Section Ya-Seen – Part 22

We will continue with our study of Section Ya-Seen of the Qur’an where we last investigated the verse emphasizing the various benefits we receive in our living and asking the reader, “Will they not be grateful?” We must realize that everything is prepared for us for which we must be grateful to the One providing them for satisfying our needs. These examples are mainly bodily benefits, but at the same time, the purpose of the Qur’an is by reminding these obvious favors for us to address my human needs for the benefit of my spirit. I must ask: What news do I receive from these benefits I enjoy? What is their existence telling me? The phrase “أَفَلَا يَشْكُرُونَ” translated as “Will they not be grateful?” I will be thankful not only for the satisfaction of my bodily needs but also my spiritual needs. To whom must I be thankful? The One who provides them to me, the One who creates everything for my benefit. He introduces Himself to me telling me who He is, that He knows me. I get to see the real Mercy in acknowledging Him. 

In this world, I learnt that the animals are serving me, and I am thankful to the One who feeds my body but what will happen when I die? All the enjoyment that I experienced here, I will lose all of it. Human beings understand that if I lose everything at death, is it worth being thankful for it? That is why we must pay attention to this gratefulness aspect mentioned in the verse as it carries over to the next verse as follow:

وَٱتَّخَذُوا۟ مِن دُونِ ٱللَّهِ ءَالِهَةًۭ لَّعَلَّهُمْ يُنصَرُونَ

36:74 Yet, they have taken gods other than God, that perhaps they might be helped.

The previous verses were mentioning the different blessings including animals that are created for our benefit. Now suddenly the subject seems to have changed in this verse from being grateful “أَفَلَا يَشْكُرُونَ”. 

One amazing aspect of the Qur’an is in the letter “و” which is usually translated as “and”. The letter “و” has at least 20 different meanings in the Qur’an depending on the context. Here in this verse, it is translated as “yet”. It means that despite all these presentations, all these blessings being provided, one has no option but to be grateful to the Provider.  If I am not grateful, then I fall into this category of being arrogant.  

The subject thus carries on from being grateful to our Creator in this world where there are consequences that put me in certain situations. This understanding may be missed by the simplistic reading of these verses either in Arabic or as a translation. We must educate and train ourselves to confirm the message of the Qur’an for our practical lives right now.

The question is to whom are we grateful? There are many people and things who help us with our bodily needs. We appreciate them. However, is that enough? Yes, it is necessary but not enough for a human being as there will be a dead end to the body. The Qur’an diverts our attention to our spiritual needs and satisfaction through the meaningful creation of these examples mentioned. The previous verses mentioned meat and milk not for material purposes only but to make my spirit question and realize who is preparing all these bounties for me. By looking at creations such as the cow eating grass and I get delicious milk, cheese, meat etc. Who is arranging all this? My attention goes from the wonderful dairy products to the One who is arranging all this for me. That is why it asks, why do you take gods other than God? Why do you take created beings as the source of existence of what you are benefitting from? Can anything other than the Creator of the universe have the quality to aim at your needs and arrange the creation of all these perfect, beautiful, beneficial animals and plants etc.?

The phrase “لَّعَلَّهُمْ يُنصَرُونَ”, translated as “they might be helped”. I can receive help from a cow as some say the cow is producing milk, bees are producing honey. They can use words to make them sound scientific to fool people such as: “the bee is given instincts to produce honey”. The Qur’an emphasizes that one must pay attention to the details of creation and see the purposeful action where the cows and other animals are deliberately created for me so that I may learn their source of existence. I understand now the verses mentioning the meat and milk blessings for me are pointing out that they are for my spiritual satisfaction. 

Today’s civilization is very involved in the materialist perspective of the world, they are eager to take care of their body and that of others. What is the point of helping a person who will die sooner or later? Even helping the bodily needs of others must have a satisfactory reason for us. While we are helping, we must appreciate the sense we are given to help others and be grateful to the One who has given us this sense and the opportunity to help others. It’s a gift from my Lord to realize that we are given this sense to take care of the needy and to help them. I must be grateful to my Lord for this, as all of this is for the sake of realizing who can be the Creator of the universe. The message of the Qur’an invites us to pay attention to this matter. We don’t need the Qur’an to tell us how to benefit for our bodily needs, which He already tells me by creating the universe in a perfectly orderly manner that teaches me how to do that. I don’t need any extra information as I can learn many things by investigating the universe. For example, look at how many varieties of cheese they can make from milk. Look at all the different transportation facilities we are using now. We should be really amazed at the simple matter used and the sophisticated results we get such as the cow eating grass and drinking water and then the wonderful creation of milk and then cheeses and meat, skin, bones… By observing all these miraculous qualities in the universe, how can I not be thankful to my Creator.

Are we not to expect or ask anyone to help us other than God? If we hope that something or someone will help us other than God, then are we taking false “gods”? We understand the main god of this age is “nature” which we must be extremely careful about. Yes, we do need bodily and more importantly spiritual satisfaction, and no one can claim themselves to be self-sufficient. Can one keep their life and sustain their existence by themselves? If you tell someone that if you have any questions on the Qur’an, go and ask the experts who can help you by giving you references from the Qur’an. If the person says “I don’t need any middleman interfering between me and my God; I can think of creation, how wonderful it is, and I communicate with my Lord through it. Why do I need to interpret His Revelation?”, he gets no help. When the same person has a physical problem, he goes to consult a specialist doctor. When it comes to religion, those people don’t want to seek consultation and claim self-sufficiency. Whereas for our bodily needs, we continuously research spending hours and days and run to specialists. This is a general condition nowadays where we spend so much time and energy on our bodily needs and not much on our spiritual needs. Isn’t this arrogance on our part if we do this? 

When it comes to our spiritual needs, we need to ask the experts. I must benefit from the experts at my level and keep progressing further. It’s not enough that I graduated from primary school, but I must continue my education further as we do in this world. I must be modest and admit my reality that I am created here to learn. In order to learn, we need teachers and experts in different areas depending on where one needs to be educated. 

If we do not acknowledge our Master and try to satisfy our feelings by ourselves within this limited world, it is impossible to satisfy them to have a satisfactory life. One may play the role of a happy person, but it is impossible to be a happy human being with the temporary solutions that many bodily experts provide. I can understand that human beings are the most precious creatures, and most needy of His guidance. As far as I am concerned, I am the masterpiece of God. The Qur’an speaks to human beings, and I must use the correct method of studying the Qur’an. Many are not aware of the method of reading Divine Scriptures that needs special education; there are principles. Unfortunately, nowadays there is not much passion in further improving one’s spiritual education. Just reading the literal translation is not enough, it gives a general idea that needs to be built upon further. One must work on them to make sense of our living.  Everyone will start at their level and develop as much as they can. 

How do we understand “la ilaha illallah” along with this verse? We must study every verse having the background of confirming the primary message of the Qur’an, “la ilaha illallah”. We must ask where is that in the verse? For example, in the previous verse, while we are benefiting from milk, I must not think that it is the milk or cow that is satisfying my needs, but I must be thankful to the One who has arranged all this for me. It is a conscious act of creation and none of those things of the universe are conscious to be aware of my needs. With this method we understand that the Qur’an is mainly addressing my human needs even when it mentions the satisfaction of bodily needs being taken care of. Through taking care of our bodily needs, our attention is taken to the Source of Existence of the creation and all the arrangements that are made. The actions need to be created, things need to be created, we must turn our gaze to the Source of existence of the whole universe. 

لَا يَسْتَطِيعُونَ نَصْرَهُمْ وَهُمْ لَهُمْ جُندٌۭ مُّحْضَرُونَ

36:75 but [these imaginary gods or concepts] cannot help them, yet they stand like warriors ready to defend them.

In a simple way, this verse explains the reality of this world. Whatever we take as a help is created itself and has no power, will, knowledge to create anything. These imaginary gods cannot help them. Nowadays, they can be theories and imaginary concepts. The phrase “وَهُمْ لَهُمْ جُندٌۭ مُّحْضَرُونَ” translated as “they stand like warrior ready to defend them” is an interesting concept that the Qur’an is introducing to us. These imaginary concepts are being defended aggressively. Some scholars explain this verse as describing the first recipients of the Quranic Revelation were defending their idols as narrated by history. They came from different tribes that had given names such as “Manat, Laat, Uzza” as the representatives of God acting as symbols to their tribes; they claimed that idol as representing God to be the protector of their tribe. They were not able to describe God as above and beyond their imagination to be an Absolute God, hence they used created things as symbols to represent Him. This is the explanation scholars gave according to their times.

How do we understand according to our times? The question is: Do we know anyone in the world these days that stands like a warrior ready to defend imaginary gods? We are very accustomed to the terms “natural development” and “instincts” used by materialistic scientists to explain the universe. We keep hearing this, and this has been a part of our whole education system. Do they defend this explanation? Yes, they do. We should be careful not to be confused with their scientifically termed interpretations. Discoveries of how the orderly creation is taking place may be the fact, if it is correctly detected. But their interpretations of how these findings came into existence is totally different from these facts. While they are interpreting they mix up with the fact of creation and label it as “randomness, adaptation, natural selection, mutation, trying to fit into the grand order to survive etc.” all are happening naturally by themselves, although they have no conscious, no will, no power to give existence to the following stage of their being. None of them have any sign of knowledge, power or will to choose as they prefer, but have to follow in the way the act of creation is taking place by an Absolute Creator of the entire universe to come into existence. These scientists are only busy with making worldly life better. This is similar to how mostly every institutionalized religion is involved in helping people address their worldly, bodily needs by mixing with some flavor of spiritual satisfaction. There is a minority of religious groups that are concerned with satisfying the spiritual needs of human beings by providing intellectually perceivable rational evidence and would address belief matters. Christians are usually not concerned with belief matters but to evangelize people to the Christian tradition. In Islam, evangelizing or Islamization must not be the purpose at all. Converting people is not the point but helping people know who they are in this world, making them understand the meaning of their being in this world would be the first step. 

What makes a human being different from a cat or an Elephant? Being bigger or smaller in size, the fact that they communicate with each other, eat, sleep and mate, they regenerate is not the topic of our discussion here. What is the difference between a human being and an animal then? As a human, do I need anything else?  The second step would be to make them realize who can be the source of their existence. The third step is to get guidance from this source, the Creator. I must look for that guidance. The fourth step would be to investigate the Scriptures which claim to have the answer, only then will you find that the Qur’an satisfactorily provides the answers to this very essential need of human beings. Let the people identify themselves by going through these stages. Identification through a community and friendship is not enough but one must be helped through these stages which are a good start for any human being including Muslims as well. The purpose must not be to support their traditional understanding of religion but upgrade it based on belief. We need to know who we are, to see that neither we nor any other things exist by themselves and need a Lord. We need to study the Qur’an as guidance from the Creator and be satisfied in my feelings with its message. Only then can I exclaim that I submit myself to the Lord of the universe and nothing else. This process is the secure way to be satisfied and is worth spending our time on.

If someone insults God, should we not defend God or show them resistance? The Qur’an mentions for a person to do “جِهَاد” (jihad) referenced in several verses under different contexts. We need to notice that in war conditions, the word used is “قِتَال” (qital) not “جِهَاد” (Jihad). 

What are we expected to do in “جِهَاد”? The Qur’an keeps mentioning to perform “جِهَاد” without which there is no Paradise. Depending on the conditions, one form of “جِهَاد” is the struggle within myself against egoistic tendencies that are real, and the other is to make “tableegh”, i.e. take the message to deliver to its destination. Both must be applicable at the same time in my living. What is the destination of the message that I must deliver to? Let’s take the prophetic example where he (pbuh) delivered the message to people including his enemies. One of the main “sunnah” (exemplary practices) of Prophetic life is to make “tableegh” which was his prophetic mission. If someone wonders what was the profession of the prophets? They were involved in delivering the message to all people.

Having any sort of reaction, shouting to convey the truth does not help the truth but harms it. If someone insults the “mushaf,” written copy of the message of the Qur’an, they are only insulting paper as they don’t believe what is written on them as being the words of God. One must ignore anyone who cannot make the distinction between a book and the words of God. The other insult comes from the denial of materialist scientists in their interpretations of the existence of the universe. What can we do? Killing the body does not serve us any purpose, one must “kill” the ideas that contradict reality of the universe. Convey the truth “tableegh” to them in a way that they can understand, which is the meaning of “Jihad.”.

By repeating the values as a narrative is how some public speakers are presenting the message. They transfer their own values according to what they themselves see as valuable, not according to what the people need. This simply reinforces and arouses emotions in believing people to what they already have knowledge of. They feel that they don’t need anything else, they are already perfect as they follow the message of the last prophet (pbuh). Although these kinds of efforts are appreciated as they help the believers consolidate their already existing belief, the general body of the people must be educated according to what they need within the conditions of this day and age, which may involve starting from scratch. We must learn how to present the message in a meaningful way to others. I should ask: How can I be a teacher of this precious Book of the Qur’an within the conditions of my time and environment? What are the primary and urgent problems of the secularized minds of the people of this age? These are the questions that are waiting to be addressed first by the students of the Qur’an.