Section The Jinn – Part 7

Let’s continue with our study of Section Al-Jinn of the Quran. This section is regarded as something mysterious but as we have been studying, the existence of Jinn is no longer mysterious. We studied what kind of creatures they are and thus can understand the reality of their existence. The verse we studied last was (72:9) mentioning the Jinn who were trying to find the truth, their false claims were continuously rejected by the way that heavens, the stars and the rest of beings have been created. There was no evidence to their claims that the source of existence of a thing is within the things itself. The universe does not give any credence to such interpretations, theories that they make up, and rejects all of them fervently. It is only after hearing the news that Revelation brings that the Jinns and human beings understood the reality, to rightfully interpret the existence of things to their Owner, the Lord of the universe, not being of the nature of this universe, who cannot be within the thing itself. It is through the Revelation that they understood why they were unable to find the source of existence within the universe.

We will look into the following verse:

وَأَنَّا لَا نَدْرِىٓ أَشَرٌّ أُرِيدَ بِمَن فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ أَمْ أَرَادَ بِهِمْ رَبُّهُمْ رَشَدًۭا

72:10 We do not know therefore whether ill is intended for those on earth, or whether their Lord intends to guide them.

As we studied in the previous verses, Jinn being the counterpart of humans do not have a physical body but the rest of the qualities are similar to human beings, including free will. The spirit side is similar to human beings where there are both believing and disbelieving Jinn and human beings. 

In this verse the Jinn are saying that they don’t know what the Creator of the universe is planning for them and human beings by creating this world. After hearing the news from God in Revelation, they realized that before the revelation, they did not know what was planned by God. They did not know why the universe is arranged in the way that we find it.

The phrase “وَأَنَّا لَا نَدْرِىٓ أَشَرٌّ أُرِيدَ بِمَن فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ” is translated as “We do not know therefore where ill is intended for those on earth”. The verse is not presenting the case as saying that we do not know whether the Owner of the universes intends ill for the inhabitants of this world. The verse is structured such that the passive form “ill is intended” is used as opposed to “God (He) intends”. After hearing the news from Revelation, they realize that God does not intend ill for creation. The Revelation of the Qur’an educates conscious beings including Jinn. The passive form of the verb “ill was intended” is used in order to make us understand that “ill” “evil” cannot be attributed to God, it is only our conception of some creations according to our perceptions. What the news of Revelation tells them now that nothing in creation is intended to be evil for neither Jinn nor human beings. If we think something is harmful for me it is a reminder from my Creator that I have to keep myself away from it. This way of creation teaches jinn and humans what is harmful or wrong for them and what is useful or right to confirm for them. The creation of  these seemingly undesired events are for the teaching of conscious Jinn and human beings. Thus, we will not attribute what we deem bad to God.  Any event that harms me or is contrary to my expectations, I label them as bad, they are my perception. Interpreting the events as harmful and bad is only human perception. However, the creation aspect of these events is not bad. Another thing to realize is that these events only harm the human body, not one’s spirit or humanity. These events may be bad if we do not avoid them for our worldly life but they are not bad for eternal life. Rather than avoiding them if we label them as bad, something that is intended by God or if we follow the Satanic whisperings then they will be harmful for us either bodily or spiritually. In fact, the purpose of creation is to teach me who I am and who my Creator is. 

For example, a lot of people are killed in the creation of an earthquake which is harmful to the bodily existence relating to worldly life. The creation of the earthquake aims to educate me to be concerned about my eternal life. Another example is the earth is continuously rotating and revolving in an orbit, it is in continuous motion which means that we are always traveling whether we realize it or not. Similar to the experience we get by sitting on an airplane and traveling, although it may not seem so as we are simply sitting on a seat. When there is some turbulence, we realize that “Oh, we are moving and traveling.” This is how the earthquake turbulence can be seen as, to make us realize that we are not static but moving, continuously being renewed in our existence together with all the other beings. For a very short period of time at some particular location, the earth is made to go through this turbulence. The mountains, and land are placed over hot magma which tells us how fragile earth is. The globe of earth doesn’t have to be stable as we are used to, it is moving, employed for us by its Maker. How wonderful this creation of earth is that we are comfortably living on despite all the movements. The occasional instability and turbulence tells us that we cannot guarantee our life to be secure according to our desire but according to the Will of the Creator of the universe who teaches us and educates us to know who we are and who He is. We are creatures being entertained as guests in this world. Anything that I may perceive as unkind or ill is not intended by my Lord to be ill or harmful. This is the conclusion that we arrive at from the teachings of the Qur’an: Although you may see something as ill but it is not really an ill if you are careful about it. Every event is created with wisdom and purpose for your education.

وَأَنَّا مِنَّا ٱلصَّـٰلِحُونَ وَمِنَّا دُونَ ذَٰلِكَ ۖ كُنَّا طَرَآئِقَ قِدَدًۭا

72:11 Some of us are righteous, but others are less so; we follow different paths.

Everyone follows a different path, they have different ways of living in this world. What is the significant news we learn from this verse? I understand that some of us are righteous and others less so and some may even be arrogant and vicious. Why does this verse mention that we follow different paths ? It is important to pay attention to the phrase “طَرَآئِقَ قِدَدًۭا” translated as “different paths” where the word “طَرَآئِقَ” (paths) is in plural form. People follow different paths so what would this mean to me? People explain the meaning of their living, their existence in different ways. When it comes to the wrong interpretation, the explanation varies, there are many options. However, when it comes to the right interpretation, the explanation has one path, there is only one truth. 

In terms of the wrong interpretations, there are many theories that are presented to us by material scientists and philosophers where they are not accepting the Creator of the universe. Whatever theory that they present to us keeps changing because none of the theories can be proven. They use the language such as: “it seems to be a reasonable explanation” to convince heedless people. 

When we listen to the Revelation, it talks about one thing mainly, that the universe has a Creator who is unlike anything of the universe. The universe is His act, His work, and is presented to us, where the Actor cannot be found within His act. All the qualities in the acts happening in the universe represent the qualities of the Actor, Maker, Creator as the Lord of the universe. He creates the universe in such a way that whatever is created is good for us if only we pay attention to the purpose in their creation rather than simply claiming that it is “bad” for me, so its creation is bad as well. 

The word “ٱلصَّـٰلِحُونَ” mentioning the “righteous” is also in plural form, referring to a number of people. Many people claim to believe in God, His prophets, speak about Revelation by referring to it but come up with different interpretations. Is this not plurality? Although their understandings vary, their interpretations are based on their needs and expectations. Someone may like one interpretation of the source based on their situation and environment they find themselves in, another may like another interpretation of the same source based on his conditions. We see that creation is taking in innumerable different ways, such as stars and galaxies are created in a different way. When it comes to insects, birds and other animals, they are all created in a different way. For example, a kangaroo is an amazing creation having certain features, same for a huge elephant which uses its trunk to grab food and water for its nourishment. Their existence, qualities point to the One source of existence. The rest of the universe such as plants, earth and seas all point to, witness to the same truth. The interpretations of Revelation, understanding of prophetic life in different conditions varies but they do not deny that they are coming from the Creator’s guidance, a single point of reference. Whereas, the materialists come up with different theories on how the universe comes into existence, they do not have a reference point as the believers have that is only One and never changes.

There is a hadith narration where some people asked the prophet (pbuh): are there any Satan among people? We know that Satan as presented in the Qur’an is a created being referred to as a Jinn that does not have a material body but has free will to choose. The Jinn who choose not to believe in the Creator, not submit to the Creator are called Satan. The prophet (pbuh) replied to the question that disbelieving human beings are more harmful than Jinn Satan. In fact, “Jinn Satan” whispers to us something that is unacceptable. Human beings use many ways to influence other human beings, not only with their ideologies, theories about existence. They encourage via fashion, a normalization process in society. All the weird, unnatural attitudes become normal in society and the ones growing up in this civilization are exposed to them as something that is normal and acceptable. The new generation takes that weirdness as the reality of life. There are many ways, many means used by human Satan to corrupt mindless people. Those who try to deliver the message of the Qur’an and prophetic message, they come up with different interpretations according to the differing living conditions of people. Because human beings are created beings, they cannot comprehend the whole Absolute Truth but as much as they can grasp of it they understand it. All believers refer their partial understanding of Truth to the same Absolute Truth, God. This is exactly the same in creation. Although the Absolute qualities of the Creator are the same, how these qualities manifest in creation are in multiple ways as to the number of creatures. 

We should understand that in the right interpretation of existence there is only one point of reference, which is belief in God, that never changes whereas in the wrongful interpretation of existence, there are many contradictory points of reference which the Qur’an calls as misguidance.

وَأَنَّا ظَنَنَّآ أَن لَّن نُّعْجِزَ ٱللَّهَ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ وَلَن نُّعْجِزَهُۥ هَرَبًۭا

72:12 We have come to know that we cannot escape on earth from God, nor can we elude His grasp by escaping,

This verse portrays the innocent attitude of Jinn which is also similar in human beings. After hearing the message, they become aware of the Lord of the universe and confess that one cannot escape on earth from God. There is no way to ignore the reality of the existence of God. We cannot get away from the will of the Creator as He wills for us to exist. We can have no say in our existence, we cannot stop it, change the direction of our existence. The creation side of the universe completely depends on the Will of the Creator of the universe. 

Creation is not taking place arbitrarily. The Creator of the universe in a way says that: “I will not change my order of creation arbitrarily. I will create only what you ask me to create for you, I promise that I will create.” This is what is referred to in the Qur’an as God’s way of creating never changes. This point is missed by unbelievers who see the universe as it appears to be to the biased observers, taking it for granted that the universe has to be in this way as it is always the same. Why do we need a Creator? They never think how the universe can exist in such a way that keeps changing but the orderliness of the way that each being in the universe never changes. They say that things are changing by themselves. Is there any evidence for the universe to exist in such an orderly way? The things have no quality to themselves to be responsible for the change. They are under the “grasp” of their Creator.

Whenever we look at anything, however we try to understand its existence, we cannot escape concluding that: “It must be created by a Creator of the universe”. There is no other way of explaining the existence of any part or piece of the universe. Everything that we look at declares that its existence is from the Creator of the universe, they all say: “my creator is the Creator of the universe”. There is no way to escape from this conclusion.

وَأَنَّا لَمَّا سَمِعْنَا ٱلْهُدَىٰٓ ءَامَنَّا بِهِۦ ۖ فَمَن يُؤْمِنۢ بِرَبِّهِۦ فَلَا يَخَافُ بَخْسًۭا وَلَا رَهَقًۭا

72:13 As soon as we heard the guidance, we came to believe in it: and he who believes in his Lord need never have fear of loss or injustice.

When we hear the news from Revelation, the very basis of the news is that the Creator is Absolute, does not lack any of His qualities, manifests all His attributes at the same time everywhere. One has no choice but to conclude that the qualities seen in created beings point to the Owner of those qualities. For example, just look at the existence of the wing of a fly, one will conclude that it can only be the creation of the Creator of the whole universe who knows the balance, the arrangement, the size, weight, decoration, structure to adjust the creation accordingly. Everything is taken care of by Him. I should just relax and leave my existence to Him.

We know that the universe is created in such a perfect way that nothing in existence is lacking any quality. No one can say that the elephant is created so big with a trunk, making his life so difficult. There is no sign in creation of anything that we can claim this is injustice.  Injustice is only  based on human choices and perception; everything else is perfectly created. As far as God’s will is concerned, everything has a just right to exist, providing everything perfectly according to what they need, with nothing missing at all. 

Every being in the universe is taken care of with perfect Justice. We should be comfortable in our understanding of the All just One and feel secure in trusting Him. We should not worry about God’s treatment of things because everything is treated justly. Our responsibility is to work on our shortcomings and ask for God’s help in overcoming them, insha’Allah.