Freeing Oneself from Unawareness Reading the Qur’an and Pondering its Verses The most effective solution to ending one’s unawareness is to read the Qur’an, Allah’s divine light to guide His servants, and reflect upon its verses. Reading the Qur’an draws people closer to Allah and allows them to grasp something of His supreme knowledge and power. At the same time, it provides the clearest and truest knowledge about what was previously unknown and unconsidered, and also answers questions that had perplexed them in the past. For this reason, those who read the Qur’an sincerely understand it turn to Allah with their hearts satisfied. Those who take its verses to heart become aware of the errors in their attitudes and ideas. Gradually, they come to understand the importance and seriousness of their past deeds and what drove them to engage in such activities. In short, they finally begin to understand Allah’s supreme knowledge and power, and thus feel their fear, respect, and love for Him start to grow: This (Qur’an) is a communication to be transmitted to humanity so that people may be warned by it and will know that He is Allah, the One and Only; and so that people of intelligence will pay heed. (Surah Ibrahim: 52) This Qur’an guides to the most upright Way and gives good news to the believers who do right actions that they will have a large reward. (Surat al-Isra’: 9) Those who read the Qur’an and ponder its verses with sincerity eventually come to see it in the context of its manifestations of Allah. This allows them to remember Him at all times and avoid any type of unawareness. For example, they gradually notice that some of the people around them have characteristics that the Qur’an says belong to deniers. And, due to their awareness of the punishment awaiting such people, these examples become important lessons for them. This way, by Allah’s will, they avoid unawareness and learn how to protect themselves from it. In addition, they realize that the verses in the Qur’an reveal the punishment of Hell and that, apart from Allah’s will, there is no salvation. In the same way, they ponder the eternal beauty and blessings of life in the Garden and strive to win His mercy so that they may enter the Garden. Those who read the Qur’an know that they will be called to account for what they have done and, based on this record, will enter the Garden or Hell. Therefore, aware of this truth, they avoid any type of unawareness and are careful to act in ways that win His approval. Taking Advantage of the Opportunities Sent by Allah Allah has created circumstances that enable human beings to recognize His existence and turn to Him. Among these are times of anxiety and difficulty: Do they not see that they are tried once or twice in every year? But still they do not turn back. They do not pay heed (Surat at-Tawba:126). These difficult periods are very useful in causing people to realize their unawareness, for, in such moments, the lower self, which is in a constant state of rebelliousness against Allah, realizes its helplessness. During these times, people bring their consciences to the fore, see their errors, and find ways to avoid them. This important opportunity, provided people act upon it properly, helps them curtail their lower selves by recognizing their own weakness and repenting of their sins. As a result, they feel closer to Allah. They realize that Allah’s power is all-sufficient, that He is the source of all things, and that only He can end this period of testing. It is He Who conveys you on both land and sea, so that when some of you are on a boat, running before a fair wind, rejoicing at it, and then a violent squall comes upon them and the waves come at them from every side and they realize there is no way of escape, they call upon Allah, making their religion sincerely His: “If You rescue us from this, we will truly be among the thankful.” But then, when He rescues them, they become rebellious in the land without any right to do so. O humanity, your rebelliousness is only against yourselves. There is the enjoyment of the life of this world, and then you will return to Us and We will inform you about what you did. (Surah Yunus: 22-23) Unaware people can realize that there is no power to help them except Allah only when they feel completely helpless. But when their difficulties end, they forget Him and carry on as before: When harm touches humanity, he calls upon Us, lying on his side, sitting down, or standing up. Then when We remove the harm from him, he carries on as if he had never called upon Us when the harm first touched him. In that way, We make what they have done appear good to the profligate. (Surah Yunus: 12) For example, in times of natural disaster, people recognize how powerless they really are, that His knowledge and might are infinite, and that Allah is omnipresent and omniscient. At these times, they are reminded that they should fear and respect Him because He is all-powerful and that they may suffer His wrath at any moment. But earlier, these same people had ignored His commands and prohibitions, putting off their obedience until later. When fear consumes them, their consciences become clear and they recognize the truth. By causing people to see the truth, natural disasters are excellent reminders that, if understood in the proper light, will save them in the Hereafter. But once their discomfort fades, those who do not learn from such warnings allow their traditional unawareness to reassert itself, embrace this transitory world again, and resume their defiance of His commands and prohibitions. In order to escape from this vicious circle, individuals should take advantage of these opportunities by frequently recalling their difficulties and how Allah comforted them. They must understand that these events are warnings, and thus great blessings, for such displays of Allah’s infinite power open the way for people to cast off their usual unawareness. However, it is wrong to wait for such events to happen in order to escape from unawareness, because Allah gives such warnings all the time: difficult times experienced by relatives and neighbors, natural disasters, wars, and so on. Those individuals who heed these warnings realize that the same thing could happen to them. Using such events to remind themselves just how powerless they really are when confronted with Allah’s supreme might, they try to root out their own unawareness and turn to Him. What happened to the people of ‘Ad could happen to any people: (The people of) ‘Ad were destroyed by a savage howling wind. Allah subjected them to it for seven nights and eight days without a break. You could see the people flattened in their homes, just like the hollow stumps of uprooted palms. (Surat al-Haqqah: 6-7) By giving such examples in the Qur’an, Allah expects people to learn from what has happened to others and to think about His infinite power and knowledge. Daily life contains many examples that lead people to remember Allah’s power. But people merely feel sorry and pity when they see powerless individuals; they do not realize that what they see is also a warning to them. All of these examples are warnings and new opportunities for people to pierce the veil of unawareness. Knowing that Allah is Omnipotent and Omnipresent With the verse “Does humanity reckon that he will be left to go on unchecked?” (Surat al-Qiyama: 36), Allah tells human beings that they are always under His control. But unaware people are far from thinking and grasping this fact. However, only a moment of sincere contemplation will suffice to think what life would be if man had to accomplish and control everything by himself. For example, right now we are unaware of all the things happening in our bodies and feel no need to take an interest in them. And yet our organs continue to function in constant harmony with each other. As far as we are concerned, our first priority is having a constant supply of oxygen to sustain our lives. Of course, we have other priorities as well, such as controlling our heart’s beating, maintaining our blood circulation, keeping the acidity in our stomach balanced, digestion, and countless other functions. Imagine the impossible, that we controlled all of our bodily functions. For example, who controls these functions when we are asleep, for they never stop. If our heart slipped out of control for just a few minutes, it would stop beating and we would die. But it is also true that we need to sleep. And this is not all we would have to do if left on our own. For example, we would have to ensure the external conditions needed to sustain our lives. Clearly, since we cannot control our own bodies, it requires a great deal of imagination to think that we could possibly have any influence on the countless delicately adjusted and balanced systems underlying the world and the universe. When we consider this and see that we cannot control anything, we realize that Allah controls all things with His supreme knowledge and power. We understand that He has created and controls all that exists, both animate and inanimate. But to reach this level of knowledge, we must defeat our lack of awareness by always being aware that Allah sees us and act accordingly. He is always observing us, creating our actions and us. In fact, there is no moment when He does not encompasses us: “Surely your Lord encompasses the people with His knowledge” (Surat al-Isra’: 60). Believers who know that Allah encompasses them know that He is aware of all that they do, say, and think, both openly and in secret, for He is omnipresent and omniscient: Do you not see that Allah knows what is in the heavens and on the ground? Three men cannot confer together secretly without Him being the fourth, or five without Him being the sixth, or fewer or more than that without Him being with them wherever they are. Then He will inform them on the Day of Resurrection of what they did. Allah has knowledge of all things. (Surat al-Mujadala: 7) An honest consideration of this clear truth is enough to root out one’s unawareness, for it enables them to perceive the truth and live a good life in both worlds. Knowing that they are always under His sovereign power, they will fear and respect Him and avoid doing anything that would earn His wrath. In addition, they will know that Allah sees all of their good and fine actions and they will be joyful for the day when He rewards them. Understanding that everything happens in accordance with the trials He has predestined for them for their own good, they remain patient. As a result, they will attain the Garden He has promised to all believers.
Posted on: Mon, 03 Feb 2014 20:00:02 +0000