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Secret Knowledge of the Qur‘an
By S.M. Zakir Hussain (Bangladesh)
Chapter III
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Secret Knowledge
of the Qur‘an
3. Parallel Universes
Today’s science fiction talks of parallel universes. The idea is that there is one or more universes like ours, in which different dimensions of our own selves are living and creating activities and results according to their aptitudes and ability.
This idea is in no way a rootless one, because this is a logical construct of the human mind on the basis of the scientific
knowledge of minutest particles of matter in their bipolar nature. No matter whether there is any such universe anywhere, we can construct - and that we are always doing - hypothetical virtual realities by simulation with the help of the computer to be able to better understand and predict phenomena of the reality.
There are some verses through which God shows the Prophet (PBUH) how would the un-believers behaved if they saw the Reality. The tense of verbs of such verses is the past tense, and their sudden occurrence in the midst of other verses having present-tense verbs creates surprise and enormous beauty. It is as if the Prophet (PBUH) were occasionally viewing on a screen what is happening to people in another universe.
3.1. Read the following verses. Just a cursory glance will do.
10:50. Say: Have you thought: When His doom comes to you as a raid by night, or in the (busy) day; what is there of it that the guilty ones desire to hasten?
10:51. Is it (only) then, when it has befallen you, that you will believe? What! (Believe) now, when (until now) you have been hastening it on (through disbelief)?
10:52. Then will it be said to those who dealt unjustly Taste the torment of eternity. Are you requited anything save what you used to earn?
Now await a surprise. God teaches the Prophet (PBUH) to say: “Have you thought: When His doom comes ...”. In other words, will you want to hasten the act of punishment when it has already descended? Will you then believe? Even if you do, will that belief be of any use to you? Then he says: “Now (see!) and you wanted to hasten it.” – The insertion of an utterance like this into a stretch of text containing verbs with a different type of tense indicates a reference to a flashback-type of demonstration.
Earlier, God reminds us that there is an appointed term for each ethnic group, which cannot be changed. But being unaware of this fact, human minds with a negative tendency wants to see the end as an aid to believe. But God says that such an experience, if it were given, would not be reversible. Let us see the verses previous to the ones presented above:
10:47. And for every nation there is a messenger. And when their messenger comes (on the Day of Judgment) it will be judged between them fairly, and they will not be wronged.
10:48. And they say: When will this promise be fulfilled, if you are truthful?
10:49. Say: I have no power to hurt or benefit myself, except that which Allah wills. For every nation there is an appointed time. When their time comes, then they cannot put it off an hour, nor hasten (it).
So, in order to discourage us from taking so big a risk, God then says:
10:53. And they ask you to inform them (saying): Is it true? Say: Yea, by my Lord, Certainly it is true, and you cannot escape.
3.2. This example will seem nice to the eye.
10: 3. Look! your Lord is Allah Who created the heavens and the earth in six Days, then He established Himself upon the Throne, directing all things. There is no intercessor (with Him) save after His permission. That is Allah, your Lord, so worship Him. Oh, will you not remind?
10: 4. To Him is the return of all of you; it is a promise of Allah in truth. Look! He produces creation, then reproduces it, that He may reward those who believe and do good works with equity; while, as for those who disbelieve, theirs will be a boiling drink and painful doom because they disbelieved.
10: 5. He it is Who appointed the sun a splendour and the moon a light, and measured for her stages, that you might know the number of the years, and the reckoning. Allah created not (all) that save in truth. He details the revelations for people who have knowledge.
10: 6. Look! in the difference of day and night and all that Allah has created in the heavens and the earth are portents, Certainly, for folk who ward off (evil).
3.3. See the use of the past tense in the selected portion. This portion is being produced from the platform of the Hereafter, which is the present moment of producing it.
10:45. And on the day when He shall gather them together, (when it will seem) as though they had tarried but an hour of the day, recognizing one another, those will Certainly have perished who denied the meeting with Allah and were not guided.
10:46. Whether We let you (O Muhammad) behold something of that which We promise them or (whether We) cause you to die, still to Us is their return, and Allah, moreover, is Witness over what they do.
10:47. And for every nation there is a messenger. And when their messenger comes (on the Day of Judgment) it will be judged between them fairly, and they will not be wronged.
3.4. Why do you think is the selected portion expressed in the past tense?
11:19. Who debar (men) from the way of Allah and would have it crooked, and who are disbelievers in the Hereafter.
11:20. Such will not escape in the earth, nor have they any protecting friends beside Allah. For them the torment will be double. They could not bear to hear, and they used not to see.
11:21. Such are they who have lost their souls, and that which they used to invent has failed them.
11:22. Assuredly in the Hereafter they will be the greatest losers.
3.5. Here is another example of the same kind.
2:165. Yet of mankind are some who take to themselves (objects of worship which they set as) rivals to Allah, loving them with a love like (that which is the due) of Allah (only) - those who believe are stauncher in their love for Allah - Oh, that those who do evil had but known, (on the day) when they behold the doom, that power belongs wholly to Allah, and that Allah is severe in punishment!
2:166. (On the day) when those who were followed disown those who followed (them), and they behold the doom, and all their aims collapse with them.
3.6. Let us enjoy more.
9:111. Look! Allah has bought from the believers their lives and their wealth because the Garden will be theirs: they shall fight in the way of Allah and shall slay and be slain. It is a promise which is binding on Him in the Torah and the Gospel and the Qur'an. Who fulfills His covenant better than Allah? Rejoice then in your bargain that you have made, for that is the supreme triumph.
3.7. Now let us go for another example.
36:60. Did I not charge you, O you sons of Adam, that you should not worship the devil - Lo! he is your open foe! -
36:61. But that you should worship Me only? That was the right path.
36:62. Yet he has led astray of you a great multitude. Had you then no sense?
36:63. This is hell which you were promised (if you followed him).
36:64. Burn therein this day for that you disbelieved.
36:65. This day We seal up their mouths, and their hands speak out to Us and their feet bear witness as to what they used to earn.
36:66. And had We willed, We verily could have quenched their eyesight so that they should struggle for the way. Then how could they have seen?
36:67. And had We willed, We verily could have fixed them in their place, making them powerless to go forward or turn back.
3.8. If you read the examples above, the following one is also going to increase your feeling of wonder.
37:11. Then ask them (O Muhammad): Are they stronger as a creation, or those (others) whom we have created? Lo! We created them of plastic clay.
37:12. Nay, but you do marvel when they mock
37:13. And heed not when they are reminded,
37:14. And seek to scoff when they behold a portent.
37:15. And they say: Lo! this is mere magic;
37:16. When we are dead and have become dust and bones, shall we then, forsooth, be raised (again)?
37:17. And our forefathers?
37:18. Say (O Muhammad): Ye, in truth; and you will be brought low.
37:19. There is but one Shout, and lo! they behold,
37:20. And say: Ah, woe for us! This is the Day of Judgment.
37:21. This is the Day of Separation, which you used to deny.
37:22. (And it is said to the angels): Assemble those who did wrong, together with their wives and what they used to worship
37:23. Instead of Allah, and lead them to the path to hell;
37:24. And stop them, for they must be questioned.
37:25. What ails you that you help not one another?
37:26. Nay, but this day they make full submission.
37:27. And some of them draw near to others, mutually questioning.
37:28. They say: Lo! you used to come to us, imposing, (swearing that you spoke the truth).
3.9. The verses just next to the ones presented above are also worth the attention.
37:33. Then lo! this day they (both) are sharers in the doom.
37:34. Lo! thus deal We with the guilty.
37:35. For when it was said to them, There is no Allah save Allah, they were scornful
37:36. And said: Shall we forsake our gods for a mad poet?
37:37. Nay, but he brought the Truth, and he confirmed those sent (before him).
37:38. Lo! (now) verily you taste the painful doom -
37:39. you are rewarded with nothing except for what you did -
37:40. Except single-minded slaves of Allah;
37:41. For them there is a known provision,
37:42. Fruits. And they will be honoured
37:43. In the Gardens of delight,
37:44. On couches facing one another;
37:45. A cup from a gushing spring is brought round for them,
37:46. White, delicious to the drinkers,
37:47. Wherein there is no headache nor are they made mad thereby.
37:48. And with them are those of modest gaze, with lovely eyes,
37:49. (Pure) as they were hidden eggs (of the ostrich).
3.10. We can see the following as well.
37:62. Is this better as a welcome, or the tree of Zaqqum?
37:63. Lo! We have appointed it a torment for wrong-doers.
37:64. Lo! it is a tree that springs in the heart of hell.
37:65. Its crop is as it were the heads of devils
37:66. And lo! they verily must eat thereof, and fill (their) bellies therewith.
37:67. And afterward, lo! thereupon they have a drink of boiling water
37:68. And afterward, lo! their return is surely to hell.
37:69. They indeed found their fathers astray,
37:70. But they make haste (to follow) in their footsteps.
37:71. And verily most of the men of old went astray before them,
37:72. And verily We sent among them warners.
37:73. Then see the nature of the consequence for those warned,
37:74. Save single-minded slaves of Allah.
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