THE WORD OF GOD
THE WORD OF GOD
From The Scriptures
THE Quran is the book of God. It has been preserved in its entirety since its revelation to the Prophet of Islam between 610 and 632 A.D. It is a book that brings glad tidings to mankind, along with divine admonition, and stresses the importance of man’s discovery of the Truth on a spiritual and intellectual level.
Translated from Arabic and commentary
by Maulana Wahiduddin Khan
When your Lord brought forth offspring from the loins of the Children of Adam and made them bear witness about themselves, He said, ‘Am I not your Lord?’ They replied, ‘We bear witness that You are.’ This He did, lest you should say on the Day of Resurrection, ‘We had no knowledge of that.’
This happens in the case of every prophet’s community. In the beginning, its individuals are God-fearing and pious. But in later generations, this spirit vanishes. They become just like other worldly people. Religion is still amongst them. The Holy Book is still read and taught. But all this is done in the context of a national heritage and not as a real fulfilment of a pledge to God. They proceed in the way of the world and in practice forget the Hereafter. Being completely unmindful of right or wrong, they make their desire their religion. At the same time they are proud of being the best of all communities. They feel they are the members of the community which is God's favourite; Being the inheritors of the Holy Book, by virtue of their belief in monotheism they feel that they shall certainly be granted salvation.
But the truth is that man should hold fast to God’s Word; he should regularly say his prayers.
The sign of holding fast God’s Book and of having said his prayers sincerely is that he should have become a maintainer of peace and harmony (muslihun).
Communion with God’s Book and God’s worship are what makes a man opposed to one who disturbs the peace.
Or lest you say, ‘Our forefathers associated others with God before our time, and we are only the descendants who came after them. So are You going to destroy us for what those inventors of falsehood did?’ We explain Our signs in detail thus, so that perhaps they may return to Us.
If an animal is separated from its father and mother and it is brought up in a strange atmosphere, even after growing up it retains the characteristics of its species. The way it behaves in all its dealings is rooted in its instinct. The same is true of the human being with regards to his ‘God-consciousness’. In the soul of a human being the consciousness of a Creator and Lord has been instilled so deeply that he never loses it.
However, there is one difference between animals and human beings. Animals are not capable of going against their nature. They are compelled to do whatever their inner nature urges them to do. But the case of a human being is different. This awareness is embedded in his nature, but he is completely free in the matter of action, even though his mind and his conscience start pointing out to him what is right and what is wrong. A human being has, therefore, the power and the option either to follow his inner voice, or to ignore it and start doing whatever he likes.
It is on such occasions of moral choice that man is on trial and on the basis of its result, decisions regarding heaven or hell are taken. The one who lends his ears to the voice of God and does whatever He tells him to do through the silent language of ‘Nature’, passes the test. The doors of heaven (Paradise) will be thrown open for him after death, whereas one who ignores the voice of God speaking at Nature’s level, will be held guilty in the eyes of God and he will be ignored by God, just as he ignored God’s voice. This voice of inner nature is, in itself, evidence of the existence of God. Now, nobody has the excuse of ignorance and nobody can say that he is just doing whatever has been done since ancient times. Man brings the consciousness of God along with him from his birth. This consciousness remains preserved even with changes in his circumstances. In view of this, what excuse has anyone to follow the path of misguidance?
Recite to them the tale of the man to whom We gave Our signs, but who then cast them to one side and Satan overtook him. And he became one of those who went astray—if it had been Our will, We could have used these signs to exalt him, but instead he clung to the earth and Spirit of Islam Issue 27 March 2015 45 followed his own desires—he was like a dog that pants whether you chase it away or leave it alone. Such are those who reject Our signs. Tell them this story so that they may reflect. How evil is the case of those who deny Our signs. They only wrong themselves: anyone whom God guides has been rightly guided; while those He lets go astray will surely be the losers.
During the period of the Prophet Muhammad there was a man of great moral and intellectual distinction called Umayyah ibn Abi as-Salt. When he came to know that there were predictions in the Holy Books of the Christians and Jews about the coming of a prophet, he felt that he himself was that prophet. Later, when he was informed about the claim to prophethood made by the Prophet Muhammad and he heard the fine discourse revealed to him, he was greatly disappointed, and became an opponent of the Prophet. The proper use of the superior qualities given by God to Umayyah ibn Abi as-Salt would have been to recognise the Prophet of God and then become his companion. But because of the blessings of God already showered on him, he formed the idea that God should have showered the blessing of prophethood on him rather than on anyone else. He saw worldly benefit in the rejection of the Prophet of God while, on the contrary, acceptance of the Prophet would have led to benefit in the Hereafter. Had he gone in the direction of acceptance, he could have made the angels his fellow travellers. But when he walked the path of jealousy and pride, there was nobody except Satan to give him company. This example is applicable to all those people who ignore the Truth or refuse to accept it on the basis of jealousy and haughtiness.
A man’s, transformation to this state amounts to falling down from the status of humanity to the status of a dog. A dog pants on good treatment as well as on bad. This is the condition of such a man. When God blessed him, he became arrogant and when He did not bless him, he still remained arrogant. Actually, he should have been grateful and obliged to God for His blessing, and when he did not receive some blessing, he should have reconciled himself to God’s dispensation and turned back to Him.
God does not openly appear to guide people, He shows His way to people by means of signs. Those who have the ability to recognize Truth as it appears in the shape of signs and arguments, and are ready to surrender to it, are the ones who avail of guidance in this world. For those who do not attach importance to signs and arguments, there is nothing but eternal destruction.