Translation
It is He [God] Who made the sun a bright star [diay’an] and the moon a light [nuran] and prescribed movements that help you determine the calculation of years (time) and shapes accountability (for lifetime of opportunities). God arranged such as your reality and made these as visible signs for those who wish to know. Indeed, in the alternations of the day and the night (earth’s rotations and movement) and all that God had created and placed in the universe and on this earth, are definitive manifestations (of His presence) for those people who wish to be mindful and act responsibly! 458
Those who deny the possibility of meeting Us [God] are content with the life of this world and feels no desire to look beyond—are the ones who pay no attention to such of Our signs and evidence. These are the ones who are destined to the abyss of despair [fire of Hell] as a consequence of what they pursued. (In contrast), those who attain faith and demonstrate good work, their Sustainer God will guide them through their faith to peace and plenty [rivers flowing beneath] in the Garden of Contentment [Heaven]. Their supplications therein will be: “O God, all glory is to You!” And they will offer greetings of peace (to one another). And their concluding word will be: “All praises belong to God, the Sustainer of the universe!” 459
Interpretation
458 One of the distinctiveness of the Qur’an from previous revelations is its constant call to pay attention to the natural world—the sun, the earth, the moon, their movements that cause repeated ebb and flow of the day and the night, the wind, the vegetation, the variety of living species, the vastness of the universe, et cetera. The natural world itself is a book of revelations that compliments God’s guidance that came through prophets. Through our human sciences, we continue to gain deeper physical and perhaps spiritual insights about our world and our existence. All of the created world, including us, is purposeful and not created in vain, as an atheist might claim, and those of us who have faith are asked repeatedly to reflect, accept our position relative to God, be mindful, and act responsibility as part of our lasting covenant with our Creator and hence to His creations as well.
459 It is important to understand the condition of those who are atheist and agnostic—those who either deny God totally, or their weak belief implies no active presence of God in this life, and the life after death is anything but irrelevant. Such conditions lead to denial of resurrection, a preoccupation and confinement to the current life; they rob them of any desire to look beyond spiritually, even if they endeavor to look beyond the earth in a physical sense. Though they imply a sense of security and contentment, their detachment from reality results in deep despair about life, gives rise to widespread mental health afflictions, creates a commercial enterprise that is motivated by profit but does not improve the human condition, creates an attitude of exploitation of natural resources rather than harnessing with thoughtfulness and a sense of accountability, and an obsession with destructive weaponization of the world. While we are focused on people lacking faith, we also need to note the sickness of those who loudly claim faith but lack the essence of it, such as ISIS, religious rights, and extremists throughout the world, in both the developed world as well as underdeveloped world, who ultimately behave similar to or even worse than those who deny God.
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REFLECTION
The natural world which sustains us and gives us means to understand the passage of time also reminds us each day the transient nature of our lives and our journey back to God, Who created us in the first place. Going back to God is also a reminder that we need to prepare for such a meeting, a meeting where we will have to give accounts as to our pursuits and our conducts in this life with respect to one another.
ACTION
Denial of God leads to a deep apathy to life and its purposefulness, though on the surface people in denial may seem to enjoy life, show deep inquisitiveness about the natural world, and try to give meaning to our passage of time. It seems it works only temporarily, when the going is good, but as difficulty is encountered, old age sets in, and personal tragedy affects them, their confidence in their denial of God is shattered, and they begin to question their existence and purposefulness. Such a fragile state of affairs is affecting our world as more and more people are getting into secular ways of life, a trend that we need to reverse, but with rational thinking, deeper devotion to God and His guidance, genuine searches and respect for truth, justice, and human dignity, and not superficial rituals and rigid interpretations of God’s guidance or blind adherence to previous generations.
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Key Arabic Terms
134. Diyan and Nuran—Source and reflection of light (10:5)