Session 2 Notes
The existence of the universe is nothing short of being a miraculous creation which the Qur’an brings to our attention. We related this to the verse from section Maryam who chose to fast from her own mind in order to let the creation of baby Jesus speak. We related the creation of Jesus without a father implying no causal means to the creation of the universe which are both miraculous in their creation. The Qur’an is teaching us to base our claims under the witnessing of the miraculous creation of the universe. We will examine a few more verses to highlight this relationship between the Qur’an and the universe.
Let’s examine the detailed meaning of the following verse:
وَإِذَا قُرِئَ ٱلْقُرْءَانُ فَٱسْتَمِعُوا۟ لَهُۥ وَأَنصِتُوا۟ لَعَلَّكُمْ تُرْحَمُونَ
“Whenever the Qur’an is being recited, listen to it [attentively] and keep silent, so that you may receive mercy. (7:204)
This verse is speaking to all of us and giving us the general advice of paying attention to the message of the Qur’an when it is being recited or we ourselves recite and grasp its core message. It is understandable that we have to pay attention to the Qur’an attentively when listening to it. For example, a guest comes to your house and keeps speaking without letting you as the host explain why you have invited him, isn’t that disrespectful of the guest to the host? Similarly, respecting the Qur’an by keeping silent means to pay attention closely to what it is saying, and trying to understand what it is conveying to you as the Host of human beings in this universe.
However, beyond the physicality, the Qur’an’s emphasis on being silent has another meaning. Let’s recall the verse of Section Maryam (19:26) where she described her fasting as not speaking to anyone. The reference of the creation of Jesus in a miraculous fashion is exactly how the universe is created miraculously, not within the cause and effect relationship we are indoctrinated with. The Qur’an is teaching me that the real cause is not within the universe but the Creator of the universe. The causal chain that I perceive is not really the effective causal chain of the universe. This causal chain is nothing but human perception of the way the universe is being created within an unchanged order which appears to be the veil behind which is the continuous work of the Creator of the universe. The order of creation in the universe has been hijacked by the materialist philosophers and scientists which claim to explain everything without the need of the Creator of the universe. They never explicitly state that they just describe how the act of creation is happening; never explain how the universe and whatever in it are coming into existence since they also know that the material causes have no qualities to create the effect. Neither can the material causes have any share or agency to be the means in giving existence. They have no knowledge, no will, no power to create. Belief matters is the primary aim of the Qur’an where approximately 95% of the Qur’an emphasises in teaching belief matters.
We shouldn’t bring any idea or ideology as a foundation for belief produced by our own minds only. The Qur’an provides us the criteria to establish the foundations of belief that is confirmable and conformable to human reality. The Qur’an always invites one to observe the creation of the universe which is full of signs. No one can get out of the universe; even if they imagine something, it falls within the confines of the created universe. We should use our minds to understand the creation as the witness of the truthfulness of the message of the Qur’an.
The Best Way to Welcome the Qur’an
The Qur’an was revealed during Ramadan. To welcome this divine message properly, we should leave behind our base desires and trivial habits. We must stop chasing our delusions and instead embark on a quest for thoughts and ideas that seek the truth.This means that our main focus, objective in life is not just to satisfy our personal worldly benefits that we think are best for us. We definitely are created with basic needs such as shelter, food and water. By fasting, we should limit our physical needs like food and drink to those that are essential, to reach a higher, more angelic state.
What is the angelic state? We hear about some beings known as angels who don’t eat and drink. The Qur’an presents angels as beings that proclaim the qualities of their Creator in everything. Every being is created with an angelic state which proclaims that the qualities found in them are the manifestations of the qualities of their Creator. For example, there are some enthusiasts who enjoy looking at birds. These birds are specially created with different shapes, sizes, designs, colors, beauty and behaviors for us to reflect on. In their creation, they are declaring that their Creator is the Absolute Creator who is the creator of everything in the universe, arranging the plants, trees, fruits and flowers for them to enjoy. The harmony and balance in their creation shows that whoever created them is the Wise One. All these qualities found in a bird are the angelic side of the bird. For us, we also need to consciously expose our angelic side that declares our Creator’s qualities.
When we go beyond our physical selves, we will realize the feelings we have that long for infinite happiness, they extend beyond this temporary world to eternity. There is no infinity to be found in this universe and yet our feelings, senses seek infinite satisfaction which brings our angelic side to look for the source that can provide it which can only be an Absolute Source who gave us those feelings.
When we study the Qur’an, it is not the body that gets the message but our spirit within us, our feelings, intellect, senses are all employed to grasp the message. The message is sought after by my feelings looking for eternal satisfaction: “Yes, I want eternal life. I want everything to be in the perfect way.” This declaration of the spirit is ingrained in our human essence. We instinctively wonder who can provide it? We don’t find anything that can provide it for us in the universe and we all know that we will definitely die in this world. Why are we given life here and then this life is taken away for us to die. This is the contradiction between the way we are created with the desire for infinite satisfaction and our reality of facing physical death. Why such a contradiction?
My feelings and human qualities are there to connect to the revelation of the Qur’an which speaks of an Absolute Creator. My spiritual side needs to recognize Him and connect with Him. We need to practice this angelic side that connects with the Qur’an. While in this state, we should engage with the Qur’an as if it is being revealed to us for the first time right now. Everyone in their own conditions and geographic location can say: “My Absolute Creator is speaking to me as He creates me” and bring the revelation of the Qur’an to their time right now, as being freshly revealed to them. Imagine listening to its words as if they are coming directly from the prophet Muhammad (pbuh), or the angel Gabriel or even God Himself.
Let’s be clear on this, we are not prophets. One has to look at their consciousness, psychological position when engaging with the Qur’an and see that they are receiving the message from these three stages going from the earlier generations all the way to prophet Muhammad (pbuh). From him to the angel Gabriel who is conveying the message to the prophet (pbuh) and then all the way to God, the Owner of the message. This third stage is where God is speaking to us now. Our Creator must speak to us as well in the time and space we are in.
Muslim scholars argued whether the verbal expressions of the Quran are created or not created. If the words of the Qur’an were created, their meanings would be bound by time and space. As soon as the Prophet verbalizes and utters the words with his tongue, this verbalization is created. We should be careful to know that the book form of the Qur’an is human made and it is wrong to call this book form as “the Qur’an”, it should be called “the Mushaf which represents the verbal expression of the Speech of God in a printed form.”
We know that every generation faces their own challenges and problems and thus the Revelation of God they benefit from must be timeless. These three stages depend on one’s psychological situation where one can read the Qur’an as if the prophet (pbuh) received it first and now I am hearing the echoing voice of the prophet Muhammad (pbuh). In the next stage angel Gabriel is bringing the message to me now and I’m listening to the angels. The third stage is that our Creator is directly speaking to us in our time and space.
Let’s examine the following verse to tie this to the previous verse:
فَلَمَّا فَصَلَ طَالُوتُ بِٱلْجُنُودِ قَالَ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ مُبْتَلِيكُم بِنَهَرٍۢ فَمَن شَرِبَ مِنْهُ فَلَيْسَ مِنِّى وَمَن لَّمْ يَطْعَمْهُ فَإِنَّهُۥ مِنِّىٓ إِلَّا مَنِ ٱغْتَرَفَ غُرْفَةًۢ بِيَدِهِۦ ۚ
“When Talut set out with the troops he said God will test you with a river. Whoever drinks from it is not of me; and whoever does not taste it is of me — except one who takes only a handful with his hand…” (2:249)
By following the principles of reading the Qur’an earlier, one should ask: “who is Talut”, the one being mentioned in this verse?
No one is denying the historical reality of the event. However, to benefit from the Qur’an we don’t know who Talut is, we have never seen him but our Creator is mentioning him to us. He set out with an army and is being tested with a river. How does it relate to us as the reader now in our situation? If the Speaker in the Qur’an is telling me something, the first thing we should wonder is why He is telling me this about which I have no idea when and where it happened. Surely, my Creator is never expected to tell me something as the historians do. We shouldn’t be scared while reading the Qur’an to ask God: “Why do You tell me this?”
This story is not being told for me to investigate who Talut is, where he lived, which river he was tested with. Since the Qur’an is the Speech of the Creator of the universe and speaking to me now as I read it, to guide me to find answers to my questions, Like every reader for themselves I can say: “This message is for me, I am going to be tested with a river.” It says:“Whoever drinks from it is not from me.” When one disconnects themselves from their Creator, they are not from the believers of God. Let’s investigate its meaning related to my living conditions now. For example, when one says that: “food is nourishing me”, “the medicine is curing me”, “air is keeping my life and water is sustaining me”, they fall into material causes to be their source of satisfaction. The primary purpose of the Qur’an is to firmly establish our belief in an Absolute Creator. Nothing in the universe has any power to create. Thus, whoever drinks from it is not from me. How about when someone says that “God is taking care of everything, I trust in God but without this thing A, I couldn’t live my life. “ This is the example of depending on material sources for satisfaction.
The verse continues with “whoever does not taste it is from me”, meaning that whoever does not attach any importance to anything in the universe to satisfy them as they understand their source of satisfaction is the Lord of the universe. The one who “takes a handful” means to only take enough to satisfy one’s physical needs, rather than thinking that the water I drink will strengthen me and I will defeat the enemy with this strength. We should attach no importance to anything other than the fulfillment of physical needs; instead, we should place our trust in the Power bestowed by our Creator.
Everyone can recognize their own “test of the river” in the created things of this world. One cannot treat them as their source of security, satisfaction or power. One may use the created beings but one must not give them the place that belongs to the Creator of the universe. Take what is necessary for basic needs without allowing them to become objects of dependence. All of our expectations can only be fulfilled by our Creator; we must trust in Him only.
Let’s examine the following verses:
وَٱمْرَأَتُهُۥ قَآئِمَةٌۭ فَضَحِكَتْ فَبَشَّرْنَـٰهَا بِإِسْحَـٰقَ وَمِن وَرَآءِ إِسْحَـٰقَ يَعْقُوبَ
“And his wife was standing by, so she laughed, then We gave her good news of [the birth of] Issac, and after him, Jacob” (11:71)
قَالَتْ يَـٰوَيْلَتَىٰٓ ءَأَلِدُ وَأَنَا۠ عَجُوزٌۭ وَهَـٰذَا بَعْلِى شَيْخًا ۖ إِنَّ هَـٰذَا لَشَىْءٌ عَجِيبٌۭ
“She wondered, ‘Oh, my! How can I have a child in this old age, and my husband here is an old man? This is truly an astonishing thing!’ “ (11:72)
Many of us have heard the story of Abraham whose wife gets the good news of the birth of Isaac, and then after him his son Jacob. In the verse she exclaims, how is it possible at such an old age, this is something astonishing. We can relate this to the miraculous creation we are living in which should be astonishing for us. Is the miraculous creation of uncountable types of flowers with the same dead dirt, water and lifeless seed less astonishing than the creation of a child with an old couple? The Qur’an is teaching us to question: what is not a miraculous creation? The creation of Jesus without a father is miraculous, does the Creator of the universe need the mother to create a child? The mother also cannot create anything. This implies a need to re-evaluate the cause and effect relationship, a connection we are accustomed to viewing as involving a genuine link and a causal bound. That is what the Qur’an is essentially teaching us. The cause and effect is not a creative relationship but an orderly creation.
In our current environment full of materialistic interpretations by leading materialist scientists and philosophers, this message of the Qur’an is so essential. There is no chain of causes and effect as the materialists explain, the Qur’an says that although things are adjacent, or next to each other does not make them the creator or existence giver of the next event of the chain. This is how the verses of the Qur’an are teaching us that the creation is not dependent on any material cause. Without the need of a father, the example of the creation of a child Jesus takes place. The old couples of Abraham and his wife having Isaac and then his son Jacob, which is deemed impossible from the materialistic view, is taking place to teach us that we need to get out of the materialistic mindset of causal bound.
That is how we should read the message of the Quran. We must learn to communicate with our Creator right now. Locate the understanding within the framework of this age, which is a materialist and selfish age. That is the predominant culture of the world right now with the explanation that everything is evolving by itself within the universe, and that is how it is. The Qur’an guides us to the reality where everything is given existence by a conscious Absolute Creator who creates everything at any time anew. It invites us to look at the way things are created, only then can we understand that material causes have no effect whatsoever.