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Section Fatiha, part 2

Section Fatiha, part 2

Recap: We last spoke about how the Quran was originally compiled into a book form. The flow of the verses were instructed by the Prophet (pbuh) to his companions as to which verse goes before or after to form a Section.  Soon after the death of the Prophet (pbuh), the sequence of the Sections of the Quran were assembled and given to Omar’s sister who was a widow with children the Prophet married her and took care of her children as a stepfather. She was a very trusted person. These parchments of camel skin were given to her. There were many other pieces in other companions of the Prophet but this one was the complete Qur’an. Twelve years later during the Caliph Uthman, these copies were given to famous companions who memorized the whole Qur’an by heart as they heard it from the Prophet (pbuh) and were appointed to make sure that these parchments were written correctly. After scrutinizing all of the available sources alongside with their memorizations, they arrived at a consensus at one final copy and this copy was agreed upon by all of the companions and accepted as the master source. Then the Caliph Uthman ordered the most trusted scribes to make four copies of this master source and sent them to the centers of the Muslim population all over the world in that era. This written form of the Qur’an is called (mushaaf), easy to be accessible by people. The companions unanimously agreed upon the sequences of the Sections of this book form of (mushaaf) having Section Fatiha (the Opener) as the first section of the Quran. In book form, it became easy for people to access the message of the Quran, and it would facilitate the maintenance of the original Quran.  The pronunciation of the original Arabic was dependent on the people’s language as the dialect differed from place to place, which is quite human. The Prophet (pbuh) did not express any criticism of that, because we cannot change people’s accents.  

The first verse of Section Fatiha is بِسۡمِ اللّٰہِ الرَّحۡمٰنِ الرَّحِیۡمِ, “bi ismi Allah-ar-rahman ar-raheem”, In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Ever-Merciful, what does it mean?  We discussed some aspects of “bismillah” pertaining to its significance.  

Do we have to say it verbally as well?  Yes, it is not enough to have it in the heart only, for the spirit needs the body to practice its worship i.e. acknowledgement of its Creator.  We discussed that whatever feelings we have in our spirit, it must be put into expression and execution in physical form.  Also, not only human beings say “bismillah”, but all of creation proclaim “bismillah” i.e. everything declares the qualities of God. The way that our existence comes into being demonstrates “bismillah”.  It means that I am coming into existence by the Knowledge, Will, Power, Mercy of my Creator. Otherwise, I cannot come into existence by myself or accidentally.

We further mentioned why “bi-ism-i-Allah” and not “bi-Allah”?  We cannot communicate with God directly, but only through the manifestations of His qualities here.  When I say that “I believe in God”, the statement is correct, but how can I be sure about that statement with certainty that indeed this creation must have an Owner?  We must look at His work manifested all around us. By looking at the way that I exist, my existence says that I must have been given existence by the One who put me in connection with the whole universe.  It demonstrates that only the One who created the universe can be my Creator.  Furthermore, any actions that I do declares “bismillah”. Only the One who created the universe gives me the desire to speak, for example.  


بِسۡمِ اللّٰہِ الرَّحۡمٰنِ الرَّحِیۡمِ

1:1 “In the name of the Most Merciful, the Eternally Merciful.”

In the way that the universe is coming into existence, do we see any gap?  No, there is no gap as we see smooth continuous creation.  That is, no two moments are the same and no two moments are the cause of existence of the next moment.  There must be a Conscious Cause that gives existence to everything at every moment.  Unfortunately, we mostly miss this reality and go on to conclude that the universe is given existence by God, but everything seems to be continuing by itself, like a winding clock, where someone turned on the knob and now the clock is ticking on its own by itself.  We must really ponder over the existence of this universe.  The way that creation is happening is like the roll of a traditional camera film.  Each frame is independent and separate from the other frames, although they are attached; however, when the film is rolled the movement is so dynamic that you cannot see any breaks in between moment 1 and moment 2 for example, hence creation is happening with no gaps.  Let’s say that I was to move a pencil with my hand from the table to the book.  You see my hand acting as the conscious cause of such movement.  Now, without my hand being there, can the pencil move from the table to the book?  No.  That is what the eye sees.  Furthermore, the pencil is subject to constant change and decay even if left on the table.  Similarly, the way creation is brought into existence needs a Conscious Agent including its continuous change or movement. Although, we do not see the agent acting on the thing.

Let us take our own example to understand this delicate point meticulously.  Are you changing by yourself?  No.  Look at your picture from 5 years ago, you look much younger than today.  What is Causing this change?  Is your body from yesterday changing your body from today?  No.  But your being from yesterday is different from today.  It is as if I am continuing by myself; am I?  No, I see a continuous creation indeed in my being, but my body has no quality to decide that I will have another existence the next moment.  At every moment, my existence is being given, and it is given by the One who created the whole universe because He is renewing me within the context of the whole universe.  In my existence, whatever qualities that I see right now in my bodily existence and feelings, are the manifestations of the qualities of my Creator.  What about my feelings?  Do our feelings change with time?  Yes. It means that the whole universe is given a new existence at every moment continuously in a new form, which may look like previous existence, but is not the same.  Only when we see the time-lapse videos of a small sampling coming into existence as a large tree do we realize how smoothly creation is taking place.  

Let us get into the micro level.  Can the cells in my body be the cause of change of my body?  No. Do these cells have free choice?  No. Cells are essentially matter.  Does matter have any knowledge or the quality to produce life?  No, matter is given existence and life.  So how can we say that matter can give existence to life for it itself has no life by itself!?  What people say is that “it seems to be that the cells are producing qualities”, we must be watchful of such tricky languages!

Let us take the example of a mirror.  We see some reflective light coming through it.  Can the mirror reflect any light from itself?  No.  Do we see any quality in the glass of the mirror to be the producer of any light? No. It is just a glass, where light is reflected on it.  Now, if someone says that look, the light is coming from the mirror, I am showing you that it does! This is how we are being tricked by materialist scientists claiming that they are talking about “scientific facts” whereas religions talk about myths; because belief in God, the Creator, is not with the “mirror of the beings” so they present it as believing in the Creator to be nothing but a “myth”. Do the materialists scientist show any qualities to be the source of existence of the qualities reflected in the things? Never. They only claim that “Look, the light is coming from the mirror!” How ridiculous it is to claim that “the qualities seem to be inherited in the glass from many generations before” as a “scientific fact”!

The message of the Prophet (pbuh) comes to us and says that the very existence of the universe together with its each and every part announces the names of God i.e. “bismillah”.  In other words, Revelation comes in and asks us to verify, is there any quality in the mirror to produce light?  There must be a source of light reflecting on it.  Mirror has no quality to produce light, but we see light coming from the mirror, that is a scientific fact (tricky language); however, the glass (matter) cannot be the source of existence and producer of the light that we see reflected from it.  The Prophetic message challenges our thought process, asking us to demonstrate the qualities within matter that can be the source of its life which requires knowledge, free will, power, mercy, arranging, giving shapes…all the qualities that we observe.  Any logical mind will conclude that matter has nothing, no qualities of its own.  The way that matter is made demonstrates the Names of God (the Light Giver, The Life Giver, The producer of Knowledge, the Powerful One, the Conscious Cause, the Arranger, The Shape Giver…) at every moment.  Even an atheist’s body constantly demonstrates “bismillah”, that I am coming into existence in the Name of the One who creates the whole universe.  Similarly, everything in the universe is a mirror announcing “bismillah” through the way it is created.  

As human beings, our logical conclusion is that nothing of this universe is emitting light by itself, and the qualities are not coming from anything of this universe (lailaha).  Light and these qualities reflected in the universe can only come from Somewhere not of the nature of this universe, and therefore, we confirm with the Prophetic teachings, the Quran, that there must be Someone who is manifesting, demonstrating and introducing His qualities to us (illallah).   This Someone (illallah) is unimaginable by the human mind, but human reasoning necessitates to acknowledge His existence; hence we refer to it as “Ghaib” or “Absolute Source”, in the language of all the religions called “God”.

That is what the Quran refers to by saying that everything in creation comes in the Name of God, which is manifesting His qualities.  The way that things exist, announces “bismillah” i.e. “bi-ismi-Allah” (In-the Name-of-God) i.e. announcing the Absolute Qualities of their Creator.  Now, the second verse will define who God (Allah) is, i.e. as the Lord of the universe.  “Allah” will be qualified by the Quran itself, where God will probe us to ponder over, what do we mean by when we say “Allah”?  He is qualified as “Rabbul-Alameen”, the Lord of the universe.  Every being declares the qualities of the Lord of the universe.  

Let us take the example of a bee.  If you try to catch it, it will be ready to defend itself, even may sting you if you come as a threat.  If you try to chase it out of your apartment for example, it will run away from you.  Some will say that the bee has instinctual knowledge to be like this.  But who inspired the bee with such consciousness?  We should not be deluded with what the eyes see, otherwise we will swallow the materialist interpretations (tricky language).  For example, the scientific fact is that if you rub two stones, fire comes out.  But do the stones have the power to give existence to the fire?  It is not an issue of not believing in the scientific facts, it is about questioning the Cause of existence of the fire.  Everything is created as it is, the air is created as it is, fire is created as it is, human beings are created with their qualities.  Can you say that your intelligence is produced out of matter?  Do the neurons in your brain, so intricately connected, have the qualities to communicate themselves to get the blood and oxygen flowing?  Similarly, the bricks of a building are deliberately arranged by a conscious designer.  In and of themselves, the brick has no qualities to arrange themselves.  We conclude that an external agent, the designer, is demonstrating the architectural qualities of the building although we have never seen the architect of that building, and our eyes do not have to see it, our minds see it. Belief in the Creator of the universe is seen by our minds, but belief in “matter” as to be the source of the qualities reflected on it is what materialists’ eyes see. Everything is in connection with each other but arranged by a Conscious Creator.  How can unconscious matter communicate with another unconscious matter although they are perfectly connected with each other?!  Unfortunately, our minds have been trained by secular studies to be looking at the “scientific facts” only but not at what the existence of each being is announcing.  Hence, we must reflect on this, question the Source of existence of anything and train our minds, so that we can be comfortable with how everything declares:  “in the name of God” through its existence.  

Look at animate beings (plants and animals), and see if the qualities are coming from their material side?  The way that things are coming into existence flawlessly with no gaps, may make us think that they seem to be the result of constant laws operating in the universe.  The universe is created as a package with the orderly creation.  The orderly creation (what we observe) of the universe does not change but everything in the package (the universe) continuously changes.  Who is changing the content of the package?  If we miss this point, then we are bound to think that the universe is continuously working like a winding clock automatically. Again, who is changing the content of the package?  To change the content of the package of the universe, you must have the Power to do it.  Matter does not have any qualities to demonstrate that.  It may sound strange because we are not used to looking at the universe from this perspective.  Great Muslim scholars used to look at the universe this way, and wrote books about how the universe is continuously announcing the qualities of its Creator.  These books are available in big libraries globally collecting dust.  Sadly, this teaching of creation is the forgotten heritage of the Islamic thinking, alas, what preoccupies us now is far from these thoughts on belief foundations.  For example, no one really knows why one should pray?  We cannot unthinkingly say that it is because God ordered us, rather this requires the establishment of the belief foundations i.e. belief in God, Angels, Messengers, and the Hereafter.  Again, with “bismillah” is the start to the belief foundations, where everything is declaring that I am coming into existence only in the Names of God.  We must renew our understanding of the concept of God through the Quran in conjunction with the evidence from the universe.

Now, we are ready to look into some verses that introduce God along with His names.

ٱللَّهُ لَآ إِلَـٰهَ إِلَّا هُوَ ۖ لَهُ ٱلْأَسْمَآءُ ٱلْحُسْنَىٰ

20:8 “God: There is no god but Him, only to Him belong the most excellent names (qualities) .”

The Speaker in the Quran, God, introduces Himself as, “I am the Speaker, and my name is Allah”. We cannot know much about the qualities of who “Allah” is, for it must be accompanied.  The Speaker introduces Himself through negation i.e. there is no God, but He. This sounds very strange that I will explain to you who God is by saying “there is no god”. It can be understood as “you will not find anything that can give existence in the universe, whatever you think is the cause of something, it is not.” The verse follows with the word “هُوَ” to express “except Him”.  In this context, “Him” implies the Speaker Himself.  We will read it in this way: “Apart from the Creator of the whole universe, you cannot find anything that can be the source of the existence of anything”.  

Please note that the Quran must be read in a confirmative way with evidence, rather than an imitative way.  The dialogue between the Quran and its reader should look something like the below.

The Quran: you will find no God here in the universe where you are created by Me. 
Me: Really, but God is the One who gives existence. Is there no existence Giver here in the universe?  Let me investigate.
The Quran: Do you think the Earth creates the tree?
Me: Earth is just dumb matter, with no quality of its own.  Same with water, it has no consciousness and will of its own.  Even the air has no qualities of its own. They are all subject to the will of their Creator.  Cells essentially consist of matter which has no qualities to give existence to anything. I would ask who then is operating over these things and giving existence to them because matter, in and of itself, has no quality to give existence?  Some say it is in the DNA.  Think about it, can DNA be the knowledge producer of these qualities?!  Just as you look at this building, you conclude that an Architect designed it.  The concierge gives you a blueprint of the building.  Now, can the blueprint be the Architect of the building?  No. Similarly, who can be the designer of this blueprint and make the universe?  The Quran says that there is no God in the universe, and the DNA cannot be the creator of a living body just like the blueprint of a building cannot be the creator of the building. 

DNA is like a book made up of four fundamental building blocks called nucleotides. Each nucleotide consists of three components. All  of these components are nothing but “mindless matter.” Out of these components we get information that would roughly equal 3,000 books of average size. Is there any way for any human mind to confirm that these building blocks are the creator of this information? Think of a book written with a certain number of letters and someone claims that the information is produced by these letters through inheriting the information from their earlier generations and developing them and writing the information of 3,000 books throughout the 13.8 billion years of the age of the universe? Do they have any quality of power, knowledge, free will, wisdom to communicate with each other… and write these books for each species of animate being, all of which are perfectly functioning within the universe? These building blocks are nothing but unintelligent matter, they have no option other than how they are given existence by their Creator!  They can only be the mirrors reflecting the qualities of their Absolute Creator letting the intelligent human beings know that the Creator of the universe knows what He has created in the past, creating now and will create in the future. He is telling us that we should know that our Creator knows what He is creating. 

The way that the universe is created is in a perfect order, and the Conscious Creator is creating it in an order, and this order does not change.  Everything is changing but the way it is created  is not changing though our eyes see it as change.  In other words, the creation is taking place in an order.  The orderliness of this orderly creation is not changing, but whatever is existing in this orderliness is continuously changing.  Do you think that there is an independent order which creates the things or are the things given existence in an orderly creation?  We must change our conditioned mind.  The things are created in an orderly fashion.  That is why the orderliness in creation does not change.  SIMPLY PUT, THE ORDERLY CREATING WAY DOES NOT CHANGE WHILE THE THINGS ARE GIVEN EXISTENCE. The things that are created in an orderly fashion are changing.  By What?  Nothing of this universe, but an Absolute Source of Existence.  

We may refer to the change happening in an order as “natural laws”.  Sadly, most of us are born in believing families, which dragged us into accepting God, and we say that there must be a God because the universe seems to be wonderful, so I believe in God.  But when it comes to science class, we say that it seems that things are evolving by themselves.  That is why the Quran asks us to re-think about how to understand God, where it pinpoints that if you want to know who God is, first know that there is no god in the universe.  It sounds like an oxymoron.  However, the Speaker in the Quran is drawing our attention to realize that there is no god in the universe; nothing that has any quality which brings itself into existence accidently and acts independently.  They all have to be as they are given existence at every moment in a different form. 

Again, the Quran must be read as a guide to be confirmed. Just like a GPS that takes you from point A to point B, where you confirm the validity of its usefulness after reaching your destination, an experiential evidence in order to trust the GPS.  Similarly, the Quran speaks to me with evidence in the universe, guiding me as a created being where I must realize that nothing in this universe has the quality to give existence to anything. It is then that I can start communicating with the Speaker.  Let us continue the dialogue between the Quran and its reader.

The Quran: If you can confirm that there is nothing in this universe that has the power to create anything, then we can proceed with “huwa” (except Him). Do you wonder who can be the Creator of this wonderful universe then? If you have this question then we can continue, but if you do not have this question then I cannot help you any more.
Me: Who is He (huwa)?
Now, the Quran says that I will explain it to you.
The Quran: You confirm that the whole universe (and everything in it) is perfect, and it is operated by Something not of this universe.  Do you want to know what that Something is?
Me: Yes.
The Quran: All the qualities manifested in each being, the Names belong to Him, the Creator of the entire universe.

Going back to the bee example from above, the bee is created in the context of the whole universe, i.e. air, sunlight, shape, color, decoration, and consciousness to protect its life, to take care of its eggs and larva.  The order of the universe cannot be disintegrated from the rest of the universe.  The bee can only be created by Something that creates the whole universe.  Every being in this universe declares that I exist as the result of the One who created the whole universe and located me within the context of the whole universe as perfectly functioning.  Whatever the qualities that you find in the existence of each being, that quality belongs to He, that One (huwa).

We need to do more exercises with what was covered today to train ourselves with questioning the Source of Existence of any quality that we observe.  Next week, we will work on the process of confirmation that the verse of the Quran conveys relating to belief practice in our lives.

هُوَ ٱللَّهُ ٱلْخَـٰلِقُ ٱلْبَارِئُ ٱلْمُصَوِّرُ ۖ لَهُ ٱلْأَسْمَآءُ ٱلْحُسْنَىٰ ۚ يُسَبِّحُ لَهُۥ مَا فِى ٱلسَّمَـٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضِ ۖ وَهُوَ ٱلْعَزِيزُ ٱلْحَكِيمُ

Hashr, 59:24 “He is God: the Creator, the Originator, the Form Giver.  Only to Him belong the most excellent names (qualities). Everything in the heavens and earth glorifies Him: He is the Almighty, the Wise.”




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