What about those unreached by the Quran?

Our educated friend started scratching his head; it was clear that he was trying his best to locate the pitfall that would finish me off. He resumed, slowly arranging his choice of words:

Alright, what do you say about that person who was unreached by the Quran, wasn’t sent a book from the heavens, and wasn’t sent a prophet? What’s his fault? What’s his fate on your day of judgment? An Eskimo in the far poles, or a negro in the jungle. What are their chances in between the hands of your God on the day of judgment?

I replied:

Allow me to clear up some misconceptions at first, as your questions are founded upon a false premise. God informed us that he deprived none of his mercy, revelations, words, and signs.

And there was no nation but that there had passed within it a warner” (Quran 35:24)

And We certainly sent into every nation a messenger” (Quran 16:36)

The messengers mentioned in the Quran are not all the messengers who have been sent for mankind. Instead, there are thousands of other messengers whom we know nothing about. And God says to his prophet:

And, indeed We have sent Messengers before you [O Muhammad]; of some of them We have related to you their story and of some We have not related to you their story” (Quran 40:78)

God sends down his revelations to everything, including the bees.

And your Lord inspired to the bee, “Take for yourself among the mountains, houses, and among the trees and [in] that which they construct.” (Quran 16:68)

A revelation could be in the form of a book delivered by Gabriel, an illumination put down by God in the heart of a worshiper, a state of inner bliss, a certain wisdom, a certain fact, an understanding to a certain issue, and it could be reverence toward and fear of God, with an attitude of piety.

No one that ever works on his heart and senses, aiming their adjustment, but receives a grace from God. But, talking about those who deliberately mute their senses and ignore their hearts, neither books, messengers, nor even miracles will be of use to them.

God said that he picks whoever he pleases for his mercy to descend upon, and that he is never questioned about what he ordains and decrees. He could, for a wise purpose, will that a particular person be warned, while another person be excused and gets accepted with the slightest belief.

Who knows, a small fearful glance from this primitive negro to the sky could be more redeeming and acceptable, in the sight of God, than our prayers.

Though a close consideration of prevailing religions in those primitive areas, reveals that they had messengers and revelations just like us. For instance, in a tribe called ‘Mau Mau’, we read that they believe in a God named ‘Mogabe’, describing him as one and only, does not beget, was not begotten, nothing is like or equal to him, invisible and unseen except through his effects and actions, that he’s a creator, a giver of livelihood, a bestower, merciful, heals the sick, relieves the distressed, sends down the rain, hears the prayers, alongside that lightning is his dagger, and that thunder is the sound of his footfall.

Isn’t this ‘Mogabe’ our exact same God? From where have they gotten to know all of this without an informant messenger in their history? As usual, with the passage of time, the message was subjected to superstitions that corrupted its divine purity.

In another tribe called ‘Niam Niam’, we read about their belief in a one God naming him ‘Mbole’, saying that everything in the jungle moves according to his will, aiming thunderbolts at evildoers, and rewarding the virtuous with livelihood, blessings, and security.

Another tribe called ‘Shilock’, believes in a single deity named ‘Jok’, describing him as invisible and manifest, that he’s in the heavens, everywhere, and that he’s the creator of everything.

And in a tribe called ‘The Denka’, they believe in a one God named ‘Nialok’, which is a word that literally means “the one in the sky” or the sublime.

By what name other than Islam can we call such creeds? And what can they be other than messages delivered through messengers throughout the history of those tribes?

Indeed, religion is one.

Indeed, those who believed and those who were Jews or Christians or Sabeans [before Prophet Muhammad] – those [among them] who believed in Allah and the Last Day and did righteousness – will have their reward with their Lord, and no fear will there be concerning them, nor will they grieve” (Quran 2:62)

Even the Sabeans who worshiped the sun as one of God’s signs, believed in the oneness of God, the afterlife, resurrection, judgment, and did good deeds will have their rewards with God.

We know that God’s mercy varies in how it is bestowed. Some people are born blind, others enjoy sight. Some have lived during the age of Moses and saw him with their own eyes split the sea with his stick, others lived during the age of Jesus and witnessed how he raised the dead. Talking about ourselves, we know nothing about those signs except through hearing. And a report is never equivalent to witnessing with your own eyes. Though belief and disbelief are not hinged upon miracles. The arrogant and the stubborn get to see wonders from the prophets sent to guide them, but have no more to say of these miracles other than describing them as ‘fabricated sorcery’.

No doubt that our educated friend coming from France, have reached him three books; the Torah, the Bible, and the Quran, in his own mother-tongue language. All those books increased nothing in him but the drowning in disputation. Instead, as a way to escape the whole situation, he shifted the entire subject to a primitive man in the jungle unreached by any book, and started asking: What about this man who is unreached by the Quran or any book? Hoping to catch a breach in divine justice, or deceiving himself into thinking that the whole issue is pointless.

For that he asked:

Why does God’s mercy vary? Why would God witness someone his signs, and another one knows nothing about them except through hearing?

And we say that witnessing God’s signs isn’t that all-good picture that you might be having, and it certainly could end up with wrath instead of mercy. Didn’t God warn the companions of Christ who asked for a table to descend among them from heaven?

Allah said, “Indeed, I will sent it down to you, but whoever disbelieves afterwards from among you – then indeed will I punish him with a punishment by which I have not punished anyone among the worlds.” (Quran 5:115)

The reason for this warning is that the coming of miracles is always accompanied by increase in the severity of punishment for those who disbelieve after witnessing them.

Lucky indeed are those who believe by hearing and without seeing any miracles. And woe to those who witnessed and refused to believe.

The Quran you have with you is a witness against you and a warning for you, thus on the day of judgment it will not be a mercy but the contrary. Therefore, sparing the Eskimo of the polar regions such an irrefutable witness could be a sign of pardoning, relief, mercy, and redemption on the day of judgment. A glance to the sky from that Eskimo during a certain moment in his life, may be, in the sight of God, sufficient for his acceptance as a sincere believer.

Though the question of why God’s bestowal of mercy on someone can be less on someone else, is something that God constitutes based upon his knowledge of the hearts.

He knew what was in their hearts, so He sent down tranquility upon them and rewarded them with an imminent conquest” (Quran 48:18)

God’s knowledge of our hearts precedes our existence in wombs, extending back to when we were still spirits around his throne. Some of us gathered around his light and were completely absorbed in it. Others shifted their attention toward enjoying the spectacle of the universe, distracted from The Creator by the creations. These are the deductions of those who are certain of God’s existence by all their senses.

What we experience in our few years in this world isn’t everything that there is, while knowing the wisdom behind every forbiddance and pain belongs to God the All-Knowing.

If someone was to ask me: Why did God create the pig “a pig”? I have no other saying but to say that God chose for it a piggish outfit because he had a piggish spirit, and that creating it in that shape was right and just.

All different qualifications and worthiness that we see around us are in fact just, though knowing the complete wisdom behind them and unveiling this justice is not something within the capabilities of everyone. Perhaps that’s why there’s an afterlife; a day where all the scales are set up and the All-Knowing informing us with all what we disputed about.

Though, my friend, I shall relieve you with the decisive point. God said in his book that he shall not punish except those who have been warned by messengers.

And never would We punish until We sent a messenger” (Quran 17:15)

Are you feeling better now?

Then allow me to tell you something, my friend. The strangest thing about your question is that it appears to be out of faith and pity for that negro who’s missed all the light, mercy, and guidance in the Quran; while in fact your true nature is disbelief in the Quran, its light, mercy, and guidance. So your question is closer to a deceptive lure, out of a contradicting, wicked self; trying to establish an argument for which you have no evidence at all.

Do you not notice, my friend, that your logic apparatus is in need of a repair?

 

This is my (Mohamed the blog owner) first attempt to translate Arabic books that I find interesting and worth reading, in a simple and easy way to follow. If you have any comments please don’t hesitate to leave them, and of course feel free to share this wherever and whenever you like.

God Bless

Why did God Create Evil?

My friend resumed his questions, addressing me derisively:

How do you people claim that your God is perfect, gracious, merciful, beneficent, and compassionate while he has created all this evil in this world? Diseases, feeble old age, death, earthquakes, volcanoes, microbes, poisons, scorching heat, freezing cold, cancer sufferings that spare neither the newborn child nor the feeble old man. If God is love, beauty, and good, how does he create hatred, ugliness, and evil?

The topic that my friend has triggered is one of the main philosophical problems around which opinions have differed and schools of thought have split.

We say that God is all mercy, all good, and he does not instruct evil, though he has allowed its existence for a wise purpose.

Say: Surely Allah does not enjoin indecency; do you say against Allah what you do not know? Say: My Lord has enjoined justice, and set upright your faces at every time of prayer and call on Him” (Quran 7:28-29)

God does not instruct except with justice, love, philanthropy, forgiveness, goodness, and he does not accept except what is good.

Then why has he allowed the unjust to treat unjustly, the killer to kill, and the robber to rob?

The reason is because God wanted us to be free, while freedom necessitates error. Freedom would be of no meaning without the right of trial, error, correct judgment, and the unrestricted choice between sin and obedience.

God was quite capable of making us all benevolent by compelling us to obey him, and that would have necessitated that he deprives us of the freedom of choice. Though under God’s law and plan, freedom with suffering is more honorable to man than slavery with happiness. For that reason, he has allowed us to make mistakes, suffer, and learn; and that is the wisdom behind human freedom.

Nevertheless, an honest and unbiased observation at the universe would reveal to us that good is the rule, while evil is the exception.

Health is the rule, sickness is the exception; we spend most of our years in health, while sickness pays us a visit occasionally. Similarly, earthquakes are a total of few minutes compared with the age of the earth that is calculated in millions of years, and the same concept with volcanoes. Wars are short convulsions in the life of nations in between long extended periods of peace.

Then we get to notice a bright side in all what we see as bad. With sickness comes immunity, while pain nurtures strength and tolerance. Earthquakes vent the pent-up pressure inside the earth, preventing its crust from blowing up and restoring mountains to their places as ‘belts’ and ‘weights’ that stabilize the crust. Volcanoes spew up minerals and other hidden resources thus covering the land with rich soil.

Wars bind nations, combining them into groups and alliances, then into a group of united nations, finally forming a security council that serves as an international court for complaints and conciliations. In addition, the greatest of inventions came out during wars; penicillin, atomic power, rockets, jet planes, all came out of the crucible of wars.

From snake poison comes the antidote, and serums are made from microbes. If it wasn’t for our forefathers’ death we wouldn’t be in our positions today. And Evil in the universe is like shaded spaces in a painting, seeing them from very near gives you the sense of a defect or a fault, while taking a step backward to see the picture as a whole shows you how it is necessary and indispensable, fulfilling an aesthetic function within the structure of that art work.

Had we known health if it wasn’t for disease? For health remains an invisible crown on the healthy, right until sickness comes to visit. Similarly, we wouldn’t be able to distinguish beauty if it wasn’t for ugliness, neither the norm if it wasn’t for the odd.

For that reason, the philosopher Abu Hamid Al Ghazali says: The universe’s imperfection is the essence of its perfection, just as the curvedness of the bow is the essence of its eligibility, if it was straightened it wouldn’t throw an arrow.

Another role for hardships and sufferings is that they sort out people, revealing their true nature.

If it wasn’t for hardships all people would rule supreme, bounty beggars and boldness kills.” Al-Mutanabbi

They are the tests through which we get to know ourselves, and the trials upon which our degrees in the sight of God are determined. After all, this whole world we’re living in is nothing more than a chapter in a novel that contains several chapters, and death is not the end of the story but rather its beginning. It wouldn’t be rightful to judge a play on the basis of one act, neither to reject a book because the first page wasn’t so appealing to us; judgment here would be invalid. It is impossible to understand the complete wisdom behind something except at its end.

Then what is it that the mocking enquirer sees as an alternative? Does he want us to live a life that is void of death, disease, growing old, disabilities, limitations, sadness, and sufferings? Does he in fact enquire utter perfection? In fact, utter perfection belongs to God alone, and The Utterly Perfect is one with no plurality; Why would he? What does he lack that is found in someone other than himself?

This means that our friend won’t be satisfied unless he himself becomes God, which is the ultimate trespass.

So let us, in our turn, mock him, and those like him, who dislike everything. Those who want it a paradise; what have they done to deserve it? What has our friend presented for humanity to set himself up as The Almighty God who orders a thing to become and it simply comes into existence?

In fact, my grandmother had more sense than our friend here, the professor with a PhD degree and graduating from France, by simply putting it:

Good from God.. Evil from ourselves”

Simple words, but an honest summarization to the whole problem.

God sends the winds and flows the river, yet the greedy captain overloads his ship with passengers and goods leading to its sinking, then he moves on to curse divine providence and fate. What does God have to do with this? God sent the wind and flowed the river for good reasons, but greed and avarice of the soul have turned this good into evil.

How can those fine words be more true: “Good from God.. Evil from ourselves”

This is my (Mohamed the blog owner) first attempt to translate Arabic books that I find interesting and worth reading, in a simple and easy way to follow. If you have any comments please don’t hesitate to leave them, and of course feel free to share this wherever and whenever you like.

God Bless

If God preordained my deeds, why should he judge me?

My friend continued, expressing his delight in our misfortune, imagining that he has held me from the neck, and that there’s no escape for me this time:

You people say that God manages everything in his creations through destiny and divine providence, and that he has already preordained our deeds. If that’s my case, and my deeds were all predetermined by him, why does he judge me then?

And please do not tell me, as I am used to hear from you, that I have a choice, and let me ask you: Did I have a choice in my birth? Gender? Length? Width? Color? Home country?

Do I have a choice in sunrise or moonset?

Do I have a choice when this divine providence descends on me, or when death surprises me, or when I fall into a huge calamity leaving me with no choice but to commit crime?

Why would God force a certain deed on me, and then holds me accountable for it?

And if you say that I am free, and that I have a will beside God’s will, wouldn’t you fall in polytheism by saying so? Since you are compelled to admit the multiplicity of wills?

Then what can you say about the deterministic environment and circumstances, as well as the various forms of inevitabilities that historical materialists advocate?

My friend fired these bullets, followed by a sigh of relief, imagining that I have ended completely, and that all what’s left is to prepare the shroud.

I replied calmly..

You have fallen into several fallacies. Your deeds are foreknown to God in his record, but they are not preordained for you against your will. They are only preordained in his foreknowledge just as you may foresee, in the light of your knowledge, that your son will commit fornication and he actually goes on to do it. Have you forced him to do it? Or was it, in fact, a foreknowledge which came true because it founded on your comprehension of the situation?

Concerning your talk about freedom and that it is false, while verifying your point by the fact that you had neither choice over your birth, nor your gender, length, color, home country, nor do you have any control over the sun, is another confusion.

The reason behind your confusion this time, is that you visualize freedom in a different way than how we believers tend to see it.

You are, in fact, talking about absolute freedom; hoping that you could create yourself white, black, long, or short, or being able to move the sun or stop it in its orbit. And you ask: Where is my freedom?

And we reply: You’re seeking absolute freedom; the freedom of manipulating the universe, and that belongs to God alone. We, Muslims, do not assert in such freedom.

And your Lord creates what He wills and chooses; not for them was the choice” (Quran 28:68)

Concerning the issue of ‘creation’, no one has the privilege of choice, because it is God who chooses and creates what he pleases.

God won’t judge you on your length, neither will he blame you for being short, nor will he punish you for not stopping the sun in its orbit. Instead, the domain of judgment, is the domain of the tasks assigned; and you, within this domain, are free. These are the bounds we should be discussing.

You are free to silence your lust, place a bridle on your anger, resist yourself, yell at your ill intentions and encourage your good ones.

You are able to use yourself and your money generously.

You are able to be truthful and to lie.

You are able to refrain yourself from dealing with forbidden money.

You are able to deflect your eyes away from people’s privacies.

You are able to prevent your tongue from curses, backbiting, and defamation.

In this domain, we are free; in this domain, we are held accountable and judged.

The freedom that our hunt revolves around is the relative freedom, and not the absolute one. The human freedom resides inside the domain of the tasks assigned, and this freedom is true. Our proof that it exists, is our instinctive feelings. We feel responsible, remorse after doing wrong, happiness and serenity after doing good. At each moment we feel that we have a choice, and we actually balance between several possibilities. In fact, the primary function of our mind is favoring and getting to choose between alternatives.

We clearly distinguish between when our hand is moving in tremors, and when it is  moving while writing a letter. The former is involuntary and forceful, while the latter is voluntary and freely. We wouldn’t have been able to distinguish them if we were determined in both cases.

Another solid proof that this freedom exists, is the impossibility to force a heart on something it refuses under any circumstances. You can force a woman to take off her clothes by threatening and beating her, but you can never force her to love you from her heart under any threatening. This clearly shows how God has completely liberated our hearts from any form of oppression or obligation, and that he has created the heart to be ‘free’.

For that reason, God has set the heart and intention to be the foundation upon which all tasks are assigned. A believer who repeats words of disbelief or polytheism under threat or torture is not accountable for them, for as long as his heart is serene with belief from the inside. God has ruled out this example from the blame.

Except for one who is forced [to renounce his religion] while his heart is secure in faith” (Quran 16:106)

Another side of the confusion, is that some people see their freedom as a form of superiority over God’s will, singly taking hold of the situation. So they start to accuse the asserters of such freedom of being polytheistic and asserting peers to God, ordaining like he does and ruling like he does. And that’s what you’ve understood by mentioning the multiplicity of wills, and that is a misconception.

Human freedom does not rise above God’s will. A human can utilize his freedom in doing what counters God’s acceptance, but he cannot do what counters God’s will. God gave us the freedom to rise above his acceptance by disobeying him, but he never gave anyone the freedom to rise above his will; and here we witness another side of the human relative freedom.

Everything that comes from us is included among God’s will, even if it counters the divine acceptance and religious legislations. This freedom that we have, was given to us as a gift from God with his choice. We did not acquire it against God’s will; our freedom substantiates his will.

Here comes the meaning of the verse:

And you do not will except that Allah wills” (Quran 76:30)

Our will is included in God’s will, it’s a gift from him with his generosity and grace. It is among his will, neither a secondary nor a contradictory one, nor are we competing against his ordains and rule. Asserting of such freedom does not deny monotheism, nor does it mean asserting peers to God ordaining like him and ruling like his rule. Instead, our freedom was what truly substantiates his will, ordains, and rule.

A third side of the confusion, is that some of whom who tackle the topics of acts of providence, fate, free will and determinism, have understood that fate is something forced upon man against his own nature and tendencies; and that is another misconception that you’ve fallen into as well.

God has clearly denied about himself any form of compulsion or oppression in the verses:

If We willed, We could send down to them from the sky a sign for which their necks would remain humbled” (Quran 26:4)

And the meaning is clear; that he could have forced people to believe in the presented signs, but he hasn’t; and the reason is because oppression and compulsion aren’t included in God’s practice.

There shall be no compulsion in [acceptance of] the religion. The right course has become clear from the wrong” (Quran 2:256)

And had your Lord willed, those on earth would have believed – all of them entirely. Then, [O Muhammad], would you compel the people in order that they become believers?” (Quran 10:99)

Oppression and compulsion are not part of God’s practice.

On the other hand, it is not right to understand divine providence and fate as forcing people against their own tendencies and nature. On the contrary, God’s ordains on each of us are founded upon our intentions, and his will is founded upon ours as well. There isn’t any duality. God’s predestination is identical to the worshiper’s freedom of choice, because God predestines every man according to his own desires and intentions.

Whoever desires the harvest of the Hereafter – We increase for him in his harvest. And whoever desires the harvest of this world – We give him thereof” (Quran 42:20)

In their hearts is disease, so Allah has increased their disease” (Quran 2:10)

And those who are guided – He increases them in guidance” (Quran 47:17)

While he addresses the hostages of war:

If Allah knows [any] good in your hearts, He will give you [something] better than what was taken from you” (Quran 8:70)

God predetermines and preordains, and he works them according to the heart and intentions: if they are evil, man will come to evil; if good, good will be his fate. Neither is there duality, nor contradiction. He predestines us to what we have chosen with our hearts and intentions; no injustice, no oppression, and no subjection to what is against our natures.

As for he who gives and fears Allah, And believes in the best [reward], We will ease him toward ease. But as for he who withholds and considers himself free of need, And denies the best [reward], We will ease him toward difficulty” (Quran 92:5-10)

And you threw not, [O Muhammad], when you threw, but it was Allah who threw” (Quran 8:17)

Here, the throw of man meets the predestined throw of God to become one throw, and that is the key for the ‘fate and destiny’ puzzle; the worshiper’s part is to intend, while God’s part is to enable; evil for evil, and good for good.

And the human freedom is not fixed; it’s relatively subject to increase.

Man can increase his freedom through science and knowledge. By inventing the tools and means of transportation, man was able to fold terrains, conquer distances, and penetrate restrictions of time and space. By studying the laws of the environment, he was able to control it and utilize it for his needs; for he has known how to conquer the hot, the cold, darkness, and by that he multiplies his freedom in terms of performance.

Science and knowledge were a tool in breaking the chains and releasing freedom.

Religion was the second tool; asking God for help by getting near to him, and utilizing it in obtaining inspiration and support from him; and this was the tool that the prophets, as well as those who walked in their path, used.

Suleiman utilized the Jinn, rode the wind, and spoke with the birds with the aid of God. Moses split the sea, while Jesus revived the dead, walked on water, and cured the blind and the leper.

We read about the pious worshipers of God, who enjoy an elevated degree of faith that exceeds those of common people, thus enjoy special blessings from God, and for whom the terrain is folded and the unknown made known.

These levels of freedom were attained by perseverance in God’s worship, and by endearing themselves to him; thus he responds by endowing them with emanations of his hidden knowledge. Once again we encounter ‘knowledge’, but this time it is a type of knowledge that is particular to God.

For that Abu Hamid Al Ghazali summarizes the problem of Determinism vs Free Will in two sentences: Man is free in what he knows, determined in what he doesn’t know.

Meaning that as the knowledge of man increases, so does his freedom, regardless to whether this knowledge is worldly or a one that is particular to God.

Materialistic thinkers commit a huge mistake by thinking of man as a prisoner of class and historical determinism, turning him into a chain inside a series of chains that has no exit, and that there’s no escape from submitting one’s self to economic laws and social movements, as if he was a straw in a moving current without any arms, without any will.

The term that they repeat tirelessly and as if it was a law, is the ‘inevitability of class conflict’; and that statement when analyzed scientifically, is false; for there are no inevitabilities in the human domain, but instead it consists of chances and probabilities. That is what distinguishes humans from machines and gears, or physical objects.

We can predict a solar eclipse with its precise minute and second, as well as the sun’s movement over the course of days and years. Yet we cannot know what a person keeps in his mind and intentions, nor can we know what he does tomorrow or the day after, and it is impossible to know for certain. Such factors can only be known in the form of possibilities and guessing, provided the availability of enough information aiding in our judgment.

All the prophecies of Karl Marx, for instance, have proven wrong; communism did not rise in an advanced country, as he predicted, but in an underdeveloped one. The conflict between capitalism and communism did not intensify, instead both sides approached each other to a state of peaceful co-existence. Even more than that, the communist countries have even gone so far as to open their doors before American capital. The contradictions in the capitalist society haven’t led to its bankruptcy as Marx expected, on the contrary, the capitalist economy has prospered while discord and dispute has occurred to the socialist camp itself.

All Marx’s calculations are mistaken, proving an error in his deterministic system. And we saw that the conflict of our age that is altering history is the non-class confrontation between the Soviet Union and China, not the class struggle that was the entitlement of Marx’s approach.

All of this indicates failure of materialistic thinking in understanding man and history, and its confusion in calculating the future. This came as a result of a crucial mistake; the materialistic conception of man as a fly in a web of inevitabilities. They totally forgot that humans are free, and that their freedom is true.

Moving on to what materialists say about the societal, environmental, and circumstantial factors, and that man does not live alone, meaning that his freedom does not move in vacuum.

We simply say in reply to all of this: Factors of society, environment, and circumstances acting as a resistance to the freedom of the individual, actually empowers this meaning that we’re asserting about it. Freedom of the individual can only assert its existence when placed in the face of a resistance that is aiming its displacement. On the other hand, if man was moving in vacuum with no resistance of any kind, then he would not be considered free with the understood meaning of freedom; there wouldn’t be any obstacle to overcome and through which he would emphasize his freedom.

This is my (Mohamed the blog owner) first attempt to translate Arabic books that I find interesting and worth reading, in a simple and easy way to follow. If you have any comments please don’t hesitate to leave them, and of course feel free to share this wherever and whenever you like.

God Bless

He Begot None, Nor He Was Begotten

My friend is a man who loves arguments and talks. He thinks that we, naive believers as we are, feed on illusions, fool ourselves with ideas of Paradise, and that we miss the pleasures of this world and its attractions. Talking about my friend, he graduated from France, got his PhD, lived with the hippies, and came to disbelieve in everything.

He addressed me sarcastically:

You people say that God exists, and the main evidence that you hold on tightly is ‘The Law of Causation’ which dictates that for every work there is a worker, for every creation there is a creator, for every being something brought it into existence. A piece of fabric denotes a weaver, a piece of art denotes an artist, and an inscription denotes an inscriber. Therefore, the universe, following this concept, is the most convenient denotation for The Almighty God who created it. We came to believe in this creator. Don’t we have the right, following this same concept, to ask who created this creator? Who created this God you’re talking about? Doesn’t your own deductions lead us to this? Following the same Law of Causation? What are your thoughts regarding this bump, if you please?

We inform him that his question is invalid, and there’s no bump or anything of that sort. You agree on accepting God as the creator, and then you ask who created him. You’re making him the creator and a creation in the same sentence, and that’s a contradiction.

Another side of your invalid question is that you imagine the abidance of the creator to the laws of his creations. The law of causation belongs to us, residing in time and space. While God has created time and space, it is not right to imagine him confined within time and space, neither with their laws. God created this law of causation. Hence, it is not right to imagine him confined within it.

And you, falling in this fallacy, are more like a string doll, imagining that humans who created it must be moving with strings too. If we would inform it that humans move freely, it would say: It’s impossible for someone to move freely! In my world, I see everyone move with strings.

Similarly, you don’t imagine God existing without the need of someone bringing him into existence, just because you see everything around you in need of something to bring it into existence. Then you’d be like those who think that God needs a parachute to descend to people, or a fast car to reach his prophets. Exalted and raised, is He from all those descriptions, far above.

In his book, Critique of Pure Reason, the German philosopher Immanuel Kant realized that the mind cannot comprehend matters of core nature. Instead, it was naturally designed to perceive matters of the apparent. It is unable to perceive an intrinsic quality like divine existence. For that reason, we’ve come to know God through conscience, and not through reason. Our yearning for justice was our indication of the existence of The Just, just like how our thirst is an indication of the existence of water.

Aristotle moved on with the flow of causation, saying that the chair came from wood, wood came from the tree, the tree came from the seed, the seed came from the farmer, etc. Eventually he was compelled to say that this serial flow in time has to end with an act that isn’t in need of a cause; a primary act, or a primary trigger that is in no need of someone triggering it; a creator in no need of a creator. That’s what we assert about God.

On the other hand, Ibn Arabi‘s response to that question, of who created the creator, was that it denotes a distorted mind. That God is the one who substantiates existence, not the other way around. Just like saying that it is light that indicates day, while the other way around would be a reverse logic.

God says in a Hadith Qudsi (Sacred Hadith):

It is I who aids in proving and finding, there is no proof leading to me.”

God is the proof which is in no need of a proof. He is the self-evident truth; and he is the evidence that substantiates everything. God is manifest in the order, precision, beauty, and in accuracy. In the tree leaf, the feather of the peacock, the wing of the butterfly, the fragrance of the flower, the chanting of perching birds, the consistency of the stars and the planets, in this symphonic poem that we name ‘The Universe’.

If we say that all of this came into existence by chance, then we’d imagine that throwing a bunch of alphabets in the air would result in its combination by itself to form an authorless Shakespeare poem.

And the Quran spares us all these arguments with a few expressive words, in a non-philosophizing decisive clarity:

Say, He is Allah , [who is] One,

Allah , the Eternal Refuge.

He begot none, nor He was begotten,

Nor is there to Him any equivalent.” (Quran:112)

Our friend asks again, sarcastically:

And why do you say God is one? Why wouldn’t there be multiple Gods with multiple specialties distributed among them?

And we shall reply to him using his concept that he acknowledges; with science and not with Quran.

The creator is one, because the whole universe is built from one resource, and is based on one plan. From Hydrogen, the ninety two elements in the Mendeleev table were formed in the same manner; through fusion and the emission of atomic energy, in which stars and suns flame-up in space. In addition, all forms of life are built of carbon composites; they are all charred when burned.

They are all according to one anatomical plan. An anatomy of a frog, a rabbit, a pigeon, a crocodile, a giraffe, and a whale reveal the same anatomical structure in all. The same arteries, veins, cardiac chambers, and bones correspond in all of them. The wing of the pigeon is the foreleg of the frog; the same bones, only a slight transformation. The long neck of the giraffe contains seven vertebrae, we find the same number in the hedgehog’s neck.

The nervous system in all consists of the brain, the spinal cord, and the motor and sensory nerves. Their digestive apparatus contains the stomach, the duodenum, and the small and large intestines. The genital apparatus has the same components: the ovary, the uterus, the testicles and their ducts; while the urinary system in all consists of the kidney, the ureter, and the bladder.

The anatomical unit in each of these creatures is the cell. Whether we are dealing with plants, animals, or humans, we are met with the same features; they all breathe, breed, die, and are born in the same way.

Doesn’t all of this denote unity in techniques? What’s so strange then, in asserting that God is one? and why would The Complete multiply? Does he lack something that needs completion? It is only the incomplete who multiplies.

And if there were more than one God, they would fall among themselves each taking his own creation to his side, and the universe would fall apart. God has his own glory and pride, and these are characteristics that cannot be shared.

Our friend makes fun of the divine concept as we understand it, saying:

Isn’t it strange this God that intervenes in everything, little or big? Mastering all creatures, inspiring the bees to abide in the mountains, no leaf falls but he knows of it, no fruit grows out of its bud but he takes count of it. It is he who causes the foot to tumble in a hole, or a fly to fall in a plate of food, or a bowl. Even if the phone is dead, or the rain doesn’t fall, he’s behind all these events after all. Don’t you keep your God busy with too many trivial matters under such conception of him?

I certainly don’t understand. Does a God, in the eyes of the enquirer, become more worthy of divinity if he relieved himself from these responsibilities, took a vacation, and turned his back on the world he created? Does a God who is not operating, unconscious, not hearing, not seeing, not responding, and not caring for his creations become more worthy of being a God? And how does someone know if a certain issue is trivial, while another is much more important and of great value?

The fly, which seems insignificant in the eyes of the enquirer that it doesn’t seem to be of much importance whether it falls into a plate of food or not, has the power to change history with its unimportant fall. It could infect an army with cholera, resolving victory to the competing side, and thus changing the course of history. Wasn’t Alexander the Great killed by a mosquito?

The most trivial premises can lead to the most serious consequences, whereas the most important beginnings can issue in nothing. The All-Knowing of the unknown alone realizes the value of everything.

And did the enquirer imagine himself to be a trustee over God, defining his prerogatives for him? Glorified and disdained, is our Lord from this naive conception.

God who is worthy of divinity, is he whose knowledge has covered everything; who misses not one atom, whether on earth or in the sky.

The All-Hearing, The Responder, The Caring for his creations.

This is my (Mohamed the blog owner) first attempt to translate Arabic books that I find interesting and worth reading, in a simple and easy way to follow. If you have any comments please don’t hesitate to leave them, and of course feel free to share this wherever and whenever you like.

God Bless

Dialogue with my Atheist Friend (Preface)

Because God is unseen, because the future as well as the afterlife is unknown, and because whoever goes into the grave does not return, the commodity of atheism has spread, and materialistic concepts have prevailed. People worshiped themselves, gave themselves away to their desires, and buckled down to this world quarreling over its goods. Many of them believed that nothing is behind this world and that nothing is after this life. Major countries are fighting over Earth’s gold and goods. Disbelief has its own theories, materialism has its own philosophies, denial has its own recesses and gun crew, and deniers have their own sacred house, clinging to its cilia and performing pilgrimage to it during their accommodation and travel; A dignified sacred house, which they call ‘Science’.

When the ‘Human Genome’ emerged, this little booklet containing 5 million pages inside the cells of each one of us, stored in a microscopic cellular space, in the form of 3 billion chemical symbols, explaining our shares, weaknesses and strengths, and our health and sickness, it awakened the whole world, rendered them absolutely shocked.

How? When? Using which unseen pen this precise work was written about a future that is yet to come? Who wrote all this info? What are the means used? And who has the ability to register logs like this?

Then we saw Bill Clinton, the president of the biggest country in the world, showing up on Television and speaking in a humble tone: “At last, it is now possible to collect the complete information about the Human Genome, and scientists are about to break the code which God has used in writing our fate.”

Just like that, he mentioned ‘God’ in his statement.

Yes, it was a temporary awakening, followed by controversies and commotions; allot started talking in the name of religion and in the name of science, and they disputed.

Old questions regarding human freedom started to reappear; Do humans have a free will, or are they determined? If God has already predetermined our actions, then why does he hold us accountable? Why did God create evil? What about those unreached by Holy Books? What’s the religion’s situation with regards to evolution? And why do we assert that it is impossible that the Quran might be fabricated?

Once again this old dialogue with my atheist friend has returned, as well as its subjects: determinism, choice, resurrection, fate and judgment to be the contemporary topic.

This new version returns just in time to participate in solving this puzzle, and to stimulate this topic in the light of fixed science, Quranic signs, and the unshakable divine certainty.

Welcome to the tranquil, constructive dialogue.

Mustafa Mahmoud

 

This is my (Mohamed the blog owner) first attempt to translate Arabic books that I find interesting and worth reading, in a simple and easy way to follow. If you have any comments please don’t hesitate to leave them, and of course feel free to share this wherever and whenever you like.

God Bless

Stumble Upon The Same

We’re all on the same ship, and we’re all leaving sooner or later. The only way to maneuver through this is to create everlasting memories. You know what kind of memories tend to last? The ones we’ve touched and the ones that have touched us. The ones that we love to remember, not the ones that we avoid remembering. I wish you find your way creating lovable memories, and you will certainly stumble upon the same.

The Pathetic Trainer

It’s been almost six months since I started this new job at the maternity hospital. So much to tell, with so little time available. It is this fact, the lack of time available for reading/writing/having fun, that is haunting me. I’m afraid I’m turning into a character I’ve been despising for years, that is, an individual running on money, just like how a car runs on gas.

It’s surprisingly thought provoking when I recall the time I used to work in Biomedical Engineering, going hand in hand with this trainer whose morals were curiously questioned, and the overflowing enthusiasm I had back then. Back then, I always wanted to do the best I can, learn the best I can, and help as many people as I can. And here comes the funny part: I did not take a single penny. I somehow had the power and will to work overtime, help this and help that, all for the sake of, what exactly? I don’t know. Professionalism maybe? Conscience? Good will?

But that doesn’t matter. What matters is the powerful dedication that I had during these months as a Biomedical Engineer, that came to fade the moment I started working in return for a salary. Something happened, deep down inside, the moment I received my first salary in my hands from our financial manager. What happened exactly? I have no idea, but I have some clues to work on.

My dedication for work began to change its skin, little by little, gradually turning into a dedication for money. I’ve become motivated to do this and do that only if a material return is promised. The thought of helping someone with a job is slowly being haunted by the thought:

If you're good at something, never do it for free!

My interest in doing the things that I love is deliberately coming to a halt. I rarely play my guitar nowadays, I never open my reader to read what my fellow bloggers have to say. Even Facebook, the one tool that I use to interact with my old school friends, is being affected and slowly becoming an occasional thing.

All of a sudden, I find myself in this trainer’s shoes. I remember the times he used to rest, counting remaining hours/minutes/seconds to go home with a day’s money he did not work for. All I thought of back then was; What is wrong with this guy? Why is he acting so pathetically, carelessly not worrying about his duties, and just waiting for the end of the month to receive his salary? And before I know it, I became the pathetic trainer.

When did money become my number one interest? Does the lifestyle of paying your own bills and expenses have to do with any of this? Or is it the monetary system as a whole that is responsible for exposing people to such behavior? What about you? Have you ever been in a situation where you’ve noticed how voluntary work can be more sincere?

Image credit: http://www.marcandangel.com/

 

Breaking the routine

I don’t feel like writing anything nowadays, but I am trying to break this routine of ‘not writing’ and start writing again. I’ve realized that this routine has an effect on my writing skills. A few days earlier, I was asked to translate a certain document from Arabic to English, and I had problems trying to grasp accurate words and terms for each sentence. I’m sure that had I been reading/writing nonstop for the past months, the situation would have changed for sure.

Anyhow, I know that the hardest part is to get those fingers typing, afterwards everything just flows.

I never hesitate to help someone in need, for as long as I am capable of helping. Similarly, I never hesitate to correct false information, pronunciation, vocabulary, or anything that is obvious to me that it is indeed incorrect. Sometimes I, myself, make mistakes. Whether it is linguistically or understandingly, I do fall in those mistakes, and I expect anyone with better knowledge or understanding to correct me, or to clear a certain misconception that I have.

What actually happens sometimes, is that people recognize something wrong or incorrect in other people, without feeling the need to direct them towards the correct or right thing to do. Some people strive to see other people fall in mistakes, while others refuse to even give any information that would benefit someone in something. I certainly don’t know the motive behind such acts, do they think they’re the only ones who know the right from wrong? Or do they feel somehow superior knowing the way towards something, that is if known to the public their superiority would disappear?

Or is it the right way to survive keeping everything to yourself?

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I believe that our deeds determine our achievements and failures. Although the existence of divine providence, this has nothing to do with what we ought to achieve. So throwing the blame on God and circumstances for something we failed to achieve, denotes nothing but justifications, and this is something towards which I am highly sensitive. I can’t stand watching someone talk about divine decrees and circumstances as the reason for him not reaching his goal, no matter what this goal happens to be.

Though I do agree on something relative to that topic. Although divine decrees are a reflection of our intentions and deeds, they are always the best scenarios that could happen to us specifically, serving all our life’s aspects. So it is true that failing to reach a certain goal denotes deficiency in your preparation, but it also denotes that this goal wasn’t going to serve you as much as you thought.

Live, and Let Live

This is your life, and it is yours alone. You have complete freedom over your actions, as long as this freedom does not hinder someone else’s. You’re free to love, free to hate, free to build, free to waste. You’re free to live a life that defines you. Because in the end, that’s all that matters.

The same with feelings. You cannot force a certain feeling on someone. Just because you sympathize with someone, doesn’t mean the whole world must feel the same way. We are, nevertheless, different in how we express our emotions, and our brains are not wired the same way. Though this argument immediately turns empty with certain subjects of interest. Some subjects should never be argued between one human being and another, unless one of them is a psychopath, only then no justified blame can be thrown.

As we move forward in time, we’re constantly anticipating changes that would make our lives easier. Time, along side with hard work, has always mesmerized us with the amount, quality, and pace of development, growth, and evolution that the future holds for us. But all of this is of the material world. Speaking of the spiritual world, nothing but pure degradation is the outcome of these changes.

As fast as the expansion and development of the material world is considered, spirituality, along side with humanity, is coming to an end. We are, nonetheless, spiritual beings.

One of the reasons why we’ve reached this level of apathy, is I believe to be ignoring our instincts, ignoring our brothers and sisters’ need for sympathy. We became selfish living beings. For as long as ‘we’ are living a decent life, nothing else matters.

Surely, there’s nothing wrong with living your life. As the motto goes: “Live, and let live.” but if I’m living a decent life, and my brothers and sisters aren’t being able to live, how am I suppose to live?

I will end this post with Francis Scott Fitzgerald’s famous quote:

“I hope you live a life you’re proud of. If you find you’re not, I hope you have the strength to start all over again.”