The Mercy of Qur'an and the Advent of Zaman - Commentary On Four Suras

Supplement 3

63 Have you considered what you sow?

64 Is it you that cause it to grow, or are We the causers of growth?

65 If We pleased, We should have certainly made it broken down into pieces, then would you begin to lament:

66 Surely we are burdened with debt;

"Have you considered what you sow?" Man is simply an instru­ment of sowing seeds, whether the seeds are those of other human beings or of plants. He is simply an actor. He has not written the script nor has he any, possibility of changing the laws that govern it. The only degree of freedom he has is that of acting his role perfectly.

When one sees a perfect actor, one believes that he is truly living his role. He has unified his will with destiny. It is an aspect of tawhid; he genuinely and totally becomes one with his part. From Reality's point of view, he is not in separation though he may imagine that he is. If your act is pure and perfect then there is no resistance between your will and what you are applying yourself to, because the application has been for Allah, by Allah and in Allah. This is baraka (blessing), divine effi­ciency. It is harmony, ecology, balance and sanity.

Man is not the cause of events, he is simply one string of an instru­ment in an orchestra. Man can move because there is life in him. He did not cause life to come to him; he is only a conduit. If one is genuinely dependent on the knowledge that Allah is the best of guardians, then one truly knows that there is no power or strength except by Allah (la hawla wa la quwata illa billah), that Entity from Whom there has been no separation.

If Allah wills, the actions man may feel proud of may be de­stroyed. It is in man's nature that he will, with audacity and arro­gance, explain as superficial causes what are actually and simply the will of Allah.

67 Nay! we are deprived.

The Qur'an carries the reader to the present, into the next life and into what preceded life. It is the unifier by a thread that goes back and forth in time.

"Surely, we are burdened with debt." Gharama is to pay a fine. In physical existence man has fed himself from the wrong source and is now being penalized. The noun gharam means in­fatuation. When the final event occurs, at which time there is no pos­sibility of arrogance or of duplicity, man is completely in a state of obsession and infatuation. There is no possibility of putting right his previous actions. If one thinks that he is in prison now, what will it be like then? No action will be rectifiable.

68 Have you considered the water which you drink?

69 Is it you that send it down from the clouds, or are We the senders?

70 If We pleased, We would have made it salty; why do you not then give thanks?

Look at the water you drink. If Allah had willed, all the water in the world could have been brackish. Reality challenges man by showing him the mercy and delicate balance of the creation. By changing one factor the entire creational setup would have been different; it would have been intolerant to forms of life on land. Taking for granted what Allah has given man is arrogance.

71 Have you considered the fire which you strike?

72 Is it you that produce the trees for it, or are We the producers?

Shajar means tree. In Islamic culture the tree traditionally symbolizes the tree of life; its branches symbolize all the aspects of creation connected to one trunk which reaches down under the ground to its roots which draw up nourishment for the entire organism. Does man know the root of life? Does he know its meaning? Has he created it? Has he created fire? All that he has done is to rub two sticks to­ gether to get a spark; he has done nothing. He is simply an experi­encer - Allah is the Munshi', the Producer. Life's origin lies with the one and only Reality to Whom everything belongs anyway.

73 We have made it a reminder and an advantage for the wayfarers of the desert.

74 Therefore glorify the name of your Lord, the Great.

Tadhkira is from dhikr, which is remem­brance, awareness and a way of passage. Tadhkira in modern Arabic means a ticket. It is to remind whoever stops you at the gate that you are allowed to get into the next situation. It is the qualification for entry based upon reminding the ticket collector.

The password for the door to glorification is the Name, the ism. At the door, upon being received, the Name is given. A man of sidq, a man of truth, says: Allah, or, my Lord. It is said in the traditions that when the aya "Therefore glorify the name of your Lord, the Great" came upon the Prophet, salla-llahu `alayhi wa alihi wa sallam, he made it the way of worship. He asked the Muslims to say, "subhana rabbi-l-`azimi wa bihamdih" when they went into ruku` (bowing), because one does ruku' after standing and witnessing this life, the next life, the fire, the garden, and the origin.

Whoever praises the one and only Reality is heard, because Reality is the All-Knowing. Having done that, one falls down and obliterates one's profile. It is then, when one is at one's lowest, that one can speak of the Highest, Al Ala - subhana rabbi-l- Ala wa bihamdih. In that state of obliteration the eyes are on dust, while one's inner eye sees the greatness of Al- A la, the Highest, the Mightiest.

75 But nay! I swear by the falling of stars;

76 And most surely it is a very great oath if you only knew;

"But nay! I swear by the falling of the stars," means I swear by the truth of it, by the positioning of it. Mawaqi` (position, place where something falls down) is from waqa'a, to fall. Nujum are stars, or anything that has light - I swear by the light, by the self-effulgent light of this message, this spark of truth that ignites in the heart of the believer. The evidence is that the message hits the right switch in the heart and lights it up. Everyone is a star, different, yet the same. It is an oath of the truth of physical reality. It is an oath attesting to the perfection of the positions of all things in this creation. The fixed position of the stars are a manifestation of the order of the cosmos. These fixed positions are, in fact, dynamic. They are not rigid, but interact with their environment.

77 Most surely it is an honored Qur'an,

78 In a book that is protected;

The Qur'an is that which is worthy of being read. It is that which has been gathered - the exposition of Reality. It encompasses what can be experienced and comprehended of Reality. It has immediate use in teaching one to live correctly, harmoniously and joyfully.

The Qur'an cannot be reached or understood if approached through the circumscribed limits of duality. If the reader is burdened by the affliction of duality, caused and nourished by his non-submission, then the Qur'an is veiled to him. As the pure exposition of Reality, the Qur'an can only reflect the degree of purity of the reader's heart.

79 None shall touch it save the purified ones. The Qur'an is subtle. It contains what man imagines can be con­tained and more. So how can one touch it? One can only come to know it if one stops knowing anything else, and by complete abandonment and submission lets go into the Qur'an - there is only the Qur'an. This is the essence of the meaning of Islam.

In the existential situation there is duality. Existential knowl­edge and information are based upon a seeker and a sought. Something that has a defined domain, such as a language, can be acquired. This is existential knowledge and is informative; it is based on time, thinking capacity, and patience. But the knowledge of Truth cannot be acquired in this fashion. It can only be acquired by allowing it to emerge, be­cause it is already there rooted in the heart. The knowledge of Truth is not nourished because man nourishes everything else other than it. His energy has been diverted towards otherness, towards existential matters, and the self-effulgent knowledge of the Book has not been given its due attention. Truth is the substratum of existence and it upholds the cosmic event which man experiences in his short life.

80 A revelation by the Lord, of the worlds.

Allah is the Lord of the two worlds, the physical and the non­physical - this world which man experiences, and the next world where he is subject to the effects of his previous intentions. He will experience and become his intentions, nothing more. In this world, the gross prevails over the subtle, while in the next the subtle becomes obvious and everything that was once hidden in one's heart becomes a suhufan munashshara, a spread-open book.

81 Do you then hold this announcement in contempt?

82 And to give (it) the lie you make your means of subsistence.

The story of the dunya (this material world) and the akhira of this life and the next, is about purification. The human being can be likened to water which is by nature pure. As it flows it collects grains of sand. When the water is harnessed in a reservoir, the grains settle and the water reverts back to its pure nature. If the water is constantly kept in agitation the entire ecology of the water life is destroyed. Like water, human beings must harness themselves so that they can observe their wrong actions and avoid them. Otherwise their individual and societal ecologies will be disrupted and destroyed. The harness is the 'aql (intellect, reason).

The moment the eternal absolute silence was broken by the rise of creation there was a tune. The song of iman is the Qur'an and is continuously heard as growth moves on biologically. If we are not tuned to the song of iman, we are tuned to other than it. If man is tuned to other than the Qur'an he will scorn the Qur'an, because he wants harmony, not discord. A receiver cannot pick up two signals at once and likewise man's nature is to listen to one waveband, not two.

83 Why is it not then that when it (soul) comes up to the throat,

84 And you at that time look on

85 And We are nearer to it than you, but you do not see

Once man has committed himself to denial, he clings to it. He clings to what he has given value and invested in. When his life comes to an end, he is choked with death and held looking. Allah says: "And We are nearer to it than you, but you do not see." You have not been focusing your vision during your life on what is worthy of being seen. The Truth that permeates all manifestations is closer than closeness itself. That is the meaning of Allah's statement. The subtle power that underlies all visible powers is closer to the source, closer to Allah.

86 Then why is it - if you are not held under debt -

87 That you send it not back - if you are truthful?

Dayn, which means debt, is one side of a balance. If a man considers himself to be indebted, then obviously he will address himself to it correctly. If you consider yourself to be indebted to Reality then you will return that debt. The entire existence is based upon that debt about which Imam as-Sadiq, alayhi-s-salam, asks how it can be repaid. It is not possible to repay it. For example, suppose you feel blissful as a result of a joyful moment and want to be thankful for your joy. When you bring to consciousness your thankfulness, you find then that you must be thankful for being able to thank, to thank endlessly, like the infinitely reflected images of two mirrors facing each other. This is the meaning, that there is no end to one's realization of the impossibility of paying such a debt. It is an unfathomable gift, and man squanders it.

"If you are not held under debt" is a question that cannot be challenged. Look at your life and how it has disappeared. Where are the controls that man thought he had? 'Ali Zayn ul-`Abidin, alayhi-s-salam, said: "The true mu'min (believer) dies as if he were taking off a filthy garment." But he who does not believe, and who has invested only in this world, has the garment of life torn and stripped from his being as he tries to cling on.

"Why is it - if you are not held under debt - That you send it not back - if you are truthful?" If you are not under debt, if you are not under the complete and utter control of your Lord, why then do you not send death back when it comes? The mu'min, upon hearing that somebody has died, says: "There is no power nor strength except by Allah." Man only has relative strength during the short period of his life.

The true seeker is heartened when he hears that somebody has died, because he knows death is the door to the next experience. He who believes rejoices, because the dead man is released from the con­fusion of the duality of this life, and with certainty now has knowledge. It is not that he rejoices because someone is destroyed - for it is only the flesh and the bones that are destroyed, the ruh lives on. The true seeker is interested in knowledge. When a baby is born, the true seeker cries, knowing what this new entity will have to go through.

88 Then if he is one of those drawn nigh (to) Allah)

89 Then happiness and bounty and a garden of bliss.

"Then if he is one of those drawn nigh (to Allah)." Man does not know the Real. He does not know the way to the Real because there is no way to the Real. But he may come to know what is not the Real. He learns the roads that take him far from Reality. By stopping the drives along those roads one can naturally and spontaneously be on the one and only road, the one and only path of tawhid. The worldly existence and the next life of he who is close to Allah is one of na`im, comfort and ease, which is the janna (garden of paradise). In it he sees things with tawhid and is not subject to experiential changes.

The Prophet `Isa, alayhi-s-salam, said: "I was looking for my peo­ple when I came across those who were afraid of the fire. I told them, `You will win by your trade. But that is not what I am looking for.' Then I came upon the people who were praying for the garden and I said to them, `You will get it but you are enslaved to that state. I am not looking for that.' Then I came upon people who were truly and simply in worship, in sane bewilderment, in pure glorification, and I said to them, `You are my people.' "

If you want Allah, the fire and the garden are the steps to Him. In the Qur'an there are descriptions of their different degrees. The final degree of the garden is where there is no sound and nothing is heard: "They shall not hear therein vain or sinful discourse, except the word peace, peace." If there is anything to be heard it is peace, peace. It is pure consciousness. What happens in the lower garden is the negation, or the neutralization, of desires by their fulfillment, in order for one to go beyond them into utter silence, into the essence.

90 And if he is one of those on the right hand,

91 Then peace to you from those on the right hand.

This sura is about the different states that one may acquire ac­cording to the degree of one's tawhid. The muqarrabun, the close ones, are far from other than Him and are therefore close to Him.

The people of the right are the righteous, are those who have acted diligently. Some commentators describe the ashabu-l-yamin (companions of the right) as the ashabu-l-mujahada, the people who are in jihad, the people who continually strive and are patient in their suffering. There is peace upon them even though they are in turmoil and affliction. This life is the house of affliction, but if the affliction is harnessed along the path taken by the Prophet, salla-llahu alayhi wa a`lihi wa sallam, it is tolerable. Otherwise a sane person can only jump from a window and openly declare the incomprehensibility of his existence. This life is a place of hardship in which resistance to Allah's mercy is rubbed away. Man has no option but to be in jihad.

92 And if he is one of the rejecters, the erring ones,

93 He shall have a gift of boiling water,

94 And burning in hell.

"And if he is one of the rejecters," meaning, if he has denied the one and only Truth, if he has denied that tawhid. A man by his rejec­tion is called one of the mukadhdhibin ad-dallin (rejecters, erring ones). First he lies, denying what he knew within his heart to be true. If man denies his indebtedness, he is at a loss.

"He shall have a gift of boiling water." Man can experience the drinking of hot water here and now. When one becomes very angry and emotionally disturbed, even attempts to crush that anger are rejected and only increase the fire of agitation. The cool rains of mercy are not recognized and thus have the effect of boiling water. An outer fire is containable and its boundaries are known, while the inner fires of desire, lust, fear and anger, are without boundary. Man himself is the tree that feeds the fire. The ultimate state of the mukadhdhibin be­ comes nuzulun min hamim. Their home is where the boiling water, the fire, is. They dwell in jahim, roasting hell.

95 Most surely this is a certain truth.

96 Therefore glorify the name of your Lord, the Great.

"Most surely this is a certain truth." One is earning entry into the next life by one's actions in this life - and actions are based on intentions. Man manufactures either the key to hell or the key to heaven, and begins to experience those states here by the purity of his intentions. There is no discontinuity. Those who manufacture the key to hell already experience it now. It is a continuum from this life into the next.

The one who manufactures the key of joy, the key to the garden, has already entered that state. The file that he has in his hand, which is knowledge combined with action, is used to smooth the rough edges of himself, of his personality, with all its special contours of desire. If he is ultimately willing to be filed down to nothing, to be a non-entity, then he will recognize the One Entity. The more he asserts his own identity, the less he can see the One Entity.

The Prophet, salla-llahu `alayhi wa alihi wa sallam, has said: "There are not two hearts in the breast of man." If one's intention is to know, one will come to know Allah. And once you have come to know Allah, nothing else matters. If your intention is only to have economic well­ being, then you will get that and all the difficulties inherent in it. If your intention is to have a house and the pleasure of children, you will get that and the disappointments that naturally come along with it. You cannot get one thing without its opposite. This is the balance. The Qur'an is called the Mizan, the Balance, and the laws that govern existence are in balance. Existence is not chaos, it is cos­mos - in precise balance.

Amir ul-Mu'minin 'Ali, alayhi-s-salam, once said that the first thing that comes to the man of abandonment and faith is a glimpse of Reality, of which he seeks to attain certainty. That certainty comes by questioning,. studying, understanding, and moving steadily along the path, by living the Qur'an. The first stage of certainty is like being informed that there is a fire in the wood, and you trust the reliability of the informant to have given correct information. This is called ilmu-l yaqin ( the knowledge' of certainty). The second stage is actually seeing it, witnessing the truth of the message, and this is `aynu-l-yaqin (the eye or source of certainty). The third stage is haqqu-l yaqin (the truth of certainty), which is actually experiencing the fire. One experiences the fire's warmth by being next to it or being burned by it. There is no doubt about its quality anymore. The fourth stage is haqqu-l-haqq (the truth of the truth), when one is consumed in the fire and there is nothing left.

La huwa illa hu: There is none other than He. This is the final stamp of Truth. One burns in it. Nothing can take it away from you once it has been engraved because then you have paid your debt.