Session 25 Notes
The blessed time for us is when we benefit from the Revelation of the Qur’an. It is the message of the Qur’an that makes the month of Ramadan as blessed. The Night of Power (Lailatu’l-Qadr) is when the Qur’an reveals its entire message to our hearts and minds. I must try my best to reflect on verses to make my personal “Night of Power” (Lailatu-l Qadr).
Revealer Beneath Social and Political Events
يَسْتَخْفُونَ مِنَ ٱلنَّاسِ وَلَا يَسْتَخْفُونَ مِنَ ٱللَّهِ وَهُوَ مَعَهُمْ إِذْ يُبَيِّتُونَ مَا لَا يَرْضَىٰ مِنَ ٱلْقَوْلِ ۚ وَكَانَ ٱللَّهُ بِمَا يَعْمَلُونَ مُحِيطًا
“They hide their plots from the people, but they cannot hide them from God”. He is with them when they spend the night plotting what is displeasing to Him. And God is ever encompassing of what they do.” (4:108)
Another related verse.
فَلَا يَحْزُنكَ قَوْلُهُمْ ۘ إِنَّا نَعْلَمُ مَا يُسِرُّونَ وَمَا يُعْلِنُونَ
“So do not let their words deceive you. We know what they keep secret and what they make public.” (36:76)
Let’s put ourselves in this verse as someone who is influenced by society and social media to some extent. Why does God tell us that He is ever encompassing of what they do? How am I supposed to benefit from this verse to apply it in my personal and social life? Is it as simple as Okay, God knows about it, leave everything to Him and carry on with my life, work, school, make money or whatever I want to do? Much of Muslim youth struggles with the social, political, economical teachings in the verses. When we study the Qur’an, we may notice that the specific names or events are not usually mentioned (exceptions such as “Badr”, Zayd ibn Harithah) but it gives general principles from lived, real experiences of events that happened. We must learn the method on how to get the universal messages from these verses to see that they are directly related to my life right now.
Since God knows their plottings, why doesn’t He disclose their pottings to us? Or does He disclose them but we do not take notice? In this verse God is letting us know that they are plotting: “I am telling you to be careful about their plots and do what you need to do.”
In our age, what are the plots of the deniers? Their deceit lies in the way they present their comments with an air of confidence which makes it appear as if they are entirely true. By using the universe as their source of evidence, they misinterpret the universe and the creatures in it. For example, “this is natural”, “the universe works with cause and effect”, “matter is doing it”, “laws are doing this”, “matter has inherent qualities”, all these statements are speculations and do not explain what exactly “nature” is, is there any physical evidence for it? Do causes have any quality to be the source of the existence of anything at all? All these claims are devoid of evidence. What they claim is nothing but just observing how the things are being created by the Creator of the entire universe. Since the believers are not utilizing the universe as their evidence, they leave it to be interpreted by the deniers who regard the universe as an “orphan” (having no owner, not seeing it as created by the Absolute Creator who is the owner) and freely interpret it as such. The negligence of the universe is the state of the Muslim world since the 12th Century.
Secularist scientists are abusing what has been left abandoned, left “orphaned” to be reclaimed by its rightful, legitimate owner. The Qur’an is ordering us now to save it from being abused by the secularist/materialist scientists. That must be our primary objective in studying the Qur’an to learn how to protect the dignity that the abused universe deserves.
Generally speaking, many Muslim debates still rely solely on the Qur’an and Hadith to validate their arguments. While the focus remains heavily on narrating , there is a continued neglect of the universe as a key to truly understanding these texts. . The good news is that there are many exceptions, however, the Musilim world is somewhat awakening, though slowly.
What we are doing nowadays is this:
- After the deniers took hold of the universe to interpret it, the Muslims started following them by stating that their interpretation is mentioned in this or that verse or hadith narration. The verses giving reference to the universe is only part of the miraculousness of the Qur’an, but this does not help us to learn to read the Qur’an alongside the universe in order to confirm the message with the evidence manifested in the creation of the universe.
- Unfortunately, some Muslims dare to claim that the Qur’an confirms evolution theory by misinterpreting the Qur’an’s description of God. They take it as if the One who created the universe, God, is now resting and sometimes wakes up as needed to interfere in creation. However, the Qur’an describes God as being the only Creator where all beings are continuously subjected to His act of creation. God sustains their existence in a state of constant, perfect order across the space-time continuum. Muslims need to speak up and demonstrate this with evidence.
We need to build confidence in the Qur’an by developing a method for receiving the message that serves as evidence from the universe and using it to support its message. If we start practicing this method, we will inevitably have accurately developed our capacity to understand and interpret the message proclaimed by the universe, in light of the message of the Qur’an. The Qur’an teaches us that the sequence of the orderly creation is continuously renewed. Every being is continuously changed in a new form of existence:
يَسْـَٔلُهُۥ مَن فِى ٱلسَّمَـٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضِ ۚ كُلَّ يَوْمٍ هُوَ فِى شَأْنٍۢ
“All creatures in the heavens and on earth depend in their existence on Him; every day (instant) He manifests Himself in yet another way” (55:29)
God is inviting me: “Look at My universe. Pay attention to what I am creating continuously in front of you. Wake up, don’t ignore my work in the universe where I am continuously creating”. God in the Qur’an is not One who initiates the creation and intervenes in the universe’s operation when necessary. When we see the universe itself bearing witness to the truths of the Quran, our confidence becomes grounded in reality. Otherwise, our faith in the Qur’an lacks objective evidence and risks becoming nothing more than inherited imitation. He is the One who creates the universe continuously. This demonstrates that He must be an Absolute Being, not like what He creates. We can think of the example of a book or a piece of art where the book is not like the author, neither the art piece is like the artist.
Does the universe exist in an unchanged order and continuously existing by its own cause and effect circle? Are causes the creators of the effects? Or, is every being in the universe the created effect where there is the only one Cause being the Creator of the entire universe, which is a dynamically renewed and expanded spacetime structure?
The Creator of the universe cannot be described with any quality of His work. Every piece of the universe declares that my Creator can only be the One who creates the entire universe and changes it continuously. The Creator of the universe demonstrates His qualities continuously, yet another way to demonstrate to those who study His creatures.