An Extraordinary Story

In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful

Pasted below are extracts from QUR’AANIC STUDIES – A Modern Tafsir. These are my English renderings of Qur’aanic Verses 18:60 to 18:82 and my study note # 16 thereon:

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60. And when Moses said to the youth accompanying him, “I will not stop until I reach the confluence of two rivers even if I have to continue this journey for a long time.” 

61. So when they reached the confluence, they forgot their fish, and it burrowed its way into the sea. 

62. But when they had gone farther, he said to his young companion, “Take out our breakfast. We have certainly met with fatigue in this journey of ours.” 

63. The youth said, “You know when we took some rest on the rock, I forgot about the fish – and nothing but the Satan made me forget to tell you about it – when, strangely, it found its way into the river!” 

64. Moses said, “That was the spot we had sought for!” They then retraced their footsteps back to the spot. 

65. There they found one of Our devotees. We had favoured him with mercy from Us and We had given him some knowledge from Us. 

66. Moses said to him, “May I follow you so that you teach me of the right knowledge you have been taught?” 

67. He said, “You can never have patience with me.” 

68. “And how can you have patience in matters over which you do not have comprehensive knowledge?” 

69. He said, “Allah willing, you shall find me patient and I shall not disobey you in any matter.” 

70. He said, “If you would follow me, question me not about any thing until I myself speak to you about it.” 

71. And both of them went out on a journey. And there arose no problem between them until when they boarded a boat he (Moses’ new companion) made a hole in it. Moses said, “Have you made a hole in it to drown the people thereon? Certainly you have done a grave thing.” 

72. Moses’ companion said, “Did I not say that you will not be able to have patience with me?” 

73. Moses said, “Hold me not responsible for a thing I forgot, and burden me not with difficulty in my affair.” 

74. And they both went on until, when they met a boy, he (Moses’ companion) killed him. Moses said, “Have you killed an innocent person otherwise than for manslaughter? Certainly you have done a condemnable thing.” 

75. Moses’ companion said, “Did I not tell you that you will not be able to have patience with me?” 

76. Moses said, “If I ask you about anything after this, keep me not in your company. Verily, you shall have then an excuse, provided by me, for you to do so.” 

77. And they both went on until, when they came to a town, they requested its people to give them some food, but they refused to feed them as guests. They then found in it a wall which was about to collapse and Moses’ companion set it right. Moses said, “You could certainly have taken some wages for it.” 

78. Moses’ companion said, “This shall be the parting between me and you. I will now inform you of the true perspective of my actions over which you could not have patience.” 

79. “As for the boat, it belonged to some poor men who worked on the river. And I wished to make it defective as there was, across them, a king who seized every boat by force.” 

80. “And as for the boy, his parents were believers, and we feared lest he should trouble them with disobedience and ingratitude.” 

81. So we desired that their Lord would give them in his place a boy better than him in purity and more compassionate. 

82. “And as for the wall, it belonged to two orphaned boys in the city, and there was beneath it a treasure belonging to them, and their father was a righteous man. So your Lord desired that they should attain their maturity and take out their treasure as a mercy from your Lord. And I did not do it of my own accord. This is the true perspective of my actions over which you could not have patience.”¹⁶

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16. Verses 60 to 82 of this Qur’aanic Chapter give an account of an extraordinary story. It gives us humans a glimpse of the compassionate divine Hand operating behind the scenes in all human affairs in this world. We are unable to understand apparent injustices of events like a poor man’s boat turning suddenly defective and a youth suddenly dying, or the apparent mystery of a poor man’s crumbling wall getting straightened with unexpected help. But the apparent injustices in this world are all a façade to test the believers’ faith in their Lord. They should entertain no doubts that Justice will ultimately prevail over Injustice and Truth over Falsehood.

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Guide us to the Right Path, Allah!

Mohammad Shafi

Friday, the 30^th December, 2016

Divine Authorship of Qur'aan

In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful

Excerpts from QUR'AANIC STUDIES - A Modern Tafsir:

23. Wa-in kuntum fee raybin mimma nazzalna AAala AAabdina fa/too bisooratin min mithlihi waodAAoo shuhadaakum min dooni Allahi in kuntum sadiqeena

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23.  And if you are in doubt concerning what We have sent down unto Our Devotee, then come up with a Chapter like one thereof¹⁶ and call your witnesses – other  than Allah – for  your aid, if you are truthful.

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16.    This is an open divine challenge for those who entertain doubts in the divine authorship of the Qur'aan. The Book elsewhere gives a hint of what the challenge means. "Do they not then ponder over the Qur'aan? Had it been from someone other than Allah, they would surely have found therein many a contradiction." [Q: 4:82]

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Guide us to the Right Path, Allah,

Mohammad Shafi
Friday, the 23rd of December, 2016.

And Yet They Believe Not!

In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful

Excerpts from Quráanic Studies - A Modern Tafsir:

8. Wamina alnnasi man yaqoolu amanna biAllahi wabialyawmi al-akhiri wama hum bimu/mineena

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8. And among mankind there are some who say, "We believe in Allah and in the Last Day." And yet they believe not! ¹⁰

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10. Alas! An overwhelming majority of the so called believers in today's world, I am afraid, fall in the category of people described in this Verse, and in the few Verses that follow this Verse. They declare themselves as Muslims (believers), but their deeds betray the hollowness of their belief. Their attitude towards observance of divine commands regarding praying, fasting etc. is, at best, indifferent. And the general conduct of their worldly affairs does not reflect any concern at all that they would have to account for these before the Lord in the Hereafter. They delude themselves under the deception that this worldly life is the be-all and end-all of their existence! Allah Almighty describes their mental attitude as a disease, which He worsens if they continue indulging in their falsehoods.

Such a mental attitude inculcates in them a tendency to grab what they can, by hook or by crook, here and now! And then the Satan steps in and lures them to the temptations of this world. While in the grips of such a temptation, if they are told not to indulge in any mischief, they protest and say that they are only trying to improve their conditions!

And when someone points out to them that they are not so strict in following the tenets of Islam as some other Muslims are even at the expense of material or business interests, they say - at least, to themselves - that they  are not fools like the others!

On the other hand, if social compulsions make them go through, albeit reluctantly, some religious duties like performing prayers etc., when they meet with their own ilk they dismiss their religious acts as mere delusion.

Allah Almighty compares them to blinded people unable to see the light around them - the light of the Qur'aan, which they hardly ever read with a view to get any guidance therefrom. Like people caught in a rainstorm putting their fingers into their ears to shut out the thunderbolts, they are ever afraid of death, which could put an abrupt end to their illusory life on this earth! It is only because of Allah's grace and mercy that they are able to carry on with whatever lives they could enjoy on this earth. Allah could, if He so willed, deprive them of the little earthly enjoyment too! Allah can indeed do - or undo - whatever He wills!

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Reply to Atheist

Atheist to me: You are wrong.  You either did not read what the scientists say about the universe or you have not understood it.  Please read the following articles on what the scientists say about the creator.  It says sincere universe is eternal, there is no role for the creator.  

http://phys.org/news/2015-02-big-quantum-equation-universe.html

Stephen Hawking: God Could not Create the Universe Because There Was No Time for Him to Do So

Me: You know, Prem (name changed), your gods - I mean, the scientists - are like those proverbial blind men who had tried to find out what the elephant was like.

The truth is that they do not know the whole Truth! They are just groping in the dark, thinking what they can feel with their hands to be that whole Truth. I don't blame them; they are really blind.

But, sadly, they refuse to realise their limitations. They don't realise that they're just picking up, as one of their brother scientists had once said, one or two pebbles, here and there, on the vast seashore of knowledge. They will remain blind of that vast seashore unless & until they swallow their false pride that they know everything.

Their much-lauded work - as regards origin of the universe, at least - is nothing but indulging in guessing with the limited power of their mortal, human minds, driven by their irrational and idiotic opposition to the very concept of God. That concept is anathema to them. They are not sure of what they pontifically theorise. That is why you find words like 'may have', 'appear to', being frequently used in their 'research’ papers. I don't blame them for that. They are, after all, fantasizing about what could have happened millions of years before they, poor fellows, were even born!!

And you, Prem, want me to believe in their half-baked theories, of which they are themselves not sure, to be the gospel truth!?

I think you have forwarded the 2nd of the two web pages - the one about God having no time - without bothering to read for yourself what it actually says. It seeks to disprove Hawking's grandiose claim that God had no time for creating the universe! You might have googled for it and just sent it because its title suited your atheistic view. Please read it. It debunks Hawking's theory.

Brother, time is a relative entity. For a living being like a bird or an animal - or a human being, for that matter - it begins with its birth and ends with its death. [Man is a more intelligent animal; he comes to learn, in course of time, that time extends beyond his lifespan.] And for the Universe, similarly, time began when it itself came into being and would end when it itself would come to an end. The Universe is, per se, unintelligent. If it were to express itself, time would be analogous with its own existence. Behaving like the unintelligent universe or the semi-intelligent bird or animal, the supposedly ultra-intelligent Stephen Hawking cannot think beyond the limitations of the Universe and declares - as if he knows everything - that there cannot be any time beyond the Universe. The article you sent me proves he is wrong. He has forgotten about the relative character of time.

To overcome the inconvenient notion of singularity in Einstein's theory of general relativity, scientists are now busy compiling the quantum theory wherein too they encounter some - small, per them - perturbations. Time alone will tell us whether these are really small or insurmountably big to warrant promulgation of yet another human theory.

'The cosmological terms and a radiation term', they say, keep the universe at a finite size, and therefore give it an infinite age. Finite size and infinite age are mutually incompatible terms. Only infinite size can have infinite age. The scientist community are fighting on whether the universe is finite or infinite, whether it is expanding at an accelerated rate or a constant rate, and on very many such imponderables.

And my dear Prem wants me to consider their wild guesses as gospel truths!!

Come on, friend, accept the reality! Our scientists are no better than those proverbial blind men.

Why should I believe in their hypotheses which are all motivated by their common hatred of God. They just want somehow to disprove His existence. And what will their Godless false perspective of human life give me?

It will give me freedom to do as I will! Since this worldly life would be the be-all and end-all of existence, I would like to have everything I want, by hook or by crook. I will leave no illegal and immoral stone unturned, taking care not to get ensnared in the mesh spread by the always imperfect human governance I would be under. I could always grease the palms of authorities concerned to get my need fulfilled. There would be no fool-proof monitor to observe my ill-deeds.

And why should I then not do so? I see injustices perpetrated in this world everyday. The rich are getting richer, and the poor, poorer. People with influence and money power seemingly get away scot free after committing blatant acts of oppression, suppression and corruption.

But I do not do so because I know for certain that atheism is an absolutely false premise. I know for certain that my Creator is closely monitoring all my acts of omission and commission in this world. If I do anything illegal or immoral, I may escape scrutiny by worldly authorities, but not from His scrutiny. I know for certain He will punish me either through those authorities or by any other means at His infinite command.

I may myself not get absolute justice in this world. It is a fact of this worldly life that many do not. Your atheistic platform does not provide any hope for such people. Those of them, who do not have a staunch belief in God, succumb to their utter feeling of helplessness and commit suicide or resort to terror and violence.

But those who really believe in God do not so lose their patience. They display their courage of conviction in the dictum that God is indeed in overall control of life in this world, and He is never unjust. They are convinced that life in this world is only a long-drawn-out test. God is testing them through trials and tribulations. Even if they do not seem to get full justice in this world, they are bound to get it in another world, to which mankind will get resurrected. Yes, another world! The apparent injustice prevailing in this worldly life is a definite pointer to that other world, where everyone is scheduled to get full justice. Mankind could not have been created to suffer injustice. While this world of tests is only of short duration, the other world is everlasting. Wise men do not sacrifice everlasting happiness there for a very limited and dubious happiness in this world.

For you, Prem, this other world is nothing but mere fantasy, indulged in by prehistoric ancient people. I won't blame you. Your gods, the scientists, have rubbished the very idea of mankind being resuscitated in another world, although science has given us a definite pointer to that possibility when man has been able to clone an animal. Given their cultivated hatred for God, the scientists are, of course, liable to ignore any such pointers. In fact, that other world is beyond human intellect however bright it may be.

That is why the all-knowing Creator had been sending His human Messengers one after another, till mankind reached its historic age, to inculcate in them the need for and the reality of the other world. Their divine Messages are recorded in the holy Scriptures of various religions. I have not studied the other Scriptures, but I have studied the Qur'aan, the last of those divine Messages.

And the Qur'aan contains many evidences of its being divine, and not man-made. It gives me the badly needed moral support to lead my life in this rather harsh world. Your gods, the scientists, cannot give me that support.

Mohammad Shafi

Friday, the 9^th of December, 2016

No Wali except Allah

In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful

No Wali except Allah

Excerpts from QUR’AANIC STUDIES – A Modern Tafsir:

107. Alam taAAlam anna Allaha lahu mulku alssamawati waal-ardi wama lakum min dooni Allahi min waliyyin wala naseerin

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107. Are you not aware that, certainly, it is Allah who has absolute sovereignty over the heavens and the earth? And none is there for you, other than Allah, as a wali¹⁵⁴ nor anyone who can help! ¹⁵⁵

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154. I find it difficult to find an appropriate English word for this Qur'aanic word, wali (plural: awliya). Some translators have rendered it as 'guardian' or 'protector'. But in Verse 10:62, the Qur'aan has called some good human beings as awliya of Allah. Surely it would be preposterous to call human beings as 'guardians' or 'protectors' of Allah! Let us therefore go to the literal meaning of the three-letter Arabic root word wali, which is to be close or near. It is used in the Qur'aan in that very sense. So when the Qur'aan says that good Allah-fearing persons are awliya of Allah, it means that Allah is so pleased with such persons that He has kept them spiritually close to Himself. In Verse 2:257 we are told that Allah is the wali of the believers. In other words, Allah is so very close to the believers that He protects and guides them at every step they take in their worldly lives. In Verse 60:9 Allah forbids the believers from being close to (tawallaw) only those who fight with them on religion, etc. It is in this sense that in Verse 5:51, Allah asks believers not to take Jews and Christians as awliya. Otherwise, Allah makes it clear in Verse 60:8, that He does not forbid the believers to have normal good relations with them if they do not fight with them (the believers) in religious matters, etc.

155. In the Qur'aanic light delineated in the preceding Note, the obvious meaning of the latter part of this Verse is that if anyone were not to accept Allah as his/her wali, there could be no one else who could be that person's wali or helper. If one accepts, without any reservations whatsoever, Allah as one's wali, then there could be one's other awliya among living believers, by way of being one's confidants, advisors and helpers in worldly and spiritual matters. But there could be no question of any person, dead or martyred – or of any unseen being (jinn) – becoming a wali or helper of a living person. If one takes such a being as one's wali or helper, besides Allah, one is committing the sin of shirk (polytheism). Alas! most Muslims today are openly indulging in this unpardonable sin. Allah asks, "Do then those who suppress the Truth think that, other than Me, they can take My worshipers as awliya? ..." [Q: 18:102]

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Guide us to Your Straight Path, Allah, and save us from ignominy in this world, and in the Hereafter!

Mohammad Shafi

Friday, the 2^nd of December, 2016.

Who Created Allah?

In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful

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An atheist denies the existence of Allah. He maintains, "The universe, and  everything therein, have come about on their own!" And when you tell him that these are all created things - created by the infinitely powerful Being, Whom the Muslims call Allah, he asks, "Then who created Allah?"

The simple and incontrovertible answer to that question would be:

"Allah is the Power that has no beginning, nor any end! On the other hand, created things have all a beginning; there was a time when these things were not in existence. Since Allah has always been there, and shall always be there, there is no question at all, of His being created."

Mohammad Shafi

Friday, the 25^th November, 2016

Obey the Messenger!

In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful

Pasted below is an extract from QUR’AANIC STUDIES – A Modern Tafsir:

132. WaateeAAoo Allaha waalrrasoola laAAallakum turhamoona

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132. And obey Allah and the Messenger so that Mercy is bestowed upon you.^{144 to 146}

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144. This Qur'aanic directive to obey the Messenger is grossly misunderstood. The Messenger is no longer living in this world, and there is no question of his issuing any directives now in person, which could be obeyed. The directives he had issued, while he was living, under Allah's guidance, are most authentically incorporated in the Qur'aan. So when the believers obey the directives in the Qur'aan, they in effect obey both Allah and His Messenger. But a majority of the Muslims now say that obeying the Qur'aanic directives alone wouldn't be akin to obeying the Messenger. He (the Messenger), they insist, had issued some detailed instructions for practical implementation of the divine directives in the Qur'aan. These practical instructions, they say, are contained in the ahaadeeth. According to these Muslims, then, the divinely approved Religion of Islam is not complete and perfect without the ahaadeeth!

145. The majority contention of the present-day Muslims as above, clearly contradicts many Qur'aanic statements like those quoted below:

·         "...We have missed nothing in the Book..." [Verse 6.38]

·         "...It is not a concocted hadeeth but a confirmation of what preceded it and a detailed explanation of everything and a guide and a mercy for the people who believe." [Verse 12.111]

The Muslim contention in fact betrays their lack of belief in the Qur'aan.

146. It is an accepted fact that the ahaadeeth contain many contradictions. And in the light of the divine criterion laid down in Verse 4.82, such writings cannot be from Allah. So by treating these non-divine writings at par with the divine Verses of the Qur'aan, the Muslims are committing the unpardonable sin of shirk. Nay, they are committing a sin worse than shirk. They are rejecting the divine Verses which say that everything is explained in the Qur'aan, and they seek the explanation instead in the error-prone, man-influenced ahaadeeth. They, in effect, believe in men narrating the ahaadeeth to the recorders, hundreds of years after the death of the Prophet. But they do not believe in Allah!! May the GhafoorurRaheem make them realise, before it becomes too late, that they are, by doing so, inexorably hurtling themselves into a painful doom.

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Guide us to the Right Path, Allah!

Mohammad Shafi

Friday, the 25^th November, 2016.

Are We Muslims? ...Really!?

Muslims are – supposedly – adherents of Islam. And, Islam is total submission to the Will of Allah, the One and Only Creator and Sustainer of the entire Universe and of everything therein.

Let alone submission to Allah, but, first, do we believe in Him?

The sad fact is that most of us do not! Although we loudly declare ourselves to be believers, our minds are secretly assailed by doubts about Allah’s existence. The doubts persist despite innumerable and proliferating evidences, in and around us, to decisively dispel those doubts.

Take the most obvious evidence – of one’s own self! Who is the architect and maker of this wonderful mind securely placed in a wonderful body? Our parents? Needless to state that they were just instruments used by the unseen Maker to meticulously fashion and produce, with superhuman intelligence, a little human being, in its mother’s womb, made ready to face the harsh, open, outside world.

The atheists catch at the straw of the devious theory of evolution (based on the dubious principles of natural selection and survival of the fittest) thrown at them by Darwin to deny that any Power or Entity had consciously produced that little human being. They cannot deny the superhuman intelligence that has undoubtedly gone into its production. They cannot deny that in its making, an intimate awareness, of what circumstances it would have to face, is wonderfully inherent. But still they deny the hand of the superhuman Power making that little living thing happen! An obviously nonsensical statement from supposedly scientific minds!!

In everything of this Universe – whether animate or inanimate, and whether huge stars larger than our Sun or tiny invisible atoms – the immense power of that Superpower is unmistakably discernible, especially to a scientifically oriented knowledgeable mind.

Yet, unfortunately, the atheist satanically persists in denying the existence of that Superpower – whom Muslims call Allah – controlling everything in His Creation. And, the so-called Muslims – by and large –  secretly entertain the doubt that, maybe, the atheist is right!!

I have compelling reasons for making that grievous statement.

But before I give the reasons, I have here to point out another aspect of the Muslim Faith – the inalienable belief that the Qur’aan is a pure and inalterable divine Book.

And there are evidences galore showing its divinity. The evidences that I have myself verified are mathematical in nature. Readers are invited to see what these are by clicking my blog posts The Twelve and Jesus=Adam. There are many such amazingly fool-proof mathematical locks in the Qur’aan! Readers can access my other writings on such evidences by clicking Signs.

Despite such an avalanche of evidences, the Muslims tend to follow the atheist in their lifestyles! That is proof enough – if proof is at all needed – that they (most of them, that is) have little belief in Allah and the Qur’aan.

Had they that belief, there would not be a miniscule minority of them studying the Qur’aan with grave and serious understanding, as is the position in the world today. They do not study the Qur’aan because they are not sure it is from Allah, pure and simple. Had they been sure that they shall forever burn in Hell-fire for ignoring its directives, they would study the Qur’aan, day and night, for fear of straying away therefrom.

And even among those few who sincerely believe in Allah, and in the Qur’aan being a divine Book, there are those, in whom, unfortunately, the accursed Satan has subtly succeeded in inculcating the misleading belief that the Qur’aan does not contain the complete code of conduct for man to achieve salvation. Even those, well-known as scholars of Islam, have come to believe that the Allah-given Deen is incomplete without the man-influenced, error-prone ahaadeeth!

These scholars are seemingly blind to the fact that they are thereby contradicting the Qur’aan itself! In several of its Verses it is unequivocally reiterated that it is a self-sufficient Guide for man to tread the Path to Salvation. Please go through this article in this regard.

When their scholars take the lead in, in effect, disbelieving the divine Book, one can well imagine the extent to which the Muslims have strayed into this disbelief.

And, so, in effect, an overwhelming majority of them are Muslims only in name. No wonder then that Allah Almighty has effectively withdrawn His Hand of Mercy from them. That is why they, as a community, have become the proverbial whipping boy for every Tom, Dick and Harry in the world today!

Mohammad Shafi

Friday, the 18^th of November, 2016.