1. The unity of the Godhead in relationship with human destiny (6:1–3, 6,11, 46, 72–73, 94)
2. Faith cannot be arrived at by external means (6:7–9, 111,158)
3. Alignment with God is the real faith and source of success (6:12–19)
4. Denial of God is based on failure to understand reality (6:7, 20, 29, 31–32, 40–41, 46)
5. The Prophet is comforted for people’s apathy to his call (6:33–35, 56–58, 104)
6. Unity in the created world (6:38)
7. The mission of the Prophet defined (6:48–50)
8. God has intimate knowledge of the universe He created (6:59–60, 95–99)
9. God will account for all that we do in our lives (6:60–62)
10. God is ever powerful and challenges us to make the right choices (6:65)
11. Choose your discourse properly and with deliberation (6:68–70)
12. Abraham’s search for God and truth (6:74–82)
13. Guidance and prophecy were given to many before Mohammad, a unified guidance to mankind (6:83–90, 92)
14. God has no children (6:100–101)
15. To God all is visible (6:102–103)
16. Respect for other religious practices (6:108)
17. God guides as He pleases (6:124–125)
18. Disbelief will be self-affirmed (6:130, 136)
19. Superstitious rituals and sacrifice are condemned (6:136–140, 143–144)
20. All human output and natural resources deserve sharing (6:141)
21. All assertions need to be verified and proven (6:143–144)
22. Prohibitions and values that really matter (6:151–153)
23. The challenge of the Torah, the Bible, and the Qur’an (6:154–156)
24. Sectarian divides condemned (6:159)
25. Good works are rewarded disproportionately more than evil works are requited (6:160)
26. The faith of Abraham is what one should strive for (6:161–164)
27. We are constantly being asked to make informed choices and act responsibly (6:164–165)
1. The unity of the Godhead in relationship with human destiny (6:1–3, 6,11, 46, 72–73, 94)
In these verses, one gets a glimpse of God—his Oneness as it manifests itself in the creation and the purposefulness of creation, especially of human beings. God is the Creator of the universe, a vast enterprise of billions of stars and planets constantly forming and norming in billions of clusters and constellations of stars, galaxies, nebulae, and other constructs that we attempt to organize the vast universe as we uncover more and more. Our own Milky Way galaxy, for example, is home to 400 billion stars, including our own sun and solar system, nearly 120,000 light-years across, an example of one galaxy.
Recent discoveries and scientific investigations will perhaps lead to earthlike planets where life like us is plausible and perhaps already exists. Our planet, Earth, is home to 6 billion human beings who undergo the constant cycle of birth and death while the earth goes through a cycle of day (light) and night (darkness) and seasonal variations, a cycle that also plays out in our lives in the form of joys and sorrows, success and failure, fear and hope, despair and aspirations. Every human being is given a term by God—a term to define a life span with a set of possibilities informed by knowledge we seek and shaped by choices we make. God is intimately aware of our conditions, individually and collectively.
We are bound at a physical level by His physical laws, which govern the universe, and by our covenant as conscious beings at a moral and spiritual level. God, using the earth as a vehicle, provides resources for our sustenance, gifts knowledge we seek, and provides inspiration to elevate our human existence. His ultimate gift is our innate alignment with Him, as we are created in His image, as described in the Bible and our human nature being the nature of God Himself, as described in the Qur’an. Our senses and our spiritual awareness and compass are gifts from God with accountability to use them properly and to suffer consequences for their misuse and negligence. The Day of Judgment that happens every day and every moment that we exist will also manifest in its full exposition when we all come back to God individually and collectively to account for our lifelong pursuits and bear responsibility for the consequential impact on our continued existence beyond our earthly life. As God advised the prophet: “Remind (people) with it (the Qur’an), lest a soul suffers from what it earns (or fails to earn).” (6:70)
Verse 94 is awe inspiring if you can imagine standing in front of God on the Day of Resurrection and remember what God told us already: “You have come back to Us (God) one by one, just as We created you in the first instance, and you have left behind all that We gave you [in your earthly life]. We also do not see your intermediaries with you now whom you had asserted to be partners with God for your sake. Now the bond that you imagined with your intermediaries has been lost, and such relationships have failed you.” (6:94)
2. Faith cannot be arrived at by external means (6:7–9, 111, 158)
Throughout history some people who are not inclined to believe in God—or, for that matter, in any factual matter (a poignant example is global warming for our generation)—will find all kinds of excuse and false narratives to stay affixed to their positions. In these verses God refers to several such demands that people asked their prophet regarding God—perhaps God should send a piece of paper from Heaven that people can touch with their hands, or an Angel should come down, or dead people should come alive and tell their stories, or some other sign should come directly from God—or worse, God Himself should come down to them on this earth.
In some sense, all of these things have already happened if we only seek knowledge, have humility, and genuinely aspire to know who we are and where we come from. The books (pages) of divine guidance are already in everyone’s hands in the form of the Torah, the Bible, the Qur’an, and other sources of divine knowledge and guidance that came to other generations and communities around the globe. Angels have appeared to Mohammad, to Abraham, to Moses’s mother, and to Mary, among other human beings, to convey directly, for example, God’s inspiration to receive the guidance of the Qur’an (Mohammad), to face the trial of causing death to his own son (Abraham), to follow God’s directive to protect Moses (mother of Moses), to face the societal challenge of giving birth to Jesus (Mary, mother of Jesus). As we travel around the earth and explore the universe, the past (the dead, old relics, stones, fossils, retreating stars) is in constant communication with us, eager to tell us our origin and open up a window to reflect on our existence and purpose. God is ever present in our lives as the sun rises each day, bright days come after the lonely nights, a child is conceived in the mother’s womb, a person goes through the cycle of life just like another animal or plant, and a persistent agitation is in our consciousness to seek God and find meaning in our common humanity.
But such evidence is not sufficient to make someone accept God and the realities of life unless that person genuinely aspires to know God and himself and seek knowledge and deeply reflects on human nature and the human condition and the natural world we live in. As the Prophet of Islam once said, to know God, you need to know yourself. Also, some of our human demands go contrary to established norms. As God says, if He were to send an Angel as a prophet, He would make him in the form of a human, and then we would not know the difference. And if God were to appear as He will on the Day of Judgment, when all human beings will gather to find the results of their lifelong pursuits, there would be no going back. Belief on that day in God and in our humanity will have no benefit to those who misused their lifelong opportunities and did harm to the world, be it to other humans or to the natural world.
3. Alignment with God is the real faith and source of success (6:12–19)
God makes known certain realities of this universe in various scriptures, through prophets and the continuous evolution of human consciousness as manifested in human knowledge and the sciences. God is the Creator of this universe and the planet Earth that we inhabit. He Himself placed mercy at the core of creation—a concept that permeates all our human experiences, be it the extraordinary love and care a mother (a human mother or an animal mother) exhibits toward her child; how the earth takes care of and preserves all its creatures and natural resources in an awe-inspiring way—a small mustard seed that germinates in its soil and then comes out as a seedling to be nurtured by air, rain, and the sun; the river that starts as vapor over ocean and land, is carried by wind, drops on top of mountains into gushing streams that collect to form rivers, and then travels back to the ocean while serving human habitation and nature along the way on a scale that only God can create.
God makes known that we all will be gathered back to him on Resurrection Day, about which there should be no doubt, and nobody can escape from it. God confines and guides us through covenants and natural laws like nobody can, and He distributes knowledge and choices to human beings like to no other creatures.
God feeds everyone, and He does not need to be fed, thereby establishing our total dependence on him. All that dwells either during the day or during the night is known to him. Given this simple framework, it behooves each one of us to acknowledge God and to align ourselves with Him as He guides us through the Qur’an and other books of scriptures and evolving human understanding of our own existence and the world around us, such knowledge itself being a gift from God, sometimes given freely as He wills and at other times as a direct reward to human aspirations and endeavors.
It is up to us to acknowledge God and be true to our human nature, which is a reflection of God’s nature and the natural world. To be misaligned with God is to deny such reality and to disturb nature of humanity and the balance in the natural world. Polytheism is also considered a form of gross misalignment as well as atheism, since these negate the very foundation on which creation is established—a singular source of creation and human purpose, without which our society will continue to disintegrate into chaos and marginalization of human spirit. Simple belief in God is not enough, as many religious leaders and religious rituals would lead us to accept; a deliberate commitment to align with our human nature is essential, knowing full well that such natural alignment brings us to God in this life and on Resurrection Day.
4. Denial of God is based on failure to understand reality (6:7, 20, 29, 31–32, 40–41, 46)
Every generation must reflect on its current condition, priorities, and lessons learned from previous generations and make God’s guidance relevant to their generation and the generations to come. Material abundance does not guarantee success, and negligence of the human spirit as it aspires to connect to its Creator and to one another will lead to the eventual demise of civilizations and ideologies, no matter how vigorous it might seem at any given time.
Many human beings are prone to considering this life to be the end-all and find no meaningful purpose other than to maximize personal creature comfort and amass materials gains, whereas God reminds us that this life is an opportunity to demonstrate our human potential and establish our natural connection to God and His grace. Such purpose is achieved not through a “savior,” as some of my Christian friends might feel, or through an alliance to a tribal code of ethics, as some of my Jewish friends might claim. I believe that the teachings of Jesus are fundamentally more important than who Jesus was and that Moses was visited by God to honor him and humanity as opposed one human tribe, even though it was a great honor for the descendants of Jacob and Joseph to have such close proximity to God through Moses, as it validates God’s deep connection to people in need and in despair. Mohammad has been declared as a “mercy” to humanity, though he appeared among the pagan Arabs, and he continued to build on the teachings of Moses and Jesus and did not claim to bring a new faith but provided a narrative that brings all prophetic teachings together into a “way of life” labeled as striving for peace (Islam) and a human condition aligned with God and goodness (muslim), independent of where one lives, what tribe or race one belongs to, and what gender one was born into.
In the face of a life-threating accident or overwhelming turmoil in our lives, we all instinctively turn to God, but on normal days prior to or after such events, some of us tend to gravitate to conditions that assume self-sufficiency and marginalize God’s role in our lives. We consider life as sport and enjoyment as long as it lasts while ignoring its present and eventual purpose to be responsive to our human instinct and innate nature of goodness and purposefulness, always striving to be on the side of God and not pulling God to our side. As God challenges us in this last verse (46), if He were to take away our sight, our hearing, and our heart (our ability to comprehend and connect), how could we ever get them back and be human again? Despite our endowment to be the best of God’s creation, we run the risk of becoming the worst as current world events, unfortunately, bring us to the edge of a cliff. Let’s be reminded of God warning: “We have created human beings with the best of attributes and capabilities, but then [We let] some of them render themselves to the lowest of the low, except those who believe [in God and in their humanity] and do good.” (“The Fig,” 95:4–6).
5. The Prophet is comforted for people’s apathy to his call (6:33–35, 56–58, 104)
As we know from stories of Jesus, Moses, and other prophets, the tenure of a prophet is not an easy one. Not only did they have to deal with the awesomeness of God’s directives and communication and encounter Him directly or through the Angels or through inspirations that they were unfamiliar with, they had to go through internal debates and reconciliation to comprehend and convince themselves of the message, and finally, they had to persuade their contemporary communities to believe in the message while the responses from their communities were not the most kind in most cases. As God says in the Qur’an, there is never a prophet to whom God does not assign adversaries.
The Qur’an is full of such stories of previous prophets to acquaint the Prophet Mohammad with what to expect and to adequately prepare him for the tasks ahead. Mohammad was in pain to see the denials from his society, and God comforted him by saying that their denial was not about him but about the message of God and reminded him that prophets before him were similarly denied and insulted. God even challenged the Prophet that if he was overly grieved by his lack of success and wanted to speed up the process, perhaps he should go on his own and look for signs that he felt could possibly make his tasks easier and reminded him that if God had willed, all would have come to His guidance. But he was leaving it up to the people to convince themselves though knowledge and conscious deliberation. Therefore, he should not be in personal turmoil for other’s ignorance.
God decreed certain terms and covenants with his creation that would be carried out, and no one can advance or delay those, just as one cannot delay or advance one’s death, for example. God implies in the Qur’an that such terms are not only set for each individual human being, but also for communities and nations, all other creations on this planet, and for the planet Earth itself as part of the larger universe. Therefore, the prophet should not feel any responsibility or need to speed up results but should focus on carrying out his mission the best he can and leave the results to God.
It is not up to the prophet to make us believe; rather, each of us has to come to that conclusion himself or herself by paying attention to God’s message and our internal reflections on the realities of this world. The Prophet advises that one has a choice and will be responsible for the choices that one makes, and his job is to convey and explain as further corroborated in the following verse: “Insightful evidence has already arrived from your Sustainer; therefore, whoever can envision it, it is for his own good, and who remains blind to it will have its consequence. [Tell them]: I [Mohammad] am not responsible for your conduct!” (6:104)
6. Unity in the created world (6:38)
We understand from our own experience as human beings that we are created as social beings and that our happiness, our sense of purpose, our progress as a human society, and our understanding of the world around us depend on our ability to bring to bear a collective purpose and shared sense of responsibility. Human beings are uniquely equipped, through the gifts of godly attributes such as seeking knowledge and exercising free will, to create a world that can either fulfill the promise of peace and goodness as God intended and delegated to us, or we can create a world of chaos, mutual destruction, and self-service, as Angels feared, and we can see this being played out in our own generation around the world. Such self-evident truths are a constant reminder for us to reflect on the sense of unity in our own society that we can create or shatter and to seek further corroboration from the world around us.
In this verse, God makes us aware of the creative truth that by itself is not necessarily obvious, but through science and observation, we are beginning to appreciate this truth and benefit from such understanding by being better prepared to preserve the world and bring technological innovation and scientific discoveries that could accelerate positive human development, assuming we are genuinely inclined and feel responsible to do so. This verse also seem to imply that all creatures will go back to God on resurrection, not just humans but God will call to account for human conduct and behavior since we were gifted with informed choices and freedom to act while the rest of the creation is subject to natural laws and instinctive (programmatic) behaviors without free will.
Even our solar system exists and can sustain life as a unit and not by individual planets or moons. The emergence and sustenance of life on earth is a function of the sun’s and earth’s relative positions, the earth’s rotations around the sun and around its own axis, and the unique coupling between the moon and the earth. We are yet to fully comprehend the benefits and the needs of the other planets in our solar system—perhaps to show us what the earth might eventually become as its term, set by God, comes to fruition and perhaps how they these planets could provide additional resources and accommodations to prolong our human existence. It is only by recognizing our own predisposition to community building and finding common purposes, as exhibited in nature as well as in the natural world, as the handiwork of God and as proof to his purpose and plan, that we can reinvigorate our commitment to collective well-being and reaching our common destiny of peaceful coexistence and alignment with the Creator.
7. The mission of the Prophet defined (6:48–50)
God made a promise to Adam and Eve and hence to humanity that He would send guidance on earth to continue to reinforce what had already been built into our souls, which have all the attributes of God and goodness. This was a commitment made to reassure Adam and Eve in the face of an open declaration by the Devil that he will do all he can to derail humanity from alignment with God and peaceful coexistence among themselves.
But God is also committed to allowing human beings to make free choices as He Himself has, and He has made provisions for such freedom in our lives on this planet. In exchange, He will also hold us accountable for choices that we make. This causal relationship is no different from what we see in physics—for example, for every action (e.g., force applied), there is an equal and opposite reaction. In the human civic and spiritual domains, an act of goodness tends to create one or more act of goodness, as we are driven by inspirations, natural alignment to goodness, and, yes, also herd mentality, being creatures of a social environment. Similarly, an evil act driven by greed, power, lust, impatience, and disregard for human nature and aided by the Devil can produce widespread evils if not checked by our countervailing goodness aided God’s guidance.
Prophets who are human themselves and are inspired by God indirectly or directly through the presence of Angels and God’s word are commissioned to advise and caution—advise to seek alignment with God and a peaceful coexistence with fellow humans and the natural world, and caution against the consequences that naturally follow if such advice is not given credence and adhered to. The prophets’ mission is to be the earthly guide for God among humans while respecting the divine freedom bestowed on each one of us to make his or her life choices.
While they are privileged beings with an endowment from God of superior intellect, insight, inspiration, personal charisma, and communication from God, they are still humans with limited resources and ability to anticipate future events and outcomes, and, as the prophet says, I am not an Angel and only follow what God reveals to me. Such a construct demands that each one of us be faithful to what we see and what we learn and not to be blinded by other transient priorities and carnal impulses over our physical purity and spiritual growth. God ends the verse (6:50) with a rhetorical question: How come you do not reflect on such matters for your own good?
8. God has intimate knowledge of the universe He created (6:59–60, 95–99)
The Qur’an, unlike any other earlier scripture, provides descriptions and accounts of an intimate relationship of God with the created world in a way that is awesomely inspiring and at the same time makes us aware of our own accountability and responsibility as human beings. God talks about the treasure of natural resources that is unknown and unseen in the universe and on this earth, and all that is on the land and in the sea is known to Him, and He makes it known to mankind and to the created world as He wills. The notion that even a leaf that falls from a tree and all organic materials, dry or green, are recorded with precision and care is a testimony of God’s awareness and involvement in the world that we live in. The evolution of human knowledge, science, and technology continues to open our own capabilities to get a window of God’s creation and the creative power that this generation has been blessed with.
On a spiritual level, God talks about our human souls departing us during our night’s sleep, and He returns them at the beginning of the day so that we can rise and continue another day to earn a living and fulfill our terms of life. At the end of our term, we go back to God so that He can inform us about our lives and our performance as human beings.
He draws attention to our creation from a single being, Adam, and provides us safety and security on the planet Earth in a pattern similar to how a seed brings out life to a plant or a tree. He makes us ponder the role that the sun and the moon play to bring day and night and measures our sense of time and passage in life and how the distant stars provide guidance to our travel on this earth as well as in space. He draws attention to how vegetation becomes dense from small seedlings and how buds turn into flowers and then fruits with gradual ripening of an immense variety in size, taste, color, and fragrance, all to benefit and delight the world that we are part of and depend on for our survival and physical and spiritual growth.
He points out these facts about us and our natural world to make us think about ourselves and our world, so that we will be thoughtful and thankful, inspired to seek knowledge and understanding, and gain confidence in our being and our innate connection to the Creator and the created world. He then wonders why some of us turn away from such inspiration, guidance, and responsibilities. The natural world and our own lives comprise another scripture just like the Qur’an to observe, learn from, and emulate in our lives. Those of us who do not see, hear, and smell the world and do not reflect on its construction, inner workings, and mutual dependencies in addition to God’s guidance are the real unfortunate ones who may pass a life of creature comfort and enjoyment but have no real purposefulness and connection with the divine. On top of that, when we consider all the evils that we have perpetrated in this beautiful world with total disregard for safety, dignity, and the basic needs of all human beings, it is a shocking illustration of our lack of thoughtfulness and purposefulness in the face of constant reminders from God and our own conscience.
9. God will account for all that we do in our lives (6:60–62)
From the moment we are born to the moment we die, God is aware of what we do, how we do it, and what intent or motivation drives us to do what we do or become what we become. God makes us aware in these verses that our soul, which is the permanent part of our existence and which is built in the nature of God (see 30:30), is always under God’s care whether we are awake or asleep, as guardian Angels (hafazatan—keepers) are assigned to each one of us. Prophetic traditions tell us that there are also record-keeper Angels (kiraman katibin—honorable writers, see 82:10-11) who sit on our two shoulders and record all that we do—good as well as bad.
Accountability is fundamental to human existence. Societal orders and our personal and communal well-being are intimately aligned with our sense of accountability whether we are taking care of own family, working at our workplace, interacting with people in the public square or in our neighborhood, or fighting on the battleground. Some form of accountability is instinctive and natural, such as parents taking care of children—all creatures are drawn to such activities as an innate part of our creation and without exception. Serving others; earning a living by providing products and services; taking care of those who are less fortunate; striving for justice and human dignity; creating civil society; ensuring democratic means to manage our societies, our politics, and our economic means; pursing knowledge and truth, and so on require intentionality and a deliberate preparation and continuity of motivation that varies from people to people, from society to society, and from generation to generation.
As these verses imply, the cycle of life and death is as certain as the alteration of day and night, and God agents—Angels—are unfailing in carrying out their duty to serve humans and bring our death so that we can then go back to God, Who is the best of judges and most effective in taking account of our lives. As the Qur’an speaks in chapter 99: “On that day [Day of Judgment], people will come forth [out of their graves] alone so that the results of their lifelong pursuits can be shown to them. Then he will see even an atom’s weight of good work [he has done], and he will see even an atom’s weight of evil work [he has done].” (99:6–8). Similarly, in chapter 36: “Surely, We [God] bring life back to those who are dead; We record what they do and their whereabouts [footprints]; all matters are meticulously documented [nothing is left out].” (36:12)
Throughout the Qur’an, God repeats the message of accountability that we must have toward God and toward ourselves, and only with a sense of responsibility (taqwa) can we discharge such obligations and commitments. This is another reason why the Qur’an says in 2:2 that it can serve as a guide only for those faithful who are, first and foremost, responsible (have taqwa – Muttaquin) human beings.
10. God is ever powerful and challenges us to make the right choices (6:65)
This verse relates to events and outcomes that we have all witnessed, yet perhaps we do not reflect on their implications. Natural disasters and man-made disasters have accelerated to an unprecedented level in the twenty-first century. Frequent flooding and tornadoes; severe lightning and storms; tsunamis; earthquakes; contamination of water; soil, and air; and gigantic sinkholes that swallow up houses and street blocks have become daily occurrences all over the world that were noticed only periodically even a generation ago. God’s ability to force us to face the consequences of our own actions through natural disasters and man-made disasters is something any person who reflects on the natural order of things can attest to. Scientific discoveries and analysis force us to confront the causes of some of these calamities so that we can reflect on how we are responsible for some of them with our negligence and misplaced priorities in the way we power our industrial complex, manage our transportation, and influence our consumption of resources.
On another front, there is an even more difficult situation that is emerging, and that is the overall mental and spiritual health of human societies. According to a study by the World Health Organization (WHO), mental health will be the number-one health issue in the coming decades. Large-scale man-made refugee problems due to injustice and oppression by regimes, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction by the leading members of UN Security Council, serious addiction in prescription drugs perpetuated by pharmaceutical companies and modern medical establishments, the rise of self-serving party politics that give precedence to the hunger for power and disregard human and societal interests, the rise of far-right political establishments that marginalize and demonize minorities and people of other faiths and races, and large-scale apathy to faith in God in favor of secular thinking have been causing havoc on human mental and spiritual well-being, leading to an overall degradation of quality of life, physically, mentally, and spiritually, all over the world and in all races, ethnicities, and faith groups. No group is immune from the man-made onslaught of analysis paralysis, serious disrespect of human beings and human consciousness, uncontrolled exploitation of natural resources, and misplaced priorities in energy production and consumption, to give few examples.
God in this single verse draws attention to conditions where we are thrown into confusion about ourselves and how our mutual enmity leads to violence and disharmony among human beings, a species that has been endowed with the highest moral and ethical standard by God Himself. He also reminds us that despite such failure, we need to continue to reflect, correct, and persevere—a human obligation for each generation in every society.
11. Choose your discourse properly and with deliberation (6:68–70)
The Prophet, and by implication all of us, is reminds us that we all need to pay attention to our discourse among ourselves. Such discourse should be meaningful, purposeful, and relevant to our lives, our living, our well-being, and our spiritual growth. It cannot be only about rituals on one hand, which many conservatives and fundamentalists want to have, and on the other hand, it cannot be only about superficial enjoyment of life without any regard to values, principles, and accountability. Many of us are thoughtful and professional people who aspire to take our faith seriously but are unwilling to engage in deliberate and purposeful dialogue among ourselves and to engage the larger community within our own faith and across all faiths to develop shared views, common purpose, and support of one another for greater human dignity and progress.
As we can see from such verses, guidance in the Qur’an is much more holistic and touches on varied aspects of life—even how to conduct our discussions and discourse than the previous scriptures. We need to take the guidance of the Qur’an not only to perfect faith elements and rituals which are part of a well-crafted training regimen to build self-awareness, develop better discipline and establish personal relationship with God but also to engage our time, energy and knowledge in the most intelligent, productive and efficient way to push us on a path of higher human potential, not only for us as individuals but for all of us as communities and a societies.
12. Abraham’s search for God and truth (6:74–82)
Abraham, being a central figure among Jews, Christians, and Muslims, takes a prominent position in many of the narratives of the Qur’an. These narratives give us a glimpse of his aspiration for faith and confidence in God, the Creator of the universe; his attempt to sacrifice his son (Isaac or Ishmael, depending on whether you’re reading the Bible or the Qur’an) to demonstrate his obedience to God; his discourse with his own tribe, including his father and the priests of the time, questioning their idolatry and superstition; his quest to find God by observing the natural world and his own consciousness regarding what rings true versus false regarding deities; and his building of the Kabah, the ancient place of worship that not only survives till today but has become the central part of the Islamic faith and ritual where millions of faithful visit each year and commemorate the memories of him, his son Ishmael, and his wife, Hagar. Hajj (annual pilgrimage), one of the five pillars of faith in Islam brings people from all corners of the earth in a unique assembly of humanity, breaking the barriers of race, sect, gender, wealth, and worldly position.
These verses narrate his inquisitive and conscious mind, which not only questioned the existing faith and practices of his generation but went out on a hunt to find the truth about God and the human condition. It is the same hunt that drove Moses, Jesus, and Mohammad to question their generations, to reinterpret the social order in Pharaonic times, reinvigorate the laws of Moses, remove lawless and injustice in Arabian tribes and reignite the passion and truth that Abraham felt when he understood Who God is and what it means to align oneself with God.
Over time, all faith groups, including Muslims, become overly attached to rituals and practices and faith elements and begin to deviate from the real teachings that are in the Torah, the Bible, and the Qur’an. They begin to subscribe to a self-fulfilling and comforting notion that being aligned with one’s ethnic group and being God’s chosen people or claiming Jesus as the savior (as opposed to God and Jesus’s teachings), prioritizing on five Islamic rituals rather than establishing truth and justice will uplift the human race or improve the human condition. Unless we can really understand the drives, motivations, and mandates of Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Mohammad, those of us who claim to be their followers will fall short, and our world will continue to suffer from human indignity, extreme poverty, and political and social oppression, which have become commonplace in many parts of the world, including the developed world. Let’s be reminded: “Those who believe in God and do not taint their faith with evils of inequity will have security and are properly guided.” (6:82)
13. Guidance and prophecy were given to many before Mohammad, a unified guidance to mankind (6:83–90, 92)
These verses summarize, with specific names of prophets who are also mentioned in the Bible and the Torah, that they all belonged to God, received guidance from the same God, and were committed to believe in the same God. It first mentions Abraham, whom God inspired with consciousness and thoughtful reasoning to refute his community’s idolatry and practices that were contrary to reality and human dignity. Abraham is followed by Isaac, Jacob, and Noah (who came before Abraham), and some of their descendants who were given guidance by God. It then mentions that David, Solomon, Job, Joseph, Moses, and Aaron were rewarded for their good work. The list then moves on to Zacharias, John, Jesus, and Elias—each was righteous in the eyes of God. Finally, the list moves on to Ishmael (the firstborn of Abraham), Elisha, Jonah, and Lot (contemporary of Abraham)—they were privileged to excel in their communities.
The Qur’an further corroborates that even the parents of these prophets and some of their descendants and their peers (brethren) were also chosen and guided to the right way. These are some examples of people who were given books containing guidance, authority from God to propagate such guidance among people, and prophecy to predict and caution against the consequences of failure to follow the guidance and to apply it in their contemporary society in the best possible manners. In exchange, these prophets asked nothing of people that might benefit them except that people continue to serve these reminders to successive generations. Yet in their name, the imams, the clerics, and the so-called religious scholars demand payment for such services and became subservient to others by accepting salaries in exchange for calling people to God—a construct that is contrary to prophetic teachings and traditions.
This sequence of verses culminates with the idea that the Qur’an is a blessed Book that confirms all other books that came before it (e.g. the Bible and the Torah, among others) with the sole purpose of reminding and cautioning people in the town it was revealed (Makkah) and to all towns and nations on this globe.
14. God has no children (6:100–101)
In these two verses (among many others in the Qur’an), God simply refutes any notion that God could have children in the way that human beings have children. And for anyone to assign to himself or to others a special relationship to God by ascribing some parent-child relationship with God, God reminds people that He has no mates and has no children. On the contrary, as the Creator of all things, all belongs to Him in a deeper and more intimate way than even a mate or an offspring could, and He oversees everything without the need for assistance or advocacy from any partners or relations in His divine purview.
But the notion of agency, where human beings in general and prophets in particular are given the representative authority to guide and rule themselves in accordance with God’s guidance and human intellect and free will, is very different from the false assumption that someone (a false deity) or some creation of God (Jinns or spirits, as claimed by some) have a son or daughter relationship to God and as such call for human allegiance to them in preference to or in addition to God. Surah Al-Ikhlas (Chapter 112), which is one of the earliest revelations, affirms very early on that God was neither born from anyone nor has given birth to anyone and that there is nothing in our universe comparable to Him.
15. To God all is visible (6:102–103)
The first verse confirms and reiterates the constant truth about God being the only deity in this universe Who is worthy of worship and devotion. Not only He is the Creator, He is also in constant charge of His creations, meaning that their survival and prosperity and the working of this world require His grace and attention, and He is able to do so without any fatigue or need for respite (see 2:255). Our physical bodies, efforts to earning a living, nurturing a seed to germinate, keeping our rivers clean, and so on require our constant attention and deliberation with knowledge and practice. At another level, none of this is possible without the natural laws that God laid out, evolutionary forces He put into motion, and a constant tendency in the natural world, including humans, to maintain its pristine state. My wife and I are thrilled to be getting a granddaughter in a few months as I write this book, and I am sure our daughter-in-law is doing all she can to stay healthy, eat right, and stay safe to give the baby a safe haven in her womb. Yet the growth and well-being of the baby is very much in the hands of God, who creates, nurtures, and matures each and every one of us as He wills and according to measures and terms that His infinite capacity and wisdom has laid out for each one of us till death and beyond.
Understanding who we are and what this world is all about is very much a physical act as well as a spiritual act. Our senses, in the form of sight, hearing, smell, touch, space, and time are physical, while our feeling, consciousness, cognition, and aspirations beyond space and time are spiritual. Both of these acts are subject to practice and intense training to harness greater efficacy and dimensions and more so subject to God’s will as He informs and manifests Himself and the world to us (see again 2:255). We are subject to tools and technologies that can only see and perhaps comprehend us and part of world that we live in. And what we create as our vision (a proxy for all of our senses and capabilities) is limited, while God’s vision encompasses all of His creation, and He has declared Himself as fully Aware (Al-A’leem, Al-Khabeer, Al-Raqeeb, Al- Shaheed). And such awareness involves a subtle understanding of the universe that is known only to Him and to his creations that He wishes to endow with it. In the Qur’an, God’s attribute of being Aware is accompanied by this additional attribute of being the Knower of Subtlety (Al-Lateef).
For example, in 22:63, He brings our attention to the formation of clouds, rain, and how the world around us turns green with vegetation as an example of that subtle knowledge and awareness that He possesses and over time conveys to humanity. In 31:16, He provides the story of Luqman, who advises his children that God’s awareness encompasses even a tiny particle (i.e., a mustard seed, as mentioned) in any part of the universe, while in 33:34, God advises the family of the Prophet Mohammad that guidance that comes to them through the Prophet has to be dissected and internalized with all if its nuances and subtleties. And finally, in 67:13–14, God declares that He knows the condition of the human heart, whether we express it and keep it a secret, as a show of His being aware of the condition of his creation. And how could it be otherwise that the Creator would be unaware of and unconcerned about His own creation?
16. Respect for other religious practices (6:108)
Mutual respect for one another’s faiths and the notion of religious plurality as a way to serve God and humanity is something that the Qur’an emphasizes time and again throughout its unfolding messages over twenty-three years, which resonates well with our human condition and aspiration. Verse 2:62 (explained in detail in volume 1) is very eloquent and definitive on religious diversity. So is verse 5:48 (explained in volume 2), which not only allows religious plurality but goes further to say that it was out of respect for human free will, as established and privileged by God, that God allows people to differ and have different sets of beliefs in God and different rituals as they see fit for themselves. Such differences should not be the cause for division and conflicts but an incentive to do good and prove one another’s worth to God, in the way our human institutions (e.g. business, social enterprises) allow us to compete while being true to the policies and visions of the institutions that we belong to and advance human conditions.
This verse (6:108) draws our attention to the fact that our human psyche is always attuned to our loved ones and our deities that we worship and that any slight to them affects us as a slight to ourselves. The Qur’an reminds us that we should be deferential to other deities of other faiths, even if we do not subscribe to such faith or accept such theology in light of our own faith, so that we do not incite disrespect to God, who is the only deity that created this universe and governs our lives. I see that fundamentalists from all religious faiths and the extreme elements from various faith groups exhibit disrespect to one another’s faiths as a routine part of their discourse, which needs to be strongly discouraged. Especially Muslims, who read the Qur’an and believe that it is the living guidance of God, should actively discourage any disrespect to other deities and to the people who subscribe to such faiths. Only by respecting others we can garner respect for ourselves and have a meaningful discourse about God, faith and life.
17. God guides as He pleases (6:124–125)
The guidance of God is given freely to each and every human being through our own human construct where we are created in the image of God, as the Bible says and as the Qur’an says (30:30) that our human nature is crafted in the nature of God Himself. As a result, we have a natural yearning to be with God and to be aligned with God. God mentions in the Qur’an that he brought together all the souls of the descendants of Adam and Eve (ref. 7:172) and asked them who their Creator was, and they all confirmed that God is the Creator and Sustainer of them. God then posits that this was done so that no children of Adam and Eve could ever come back and say to God that they were unaware of their origin.
Perhaps none of us has recollection of that event when God says: “Am I not your Creator Lord?” One way to understand that recollection is the fact that inside each one of us, without any exception, is a sense that there is a God Who is the cause of our existence and our universe, and this has been a constant reminder and desire of humanity as long as we can trace back our human history. Ideas of faith and religion may have been corrupted due to ignorance, superstition, self-indulgence, greed, and other human failings, but central to each faith is a constant desire to know who we are, what we are about, and who created us.
God advised Adam and Eve, on the occasion of their being assigned the agency of God (Khalifa) on this planet, to be mindful of God and to teach their children the guidance of God, which would come to each generation by direct communication and the inspiration of prophets and messengers, scriptures that would be given to provide continuity and permanence of such guidance, and inspired human beings who would continue to bear the torch of God’s guidance under a variety of human and social conditions, however difficult it might be.
One source of conflict between different faith groups is this sense of entitlement to guidance for them alone and to denigrate or deny that such guidance could come to other groups and societies as well and that these all come from the same God. When Abraham spoke of God and perfected his devotion to God, it was the same God that Moses spoke with, it was the same God Who made Jesus, a special creation without a father to further the laws of Moses and reshape the conversation on faith and humility, and it was the same God that Mohammad was inspired by with a universal message of mercy and human dignity for all of mankind. The emergence of clerics and religious scholars who have a vested interest in maintaining their hold on the masses have throughout the centuries continued to propagate the idea that theirs is the true faith and there is no other religion or expression of one’s faith in God. Yet the Qur’an says to the contrary in multiple contexts and occasions, as explained in the previous volume (2:62) and in this volume (5:48), that all the scriptures point to the same God, and our alignment should be based on sincere devotion, well-directed consciousness, understanding, and the shared goal of uplifting all of humanity as a community that aspires to be with God and of God.
Our conflicts, self-serving interests, and narrow interpretations of scriptures are products of our own ignorance, lack of humility, and misplaced priorities, which are unfaithful to our human origin, our sense of equality and human dignity, and our eventual return to God to give accountability for our lives and pursuits.
18. Disbelief will be self-affirmed (6:130, 136)
Denial and disbelief in God manifests in different ways—one is outright denial that God exists (atheists), and another is through polytheistic beliefs and customs (polytheism), where a creature or an object of creation of God is considered an equal, a partner, or a carrier of God’s divinity to an extent that these associate godheads are given devotion equal to God and sometimes even exceeding God, and where capabilities and powers are attributed to these entities that truly belong to God alone. Another form is present where God is marginalized and another entity (e.g., the Devil) or custom (e.g., cult) or tribal alliance or nationalism takes precedence over their lives, priorities, and belief systems.
The Qur’an refutes some of these forms of disbelief and denials in the context of the seventh-century Arabian society where the Qur’an was gradually revealed over twenty-three years to the Prophet Mohammad and his faithful followers. Some of these disbeliefs and denials are prevalent in various forms in our contemporary societies as well, either in the mainstream or on the fringes of society. The Qur’an asserts that all these beliefs or reliance on other deities, entities, and belief systems will eventually fail during the lifetimes of their followers, and, on the day of final judgment, when God will question such beliefs, these followers will recognize the fallacy of their faith, and these so-called entities, who or which were presumed to possess divine powers and attributes, will fail to respond or present themselves as such.
Human beings are given every opportunity in life to recognize these realities and to abandon such beliefs and reliance in favor of God, who is the ultimate reality. Through scriptures and our human endowment of knowledge and free choices, we have to ascertain such realities and prove our commitment to enable justice, human dignity, and truth in our social norms and establishments.
19. Superstitious rituals and sacrifice are condemned (6:136–140, 143–144)
Throughout human history, people of various religious affiliations and people of no faith have constructed various acts, rituals, and superstitious supposition to control the human mind, restrict human freedom and dignity, falsify reality, and do things in the name of God when no such allowances have been made. In these few verses, God cites some examples prevalent in the Arabian society where the Prophet Mohammad was sent to start his mission and work as a prophet of God, in the same tradition that other prophets such as Moses and Jesus had done. Specific mentions are made to the following:
· Setting aside certain produce, fruits, animals, and sacrifices for God and for other deities, a practice common among the Hindus even today. This practice is also a reflection that divine powers are considered to be shared among God and the other deities.
· Superstitions and the falsification of God with other deities confuses people, leading them to make faith and religious practices devoid of meaning, in extreme cases causing undue harm and atrocities against other human beings (the ancient practice of human sacrifices) and animals (burning or sacrificing them to gods) and creating false rituals and practices in the name of God. A justification commonly used in the current counterterrorism measure of collateral damage, where innocent human beings are being killed, maimed, and harmed in large numbers, borders on false belief and false pretext, confusing judgment, and making things appear acceptable where no such moral basis exist.
· Arbitrary prohibition of what crop or animal is consumable and by whom to satisfy greed and self-interest and then justifying this in the name of God is another example of such abuse, superstition, and evil practices. In many of the shrines in the Indian subcontinent, for example, people are encouraged and sometimes forced to pay money, food, and other goods in the name of the dead or in the name of God, only for it to be consumed by the caretaker and the owners of such institutions. Whatever good is done is masked by the evils that they create, but too many people are willing to oblige in the name of faith and God.
As we study some of these aberrant behaviors in the name of God and other deities of ancient people, every generation has to look at its own conduct and remain vigilant against the justification of evils and false norms, some of which are staring at our face in the form of extreme poverty, immoral greed, income inequality, large-scale pollution, and the destruction of our environment and natural habitat for other creatures who inhabit this planet with us, widespread political corruption and atrocities against ordinary human beings, and the glorification of faithlessness in God directly in many communist countries and sometimes overtly in secular countries.
20. All human output and natural resources deserve sharing (6:141)
This verse lays out a foundational principle that the world has forgotten, and it is more relevant to counter the ever-widening income inequality in the world today. Things that we earn and secure for our own benefit, whether they come because of our own direct effort or indirectly through other means, whether personal, natural, business, or institutional, all being directed from God, is to be shared not just out of personal goodness and generosity but as a moral obligation as well as a natural construct of our world.
God is named here as the One Who produces orchards and gardens, whether they come about because of human effort or naturally in the wild, untended by any human. So is the case with fruit trees and plants, seeding that grows into giant trees bearing all kinds of fruits, and other amenities for human consumption and use. God’s guidance is that we partake of such gifts from God as these fruits ripen and become ready for consumption and also pay its due on the day of reaping and harvesting. They key concept here is to pay its due as soon as we have these in our possession.
One should be able to think through this simple but encompassing example and demonstration of what should be our mental state and moral stature when we earn and accept such gifts of God. In the world today, earning comes in all forms and from all sorts of endeavors—be it from farming that produces grain, fruits, vegetables, or fish, or from seeking bounties from nature such as a wide variety of edibles grown in forests, mineral resources from earth’s crust, fish and other resources from oceans and rivers, consumables manufactured in our industries and by businesses, or technology that improves the quality of life and communication, just to name a few.
In our world today, there is an unprecedented amount of greed and a sense of selfish personal entitlement that have sapped our conscience and moral well-being, the result being that we have created a vast ocean of poverty and impoverished societies with islands of extreme riches that have reached unsustainable proportions in a manner that is no different from our abuse of the natural world through pollution, carbon emissions, and reckless exploitation of minerals that subjects large groups of people to inhuman working conditions, pollutes the environment without any regard to our obligation to the natural world, and allows profiteering to the maximum without any regard to fair-market playbook.
We need to understand the implications of such a simple and elegant verse from the Qur’an and apply it diligently to all our human endeavors in any field that produces output that generates income (fruits) for each one of us, whether a laborer or the owner of an institution or a business, and pay its due when we reap the benefit, be it a paycheck, a harvest, an inventory that has built up, a transaction that has taken place, or a mouse click that earns an advertising dollar, when profit is realized at the end of the day, end of the month, or end of the year.
The key questions are, how should this due be defined and delivered, and for whose benefits, and to what obligation? A couple of thoughts come to mind for us to consider, deliberate, and use in the creation of ground rules, some of which could become the law of the land, if the majority opinion supports such a framework, inspired by our faith in God and our common aspiration to create a world where everyone has the opportunity and social support network to be what he or she wants to be:
· Taxation on such reaping is already a common practice all over the world, where society demands that every income earner pay a certain amount to a common treasury for the running of the country. This is based on income statements rather than balance sheets and applies to individuals as well as for-profit institutions, but with shortcomings that are becoming more apparent as we gain experience, such as the following:
o The income tax rate is a hotly debated issue, and in many advanced countries, governments rise or fall depending on how they enact policies to tax their citizens and businesses.
o In many countries, both developed and underdeveloped, the wealthy find too many ways to evade taxes, either through legal means by influencing tax policies, diligently taking advantage of many tax loopholes in ever increasingly complex tax laws, influencing lawmakers to keep those loopholes untouched, creating tax havens in various jurisdictions, and shifting or hiding income in nontransparent banking systems in different part of the world, or through outright disregard and bribery to avoid paying taxes.
· People of Islamic faith have the institution of zakat (asset-based social giving with annual dues of ~2.5% on net assets [as opposed to income]) for those who are wealthy; it is based on accumulated assets to date as opposed to the current year—in other words, it is based on balance sheets and not on income statements. Zakat has been historically applied to individuals; perhaps it is time to apply it to profit-making institutions as well and apply this collective resource strategically to improve the income potential and living conditions of the poor (education, empowerment, health, and infrastructure) as opposed to only consumables such as food and clothing. Here also, zakat as an institution has not given adequate attention and analysis to create a pool of resources across national boundaries for the benefit of poor people all over the world.
But the reaping analogy in the Qur’an seems to imply that this due (whatever we wish to call it) becomes payable at the time of harvest (an analogy would be a paycheck, or the monthly income statement for business) and to be taken from the top line rather than the bottom line—gross income rather than the net income. Perhaps we all do not agree on this interpretation, but it needs to be debated. How does this due relate to the above two items—tax and zakat? Is it already included in these items, or do we need to augment our current thoughts? Many Christian Catholics and Mormon Churches levy such reaping from their congregations to support their missions and activities—10 percent of income is the typical amount that I hear about. We can learn something from their experience to better understand what such due means in biblical and Qur’anic senses and contexts.
21. All assertions need to be verified and proven (6:143–144)
These verses challenge existing social customs or superstitious practices in the strongest terms: “Inform me (God and His prophet) with knowledge if you are truthful” and “Were you a witness when God instructed such practices?” It ends with this broad denunciation: “Who is more at fault than who forges lies in the name of God to lead people in error without proper knowledge and deliberation?”
Over time Muslims have developed additional social customs and practices as well as reverting back to old customs, a phenomenon that is part of our human psyche, unless we remain diligent, seek adequate knowledge and discussion, and continually question our lives, their purpose, and the social norm in which we live and operate.
Here are some examples of what continues to plague Muslim lives, especially in our recent history. I will put them in three broad categories—social, political, and religious, with two examples in each category:
· Several social customs are devaluing our human lives in Muslim societies, and they have no basis in the Qur’an or prophetic traditions; for example:
o Hijab for women: The notion of modesty and proper attire—which is common for both men and women—to cover our shame and not to present ourselves as sex objects, has been taken to the extreme, especially for women in some Muslim countries, while a trend has emerged in Western societies where women are expected to expose greater portions of their bodies as a social norm. With respect to women’s dress among the Muslims, it is an established fact that the majority of Muslim women do not subscribe to hijab except in Middle Eastern countries, and many Muslim women who wear hijab in the West are from that part of the world or are being influenced by them in their conservative Muslim social circles. This is very much contrary to what the Qur’an teaches, and it is being imposed by authoritarian regimes or ignorant and arrogant imams and sheikhs in the name of Islam while Islam clearly declares: “There is no compulsion in the matter of faith and religion” (2:256).
o Lack of Education: While the very first revelation of the Qur’an makes reference to pen and knowledge: “Read in the name of your Creator, Who is generous, Who taught the use of pen and taught humanity what they did not know” (96:3–5), and while seeking knowledge has been the pioneering spirit of Muslim scholars, educators, and the ruling class for many centuries, there has been a dramatic decline in making education a priority for Muslim masses in most of the Muslim countries. Too many Muslim nations have come to regard their citizens as mouths to feed as opposed to brains and intellects to nurture and empower.
· On the political front, practices and policies that grossly violate the teachings of the Qur’an are on display in many Muslim countries, and two major examples will suffice, as follows:
o Authoritarian Regimes: A regime that is not a choice of the people and that does not operate in consultation with its citizens is contrary to Islamic traditions and principles. There are too many kings, sheikhs, and power-hungry leaders who steal elections and impose their undemocratic rule on people, and many times they use religion, nationalism, socialism, and other defunct ideas to justify their rule and continued exploitation of people. Most recently, two Muslim countries that were showing promise of sustained democracy and economic development, Turkey and Malaysia, overreached the abusive patterns of behaviors by their leaders and their supporters, even if some of their concerns might be legitimate. Here is a verse that all Muslims should understand and commit to: “God commands you to put trust [governance] on those who are worthy of it, and when you judge among people, judge with justice” (“Women,” 4:58).
o Political Corruption: This has become the major source of evil in too many Muslim countries, societies, and institutions where the rule of law is no longer the norm, national wealth is consumed by a few in power, corrupt businesses collude with politicians to usurp power and financial resources to the exclusion of average citizens, political freedom and human dignity are curtailed on all fronts of the citizens’ lives, and businesses are given freedom to pollute and usurp natural resources such as water, air, and soil for greed and profit for the few. Some of these leaders then pretend that they are doing good and deploy deceptive public relations campaigns to hide their evil doings. Let’s listen to what the Qur’an says about these people: “When they are told: Don’t make mischief in the land, they reply: We are doing good and maintain peace” (2:11).
· On the religious front, there has been a general decline of rigorous religious teaching around faith and goodness (as opposed to rituals) and an overreliance on so-called imams and sheikhs, contrary to the need and call for individual and collective responsibility (taqwa) and empowerment. Again, two examples will suffice:
o Madrassa education: Though it started out as a genuine attempt to educate the masses on faith and religion in the face of colonial onslaughts during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, over time it morphed into a rigid curriculum of rote memorization of the Qur’an and a rigid form of indoctrination by authoritarian regimes and compliant and ill-educated clerics to create a parallel system of education that deprives its students of any meaningful skills to earn a living and instead turns them into ritual practitioners of faith and, at worst, enforcers of such rituals and eventually turning some of them into outright proponents of authoritarianism and corruption of faith along the lines of ISIS, Al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and other fringe groups that are preying on innocent human beings and destabilizing societies in the name of Islam. It is also important to note that some of these fringe groups are also products of failed states, social and political oppression, and sustained exploitation of human beings by their domestic political forces and/or foreign intervention, and we can look at countries such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Somalia, Yemen, and Nigeria, where such evils have taken roots.
o Religious clerics: In Islamic thinking and tradition, the notion of laymen versus clergy is nonexistent, and the idea that one makes teaching faith and religion a form of income generation was foreign to the Prophet, his early companions, great statesmen, and all the great scholars of Islam, all of whom possessed skills and expertise far more comprehensive than simple rituals and pure religious learnings. For them, faith, social laws and norms, and scientific understanding of the world existed together as a harmonious source of knowledge from God, and they committed themselves to serving their community and improving human conditions, but they never made the preaching of religion a source of income for themselves. The corruption of faith by clerics is evident in the Muslim world and even in the Muslim communities in the West, where the community members, instead of stepping up to learn and educate themselves about their faith and combining it with their learning of social and physical sciences, submitted themselves to Madrassa-trained imams to take ownership of their religious practices. This needs to change, and too many young Muslim are walking away from mosques, Islamic centers, and Sunday Schools all over the world because of disillusionment over the teachings and behavior of such clerics.
22. Prohibitions and values that really matter (6:151–153)
These two verses are foundational in terms of real demarcations that one should not cross from faith, moral, ethical, and justice points of view. These verses are preceded by verses 145–146 and 150, in which the dietary restrictions are enumerated and we are asked to faithfully corroborate God’s injunction and not create our own without justification and proper deliberation. One could, conceivably, argue that the current verses are meant to elevate the conversation from the physical plane to the moral and spiritual planes. It is important to enumerate these below to organize in our mind the depth and comprehensive of these two verses.
Verse 151 starts with an invitation to come together with a desire to learn and understand and then to impress upon ourselves that with personal honesty and intellectual integrity we can understand and appreciate what God wants us to prioritize and fulfil in regard to prohibitions and guidance that really matter:
1. God should be worshipped and served alone, as He ought to be served without any divine associate—this statement of unity of Godhead goes after, for example, the Christian concept of Trinity, Jesus being elevated to a Godhead or son of God and, by the same token, after any form of polytheism, while negating atheism as a nonstarter.
2. The second injunction is about every human being’s obligation to be good to his or her parents and to take care of his or her children, while strongly condemning any belief or practice about infanticide, definitely pointing to the Arab custom of burying female children at the time when such revelations came or the ancient custom of sacrificing children to the Godhead or for fear of poverty, something that is ever present in all times, even in our current generation, where orphans or children are being abandoned by parents or abused in orphanages or institutions.
3. Any form of indecency or shamelessness, either physical or moral, is strongly prohibited, whether done in the open or in secret. This is a broad statement that includes nakedness, illicit sex, stealing, bribery, lying, corruption, humiliation, undue pride, hypocrisy, racism, injustice, misogyny, xenophobia, and other things that the human mind inherently and instinctively considers indecent, shameful, and unjust.
4. Any form of killing or murder is unjustifiable, be it homicide, terrorism, counterterrorism, suicide bombing, wartime excesses, collateral killing, ideological killing, political killing, female infanticide, ethnic cleansing, so-called honor killing, hostage taking and killing, lynching…and the list goes on. We human beings find reasons and means to kill one another like no other species on this planet, in gross violation of God’s commandment, in this verse as well as the prohibition articulated in the Ten Commandment by Moses, the unjustified killing condemned by Jesus, and the declarations made by the UN and other international, national, regional, community, and social institutions in every generation and certainly our current generation, where the killing of human beings is ever present and an ever-widening crisis as exemplified in Syria, Yemen, the Rakhine state of Myanmar, and by ISIS in Middle East and the persecution of minorities and political opponents in countries such as China, Russia and India, Philippine, to name a few.
5. The unlawful possession of another’s property, the worst cases being those who are vulnerable, such as orphans (as stated in this verse), children, minorities, women, the poor, or the less empowered. It is incumbent on us as individuals and as a society to protect, preserve, and make use of this property in the best possible way and in the best interest of such vulnerable owners and then hand it over to them once they are mature and able to assume control and proper usage. We need to have legal frameworks and just enforcement in place to help them manage their properties and ownership.
6. Next comes the requirement that in our dealings with others, in all matters such as social interaction, trade and commerce, leadership and citizenship, employees and business owners, we treat one another, at personal, societal, and institutional levels, in a fair and equitable manner, and every generation has to debate, discuss, and continuously build on previous generations.
7. Next comes our own discourse—in all matters of conversation, speeches, and policies, we must speak for truth and justice, even though it might go against us or our relatives, friends, or associates.
8. Last but not the least, God finally reminds us that we have a covenant with Him, our Creator and Cherisher, that we should fulfill, individually and collectively.
God reminds us that all this guidance and these injunctions are for our own benefit. He constantly reminds us of this through the scriptures and through our consciousness so that we not only understand their purpose but also become mindful. God further assures us in verse 152 that no individual is ever asked to do anything by God except that God also endows that person with the capability. There is no better reassurance one can get than this. I am also reminded of what Nelson Mandela once said: Everything is impossible until it is done.
23. The challenge of the Torah, the Bible, and the Qur’an (6:154–156)
The Qur’an is full of references to previous Books of Revelations, especially the most recent books claimed by Jews (the Torah) and Christians (the Bible) prior to the revelations of the Qur’an. In the Qur’an, one is reminded that the Qur’an is for all of humanity and in particular for those who take their lives and mission seriously and feel a strong responsibility (taqwa) besides faith in One God. In all its calls, it addresses people of faith, including Muslims, to continually make the point that faith and good works matter and labels do not.
Here is the first (verse 154) confirmation that the Torah was given to Moses to fulfill and deliver [God’s favor and blessings] on him [Moses, his followers, and generations to come] who wish to do good; in it things have been explained and made known to serve as a guidance and a source of God’s grace; and to further one’s belief that we all are destined to meet our Creator eventually.
Then reference is made to the current book [the Qur’an], which is revealed with full blessings from God so that people can follow it and become responsible human beings such that God’s mercy will follow. Muslims are made aware that the Qur’an was added to complete the sequel of God’ revelations in response to two key outcomes since the revelations of the Torah and the Bible:
· Since the Torah and the Bible were not widely available to the people outside the Jewish and Christian faith for reasons well documented, the Torah was claimed by followers of Moses as an exclusive blessing to the Children of Israel, and they claimed that they were the only ones who could explain and retain the right of who could be guided to God, while the Bible was repurposed to create the concepts of the Trinity and Jesus as the Savior, and it was put forth as the only acceptable faith to the exclusion of any other faith groups and faith elements. It took the papal institute almost two thousand years (1965) before issuing the notion, articulated in Nostra Aetate of religious plurality, a concept that God had articulated in the Qur’an in the seventh century to all of humanity who wish to believe in God and do good, irrespective of religious label (2:62)
· As a consequence, to the first reality on the ground among Jews and Christians, people outside these two communities, especially the Arabs who were very familiar with Jews and Christians, felt left out. They also were aware of their own lineage to Abraham and acted as the custodians of Kabah, a place of worship that dates back to Abraham and Ishmael, the firstborn of Abraham. In the contemporary world in India, with Hinduism and Buddhism and Chinese Confucius and Zen cultures, people were creating islands of religion and religion-based communities to the exclusion of other religions and sometimes exhibited open hostilities, and there was constant strife and theological discord, something that was clearly visible and propagated as a religious doctrine by the papal institute against the Jews and later on against the Muslims. There was yeaning among human hearts outside the prevailing religious norms and communities that God bring another revelation that would unite all and guide them better against the narrowness of religious doctrines perpetuated to date.
It is in this backdrop that the Qur’an came to confirm the truths in all revelations before it (2:4) and to affirm human freedom to choose one’s own religious affiliation (5:48) and to simplify and codify the universal notion of faith in God and in goodness as the true expression of faith, giving it a name, Islam (peace), a pungent, pure, and spiritual name that resonates with the human heart; labeling its followers simply as Muslims (those who are aligned with God and goodness); and removing any connotation of tribal (e.g., Judaism), personal (Christ, Buddha), geographic (Hinduism), or any other affiliation that would negate the universal nature of faith and our common humanity. It is in this vein that the Qur’an declares Abraham a Muslim (3:67, 2:128); the disciples of Jesus as Muslims (3:52, 5:111); Jacob, Joseph, and Moses as Muslims (2:133,10:84, 12:101); as well as all prophets and their followers as Muslims (3:84, 29:46).
We have much more work to do in this regard, and our American experiment, in which faith in God is codified in the Declaration of Independence and religious freedom and plurality are established as a norm in our constitution, gives hope to the world that even unity of faith and our common humanity is possible and is worth fighting for.
24. Sectarian divides condemned (6:159)
Apparent divisions among people is ever present, some of which are the natural order of things, such as race, ethnicity, language, and so on, as evolution and creative forces in nature move and shape our onward journey as a species as God intended and constructed the natural world. All creations, other than human beings, use such diversity as an instinctive response to create affinity and collaboration and to improve their survival and reproductive capacities. Human beings, on the other hand, endowed with increasing knowledge of the natural world and the freedom to make choices (sometimes freely but other times from coercion or bias or evil desires), are led to accentuate such diversity to create divisions among people all over the world.
Such divisions happen along the lines of race, national origin, ethnicity, religion, gender, wealth, social class, professional affiliation, and so on, limited only by the imagination of human beings and our propensity to accentuate such divisions for self-interest, greed, lust, and evil. Even though this verse speaks specifically about sectarian divides in the context of religious belief, one could argue that it pertains to all forms of human divisions that go against the notion of truth, human equality and dignity, and sense of justice.
What are some of these sectarian divides? Among the Muslims, the major divides are Shia and Sunni, even though there is no mention of the Shia or Sunni in the Qur’an or in any traditions of the prophet—it is an invention of the latter-day Muslims, but it happened very early in the emergence of Muslims as a new faith group along the lines of Jews and Christians. Among the Sunnis there are minor divides along the lines of schools of thought such as Hanafi, Maliki, and so on, whereas among the Shias there are innumerable permutations of practices, beliefs, and sectarian alliances such as Ishmaeli, Bori, Iranian brand, and many other shades that have not been fully cataloged or explored by academics.
Among the Christians, some of the major sectarian divides are the Catholics, Protestants, Methodists, Lutherans, Eastern Orthodox, Greek Orthodox, and Quakers, to name a few. Among the Jews, we have the Orthodox, Conservative, Reformed, European Jews, African Jews, and so on. Among the Hindus, there are defined caste systems that not only codify such divides but also perpetuate such caste-based divisions by birth as opposed to one’s belief or affinity.
The singular advice from God is to deny and refrain from such divisions and divisiveness and not to perpetuate or accentuate such divisions. Other advice from God is to maintain a middle-of-the-road understanding of faith and our actions and to avoid any form of extremism in any manner of belief, action, law, or practice. God encourages such a position, giving further incentive by saying in verse 160 that any good deed and position will be rewarded ten times, whereas an evil will be requited only to the extent that such evil deserves, thereby implying that we ought to demonstrate a propensity to unity ten times greater than to division.
One could also argue that Muslims, Christians, and Jews are themselves major sects of a common faith, a faith that the Qur’an codifies as the “faith of Abraham” and a faith to which both Jews and Christians lay claim. The majority of Muslims on the middle road like to think that Islam came to unify such division and continue to believe in a world where such unity is possible even though some of the fundamentalists, extremists, evangelical Christians and orthodox Jews would think and aspire otherwise.
25. Good works are rewarded disproportionately more than evil works are requited (6:160)
In this single verse, which has been repeated with similar examples in a number of other places in the Qur’an, God establishes a simple and pragmatic concept of reward and punishment and makes the commitment that no human being will be wronged by God even by a small margin. This is also a reminder for human beings and human societies of how to treat our citizens when good works dominate evil works and the sheer abundance of good works is brought about because we go out of our way to encourage, facilitate, and reward what is good while enacting a measured and commensurate deterrent and punishment against evil to minimize the presence of evil while not being judgmental or wrongful to those who engage in such evils.
The Qur’an declares that when someone brings about a good work, God (hence, by implication, society) will reward such a work tenfold. We need to be creative as to what tenfold means, recognizing that while God in His infinite capacity and resources will find ways to provide rewards in multiple ways, we in society should also seek and best leverage our resources to encourage, sustain, and multiply such good work. In the same vein, God declares that if someone brings about an evil work, his or her requital will be of similar measure, not any harsher than such evil work deserves when the overriding desire and intent is to stop the evil and not to be unjust to the individual.
In the United States, for example, too many people are put in jail for minor crimes such as shoplifting, while very little effort is being made to help them reform their behavior or find the underlying social dynamics that lead to such behavior. It is also the case that African Americans are disproportionately put in jail for such crimes, which points to biases and injustices that need to be corrected.
A tradition of the Prophet Mohammad corroborates this principle with a story that tells of interactions between God, the Angels, and humans. To bring accountability to human beings and to document their activities in this life, it has been mentioned a number of times (see, for example, 36:12) that God assigns Angels to watch over each human being and records all that he or she does. A pair of Angels is assigned to record keeping and follows a set of instructions that originated in this conversation between angel and God:
Angel to write good deeds: God, how would you like me to record the good works of a human being?
God: When a human being intends to do good, record it and assign one reward for such a good thought. When he or she follows through with the good intentions and accomplishes a good deed, record it and assign ten rewards.
Angel to write evil deeds: God, how would you like me to record the evil deeds of a human being?
God: If a person intends to do evil things or has an evil thought, do not write anything; perhaps he or she will not follow through. But if he or she does commit an evil deed, record it and assign one unit of punishment commensurate with the particular evil act committed.
One of God’s names is Knower of Subtlety (Al-Lateef), Who has a deep and nuanced understanding of His creation. The challenge of human civilization over the years has always been to accumulate such details; nuanced understanding; and appreciation of our own existence, purpose in life, and how we operate as individuals and as communities to improve our human condition and alignment with God.
26. The faith of Abraham is what one should strive for (6:161–164)
A lot has been written about Abraham in the Torah, the Bible, and the Qur’an, and there have been many references to Abraham in Islamic traditions and Jewish oral traditions, tying the three predominantly Abrahamic faith communities—Jews, Christians, and Muslims—in a tight spiritual bond. This bond has not always been a healthy one, though, since each of these faith groups would rather believe that Abraham belongs to them to the exclusion of others, while some of the secular people are bewildered by some of the epic stories around Abraham, such as attempting to sacrifice his son at the command of God. There is also discord as to which of Abraham’s sons was part of the story—Isaac or Ishmael—since the Jewish and Christian faiths draw their lineage back to Abraham through Isaac, and the Islamic faith draws it lineage to Abraham through Ishmael. This is further conflicted by the mention of Ishmael in the Qur’an as the son who was to be sacrificed, while the Bible mentions Isaac as the son to be sacrificed.
In any event, the Qur’an is very emphatic about the unity of faith in One God and upholds Abraham as the sublime symbol of a person’s of faith in God and as one who demonstrated a lifelong pursuit of goodness and fervently wished that future generations would continue his path of enlightenment and not fall back to his father’s generation’s idol worship and ignorance.
In these verses and several other places in the Qur’an (for example, 98:5), the right path and the right religion is defined in its core elements of devotion to God, being just and upright, and serving the people, and these core attributes are then intimately tied to the life and practices of Abraham and subsequent prophets such as Moses, Jesus, and Mohammad. These powerful sets of verses call for our inner consciousness to rise to the truth about God, about faith, and about our pursuits in life with a strong reminder that each soul will be burdened by its evils or enlightened by its goodness, and no soul will be made to account for others but for itself.
27. We are constantly being asked to make informed choices and act responsibly (6:164–165)
I have titled this volume Social Consciousness precisely because of an abundance of verses in the Qur’an that point to our individual and collective responsibility to be informed and make informed choices at every stage of life and at every fork in the road that life leads us to. It is not where we are but how we behave is more critical. Circumstances that we find ourselves in are not always in our control, but how we behave is in our control—if not at a physical level, then certainly at a conscious level. Hence the guidance from the Prophet Mohammad is very revealing. He said that if you face or witness an act of injustice, you should actively engage to stop such injustice. If you can’t do that, then you should speak up against such injustice. Even if you can’t do that, then at least you should despise such injustice, and that is the lowest manifestation of faith and goodness.
Each of us is endowed with specific core capabilities, knowledge, aspirations, resources, and experiences that make us unique, just like fingerprints or brain scans, and each day shapes and reshapes those core attributes in every generation as a natural construct from God. Some individuals have been gifted more than others, some nations excel over others, some positions in our businesses and institutions have more authority than others, but in each case, there is a corresponding obligation, responsibility, and choice ability that ultimately defines who we are and what our accomplishments will be. The Qur’an makes it explicit by stating that “God will try you with what He has blessed you with,” and He will take “prompt requital” as He pleases. God also provides an assurance that we all can take a note of and emulate in our lives, and that is that He is Ever Forgiving and Merciful to His creation.
In this instance, a conversation of Moses with his people is very instructional as related in the Qur’an (7:129). In one of the darkest days in the life of the Israelites, when Moses was present and they were still in the clutches of the Pharaoh, the people gathered around Moses and expressed their despair—Moses, we were oppressed before you, and we see no abatement in sight even when you are with us. One can only imagine the gathering and the raw sentiments that were expressed, which could mean one of two things: they were calming themselves to endure such conditions with faith in God and confidence in Moses, or they were bitterly complaining that Moses had done nothing to change their condition.
Moses on the other hand, while being fully aware of the current and extreme difficulties faced by his people, was more focused on the future of his people and human beings in general. He did not know how things would turn out and certainly had self-doubt at that moment, but he always had faith that God would deliver him and his people from the Pharaoh eventually. He made the following profound statement that would serve every generation of faithful - Jews, Christians, and Muslims alike. He said: Perhaps God will deliver you from your current difficulties, but then He will see how you behave in turn. This is the quintessential human challenge, and our current generation is failing in so many different dimensions, whether it is poverty, pollution, income inequality, partisan politics and political corruption, ethnic cleansing, or wide-scale dismantling of civil liberties in the name of counterterrorism or one-party rule, just to name a few of the problems of our generation that need to be reversed with a sense of urgency and dedication.