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

Say, ‘Shall I tell you of those who will lose the most through their actions? They are those whose efforts have been wasted in the life of the world while they thought they were doing good. They are those who deny their Lord’s signs and the meeting with Him.’ So their works are in vain, and We shall give them no weight on the Day of Resurrection. Hell will be their reward, because they denied the truth, and made a jest of My signs and My messengers. (18: 103-106)

Man strives in this world and observes that, as a result, he gains wealth and honour. He does not see his work marred in any manner, therefore, he considers himself a successful man. But, this is highly irrational. In the plan of God, the criterion of a successful life is in terms of the life of the Hereafter.

Therefore, to consider success in this worldly life as real success amounts to taking a view of life which omits the life hereafter altogether. This is tantamount to substituting our own plan in place of God’s plan and obviously those who do so can never be successful in the life hereafter.

God reveals His signs. But these signs of the life hereafter have no effect on those whose minds are preoccupied with the thoughts of this world. God discloses His arguments, but the arguments of the life hereafter do not appeal to those who are lost in the affairs of this world. Such people fail to accept guidance, even though they may be standing next to a guide. If they do not give any weight to God’s word, how can they expect God to take their candidature into account for any divine consideration?

Those who believe and do good works shall have the gardens of Paradise for their abode. They shall forever dwell in the Gardens of Paradise, desiring no change. (18: 107-108)

To lead a life of faith and piety in this world is to give proof of tremendous sacrifice. It amounts to renouncing an apparent and visible heaven for the sake of a hidden, invisible heaven. This also means succeeding in the most difficult of tests, i.e. when man recognises the Truth on the strength of abstract arguments and then he turns his life in that direction, though there is no pressure on him to do so.

Those who exhibit such awareness (of truth) and perform such actions truly deserve to be admitted to gardens of eternal comfort and pleasure. Tell them, ‘If the ocean became ink for writing the words of my Lord, surely the ocean would be exhausted before the words of my Lord came to an end — even if We were to add another ocean to it.’ (18: 109)

Those who do not accept God’s message are in fact denying the most established of all established facts. It is so established that pens made from all the trees would not be sufficient to write God’s words and the ocean turned into ink would become exhausted. But, what a pity that, in spite of all this, man fails to recognise the truth and does not mould his life in accordance with it.

Say, ‘I am only a human being like yourselves. It is revealed to me that your God is One God. So let him who hopes to meet his Lord do good deeds and let him associate no one else in the worship of his Lord.’ (18: 110)

The prophet is neither God nor angel. He is a human being just like any other human being. His only distinguishing feature is that he receives God’s revelation through invisible means. In other words, a prophet is an individual who, outwardly, is a human being but who inwardly is a representative of God.

Because of this only those can recognize a prophet who can recognize his merit. Arriving at the Truth is possible only for one who can recognise reality in its essence, i.e. who is capable of recognising a ‘prophet’ at the level of a ‘human being.’