Reflections on Seeking the Face of God in the Quran

“Everyone on earth perishes; all that remains is the Face of your Lord, full of majesty, bestowing honor.” (55:26-7)

The expression of the Face of God in the Quran should be taken as God’s presence, approval, and attention.  The sun is a concentration of light and life for us.  We are the creatures-in-between light and darkness.  We can shine momentarily in self-absorption and the delusion of will-to-power—this is the shinning of darkness in us.  We can’t have and are barred to see the Face of God in this Dionysian eruption of lust, rage, and power.  This means we can’t have the presence and attention of God to us when we are lost in lust and power.  Although everything exists because of God, the Quran declares, the darkness as well as light, the presence of God is not homogenous in all regions of the universe.  The Face of God is the attention of God, which concentrates at the regions of life which shine with goodness, love and justice.  And we seek the Face of God as the immense gravity of white hole of goodness and harmony.   When we arrive at the unity of conscience: words, deeds, thoughts, and heart we shine forth, when we overcome the illusion of grandiosity and narcissism and realize our connection to light and darkness, our shinning will become refined and sublime.  My thesis is that the Face of God is the essence of ethical-existential meaning of life.

The Ethics of Seeking the Face of God

The ethics of seeking the Face of God might be interpreted as a Divine Command or Natural Law ethics.  I won’t discuss ethical theories extensively in this reflection.  My purpose is reflecting on the ethical import of the expression “seeking the Face of God” in the Quran.   My thesis is that the Face of God is the logos/wisdom and ethical/dispositional/spiritual kernel of existence.  It is God’s Attention to what pleases God.  And the seed of this attention, like a magnetic field, is already in us which can be cultivated by good deeds.  In the following, I will very briefly describe different Western ethical theories.  I see elements of all major ethical theories in Quranic ethics of seeking the Face of God. 

  

In Western ethics, we have six major ethical theories: Hobbes/Nietzsche/Rand’s egoism, Aristotle’s virtue ethics, Stoics, Cicero, Aquinas Natural Law ethics, Kant’s deontology (deon=duty), Mill’s utilitarianism(utility=useful), and Feminist ethics of care.  Except for Aquinas, these are mostly taken as secular doctrines, which means they have nothing to do with the meaning or existential questions of our life.  These are guideposts on how to conduct our lives in order to….?  Now, we usually divide Western ethical theories into “consequentialist” and “non-consequentialist” theories.  For example, ethical egoism aims at self-interest of the individual, while holds also that by nature we are selfish. 

Aristotle’s virtue ethics is a mix of consequentialist and non-consequentialist theories.  On the one hand, Aristotle believes that we have a natural disposition or function to fulfill and the cultivation of human nature is the telos (end, result, fulfillment) at which we aim. 

Natural Law ethics somehow follows Aristotle’s reading of the nature of species as the telos which gives us the guidepost to ethical behavior and tries to read off moral laws from nature as God given.  Natural Law ethics is not just a branch of the Divine Command theory of ethics, because it holds that reason can discover the divine laws of nature and appropriate them for ethical guidance.  

Kant’s deontology is non-consequentialist.  Kant tries to show how the structure of reason itself gives us some laws-before any experience or result—that compel us to be ethical.  He believes “good will” is good without quality, which means it is good for its own sake.  As well, the ethical imperatives as duties have intrinsic values embedded in our rational reasoning. 

Mill and Bentham advocate non-consequentialist ethical theory of utilitarianism.  This is a consequentialist theory and holds that moral actions should be measured according to their usefulness rather than intentions of subject, and the measure of this usefulness is pleasure for the most. 

Feminist ethics of care is somehow close to Aristotle’s virtue ethics.  However, “care” for feminist ethics is not only a virtue but ontological (the core-being) condition of life, at least for human beings.  So, the movement of “care” in feminist ethics of care comes from a dispositional attitude embedded in our nature as the condition of our existence and we should take this naturally endowed disposition as the guidance of ethical behavior rather than rational formulas and principles.

I simplified these ethical theories and there are much detail and interesting arguments for and against each of them.  Each one of these ethical theories are instructive.  I mentioned these theories because I wish to highlight the ethical essence of “seeking the Face of God” in the Quran.

In this reflection, I won’t elaborate on ethical theories and will devote some other reflection to them.  However, I wish to briefly point out that the ethics of “seeking the Face of God” is not the same as any above-mentioned theories, while has a component from each one of them.  The Divine Command theory doesn’t leave room for rational-heart-existential discussions on ethics.  The Natural Law ethics tries to read too much into nature and sometimes mistakes a sheer historical tendency such as slavery or subjugation of women for the Law of Nature or Divine Law and doesn’t live room for non-natural or going against the grain of nature discussion in ethics. 

The ethics of seeking the Face of God is not only a divine command, or merely rational Natural Law ethics.  It is not simply a "divine command ethics" because the Quran contends:

"There is no compulsion in religion: true guidance has become distinct from error, so whoever rejects false gods and believes in God has grasped the firmest hand-hold, one that will never break." (2:256)

"Do not follow blindly what you do not know to be true: ears, eyes, and heart, you will be questioned about all these." (17:36)

Also, the Quran repeatedly highlights that the point of "ethical commands" is to use our reasons and pay attention. 

For example in the verses below, God mentions "This is what He commands you to do: perhaps you will use your reason."  Or: "This is what He commands you to do, so that you may take heed’" Or: "‘This is what He commands you to do, so that you may refrain from wrongdoing":

“Say, ‘Come! I will tell you what your Lord has really forbidden you. Do not ascribe anything as a partner to Him; be good to your parents; do not kill your children in fear of poverty’– We will provide for you and for them–‘stay well away from committing obscenities, whether openly or in secret; do not take the life God has made sacred, except by right. This is what He commands you to do: perhaps you will use your reason. Stay well away from the property of orphans, except with the best [intentions], until they come of age; give full measure and weight, according to justice’– We do not burden any soul with more than it can bear–‘when you speak, be just, even if it concerns a relative; keep any promises you make in God’s name. This is what He commands you to do, so that you may take heed’– this is My path, leading straight, so follow it, and do not follow other ways: they will lead you away from it–‘This is what He commands you to do, so that you may refrain from wrongdoing.’ (6:151-3)

The Quran's ethics also is not simply a Natural Law ethics, because sometimes the Quran asks us to take the steep path of going against our “natural” tendencies.  This is so because we have more than one essence, both darkness and light, matter and soul, reside in us.  So unlike Aristotle, the Quran never takes slavery or subjugation of women as a state of nature:

“Did We not give him eyes, a tongue, lips, and point out to him [or her] the two clear ways [of good and evil]? Yet [s/]he has not attempted the steep path. What will explain to you what the steep path is?  It is to free a slave, to feed at a time of hunger an orphaned relative or a poor person in distress, and to be one of those who believe and urge one another to steadfastness and compassion.” (90:8-17)

My thesis is that the ethics of seeking the Face of God is at the same time divine, rational, heart/mystical, existential, spiritual, and holistic.  It is both consequentialist and non-consequentialist as it has components of all the ethical theories above and “more”.  This “more” is what the Quran is calls “heart”.  We ought to enter a mystical dimension to understand this notion.  “Seeking the Face of God” is not only seeing or hearing God, because God is invisible and non-material, but to see God in the aura of material world and more importantly it is a transmutation of heart in which one feels God’s Face, God’s Attention.

Oneness of the Ethical and Spiritual in the Quran

The Quran is a book of warning and good news.  It is a depiction of the Day of Judgment, a specific description of the ethical-spiritual disposition of human beings, and a guidepost for spiritual growth, which will purify the soul of the individual to the possibility of seeing the Face of God. 

The Quran contends that the seed of longing for the Face of God is already embedded in us and this very longing urges us to be inquisitive and seek moral perfection.  What does “seeking the Face of God” mean?  Does God have a face?  Is this not an anthropomorphic depiction, a metaphor to convey a desire for God or God’s approval?  How does Seeking the Face of God fit into the punishment of hell and the reward of heaven?

To some, it seems that the Quran strictly emphasizes the transcendental aspect of God (tanzih), that God is ineffable and not similar to anything in the world:

“There is nothing like God; God is the All-Hearing the All-Seeing.” (42:11)

This is called negative or apophatic theology[1].  We know that image making is not the favorite part of Islamic painting (I don’t exclude image making absolutely as some Muslims use images to express themselves).  So, one may ask, what does Face of God mean in the Quran?

There are extensive discussions in Islamic theology and mysticism (Sufism) on the transcendental (tanzih, completely being Other) and immanent (tashbih, God is the essence of the world and the world has some similarity to God) aspects of God and I will devote another reflection to negative and positive theology in the Quran.  But for now, I just quote a short part by Abdel Haleem about different stances on this topic:

“As regards expressions involving the face of God, here, again, we find (apart from the anthropomorphists who held it to be a physical face) the Mu‘tazilites held that ‘the face of God’ means God Himself, that it is common in Arabic to use ‘the face’ and mean the person.  On the other hand, the Ash‘arites maintained that He does have a face, that His face is an attribute pertaining to His essence ˚ifat dhat. Building on the principle of tanzih/mukhalafatuhu li’l-˙awadith [transcendence:] ‘that nothing which is applied to a created being should be ascribed to God in the same sense’, the Ash‘arites consider that – unlike the Mu‘tazilites – they have not compromised the meaning of Qur’anic expression, while at the same time, unlike the mushabbiha, they have not conceded to the danger of anthropomorphism.  Al-Ash‘ari summed up the view of ahl al-˙adith who state on this point: ‘We say nothing on the subject except what God Almighty said and what the Prophet (peace be upon him) said. Thus, we say: He does have a face, without

specifying how.” (Understanding Quran, p.110)

How can we reconcile these two?  Surely God is ineffable; we can’t understand or define God in any one way fully.  On the other hand, we have 99 names of God in the Quran and in the Religions of the Book, which are positive attributes of a perfect, self-subsistence, wise, merciful, loving, just, unseen, and unimaginable being.  We have a wisdom-ethical-spiritual direction to the being of God, while we know being and non-being, existence and non-existence, are human categories—but not goodness, wisdom, love, and justice.  We can’t contain God in any conceptual grid.  So how can we imagine God or God’s Face?

Before I discuss “wisdom-ethical-spiritual” direction to the essence of God, let’s see how the Quran uses “the Face of God” in different verses.

Anyone who reads the Quran, even superficially, will find that the Quran is the book of divine warning of the punishment (hell) for disbelief, being arrogant, greedy, lustful, seeking bad pleasures, and being aggressive, and it gives the good news of the reward of good pleasures of heaven for believing in God, doing good, freeing slaves, helping the poor, and being humble:

“Did We not give him eyes, a tongue, lips, and point out to him [or her] the two clear ways [of good and evil]? Yet [s/]he has not attempted the steep path. What will explain to you what the steep path is?  It is to free a slave, to feed at a time of hunger an orphaned relative or a poor person in distress, and to be one of those who believe and urge one another to steadfastness and compassion.” (90:8-17)

To some, as it was to me, it might seem that the Quran puts too much emphasis on “punishment” and “reward” and not on the intrinsic value of “goodness”.  It might look, prima facie, that the Quran is a consequentialist ethico-theological scripture.  The Quran has a clear insight about human nature.  It holds partially humans are prone to selfishness and seek their individual salvation, fear pain and seek pleasure. 

“Although human souls are prone to selfishness, if you do good and are mindful of God, He is well aware of all that you do.” (4:128)

“People, be mindful of your Lord, for the earthquake of the Last Hour will be a mighty thing: on the Day you see it, every nursing mother will think no more of her baby, every pregnant female will miscarry, you will think people are drunk when they are not, so severe will be God’s torment.” (22:1-2)

“When the Deafening Blast comes––the Day man will flee from his own brother, his mother, his father, his wife, his children: each of them will be absorbed in concerns of their own on that Day– on that Day some faces will be beaming, laughing, and rejoicing, but some faces will be dust-stained and covered in darkness: those are the disbelievers, the licentious.” (80:33-42)

But human nature also has a divine soul seeking-the-Face-of-God, the approval of God, aspect which will help people to overcome the sheer desire for seeking pleasures of the world, and hence they can walk the “steep path” of sacrificing the world for the good pleasure of seeing the Face of God in heaven.

The Quran ties achieving the good ending (consequence, salvation) to moral intention-and-deeds of a soul/body in seeking the Face of God.  In ethical terms, the Quran promotes a holistic view of ethical practices.  The good will and intention (the maxim of individual will), and doing good: being humble, paying alms, helping others (virtue ethos-habit), and spiritual intrinsic direction of seeking-longing the Face of God come together as one constellation of duty-intention-consequence-intrinsic-value-of-seeking-the-Face-of-God. 

This means in this holistic ethical-spiritual practice every part gets its direction and meaning against the background of the whole.  If one believes in God but doesn’t establish the habit/character of doing good, then one cannot fulfill the desire of seeing the Face of God.  Conversely, if one seeks the Face of God, one should change from inside-out and outside-in: one must establish a good soul, oneness in words and deeds, thoughts and heart, seeking justice for and revering all living beings—yes, “all” even the plants and animals we eat or not, and the enemies, even if we need to be harsh on them in self-defense at times (I will show this aspect in the Quran in another reflection).  And if one does good without an existential-spiritual desire for the Source of one’s existence, for a longing for the Face of God, then neither the habit of doing good, nor having good will and intention, that is following the ethical per se and separate from the spiritual, can bring about the desired consequence (ethical-spiritual fulfillment and salvation).  A desire for justice and love, such as Chomsky’s ethical ethos, is inherently rooted in the divine (and our genes!).  It is a guidance from God and returns us to the divine.  We seek economic justice and fight discrimination because human being is holy, not homo economicus.  Human beings thirst for justice and love doesn’t follow strictly the theories of evolutionary biology, materialism, and utilitarianism.    

The Intrinsic Value of Desiring and Seeing the Face of God

What is to seek and see the invisible Face of God?  My thesis is that we have hidden in our very chest, the Face of God, we have here in our breathe and in the nature and the world, the Face of God.  Everything comes from God and goes back to God.

“They also say, ‘Why has no sign been sent down to him from his Lord?’ Say, ‘God certainly has the power to send down a sign,’ though most of them do not know: all the creatures that crawl on the earth and those that fly with their wings are communities like yourselves. We have missed nothing out of the Record– in the end they will be gathered to their Lord. Those who reject Our signs are deaf, dumb, and in total darkness.” (6:37-39)

Our rational thinking must train itself to bring the seemingly two opposites of “God in the World” (immanent) and “God outside the World” (transcendence) together, while Good and Evil are separate.   As God says:

“We shall show them Our signs in every region of the earth and in themselves, until it becomes clear to them that this is the Truth. Is it not enough that your Lord witnesses everything?” (41:53)  

If the seed of Face of God is not already present in every living being and in human beings (the “Ruh” [spirit], “tselem” [image]), then we won’t have the capacity to long the source of our existence, even if we don’t heed it always and for some it withers away until the Day of Judgement.  This is the kernel of Quran’s message: the seed of heaven is in our chest, but it must be nursed and nurtured by good will and deeds to grow, and the result/reward is to see the Face of God in heaven.  

“Though [the righteous] hold it dear, they give food to the needy, the orphan, the captive: ‘We feed you only for the Face of God, we seek of you neither recompense nor thanks’.” (76:9)

“What you give in usury that it may increase on other people’s wealth increases not with God; but what you give in charity desiring God’s Face shall be repaid to you manifold.” (30:39)

“Those who endure with fortitude desiring the Face of their Lord, attend to their prayer and give alms in private and in public and ward off evil with good shall have a blissful end.” (13:22)

In one occasion, prophet was torn between his efforts to win over the nobles to save

them, and the humble believers, whom the nobles wanted him to get rid of, claiming that they only congregated around him to gain prestige or material benefits.  In the following verses, the Prophet is told that he should not worry about them and so become a wrongdoer by driving away true believers (from Abel Haleem footnote to these verses):

“Do not drive away those who call upon their Lord morning and evening, seeking nothing but His Face.  You are in no way accountable for them, nor they for you; if you drove the believers away, you would become one of the evildoers. We have made some of them a test for others, to make the disbelievers say, ‘Is it these men that God has favored among us?’ Does God not know best who are the grateful ones?” (6:52-3)

This “seeking nothing but the Face of God” comes before the reward of good pleasures in heaven, and God asks the Prophet to heed them more than seemingly nobles.  In another place, the Quran asks Prophet:

“Restrain yourself together with those who pray to their Lord morning and evening desiring His Face. Do not turn your eyes away from them desiring the adornment of the present life, nor obey him whose heart We have made heedless of Our remembrance; who follows his lust and gives a loose rein to his desires.” (18:28)

Mu‘tazilites, those who adhere strictly to the negative theology and transcendence of God, reject the idea that believers will see the Face of God in heaven, simply because God has no physical reality.  While God doesn’t have a physical dimension and negative theology in this sense holds, it is fallacious to ignore the fact that the Quran repeatedly talks about “meeting God” in heaven and that evildoers are deprived from seeing the Face of God:

 

“When Our revelations are recited to him, he says, ‘Ancient fables!’  No indeed! Their hearts are encrusted with what they have done.  No indeed! On that Day they will be screened off from their Lord.” (83:13-15)

Indeed to admit that believers and those who did good in this life will see-meet God is essential for negative theology and in a sense Mu‘tazilites contradict themselves in saying that we won’t meet God in the Day of Judgment, because if God is at the same time immanent (inside the world) and transcendent (separate from the world), it means that it is possible to “meet” God separate from the world.  But the “how” is a mystery and “Face of God” is a metaphor for this mystery.

In Understanding Quran, Abdel Haleem elaborate on this point:

“The joy of seeing the face of God in the next life is an extra reward:

‘For those who do good is the best reward and much more.’ (10:26)

This ‘more’ has been interpreted as seeing God.  The guilty transgressors who deny the day of judgement now will be barred in the hereafter from seeing their Lord (83:15). Seeing God is an issue which traditionally had a place in theological works with the Mu‘tazilites denying ru’yat Allah (seeing God) since seeing something implies that it is a body, in a place and a special direction. Faced with such Qur’anic references (75:22–23) they attempted to interpret them in such a way as to avoid seeing God. In the case of verses 75:22–23 cited above, they say the believers will look at the reward of their Lord (not at Him), an argument powerfully refuted by the Ash‘arites and their followers.25 In fact the task before the Mu‘tazilites was not as easy as they seemed to make it; it is not merely a matter of one or two verses about the face of God and seeing God, but also of many verses about the hand of God, His throne and many acts of God as in 48:10; 2:255; 10:3; 39:67; 2:245; 89:22 and 5:64. Sayyid Qutb (d. 1965) rightly points out that arguments were raised about such examples whenever polemics became a favorite occupation, whereas in fact they only follow a pattern of expression common throughout the Qur’an: ta˚wir (representation, imagery), which aims at explaining abstract ideas and bringing them nearer to our understanding. It is a consistent pattern that employs concrete imagery and personification. Taw˙id (the belief in the oneness of God) necessitates complete negation of anthropomorphism; the fact that the Qur’an does not deviate even in this area from its normal patterns of expression is clear evidence that ta˚wir is the basic rule of Qur’anic expression.” (p.114)

So, to say that believers will see the “Face of God” is a simile for the fact that we will meet God, but it is not the case that God has a face like us.  Nonetheless the meeting shall occur and not only this meeting is something “more” than heaven, I believe, it is the essence of heaven, to be close to beloved.

“When Moses came for the appointment, and his Lord spoke to him, he said, ‘My Lord, show Yourself to me: let me see You!’ He said, ‘You will never see Me, but look at that mountain: if it remains standing firm, you will see Me,’ and when his Lord revealed Himself to the mountain, He made it crumble: Moses fell down unconscious.” (7:143)

So, how can we interpret “Face of God” in terms of meeting God?  My hypothesis is this:

Face is the center of emotion-attention.  While God doesn’t have emotions like us, God invented them and has the most unadulterated version of them.  In scriptures, God declares to be wise, merciful, forgiving (99 names in the Quran[2]).  One may argue that the “Ruh” [spirit], “tselem” [image] of God in us is some of these attributes such as wisdom-ethical-spiritual-holy aspects of our character.  This is our holy face and this is also the holy Face of God.  Not something material to be seen, but one can experience it from within.  If I pay attention to something closely, my energy heads to that direction.  If I am happy to see my beloved or upset to see an aggressor, it shows itself in my face, first and foremost.  If God attends to a creature, one feels the warmth of God’s presence.  If God withdraws from a creature, one’s face darkens into despair.  Consider these verses about human face in the Quran:

“Truly you [people] love this fleeting world and neglect the life to come.  On that Day there will be radiant faces, looking towards their Lord, and on that Day there will be the sad and despairing faces of those who realize that a great calamity is about to befall them.” (75:20-24)

“The faces of the damned will be seen ‘darkened …, but God will deliver

the righteous to their place of salvation’.” (39:60–61)

“Those whose faces will become bright shall abide forever in God’s mercy.” (3:106)

Conclusion

The Quran ties achieving the good ending (consequence, salvation) to moral intention-and-deeds of a soul/body in seeking the Face of God.  In ethical terms, the Quran promotes a holistic view of ethical practices.  The good will and intention (the maxim of individual will), and doing good: being humble, paying alms, helping others (virtue ethos-habit), and spiritual intrinsic direction of seeking-longing the Face of God come together as one constellation of duty-intention-consequence-intrinsic-value-of-seeking-the-Face-of-God.    

I just came back from my meditation walk.  The host of thoughts invade me while walking.  Then I concentrate my eyes on the horizon, where the sky and earth meet.  Then on the shimmering light of sun on the surface of water.  My thoughts are gradually washed away.  I am a speck of dust absorbing the universe.  The change is within me, I gradually transform from friction to release, from conflict to peace, from worry to ataraxia.  The change is without me; everything is passing and changing in nature.  The change is within me, as I lose all the disturbing emotions one by one: jealousy, competition, greed, arrogance, conceit, servility, suspicion, envy, vanity, revenge, grudge, resentment, despise, indifference, cruelty, apathy, overexcitement, toxic guilt, obsequiousness, scrupulosity, revenge, despair, by focusing on the horizon of events in God.  As if I am on the edge of death/exit from this world of conflicts and pleasures, then I, a speck of dust, through the changes within me, experience something different in my encounter with the world of becoming without me.  I assume I am tasting some remote sense of meeting the Face of God.  How do I know? 

Socrates was on his way to the court to do the paperwork for an indictment in which he was accused of denying Greek gods and corrupting the youth, for which he was eventually executed by drinking hemlock.  On the way, he meets Euthyphro and they discuss the meaning of piety.  One of the definitions of Euthyphro was that “piety is doing what pleases God.”  Euthyphro’s dilemma is the question posed to him by Socrates: "Is the pious (τὸ ὅσιον) loved by the gods because it is pious, or is it pious because it is loved by the gods?"  I ask my students the same question. “Is the pious loved by God because it is pious, or is it pious because it is loved by God?”  They usually answer: “both”. 

"Say [Prophet], ‘My Lord only forbids disgraceful deeds–whether they be open or hidden– and sin and unjustified aggression, and that you, without His sanction, associate things with Him, and that you say things about Him without [revealed] knowledge.’" (The Quran, 7:33)

I ask students if a seeming deity whispers into your ears how do you know it is God or devil?  We have a measure inside us, this is Socrates' point.  We know what is pious from within.  After all, Socrates called himself a “midwife” who never teaches anyone but helps them to deliver what is already inside them.  He believed in a theory of recollection.  So, we have a measure inside us.  Call it a desire for pleasure and survival.  Not enough.  Call it a feeling of empathy for fellow human beings.  Not enough.  Call it a priori reason.  Not enough.  Call it intuition of goodness.  Not enough.  Call it ethical compass.  Not enough.  Call it divine seed.  Not enough.  Call it the image or spirit of God.  Not enough.  My claim is that in the Quran God tells us we have all the above elements inside us.  It is a seed in us to do good, covered up with human deceit and desires.  This is the seed of pleasing God, to long God, to desire to see the Face of God, to feel God’s attention and presence.

We have a measure inside us and we can read off all different frictions of the soul in one’s face: jealousy, competition, greed, arrogance, grandiosity, conceit, servility, inferiority, suspicion, envy, vanity, revenge, grudge, resentment, despise, indifference, cruelty, apathy, overexcitement, toxic guilt, obsequiousness, scrupulosity, revenge, despair, excess.

And we can read all the divine virtues in one’s face: forgiveness, understanding, peace, loyalty, kindness, compassion, agent regret, proper shame, proper guilt, gratitude, connectedness, hope, proper anger, proper resolve, faith, loyalty, commitment, humility, courage, temperance, moderation, love.

Having the seed of longing for God and measure of good and evil within us doesn't mean that we don't need any "authority" of revelations or religious guidance. It is like we say a child has the potential for learning a language and conclude that s/he doesn't need any parental guidance and education to learn how to speak, read, and write in a language. Scriptures and revelations are essential for the development of the seed of God, otherwise we will be lost.

If there was no homogeneity between us and God, we would never be able to discern and understand what God loves, what God approves, we would never be able to meet the Face of God.  If there was no similarity between us and evil, we would never be able to discern and understand what evil is, what agitation and psychological friction are, we would never be able to understand what will-to-power, ignominy, disgrace, and negativity mean.  Not being able to see the Face of God, to get the approval of God, to do what is pleasing to God, is the depth of Satan’s falling.

In this reflection, I tried to show that in the Quran ethical practices are tied to spiritual practices and Quran clearly admits and considers human selfishness, desire for good and bad pleasures, fear of pain, desire for doing good, the significance of good will and good intentions, virtues and vices, and other traits discussed in different ethical theories in the West.

However, in the Quran all these traits are understood in a holistic sense against the dominant nihilism that seeks to separate the ethical from the spiritual.  In desiring to see the Face of God, the Quran at the same time shows the seed and the fruit of ethical-spiritual actions.  Seeking the Face of God is the engine for walking on the steep path, not easy to our nature, as we are heavy with desires of body.  But the seed is there and growth and cultivation for human beings is this movement from longing God, in transforming oneself, so that to see the Face of God, to feel God’s presence and attention, which is the ultimate point of resolving all the conflicts within.

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[1] “In negative theology, it is accepted that experience of the Divine is ineffable, an experience of the holy that can only be recognized or remembered abstractly. That is, human beings cannot describe in words the essence of the perfect good that is unique to the individual, nor can they define the Divine, in its immense complexity, related to the entire field of reality. As a result, all descriptions if attempted will be ultimately false and conceptualization should be avoided.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apophatic_theology

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_God_in_Islam