1. God provides for everyone and everything (11:6, 3).
2. All creation is from water and exposes God’s attributes (11:7).
3. Nature of human beings—ungratefulness and impatience (11:9–11).
4. Prophet warned of giving in to his deniers’ demands (11:12–14, 17–19).
5. Material well-being is more broadly given (11:15).
6. Bearers of truth and deniers of truth are not the same (11:23–24).
7. Story of Noah (11:25–49).
8. Stories of various prophets (Hud, Salih, Abraham, Lot, Shuaib) (11:50–95).
9. Caution against social injustice (11:84–85).
10. Heaven and hell visualized (11:103–108).
11. Humans’ repeated failure to uphold the truth (11:110–116, 118).
12. God protects just people (even if they lack faith) (11:117).
13. Purpose of historical narrative (11:120–123).
1. God provides for everyone and everything (11:6, 3).
We live in a world where we are becoming so detached from nature that many of younger generation do not even know where their food comes from except from grocery stores. This distance from nature profoundly affects our own relationship with this planet and with God, Who silently and patiently continues to provide for each and every one of us, humans and all creatures on this planet, including trees and vegetation whose presence and sustenance are critical for our own survival physically, mentally and spiritually.
We also live in a world of unprecedented advancement of science and technology (another gift from God), but consumerism and purely materialistic business practices by large corporations have created a world where faith has been turned upside down. God has been cast aside, and everything is attributed to blind rush of evolution, awesome nature without any purpose, and human lives have been reduced to animal existence and extreme self-interest without accountability and any higher purpose.
As I write this volume, we are also in the midst of a global pandemic around the coronavirus (COVID-19), which forced social distancing to restrain its spread and which is causing widescale panic, loss of employment, and resource shortages for needed health care, mismanagement by governments, suppression of needed information by authoritarian regimes, all adding to further disillusionment of people about life and its awesome presence on this planet.
God mentions in verse 6 that everything and everyone depend on God for sustenance, and in verse 3 God makes the promise that should we turn to God in forgiveness and humility and ensure truth and justice in society. God will enable provision for us and bestow His grace to those who bestow grace on others. This deep awareness and relationships with God and our commitment to take care of one another are fundamental to faith and goodness and a natural place that each one of us needs to come back again and again after every distraction that takes us away and makes us unmindful each day.
2. All creation is from water and exposes God’s attributes (11:7).
This particular verse and a number of other verses in the Qur’an (7:54, 10:3–6, 25:59–60, 32:4–5, 50:38, 57–4) clearly establish the process of creation of this planet and life on earth over six distinct stages or periods or days (see also Genesis 1:2), depending on how one interprets the meaning of the Arabic word “Yawm,” the common meaning of which is “day(s).” In one place the Qur’an defines a day as fifty thousand years of earthy measures in relationship to getting the earth ready to sustain life (70:4), whereas God’s command about resurrection or the Day of Judgment to transmit takes a day, the measure of which is repeated several times as one thousand years of our earthly time (32:5, 22:47). As we read these verses, several attributes of God and the purpose of creation becomes clearer:
· Even though the biblically strict definition seems to imply that God made the earth in six days and on the seventh day He rested, the Qur’an indicates that earth was made ready for life over six different stages, each of which is defined as a celestial day, which is more like fifty thousand years measured in earthy days, and in so doing God was not fatigued and needed no rest (2:255, 50:38).
· Water and soil (dust) have been the source ingredients for living beings, especially of human beings. This has been also repeated through the Qur’an (and Bible as well) as in the verses above and 24:45 and 32:7.
· God’s dominion extends over all of the universe, and His throne (metaphor for his power and essence) resides over water as a symbol for water being the key source through which God expresses his creative genius and manifests life as we know it on earth. Our scientific inquiries to date continue to lead us that primordial life started at the bottom of the ocean, where water and materials from hot volcanic eruptions created the ideal conditions for first living cells to come to existence.
· The advanced forms of life evolved after the first creation and led to our current form of procreation though the union of male and female (second creation), and eventually after death, there will be resurrection (third creation) as we know it from revelations, since science is unable to fathom life after death. Some scientists unfortunately are propagating a false narrative of blind natural forces to explain away God’s presence as irrational. This is compounded by bad conducts of so-called “religious but evil people,” as it only adds credence to their narratives.
· There is a tradition of the Prophet that says: “God wished to be known; so He created mankind.” This agency of God on earth comes with empowerment (God’s essence breathed into us), free will, knowledge, and wisdom so that we can comprehend God, aspire to emulate Him, and be connected with God’s larger presence to compensate for our own limitations.
· This endowment of “godly attributes” in each of us also comes with accountability to prove our worth to God, and for that He allowed evil forces, the devil, trials and temptations, the need for food, sex, greed, and self-centeredness as opposing forces to see how we behave and remain true to the original intent and composition (“taqwa”).
These verses are some of the foundational verses that we continue to be enlightened by our expanding knowledge of science and humanities. But there is a danger that we are embarking on the wrong tree in search of meaning of life, whereas the right tree is the tree of revelations that is in front of us in the form of the Qur’an, the Bible, the Torah, and other books of revelations that we need to dive into with much greater impetus that we have ever done to save ourselves, our world, and our planet.
3. Nature of human beings—ungratefulness and impatience (11:9–11).
God as our Creator knows our human condition, our fabrics of physical, mental, and spiritual constructs, and our strength and weaknesses like no one can. God is constantly testing us to improve our mental, physical, and spiritual resiliency, but we tend to think of them differently because of impatience and lack of true appreciation of who God is and our true connection with God.
So during our good times (health, wealth, power), we rejoice and become boastful as opposed to being humble to God’s grace and blessings and sharing our good fortune with others, especially those who are in need. And then when God removes such blessings and give us a taste of distress (with illness, shortage of resources, failure, loss of life, natural disasters, market failure, et cetera), we become despondent, ungrateful, and blame God, as opposed to taking stock of our own shortcomings and exercising patience and hope. This mental condition in many ways reflects our views of ourselves, God, and our relationship with God and with fellow human beings. That is why those who always try to do good things, bear misfortune patiently, and find reliance and blessings in God are normally protected from extreme conditions, such as undue exuberance and arrogance, and extremely despair and despondency in life.
There are few places in the Qur’an that God reminds us as human beings of our own condition that we need to examine and be mindful of: 22:11–16, 89:15–20, 17:83–84, 41:49. 39:49. There is a Hadith of the Prophet that says the following about God: “I am as my servants think of Me. So let him think well of Me.” To think well of God, to think well of other human beings, and to think well of the natural world are fundamental to goodness and human contentment. Without such positive attitudes and active engagements for goodness, true happiness and success will elude us, no matter how much power and wealth one might have or when we are faced with trials of life that affect everyone – rich or poor or powerful or ordinary.
4. Prophet warned of giving in to his deniers’ demands (11:12–14, 17–19).
It would be useful to try to visualize the life of the Prophet who had spent a lifetime (first forty years) with the people of Makkah as a child, as a young adult as a shepherd, as a tradesman traveling to Syria and Yemen, married to a wealthy lady and had children who played with neighbors and relatives. He was a conscientious person, a man of great intellect, compassion, truth, and justice, and was well respected by all, who would speak truth to power and take care of those in need and those who had been marginalized. But he did all this within the confinement of the existing social norms, customs, and power structure, even though he disliked many such norms and hierarchy.
Then he became a prophet of God at the age of forty and spoke against social injustice and evils, in a manner no different than how Moses spoke out against the injustice of Pharaoh to the Children of Israel and eventually against the lawlessness and lack of faith of his own followers, and in a manner no different than how Jesus spoke out against the abuse and misinterpretations of the laws of Moses and corruption of faith in favor of the privileged and the clergy. Even though the tribes around Makkah took pride in the fact that they were of the lineage of Abraham through Ishmael and believed to be followers of Abraham, their faith was anything but polytheistic, full of superstitions and false narratives of how to conduct rituals even in the precinct of Kabbah, a place of worship universally understood and revered as a place built by Abraham and Ishmael. The tribal customs and norms were anything but rules of power and tribal privileges, oppression against slaves, women, and the poor, and against people of other tribes who were not part of the protected class.
Amid such an environment, the Prophet received revelations on pure monotheism, human imperatives to seek truth and establish social justice, and the merit of righteousness over all other man-made merits to classify people, if at all that such a classification is necessary. Such a message was met with widespread opposition, though nobody could fault the Prophet on his character, his intellect, his generosity and grace to fellow human beings, and his trustworthiness. Instead, people attacked the message, questioned parts of the Qur’an, demanded that he show a miracle such as turning a mountain into gold or bringing an angel who can validate his claim of prophethood. Such constant opposition, belittling of the message, and unreasonable demands were painful for the Prophet, and God recognized such difficulty that tormented his soul and brought forth in these verses what was going through his mind, as we all are subjected to as human beings. He was certainly feeling constraint in his heart how best to convey the message, perhaps even figuring out what message to emphasize, prioritize, and what message to keep close to him for the time being. God came to his aid, as God does for every human being at times of need and distress, and reminded him that as a prophet, his job was to convey and do his best to reason, but God is the Change-Maker at the end. Instead of backing down, God instructed him to challenge his opponents to produce a chapter like the one in the Qur’an, and if they failed, which they would, that should be enough of an assurance to the Prophet that he was on the right path, guided by revelations that came from God’s knowledge of His creation and that he should not be swayed by the vagary and vanity of this world and people who aspire for such vanity, above human purity, dignity. and justice. See also 10:15–17, 13:7, 27:91–93, 34:46–54, 38:65–67, 79:42–46.
5. Material well-being is more broadly given (11:15).
Our earthly existence has physical and materials parts that are governed by a different set of rules than our mental and spiritual parts, which continue to exist beyond this life on earth. While the knowledge of the afterlife comes from revelations alone, as no human beings have ever been permitted to peek into the afterlife, except that Prophet Mohammad was aided by Angel Gabriel to ascend the heavens to close proximity to God and was shown the heaven and hell, and Prophet Jesus is known to have been taken into God’s presence until he is to be sent back to unite all people of faith. These are matters of belief, as corroborated in the Qur’an and the Bible, and much of our knowledge about the spiritual afterlife comes from revelation, from prophets of God, from people endowed with insight about human conditions and whatever innate knowledge, affinity, intellectual capabilities, and spiritual awareness God put into each one of us and to what extent we tune ourselves to such awareness and reason about such eventuality.
The material world is governed by physics, the rule of every action has a reaction, and the conservation of energy in some form or another. Material benefits and physical comforts are a function of resources and efforts we can master as individuals and as societies, and God explicitly says our desires and efforts for materials and finery of this world are given to anyone who puts effort for it, and in general such benefits are in proportion to the effort (both physical and intellectual) exerted. At times God adds more to inflate human arrogance, evils, and the false notion of self-sufficiency until death destroys it all, or another time God may reduce such benefits to bring us to our senses of limitation and instill a sense of humility, caring for and sharing with others, and focusing on efforts that affect what is beyond this life. A couple of verses from chapter 92 (92:1–10) also shed some light on this topic.
Another verse, 42:20, makes it abundantly clear that worldly benefits are given to believers and nonbelievers alike based on effort and exertions, but the life after death will only be influenced by good works and well-intended pursuits, as further corroborated by a famous Hadith, “Each action will be judged by its intention,” in this life but more so in the afterlife. There are believers, such as followers of the prosperity gospel in Christianity, of which the recent US president Mr. Trump claims to be a follower, and some Muslims, especially those from oil-rich Muslim countries, claim that their material benefits come from their faith, or they are entitled to such wealth for their proclaimed faith. This verse under discussion certainly contradicts such entitlement.
But true faith that is steeped in truth and justice and humility will lead to greater prosperity among human beings, equalize income disparities, and bring about social injustice and better protect our natural world since such faith will abide by the principles of human dignity and equality, freedom of choices, and the sharing of resources of the world in an equitable manner. Only by adhering to such principles we can bring peace to the world and can claim any success as human beings on this planet and in the afterlife. To this end another verse from the Qur’an is very appropriate: “If the people in their towns had believed and acted responsibly, God would certainly have opened up the blessings of the heavens and the earth for them. But they denied and neglected, so we took accounts of what they have earned (by their conducts)” (7:96).
6. Bearers of truth and deniers of truth are not the same (11:23–24).
The contrast between the believers and the deniers of God is as if one group can hear and see all of God’s signs and His presence, where the other group is devoid of any hearing or seeing—it is like one group is in full view of God’s glory, and His signs are everywhere for them in themselves, in the nature of the world, and the universe we are part of, while the other group has a veil in front of them so that everything is fuzzy and sound is muffled so that they can neither see clearly nor can hear enough to comprehend. There is another verse, 39:9, like many other verses, where God Asserts that those who know and those who do not know cannot be alike.
The Qur’an is full of verses asking people to observe and see the world that is around them, their own makeup—physical beings, creation, procreation, the vegetation that provides food though we do not feed it, animals that benefits us in so many ways, birds that fly on their wings, fish that swim in waters, the atmosphere that protects us, sun that provides the energy that sustains all life, the harvests that the earth generates each season, and the minerals that are hidden in its belly. The earth is a place that has been made perfect for our survival, sustenance, and spiritual development, yet we are systematically destroying the environment on which all lives depend.
Now when the Qur’an talks about the faithful, it makes the point abundantly clear that mere faith is not enough. It must be backed up by good work and accompanied by a sense of profound connection with God and nature (i.e., humility), as opposed to those who claim entitlement because of faith and become arrogant and intolerant of others. Faith that is tainted with injustice and falsehood is no different than denial of faith itself.
Those of us who claim to have faith need to preserve the sanctity and dignity of that faith by constantly seeking the truth. Be socially conscious and ensure justice for all people, regardless of faith or any other difference that human beings can imagine. We all are equal, coming from the same God, and deserve equal treatment so that every human is free to choose his or her faith, free to do good, free to defend against and deter evils, free to educate, empower, and enjoy life as God intended.
7. Story of Noah (11:25–49).
Prophet Noah has been mentioned in various chapters in the Qur’an, chapters such as 7, 10, 23, 26, 37, 54, and 71, and Noah’s ark is mentioned in chapters 11, 23, 29, 54 but most extensively in this chapter, dedicating twenty-four verses to provide more details that were unknown at the time to the Prophet and his community. The story of Noah was known to some extent to Christians and Jews, as Genesis describes Noah in chapters 6 through 9 in lengthy details, including trivialities that the Qur’an always avoids, either because those details were man made and not true, or those detract from the main message that God is trying to convey to human beings and to the Messenger himself.
Noah is the earliest prophet mentioned in the Bible and the Qur’an, and both revelations confirm that he lived about 950 years, possibly in the valley of Mosul in Iraq or the eastern region of modern-day Turkey, especially given that the ark is known to have landed on the top of Mount Ararat (Bible) or Mount Judi (Qur’an), and archeologists found evidence of such an ark in the region. There has been a legend around the ark in those regions as well.
The message of Noah and the reaction from his community in many ways resembles the treatment of messengers throughout human history, and even in our present world, where the notions of faith and goodness are looked upon as somewhat contradictory, where faith is framed as irrational and goodness can be achieved without faith. The conflict between science and Christianity has morphed into a conflict between science and religion (faith). The powerful and wealthy members of Noah’s community did not accept his message and made fun of the fact that most people who were following Noah were the poor, who were considered ignorant and unworthy in their eyes. Such was the case with Moses, Jesus, and Mohammad. In case of Anglican Christianity, the king of England literally stole faith and religion and imposed his own, partly because of the abuse of the Catholic Church and the pope but also to subjugate and exploit religion to the whims of the powerful.
The story of Noah in the Bible seems to imply that the deluge happened all over the world, but it is most probable that it happened in the region where Noah and his community lived. The Qur’an indicates God’s direct command to the earth and the cloud for water to gush forth from earth and to pour down from sky to create the great flood that even covered the mountains. The Qur’an mentioned about the fact that one of the sons of Noah did not survive, as he did not believe the way Noah believed was unfaithful to God. He thought he could survive the flood by taking refuge on a mountaintop. The Bible also mentioned about Noah cursed his sons into slavery of one another after the flood for a misdeed that, even if it did happen, seems unjustifiable.
The narratives of the historical prophets carry lessons for all of us. It had direct implication for the Prophet and his followers as they struggle to convey the message and faced immense uphill battle to overcome ridicule, hostility, and physical threats from his own people and charges of forgery by people who read the Bible, even to this day.
A prayer of Noah at the time he embarked on the ark and let it float as God willed—“In the name of God is its sailing and its anchoring”—is a prayer that millions of Muslim utter when they get on a boat or a plane, giving remembrance to Prophet Noah and to reiterate our humility in front of God.
8. Caution against social injustice (11:84–85).
Prophet Salih’s focus on social injustice in his community is very similar to what the Prophet called out in his early mission and throughout his life. These verses relate Salih’s conversation with his community with regard to the equitable treatment of people and in commerce maintaining fairness in trade and not to reduce what is due by playing games with how one weighs things or counts. Such transactions are more about bartering; that was the primary mode of transaction in those days, whereas in today’s world almost everyone’s life is intertwined with businesses, government, and institutions, either as employees or as independent contractors or the self-employed. The glaring income inequality and rise of a limited number of individuals with excessive wealth is a clear manifestation of the same phenomena that prophets have warned communities throughout the ages and that are even more critical in our world today.
Dispersion of salaries among executives and average workers, and especially at the bottom of the employment ladder, is a testimony of an economic and business system that is out of alignment with human dignity and societal well-being. This debate was played out recently in a hearing in US Congress, where a freshmen congresswoman questioned the head of the largest global bank, whose annual personal compensation was $30 million. An entry-level job where the salary was $15 per hour in California is not enough to put food on the table after paying rent and paying for basic transportation to go work, while the bank made $30 billion-plus in profit, and the CEO would not commit to raising the minimum wage to a living wage for its employees at the bottom of the employment pool. The question needs to be asked: Is it ethical or moral for shareholders to get their dividends while employee who makes those dividends possible struggle to take care of their livelihood? Is it moral and ethical and good governance for the boards of corporations to approve large bonuses to executives while ignoring the pleas of employees at the bottom of the employee pool who can’t pay their bills at the salary being offered to keep costs down and make excessive profit?
In this respect, verse 85 is very relevant: “Give good measure and weigh justly and defraud no people of their things (livelihood) and act not corruptly in the land (in business), making mischief (injustice).” Then verse 84 provides the inevitable warning of God: “I see you in prosperity and I fear the chastisement of a day that you cannot escape” to become humble, mend our ways, and establish equity in our society before it is too late.
As I am writing this volume, there has been general degradation around the world in terms of transparency from government and businesses. There is widespread corruption in politics in Western countries as well as in Communist countries, not to mention developing countries. The US administration of Mr. Trump has lost its moral compass and global leadership to speak of truth and justice, let alone defending those values. Millions of people have been driven from home by war, drug violence, ethnic cleansing, and sheer injustice on a day-to-day basis from corporate profiteering. Millions of people live below poverty in some of the richest countries in the world, including our own here in the United States, and a large part of humanity all over this globe live in sheer poverty.
In the last few months, the spread of the COVID-19 virus pandemic is causing havoc around the word, and people in responsible positions are unwilling to listen to science to take proactive action to prepare and serve the affected, while the public in general are unwilling to consider and be mindful that God watches our social injustice and reminds us through trials and tribulations to recalibrate our lives and our societies and restore truth and justice to sustain our common humanity. We [God] will try (each of you) with the likes of fear, hunger, and loss of property, lives, and harvest. But good news is for the patient ones who, in the face of adversity, respond by saying, “We belong to God, and to Him we will return.” On these people, God showers his blessings and mercy. They are on the right path (2:155–157).
9. Heaven and Hell visualized (11:103–108).
Following on the brief mention of Moses and Pharaoh and on the heel of stories of earlier prophets whose towns and communities faced the consequences of their denial of God and their evils and injustice in the form of calamities like flood, storms, earthquake, volcanic eruptions, prolonged draught, pandemics, and plagues to remind them that God is ever watchful and the earth itself, which can only witness and take so much of these abuses to people it nurtures like a mother as God had ordained.
In the old days, social injustice was in the form of powerful and autocratic rulers extracting taxes from the labor of public, but as long as people paid those taxes, they were left alone, as the reach of the rulers and the tools available to them (soldiers and generals who did their bidding) could not control life outside of the cities. In the cities there were large-scale enslavement of people, such as the enslavement of the Children of Israel by Pharaoh, which is well documented in history, the Bible, and the Qur’an.
Modern-day social injustice and the enslavement of people is much more intense and subtle than we are led to believe. These are free choices and within the legal framework adopted by society. The colonialism of the twentieth century by the cohort of European whites was larger and more well-coordinated than what Pharaoh could ever imagine, let alone accomplish. Justification and protection of slavery by legal means and religious doctrines in the American continent and systematic decimation of American Indians is another example of social injustice that is practiced in various scales and forms all over the world, even to this date, if we care to look in the form of sexual slavery, economic slavery, political prisoners, large-scale incarcerations of African Americans in the United States, ethnic minorities in China, and abuse and marginalization of tribal communities all over the world. Worst of all is the economic injustice carried out in broad daylight by large and global corporations and Wall Street, who employs dubious means to extract natural resources at the lowest possible cost and forces consumers to pay the highest price possible using monopolistic gamesmanship, strategy of value-based pricing, only to justify profiteering as opposed to reasonable profit making, willing to pay senior executives bonuses that are thirty times their annual salary, while refusing to pay lower-rank employees a fair wage that allows them to work one job to have adequate shelter, food on the table, transportation to get to work, send their children to school or daycare, and have access to adequate healthcare. As if these are not all, they find tax loopholes and tax havens, demand tax relief from towns and cities they operate from, while using freely publicly funded infrastructure and at the same time, polluting air, water, and soil on a scale that is unprecedented in human history. The political system, even the democratically elected government, not to mention autocratic rulers whose numbers are on the rise, have become beholden to rich and the powerful and are more interested to look after the interests of the rich and powerful than average citizens and marginalized human beings all over the world.
So, yes, the earth is stressed like most human beings, and God is displeased with our conducts and our unwillingness to seek the truth, establish justice, and uplift human conditions on His planet that we call home. Days of reckoning come to every human being, every town and city, and every human society as our recorded human history repeatedly tells us and also is documented in the Bible and the Qur’an. The Qur’an is very plain in terms of conveying the rule of evil and its consequences—whether you call it the natural consequences of action versus reaction, God’s preordained natural laws, repercussions of human suffering, earth’s attempt to bring back order to its natural harmony, or in the mind of some religious people that God is angry. Whatever vantages you bring to the table, the reality is clear, alarming, and no one can solve it but we the humans.
God, Who ordains our birth and our death, regulates affairs on this planet, and gave guidance to shape our free choices, will call every one of us and every generation into account every day, every week, every month, every year, every decade, every century, and every millennium to face the consequences of what we do, how we take care (or not) of each other, and how we take care of our planet. Such accountability comes in the form of misery as well as comfort, in the form of failure as well as success, in the form of natural disaster and calamity, our own maligned social norms and values that make life difficult for the majority of people, pandemics and diseases to humble us and to remind us that we need course correction. This is a fundamental truth and rule of natural order as ordained by God. Let us remind ourselves that “God does not do any injustice to His creature.” This is also a fundamental truth and rule of natural order in our world.
Then you have the day of resurrection and the day of final judgment that we are given very little information about, except what God had given glimpse of in the Bible and the Qur’an and through centuries of conversations between God and human beings through prophets, people of consciousness, and basic and innate human instinct already ingrained in us (“God breathed His essence into each one of us”) and a vague memory when God says to each human soul before birth: “Am I not your God?”
The day of resurrection and the day of judgment will happen suddenly and in succession, when all of humanity will brought back to God, plead to God for mercy and forgiveness, and will forget their parents or children, their superiors, or things they worshipped besides God. None can aid or talk, except whom God permits, and any attempt on false narratives will be countered by your own body telling the truth and a book given to each of us that left nothing undocumented by honorable angels assigned to such a lifelong task and assigned to each one of us. Justice will be rendered, and no injustice will touch anyone. Mercy and forgiveness will be shown to those who practiced and showed such mercy and forgiveness to fellow human beings during their lifetime, the hell and the paradise will be brought near for them to behold. The expansiveness of paradise is said to be, in the Qur’an, more that the expansiveness of the earth and the known universe. Those who deserve to be in hellfire will endure as long as the heavens and the earth endure unless God wills otherwise, and those who deserve paradise will be there as long as the heavens and the earth endures unless God wills otherwise, but their gifts of pure life, free from earthly confines and vanities, will never be cut off. Therefore, our belief in God should be without doubt, and our commitment to goodness should be persistent, consistent, and as the Prophet said: “I will either succeed in establishing truth and justice or die fighting for these ideals.”
10. Humans’ repeated failure to uphold the truth (11:110–116, 118).
The Qur’an is full of admonitions about people ignoring God and not paying attention to His guidance for human goodness. The Torah, which was given to Moses and a book that was declared as a book of wisdom, guidance, and differentiator of good and evil, became a source of differences (due to interpretations and delving into details that only divide but do not clarify) among the followers of Moses. Just like any community to whom God had sent a messenger, God settles matters among people at times and under circumstances that fit His universal “word” or natural order of things, as He had proclaimed. Similar things have happened to Christians, as they have divided into numerous sects based on their different interpretations on the nature of Jesus and diverging understanding of the Bible that led them to create rituals that have little or no resemblance to Jesus and His teachings. Jesus worshipped God alone, but many Christians have made Jesus equivalent to God through the concept of the Trinity and seek protection from Jesus, as opposed to from God, Who is the only One who can provide any protection to human beings in its true sense.
People who call themselves Muslims and follow the Qur’an and teachings of Prophet Mohammad have also created division among themselves as Shia and Sunni and among various school of thoughts (Madhabs), despite having a Qur’an that is remarkably plain and clear compared to previous books of revelations and has maintained its purity and free from any human intervention in its content. The stories narrated in various parts of the Qur’an of prophets, leaders, and communities that deviated from the teachings of human goodness and human character of honesty, dignity, purity from evils, kindness, aspirations for righteousness, et cetera, are a reminder to be mindful of God and our human destiny back to God. These verses attest to the fact that God forgives evil deeds if one follows with good deeds, if one shows patience in adversity, if one shows humility in times of joy and abundance. Verse 116 asked the question to those who have been blessed with knowledge and wisdom as to why they did not exert themselves to speak the truth, fight corruptions and mischiefs, and restore goodness in the society.
Verse 118 reminds us that God could have made all of humanity into a single nation, but God honored the freedom of choice that He had gifted humanity with, and as we differed, rather than united ourselves around God and His guidance, conflicts, divides, and human sufferings as a consequence followed. We still have time, as every generation has this challenge, to reverse the trend and bring unity among people with faith and goodness.
11. God protects just people (even if they lack faith) (11:117–118).
God repeats in the Qur’an time and again that God intends no injustice to His Creation and even His trials that He brings about are due to our own doings and meant to extend an opportunity for us to relook at ourselves and grow from the adversity and difficulty that result from our own doings.
In this particular verse (117), God defines a natural law that as long as people, societies, and nations behave well with one another and take care of each other by seeking and establishing truth and justice, God will not destroy such people, since that would be an act of injustice on His part. The definition of the world “Muslehun” is more about outward goodness to others, compared to “mu’minun,” which implies inner purity through faith, or “Muttaqin,” which implies inner purity and outward goodness combined—at least that is how I personally understand the meanings of these key words used in the Qur’an. To act with goodness and to behave well with respect to one another and with respect to one’s own self are preconditions of the well-being of society, which is itself a manifestation of how God governs the affairs of humankind, and any kind of disruptions that affect this well-being, loss of property and life through natural and man-made calamities, animosity and conflicts among people, et cetera, are an indication that such balance is destroyed or tampered with by people themselves, and the consequences that follow are directly related to such a lack of goodness and justice. This nature of people’s affairs is independent of whether people believe in God or not. God’s mercy and grace extends to everyone in manner that they themselves demonstrate such grace and goodness to one another.
The following verse further reinforces such conditionality, where God says that had He willed, He could have made people such that they will become a single nation (i.e., develop societal norms, beliefs, and practices that amplify and make supreme the notion and practice of our common humanity), but as God states further, “People cease not to differ,” which makes such common humanity impossible, not by God but by ourselves.
It is also important to take another look at the verse (116), which came before verse 117, in which God asks the question, “Why is it that those who were given knowledge (and guidance) from generations before (and current), that they did not stop corruptions and mischiefs that infested the land and the people?” meaning that lacking such desires and exertions to behave well and take care of one another will bring about the natural consequences (not God’s punishments as some might want to claim or blame), attributed in verse 117 under discussion.
There are religious scholars and scientists who claim that such verses imply that God intended that we differ, or that our DNA or spiritual makeup is designed to lead to such difference. I am personally opposed to such understanding and interpretations, as this is an attempt to shrug off our responsibility to behave properly and to put the blame on God, which gets us nowhere. Besides that such assertions are baseless and quite injurious to human spiritual health. This common phrase “Why God brings evils (death, difficulty) to good people” is another manifestation of such false assertion, again failing to take responsibility for our own human behavior.
12. Purpose of historical narrative (11:120–123).
The Qur’an, like the previous books of revelations, is full of stories of prophets, the powerful, and the wealthy who were arrogant or humble, ordinary people of uncommon courage, exemplary in piety and humility. The stories of the prophets were particularly important for Prophet Mohammad himself—first, to strengthen his heart and his mind of his mission that faced opposition that all prophets did and would succeed like all prophets did in their own time and in their own unique ways. These were also the narratives of truth, justice, human conditions, and human triumph of good over evil that inspired the followers of the prophets who were seekers of truth and wished to serve God and serve people though social justice, compassion, and forgiveness. These stories are characterized as offering three distinct benefits: (1) telling the truth that was not fully known at the time, using real stories of people like ourselves, (2) offering caution and admonition that without aligning with truth and justice, which is the same as alignment with God and goodness, one cannot achieve ultimate success, and people will go down history in ways similar to what happened to previous generations, and lastly, (3) these stories are reminders to the believers and those who aspire genuinely for faith and goodness.
The essence of these stories is also to call for patience and humility for those who achieved faith and became followers to the prophet so that they do not despair in the face of obstacles and oppositions from their community, since such oppositions and difficulties are the way God proves the guilt of one group and worthiness of another group. These verses end with a reminder that God is sovereign over the universe and the earth, and all affairs of good and evil, justice and injustice, difference of opinions, belief and conducts will come back to God for their resolution in due time during this life and the life to come, which is more lasting and better for the people of goodwill and faith. Therefore, the verse continues to urge people to faith, to serve God, to put their ultimate trust on God, and to be cognizant that God is never absent in our lives and is never unaware of what we do, how we conduct ourselves, and how we treat others.