Die Before Dying

O you who possess sincerity, (if) you want that (Reality) unveiled, choose death and tear off the veil--
Not such a death that you will go into a grave, (but) a death consisting of (spiritual) transformation,
so that you will go into a Light.
...
Hence the messenger of good tiding said, (speaking) symbolically, “Die before ye die, O nobles,

Even as I have died before death and brought from Yonder this fame and renown.”

Do thou, then, become the (spiritual) resurrection and (thereby) see (experience) the resurrection: this (becoming) is the necessary condition for seeing (knowing and experiencing the real nature of) anything.

Until thou become it, thou wilt not know it completely, whether it be light or darkness.

(If) thou become Reason, thou wilt know Reason perfectly; if thou become Love, thou wilt know Love’s (flaming) wick.  

(Moulavi Rummi, Book VI, 754-759)

The followings are one of the most consistent and startling truth in the Quran to which I was blind most of my life.  Now reading them, I ask myself why did I never read them?  Or if I read them, not with principle of charity to set my heart straight and connect with the truth so plainly mentioned in them.  I was too sure of my ‘scientific outlook’ and my faith in the ‘verifiable world of appearance’.  What a fool I was!  But God brought the Day of Judgement to me before dying and my face darkened, before becoming dark after my death in the Day of Judgement.  Do you know what is ‘darkening the face’?  How you ever felt absolute despair and being trapped completely in the evil of your own deeds?  I remember the time that I felt the light is moving out of my body and I clearly felt the darkening of my face and body, when I was seduced by Satan to see myself as ‘unforgiven’ and ‘doomed’ for the disbelief in most of my life and the impossible undoing of the mistakes that I made.  God allowed Satan to seduce me into utter disappointment and unredeemable state of falling into Hell, both in this world and in the world to come, similar to his own destiny and state of being.  Thus, I died before dying.  I can’t thank God more for this suffering before the suffering of the Day, of this darkening of my face, before the darkening of my face in the Day that I have no time to change the course of my action and will carry my darkened face into Hell for eternity or as long as God wills. 

“When man suffers some affliction, he cries out to Us, but when We favor him with Our blessing, he says, ‘All this has been given to me because of my knowledge’– it is only a test, though most of them do not know it.  Those who lived before them said the same. What they did was of no use to them; they suffered its evil effects. Today’s wrongdoers will also suffer the evil effects of their deeds: they will not escape.  Do they not know that God provides abundantly for anyone He will and gives sparingly to anyone He will?  There truly are signs in this for those who believe.” (39:49-52)  

“Say, ‘[God says], My servants who have harmed yourselves by your own excess, do not despair of God’s mercy. God forgives all sins: He is truly the Most Forgiving, the Most Merciful.  Turn to your Lord. Submit to Him before the punishment overtakes you and you can no longer be helped.  Follow the best teaching sent down to you from your Lord, before the punishment suddenly takes you, unawares, and your soul says, “Woe is me for having neglected what is due to God, and having been one of those who scoffed!”  Or it says, “If God had guided me, I would have joined the righteous!”  Or, faced by punishment, it says, “If only I could have another chance, I would join those who do good!”  No indeed! My messages came to you and you rejected them: you were arrogant and rejected the truth.’” (39:53-59)

“On the Day of Resurrection, you [Prophet] will see those who told lies against God, their faces darkened. Is there not ample punishment for the arrogant in Hell?  But God will deliver those who took heed of Him to their place of safety: no harm will touch them, nor will they grieve.  God is the Creator of all things; He has charge of everything; the keys of the heavens and earth are His. Those who have rejected the revelations of God will be the losers.” (39:60-63)

“Say, ‘Do you order me to worship someone other than God, you foolish people?’  It has already been revealed to you [Prophet] and to those before you: ‘If you ascribe any partner to God, all your work will come to nothing: you will be one if the losers. 66No! Worship God alone and be one of those who are grateful to Him.’  These people have no grasp of God’s true measure. On the Day of Resurrection, the whole earth will be in His grip. The heavens will be rolled up in His right hand– Glory be to Him! He is far above the partners they ascribe to Him!– the Trumpet will be sounded, and everyone in the heavens and earth will fall down senseless except those God spares. It will be sounded once again and they will be on their feet, looking on. 69 The earth will shine with the light of its Lord; the Record of Deeds will be laid open; the prophets and witnesses will be brought in. Fair judgement will be given between them: they will not be wronged 70 and every soul will be repaid in full for what it has done. He knows best what they do.” (39:64-69)

“Those who rejected the Truth will be led to Hell in their throngs.  When they arrive, its gates will open and its keepers will say to them, ‘Were you not sent your own messengers to recite the revelations of your Lord to you and warn you that you would meet this Day?’ and they will say, ‘Yes indeed we were.’ But the sentence of punishment will have been passed against those who rejected the truth.  It will be said, ‘Enter the gates of Hell: there you will remain. How evil is the abode of the arrogant!’” (39:71-72)

“Those who were mindful of their Lord will be led in throngs to the Garden. When they arrive, they will find its gates wide open, and its keepers will say to them, ‘Peace be upon you. You have been good.  Come in: you are here to stay,’ and they will say, ‘Praise be to God who has kept His promise to us and given us this land as our own.  Now we may live wherever we please in the Garden.’ How excellent is the reward of those who labor! You [Prophet] will see the angels surrounding the Throne, glorifying their Lord with praise. True judgement will have been passed between them, and it will be said, ‘Praise be to God, the Lord of the Worlds.’” (39:73-75)

Prophet: "Die before ye die."  

At this time there is no (means of) making (God) known except (by) denying the opposite: in this (earthly) life no moment is without a snare.

O you who possess sincerity, (if) you want that (Reality) unveiled, choose death and tear off the veil--

Not such a death that you will go into a grave, (but) a death consisting of (spiritual) transformation, so that you will go into a Light.

(When) a man grows up, his childhood dies; (when) he becomes a (fair-complexioned) Greek, he washes out the dye (swarthy color) of the Ethopian.

(When) earth becomes gold, its earthly aspect remains not; (when) sorrow becomes joy, the thorn of sorrowfulness remains not.

Hence Mustafa (Mohammad) said,: “O seeker of the mysteries, (if) you wish to see a dead man living---

Walking on the earth, like living men; (yet he is) dead and his spirit is gone to heaven;

(One) whose spirit hath a dwelling-place on high at this moment, (so that) if he die, his spirit is not translated,

Because it has been translated before death: this (mystery) is understood (only) by dying, not by (using one’s) reason;

Translation it is, (but) not like the translation of the spirits of the vulgar: it resembles a removal (during life) from one place to antoher—

If any one wish to see a dead man walking thus visibly on the eath,

Let him behold Abu Bakr, the devout, (who) through being a true witness (siddiq) became the Prince of the Resurrected.

In this (earthly) life look at the Siddiq (Abu Bakr), that you may believe more firmly in the Resurrection.”

Mohammad, then, was a hundred (spiritual) resurrections here and now, for he was dissolved (naughted) in dying to (temporal) loosing and binding.

Ahmad (Mohammad) is the twice-born in this world: he was manifestly a hundred resurrections.

They asked him concerning the Resurrection, saying, “O (thou who art the) Resurrection, how long is the way to the Ressurction?”

And often he would say with mute eloquence, “Does any one ask (me who am) the Resurrection concerning the Resurrection?”

Hence the messenger of good tiding said, (speaking) symbolically, “Die before ye die, O nobles,

Even as I have died before death and brought from Yonder this fame and renown.”

Do thou, then, become the (spiritual) resurrection and (thereby) see (experience) the resurrection: this (becoming) is the necessary condition for seeing (knowing and experiencing the real nature of) anything.

Until thou become it, thou wilt not know it completely, whether it be light or darkness.

(If) thou become Reason, thou wilt know Reason perfectly; if thou become Love, thou wilt know Love’s (flaming) wick.  (Moulavi Rummi, Book VI, 736-759)

۷۳۹	نَفیْ ضِدّ هست باشد بی‌شَکی		تا زِ ضِدّْ ضِد را بِدانی اَنْدکی
۷۴۰	این زمان جُز نَفیِ ضِدْ اِعْلام نیست		اَنْدَرین نَشْات دَمی بی‌دام نیست
۷۴۱	بی‌حِجابَت باید آن ای ذو لُباب		مرگ را بُگْزین و بَر دَرّان حِجاب
۷۴۲	نه چُنان مرگی که در گوری رَوی		مرگِ تبدیلی که در نوری رَوی
۷۴۳	مَردْ بالِغ گشت آن بَچْگی بِمُرد		رومی‌یی شُد صِبْغَت زَنگی سُتُرد
۷۴۴	خاکْ زَر شُد هیات خاکی نَمانْد		غَمْ فَرَج شُد خارِ غَمْناکی نَمانْد
۷۴۵	مُصْطَفی زین گفت کِی اَسْرارجو		مُرده را خواهی که بینی زنده تو؟
۷۴۶	می‌رَوَد چون زندگان بر خاکْدان		مُرده و جانَش شُده بر آسْمان
۷۴۷	جانْش را این دَمْ به بالا مَسْکَنی ست		گر بِمیرَد روحِ او را نَقْل نیست
۷۴۸	زان که پیش از مرگْ او کرده‌ست نَقْل		این به مُردنْ فَهْم آید نه به عقل
۷۴۹	نَقْل باشد نه چو نَقْلِ جانِ عام		هَمچو نَقْلی از مَقامی تا مَقام
۷۵۰	هرکِه خواهد که بِبینَد بر زمین		مُرده‌یی را می‌رَوَد ظاهِر چُنین
۷۵۱	مَر ابوبکرِ تَقی را گو بِبین		شُد زِ صِدّیقی اَمیرُالْمُحْشَرین
۷۵۲	اَنْدَرین نَشْاَت نِگَر صِدّیق را		تا به حَشْر اَفْزون کُنی تَصدیق را
۷۵۳	پَس مُحَمَّد صد قیامَت بود نَقْد		زان که حَل شُد در فَنایِ حَلّ و عَقْد
۷۵۴	زادهٔ ثانیست اَحْمَد در جهان		صد قیامَت بود او اَنْدَر عِیان
۷۵۵	زو قیامَت را هَمی‌پُرسیده‌اند		ای قیامَت تا قیامتْ راهْ چند؟
۷۵۶	با زبانِ حالْ می‌گفتی بَسی		که زِ مَحْشَر حَشْر را پُرسَد کسی؟
۷۵۷	بَهْرِ این گفت آن رَسولِ خوشْ‌پیام		رَمْزِ موتوا قَبْلَ مَوْتٍ یا کِرام
۷۵۸	هم‌چُنان که مُرده‌ام من قَبْلِ مَوْت		زان طَرَف آورده‌ام این صیت و صَوْت
۷۵۹	پس قیامَت شو قیامَت را بِبین		دیدنِ هر چیز را شَرط است این
۷۶۰	تا نگردی او ندانی‌اَش تَمام		خواه آن اَنْوار باشد یا ظَلام
۷۶۱	عقل گردی عقل را دانی کَمال		عشق گردی عشق را دانی ذُبال

The Evil of Their Deeds Will Become Plain to Them 

Four points in the passages below, from the Quran, the last stark warning of God to humanity, keep me thinking. 

First, during my life I have gone through and seen people with different outlooks go throw deluding themselves about their death.  They hope they may be able to reverse it and to become younger and the whole industry of genome project and cloning hopes for immortality for human beings on this planet—or after trashing the earth—on some other planet.  But there is no delusion for the prophet: 

“YOU [PROPHET] WILL CERTAINLY DIE, AND SO WILL THEY, AND, ON THE DAY OF RESURRECTION, YOU WILL DISPUTE WITH ONE ANOTHER IN THE PRESENCE OF YOUR LORD.  So, who could be more wrong than the person who invents a lie about God and rejects the truth when it comes to him?  Is there not ample punishment for the disbelievers in Hell?  It is the one who brings the truth and the one who accepts it as true who are mindful of God: they will have everything they wish for with their Lord. Such is the reward of those who do good: God will absolve them even of their worst deeds and will reward them according to their best.” (39:30-34)

Second. Remember that the whole narration is around the last warning to humanity and the pending Day of Judgement.  The Truth is expressed as God declaring the end of evil and time.  And the faith that thanks to God that I arrived after long time of being lost and sinful, through enquiry and the grace of God to know that:

“IS GOD NOT ENOUGH FOR HIS SERVANT? Yet they threaten you [Prophet] with those they worship other than Him. If God allows someone to stray he has no one to guide him; if God guides someone no one can lead him astray. Is God not mighty and capable of retribution? 38 If you [Prophet] ask them, ‘Who created the heavens and earth?’ they are sure to answer, ‘God,’ so say, ‘Consider those you invoke beside Him: if God wished to harm me, could they undo that harm? If God wished to show me mercy, could they withhold that mercy?’ Say, ‘God is enough for me: all those who trust should put their trust in Him.’  Say, ‘My people, do whatever is in your power– and so will I. You will find out 40 who will suffer humiliation, and on whom a lasting torment will descend.’” (39:36-39)

Third, I came to understand it clearly that my gratitude and prayers, in attuning myself to the will of God, is my salvation and peace whether in this world or in the world to come.  I am and will be benefited from my gratitude, not God.  In loving parents, siblings, family, strangers, people, the poor, the destitute, and God it is me who am released from the rigid boundaries of ‘I’ and become free to a richer life and salvation.  It is me who find my way from dark to light, not God.  Giving and Forgiving is the essence of God, who doesn’t need anything.  And it is me who by lack of gratitude to God attract and draw darkness into my soul and body and write my destiny for Hell, not God.  God has given us a choice to decide for our destiny.  One can choose the path of cancer cells or life:

“We have sent the Scripture down to you [Prophet] with the Truth for people. WHOEVER FOLLOWS THE GUIDANCE DOES SO FOR HIS OWN BENEFIT, WHOEVER STRAYS AWAY FROM IT DOES SO AT HIS OWN PERIL: YOU ARE NOT IN CHARGE OF THEM.  God takes the souls of the dead and the souls of the living while they sleep– He keeps hold of those whose death He has ordained and sends the others back until their appointed time– there truly are signs in this for those who reflect.  Yet they take intercessors besides God! Say, ‘Even though these have no power or understanding?’  Say, ‘All intercession belongs to God alone; He holds control of the heavens and the earth; in the end you will all return to Him.’” (39:41-44)

Fourth. The Truth comes and will come in absolute clarity to us.  Every deep truth will show itself and come to the surface.  We shall witness and understand the Truth in our flesh and blood.  We shall see that we had a choice between worshipping our own desires and whims, worshipping our transient life on this phenomenal world, or to connect and transcend to the ultimate direction that undoes nihilism, naturalism, and despair and opens up the horizon for us to experience the ecstatic bliss of experiencing God.  The Truth shall overwhelm us: 

“Whenever God is mentioned on His own, the hearts of those who do not believe in the Hereafter shrink with aversion, but they rejoice when gods other than Him are mentioned.  Say, ‘God! Creator of the heavens and earth! Knower of all that is hidden and all that is open, You will judge between Your servants regarding their differences.’  If the evildoers possessed the earth’s assets twice over they would offer them to ransom themselves from the terrible suffering on the Day of Resurrection: GOD WILL SHOW THEM SOMETHING THEY HAD NOT RECKONED WITH, THE EVIL OF THEIR DEEDS WILL BECOME PLAIN TO THEM, AND THEY WILL BE OVERWHELMED BY THAT AT WHICH THEY USED TO LAUGH.” (39:45-48)

Ingratitude to God Is the Suffering of Soul

God doesn’t need us but feels satisfaction and is pleased when we show gratitude.  But for us ‘gratitude to God’ is our destiny.  We need it more than anything else.  But look at our time: for so many gratitude is gone.  We have lost the sense of reverence for life and being alive.  A constant stimulation, whether work, exercise, eating, making love, taking care of family, art or scientific and philosophical curiosity—when I was a disbeliever I used to do all of these and feel to be in the dark.  But if you ask those who don’t believe and thus live this disbelief, which is walking on the edge of razor, because deceptions and temptations are always in the way, they succumb to the God given enthusiasm and passion for life and reject that they are in the dark.  I know that because I have been one of disbelievers.  There is no other way to go.  It is pleasure or curiosity.  One feels this fresh air and water and loves life, but to no avail, because in the depth of the heart of disbeliever is despair.  The universe is indifferent and dead. I am here as an accident.  There is no real point in life.  However, I continue living, and like ouroboros who bites its tail, continue worshipping “humanity” and “humanism” and “naturalism”.  But they don’t know and have lost hope to know why they are here.  What is the point of all these?  What is “naturalism” that they worship? 

The ingratitude to God has consequences and the above description is the first consequence: to be in the dark.  The second consequence is that we become cancerous as the beating heart of life is gratitude to God.  Those who are blind to this source think they will die and turn into dust, because they have only faith in the phenomenal world.  They are unaware of their eternal soul.  The suffering will ensue for ingratitude, as one disconnects from the source of life and becomes alienated to it.  The scriptures from the time immemorial are reminding us from this fact.  I used to think it is a human made machinery for feeling good, that there is a justice after death or to control, as some say, others.  But I know that it is the truth now.  Only those who are ensnared in despair and are in the dark will deny the consequences of ingratitude.  The Quran is the last reminder and a stark warning of this fact:

 

“When man suffers some affliction, he prays to his Lord and turns to Him, but once he has been granted a favor from God, he forgets the One he had been praying to and sets up rivals to God, to make others stray from His path. Say, ‘Enjoy your ingratitude for a little while: you will be one of the inhabitants of the Fire.’  What about someone who worships devoutly during the night, bowing down, standing in prayer, ever mindful of the life to come, hoping for his Lord’s mercy? Say, ‘How can those who know be equal to those who do not know?’ Only those who have understanding will take heed.” (39:8-9)

“Have you not considered that God sends water down from the sky, guides it along to form springs in the earth, and then, with it, brings forth vegetation of various colors, which later withers, turns yellow before your eyes, and is crumbled to dust at His command?  There is truly a reminder in this for those who have understanding. 

What about the one whose heart God has opened in devotion to Him, so that he walks in light from his Lord? Alas for those whose hearts harden at the mention of God! They have clearly lost their way.  God has sent down the most beautiful of all teachings: a Scripture that is consistent and draws comparisons; that causes the skins of those in awe of their Lord to shiver. Then their skins and their hearts soften at the mention of God: such is God’s guidance.  He guides with it whoever He will; no one can guide those God leaves to stray.” (39:21-23)

Autonomy without Theonomy Is Cancerous

Pay attention to the structure of surah “Saad”: First it expresses the warning of God in this last Scripture and prophethood.  The last reminder.  Is it not strange or telling—what worth reflection—that after the Quran, we don’t have any text to create a new religion with a truth and consistency and thus authority to penetrate hearts?  Second, the surah indicates the destiny of those who rejected their prophets in this world: they suffered and were destroyed.  Third, we have a few points about the prophet David.  In the story of David, when he followed his own desires and took another man’s wife, he is persuaded to be just.  It shows that even prophets are prone to act unjustly and fall astray to their desires.  And then the first conclusion: the creation of the heaven and the earth has a purpose: to separate good from bad or evil.  Fourth, we have a lesson about Solomon on how, at one point, he follows his own desires and suffers and then is forgiven, similar to his father, and were given several gifts by God.  Fifth, we have a brief narration about Job and the sufferings that was afflicted upon him by Satan, and how God relieved him from those afflictions.  The emphasis is: he was patient in the face of adversary.  Then, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are mentioned as those who devoted themselves in “sincere remembering of the Final Home”.  Sixth, we have a depiction of Hell and Heaven. Seventh, the below verses about how Satan rebelled against good by its arrogance and self-centeredness, which end the surah.  When we look at the structure of this surah: we have a consistent narration about the story of the beginning and end of universe and the beginning and end of evil: it started from Satanic following desires and declaration of cancerous separation and grandiosity—that Satan is better than humans—and those who follow Satan in this self-destructive grandiosity indeed follow their own desires and whims.  As with cancer, the outcome is getting far from Good and God and suffering in Hell.  It is God’s mercy to send Scriptures to warn us of this outcome and to encourage us to purify ourselves:

“[Prophet] say, ‘I am only here to give warning. There is no god but God the One, the All Powerful, Lord of the heavens and earth and everything between, the Almighty, the Most Forgiving.’  Say, ‘This message is a mighty one, yet you ignore it.  I have no knowledge of what those on high discuss: it is only revealed to me that I am here to give clear warning.’ 

Your Lord said to the angels, ‘I will create a man from clay.  When I have shaped him and breathed from My Spirit into him, bow down before him.’  The angels all bowed down together, but not Iblis, who was too proud. He became a rebel.  God said, ‘Iblis, what prevents you from bowing down to the man I have made with My own hands?  Are you too high and mighty?’  Iblis said, ‘I am better than him: You made me from fire, and him from clay.’  ‘Get out of here! You are rejected: My rejection will follow you till the Day of Judgement!’ but Iblis said, ‘My Lord, grant me respite until the Day when they are raised from the dead,’ so He said, ‘You have respite till the Appointed Day.’  Iblis said, ‘I swear by Your might! I will tempt all but Your true servants.’  God said, ‘This is the truth– I speak only the truth– I will fill Hell with you and all those that follow you.’ 

[Prophet], say, ‘I ask no reward from you for this, nor do I claim to be what I am not: this is only a warning for all people.  In time you will certainly come to know its truth.’” (38:65-88)

Don't Forget the Direction: from Beast to Human, from Human to Approximate God

“It was not without purpose that We created the heavens and the earth and everything in between. That may be what the disbelievers assume– how they will suffer from the Fire!– but would We treat those who believe and do good deeds and those who spread corruption on earth as equal? Would We treat those who are aware of God and those who recklessly break all bounds in the same way?  This is a blessed Scripture which We sent down to you [Muhammad], for people to think about its messages, and for those with understanding to take heed.” (38:27-29) 

Just before these verses, we have the story of King David who followed his own desire and so was diverted from God’s path.  In the above passage, God relates “not following one’s whims, otherwise consequences will be ensued” to the purpose of creating the heavens and the earth.  Why?  The reason is mentioned next: good (doing good deeds and are aware of God) and bad (those who spread corruption and recklessly break all bounds) are not equal.  Let’s reflect: the purpose of creating the heavens and the earth is to master one’s desires, not following one’s whims, and walk the path of doing good, sacrificing, and approximating God.  Then in the next passage, God tells the story of Solomon and how at one point he wavered to succumb to the beauties of the world too much that he forgot God.  Pay attention to the reason he brings:   

We gave David, Solomon. He was an excellent servant who always turned to God.  When well-bred light-footed horses were paraded before him near the close of day, he kept saying, ‘My love of fine things is part of my remembering my Lord!’ until [the horses] disappeared from sight– ‘Bring them back!’ [he said] and started to stroke their legs and necks. [Some say that the horses distracted Solomon from remembering his Lord and that he slaughtered the horses in anger at his having forgotten the afternoon prayer.]  We certainly tested Solomon, reducing him to a mere skeleton on his throne. [According to Razi, quoting linguistic usage in Arabic, this is interpreted to mean that Solomon became so ill that he was like a walking skeleton.]  He turned to Us and prayed: ‘Lord forgive me! Grant me such power as no one after me will have– You are the Most Generous Provider.’  So We gave him power over the wind, which at his request ran gently wherever he willed, and the jinn––every kind of builder and diver and others chained in fetters. ‘This is Our gift, so give or withhold as you wish without account.’  His reward will be nearness to Us, and a good place to return to.” (38:27-40)

So many of us define our attraction to beauties of the world as part of remembering God.  But then God turned Solomon to a skeleton because he forgot to pray to God while attending beautiful horses.  God wanted to remind him that he is bringing excuses to follow his desires.  This doesn’t mean that God denies us the gift of beauties and power of nature, because after Solomon repents, God gives him power over wind and so many gifts.  But God admonishes us not to delude ourselves and justify our negligence of God and our direction from beast to human, and from human to approximate God by indulging in beautiful things.  Again, join this rationale (forgetting to pray to God) and the purpose of creating the heavens and the earth: we will follow our desires when we forget God.  In following our desires (beauty [for Solomon], sexual desires [for David]) we will center upon our own ego and inclinations and are prone to break recklessly all bounds.  Breaking the bounds is not without consequence, it will modify something within our body and soul.  This is the law of Karma and we ought to pay the price to rectify the wrong done to others and hence to our own body and soul--- when we forget the direction of our spiritual growth: from beast to human and from human to approximate God.  Our self-centeredness will spread corruption on the earth.  God doesn’t have vile and vain desires and knows our very constitution is based on desires and needs and prone to fall.  So, God asks us to master (not deny) those desires and not break recklessly all bounds for those desires and walk the direction of existence: the path to God and Good.   

A Theodicy

Only by Our mercy could they be reprieved to enjoy life for a while. Yet when they are told, ‘Beware of what lies before and behind you, so that you may be given mercy,’ they ignore every single sign that comes to them from their Lord, and when they are told, ‘Give to others out of what God has provided for you,’ the disbelievers say to the believers, ‘Why should we feed those that God could feed if He wanted? You must be deeply misguided.’ (36:44-47)

This is a critical point to ponder: why should we feed those that God could feed if He wanted?  Indeed, in this question, God is addressing the point of creating the earth and heavens and the problem of evil.  Lactantius ascribed the following to Epicurus:

God, he says, either wishes to take away evils, and is unable; or He is able, and is unwilling; or He is neither willing nor able, or He is both willing and able. If He is willing and is unable, He is feeble, which is not in accordance with the character of God; if He is able and unwilling, He is envious, which is equally at variance with God; if He is neither willing nor able, He is both envious and feeble, and therefore not God; if He is both willing and able, which alone is suitable to God, from what source then are evils? Or why does He not remove them? (De Ira Dei , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epicurus)

Epicurus and Voltaire (in Candid) and others repeatedly raise the question of evil; and yet I feel they lack imagination.  In the verses above disbelievers raise the same question.  What would be the answer?  

In the surah The Poets, God sooths the Prophet: “are you going to worry yourself to death because they will not believe?  If We had wished, We could have sent them down a sign from heaven, at which their necks would stay bowed in utter humility.” (26:3-4)

In the Quran, God is explicit about the fact that the world has been created for a reason and purpose.  Surely, we see so many die in earthquakes, storms, cancer, and other sicknesses.  Why should we call it the problem of evil?  We need to remember four points:

1)      We are living in a suffering and imperfect world so that we may grow and arrive at God through guidance and our own free will.  We are the viceregents on this planet, here to take care of life and in this way to be cultivated.  Through helping others in need, we grow spiritually and learn to abandon our close-mindedness and self-centeredness.  Of course, God is capable of everything.  To reflect on Epicurus’ question, one may say God is able, willing, and wishes to take away evils.  But then what is the relation between God and human beings?  What happens to our autonomy and cultivation?  Asking why God doesn’t solve all problems is seeing ourselves as automata in the eyes of God, who can be programmed like a robot to be “good”.  But this artificial goodness is against human autonomy to realize and experience God’s theonomy within and without.

In the Quran God says:

To each community among you has been prescribed a Law and a way of life. If God had so willed He would have made you a single people, but His plan is to test you in what He has given you: so strive as in a race in all virtues. The goal of you all is to God; it is He that will show you the truth of the matters in which you differ. (5:48)

 

And this one:

No misfortune can happen, either in the earth or in yourselves, that was not set down in writing before We brought it into being––that is easy for God–– so you need not grieve for what you miss or gloat over what you gain. God does not love the conceited, the boastful. (57:22-24)

2)      We are unable to understand the ultimate reason of sufferings on the earth.  We see so many people suffer in sicknesses, natural disasters, wars, and injustice.  We are here to help others. Period.  Why do so many children have to suffer?  We ask this question from a limited point of view.  From the inside of human needs and desires we make a series of judgments and set these judgments as the measure of good and evil.  However, if we use our imagination, it is not difficult to see that we don’t have the big picture. 

In the Quran, we have the story of a divine person who has knowledge of the future and Moses wants to travel with him to obtain divine wisdom.  In the later literature, this divine person was called “Khidhr”.  Khidhr asks Moses to be patient as Moses has no knowledge of the future.  Moses promises to be patient.  Khidhr makes holes in the boat of a poor fisher, repairs a ruined wall, and kills a boy.  Every time Moses objects to his behavior.  After explaining the wisdom of his actions, Khidhr leaves Moses.  Khidhr says that he made holes in the boat to save the boat from being confiscated by a tyrant king, repaired the wall to secure the inheritance of two orphans beneath the wall, and killed the boy because he would become a mischievous and rebellious disbeliever who would cause suffering for his pious parents.  When I was an atheist, I was upset especially with killing the boy.  But this passage says all that we want to know about “the problem of evil” and theodicy.  Our laws and regulations, our Human Rights and due process are all valuable means for limited beings like us to be just.  These limits are set by God, and the Quran repeatedly asks humans not to exceed the limit or kill children or unjustifiably kill people.  The Quran says that life is sacred and even killing one person unjustly is like killing the whole human species (5:32).  Even in the story of Abraham and sacrificing his son, the Quran emphasizes that:

When the boy was old enough to work with his father, Abraham said, ‘My son, I have seen myself sacrificing you in a dream. What do you think?’ He said, ‘Father, do as you are commanded and, God willing, you will find me steadfast.’ When they had both submitted to God, and he had laid his son down on the side of his face, We called out to him, ‘Abraham, you have fulfilled the dream.’ This is how We reward those who do good– it was a test to prove– (37:102-106)

So, God has forbidden us to kill children and the command to test Abraham also didn’t come to him until his son could make a judgement and decide for himself.  However, I couldn’t digest the fact that in the story of Khidhr and Moses, Khidhr kills the young boy and again the anguish of finding a theodicy and not being able to understand Khidhr’s actions, kept on ringing in my ears and head, and so I wrote:

If I were the sojourner of Khidhr I would not be perplexed by his making a hole in a boat, because I could imagine there was somehow longer-term goodness in this action.  Remember Khidhr is the representative of a benevolent God whose actions may seem violating some ethics (like making a hole in a boat) but still it is for a further ethical goodness.  This is what Kierkegaard calls “teleological suspension of the ethical”.  I would be patient when Khidhr asked me to repair a wall in the middle of nowhere, again because I believe in his goodness and extraordinary vision and knowledge of future.  But when he killed the child or before committing the crime I would hold his hand and would adamantly tell him this could not be the command of God.  Khidhr would argue with me that, no it is all godly because this young boy will become an in-obedient indolent and insolent adult and his parents will suffer from his denial of religion and criminal character [18:80. “As for the youth, his parents were people of faith, and we feared that he would grieve them by obstinate rebellion and ingratitude.”]  I still would say to Khidhr: this argument is so loose and groundless that I doubt it has come from God.  You say because this boy will become, say, Hitler, Antichrist, or Dajjal, so I have to kill him now.  I say this is not godly and God doesn’t ask for it.  God doesn’t ask you to kill a child, who has not yet committed any crime, for his possible future crimes.  If everything about our lives is so determined, then there is no point of making a choice and act for betterment or even repent.  Secondly, we don’t punish people for what they have not yet done but is likely to do in the long run.  Even preeminent wars have rules.  The ethical act has INTRINSIC and KARMIC value, not committing murder has INTRINSIC and KARMIC value.  To repent from killing and harming has an intrinsic and karmic value. They are not INSTRUMENTAL only for some further good.  Therefore, if you, Khidhr, kill this young boy now, it is Unjust, and God cannot be unjust.

Can you see where I went wrong?  I am applying the ethical measures for human beings to God.  The sense of God’s mercy and justice and the way God implements them is different from us.  For limited beings like us, who are blind to the big picture, the ethical has an intrinsic value as we are finite bodies literally building up our character and destiny by our actions and habit.  This is a reason that Aristotle’s virtue ethics makes sense to us.  And Gandhi’s words are endearing: “Your beliefs become your thoughts. Your thoughts become your words. Your words become your actions. Your actions become your habits. Your habits become your values. Your values become your destiny.” 

However, God is the source of the ethical and spiritual and has an unclouded vision of the beginning and the end of the story.  God is also not a limited body/soul like us whose actions create our destiny.  God’s actions are destiny for all living beings and for the cosmos.  My false analogy resonates with the anguish of the problem of evil, as we understand it: seeing dying children in the hospitals and all those who die in natural disasters and wars and similar destructions.  This picture doesn’t fit OUR value judgements, simply because we are not in a position to understand it.  However, God’s justice and mercy may include killing young children and even generations and species, as God’s ethics consist of both the intrinsic and extrinsic value of actions at the same time.  To understand my point let’s consider Kant’s non-consequentialist deontology and Mill’s consequentialist utilitarianism.  Kant emphasizes good will and intention in performing one’s duty as the measure of the ethical, and Mill considers the consequence of actions and how they maximize the greatest happiness for the most.  Well, for God the intrinsic value of “good will” and the extrinsic value of “good consequence” are superimposed upon each other.  This means that God’s action at the same time comes from “good will” and aims at the “good consequence” spontaneously and coextensively, because God is omniscient and omnipotent. 

This means God’s “ethics” doesn’t construct God’s “ethos” (habit, custom, character).  God’s discernment and discretion is how life in the world can take the direction of goodness, justice, balance, and purity, the direction of Good. God has set ethical limits for us for this purpose.  In the final analysis and picture, when we lose sight of the right direction and create corrupt and unjust systems and societies, our “ethos” becomes contagious and epidemic to our own offspring and others, and God can see the future and what is best for our “ethos.”  So, it is completely just and meaningful for God, NOT US, to destroy even whole generations of people and their children, if God deems that this corrupt system has no future and their only positive effect is to become a sign at the threshold of the road to perdition: the Pharaoh’s people, as well as those of Noah, Lot, Saleh, Hud, Shoaib… This is the same with natural disasters. 

3)      Let’s use this thought experiment: Imagine we want to save an endangered species, and so we create a special habitat for them to be safe from excessive danger. We know that these animals will deteriorate if we turn them into pets. They have to move and have a natural life style, thus we let some of the predators in to stimulate them to be active for survival. Some of them may die due to their frail predisposition, but based on our probabilistic calculations, we know the species as a whole will flourish and survive. In this thought experiment, though the analogy is barely similar to our love relationship with God, we can see that the predator (evil or Satan) is used as the condition of survival and growth of a species. In our thought experiment, we are the master of process and know the outcome, and in this process the species will prosper and flourish. And it doesn’t mean that the predator and the endangered species are the same, on the contrary, the ultimate goal is to save the endangered species from the domination of predators.

4)      In Surah 41: (Made Distinct) the Quran says: “Good and evil cannot be equal. Repel evil with what is better and your enemy will become as close as an old and valued friend, but only those who are steadfast in patience, only those who are blessed with great righteousness, will attain to such goodness” (41: 34). This is an example of how, despite the fact that good and evil are separate, in repelling evil with good, we grow and purify ourselves from evil by doing good.

Obviously, the Quran is saying that even if good and evil are separate, God has complete knowledge about how things will unfold and through affliction and reward, God examines us and lets us grow. What is the direction of cultivation? To become one in intention, thoughts, words, and deeds and to achieve the intrinsic value of the ethical in worshipping God and having God-consciousness. What is the point of having God-consciousness?  To arrive at our origin and destination and to be released from despair, nihilism, and disconnect.  We learn to repel evil from our divine constitution by worshipping God and doing good, and arriving at the beginning and the end, which is the love of God, but meanwhile we mature, absorbing the intrinsic value of having a divine self, the intrinsic value of being moral, and the intrinsic value of being ethically creative: “Keep up the prayer at both ends of the day, and during parts of the night, for good things drive bad away—this is a reminder for those who are aware” (11:114). And human beings desire the process and the end for its intrinsic value, and this is possible only through earning it: “God would never change a favor It had conferred on a people unless they changed what was within themselves.” (8:53)

Conclusion: in the Quran, God repeatedly says: God did create the heavens and earth (and human beings and life in general) for a serious purpose.  What is this?  It is a movement from life to death and from death to life.  But it is not an absurd Sisyphean cycle.  It has a purpose.  It cultivates us and all living beings in the universe.  It teaches us—life as such.  It helps us to grow amid suffering and agony of life and death.  The movement of life and death ends in life and not death.  We will become who we are seeded to become.  We can make a choice between life and death.  Life is love and taqwa (God-consciousness) and death is corruption in a sheer desire for survival, power, and pleasure.  

“We grant the Home in the Hereafter to those who do not seek superiority on earth or spread corruption: the happy ending is awarded to those who are mindful of God.”  (28:83)

جهنم خدا عین عدالت و رحمت است

این سؤال ممکن است در ذهن بیاید که آیا جهنم خدا نمودار نوعی خشم و بغض و انتقام از جانب خدا نیست؟  آیا ما باید خدا را انسانوار در نظر آوریم که از روی عصبانیت و خشم عمل می کند؟ خدا در قرآن به انسان می گوید:

«و آنچه به شما داده شده برخوردارى از زندگى دنياست و آنچه پيش خداست براى كسانى كه گرويده‏ اند و به پروردگارشان اعتماد دارند بهتر و پايدارتر است: كسانى كه از گناهان بزرگ و زشتكاريها پرهیز می کنند و چون به خشم ‏آيند درمى‏ گذرند؛ و كسانى كه [به نداى] پروردگارشان را پاسخ داده و نماز برپا می کنند و در ميانشان مشورت می کنند و از آنچه روزيشان داده‏ ايم انفاق مى كنند؛ و كسانى كه چون ستم بر ايشان رسد يارى مى ‏جويند [و به انتقام بر مى ‏خيزند]؛ و جزاى بدى مانند آن بدى است، پس هر كه گذشت کند و نيكوكارى كند پاداش او با خداست که به راستى او ستمگران را دوست نمى دارد؛ و هر كه پس از ستم [ديدن] خود يارى جويد [و انتقام گيرد] راه [نكوهشى] بر ايشان نيست؛ راه [نكوهش] تنها بر كسانى است كه به مردم ستم مى كنند و در [روى] زمين به ناحق سر برمى دارند. آنان عذابى دردناك [در پيش] خواهند داشت؛ و هر كه صبر كند و گذشت کند، مسلما اين [خويشتن دارى حاكى] از اراده قوى [در] كارهاست.

و هر كه را خدا بى‏ راه گذارد پس از او يار [و ياور]ى نخواهد داشت و ستمگران را مى ‏بينى كه چون عذاب را بنگرند مى‏ گويند آيا راهى براى برگشتن [به دنيا] هست.» (۴۲:۳۶-۴۴)

واضح است که خداوند عمل از روی خشم را نادرست می داند و گذشت را بهتر از قصاص می داند.  پس جهنم چیست؟ در ادامه همین آیات می گوید:

«آنان را مى ‏بينى [كه چون] بر [آتش] عرضه مى ‏شوند از خواری زبون شده‏ اند، زيرچشمى مى ‏نگرند و كسانى كه گرويده‏ اند مى‏ گويند در حقيقت زيانكاران كسانى‏ اند كه روز قيامت‏ خودشان و كسانشان را دچار زيان كرده‏ اند. آرى ستمكاران در عذابى پايدارند و براى آنان دوستانى [ديگر] نيست كه آنها را در برابر خدا يارى كنند و هر كه را خدا بى‏ راه گذارد هيچ راهى براى او نخواهد بود. پيش از آنكه روزى فرا رسد كه آن را از جانب خدا برگشتى نباشد. نداى پروردگارتان را، پيش از آنكه روزى بيايد كه در برابر امر الهى بازگشتى نداشته باشید، بپذيريد، در چنين روزى شما را پناهگاهى نيست، و شما را مجال انكارى نيست‏.» (۴۲:۴۵-۴۷)

اگر دینهای اهل کتاب (یهودیت، مسیحیت، و اسلام)، علی رغم انحراف ها، یک ایده پیشرونده کلی داشته باشند اینست که خداوند از دنیا نیست. ما نمی توانیم خصوصیات دنیوی خویش را به خدا اطلاق کنیم.  خداوند نا دیدنی و غیر قابل وصف است، ورای ۹۹ اسم. پس جهنم چیست؟  در قرآن خدا این را روشن می کند که:

۱.همه چیز به دقت در «دفتری» ضبط شده است.

۲.در روز قیامت دهان ما بسته و بدنهایمان زبان باز خواهند کرد. برای مثال پاهایمان از جاهایی که رفته ایم با خبرمان خواهند کرد. چشمهایمان چیزهایی را که به آن روی آوردیم و دیدیم مجسم خواهند کرد. به تعبیری هرچه که می کنیم در اجزاء بدنمان ثبت می شود.

۳.در آن روز به هیچ کس به اندازه یک ارزن هم ظلم نخواهد شد. برعکس، هر کس کمی خوبی کرده باشد بیشتر دریافت خواهد کرد.

۴.جسم و روح ما با نیایش خدا تغذیه میشود. این هدف و وسیله زندگی است. سفر بشر در جهان هستی برای اینست تا به این حقیقت با پوست و گوشت و جان خود برسد.  این اصل وابستگی ذاتی ما به خداست. این اصل، مستلزم فروتنی و دیدن ناچیزی وجود خویش است تا شایسته اتصال نور درون-ذاتی مان به خدا شویم.  این راه مستقیم است. هر راه دیگر: راه سکولاریسم، مارکسیسم، لیبرالیسم، «فاعل خود مختار» (autonomous subject)، ماتریالیسم، راه روحانیت بی خدا و عصر جدیدی... و حتی راه فرزانگانی چون بودا و کنفسیوس و هر راه دیگری در تحلیل نهایی به بن بست می رسد، مگر اینکه به پرستش خدا به عنوان معنا و هدف هر لحظه آگاه و مؤمن شویم. ابراز استقلال از خدا تنها یک توهم نیست. مانند ابراز استقلال سلولهای سرطانی، ابراز استقلال از خدا، برای روح و جسم ما عواقبی دارد. 

۵. این عواقب در اجزاء بدن و روح ما ثبت می شود و از نقطه معینی، آنگاه که بیش از اندازه از خدا دور شویم، جهنمی میشویم. بسیاری به این حقیقت کورند. و این کوری درجات دارد. کسی که از تجربه خدا دور می افتد اگر روی به خدا بر گرداند می تواند جهت را معکوس کند: از کوری به بینایی قدم بر دارد... اما نه مثل فرعون در آخرین نفس.

۶.دوزخ جای انتقام نیست. نتیجه عمل ماست و چه کس از نیت و خرد خدا خبر دارد؟ شاید این همان درمان آلودگی بیش از اندازه است، و در تحلیل نهایی، راه رستگاری برای دوزخیان. درباره آنچه که ورای ماست باید خاموش ماند.

۷.از این نقطه نظر جهنم عین عدالت و رحمت خداست.  پس جز احساس ترحم، به رحمت عمل خدا، بنا به دلایل بالا، شک نباید کرد.