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Truth of Divine knowledge- never be destroyed by disbelief or ignorance Surah Al-Baqarah (ayah 76-81)

 


Abstract    

        These verses (76-81) of surah Al-Baqarah points towards the fact that we can never hide our deepest secrets and inner feelings from the All-Knowing Allah. How can we even think of being successful in running with a lie? We better know that He knows everything. So we shouldn’t play a game of deception. The enemies of the truth are right there within our own hearts separating us from faith, good thoughts and actions, preventing us from attaining to peace. If we failed in taming the earthly desires, the whole moral frame work of ours be effected. It’s the fear and love of Allah that enables a man to submit himself to Him which in turn perfects the man’s behavior. However, those who fail to accept this guidance, become lost on the path. The best guidance available to man are the Divine books containing the divine knowledge, connecting him to the Divinity. They have the same Universal message that over the periods of times have rained upon the planes of hearts, bringing to fruit the seeds of knowledge, wisdom and virtues. This knowledge proves to be the receding mirage in an expanding desert of ignorance.  It’s the light that Allah places in the heart. The more we will know, the more we will believe, and the more we be worshipping Him.

Keywords: Truth, Divine knowledge, disbelief, ignorance, faith

Lies veil the truth but can’t change the truth

      

    The Jews recognized the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) as the Last Messenger, his personality matched the description present in their Book -the Torah. When they would meet the common Muslims or the Companions, they would acknowledge the prophecy of the Final Messenger. But when the common Jews would return to their people, their Rabbis would rebuke them for revealing the truth. And when they meet those who believe (in Muhammad) they say: “We too believe in him.” But in their intimate meetings they say to one another: “How foolish! Why should you intimate to them what Allah has revealed to you, for they will use it as argument against you before your Lord?” (Quran 2: 76). When the Jews talked among themselves they asked their co-religionists to disclose to the Muslims neither the prophesies about the Prophet, nor those verses of the Scriptures on the basis of which they could be reproached for their evil conduct; they thought that the Muslims would make use of scriptural arguments against them before Allah, and would thus have them pronounced guilty. These were the depths to which Jewish religious decadence had sunk. They were convinced that if they could succeed in concealing their guilt in this world, they would be saved from censure in the Next. For this reason, they were asked if they considered Allah to be unaware of their deeds, either apparent or hidden.  “Are they unaware that Allah knows all that they hide and all that they disclose?” (Quran 2: 77). Meaning the One Who took a covenant from them, the One Who revealed the Torah, the One who revealed the Qur’an, and Who sent Muhammad (pbuh) is fully aware of their secret acknowledgement and public denial of the truth. We can hide the truth from the people, but how can we hide from Allah.

       This life has mostly thrown us in front of those who acted true to our face, but it was so unusual to find the ones who remained true behind our back. But somehow those few loyal people did surprise us, the fake ones couldn’t prove to have that caliber. Our lies could veil the truth for so long, but failed to change the truth. How could we even think of being successful in running with a lie? When we knew that we couldn’t hide from the truth. It’s always on the march and it finally catches us. So we play a game of deception with our selves, not realizing that the only most important relationship of us in our lives is with ourselves, and we don’t prove to be true there, hiding so much from our own selves. But how good is this that our deepest hidden secrets and inner feelings are not hidden from the All-Knowing Allah. He knows the whispers of the souls, the half mumbled duas, the brokenness of our hearts, the scars left by the people and the disappointments left by the expectations. We better know that He knew what was, what is and what will be (Alyona et al., 2016).

       Then how can we even think that the world of creation would come about without an All-Knowing Creator? The existing order of everything in this universe bears witness to this fact. He encompasses everything. Allah knows it all (Harun Yahya, 2014). The lies that we speak to us and to others are always contrary to the faith. How sad is this to believe in our own lies and the stories that we make in our heads while these lies leave us only at the edge of ignominy. So why not attain to the heights of salvation and dignity by being truthful. We should learn to falsify our desires that are mere deceptions, only present to keep us in deceit.

 

Divine knowledge – a proof of Unity of knowledge infused into consciousness by the One source

      Among the People of the Book are those who have no knowledge of what is in the Book, and base their religion on false statements, wishes or hopes. They have false ideas about Allah and thus utter false statement with their tongues. “And there are among them unlettered people who have no real knowledge of the divine writ, (following) only wishful beliefs and depending on nothing but conjecture” (Quran 2:78). This was what the Jewish masses were doing, due to their ignorance of the principals of faith, rules and teachings of conduct, enunciated by Allah in His book which otherwise were of fundamental importance for their salvation. Thus they out of their desires and illusions, fabricated a whole religion. The rabbis were not contented with the divine scripture so they mixed the divine and their own superstitious ideas, stories from history, philosophical doctrines and legal rules. This all was due to their false impression of being the chosen ones. “Woe, then, unto those who write down, with their own hands, (something which they claim to Be) divine writ, and then say. "This is from God," in order to acquire a trifling gain thereby. woe, then, unto them for what their hands have written, and woe unto them for all that they may have gained!” (Quran 2:79). The scholars responsible for corrupting the text of the Bible claiming that the entire thing was divine, thus misleading their ignorant followers in order to get a slight trivial benefits of this small life. If one keeps on committing the sins without seeking repentance, these sins get accumulated and finally destruction takes over them.

        Divine books containing the divine knowledge are the connections between the Divinity and mankind. They don’t contain the ordinary type of knowledge that human beings have, these message are true and completely pure. They are the most convincing proof of the Unity of knowledge, given to prophets each living in different times, speaking different languages, belonging to different cultures but proclaimed the same universal message. It was as if the mighty Pen wrote on the consciousness of these men an identical message even though they lived centuries apart. The logical conclusion is that sublime Knowledge was infused into their consciousness by the One Source. These messages like the clouds of mercy have rained upon the planes of hearts, bringing to fruit the seeds of knowledge, wisdom and virtues. Those who fail to accept the guidance of law are excluded by Allah from His existential guidance, mercy and blessings and are left to fend for themselves; and it is this that let the man be lost on the path.

        The enemies of the truth are right there within our own hearts separating us from faith, good thoughts and actions, certitude and determination, preventing us from attaining to peace. Our own evil self is ever ready to protect our own whims and earthly interests. If we failed in taming these desires, the whole moral frame work of ours be effected. It’s the fear and love of Allah that enables a man to submit himself to Him. This submission perfects the man’s behavior and will not only help him earn merit for his own life in the hereafter but will also make him instrumental in freeing the world from its self-interested and selfish nature.

     We all do commit sins but the crux of the matter would be to accept them and simply reflect and repent upon them. Since we can’t delete our life history from Allah, so better offer a sincere repentance. The sun may rise tomorrow but we may not. So let’s repent today and keep repenting for as long as we live as Allah loves to forgive and He never stops forgiving (Ibn al Uthaymin, 2016).

Lack of understanding, disbelief or ignorance cannot destroy the truth

      Despite doing all the wrong things, the Jews claimed that the Fire will not touch them except for a few days. This is a misconception entertained by all Jews, laymen as well as rabbis. They felt sure that no matter what they did, they would remain immune from hell-fire just by virtue of being Jews! The worst they could conceive of, was the possibility of a transient punishment before they were transported to heaven as they believed that they were the chosen people. “They say: “The Fire will certainly not touch us except for a limited number of days.” Say (to them): “Have you received a promise from Allah – for Allah never breaks His promise – or do you attribute to Allah something about which you have no knowledge?” (Quran 2:80). Allah refutes their statement by asking if they have taken a covenant with Him that He will never break. Rather, what they say, about Allah, they have no knowledge of and they thus utter a lie about Him. “Those who earn evil and are encompassed by their sinfulness are the people of the Fire, and there will they abide” (Quran 2:81). These are the sins that a person commits without seeking repentance and correcting his ways. When the sins accumulate and the person does not stop committing evil, finally destruction takes over him. One need to seek forgiveness for the sins that he knows and those that he doesn’t know, forgiveness for the sins that are committed intentionally and those that are committed unintentionally.

       The misconceptions are always harmful and there will be nothing more dangerous for a new truth than an old misconception. These misconceptions have to be removed and that will only be possible through knowledge. And if we are genuinely looking forward to acquire knowledge, then unless and until we don’t change what is within us-we will never get it. And that something within us that has to be changed is our soul; the seat of knowledge. This soul will acquire knowledge through the perception of change which it will learn through reasoning or cognitive faculty. Thus this soul becomes the prime actor in the drama of life and all action is subject to the control of the Soul. If one is able to direct it wisely on the stage of life then nothing will stop it from ascending to the heavens but if one failed to do so, it will simply fall to the lowest of the low. This makes us the owner of our own free will, the creator of our own destiny. Our actions determine our future and we will be judged by the consequences of our actions (Abdulsalam, 2018). However, all our matters are arranged by Allah, we can’t carry out anything unless and until Allah enables us to do so and we can only fulfill our proposition according to His Will.

     It’s the death of the heart that keep us ignorant, but knowledge proves to be the receding mirage in an expanding desert of ignorance.  It’s the light that Allah places in the heart. The more we will know, the more we will believe, and the more we be worshipping Him, because it’s through this knowledge that we get to know the One Who has the infinite knowledge. And that’s the ultimate truth, and it’s this knowledge of truth that elevates those who seek knowledge for the sake of Allah. The best thing about the truth is that nothing destroys it, it remains and prevails, regardless of the lack of understanding, disbelief, or ignorance.

    We seldom ask ourselves that if we repent, will our Allah forgive us? It’s the other way round, it’s when Allah forgives us, only then we repent. If we r genuinely seeking repentance, then in fact it’s the repentance that is seeking us. A true repentance is not to cry about what we did, but it’s a change of mind, which changes the heart and ultimately the actions. This change involves turning from sins and a turning to Allah.

References

Holy Quran. Surah Al-Baqarah. 2: (verse 76-81)

Alyona, B., Tursun, G, Akmaral, M,  Saira, S. 2016. Spiritual understanding of human rights in muslim culture (The problem of “Ruh” – “Spirit”). Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 217: 712 – 718 

Harun Yahya, 2014. Quran and Science. Where religion meets science. Allah has power over everything.

Ibn al Uthaymin, 2016. Repentance. Purification of soul. Sunnah on line.com

Abdulsalam, 2018. Actions and Intentions (part 1 of 2): Purity of Intention in the Religious Realm. The religion of Islam. Islamreligion.com.

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