Yunus

A prophet’s call is always based on sound and strong reasoning. Thanks to his extraordinary manner of expression, he is himself proof of his speaking on behalf of God. In spite of this, people of every period have rejected the prophets. The reason for this is man’s passion for external appearances. In the eyes of his contemporaries, a prophet is an ordinary man like other ordinary men. The glories of history, which later on become attached to his name, have not yet gathered around him. So, his contemporaries overlook him, considering him to be an ordinary man. They are unable either to look at the prophet as one deputed by God or to appreciate him in view of the history that is going to take shape in future. Yet the fact remains that everyone will be compelled to realise his prophetic greatness in due course. A prophet’s call is entirely miraculous and leaves its hearers bereft of any argument. It is quite spell-binding. Finding themselves helpless in the field of arguments, the prophet’s hearers start maligning his message. In this way they cast doubts upon the veracity of his words. Thinking like simpletons, they scorn the call as nothing but makebelieve. They call it verbal witchcraft and as such of no consequence. The real mission of a prophet is warning others (inzar) and giving good news (tabshir). That is, warning people of God’s retribution and giving good news of Paradise to those who are ready to live in the world in fear of God. The prophet appears in the world in order to make people aware of the fact that man is not free and all-powerful in this world and that the story of his life is not going to end with his death. Indeed, there is eternal life after death and man should take the utmost care to prepare for this. One who is unmindful of this or adopts an attitude of insolence, will reach the world after death in such a condition that nothing will await him there except agony and misery. One for whom outward appearance is all-important thinks that honour and glory attach to those who are in possession of worldly power, who are the possessors of worldly wealth. The Prophet says that this is deceptive; that such honour and glory exist only amongst fellow-human beings in this ephemeral worldly life. Real honour and glory are to be achieved in the eternal life in the presence of God; only such honour and glory are both real and eternal.

Studies indicate that the appearance of the many different kinds of natural phenomena in the universe did not occur at one time, but gradually over a period. The Quran divides this phase—the divine creation into six periods. This proves that the creation of the universe was done according to a conscious plan. Then, the study of the universe shows that it is running according to hard and fast laws. Everything behaves in exactly the manner in which it is required to behave, in consideration of overall requirements. This is clear proof of the fact that this universe is made to function by an Active and Alive Planner who directly controls it at all times. This wonderfully regulated system of the universe itself makes the powerful statement that its Lord is so Perfect and so Great that there is no question of any recommendation being useful to Him. The universe reflects the image of its Creator in the mirror of its amazing characteristics. The system of justice (qist) prevails throughout the universe. Here, whatever one does, one is confronted with commensurate results; everyone is rewarded according to whatever he has done. This is true of material results; but in the matter of moral outcome, the picture of the world seems to be entirely different. A man performs righteous deeds, but he does not receive the fruits of his righteousness. A man indulges in arrogance, and his arrogance goes on unpunished. Why is it that God’s will, which is operative in the case of His other creatures, does not seem to be operative in the case of human beings? The reason for this is that the manifestation of godly justice in the life of human beings has been deferred by God till the life Hereafter. The first life has been given to man for the performance of deeds. The second life will be given to him so that he may be requited for his deeds; and the possibility of the occurrence of the second life (the life of the hereafter) is as certain as that of the first life.

The sun is at the most appropriate distance from our earth. That is why it has been a treasure-like source of light and heat for us. If a difference were to occur in this alignment, the sun would not be the sun for us: it would become the fire of hell. Instead of being the messenger of life, it would be the messenger of death. The moon rotates in its orbit in a precise, mathematical way. In spite of its being devoid of its own light, it not only gives us cool light, reflected from the sun, but also provides us with a natural calender of months and days. These astronomical signs prove that there is strong purposefulness in the universe, and the fate of the purposeful universe cannot be purposeless. Then, the appearance of day after night indicates, in the language of symbolism, the moral fact that, according to the law prevailing in this world of ours, light should prevail after the reign of darkness; the brightness of light should follow upon darkness. Where, before, human rights had been trampled upon, there will now ensue a sytem whereby rights will be honoured. Divine justice will dominate in place of human arrogance. Such a time is destined to come, when the prevalence of evil will come to an end and the recognition of truth will prevail everywhere.

God has revealed the realities of the Hereafter by means of symbols. Similarly, in the present world, God reveals Himself in the form of arguments, and not as a tangible manifestation. So, we can find God only in the manner and shape in which He reveals Himself and not in any other form. In this world, God has offered mankind His guidance. But only those who are ready to follow it according to the godly plan, are destined to receive this guidance. Only those who are ready to understand the truth presented in the language of reason and accept it will be inspired to tread the right path. Those who do not bow down before true argument fail to bow down, as it were, before God; it is like not accepting God. Such people may expect nothing but Hell as their reward. In the heavens and on the earth, there are countless signs which become the elements of a lesson for those who are God-fearing. Fear, or apprehension, is a thing which makes a man serious. Unless a man is serious, he will not pay full attention to matters of importance and will not understand their various aspects. The whole universe is held together in a creative balance. This is a clear indication of the fact that the Lord of the universe is One who has absolute power over man. Similarly, the initial life which we are now experiencing provides clear proof of the fact that a second life is also possible. The appearance of material results in the present world and the non-appearance of moral results warrants the taking shape of another world where the moral results will be clearly in evidence. This is an unassailable truth, but this can be grasped only by one who looks at life in fear and apprehension.

For whom is hell meant? It is for those who have forgotten that they will have to face God; those who have contented themselves with the temporary amenities of this world as opposed to the eternal bounties of the Hereafter; those who are satisfied with the things that purely as a matter of trial they have received in this world; those who attach themselves to ungodly things to such an extent that they become completely unmindful of the realities revealed by God. All this amounts to treading the path of hell in the eyes of God, and those who adopt the way of hell will not arrive anywhere except in hell.

Literally, ‘On account of their faith, God will lead them towards the goal of Paradise.’ This shows that Faith is guidance for man; it prevents him from taking wrong paths and makes him tread the right way until it leads him to the real goal. Faith is discovery of God. The thread of knowledge comes within the grasp of one who is blessed with faith. He becomes capable of starting his thinking from the right place on all matters. Never allowing his thoughts to err, he attains correctness in his thinking. Furthermore, belief in God is not simply acceptance of a bookish philosophy; it is belief in God Who is alive and Who is going to finally assemble all human beings before Him to take a final reckoning. In this way, Faith inculcates in man a sense of anxiety or apprehension about his future fate and this makes him extremely serious. He is forced to look at all his actions in the light of their being right or wrong, so that he may adopt only the right direction. In this way, Faith provides man with the right way of thinking as well as the power to distinguish between right and wrong, which acts as his permanent practical guide. The Paradise of the Hereafter is for those who have, in this world, proved themselves to be deserving of it. The Hereafter is a place where one will directly experience and become directly immersed in the glories of God. So, the opportunity to live in Paradise will be given only to those who, in this world, had immersed themselves in the indirect manifestations of the glories of God. In the Hereafter, human hearts will be full of well-wishing and peace-desiring for each other. So, only those who, in this world had proved that in their hearts they had only such feelings for others, will find their abode in Paradise.

It is the law of God that when an individual performs a praiseworthy deed, it is immediately included in the record of his deeds. But if he commits an act which warrants punishment, God gives him respite so that better counsel should prevail, and he may at some point reform himself. This law of God is a great mercy to human beings; otherwise man is a great transgressor and is always ready to perform evil deeds, and if people were immediately seized upon for their evil deeds, their lives would very soon come to an end and the face of the earth would become devoid of human existence. Those who lead their lives as if they are not required to face God after death, live with arrogance in this world. They are those who lead their lives free of the fear of God’s scourge, thinking that they are at liberty to practice as much deceit and spread as much chaos as they like. The fact is that man should realise that there is one Power over and above all powerful ones—every man is helpless before Him— He will one day seize upon all human beings and everybody will be compelled to accept His verdict.

The system of this world is so designed that from time to time man is hit by some calamity or accident. He begins to realise that he is absolutely helpless against external forces. At that time he spontaneously starts calling upon God; he admits his humbleness compared to God’s Power. But, he is humble only so long as he is in trouble. The moment he gets relief from trouble, he becomes as negligent and arrogant as he was earlier. God does not accept the obeisance of such people, because only that obeisance is acceptable which is offered in a free atmosphere. Obeisance offered under the pressure of compelling circumstances has no value in the eyes of God. Man is a creature who likes justification. He seeks justification for every action of his. If a man chooses to be arrogant, his mentality will be inclined towards that. He will, in practice indulge in arrogance, and his mind will provide him with beautiful words in order to prove his arrogance justified. This is known as taz’in. Man expresses his misdeeds in beautiful words and is satisfied that he is in the right. But, this is like a man holding a burning lump of coal in his hand and thinking that it will not burn him simply because he calls it a red flower.

The prophets addressed their communities with clear arguments, (baiyinat), but they did not accept them. This shows that the missionary call—given on behalf of God—rests on the basis of reasoning. People have to recognize the prophet at the level of arguments and reasoning. Those who want to find him basking in outward glories surrounded with huge numbers of supporters will never be able to find him, because he will not be there at all. The prophet does not perform miracles, but engages rather in the process of argument. At the stage of the missionary call, all work is done on this basis. Individuals and groups transgress in not recognizing the Divine call appearing in the form of arguments or reasoning. They reject it, not having found it in accordance with their self-devised standards. Due to this behaviour, such people are punished by the law of God. The communities of the past which had incurred God’s retribution for their rejection of the prophets, were not actually total rejectors of prophethood. All these communities had accepted some prophet or the other of earlier periods, but they rejected the prophet of their own times. In the case of the earlier prophets, the corroborative historical facts had accumulated to back them. They had become objects of national prestige, and public predilections favoured them, while the contemporary prophet was as yet devoid of all such additional attributes. They recognised that past prophet who had as a result of tradition over the generations, become their national prophet, and connecting with him was synonymous with linking themselves with a tower of greatness. They recognised their national prophet as such, and rejected that prophet who could be recognised only through his reasoning and arguments. In the eyes of God, this was such a serious crime that those who were declared to be rejecters of the prophet were destroyed.

‘Then We made you their successors (khala’if, sing. khalifah) in the land.’ The real meaning of khalifah is ‘one who comes afterwards’. This word ‘successor’ is specially used for coming into power after another. This succession is in relation to human beings and not in relation to God. In the Quran, wherever the word khilafah has been used, it is in connection with succession to some creature and not in connection with succession to God. Making somebody a successor is solely for the purpose of putting him to the test and is not meant to confer any honour. Making somebody a successor means giving one an opportunity to work after another; it is placing one community in the arena of testing in place of another community. For example, in India, the native Rajas were replaced by Mughals. Then they were removed and the Britishers were made their successors. Later, they (the British) were made to leave the country, making way for the majority community. In all these cases, the ‘one coming afterwards’ was the successor (khalifah) of the earlier one.

The Quraysh of Makkah believed in God and the Prophet. They claimed to be the followers of the cult of Abraham (Ibrahim). So much so that many of the religious terms of Islam, for example, salat (prayers), sawm (fasting), zakat (alms-giving), hajj (pilgrimage), etc. are the same as had already been prevalent among them. In spite of this, why did they insist that they would accept the Quran only if it were replaced or amended? The reason for this was that the Quran enshrined God’s pure religion, while the Quraysh had adopted an adulterated variant of it in the name of God’s religion. A blow was dealt to their polytheistic concept of God by the Quranic principle of the oneness of God. In the light of the Quranic concept of prayer and obeisance to God, their prayer appeared to be simply child’s play. They had made the prophet the sign of national prestige, while the Quran wanted them to accept and follow a prophet who had to be given the status of a guide in all practical matters. They had taken it for granted that their service to the Ka‘bah was the greatest proof of their righteousness, whereas the Quran said that righteousness prevails when a man has the fear of God in his heart and, keeping the Hereafter in view, acts accordingly. A man mouths pious sounding words but ignores the Truth. The reason for this is that, at heart, he has no scruples. If a man is scrupulous enough to realise that he is answerable to God for all his utterances and deeds, he will immediately become serious, and a person who is serious will look at matters realistically. He cannot ignore moral questions or look at them in a superficial manner.

The events that occur in this world of ours seem, outwardly, to be the result of certain material causes, but the reality is that God’s control and management have been the underlying factors in all these events. In this world nobody has any personal or intrinsic power at all. A man is a monotheist (believing in the oneness of God) if he goes beyond the outwardly apparent phenomena and reaches the invisible God through them. As opposed to this, he is a polytheist (believing in partners to God) if he can go no further than outwardly apparent phenomena and if he confers on created things the status of their Creator. In this world nobody except God has the power to grant benefits or to inflict harm. A person who realises this truth devotes all his attention to God. He worships only God; he fears only Him and reposes his hopes in Him alone; he makes the one and only God his all. Unlike him, those who are preoccupied by mere things, make somebody other than God their God, according to their inclinations, and attach to these false gods such hopes and fears as should have been directed towards the one and only God. One form of these wrongful ideas is the belief in ‘recommendation.’ People suppose that there are some superior beings among human beings and among creatures other than human beings, who are holy in the eyes of God; God hears their recommendation and on the basis of this, He takes a decision about granting worldly provision and salvation in the after-life. But this kind of belief is false; it amounts to an underestimation of God’s godliness. God is free of every kind of shirk (imputing partners to God). No such belief befits the image of the qualities of God as is introduced and projected by the immense universe created by Him. Any such belief would mean that God is not what He seems to be in the mirror of His creative attributes, or that there is a contradiction in His attributes. Obviously, neither of these alternatives is possible.

God initially grounded human existence in the religion of nature. At that time, the religion of all humanity was one and the same. But, people had their differences and devised different forms of religions. The reason for this is the misuse of the freedom given to the people for the purpose of testing them. If God were to reveal Himself, human arrogance would come to an end on observing His powers, and suddenly unity would replace differences, because extremity of fear demolishes a multiplicity of opinions. But God will not intervene in this state of affairs before Judgement Day. God had created the present world for the sake of putting human beings to the test, and to maintain the atmosphere of testing, it is necessary to keep the reality concealed, so that people should have the opportunity to use their wisdom in both right and wrong directions.

When the people of Makkah persisted in their rejections of the Truth, God caused them to be plagued by a famine which went on for seven years. At last it ended, but only after the the Prophet Muhammad had prayed for this. This was a sign from God from which they should have learned the lesson that on rejecting the Prophet, they would come within the ambit of God’s scourge. But their mindset was such that, as long as the famine continued, they kept lamenting and beseeching, but when the famine ended, they started saying, ‘These are the vagaries of the times which occur now and then to everybody. This has nothing to do with the acceptance or rejection of the Prophet.’ People make demands for signs or miracles from the Prophet. But the real question is not that of the occurrence of miracles, but that of learning the lesson that a sign is there for observation and not for compulsion. Even after the appearance of a sign, a man has the option of either accepting it or rejecting it. However, when God’s last sign appears, man will have no power against it. This last sign will appear as God’s retribution after the conclusive phase of the process of dawah and it will appear in different forms for different prophets. In the case of the last of the prophets, the Prophet Muhammad, on the basis of various considerations, this sign took the form of those who deny the truth being overcome and the believers being made to dominate them. When a man indulges in arrogance and this does not seem to cause any harm to him, he becomes more insolent. He thinks that he is beyond God’s grasp, though this is in accordance with God’s plan. God gives an arrogant man a long rope so that he may indulge in extremes of arrogance without any fear; and during this period, God’s agents, in concealment and silence, go on recording his utterances and deeds, until his time is up and the angel of death suddenly appears and catches hold of him in order to present him before God to be judged by Him.

Man is an extremely sensitive being. He cannot bear trouble. This is why he immediately becomes serious as soon as he faces a moment of difficulty. At that time, all artificial veils are removed from his mind. In times of adversity a man readily admits truths which he was reluctant to admit at a time when he had no worries. An example of this is a voyage by sea. When the sea is calm and the boat is sailing towards its destination, it is most pleasant at that moment for its passengers. This develops a false confidence in them. They think that everything is all right and nobody can cause any disturbance. Thereafter, strong sea-winds arise. High, mountain-like waves surround the boat from every side. In such conditions, even the biggest ship is tossed about like an ordinary plank of wood. To all appearances it seems that there is no alternative but destruction. At this point, those who deny the truth in God admit His existence, worshippers of false gods start calling on the one and only God, while those who rely on their own strength and devices leave aside everything else and also start remembering the one and only God. This is empirical proof based on experience that belief in the unity of God is the only natural belief. This experience shows that whatever philosophy a man might present for not accepting God, it is simply theorising born of a carefree atmosphere. If a man realises that opportunities have been given to him in the world only for the time being for the purpose of testing him, he will immediately become serious; all the artificial walls erected in his mind will fall down; and he will have no option left but to accept the one and only God. That time is fast approaching when man will start trembling on witnessing the majesty of God, and he will be compelled to admit the veracity of all godly matters. But, the wise man is one who is able to see in the experiences of his present life the realities of the coming life, and who will, of his own free will, accept today what he will be forced to accept tomorrow: accepting tomorrow under compulsion will be of no avail to him.

The life of this world is for the purpose of putting man to the test. Therefore, here man has been given complete freedom and all sorts of opportunities. Apparently, a man is free to do whatever he likes and to shape his own future in whatever way he likes. But in the midst of these preoccupations, certain events unfold which teach lessons to thoughtful persons and which indicate the fact that all this is temporary and will very soon be taken away from them. One such example is that of green vegetation on the earth. When there is rain, the earth becomes lush green with different kinds of vegetation. Man is pleased with this; he starts thinking that things are completely under his control and very soon he will be the owner of a rich crop. Exactly at the same time, some calamity suddenly befalls him, for example, a tornado strikes, there is snowfall or there is a plague of locusts and in this way the whole crop is destroyed in a moment. The same is true of man’s life. Man is born with a fine body. The worldly factors are in his favour and he shapes for himself a very successful and glorious life. Now he develops confidence in himself; he thinks that his affairs are under his control. But one day, or one night, he suddenly meets with death. A person who considers himself powerful, suddenly finds himself in a condition of total helplessness and powerlessness. If man keeps this reality in view, he will never be arrogant in this world; he will never be guilty of oppression or injustice.

Man is deceived by the apparent conditions of the world. He considers a transient thing as a permanent one. He begins to think that a life of happiness and the comforts which he likes to have are within his reach in this present world itself. In reality, the world of human wishes is going to take shape in the Hereafter, but it will be available only to those who try to attain it in accordance with the method shown by God. Even supposing that a man manages to obtain everything he wants in the world, he still has no power to keep his life free of trouble and sorrow. Here some fear is attached to every happiness: every success here soon falls prey to some trouble; a life free of trouble and sorrow is that unique life which would be available to man only in the atmosphere of Paradise. Those who are able to discover this secret will be the ones who will follow the path to Paradise and ultimately reach the eternal heaven of God.

The life of comfort and happiness which is so favoured by man will be available to God’s loyal subjects in a perfect form in Paradise. But there is a still higher grade of comfort and happiness which is much higher than that commonly acknowledged; and that is the glimpse of the Lord of the Universe which will specially be available to the people of Paradise. God, Who is the Creator of comforts and pleasure is certainly the greatest treasure of all comforts and pleasure. It has been handed down in a hadith that when the people of Paradise have entered Paradise and when the people of Hell have entered Hell, a call-giver will give the call: ‘O, people of Paradise! There is one promise of God which remains to be fulfilled, and He wants to fulfil it now.’ On hearing this, the people of Paradise will say, ‘What is it? Haven’t our scales of virtue been made heavier? Haven’t our faces been brightened? Has not God admitted us to Paradise and saved us from the fire?’ Thereafter, the veil will be lifted away from them, and they will be able to see their Lord. So, by God! No bounty that had been granted them will be more pleasant or more favourable to them than the sight of God, and nothing else will cool their eyes more than this. (Tafsir ibn Kathir). There is no worse position that man can find himself in than being in a state of helplessness which is destined to be eternal; it is the equivalent of being plunged into a failure so absolute that it can never be turned back into success. Those who are condemned to be the inhabitants of hell in the Hereafter, shall have to face this condition. Man will be given punishment commensurate with his evil deeds, and his desperation at his eternal deprivation will be so severe that even his face will be blackened on account of it, as if immersed in layers of darkness.

All of the observances of shirk (attributing partners to God) are based on false hopes. Events which occur by God’s will are attributed by man to false gods, which in his self-delusion he makes the centre of his obeisance and worship. He depends so much on these false gods of his that he thinks that even in the Hereafter they will come to his help against God and save him from God’s scourge. These are but false hopes, but in the world their falsehood does not become clear, because due to the conditions of man’s trial here, a veil of secrecy covers every reality. Here man has the opportunity to attribute the various events to his imaginary gods and thus be satisfied with their ‘godliness.’ But in the Hereafter all realities will be laid bare. There, it will become clear that in this universe nobody has power except the one and only God. In the present world, man is living under the misunderstanding that, with the help of his leaders and false gods, he will be successful in the stages of the Hereafter, but in the Hereafter it will suddenly be clear to him that this confidence of his was absolutely false. Here, everybody will be requited according to what he himself has done and all imaginary supports will disappear as if they had never existed.