Az-Zumar

The Quran is a divine statement of facts. Its sagacious style of expression and the exceptional nature of its discourses allude to it being the Book of God. No man is capable of presenting such a sublime work. 'So worship God with your total devotion' means to worship only God, praying to Him, revering Him, and devoting oneself entirely to Him. (Safwat at-Tafasir, vol. III, p. 69). The instinct for worship and devotion is inherent in human nature, so he must consider a being as great and have feelings of awe for that being. Anyone for whom a man develops such feelings is considered most holy by him, and man’s entire existence submits before him. He expresses superlative respect and veneration for him, and his soul derives pleasure from remembering him. That being becomes the greatest support in man’s life. This is true devotion, and such worship is the exclusive, rightful due of the one and only God. But what man does is that while accepting the one God, he accords divinity to beings other than God and starts worshipping them. This is the real error into which man falls because just as the godhead or divinity is indivisible, worship cannot be divided either.

It is a natural instinct in man to rush towards God and worship Him. But it is always the endeavour of Satan to distract man from worshipping God. He implants the idea in people’s minds that God’s Court (throne) is very high and inaccessible and, therefore, one cannot reach God directly. So one should try to reach God through the mediation of saints. Similarly, he instils the belief that just as human beings have children, so does God, and an easy way to please God is to please His supposed children. Modern materialism is also a distorted form of this belief, in that it has diverted man’s worshipping instinct from the Creator to the creation. All this deviation amounts to a belittling of God. He Who is the Creator and Sustainer of the unfathomably vast universe is far above such ridiculous allegations.

God made man and created woman as his mate. In this way, through the first man and woman a generation of human beings came into existence. In addition, God made extensive provision to fulfil the needs of human beings. In the early days of civilization, sheep, goat, camel and cow (a couple from each totalling to eight) catered to economic and social requirements of man. As civilization entered the next stage, man harnessed nature’s potential and used it for his progress.

To accept God and be grateful to Him is sought by the soul of man. Such an acknowledgement amounts to the admission of the Truth, which undoubtedly is the greatest demand of rationality.

Every man passes through times when he finds himself utterly helpless. At this juncture, he forgets everything and starts appealing to God. In this way, in times of helplessness, every man comes to know that there is nobody worth worshipping except the one and only God. But, as soon as he is out of trouble, he resorts to his earlier ways. Man only becomes more arrogant and starts attributing his relief from affliction to beings other than God. For Some it becomes the miracle of cause and effect, while for others it is a feat of supposed gods. If a man keeps quiet after making a mistake, it involves the misguidance of only one man. But, if he starts giving false explanations in order to justify his mistakes, he becomes one who misleads others.

There are two types of people: Those who make material interest their supreme concern; the other make God their supreme concern. It is this second type of individual who is a man of God. His realisation of God is his conscious discovery. He discovers God as the most Majestic and Supreme Being, so much so that all his hopes and all his fears are linked to that one and only Being. His restlessness keeps him out of bed at night. His loneliness is not the loneliness born out of unawareness, but the loneliness of the remembrance of God. A man of knowledge is one whose mind is ignited by the remembrance of God, and that man is devoid of knowledge whose mind is ignited only by material factors. He is awakened only by material shocks and thereafter is lost, deep in slumber.

When a man attains deep realisation of God, the essential result of this is that he becomes God-fearing. The realisation of the majesty of God makes him humble and he spends his life following the commandments of God. This makes him so serious that he renounces everything and leads a god-oriented life. To build up one’s life on the basis of faith involves a tremendous trial. Only those succeed in this trial for whom faith is the greatest wealth, for the sake of which they are prepared to forego everything else. A life of faith is a life of patience. Those who are prepared to become believers at the price of patience will be the ones who will be blessed with the superior grace of God.

The real call of the prophet yearns to make man discover and worship the one and only God, leaving aside the worship of everything else. A prophet pursues the dawah mission as a matter of personal concern. Not only does he guide his fellow-men but establishes an example by adopting the right path himself. This nature of a prophet’s work, indicates the nature of a dayee’s work. The messenger of truth is one for whom the Truth becomes his personal problem. His call of Truth is the spontaneous expression of his inner experience and not merely a superficial call.

The present world is one of trial. Here, realities do not reveal themselves in their true and final shape, which makes room for anything to be wrongly interpreted. Satan exploits this possibility and misguides people from the right path. Whenever a Truth reveals itself, Satan tries to divert people’s minds from it by misinterpreting it. He turns away the good aspect of a thing and brings to the fore whatever is unfavourable about it. This is a situation in which a man is really put to the test. Man has to prove his wisdom by distinguishing between right and wrong. He should be able to tear down the satanic veil of deception and see the reality. Those who have proved themselves to be in possession of such insight are the fortunate ones because they will find the Divine Truth; those who fail to prove this are fated to be enmeshed in the negative aspect of things, and are liable to be brought before God as worshippers of Satan.

Every man has to live with the consequences of his deeds, for better or for worse. This means that the man worthy of Paradise lives in a paradisical atmosphere, while the man fit only for Hell lives in a hellish atmosphere. Only those possessing the insight to appreciate intangible things, will be able to perceive this difference. Paradise would be the final and perfect manifestation of man’s ambitions, which he wants to fulfill in this world, but cannot. The price of this Paradise is a God-fearing attitude. Those who fear God in this world will be made inhabitants of the perfect world of Paradise which would be free of any shortcomings.

The wonderful system of rains on the earth, the resulting growth of greenery and the subsequent preparations for harvesting, have countless meaningful lessons in them. But, these lessons are available only to those who devote themselves to deep thought. On the one hand, God has created the external world in a way that everything in it has become a sign of great realities, and, on the other, He has endowed man with the ability to read these signs and understand them. Those who keep their natural capabilities alive and, by utilising them, give deep consideration to the things of the world, will have their minds filled with the deep realisation (ma‘rifah) of God. Whereas those who do not keep these capabilities alive, will be unable to learn anything, even though surrounded by countless lessons. They will not be able to see, even after seeing, and will not be able to hear, even after hearing.

God has blessed man with a guidebook in the form of the Quran. It has two special qualities. One of its qualities is that it is marked by utmost consistency. In other words, it is a book which has no contradictions. One part does not clash with another. If the Quran’s statements had not corresponded exactly with reality, there would have been differences between and inconsistencies in its various parts. The second quality of the Quran is its use of repetition, that is, its topics are often repeated in different styles. This quality in the Quran shows that it is a book of advice and guidance. An adviser always wishes that his words should establish themselves firmly in the mind of the hearer. For this purpose, he expresses the same statements in different ways. This wisdom is found in the Quran in its best form. It is the nature of man that when he hears some terrible news, or he undergoes some hair-raising experience, his inner being is humbled and his heart is softened by the news. When a serious man reads the Quran he undergoes such spiritual experiences.

Man always tries to save his face from injuries, but the punishment of Doomsday will so encompass man that it will not be possible for him to save any part of his body. In fact he will stand before the ineluctable punishment, as if using his face as a shield against it. In the eyes of God, the greatest crime a man can commit is not to admit to the Truth when it reveals itself to him. Such people can never escape the scourge of God.

The Quran’s statements are in a language intelligible to man and within the sphere of his knowledge, so that nobody should have any difficulty in understanding them. Here, in symbolic language, it has been explained that the principle of the Unity of God as compared to polytheism is more rational and consistent with nature. Indeed, the functioning of the external universe is indicative of the fact that a single Will is operative in it. Had there been many intentions operative therein, the system of the universe could not have run so harmoniously. Moreover, man’s nature is also such that it prefers unity in loyalty. It is entirely against man’s nature to subscribe to different kinds of loyalties, as a result of which he is unable to do justice to any of them. All arguments and possibilities indicate that there is only one God, who is the Creator of man and who is worthy of being worshipped by him. In the present world, this fact is proclaimed through men like us. On the Day of Judgement, this will be declared by the Creator of the Universe Himself. At that time, denial of this fact will be impossible.