Session 62 Notes
More than slightly half of the Quran mentions some prophetic stories. We discussed last time that we cannot read the Qur’an as a history book. How are these stories discussed among Muslims? Some discuss them as stories of the past, focusing on the details of the story itself. Many say that we can take lessons out of these stories. Some classical commentaries also refer to the story as a story from the past with some lessons to take from them. So, how are we supposed to benefit from these stories? As a reminder, we mentioned that the stories must be understood according to the purpose of the Qur’an. We discussed the purposes of the Qur’an in previous sessions. However, these stories when looked from the surface do not seem to have anything to do with Absoluteness of God (Tawhid), the Resurrection happening or bringing our attention to the Hereafter. For example, we see stories threatening the enemies of the prophets. How are we going to apply this into our lives? Where is the fundamental belief system in them?
We will examine a few verses of the Qur’an that use some interesting words:
…ذَّٰلِكَ مَثَلُ ٱلْقَوْمِ ٱلَّذِينَ كَذَّبُوا۟ بِـَٔايَـٰتِنَا ۚ فَٱقْصُصِ ٱلْقَصَصَ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَتَفَكَّرُونَ
“… This is the example of the people who deny Our signs. So, narrate to them stories of the past, perhaps they will reflect.” (7:176)
The stories from the past, mentioning the lives of the prophets and their practices at that time are to be reflected upon. The word “reflect” (tafakkur) means to deeply think about it. What are we supposed to deeply think about? This goes to the purpose of the Qur’an: why are we here in this world? Do we need guidance from our Creator? The Qur’an claims to be the guide from the Creator of the universe including the Creator of human beings. In our previous session, we used the example of prophet Noah and his son. What am I supposed to do with this historical information? Am I supposed to investigate whether they really existed? Should that be my concern? Whether Noah had a son, where he lived is not related to my life at all, having that information doesn’t affect me in my life. So why does the Qur’an mention it? The story must be interpreted and understood according to the purpose of the Qur’an which includes belief in the Absolute Creator (Tawhid), Prophethood, i.e. a human instructor to guide me on how to live my life with belief, Resurrection and the Hereafter. These stories in the Qur’an must guide me in my living with belief: establishing a relationship with my Creator, and living with the belief in Resurrection and Hereafter.
Now, when we study the story of Noah, we need to look at:
- Where is “Tawhid” in it? How am I supposed to connect to my Creator?
- Where is the teaching of the prophet guiding us to live with belief?
- Where is the belief in the Hereafter in the story for me to be convinced that the Hereafter must definitely exist?
We must study the stories “qasas” according to the purpose of the Qur’an, having the above points with us. Taking a lesson from the stories is not enough to benefit from them. That is why the Qur’an says to think about these stories so that we can fulfill the purpose of our existence!
Let’s study the following verse:
لَقَدْ كَانَ فِى قَصَصِهِمْ عِبْرَةٌ لِّأُو۟لِى ٱلْأَلْبَـٰبِ ۗ مَا كَانَ حَدِيثًا يُفْتَرَىٰ وَلَـٰكِن تَصْدِيقَ ٱلَّذِى بَيْنَ يَدَيْهِ وَتَفْصِيلَ كُلِّ شَىْءٍ وَهُدًى وَرَحْمَةً لِّقَوْمٍ يُؤْمِنُونَ
“There is a lesson in the stories of such people for those who understand. This revelation is no fabrication: it is a confirmation of the truth of what was sent before it; an explanation of everything; a guide and a blessing for those who believe.” (12:111)
In practical language, the word “عِبْرَةٌ” means to take a lesson from the story or prophetic narration. They are not made up stories but are stories practiced by human beings to take lessons from, for those who understand (أُو۟لِى ٱلْأَلْبَـٰبِ), i.e. those who deeply understand to get the real message by living this story in their lives. The verse mentions that revelation is not a fabrication but a confirmation of the truth of what was sent before it. This means that the message is not something new but the message was conveyed to human beings by earlier prophets. Human beings lost this message or misinterpreted it so we must refresh this message within us to live accordingly. When we live according to the message with belief, we will be guided to fulfil the purpose of our existence which is a blessing from our Creator.
Those familiar with other scriptures say that the narrations and stories in the Qur’an are also mentioned in the Torah. The fundamental teaching of revelation never changes. Human needs, their essence, their human potentiality, their spirit never changes. The revelation is fundamentally the same but practical changes came with new developments and discoveries. The fundamental belief education never changed from the time of Adam until the revelation of the Qur’an.
The word “عِبْرَةٌ” has the following meaning: to cross, to pass, or to traverse (such as crossing a river, a street, or a border.
Having the same root letters, the word “تعبير الرؤيا ” means to interpret a dream, literally crossing over from a symbolic dream to its reality. The word “الرؤيا” means vision or dream interpretations which is mentioned in the story of prophet Joseph who was taught by God to interpret dreams. This interpretation meaning share the same root letters of “عِبْرَةٌ” where the symbolic dream is crossed over to its reality, i.e. transferring the symbols to its reality. For us this means that we must transfer the symbols in the stories to our practical life.
Thus, taking a lesson is helpful but not sufficient according to the purpose of the Qur’an. For example, someone gives good advice to a person and he becomes a nice person. Another example is when someone may encourage others to work, not to be dependent on others. Both of these are helpful to us for our temporary life. From the story and narration, everyone can take a lesson from it which is a general meaning to be a good person and not dependent on others. However, the Qur’an is not for this purpose only. Everyone wants to be a good person but how can one become a good person? What does it mean to be a good person? How does it relate to the purpose of my life? How will my living fit into this purpose of life? We should not be wasting the purpose of our existence, we should not waste our life. That is why we must transfer the prophetic narrations into our practical life. The real meaning of “عِبْرَةٌ” is to transfer the story into my practical life.
For example, when I am studying the story of Moses, Aaron and Pharaoh, I must put myself in their position as either Moses, Aaron or Pharaoh. When the verse mentions Pharaoh’s magicians, am I doing any magic in my life? Yes, when a believer thinks that their retirement plan, social security will guarantee their future. The human ego takes one away from the reality that there will be an end to this life and we are all meant for the Hereafter. We must transfer the story into our practical life which is what “عِبْرَةٌ” is.
Let’s study the next verse:
لَوْ أَنزَلْنَا هَـٰذَا ٱلْقُرْءَانَ عَلَىٰ جَبَلٍ لَّرَأَيْتَهُۥ خَـٰشِعًا مُّتَصَدِّعًا مِّنْ خَشْيَةِ ٱللَّهِ ۚ وَتِلْكَ ٱلْأَمْثَـٰلُ نَضْرِبُهَا لِلنَّاسِ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَتَفَكَّرُونَ
“If We had sent this Qur’an down to a mountain, you would have seen it humbled and split apart in its awe of God. We offer such parables so that they may reflect” (59:21)
This verse is not a prophetic narration but referring to something in the universe using the symbol of the mountain. This is another type of “qasas” using a simile, a figure of speech. The verse concludes with parables being sent to be reflected upon. So, besides the story, narrations, “qasas”, there are also parables to reflect upon.
When the verse says “If We had sent this Qur’an down to a mountain, you would have seen it humbled and split apart in its awe of God”, we have to interpret this. The mountain collapses in its awe of God, expressed by the phrase “خَشْيَةِ ٱللَّهِ”. The Qur’an speaks to human beings from their perspective. Without studying cosmology and physics, the mountains are seen as the strongest beings in the world as they are the most stable and hard to work with. So, when the Qur’an is sent to the mountain, the whole mountain is humbled and submits itself to the message. The mountain wouldn’t claim anything against the message of the Qur’an. Some of us have the understanding of practically being strong beings either physically or financially. The worldly strength does not matter, it cannot stand, bear anything before the message of the Qur’an. What does this mean for me? How am I treating the Qur’an? Am I seeing it as my Creator speaking to me right now? Do I submit to His message right now? We can be honest to ourselves, did I remember today that God is speaking to me through the Qur’an? Are we orienting our lives according to the message of the Qur’an? The Qur’an reminds me that there is only One Absolute Creator, the rest of the beings, the financial and physical strength are created by Him. When I eat something, is it the food that is satisfying me or the Creator of the food?
It is not that easy to submit to God in every action, in our relationship with the rest of the beings. For example, when someone gives me good news, do I remember that it is created and arranged by God? Am I ready to submit my existence, my life to my Creator. Am I being the “mountain” to see myself as a strong being? Have I humbled myself before the message of the Qur’an and submitted my existence to my Creator? Am I living in this world as a means to prepare for the Hereafter and eternal life? Did I remember the prophet’s example in my practical life? How much of the prophetic teaching is in my life? I must put myself in the parable similar to how I was putting myself in the “qasas”, stories and prophetic narrations. These stories and parables in the Qur’an are related to my life. I must bring them, transfer them to my practical life according to the purposes of the Qur’an.
Unfortunately, we don’t engage much with the Qur’an as it deserves to be engaged. The stories and parables are not really transferred to our practical life. We must work on benefitting from all these stories and parables from the Qur’an to apply them in our living to fulfill the purpose of our existence. We take many other things in our life seriously and miss out on the most important thing which is to take the message of the Qur’an seriously.
We will study some verses from Section Al-Kahf narrated in the form of a story. There is a purpose in narrating that an event happened in the past:
وَكَذَٰلِكَ أَعْثَرْنَا عَلَيْهِمْ لِيَعْلَمُوٓا۟ أَنَّ وَعْدَ ٱللَّهِ حَقٌّ وَأَنَّ ٱلسَّاعَةَ لَا رَيْبَ فِيهَآ إِذْ يَتَنَـٰزَعُونَ بَيْنَهُمْ أَمْرَهُمْ ۖ فَقَالُوا۟ ٱبْنُوا۟ عَلَيْهِم بُنْيَـٰنًا ۖ رَّبُّهُمْ أَعْلَمُ بِهِمْ ۚ قَالَ ٱلَّذِينَ غَلَبُوا۟ عَلَىٰٓ أَمْرِهِمْ لَنَتَّخِذَنَّ عَلَيْهِم مَّسْجِدًا
“That is how We caused them to be discovered so that their people might know that God’s promise of resurrection is true and that there is no doubt about the Hour. When the people disputed with each other about the case of the youth, some proposed, ‘Build a structure around them. Their Lord knows best about them’. Those who prevailed in the matter said, ‘We will surely build a place of worship over them’ ” (18:21)
- “That is how We caused them to be discovered”
This story mentions that certain people were in a cave and when they came out, other people became aware of their experience in the cave. The verse mentions “We caused”, indicating that it is God who exposed them to other people so that they become aware of the promise of resurrection to be true.
We must ask, why is God mentioning this event to us? Mentioning some people in the past who took refuge in a cave for some time, only later to come out so that people become aware of them, their experience and learn that the promise of resurrection is true.
- “Their people might know that God’s promise of resurrection is true”
The important message is being given here in this example that the Resurrection is true and will happen. “All praise is due to God who gave us life after He had caused us to die, and to Him is the return/resurrection” (Sahih al-Bukhari)
- “There is no doubt about the Hour”
The hour means the destruction of this universe we live in. All life on earth is transient, galaxies die, human body dies, human life is transient here, nothing is eternal, so it must come to an end.
- “The people disputed with each other about the case of the youth”
Rather than seeing the event as a sign for the truth of the resurrection, people dispute what to make out of the youths and their resting place such as: where was this cave, how many were there, etc. which has nothing to do for my purpose of living.
- “Build a structure around them. Their Lord knows best about them”
They build their own ideas about the material side of the event rather than what it refers to. The verse tells us not to be like those people who talk about the things themselves rather than their indicative meaning. The purpose of this story is to tell me the truth of resurrection and the Hour. Every story in the Qur’an must fulfill the purpose of “Tawhid”, Prophethood, Resurrection and the Hour.
I don’t have to know the details about the youth in the cave., The verse by telling us that their Creator knows about them teaches us that you should not be engaged with this side of the matter, but pay attention to the message in the narration of this story. My responsibility is to benefit from this story in my practical living as being one of the people of my own cave.That is, when I sleep and wake up I do not notice how long I slept. It may have been 5 minutes or 300 years, but only when I woke up I became aware that I slept for some time and woke up. Exactly like the people in the story. The verse says to me now that take your sleeping and waking up as a sign of resurrection; do not lose yourself in the details of brain functioning while sleeping and how biologically this happens etc.
- “Build a place of worship over them”
Most people turn the universe to be an object of worship. The universe is created to witness the truth of its Creator and indicate that everything is given death and resurrected again constantly. Rather than making the universe an object of worship by concentrating how it works and benefiting from it only materially, it must become a place of worship. That means that we must pay attention to the signs in the creation of anything and try to discover them and see what they indicate. This story is telling us that we shouldn’t be doing things like the people did over the sign of the resurrection and made a building over it and declared that this is a sacred place.
We experience this story of the cave everyday in our lives. We go to sleep like the people of the cave and wake up in the morning resurrected. While sleeping, we are completely unaware of our existence. With the creation of sleep and waking up, God is presenting to us our story of the cave every day and night. Upon waking up, I should see it as my resurrection.
The below prophetic narration is a prayer which many of us recite to remember our story of the cave:
الحَمْـدُ لِلّهِ الّذي أَحْـيانا بَعْـدَ ما أَماتَـنا وَإليه النُّـشور
“All praise is due to God who gave us life after He had caused us to die, and to Him is the return/resurrection.” (Sahih al-Bukhari)
Through this prayer, the prophet (pbuh) is teaching us the meaning of this verse of the cave to practice it in our lives every day and night. At night I go to sleep in “my cave”. When I wake up, I must remember that I am resurrected now. This way I can confirm that the day of Resurrection will happen. I woke up resurrected from not being aware of my existence while sleeping. One day will definitely come when I will die and won’t be aware of my existence. I cannot resurrect myself; only if the Creator wills for me to wake up, can I be resurrected. Everything in the universe goes through this: being created, given death and then resurrected with a new creation, all done by the Creator of the universe to teach us that the life on earth is transient and prepare yourself for eternal life.