actions while being deniers with a sense of enmity to God or His religion is not the same as those who do it as deniers without carrying the sense of enmity. 

The sense of seeking fairness and justice which is given, created in us to understand that deniers in the Creator and believers cannot be treated the same. This also teaches us how we are going to be treated in the Hereafter. For example, if someone working in a company does standard work whereas someone else adds much more value to the company. It is obvious that they would not be paid equally. We thus understand that Hell and Paradise will not be standard, but everyone will be treated according to their level of appreciation and action that they do. In Hell, the treatment will be according to the level of crime that they committed in this world. For example, in the prison system, there are different punishment terms according to their crime. The Islamic tradition mentions that Paradise and Hell will have infinite degrees according to the qualities, consciousness of individuals in this world, they would be treated according to how much they used their qualities to acknowledge their Creator. 

Let’s take the example of a host who has invited 2 people to his house. One of them is suspicious about the host’s intention thinking that he may harm them. He is thinking why this host has invited him to his house. He gets irritated with every move of the host. This puts him under psychological stress while he is a guest in the house. The other guest in the same house is sure that the host invited them to entertain them there. His psychological situation is completely different from the first. As an extreme comparison, one feels stress and the other feels pleasure.

How much are we satisfied with God, what kind of God is He, how much do I recognize Him, how much am I conscious of Him in my living? If I just know Him as the Creator of the universe then that would be my level.  If I see Him as the Perfect, Generous Creator where everything is wisely presented demonstrating His Absolute qualities then I would be at another level. For the One who appreciates His gifts more would be told: “I love you, my creature. Here is my present to you.” 

Another example, one may accept that a pear is created by God but the other understands and appreciates the qualities that the pear conveys to him as the manifested qualities of its Maker. One says that it is a beautiful pear. A conscious person understands that the beauty of the pear points to the One who beautified it for me, it is beautifully designed and presented to me as a gift for me to enjoy. 

From our earlier example about charity, based on the teaching of the Qur’an, everyone is responsible to give to charity according to the amount of one’s property. Not everyone is equal and expected to give the same amount but according to what they have. Every opportunity must be seen as the means given to us to educate ourselves. The more we realize the qualities of our Creator, the more we will be treated with His qualities in the Hereafter. We must be thankful for this opportunity to learn while we are living so that our actions would not be scattered like dust.