It takes wisdom to know how to translate the word of God into the world of human beings. Hard texts are a challenge to the religious imagination and to our capacity to engage in covenantal listening to God’s word as we seek to build a future that will honor the sacred legacy of the past. (pp. 218–219)
Jews, Christians and Muslims have been reading these stories for centuries. Is it conceivable that they do not mean what they have always been taken to mean? The twenty first century is summoning us to a new reading by asking us to take seriously not only our own perspective but also that of others. The world has changed. Relationships have gone global. Our destinies are interlinked. Christianity and Islam no longer rule over empires. The existence of the State of Israel means Jews are no longer homeless as they were in the age of the myth of Wandering Jews. For the first time in history, we can relate to one another as dignified equals. Now therefore is a time to listen, in the attentive silence of the troubled soul, to hear in the word of God for all time, the word of God for our time.” (pp. 103–104)
—Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Not in God’s Name: Confronting Religious Violence
This continued journey into the Qur’an (volumes 1 through 4 to date) is intended, as I have stated before, for two audiences: (1) for Muslims, especially the young and the restless who cannot seem to obtain reliable, discussion-oriented, context-driven, and actionable sources of information for understanding the essence of Islam in the contexts of their language, time, and environment, and (2) for others who want to increase their understanding of Islam and are willing to forge a global alliance of goodwill and common humanity. It is my firm belief that until we can bring the world of diverse faiths and ethnicities into a common framework, in which we can uncover our common grounds from our diversities and can celebrate and appreciate our shared values and cherished differences so that every person can exercise his or her free will and express his or her uniqueness, we will not succeed as a species, and we will not fulfill God’s will as His representatives on this earth.
I am truly fortunate to be able to complete this volume 4 as I continue the journey into the Qur’an and continue to evolve in my faith in God and to understand His message to humanity. I welcome you to this volume that covers chapters (surah) 8, 9, 10, and 11 of the Qur’an, while the previous volumes covered chapters 1 through 7. I welcome your comments, observations, and suggestions; you can email me at rashed@rashedhasan.com and/or visit the book website at www.rashedhasan.com to share your thoughts, ideas, and any questions.
In selecting the title for this volume as Personal Accountability, I wanted to build on the previous title of Social Consciousness, to emphasize the point that developing consciousness in our human condition and human origin will not lead to action unless we take personal responsibility for our own existence on this planet and accept that accountability is a fundamental part of our existence and an integral part of our covenant with God. Between understanding ourselves and guidance that came from divine spirit, and our ability to act, is a space that allows us to reflect, make responsible choices (Taqwa) and finally act to fulfill our accountability to ourselves and to our God—a framework that is already in place as part of the natural laws. While physical laws such as gravity will exert themselves without asking our permission or waiting for us to act, the laws of life, human life, operate similarly but with one important difference: they allow us to make choices, responsible choices, and then exert themselves to ensure accountability for everyone in the short term and longer term, and extends to the next life or afterlife that most faith groups subscribe to. “Every soul is held in pledge to what it earns”—74:38.
The endowment of knowledge and its dissemination (“We instructed (the universe), created mankind and gave him the power of expression”—55:2–4) and gift of guidance, already imprinted in human spirit, through divine revelations as a reminder (“This (revelations) is nothing but a reminder to the entire humanity”—68:52) and freedom to choose based on that knowledge and guidance (“This reminder—let him, who will, take a journey to his Sustainer God”—73:19) are the foundational constructs of human beings and human societies.
In volume 1, Deciphering Faith without Ritual, and in the context of the very first two chapters (surah) of the Qur’an, I attempted to drive at the important notion that in all of our rituals and religious practices, as well as our social, political, and corporate activities, intentionality and purposefulness have to dominate and be sustained while one performs those rituals and activities. Too often the process and the ritual become the focal points and soon degenerate into a set of mindless activities. In so doing, we derive satisfaction of a job done but fail to achieve the results that inspired the acts. This is like getting consumed in the act of driving and failing to arrive at the destination, even though there is merit in safe and efficient driving. In volume 2, Free to Choose, and in the context of the chapters 3 and 4 of the Qur’an, I wanted to convey the universal truth and basis for human creation and human dignity in one’s ability to make informed choices through knowledge and wisdom and our individual and collective responsibility to create social norms and environments that allow unfettered freedom to make such choices, in all areas of human endeavors, desires, aspirations, faith and its expression, livelihood, political system, et cetera—within the frameworks of truth and justice. In volume 3, Social Consciousness, I wanted to highlight the constant theme in the Qur’an of an active conscience and self-awareness, without which we can neither make the right choices nor can devise the right mechanisms to achieve the end results of those choices that we are free to make as God-given rights, which are coming under increasing threats in many parts of the world today.
Why Initiate This Conversation?
Volume 1 (published in 2015), volume 2 (published in 2017), volume 3 (published in 2019), and this current volume are a continued representation of my modest attempts to initiate a vigorous conversation and to offer a contextual commentary on (as opposed to a pure translation of) one of the greatest books on earth for the benefit of Muslims whose faith is centered around the guidance from the Qur’an and the examples of great prophets like Mohammad, Jesus, Moses, and Abraham. But this endeavor is also for people of other faith groups and people without faith but aspiring for human goodness so that we can reestablish our common faith and human goodness in all of us in the twenty-first century.
To reiterate, this series is intended for all of us, since the Qur’an is for all humanity, and it has been commented on with that goal in mind. One of the earliest revelations in the Qur’an declared: “Truly, this is nothing but a Reminder for all of mankind!” (68:52). The Prophet of Islam had delegated every person of faith to convey the message of God and His teachings and values to the next generation. I believe that the Qur’an needs to be commented on and explained for every generation by every generation to facilitate better and more accurate understanding of Islam’s teachings and values in the contemporary language and in the context of contemporary culture, politics, and social norms; failure to do so will only reflect our own inability and lack of commitment as people of faith to make a difference in our world. It is a generational responsibility that we cannot and should not rely solely on the previous generations to achieve, nor can it be delayed for the next generation.
The first three volumes have generated interesting conversations among people of different faiths and among neighbors. These have afforded Muslims in particular to attempt to understand their faith with a new prism—a prism of contemporary world affairs and the current state of human knowledge and social norms. It has enabled our Christian and Jewish neighbors and friends to reinvent the deep connection that exists in our faiths and in the contents of our revealed texts—the Torah, the Bible, and the Qur’an.
The successions of these revelations are no different than perhaps the way physics evolved through Galileo’s, Newton’s, and Einstein’s writings and experimentations. While revealed texts have been inspired directly by God to His designated prophets—human beings of extraordinary spiritual, social, and intellectual prowess and endowments—so have human sciences as God-inspired, gifted human minds from all generations and from all ethnicities to contribute to collective human knowledge and experience. Accepting Einstein’s theory of relativity does in no way negate Newton’s theory of motion or his contribution to physics, or diminishes Galileo’s attempt to infer that the earth is round and Copernicus’s exposition that the earth rotates around the sun. On the contrary, it magnifies the enormous challenges that previous scientists had faced and the awesomeness of their discoveries and understanding of the natural world with limited tools and in the face of intense and life-threatening opposition, especially from Christian churches and not to mention from fellow scientists. The constant friction between Christian churches and the scientific community had led to an adversarial relationship between science and religion—a blanket mindset that is not true in the context of Islam in particular and many other world religions that are deeply rooted in exploring the natural world as one of the ways to understand and appreciate God’s work and His presence.
In the past year, I did an interfaith wedding between a Muslim man and a Jewish lady, and the Rabbi who co-officiated the wedding with me did not know that the story of Moses has been very prominent in the narratives of prophets in the Qur’an. So I promised to send him a collection of the verses on Moses and the stories of the Children of Israel in the Qur’an. As I was collecting those verses, I realized that the Qur’an also provides details about Mary and Jesus that many Christians are unaware of. On top of that, we all claim some level of alliance with Abraham, and there have been attempts to claim Abraham to be Jew or a Christian in the past. Therefore, I thought it would be good to capture in this volume the narratives on these three great prophets of God: Abraham, Moses, and Jesus. Appendices A, B, and C at the end of the book do just that, and I hope these will serve as good references for people of the Abrahamic faith.
I encourage you to continue to make this journey with me into the Qur’an and let your inner conscience be a party to this journey—not only your physical self and your outer senses but a mindful intimacy and conversation with God and His message—so that you can have an inner discourse within yourself and reassess your current understanding of faith and human purpose.
Part of the proceeds from this Qur’anic commentary will be directed to a nonprofit organization, MyLLife Inc., which is dedicated to bringing people of all faiths together for our common vision of human dignity and peace for all. We hope that you will contribute to this cause as well as benefit from this commentary. If you would like to make contributions to MyLLife Inc., please go to our website at MyLLife.org (https://myllife.org).
I continue to aspire for a world where people of different faiths and people of goodness can come together to uplift the conditions of all human beings on this planet. The most recent uncivil discourse in our country under the Trump administration; the rise of far-right extremists in many parts of the Western world; large-scale persecution of Muslims and other minorities in China, Myanmar, India, and other countries; the political and financial corruption in many parts of the world, even on Wall Street; and the misuse of social media to spread hate and misinformation are causes of major concerns in our world today. Facing such challenges will require a deeper understanding of who we are as human beings and our sense of purpose—central to which is our sense of individual and collective accountability to one another and to our Creator. In this juncture I am reminded again of a directive from God in the Qur’an: “Of those whom We have created, (let there be) a community that seeks and guides with the truth and with such truth establishes justice (in society)” (7:181). I hope we all can commit to build such a community, no matter where we live.