The Organizing Thread In The Book Of God — Part 1
This is not a research paper, nor an organized article, nor even a literary thought; no, it is not any of that, but it is a (personal grief) I decided to reveal it to my loved ones and brothers, so this one in your hands is like a “confession” paper. Folded in the records of sorrows…
Read it, and then erase it from your device if you want…
This psychological frustration sweeping me is not born these days but instead seized me years ago, but its influence is still growing inside me…
Indeed, I often forget this issue in the overcrowded tasks of daily life, but whenever night falls, and the hour comes to go to bed, and I put my head on the pillow, and I start to recall the incidents of the day, the flames of pain rise again…
The embers of frustration are burning alive…
There is a significant issue and a top priority that I must tackle, yet the hours of my day are still burning without carrying out this task…
Why do years go by after years, and I still fail to implement it? Why is the job so obvious before my eyes, yet I am broke to do it?
And the pain increases when I contemplate many people around me, and I see nothing in them except for a distance from this issue, except for those whom God has mercy on.
Attend social councils, they all go away from “highest priority”
I browse online forums and social networking pages (Facebook and Twitter) filled with thousands of comments daily… and most of them are preoccupied with matters far from “highest priority” except those whoة are God guides…
I read scholarly books thrown out by publishing houses and laid out in front of me by book fairs, and most of them are blindfolded about “highest priority.”
If every evening I recall my daily reality and the reality of many people around me, I took a deep breath and swallowed my bitterness.
I wonder: why? Why all this? When will this tragedy end? Let me tell you the whole story…
Every time I meditate on the Qur’an, I feel that I am still far from the essence of what God wants… the center of the Qur’an around which its issues revolve. I still feel the great distance between me and it…
God mentions in the Qur’an many things…
God Almighty mentions His holy self with descriptions of divine majesty, and God mentions in the Qur’an scenes of resurrection from Paradise, Hell, and the like. He mentions the news of the prophets, the news of tyrants, the news of the righteous, the news of nations, especially the children of Israel and their behavior.
He mentions practical legislation in worship and transactions, etc. There is an organizing thread that links all these issues…
There are many topics in the Qur’an, but this organizing thread is the same…
This issue around which the Qur’an revolves and connects everything with it is “keep and connect souls to God.”
I was meditating — for example — at the beginning of the Qur’an, in Surat Al-Baqarah, how God spoke of the wonder of the angels:
( 30 ) And [mention, O Muhammad], when your Lord said to the angels, “Indeed, I will make upon the earth a successive authority.” They said, “Will You place upon it one who causes corruption therein and sheds blood, while we declare Your praise and sanctify You?”
Then I was meditating in Surat Al-Baqarah itself, how God enumerates His blessings on the Children of Israel in six verses. In which He preferred them over the worlds, and that He saved them from the family of Pharaoh, and that He separated them from the sea and drowned the family of Pharaoh, and that He pardoned them after they took the calf.
Then after this enumeration of the wonder of the list of blessings, he concludes with the function of all of that (Perhaps you will be thankful).
All of this context is intended to build souls with God by blazing tongues and hearts with remembrance of Him and thanking Him, the Highest.
Rather, God Almighty mentions in Al-Baqara, and repeated it in other places as well, how the Almighty uprooted a mountain from the mountains and raised it until it was above the heads of the Children of Israel, why? To grow in them the intensity of religiosity and attachment to God, the Almighty says in Al-Baqarah:
( 63 ) And [recall] when We took your covenant, [O Children of Israel, to abide by the Torah] and We raised over you the mount, [saying], “Take what We have given you with determination and remember what is in it that perhaps you may become righteous.” [Al-Baqarah, 63].
And he said in al-A’raf:
( 171 ) And [mention] when We raised the mountain above them as if it was a dark cloud and they were certain that it would fall upon them, [and Allah said], “Take what We have given you with determination and remember what is in it that you might fear Allah.”
All this is so that the souls can live by clinging to the words of God Almighty, “Take what we have given you with strength.”
I was contemplating how the Qur’an describes the condition of hearts in which the springs of faith have been engulfed and lost their attachment to God until God compared them to the most stagnant inanimate matter, in a balance that does not hide sorrow and pity.
The Almighty says:
( 74 ) Then your hearts became hardened after that, being like stones or even harder. For indeed, there are stones from which rivers burst forth, and there are some of them that split open and water comes out, and there are some of them that fall down for fear of Allah. And Allah is not unaware of what you do. [Al-Baqarah: 74].
Then he continues in that embarrassing comparison (For indeed, there are stones from which rivers burst forth…)
Even the stones soften, succumb, explode, crack and fall…
What is meant by this proverb? It is the connection of souls to God (and there are some of them that fall down for fear of Allah).
And I was contemplating how God tested His servants with things that were compatible with their desires and with other matters that contradicted them. So, some people believed in what agreed with their desires and left others, So the Qur’an did not say thank them for what they believed in and overlooked what they left… No…
God wants souls to live in God, be submissive, submit, and obey God in everything.
The Almighty says (Do you believe in some of the Book and disbelieve in some) [Al-Baqarah: 85]
Then he says after that, with a few verses: “But is it [not] that every time a messenger came to you, [O Children of Israel], with what your souls did not desire, you were arrogant?” [Al-Baqarah: 87].
Why did our Lord Almighty curse them? Because what is meant is something else, something else that is very different from what many of those whose minds have been damaged by materialistic Western culture imagine.
What is meant is the building of souls with the glorification of God and absolute surrender to Him.
And I was contemplating how God mentions abrogation in the Qur’an, which is a common issue between the principles of jurisprudence and the sciences of the Qur’an and then concludes with a statement of the significance of this legislative phenomenon, which is the building of souls by glorifying the divine power:
( 106 ) We do not abrogate a verse or cause it to be forgotten except that We bring forth [one] better than it or similar to it. Do you not know that Allah is over all things competent? [Al-Baqarah, 106].
I was contemplating how God mentioned one of the prayer conditions issues (facing the qiblah), then changing it between Jerusalem and the Kaaba. Despite it being a purely doctrinal issue, the Qur’an warns us that the function of this entire historical event is to “test” souls in the extent of their glorification and submission to God? This is the crux of the matter!
“And We did not make the qiblah that you used to face except that we might know who would follow the Messenger from those who would reverse it” [Al-Baqarah, 143].
And the verses of legal retribution, seal with “God’s Piety” As the Almighty says:
“And there is for you in legal retribution [saving of] life, O you [people] of understanding, that you may become righteous.” [Al-Baqarah: 179].
Fasting verses are also associated with piety. In the Almighty’s saying:
“Fasting is prescribed for you as it was prescribed for those before you, that you may become righteous” [Al-Baqarah: 183].
I’m inviting you to listen to the below part of the Holy Quran, and then you judge by yourself: