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
He sends down water from the sky that fills riverbeds to overflowing, each according to its measure. The torrent carries along swelling foam, akin to what rises from smelted ore from which man makes ornaments and tools. God thus depicts truth and falsehood. The scum is cast away, but whatever is of use to man remains behind. God thus speaks in parables. (13: 17)
God has created this world in such a way that here material events have become the symbols of moral realities. Whatever Almighty God expects from man at the level of consciousness is being demonstrated in the rest of the world at the material level. In the Quran two events of nature have been mentioned here. One is that when there is rainfall, its water flows and reaches rivers and streams. At that time a great deal of foam surfaces on it. In the same way when silver and other minerals are heated in order to clean them, their impurities appear in the shape of foam, but immediately thereafter the foam, which is useless for man, evaporates in space and the water and minerals which are useful for man remain intact.
These are the events of nature through which God shows symbolically what principles He has laid down for the success or failure of life. One principle is that, in this world, only that person has a place who proves useful to others. The individual who has lost his capacity to benefit others has no place in this world created by God. The same is true of communities and groups.
There will be the best of rewards for those who respond to their Lord: while those who do not respond to Him—if they possessed all that is on earth and twice as much, they would surely offer it as ransom [on the Day of Judgement];—will have the worst reckoning and their goal is Hell: and how evil a resting-place! (13: 18)
It is the law of God in this world that dirt and foam may emerge and surface for some time, but finally what receives a place here is that which gives benefit. In the Hereafter also, the same is true of human beings. In the world some people may be prominent due to some skill but, in the Hereafter, only those who possess real qualities will receive a higher status.
People do not respond to the call for the Truth in this world because they always feel that, by advancing towards unadulterated Truth, they will lose worldly benefits. The rewards for ignoring the Truth which such people receive are invariably: honour, popularity and prosperity in this world. They appear to be occupying seats of high status by rejecting the Truth.
In the Hereafter, all these people will have been thrown out as like fastdisappearing foam. And only those people will figure as prominent who surrendered themselves to the Truth, ignoring temporary benefits. People give so much importance to worldly status and worldly benefits that they ignore the truth. In the Hereafter these things will appear unimportant to them, so much so that they would want to give this whole world and one more world equal to it, to ransom themselves from divine punishment.
The Prophet of Islam once observed:
“The best among you is one who is best for his family.”
This applies to all individuals,
be they men or women,
young or old.
The ideal way for any individual to prove his worth
is to become a modest member of his family.