A Reflection on Surah Believers (23): Poverty of Existence, Wretchedness, and The Way Out: Repel Evil with Good
A long epigraph from the ending of this reflection, repeated here:
“But the deeds of those who disbelieve are like a mirage in a desert: the thirsty person thinks there will be water but, when he gets there, he finds only God, who pays him his account in full– God is swift in reckoning. Or like shadows in a deep sea covered by wave upon wave, with clouds above– layer upon layer of darkness– if he holds out his hand, he is scarcely able to see it. The one to whom God gives no light has no light at all.” (24:39-40)
But as Abū-Sa'īd Abul-Khayr (not Rumi) says:
باز آ باز آ هر آنچه هستی باز آ
گر کافر و گبر و بتپرستی باز آ
این درگه ما درگه نومیدی نیست
صد بار اگر توبه شکستی باز آ
Come, Come, again whatever you are,
Whether you are disbeliever, fire worshipper, or idolater,
This gate of ours is not the gate of despair,
If you have broken your vows of repentance hundred times, come again.
The chemist Sir Humphry Davy wrote:
“I envy no quality of mind or intellects in others—not genius, power, wit, or fancy; but if I could choose what would be most delightful, and I believe most useful to me, I should prefer a firm religious belief to any other blessing; for it makes life a discipline of goodness, creates new hopes when all earthly hopes vanish, … awakens life even in death, and from corruption and decay calls up beauty and divinity; makes an instrument of torture and shame [the cross] the ladder of ascent to Paradise; and far above all combinations of earthly hopes, calls up the most delightful visions of palms and amaranths, the gardens of the blest, the security of everlasting joys, where the sensualist and the skeptic view only gloom, decay, annihilation, and despair.” (Quoted in Light in My Darkness by Helen Keller)
A Reflection on Surah Believers (23)
In reading surah “Believers” (23), first and foremost, I am struck by
these verses:
1)
“We have the power to take it all away if We so wish”:
“We created seven levels above you: We are never unmindful
of Our creation. We sent water down from
the sky in due measure and lodged it in the earth––We have the power to take
it all away if We so wish––with it We produced for you gardens of date
palms and vines, with many fruits there for you to eat, and a tree, growing out
of Mount Sinai, that produces oil and seasoning for your food.” (23:17-20)
After
Western Enlightenment, we take things for granted. Even if we talk about “natural laws”—we see
them as dead ordinances domineering our lives mercilessly. We hold the natural laws that preserve our
blood and flesh and keep us breathing and walking as blind, dead, and
indifferent order of universe. This is
called ‘secularization of the world’. No
wonder that we think now we are just robots and by simulating the same or
similar natural laws (say, computation) we can create computers who can think
and act and have moral consciousness just like us, because we have already
turned into immoral nihilistic robots by exorcising the divine from nature
(secularization of nature). The laws of
nature indicate the divine wisdom and sustenance and God has the “power to take
it all away” if God so wishes—Memento.
2) “If
the truth were in accordance with their desires, the heavens, the earth, and
everyone in them would disintegrate.”
“Have they not contemplated the
Word of God? Has something come to them that did not come to their
forefathers? Do they not recognize their
Messenger? So why do they reject him? Why
do they say he is possessed? He has brought them the truth and most of them
hate it, but if the truth were in accordance with their desires, the heavens,
the earth, and everyone in them would disintegrate. We have brought them their
Reminder and they turn away from it.
Do you [Prophet] ask them for any payment? Your Lord’s is the best payment:
He is the Best of Providers. You call
them to a straight path and those who do not believe in the Hereafter turn away from that
path. Even if We were to show them
mercy and relieve them of distress, they would blindly persist in their
transgression. We have already afflicted them, yet they did not
submit to their Lord: they will not humble themselves until We open a gate to
severe torment for them– then they will be plunged into utter despair.” (23:68-77)
When
I was an atheist, I couldn’t like the Quran, even before reading it one time
thoroughly, because I desired different kind of truths—materialistic truths, a
humanistic anthropocentric truth. The
assumption that we can make our heaven on the earth by some notions of
“equality and democracy”. I thought
Marxian utopia—“from each according to his ability, to each according to his
needs” can solve all human problems, social as well as existential-ontological
problems. I was wrong, a materialistic
heaven without God is Hell. And as we
saw USSR and now China, and other so called existing socialist societies
hostile to religion, are falling apart like houses of cards, we learn that without
resorting to divine laws within and without, without moderation and prayers,
everything will disintegrate. No
material need and sense of equality can quench our spiritual needs. No amount of rational articulation and
application of reason alone can save us—reason without God will become a
hedonistic instrument of exploitation, objectification, and reification.
3) Everything we have is from God and
we are oblivious: our hearing, sight, and hearts, our multiplying on the earth,
our life and death, alternation of night and day—and the most important fact is
our resurrection that most in the past and now think it is an ancient
fable. God owns the earth and seven heavens. God controls everything. He protects everything while there is no
protection against Him. The universe is
not the field of competition between gods.
Human being is one species and has one God. God is ‘far above’ any partner—God is
distinctly Other who knows what is not seen as well as what is seen. And finally, the remedy is the sickness of
heart is mentioned repeatedly in the Quran: Repel evil with good.
“It is God who endowed you with hearing,
sight, and hearts– how seldom you are grateful! It
is He who made you multiply on earth. It is to Him that you will be
gathered: it is He who gives life and death; the alternation of night
and day depends on Him; will you not use your minds? But, like others before them, they say,
‘What? When we die and turn to dust and bones, shall we really be resurrected? We have heard such promises before, and so
did our forefathers. These are just ancient fables.’ Say [Prophet], ‘Who owns the earth and
all who live in it, if you know [so much]?’ and they will reply, ‘God.’ Say,
‘Will you not take heed?’ Say, ‘Who is the Lord of the seven heavens?
Who is the Lord of the Mighty Throne?’ and they will reply, ‘God.’ Say,
‘Will you not be mindful?’ Say, ‘Who holds control of everything in His
hand? Who protects, while there is no protection against Him, if you
know [so much]?’ and they will reply, ‘God.’ Say, ‘Then how can you be so
deluded?’ The fact is, We brought them
the truth and they are lying. God has
never had a child. Nor is there any god beside Him– if there were, each
god would have taken his creation aside and tried to overcome the others.
May God be exalted above what they describe!
He knows what is not seen as well as what is seen; He is far
above any partner they claim for Him. Say,
‘Lord, if You are going to show me the punishment You have promised them, then
Lord, do not include me among the evildoers!’
We certainly are able to show you the punishment We have promised
them. Repel evil with good–We are
well aware of what they attribute to Us– and say, ‘Lord, I take refuge with
You from the goadings of the evil ones; I seek refuge with you, Lord, so that
they may not come near me.’” (23:78-98)
As
I mentioned, there are so many insights in the above verses. However, I wish to pause on one notion: “it is God who endowed you with hearing, sight, and hearts.” We take our senses for granted, our outer
senses as well as our inner sense (heart).
In Light in My Darkness, Helen Keller (blind-deaf genius) wrote:
“My
life is so complicated by a triple handicap of blindness, deafness, and
imperfect speech that I cannot do the simplest thing without thought and effort
to rationalize my experience… Even if I commit errors in forming concepts of
color, sound, light, and intangible phenomena, I must always try to preserve
equilibrium between my outer and inner life.” (p.130).
What
did keep Helen Keller going for 88 years in absolute darkness? Her response is illuminating:
“Truly
I have looked into the very heart of darkness and refused to yield to its
paralyzing influence, but in spirit I am one of those who walk the
morning. What if all dark, discouraging
moods of the human mind come across my way as thick as the dry leaves of
autumn? Other feet have travelled the
road before me, and I know the desert leads to God as surely as the green,
refreshing fields and fruitful orchards.” (p.125)
The
inner sense (the heart in the Quran) which guided Helen Keller to be creative
and excited about life, at the same time guided her to understand her
‘dependent origination’ and God. She is
more insightful than the host of arrogant philosophers and scientists of our
time who take their sight, hearing, and heart for granted and turn a blind eye
to the gift given to them by God, through evolution and mutation of the inner,
and not by blind Darwinism. Helen Keller
elucidates:
“I,
too, have been profoundly humiliated and brought to realize my smallness amid
the immensity of creation. The more I
learn, the less I think I know, and the more I understand of my sense
experience, the more I perceive its shortcomings and its inadequacy as a basis
of life. Sometimes the points of view of
the optimist and the pessimist seem so well-balanced to me that it is only by
sheer force of spirit that I can keep my hold upon a practical, livable
philosophy of life. But I use my will,
choose life, and reject its opposite, nothingness.
Edwin Markham has exquisitely
wrought into his poem, “Take Your Choice,” the opposing moods and different
beliefs that contend for supremacy today:
On
the bough of the rose-tree is the prickling briar,
The
delicate lily must live in the mire,
The
hues of the butterfly go at a breath;
At
the end of the road is the house of death.
Nay,
nay! On the briar is the delicate rose;
In
the mire of the river the lily blows,
The
moth is as fair as the flower of the sod,
At
the end of the road is a door to God!” (p.125)
Those
who choose the second path, the path of God, use their ‘heart’ and keep it
bright and clean to guide them to the straight path. Helen Keller was one of them and a witness to
truth. And those who take the path of
God understand the inner meaning of “repel evil with good”—the alchemy of life
in this world and in the world to come.
4) Only the weight of good deeds
remains with us, and there is no returning back beyond the point of no
return. How can one lose one’s way and
become “wayward” and how can one ignore God’s warnings again and again? How many of them do we have in our modern
time? ‘You stayed but a little [on
the earth], if you had only known. Did
you think We had created you in vain, and that you would not be brought back to
Us?’
“When death comes to one of them,
he cries, ‘My Lord, let me return so as to make amends for the things I
neglected.’ Never! This will not go beyond his words: a barrier stands behind
such people until the very Day they are resurrected. On that Day when the Trumpet is blown, the
ties between them will be as nothing and they will not ask about each other:
those whose good deeds weigh heavy will be successful, but those whose
balance is light will have lost their souls forever and will stay in Hell–the
Fire will scorch their faces and their lips will be twisted in pain. ‘Were My messages not recited over and over
to you and still you rejected them?’ They
will say, ‘Lord, our waywardness overcame us and we went astray. Lord, take us away from this and if we go
back to our old ways, then we shall really be evildoers.’ He will say, ‘Away with you! In you go! Do
not speak to Me! Among My servants there
were those who said, “Lord, We believe. Forgive us and have mercy on us: You
are the most merciful of all.” But
you kept on laughing at them: so intent were you on laughing at them that it
made you forget My warning. Today I
have rewarded them for their patience: it is they who will succeed.’ He will say, ‘How many years were you on
earth?’ and they will reply, ‘We stayed a day or a part of a day, but ask those
who keep count.’ He will say, ‘You
stayed but a little, if you had only known.
Did you think We had created you in vain, and that you would not be
brought back to Us?’” (23:99-115)
I
realize the truth. It is so obvious to
me now after years of going astray. Good
deeds will repel evil. And I have done
some wrong in my life. I walked against
religion and followed the dream of modernity while my country was in an unjust
war imposed on it by Iraq. I was blind and hoped
that Marxism can bring heaven on the earth, but twenty-five years study showed
me that the dream of materialism and atheism is a mirage. I couldn’t find my way by myself. God guided me, and I can’t be more grateful
to God for the guidance. I have improved
personally and spiritually since then.
However, my waywardness [شَقَأ سختی و بدبختی= wretchedness, difficult to
control or predict because of unusual or perverse behavior] has not been overcome yet. Still
I am on the way and still I fall back on my impatience and erroneous behavior sometimes. I ask God to help me and
don’t get disappointed in me. The first step
to healing, before it gets too late, is to see the sickness of the soul. We have a little time to stay on the earth compared
to eternity. Not much time left for me and
I must overcome my wretchedness (شَقَأ).
“But the deeds of those who disbelieve are like a mirage in a desert: the thirsty person thinks there will be water but, when he gets there, he finds only God, who pays him his account in full– God is swift in reckoning. Or like shadows in a deep sea covered by wave upon wave, with clouds above– layer upon layer of darkness– if he holds out his hand, he is scarcely able to see it. The one to whom God gives no light has no light at all.” (24:39-40)
But
as Abū-Sa'īd Abul-Khayr (not Rumi) says:
باز آ باز آ هر آنچه هستی باز آ
گر کافر و گبر و بتپرستی باز آ
این درگه ما درگه نومیدی نیست
صد بار اگر توبه شکستی باز آ
Come,
Come, again whatever you are,
Whether
you are disbeliever, fire worshipper, or idolater,
This
gate of ours is not the gate of despair,
If you
have broken your vows of repentance hundred times, come again.
The chemist Sir Humphry Davy wrote:
“I
envy no quality of mind or intellects in others—not genius, power, wit, or
fancy; but if I could choose what would be most delightful, and I believe most
useful to me, I should prefer a firm religious belief to any other blessing;
for it makes life a discipline of goodness, creates new hopes when all earthly
hopes vanish, … awakens life even in death, and from corruption and decay calls
up beauty and divinity; makes an instrument of torture and shame [the cross]
the ladder of ascent to Paradise; and far above all combinations of earthly
hopes, calls up the most delightful visions of palms and amaranths, the gardens
of the blest, the security of everlasting joys, where the sensualist and the
skeptic view only gloom, decay, annihilation, and despair.” (Quoted in Light
in My Darkness by Helen Keller)
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