Surat Al-An'am (6) : Lesson (11-73) - Ayat (36-38) Harmony between Divine Miracle and Divine Method
- Interpretation Of Quran / The long version
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- (006) Al Anaam
In the Name of Allah, The Most Gracious, Most Merciful
Dear brothers, this is lesson No. 11 of interpreting Surat Al-An'am.
Allah describes whoever listens (to the truth) but does not apply it as being deaf:
I will start with the Ayah number 36, where Allah says:
﴾ It is only those who listen (to the Message of Prophet Muhammad PBUH), will respond (benefit from it), but as for the dead (disbelievers), Allah will raise them up, then to Him they will be returned (for their recompense).﴿
Listening to the Quran here means applying it, and unless you apply the Quran, you are not listening to it.
﴾ If you two (wives of the Prophet, namely 'Aishah and Hafsah) turn in repentance to Allah, (it will be better for you), your hearts are indeed so inclined (to oppose what the Prophet likes).﴿
Your repentance marks your listening. Accordingly, unless you take a stance and an action , unless you response, and unless you strengthen ties, severe ties, give, refrain from giving, get angry, get satisfied or respond upon listening to the Haqq (the truth), then it is as if you did not listen to it at all.
﴾ It is only those who listen (to the Message of Prophet Muhammad PBUH), will respond (benefit from it), ﴿
This means that responding is a sign of listening.
Dear brothers, if you say to someone, "There is a scorpion on your shoulder", and he comfortably stays still and says to you with a smile on his face, "Thank you for being kind enough to notify me, and I ask Allah to reward you for that", his reaction means he did not listen to you, because had he listened to what you said, he would have been startled, and he would have taken off his coat in order to throw the scorpion away from him, right? It is impossible for man to realize something and never respond to it or take an action to deal with it. Allah in that respect describes those who pretend to listen to the truth, but they do not apply what they heard as deaf people.
The response is to act upon what you heard:
Dear brothers, there is a great difference between answering and responding. If you ask someone to lend you money and he says, "I cannot", he answered you negatively and contrary to what you expected, but when you ask someone to lend you money, and he responded to your request by giving you money, this shows the difference between answering and responding. Accordingly, answering is different from responding, because the former might be negative or positive, whereas responding is a positive reaction. Hence:
﴾ O you who believe! Answer Allah (by obeying Him) and (His) Messenger when he calls you to that which will give you life.﴿
Responding is manifested in a positive reaction, and the one who does not respond is considered a dead person in the Sight of Allah. The proof is in the following Ayah:
﴾ It is only those who listen (to the Message of Prophet Muhammad PBUH), will respond (benefit from it), but as for the dead (disbelievers),﴿
This means that those who did not respond, because they actually did not listen to Haqq in the first place are dead in the Sight of Allah (though they are alive).
The dead is not the man who died and got rest
The dead is the one whose heart died while he is still alive
Allah describes the heedless people as follows:
﴾ (They are) dead, lifeless ﴿
He also describes them as follows:
﴾ But you cannot make hear those who are in graves.﴿
The gravest error is to have a dead heart, to have a wrapped heart (from conceiving the truth), to have a deaf ear (to listening to the truth) and to have a blind insight towards the Quran. This is a very serious situation which brings man to his doom.
﴾ It is only those who listen (to the Message of Prophet Muhammad PBUH), will respond (benefit from it), but as for the dead (disbelievers), Allah will raise them up, then to Him they will be returned (for their recompense).﴿
Believing is a matter of time:
Hence, if the Creator of the heavens and the earth calls you to worship Him in order to be pleased with this worship in the worldly life and in the Hereafter, if He invites you to the Paradise which is as wide as the heavens and the earth, if He makes the entire universe a sign of His Existence, Perfection and Oneness and if He makes His Method in harmony with your basic needs including your security, provision, safety and happiness, you will fulfill the purpose of your existence and creation if you respond to Allah's Call, but if you did not respond, namely if you did not listen to Haqq in the way Allah expects you to do (by responding and applying), then you are considered dead in the Sight of Allah.
﴾ But as for the dead (disbelievers), Allah will raise them up,﴿
However, this living dead person will know the truth after he died for real.
﴾ (It will be said to the sinners): "Indeed you were heedless of this, now We have removed your covering, and sharp is your sight this Day!"﴿
When will he know the truth? He will know it when it is too late, and when such knowledge is worthless on all levels. Hence, this means that believing is a matter of time, because even the fiercest disbelievers on earth (Fir'aun) believed (the worthless sort of believing) when drowning overtook him, and he said:
﴾ Till when drowning overtook him, he said: "I believe that La ilaha illa (Huwa): (none has the right to be worshipped but) He," in Whom the Children of Israel believe, and I am one of the Muslims (those who submit to Allah's Will)."﴿
When did he believe? He believed after it was too late. Hence, believing in the truth is inevitable, so either you believe when you are young, or you believe when it is too late (after you die).
(( "Take advantage of five before five: your youth before your old age, your health before your illness, your riches before your poverty, your leisure before your work, and your life before your death."))
Those who hurt others cannot escape Allah's punishment:
Either you believe in the right time, or you believe the worthless kind of belief, because it will be too late.
﴾ It is only those who listen (to the Message of Prophet Muhammad PBUH), will respond (benefit from it), but as for the dead (disbelievers), Allah will raise them up, then to Him they will be returned (for their recompense).﴿
In another Ayat, the Almighty Allah says:
﴾ Verily, to Us will be their return* Then verily, for Us will be their reckoning.﴿
Allah also says:
﴾ So, by your Lord (O Muhammad PBUH), We shall certainly call all of them to account. For all that they used to do.﴿
The most foolish man ever is the one who does not consider the Day of Resurrection in his life, and he is the one who does harm to people and thinks that he will get away with it without being Divinely punished.
﴾ Consider not that Allah is unaware of that which the Zalimun (polytheists, wrong-doers, etc.) do, but He gives them respite up to a Day when the eyes will stare in horror.﴿
In the Hereafter every living soul will be on its own, and their supply is the good deeds:
If you are a powerful figure, people will always be at your service upon a gesture from you, but this is in the worldly life only, while in the Hereafter:
﴾ And truly you have come unto Us alone (without wealth, companions or anything else) as We created you the first time.﴿
When a powerful oppressing country attacks another country, all the parties who have interests with this powerful country will support her action and help her though she is wrong, tyrant and oppressive. There are fronts on earth now, and these fronts might support one another to achieve bad things, but these fronts and blocks exist on earth only, for in the Hereafter every man will come unto Allah alone and nothing will save him except his good deeds.
A mother might see her son on the Day of Resurrection and might say to him, "O son, will you give me a good deed (of yours), so that I may make use of its reward?" He will answer, "O mother, I wish I could, for I suffer the same problem (the shortage of good deeds)", then she will say to him, "Were my breasts not your source of food, was my womb not the container where you stayed, was my lap not a cover for you?" Yet, he will say, "I wish I could help".
﴾ Then, when the Trumpet is blown, there will be no kinship among them that Day.﴿
All kin ties will come to an end in the Hereafter. Therefore, the most foolish man on earth is the one who kills, wrecks, destructs and thinks that he will not be held responsible for his actions:
﴾ It is only those who listen (to the Message of Prophet Muhammad PBUH), will respond (benefit from it), but as for the dead (disbelievers), Allah will raise them up, then to Him they will be returned (for their recompense).﴿
The Prophet's miracle is a continuous one (The Quran):
Allah the Almighty says:
﴾ And they said: "Why is not a sign sent down to him from his Lord?" Say: "Allah is certainly Able to send down a sign, but most of them know not."﴿
They asked that, because they overheard that the pervious Prophets, peace be upon them, were sent to their people with tangible miracles. For instance, Ibrahim PBUH was not burnt in fire when he was thrown in it, and Musa's (Moses') stick PBUH was turned into a serpent and so forth, but they forgot that those Prophets, peace be upon them, were sent to their people in particular and this is why their miracles were of tangible nature. Therefore, those who witnessed them (the miracles) would believe in those Prophets, peace be upon them, and those who did not (who came after the death of those Prophets, peace be upon them) might or might not believe.
They also were forgetful of the fact that Prophet Muhammad PBUH is the seal of all Prophets and Messengers, peace be upon them, of Allah and that he was sent by Allah to all mankind and that his book (Quran) is the last of Allah's books. Hence, his miracles should be in harmony with the Divine Method. The harmony between the miracles and the Method of Allah (Quran) is manifested in so many scientific breakthroughs which are mentioned in the Quran. Moreover, as the science gets advanced, it reveals sides of the greatness of these scientific indications in the Quran, and this is but continuous irrefutable evidence that this Quran is Allah's Words. Tangible miracles are like a matchstick (the matchstick is put out as soon as it is used) in the sense that their effects are temporary, so after the Prophets' death, the miracles became news which people might or might not believe. On the other hand, the miracle of Prophet Muhammad PBUH is a continuous one, and as the science gets more advanced, it discloses hidden scientific proofs in the Quran. Allah says:
﴾ Verily, Allah is not ashamed to set forth a parable even of a mosquito.﴿
A mosquito is mentioned in Allah's Book which is the Divine Revelation and Allah's Method! It is just a mosquito.
Creating the mosquito is a sign of the scientific inimitability of Quran:
Allah the Almighty says:
﴾ Verily, Allah is not ashamed to set forth a parable even of a mosquito.﴿
What is the value of this insignificant creature in people's eyes? The Prophet PBUH mentioned the mosquito as well. Narrated Sahl bin Sa'd, he said: The Prophet PBUH said:
(( If this world had the value of a mosquito's wing in the sight of Allah, no disbeliever would have had a drink of water from it.))
The mosquito is mentioned in Surat Al-Baqarah. After examining the mosquito by the electron microscope, scientists found that the mosquito has 100 eyes in its head, 48 teeth in its mouth and 3 hearts; a central one and one for each of its wings, and in each heart there are 2 atriums, 2 ventricles and 2 valves. Furthermore, it has a sophisticated device that aircrafts do not have! It has a thermal receiving device, with the sensitivity of 0.001 degrees Centigrade Celsius, and with which it can recognize the subjects according to the heat produced by them, not by their shapes, mass or colors.
Moreover, it has a blood testing system, because not all kinds of blood suit it. Accordingly, if there are two brothers sleeping in the same bed one will be stung by the mosquito while the other will not. Also, it has blood liquefaction system and an anesthetic one, so that it will not be killed while it is sucking blood. There are 6 knives in its trunk: 4 knives to make a square-shaped cut, while the other 2 knives join together to form a tube with which it sucks blood. Also, it has in its legs claws to use them on rough surfaces and lancets to use them on smooth surfaces by sucking the air. Thus, the previous Ayah includes a scientific inimitability. When were these details about the mosquito discovered? They were discovered after inventing the electron microscope. Allah the Almighty says:
﴾ You can see no fault in the creations of the Most Beneficent.﴿
The size does not count, for Allah's Creation is so perfect both in the mosquito and in the blue whale despite the big difference in sizes between the two, given the blue whale gives 50 tons of flesh, 50 tons of bones, 50 tons of fat, 90 barrels of oil, and it nurses its baby whale 300 kilograms of its breast milk three times a day, so it gives one ton of breast milk every day. Hence, the following Ayah indicates the perfection of Allah's Creation:
﴾ You can see no fault in the creations of the Most Beneficent.﴿
As for us (as human beings) we might manufacture a very good commodity using high quality raw materials, or another bad quality one for daily use, but regarding Allah's Creation, Allah says:
﴾ You can see no fault in the creations of the Most Beneficent.﴿
The Prophet's miracle is the Quran which was revealed to him:
Therefore, the materialistic miracles were given to the previous Prophets, peace be upon them, who were sent to their people in particular, but when a Prophet is sent to all nations and people till the end of days, and when his book is the last of Allah's Books, then his miracle should be in harmony with Allah's Method. The Bible is one thing and the miracle of Jesus PBUH in bringing the dead to life is another thing. Also, Torah is one thing and the miracle of Musa PBUH in striking a dry path in the sea is another thing. As for Prophet Muhammad PBUH, his miracle is the Noble Quran.
﴾ And they said: "Why is not a sign sent down to him from his Lord?" Say: "Allah is certainly Able to send down a sign, but most of them know not."﴿
Allah decreed that the connection between Him and His servants should be based on love, affection, free will, voluntary intention and personal initiation, and He never decrees to build this connection on compulsion and control from His Side. Had Allah decreed to make all people submissive to Him, he would have made them one nation. Hence, Allah the Almighty owns the power to send to people a sign which obliges them to believe in Him:
﴾ But most of them know not."﴿
However, this faith will be compulsory, which will not bring happiness to the believer. It is like when the dean of a university wills that all his students should pass the exams, and accordingly he prints all the answers giving all the students straight A's. In this case, all the student has to do is just writing down his name in the finals, and he will pass, but what is the value of this success? It is worthless in the eyes of the university president, the administration, people and students. This is the meaning of the following Ayah:
﴾ And they said: "Why is not a sign sent down to him from his Lord?" Say: "Allah is certainly Able to send down a sign, but most of them know not."﴿
Ants are among the signs which indicate the Greatness of Allah:
Then Allah the Almighty says:
﴾ There is not a moving (living) creature on earth, nor a bird that flies with its two wings, but are communities like you. We have neglected nothing in the Book, then unto their Lord they (all) shall be gathered.﴿
Dear brothers, let me explain to you this Ayah in the light of a scientific research about the community of ants. The ant is a high-ranking social insect. The ant exists whenever and wherever, better yet, the species of ants are more than 9000, some of which live a settled life in impenetrable colonies. This is the civil community of ants, while other species of ants live by moving from one place to another exactly like the life of wandering nomads. Some species earn their living by striving and working hard in a very civilized pattern, whereas others earn their living by attacking and controlling other ants' colonies and those are terrorist ants.
The ant is a social insect, and it cannot survive living alone, for it will die if it is isolated from its fellow ants even if it is provided with nutrition, good place and good living conditions. Thus, the ant is like man, for if man is isolated from light, sound, time, night and daylight for 20 days he will become instable and insane.
Man should learn from the ant the concept of cooperation. If a full ant meets another hungry ant, it gives it nutritious extract from its body because there is a pumping organ in its digestive system with which it pumps food to other hungry ants, besides its sucking system which allows it to suck food. Man, on the other hand, eats only and never gives anything to others. The Prophet PBUH said:
(( "He is not a believer whose stomach is filled while the neighbor to his side goes hungry."))
Dear brothers, entomologists observed the lifestyle of ants, and they were stunned by the ants' hard working in earning their living and in distributing their tasks to accomplish them in a serious and organized manner. The job of the Queen, which is very big, is to lay eggs and give instructions, and it is kept safe in the colony in a special chamber like a palace. Furthermore, it communicates with all members of the colony.
Some of the tasks of ants:
The worker ants are assigned to many tasks, among which is to raise and care for their young, and this task is similar to the educational sector in man's world. Some worker ants are soldiers, and they are bigger than the other workers; they have big heads, as if they are wearing helmets, and this sector is similar to the military sector in man's world in the sense that these soldiers guard the queen and keep the colony safe against any invasion. Among the tasks of the worker ants is to clean the colony and the tunnels, and this sector is similar to the municipality in man's world. Also, one of their tasks is to drag the bodies of the dead ants from the colony to bury them out under the ground, and this mission is similar to the one of the funeral homes in man's world. Furthermore, they bring food from outside, and this sector is similar to the importation sector in man's world. Worker ants also plant fungus and this sector is similar to agricultural sector in man's world. In addition, worker ants raise other insects on which the ants live, and this sector is similar to livestock raising in man's world.
The ants follow a very organized lifestyle in their life, for they have a commander who gives orders and instructions, they have chambers which are divided into living rooms, pantries for food storage, long nested hallways which are guarded around the clock. Also, in the colony there are huge, separated mound nests, and the ants connect the mounds with scent trails, paths and hallways through which they can reach the surface of the ground. The ants live in these mounds (like villages) following a very restricted and organized lifestyle and guarded by the soldier ants which have bigger heads and trunks. Pay attention to the interpretation of the following Ayah:
﴾ But are communities like you.﴿
Some ants build cities, open roads, dig tunnels and store food in pantries and silos, while others are specialized in gardening. Some ants' species live on attacking other ant colonies (like the most powerful country, which you know very well, and which attacks other countries to establish "freedom". Allah the Almighty says:
﴾ There is not a moving (living) creature on earth, nor a bird that flies with its two wings, but are communities like you. We have neglected nothing in the Book, then unto their Lord they (all) shall be gathered.﴿
Some species of ants build their colonies on the surface of the ground (upward) using trees leaves and twigs and these kinds of ants live usually under the pine trees. Other species build their homes by carving them in old trees exactly like men who used to carve their homes in mountains. Though ants do not use tools and gadgets in building their houses, they are able to build tall tower-like colonies very delicately and accurately using their mandibles, for the ant chows what it cuts turning it into a dough-like texture, and then it uses it in building. I think old Egyptians imitated ants in building the pyramids.
The young ants stay inside the colony to build chambers and tunnels, and they grow in them, but there are worker ants which care for the young ants (as nannies). Some ants are assigned to guard the colony, to clean the chambers and to store and arrange food, which is brought in by the worker ants, in pantries. The ants have dignity and they refuse to be spied on by us, but we are obliged to do so in order to know their amazing lifestyle.
Some instincts which are Divinely installed in ants:
Entomologists found out that the ants leave a smelly chemical trace upon leaving their colony, so that they can retrace their steps back to the colony. Upon removing these traces, the ants cannot find their way home. If an ant finds food, but it is heavy to carry, it will spread a smell all around the place, and it will take a sample of that food, then it goes back to its fellow ants and each time it meets with one of them it gives it part of the sample it has in order to let the other ants recognize the exact place of this precious food, till a group of ants reach that place, and only then they will all carry it paying all the needed efforts and collaborating with one another to move it, given the muscular strength of one ant compared with its size makes it stronger than the best wrestlers and athletes in man's world.
Entomologists also found out that the ant spreads special scent upon dying in order to alert the other members to harry up and bury it. This scent is like a message to all members, "I am dead, please hurry up and bury me". When one of the scientists put this chemical scent on an alive ant, the rest of the ants promptly hasted to bury it, because this scent is like an order to bury the ant and there is no way back. Though it might fight to tell them that it is still alive, the other ants will bury it disregarding its struggle. Ants are among the few insects, which are Divinely given the instinct of storing food. They store grains in their warm damp home under the ground, yet these grains are never spoilt, nor do they grow, but how? Ants have creative ways in storing food according to the kind of stored food. If the food is a wheat grain, they cut it into two halves, so that it will not grow, they skin other kinds of grains for the same reason and they leave other kinds of grains for weeks in a suitable temperature and continuously refreshed air in order to keep it ready for planting later on. The lifestyle of ants is a very delicate topic. Allah the Almighty describes the ant as an insect with high awareness. Allah says:
﴾ Till, when they came to the valley of the ants, one of the ants said: "O ants! Enter your dwellings, lest Sulaiman (Solomon) and his hosts crush you, while they perceive not."﴿
The ant owns this awareness, for it has a chemical language, and it has a small brain, nervous cells, nerves to recognize information and maps to find food. Ants have six legs to help them run fast, and their bodies are divided into three main parts: a head, a body and a cylinder tail, and some of them have wings to help them jump. The ant has five eyes, two compound eyes on both sides of the head, and they have hundreds smaller eyes which are combined and connected, and they look like one eye. The other three eyes make a triangle upward the two compound eyes, and these three eyes are simple..
Ants are the closest creatures to man in their behavior:
Dear brothers, the ant is a kind of rational insect, and it is considered one of the most intelligent one among other insects. It sees through waves which are unseen to man's eye, and the ants' chemical language has two functions: communication and warning. If an ant is crushed, it will spread a scent through which it call out other ants for help, and if there is a danger that can be overcome by a group of ants, the ant will call for help. However, if the danger is bigger than the ants' abilities to overcome it, the ant sends a warning message (through scent) asking the other ants to stay far. Hence, there are three sorts of messages: a call to bury the dying ant, a warning to ward off ants from overcoming danger and a call for help.
The digestive system of the ant is amazing; it has a mouth, an esophagus, a stomach, intestines, a sucking organ and a pumping organ. Ants know one another without any marks (only through scent), and affection exists among the ants of the same community (colony), but fierce enmity exists with other ants or insects (from outside the colony), to such an extent that there are battles between colonies, and the soldiers line up to be ready to fight the enemies and after the battles there are casualties and injuries.
The victorious ants take their enemy captives and make them servants in their colonies, and they bury the ants which are killed in the line of duty in special graveyards after they clean the battlefield by removing the dead bodies of their enemies. It has been said that ants are the closest insects to man in their manners. Ants might turn out to be a very annoying grave power against man, for they wreck wooden pillars of houses causing their destruction, and they might build their colonies in publishing houses where they eat the papers and tear them apart.
Our master Ali, may Allah honor his face, said, "Look at the ant with its small body and delicate form. It can hardly be seen in the corner of the eye, nor by the perception of the imagination – how it moves on the earth and leaps at its livelihood. It carries the grain to its hole and deposits it in its place of stay. It collects during the summer for its winter and during strength for the period of its weakness. Its livelihood is guaranteed, and it is fed according to fitness. Allah, the Kind, does not forget it and (Allah the Giver) does not deprive it, even though it may be in dry stone or fixed rocks. If you have thought about its digestive tracts in its high and low parts, the carapace of its belly, and its eyes and its ears in its head you would be amazed at its creation and you would feel difficulty in describing it. Exalted is He who made it stand on its legs and erected it on its pillars (of limbs). No other originator took part with Him in its origination and no one having power assisted Him in its creation and He is the Only Deity Who is worshiped". By talking about the ant I meant to show you the meaning of the following Ayah:
﴾ There is not a moving (living) creature on earth, nor a bird that flies with its two wings, but are communities like you.﴿
A scientist put a strange egg in a nest of a bird, and when it hatches the male bird found it different from the other baby birds, so it killed the female bird thinking that it mated with another bird. Crows eat coconuts, and as you all know the coconuts has a very hard shell, so in order to break the shell, the crow carries it and flies high in the sky then throws it till it breaks. Though there would be hundreds of crows around the broken coconuts, they do not come near it for they know that it is an earned right to the one which threw it from the sky, so they do not steal or take any crow's food.
Difference between Divine Actions and Divine Orders as an assignment to mankind:
I am telling you this to show you that these creatures act exactly like man:
﴾ There is not a moving (living) creature on earth, nor a bird that flies with its two wings, but are communities like you. We have neglected nothing in the Book, then unto their Lord they (all) shall be gathered.﴿
The amazing system, skills, teamwork, organization and task-oriented grouping are unbelievable in ants communities, and these things are part of the Divine Actions (Divine inspiration), but as for mankind, when man is honest, and he perfects his work, these are part of the Divine Assignment, and there is a big difference between the Divine Actions (in Allah's creations) and the Divine Assignment (to mankind). The success of the student who studies hard, pays efforts, does some research, reads a lot, memorizes books and exercises, is different from the success of the student who is given the answers in the finals.
Building very delicate communities according to a very organized system, teamwork and task-oriented grouping by ants is Divinely inspired by Allah, but concerning man, he will deserve Paradise only when he chooses to build a sophisticated community honestly, trustworthily and chastely, because he is assigned to do so, and his reward will be Paradise for fulfilling his assignment. Hence, there is a big difference between man when he fulfills the Divine Assignment and animals who are Divinely inspired to do what they do and to which there will be no reward, because the animal is not assigned whereas man is assigned by Allah.
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